Sparrow’s New iPhone App Gives Users a Serious Mail Uprade

“Sparrow is an iPhone mail client designed with love to provide you with an efficient and pleasant mailing experience. With its pane navigation, its new threading system and many new features, you'll never look back.”

It doesn’t take long for Mac users to realize the native Mail app included on every Mac has the ability to suck be extremely frustrating.

Sparrow, a new and improved mail app, launched in the Mac App store barely over one year ago and almost instantly took off. Since its launch it’s continued to grow and evolve over the past 13 months and is now the second most popular Mac mail client just behind Mac’s native Mail client.

Finally, after months of anticipation and speculation, Sparrow released an iPhone version of their mail app.

The price is $2.99 but if you consider yourself a power user you definitely won’t regret it. Even casual users will be able to justify the cost if for no other reason than be able to use a kickass mail app that replaces the default Mail.

Cons

As far as cons there’s really only one that I could come up with. That being said it’s a pretty major con. As of now the Sparrow app does not use push notifications. For a lot of people this may be a deal breaker. For power users, like myself, I’m in and out of my mail app so often that it doesn’t really make a difference to me.

There are also some fairly decent workarounds to still being notified when you get mail, you just won’t see the app badge icon of course. I moved my native mail client all the way to the back and inside a folder of crap apps (mostly native) that I don’t use. Then I went in set up special tone and vibration to be alerted when I get an email. So while I won’t be able to see the number of unread messages, I’ll still be able to feel or hear when I receive a new message.

Another way you could try and circumvent the issue is by taking advantage of some of the accessibility settings and actually stat using your flash as an LED alert for when you receive new messages.

As annoying as it is there are some pretty good reasons behind why they’re not able to offer push at the momentand the team at Sparrow doesn’t shy away from the issue.

There are 2 ways to deliver notifications on an iOS application:

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 not want to put sensitive information at risk. That’s why Sparrow iPhone 1.0 doesn’t do push. (emphasis mine)

If you would like to have a full-fledged, feature packed client as an option to the stock mail app iOS uses then make sure you keep sending Apple feedback and asking them to support these features.

How can you help?

Apple’s App Store policy is constantly evolving. The existence of Sparrow iPhone proves it. A year ago, the app could have been rejected for ‘duplicating a native functionality’.

Simply saying that you would like Apple to reconsider its position regarding apps that could be granted the access to this API would help a lot.

If many of you express their interest in such a feature, we are confident that the Apple validation team could revise its position.

Has anyone else already started using Sparrow as their default app on the iPhone? If so let us know what you think of it so far.

[Link to Sparrow on App Store]

Google Updates iOS App with Google Doodles

The Google Search app is one of my most used apps on the iPhone and in the past month it’s gotten quite a bit of love from Google.

Last month the app got a complete overhaul with a new UI, bug fixes and speed enhancements.

Today Google pushed out a new release that added the ability to see the Google Doodles in the app. The one downside is that it doesn’t allow you to fully see Google’s interactive doodles.

Today’s doodle happens to be a video celebrating Charlie Chaplin’s birthday and clicking the doodle in the app takes you to a Google search for Charlie Chaplin rather than letting you play the video.

Still, it’s a pretty cool way to spice up the app and offer up some variety for mobile searchers.

Apple Starts Airing “If You Don’t Have an iPhone” Ads

Nothing like a little peer pressure to sell some more iPhones. Apples new iPhone 4 ads boast, “If you don’t have an iPhone, then you don’t have an iPhone.” Subtext: “If you don’t have an iPhone, then you’re probably a reclusive hermit that doesn’t have any friends either.” Of course that’s totally subjective.

One thing I have to admit I like about almost all iPhone commercials is that they’re obviously showing off the best of the best as far as the apps go and you can often discover some very cool apps you may not have known about otherwise.

Apple posted this along with two other new iPhone commercials on their website as well as on their YouTube channel.

Google iPhone App Gets a Major Overhaul

Google released an update today for it’s mobile iPhone app. The new app came with some much needed improvements including a new UI, crash fixes and overall speed improvements. The new app is noticeably faster and has improved in app switching.

While using the search feature you can start a new search from any point inside the app simply by swiping down on the screen, the search box slides down and let’s you begin a new search. You can also slide from left to right and open up a the fast app switching sidebar.

there are a number of improvements we’ve made to everything else you love in the app, including Google Goggles, Voice Search, Search with My Location, Gmail unread counts and more. There’s a lot in the app, so we’ve added a simple help feature to let you explore it. Access this by tapping the question mark above the Google logo.

Check out the video for more on all the new features in the Google search app for iPhone.

qTweeter the Perfect App for Twitter and Facebook Power Users on the Go [Jailbreak]

I’ll preface this post by admitting that this app has been around for a while, however, since I just discovered it last week and I’ve never seen anyone using it I thought I’d go all Christopher Columbus and take credit for finding it doing a writeup about it.

Whether or not you’re a Twitter or Facebook power user, or a casual user, and you happen to be rocking a jailbroken iPhone, then this is one app you should definitely have on your phone. It’s the perfect app to Tweet on the go and it’s by far the simplest Twitter client I’ve ever used.

qTweeter is made for speed and it’s only for posting. You can’t read your timeline or send DMs, but that’s not what it’s made for. It’s made to post virtually any sort of content you want while making it amazingly simple and fast.

qTweeter allows you to instantly post to Facebook or Twitter from anywhere on your iPhone, including Safari. If you’re reading an article or viewing a blog on Safari and want to share a link, pull down qTweeter and it populates the site name along with a link to the page you’re viewing. And of course you can add your $.02 on the Tweet as well.

You can adjust the settings to choose where you want your media to be hosted, as of now your choices are TwitPic, Posterous and yFrog, all solid choices.

Check out the video blow from xSellize’s YouTube Channel.

Girl Scout App Helps You Hunt Down and Track Girl Scout Cookies

Scan the qr code for a link to the Girl Scout iPhone App

If you’ve ever found yourself sitting around the house with the munchies, cursing yourself for not planning ahead and getting a couple boxes of Tagalongs and Samoas to satiate your munchie desires, well you’re in luck. There’s an app for that.

The Girl Scouts released apps for the iPhone and Android that lets you find Girl Scout cookies near you.

The free Cookie Locator lets you find cookies on sale close to you. Use your phone’s GPS location to find cookies nearby, or find cookies by ZIP code, city, or state. You can map your way to a cookie booth or share results with friends. Add the sale details automatically to your calendar so you remember to stop by and stock up on your favorites.

Pretty soon Girl Scouts will be using Square to accept payments from their iPhone they were issued when they got their smartphone badge.

The app itself has some pretty neat features although there may be some issues with how well it works. I was unable to find any cookie sales in my area no matter what period of time I chose. The app also could not locate me using my phone’s GPS so I had to manually enter my zip code. Other than that (which are the two main purposes of the app) everything else seemed to work fine.

Personally I’m still waiting for the Krispy Kreme app that alerts you when hot, fresh donuts are getting ready to be served up.

Oh, and for all you Android users out there you can scan this qr code to download the Android app.

AT&T iPhone Customers Get Your Free Mobile-to-Mobile Calling to All Carriers Now

AT&T is rolling out some new benefits for people not jumping ship and going for Verizon.

AT&T Introduces Unlimited Calling to Any Mobile Number

New Feature Offers AT&T Wireless Customers Unlimited Calling to Any Mobile Number

Go ahead and dial up those digits–no matter which wireless network you’re calling. AT&T* today announced customers can enjoy unlimited mobile calling to any mobile number in America. Unlimited Mobile to Any Mobile is available to AT&T customers with an unlimited messaging plan and a qualifying voice plan**.

Beginning Thursday, Mobile to Any Mobile will be available to new and existing AT&T customers with a qualifying voice plan who subscribe to unlimited messaging plans. Existing customers with an unlimited messaging plan can activate Mobile to Any Mobile by visiting www.att.com/anymobile. The URL will be available beginning Thursday.

“Mobile to Any Mobile is an exciting offer that will keep our customers connected to the people they want to talk to, when they want to talk to them, without the hassle of watching minutes,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “We’re giving customers more options and even better value. And when you include Rollover Minutes, a benefit available exclusively from AT&T that lets customers keep their unused minutes for all domestic calls, including to landline numbers, it’s clear that AT&T offers the most flexibility in the industry.”

Unlimited messaging is available for $20 per month on an individual plan and $30 per month for a FamilyTalk Plan, which allows for up to five lines.

For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit http://www.att.com/.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

**Mobile to Any Mobile Calling – Available only with select Nation and FamilyTalk plans. Direct calls to & direct calls received from US mobile numbers only. Rollover Minutes: Unused Anytime Mins expire after the 12th billing period. Night & Weekend & Mobile to Mobile mins do not roll over.

Also, text the word “yes” to 11113020 and AT&T will credit your account with 1,000 rollover minutes.

Motorola Takes Off the Gloves and Shoves Apple’s Iconic ’1984′ Commercial Back in Its Face

Motorola uploaded a teaser to its Super Bowl commercial on YouTube today and it’s clear that they have one goal in mind, take a swing at Apple and portray it, legitimately or not, as selling out on what it’s commercial claimed it would do back in 1984.

Motorola’s Super Bowl Ad

Apple’s Original 1984 Ad

What do you think? Is Motorola’s ad effective? Does it hit its mark or is it just way off?

US Army Plans on Issuing Smartphones as Part of Every Soldiers Official Gear

The next generation of people to join the army may be getting some new basic equipment to go along with their canteens and rifles, a smartphone. The Army says they’re not committing to any one particular unit and will use iPhones, Androids and even Palms to supply their soldiers with modernized equipment.

“One of the options potentially is to make it a piece of equipment in a soldier’s clothing bag,” Michael Vane, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC) toldUSA Today, adding that most soldiers think the plan is too good to be true.

But it is true. An Army program called Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications (CSDA) is already underway in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; Fort Lee, Va.; and at Fort Sill, Okla., with smartphones in the schoolhouse and garrison. At Fort Bliss, Texas, smartphones are already being tested for the war zone.

“What we’re doing is fundamentally changing how soldiers access knowledge, information, training content and operational data,” McCarthy said. “The day you sign on to be a soldier, you will be accessing information and knowledge in garrison and in an operational environment in a seamless manner. We’re using smart phone technologies to lead this.”

via USA Today

ZumoCast is a Must Have App for iPhone and iPad Owners

For a year or so now I’ve been using the Air Video app to stream movie and tv shows from my computer to my iPhone and iPad. It’s a cool app but requires that you be connected to your WiFi network in order to access your stuff, which is obviously limiting.

ZumoCast on the other hand allows you to access not only your videos and music but practically any file you’d like with your iPad or iPhone over any kind of network, even 3G. Like Air Video you can convert your files on the fly, but unlike Air Video you can download files straight to your device which can come in extremely handy.

  • No more syncing music to your phone. ZumoCast streams your entire music collection to you with a familiar interface. It even supports your iTunes playlists.
  • Streams video of any format (mp4, avi, mkv, divx, rm, and more). No conversion necessary. Video can be streamed over any connection, even 3G.
  • ZumoCast is designed for your mobile devices. The iOS app adapts media to work with any connection. It also lets you download media to the device for offline access.
  • ZumoCast turns your computers into a personal cloud, enabling you to access all of your files and media without having to upload. Now you have access to all your content with zero effort.

Ever been out and wanted to show off a photo you forgot you had left on your home computer? Not a problem if you have your photo folder synced with ZumoCast, just jump on the app and show off every photo on your home computer!

The best part about all of this is that, as of right now, ZumoCast is totally free. They do offer a premium solution but it’s not clear what features are missing from the free version right now, if any. There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be using the hell out of this app right now.

StumbleUpon is the Perfect Time Wasting App for iPhone and Android

Some of the best mobile apps are the ones that don’t make you have to work for the content, they just deliver random goodness to your phone for hours of enjoyment. If you’ve ever found yourself in a waiting room and you’ve answered all your texts and emails (or are just avoiding them) and don’t feel like playing Angry Birds again, if you’re like me you often find yourself flicking back and forth between apps, bored and waiting for something to happen. Sort of like when you keep opening the fridge expecting some new and delicious meal to be there that you may have missed the last time you checked.

StumbleUpon has been around online for years and has a fairly large following of active users that keep it fresh with content. If you’re not familiar with StumbleUpon you can read more about them here:

StumbleUpon helps you discover and share great websites. As you click Stumble!, we deliver high-quality pages matched to your personal preferences. These pages have been explicitly recommended by your friends or one of 8 million+ other websurfers with interests similar to you. Rating these sites you like () automatically shares them with like-minded people – and helps you discover great sites your friends recommend.

While this is a really cool concept for surfing the web, it’s an absolute awesome concept for surfing the web on your mobile phone while you’re trying to pass the time. Now, not only can you pass the time you can discover great new sites, photos and more while you’re at it.

The iPhone and Android app versions of StumbleUpon have been out for a few months now and if you haven’t checked them out they’re definitely worth a look, especially that they’re both free.

Some screencaps from my StumbleUpon app.

Already have the app? Let us know what you think about it in the comments.

Top 10 Cydia Apps for iPhone 4

Yesterday I posted on Twitter that I had finally decided to jailbreak my iPhone 4 if only to get a hold of one of my favorite apps, iBlacklist. A friend of mine asked if it was actually worth it to jailbreak and my answer is a resounding, “yes”.

Sure, at times it can be a bit of a pain if you’re worried about updating your iOS every time Apple releases an update but the folks over at Dev-Team are usually very good about releasing jailbreak updates extremely quickly in response to any major iOS updates.

Currently, the easiest and fastest way to jailbreak your iPhone 4 running iOS 4.1 is by using limera1n which was released by Geohot, one of the best out there at finding iOS exploits.

Some people may feel intimidated by the thought of jailbreaking their iPhone but it seriously couldn’t be simpler. Go to limera1n.com, choose your OS and download the .exe file. Once you have the file downloaded, connect your iPhone to your computer, run the file and follow the instructions. Your phone should be up and running and ready to go in just a few minutes. Once you’ve jailbroken your phone you can uninstall limera1n from your phone.

OK, enough with the geeky techno-jargon. Let’s get to the fun stuff. The reasons why it’s worth jailbreaking your iPhone, the must have apps you just can’t get through the App Store. Click after the jump for apptacular goodness.

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Brooklyn Space Program: HD Camera, iPhone and a Weather Balloon go into Outer Space

I’d love to do this with my daughter someday. A father and son team in Brooklyn built a capsule with an HD camera, an iPhone (for the GPS) and a weather balloon. The weather balloon and the camera make it to 100,000 feet before the balloon pops and the camera comes plummeting back to earth.

Check out more at brooklynspaceprogram.org

Bacteria Laden Cell Phones Seem to be Defying the Prime Directive

It seems our future computer overlords have finally find a way around that pesky Prime Directive that keeps them from actively harming humans. Apparently they were just waiting for their new touchscreen technology to deliver their payload of massive amounts of bacteria.

According to researchers, mobile phones harbor 18 times more bacteria than a flush handle in a typical men’s restroom. And I thought I was so smart for picking the iPhone over the flush handle to lick for a dollar.

“If you put virus on a surface, like an iPhone, about 30 percent of it will get on your fingertips,” Julian said. In turn, “a fair amount of it may go from your fingers to your eyes, mouth or nose,” the most likely routes of infection.

So the next time you ask to borrow an iPhone, don’t be surprised if the answer is no. As a matter of fact if you still want to actually borrow an iPhone or iPad after reading this then you are probably carrying around latex gloves, and if you are, I don’t want to know why.

Read

REVIEW: Posterous Gets App-y, Posterous Users Get Happy (Screenshots)

Posterous finally jumped on board the app train today with the release of their new Posterous app. Their previous app PicPosterous wasn’t nearly as robust as this and I’m pretty sure the guys over at Posterous knew they’d be better off starting from the ground up with a totally new app and that’s exactly what they did.

All in all the app is a huge improvement and makes it incredibly easy to manage and maintain your Posterous site from your iPhone. On the other hand, Posterous is so damn good at handling posts by mailing them in I’m not sure I see this app as completely replacing that method on the iPhone.

The two places this app will come in really handy is if you have a post you want to make private or for some reason don’t want to have it autopost everywhere you can easily manage that with the app. The other huge plus is the ability to upload videos straight through the app. If you’re using an iPhone 4 and taking HD video you’re going to find that you’ll quickly run into a size issue when trying to email it to your Posterous blog. This app, theoretically, allows you to upload videos of any size while continuing to run in the background. That feature alone in this app should quickly make Posterous a serious player in hosting and sharing mobile HD videos online. I for one can’t wait to give it a shot.

Click after the jump to see a more in depth video tour of all the features in the new Posterous app.

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