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Google acquires Sparrow, the Apple-focused email app maker

Donald Melanson — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:11:00 -0400

Well, we can't exactly say we saw this one coming. Sparrow, maker of popular email apps for iOS and Mac OS X, has just announced that it's been acquired by Google. Expectedly, details on the acquisition are being kept under wraps at the moment, but company CEO Dom Leca has confirmed in a blog post that Sparrow will be joining the Gmail team at Google to "accomplish a bigger vision." Fans of the company's apps will be glad to know, however, that the team will "continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users" while also working on new things at Google. That does sound like most of their attention will be focused elsewhere, though. You can find Leca's full statement on the matter at the source link below.

Update: The Verge was able to get some notion of a cost for this deal, with "under $25 million" being a figure assigned to this, a figure that wasn't inflated due to a bidding war. (That should answer those wondering if maybe Google bought this out from under Apple.)

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile

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IRL: Sparrow for iOS, Nikon D800 and the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight

Engadget staff — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:00:00 -0400

Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.

One of the reasons we launched this column was to make sure our reviews and hands-on posts weren't the final say on products -- after all, you often need to live with something for more than a week to notice its WiFi signal cuts off past 15 feet, or there's a nasty bug in the settings menu. Indeed, that theme is what ties together this week's roundup of stories: Darren explains why he ditched Sparrow for iOS, Kevin laments the file size of photos he's taken with his Nikon D800 and Brian finds a flaw in his Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight.

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Sparrow mail app for iOS hits version 1.1, Push support to follow 'with or without Apple'

Joe Pollicino — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:14:00 -0400

Good news today for Sparrow iOS users. As expected, the company has updated its splendid lil' email app to version 1.1 and loaded it with a few hotly anticipated features. Among some bug fixes, you can now make use of a built-in browser, "Send and Archive" messages, filter specific folders and labels, clear your spam and trash bins and even set which accounts you'd like to show or hide dock badges for. While the app is still sorely lacking Push support, Sparrow believes that Apple may change the privacy guidelines for its Push API, which the company plans to include in version 1.2. That said, it's partnered with folks outside of Cupertino's walled-garden, so that it can bring the feature to fruition "with or without Apple." Furthermore, that future version's other features have been detailed -- it'll include landscape support, vertical swiping through messages and localization for an additional nine countries. In related news, version 1.6 of Sparrow for Mac OS X is being readied for release, and it'll pack support for POP email accounts. You can glide on down to the source link for further details.

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Sparrow for iPhone released: just a POP and Push away from email perfection

Darren Murph — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:52:00 -0400

Sparrow's made a name for itself over on the Mac desktop side, and now it's doing its darnedest to do the same on iOS. The email-client-that-could has launched its long-awaited iPhone edition into the App Store today, with $2.99 netting you a highly polished program that integrates a "pane navigation" concept, a unique threading system and full IMAP support. In other words, Gmail, Google Apps, iCloud, Yahoo, AOL and custom email addresses are fine to use here, but there's no support for POP or Push notifications just yet. The latter is apt to put off the power users, but more casual readers may appreciate the unified inbox, direct-attachment feature and plenty of other details that provide for an overall delightful experience. It's available now in the source link (or the App Store, if you're up for a search), and we're told that localization, landscape mode, a built-in browser and 'Send and Archive' will be coming in future builds.

Psst... hit the More Coverage link to read Sparrow's explanation of why Push is being left out. If you couldn't guess, it's about privacy.

Filed under: Mobile

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Nokia following Booklet 3G with ARM-based smartbook in mid-2010?

Ross Miller — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:31:00 -0400

Those semiconductor semi-gossipers at DigiTimes want you to know that Nokia's not stopping with the Booklet 3G and in fact has an ARM-based smartbook set for mass consumption in the middle of 2010. According to its sources, Espoo's in the process of settling with ODMs now, and the speculation is that it'll go to either Compal or Foxconn (a.k.a. Hon Hai Precision Industry). If all of this sounds familiar, that's because it is: we've heard multiple reports this year that suggested a smartbook / MID with either a multicore ARM Cortex A9 Sparrow chip or Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor. We're not discounting it, especially considering that netbook bit panned out, but mid-2010 is quite a ways off -- no telling when we'll be hearing anything else on the matter.

Filed under: Laptops

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Nokia working on laptops, ARM-powered MID?

Nilay Patel — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:56:00 -0500

If you were looking for proof that the line between smartphones and laptops is rapidly starting to blur, look no further -- Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasuvo told Reuters today that the Finnish company is "looking very actively" at making a laptop, since "what we we know as a cellphone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging." Sounds about right to us -- but even more interestingly, we're also getting word from the generally-reliable Mobile-Review that Espoo's working on a MID powered by the new multicore ARM Cortex A9 Sparrow chip. If M-R is to be believed, the new device will only somewhat resemble the current N-series Internet Tablets, instead featuring a slide-out keyboard with diamond-shaped keys and a new widget-based interface. That's a mockup from Unwired View above, and we think it looks pretty nice -- although we're hoping Nokia's moved well beyond this hybrid N97 / Internet Tablet design language by the time this thing launches in 2011. This sort of convergence is definitely the next big trend, so we've got to ask: smartphone, MID, netbook or laptop -- what's in your (potentially giant) pocket?

[Via Electronic Pulp]

Read - Unwired View on ARM-powered MID
Read - Reuters on Nokia laptops

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

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"Audio telescope" could help mitigate bird strikes

Cyrus Farivar — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 23:16:00 -0500

Bird strike has always struck us (har) as a bit of a misnomer. As British comedian Eddie Izzard once pointed out, birds don't exactly fly around looking for planes to go after -- the act of a bird hitting a plane's body or engine should be more adequately described as "engine suck." Either way, it's caused $2 billion worth of damage to US-based aircraft since 1990, according to the FAA. So, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology is currently working on a solution that involves a terrestrial setup of 192 microphones (an "audio telescope," if you will) that aims to pick up on bird sounds and detect what type of bird is approaching oncoming aircraft. The idea is that while a smaller sparrow isn't usually much concern, a larger hawk or Canada goose would be a problem when colliding with planes. One big problem though: currently the audio telescope can only detect birds at distances of a few hundred meters; Vincent Stanford of the NIST says that to really be effective, the telescope would "need to be up to around 2.5 kilometers." So get crackin' fellas, looks like your work is cut out for you.

Filed under: Transportation

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