Is a Better iOS Gmail App Coming? Google Buys Sparrow

Sparrow’s swipe and tap interface is a joy to use. Photo: Sparrow

Google’s Gmail app for iOS, when compared to Gmail for Android, is a disappointment. But that may soon change with Google’s latest acquisition — Sparrow.

On Friday, Sparrow’s CEO Dom Leca announced in a blog post that Google has purchased the young but successful company known for iOS and OS X email clients. Sparrow’s software looks and works more like social networking apps than traditional email clients.

Sparrow, which made its debut back in February 2011 with a desktop app, rocketed to the top slot among paid and grossing apps in its first day on sale, and has remained popular on Macs and iPhones ever since. Google officials wouldn’t comment on how much it paid for Sparrow, a small, five-employee company, but the Verge did report that it was “under $25 million.”

“We care a lot about how people communicate, and we did our best to provide you with the most intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience,” Leca write in his blog post. “Now we’re joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google.”

What exactly that vision is, Google and Sparrow haven’t said. In a statement emailed to Wired, Google said the startup known for its simple and intuitive apps would be working on “new projects,” but declined to elaborate beyond that.

While Sparrow is joining the Gmail team, the Sparrow apps aren’t dead yet. “While we’ll be working on new things at Google, we will continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users,” Leca wrote.

Expecting Sparrow to last forever, or release major new versions of its apps as standalone products, would be naive given that Google is clearly focused on Android. And Google does have a penchant for shutting down projects that don’t relate to its core businesses. The future doesn’t look rosy for hardcore Sparrow fans.

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Deep Inside a Facebook Hackathon, Where the Future of Social Media Begins

Queen’s “Under Pressure” blasts from the speakers in Facebook’s Building 18 Cafe. A DJ spins on one side of the room, and on the other end there are two kegs of beer next to a rack of granola bars, chips, and snacks. It’s a set-up that would make total sense for a dance party, were it not for the clusters of engineers ripping up their laptops, fingers tapping away at code.

This is no casual Silicon Valley feel-good party. This is the scene at Facebook’s 32nd hackathon, where company engineers and even interns are hoping to create the next big product features for the world’s most popular social network.

Wired received an exclusive, inside look at the first few hours of Facebook’s first hackathon since the company went public in May. But what makes this hackathon especially unique is its extended, multi-day length. Dubbed Camp Hackathon, the event takes place across three days and two nights, which means employees literally set up camp (yes, with tents) at the Menlo Park campus. ‪

‬”Where else can you make something overnight with free Red Bull? And make something that ships to 900 million people?” — Matthew Dierker, Facebook intern‪

‬This event is Facebook’s 4th annual Camp Hackathon, a summer hack for the company’s full-time employees and interns to all get together and innovate with abandon. The only rules: You can’t work on anything that’s part of your day-to-day job, and if it’s your first hackathon, you must hack. Sticking to traditional hackathon culture, there’s a whole lot of coding and little to no sleep.

“It’s like a sleepover but for nerds,” Amy Zhou, Facebook privacy intern and Princeton senior, tells Wired. “Except without the sleep.”
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Ikea’s Augmented Reality Catalog Will Let You Peek Inside Furniture

Ikea’s new app does not come with an allen wrench. Photo: Ikea

Ikea prints 211 million copies of its product catalog every year. That’s more than 20 times the population of Sweden, the home of the build-it-yourself furniture empire. These are impressive numbers for a print catalog in a digital world, but Ikea is now changing with the times with a head-first dive into augmented reality.

“A lot digital stuff becomes very interesting when you mash it up with the tangible items of the real world,” said Andreas Dahlqvist, Global Deputy Chief Creative Officer of McCann, the creative agency behind the catalog.

Augmented reality features will roll out in the 2013 edition of the print catalog, which will arrive in customers’ mailboxes later this month. Amid pictures of Expedit bookshelves and Boksel tables, Ikea fans will see special printed symbols, each an invite to launch new iPhone and Android smartphone apps for an augmented reality experience.





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Review: Sonos Sub Wireless Subwoofer

Sonos’ new subwoofer is one big doughnut — roughly 16 inches tall, 16 inches wide and 6 inches deep. Photo by Peter McCollough/Wired

Sonos is still the leader when it comes to wireless, multi-room audio systems. With a dead-easy setup routine, well-designed controller apps, and the ability to play music from both your local stash of MP3s and all the big streaming services, the palindromic home audio supplier is playing with a winning hand.

Now Sonos has released a subwoofer to complement its array of wireless Play speakers and Connect amps. It’s simply called Sub. The $700 powered speaker component isn’t cheap (none of the Sonos stuff is) but it does add excellent definition and low-end heft to any existing Sonos system.

The Sub’s glossy, piano-black case is shaped like a big, square doughnut with a rectangular hole in the center. That central cavity is where all the sound is directed. Two 4.5-inch by 7-inch rectangular divers, each with its own class-D amp, face each other from opposing sides of the cavity. The speaker enclosures are ported into the cavity, too, with one port at the top and one at the bottom.

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Review: Motorola Atrix HD Smartphone for AT&T

Motorola’s Atrix HD smartphone has a nice price at $100 on contract, but its killer feature is the 4.5-inch touchscreen, which offers an iPhone-rivaling level of clarity. Photo by Peter McCollough/Wired

A little less than two years ago, Apple’s iPhone 4 made its debut with with a display of unrivaled clarity. The Retina display’s pixel density of 326 pixels per inch gave it a sharpness that no Android phone could match.

Just this past May, the HTC One X made its U.S. debut, complete with a beautiful display packing 316 pixels per inch. Finally, Retina-like quality could be had on an Android phone. But, like the iPhone 4S (which has the same screen as the now $100 iPhone 4), the One X is a premium product that wears a premium $200 price tag.

It was only a matter of time before such high-quality displays started trickling down to $100 Android handsets, but I wouldn’t have guessed it would happen this soon. With the arrival of the Morotola Atrix HD, which is available for $100 on-contract from AT&T, Android fans now have a modestly priced handset with a sharp, iPhone-like display.

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