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A good app has been EOL'd so the developer(s) can go work on a known crappy app. We've gone from "known good" to "hopefully this will work out and the gmail iO
by tvon 14y ago
A good app has been EOL'd so the developer(s) can go work on a known crappy app. We've gone from "known good" to "hopefully this will work out and the gmail iOS app will be good"... how is that not frustrating if you're a fan of the iOS apps?
As for the Sparrow desktop app, well, obviously Google isn't going to be developing a native desktop app for Gmail...
- wyclif 14y agoSorry, but Gmail isn't a crappy app in my way of thinking. It was the best webmail in 2004, and it still is. You may not like it, but that doesn't extrapolate to crappiness. Although I'm sorry that Sparrow is being end-of-lifed, Gmail is a best of breed web app. well, obviously Google isn't going to be developing a native desktop app for Gmail. Sounds like a feature to me, not a bug. Desktop software is going out. Why do you think Mozilla recently canned Thunderbird? I haven't used a desktop mail client since 2005.
- tvon 14y agoWhen I say "crappy app" I'm talking about the iOS gmail app.
- guelo 14y agoI believe that's Apple's app, not Google's.
- azar1 14y agoGmail By Google, Inc. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail/id422689480?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail/id422689480?mt=8
- wyclif 14y agoGot it. I concede your point, but I still think it's a bit too early to issue a death certificate.
- Johngibb 14y agoI think the known crappy app the commenter was referring to was the Gmail iPhone app, not Gmail in general. The app isn't nearly as good as Sparrow.
- evan_ 14y agogmail's great, but the gmail iOS client is bad.
- MediaSquirrel 14y agoDesktop software is not going out. See Dropbox. It syncs desktop AND cloud. Does not require constant connectivity. Sparrow enables offline usage of cloud services like gmail, which is huge, as connectivity to the cloud is not a constant.
- wyclif 14y agoBut as you pointed out, it's desktop and cloud. It's not strictly desktop software. The special sauce is in the cloud, that's what makes Dropbox unique.
- tommorris 14y agoI quite like being able to answer email when I'm in a railway tunnel, on a transatlantic flight or in a 3G dead zone. Desktop software is quite useful if you haven't bought into all the post-PC hoopla and still like typing things on a keyboard.
- angrow 14y agoFirst, I'm pretty sure you can use a keyboard with gmail. As far as doing work offline, <a href="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/offline.html>Application http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/... Cache</a> has you covered, assuming that by "answer," you mean "compose responses to," because if your software actually lets you respond in those situations then hot damn, I'm totally sold on it, hook us up with a link.
- tommorris 14y agoBeen there, done that, got bored with playing that game. Why do I want something that only works half the time and shakily (seriously, look up some of the talks on the weirdness of AppCache) when I can have a nice looking, fast and reliable desktop app for whatever it was, $5 or something? I've been using the AppCache'd Gmail app on iOS and... it's distinctly average compared to the Gmail app on Android. There's a lot web apps can do well, but for Mail I'd much rather have an actual desktop app. And it's not just composing responses, it's tagging, archiving, deleting and so on with decent, working and reliable sync. The native app on Android rocks, and Sparrow is pretty damn awesome on the Mac.
- danudey 14y ago> Desktop software is going out. I'm inclined to disagree. I use no web apps that I don't have to. We use google apps at work, and I use Mac Mail, Calendar, and Contacts. The web app is a good option if I'm nowhere near my phone or laptop, but it's my absolute last choice. Ever since the days of Yahoo Mail and Hotmail, I've preferred local desktop clients. I've never enjoyed web apps, and I can't imagine I ever will. It's always a lowest-common-denominator option, and on OS X and iOS, there are too many good desktop clients for the web services I use. I didn't care for Sparrow, but if Google is going to throw all their work away and put them to work on something else, it's a shame. They did the same thing with the author of Quicksilver, canning that in favour of their own, dramatically inferior, clone. Instead of people switching to Google's version, they generally stayed on Quicksilver until they discovered Alfred, and now his talent and the work he put into it is wasted.
- ralfd 14y agoI concur. Just look how many people prefer a Twitter client instead of visiting the website.
- Lockyy 14y agoI don't understand this assertion that desktop software is going out. My desktop mail client is almost completely superior as a single unified place to read all my mail over various different services to log into.
- david_shaw 14y ago> As for the Sparrow desktop app, well, obviously Google isn't going to be developing a native desktop app for Gmail... Why not? Why would they acqui-hire a team who have already built an amazing desktop mail app and not release one of their own? Is the idea that Google may simply rebrand Sparrow to "GMail Desktop" so completely out of the realm of possibility? Sure, maybe they want the developers to work on other projects, but when their specialty is creating OS X desktop software (it's a lot different than webapp developement), it seems counterintuitive to completely nix this idea as feasible.
- jeffool 14y agoI could very easily see "Gmail Offline" becoming a standalone program rather than a Chrome app. I don't get why that's so insane to people either.