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Sparrow for iPhone

sparrowmailapp.com

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Re: Sparrow for iPhone

#91

Post by drivebyacct2 »

Pheter wrote: post #28
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand that page at all. It doesn't explain why the app was rejected or why they can't use the native iOS pushing. In fact, I'm quite unsure of what is unique about their use-case for push notifications that is different than... any other similar task in iOS.

The iOS push notification service works by having a remote server determine when a push notification needs to be displayed to the user. The only way for Sparrow to do this would be to store the gmail credentials of every user who uses their application on a server (instead of each individual users iPhone). This would obviously introduce a lot of security considerations that Sparrow don't want to have to deal with. Al…

Why can't they use SSL to transmit oauth tokens to their server?

Re: Sparrow for iPhone

#92

Post by jmreid »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #53
mike-cardwell wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it have an option to enable/disable automatic loading of remote images? If so, what is it set to by default? And does it still leak if you disable loading of remote images?

No such option that I can see.

iOS has the option in the Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars section. It is set to load remote images by default.

Re: Sparrow for iPhone

#93

Post by tonyarkles »

plusbryan wrote: post #79
ivanstojic wrote: post #25

I have several (breaking) issues with the paid desktop version of the Sparrow.app. I've posted the most bothersome one on their support forums about two weeks ago: no reply at all. Nothing. As a company that does epic UI, they should figure out that customer support is a form of user interface as well. I'm not ready to give them any more money at this point.

100% with you here - the latest version of Sparrow has some serious bugs that cause among other things, kernel panics. Previous versions have seen silently deleted messages, and other such nonsense. An email client should be, above all, reliable.

Sparrow has bugs that cause kernel panics? I've never seen this, but... I'd argue that if userspace programs can cause KPs, that's an OSX problem, not necessarily a Sparrow problem.

Do you have a link to more info about this? I'm genuinely curious how that could happen. The only time I've ever seen OSX kernel panics was either due to faulty hardware or due to doing something silly (like messing with kernel extensions)

Re: Sparrow for iPhone

#94

Post by rsynnott »

vpdn wrote: post #26
farslan wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless Apple change his policy about Push (API) there is little Sparrow can do. Spaarrow is aware of this. They have a page dedicated to this Push problem: http://sparrowmailapp.com/push.php

There's something that they can do, it's written as the first option: "On our side: if Sparrow was to do Push today, we would have to store your credentials (login/password) on our servers to frequently poll your accounts, and send you notifications. This is a responsibility we're not ready to take. As a startup focused on iOS/OS X development, we do not have the skills to secure your data on our servers and we do no…

There is actually something _else_ they could do; run a service where you forward your email to an address on their end (with GMail's autoforward thing or whatever); they push notifications to you based on that. Of course, that would require server infrastructure, and there'd still be privacy concerns (though lesser ones, as they wouldn't have to _store_ anything).

Re: Sparrow for iPhone

#95

Post by samnm »

dr_ wrote: post #71

When your email client wants to be able to post as you on your Facebook wall, that's never a good thing.

As far as I know it only uses Facebook to pull display pictures for received emails, which is actually a pretty cool feature.

Re: Sparrow for iPhone

#96

Post by randomdata »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #41
Xuzz wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue here is that it isn't really "push" they want to do. From what I can tell, they want to do is simply "run all the time so we can keep a connection open to receive new messages immediately". Which, to be fair, is pretty similar to what Apple does for their push notifications. However, allowing this would be a bad move. It'd mean that rather than once centralized connection that knows about the device…

Re push, I use an IMAP client called K-9 Mail on Android which has support for IMAP IDLE, which is basically the IMAP version of push. It keeps a constant connection open to my IMAP server and is immediately informed of any new mail. I have not noticed any reduction in battery performance since moving from 15 minute polls. I still get 1.5 to 2 days use out of it (HTC Desire Z). There's nothing inherently wrong with t…

> I have not noticed any reduction in battery performance since moving from 15 minute polls.

Push should be less taxing on the battery, since you only really need to fire up the radio when new data is coming your way, save any overhead of ensuring the connection is still alive. Apple does the same for their notifications (and ActiveSync) for the same reasons.

> If Apple can't do it for iOS, that is a flaw in their design, or their thinking.

It's not really a flaw, just a different methodology that is reasonable given the design goals. If you want iOS to be like Android, why not just use Android? That's the beauty of competition – you are free to choose the best.

Re: Sparrow for iPhone

#97

Post by dwynings »

wattjustin wrote: post #24
dwynings wrote: post #19

I've been a beta tester of their iPhone app for over a month now, and while the UI is stellar, I still haven't found it to be a replacement for Apple's Mail app because of Sparrow's lack of push.

I've been a beta tester for the last month or so as well and I can definitely say this has replaced Mail.app for me. I feel relieved not seeing the red notification bubble growing. It's been freeing and I've got a much better way of managing my emails now. I hope Apple comes around on notifications though so this app will be even more popular(already broken the top 25 paid apps here in Canada.)

I can appreciate how some would benefit from that.

Re: Sparrow for iPhone

#98

Post by Pheter »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #91
Pheter wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iOS push notification service works by having a remote server determine when a push notification needs to be displayed to the user. The only way for Sparrow to do this would be to store the gmail credentials of every user who uses their application on a server (instead of each individual users iPhone). This would obviously introduce a lot of security considerations that Sparrow don't want to have to deal with. Al…

Why can't they use SSL to transmit oauth tokens to their server?

The point is not that it can't be done securely, it's that they don't want the hassle of being responsible for a large amount of sensitive information. By not storing the information in the first place they can guarantee that they won't be hacked and have their customers data stolen.

Re: Sparrow for iPhone

#99

Post by stock_toaster »

samnm wrote: post #95
dr_ wrote: post #71

When your email client wants to be able to post as you on your Facebook wall, that's never a good thing.

As far as I know it only uses Facebook to pull display pictures for received emails, which is actually a pretty cool feature.

I wonder why they don't use gravatar.

They have the email handy already.

Re: Sparrow for iPhone

#100

Post by lylejohnson »

dorianj wrote: post #88
lylejohnson wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped using Sparrow due to a bug in their implementation of two-factor authentication for Gmail (it would always "forget" my app-specific password on startup). I got at least one (unhelpful) response to my support request(s) but the trail eventually went dead, with no resolution to the problem.

I've been using Sparrow with an app-specific password for months without problems.

I'm not sure if it matters, but are you using a "regular" Gmail account or Google Apps for Your Domain? I'm doing the latter and still can't get it to stick (tried again this morning before posting). When I quit and restart Sparrow it cannot connect, and I have to reset the password before it will fetch my mail. Oh well!
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