Alekona blog

Sparrow e-mail client lands in Mac App Store

is a new kind of minimal e-mail client that decidedly shirks the complexity found in its more traditional competitors likeand . Macworld tookat a beta version back in November, but Sparrow has finally shed the badge for its arrival in the Mac App Store.

For this initial version, Sparrow is not just compatible with Gmail, it was really designed first and foremost for Googles mail service. Taking the polar opposite approach of , the other client that attempts to bring Gmail to the Mac, Sparrows interface borrows heavily from , defaulting to a thin and summarized view of your inbox, the bare essentials of e-mail management tools, and a very minimal message composition window.

The Gmail experience is baked in through and through. You can view message threads, create and apply labels, and send messages from any of your aliases. But Mac OS X is well-represented too: Sparrow features Quick Look, an expandable message reading pane (for that three-column look that is increasingly popular), support for Growl notifications, plenty of keyboard shortcuts, and iOS-like toolbars that Apple has implemented inand the upcoming .

If you need more (or something besides Gmail), Sparrows developers say that an update next month will bring support for general IMAP services. MobileMe, Yahoo, and AOL will be integrated soon, suggesting that careful attention might be paid to properly supporting the unique features of each service.

Until then, Sparrow 1.0 is available now, and , for $10.