Sparrow acquired by Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#151

Post by pippin » Fri, Jul 20, 2012, 5:28 PM UTC

BlackNapoleon wrote: post #53

rglover wrote: post #46

This is getting extremely frustrating. Sparrow is a fabulous email client both for iOS and Mac. I love and use both daily and this is fairly devastating. I was really looking forward to the products development, growth, and future releases. To read this announcement and hear that they won't be working on their apps but on Google projects is sad. To bigger companies: chill out with the "acquihires." If anything, do wh…

Agreed. Sparrow needed to be acquired by Apple. Period. Imagine iOS mail with Sparrow's gestures and organization? Fantastic.

From The Verge:

Our sources also noted that Google isn't ruling out native Gmail clients for platforms beyond iOS and Android, and emphasized that Google wants to bring polish, "beauty," and ease of use to all of its Gmail experiences across platforms (a suggestion that a native client for Mac and PC might be in the offing). Sparrow, apparently, is a way to get there.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/20/3172365/sources-google-spa...

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#152

Post by timw6n » Fri, Jul 20, 2012, 5:28 PM UTC

A shame. Sparrow was one of the few players still innovating in desktop email clients, especially now that Thunderbird has been similarly abandoned. They had already brought us custom smtp aliases, which I really came to rely on, and cloud app attachments. Who knows how far the boundaries could've been pushed with another year of independent operation.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#153

Post by azar1 » Fri, Jul 20, 2012, 5:30 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #133

tvon wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I say "crappy app" I'm talking about the iOS gmail app.

I believe that's Apple's app, not Google's.

Gmail By Google, Inc.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail/id422689480?mt=8

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#154

Post by Sachse » Fri, Jul 20, 2012, 5:31 PM UTC

uptown wrote: post #108

ceejayoz wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now imagine if you'd bought it last weekend in their half-off sale. https://twitter.com/lifehacker/statuses/223750237490126849 "Let's make as much money from our abandonware as possible before we have to tell everyone it's abandonware."

That's when I finally bought-in. The thing has a critical bug with iOS6 ... no clue if it'll ever get resolved.

I'm sure that will go under "critical updates".

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#155

Post by glennos » Fri, Jul 20, 2012, 5:31 PM UTC

Congratulations to the team, but as a user this is extremely disappointing. Sparrow is the only desktop client I considered good enough to use since Calypso back in the late-90s/early-2000s.

Google, please do right by your users and put these guys on projects that will deliver as much user value as that of Sparrow.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#156

Post by carsongross » Fri, Jul 20, 2012, 5:31 PM UTC

simonbarker87 wrote: post #36

Congratulations but... Argh, I love Sparrow. Why couldn't you do the 37 Signals/Panic/Mail Chimp thing and not sell and just be a nice profitable company that provides some consistency - ohwell.

They didn't have a recurring revenue model.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#157

Post by twodayslate » Fri, Jul 20, 2012, 5:31 PM UTC

That means they will be getting push notifications now? :P

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#158

Post by nebiros » Fri, Jul 20, 2012, 5:33 PM UTC

I drop Sparrow like 2 months ago, in the desktop version you can't create filters, the iphone version still doesn't have push notifications, even if I paid for both I ended up using Mail.app again, my combo: mailunreadmenu http://www.loganrockmore.com/MailUnreadMenu (a menu bar application) and this setup for Gmail accounts (http://jeffschuette.com/2012/03/07/setting-up-apple-mail-to-...), bye bye Sparrow, was fun ¬¬.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#159

Post by BryanB55 » Fri, Jul 20, 2012, 5:33 PM UTC

Wow that sucks. What a classic example of an acquisition killing a great product. I use Sparrow for mail on mac and iphone and like many other sparrow users have mentioned, this really pissed me off.

What pissed me off even more was the way sparrow announced it like it was some kind of great accomplishment, maybe for their own wallets but not at all for users.

"Full speed ahead!" - What the hell does that mean? They just killed the entire project. More like full speed to nowhere if you ask me.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#160

Post by mikeash » Fri, Jul 20, 2012, 5:35 PM UTC

minikites wrote: post #113

sammcd wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great software for half off doesn't seem like a scam to me. The app still works.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4271587 "I didn't buy Sparrow thinking I was paying for a piece of software that was feature-complete. I bought Sparrow mail as a piece of innovative software along with the promise of lots of great future updates to come." I agree with this. I bought Sparrow when it had a pretty big bug with folder management on my IMAP account. I emailed them and they fixed it in an update, but t…

If you're buying something based on potential future improvements, and promises for those improvements are not part of the deal, then you have only yourself to blame if it doesn't work out. They have no obligation to conform to your expectations. If you don't want to have problems like this, then only buy software that actually does what you need right now.