Every once in a while an iOS app is teased and we find ourselves waiting. Like seriously waiting for the app to come available in the iOS App Store. The latest app to fall into that category is Sparrow for iOS, which comes because of our love for Sparrow for Mac. We were given some brief details along with a teasing image back in November of last year and more to the present time, the folks behind the app have announced that a beta period is beginning today. Of course, there is no longer any time left to apply to get into the beta, however knowing that it is underway somehow makes it feel like things are moving and a release will happen sooner rather than later. Otherwise, is anyone has fallen into the same must-have feeling about Sparrow for iOS, there is a nice progress page which you can follow along with over at www.sprw.me/comingsoon. Unfortunately though, the current reading is only showing the app at 67 percent complete.

Via [Twitter @sparrowmail]

This sort of scenario probably happens more times than we would care to admit. The story goes something like this — you use an app on a regular basis and feel like you know your way around rather well. You know, you think you have all the shortcuts and secrets figured out and then the company behind the app offers a tip and you scratch your head wondering how you missed that. That being said, this recently happened to us here at Gadgetell with the Shortmail app for iOS. The folks behing Shortmail offered the following tip on Twitter;

“Did you know? You can reveal hidden features of the Shortmail iOS app by pulling down the window while composing a message!”

And what can we say, we did not know. Anyway, you can see the before and after in the image at the top of this post.

Via [Twitter @shortmail]

If you are in need of sending some personal information by email and are afraid of the fact that your message will end up living in some email database — you may want to check out a newly launched service that promises to make sure the message never gets read again. That being the case you may want to look to a newly launched service called Burn Note. And while these messages will not technically self-destruct, that is sort of how it will go. You see, you create and send the message similar to how you would any other. Except with Burn Note you also have a few other options to set including whether or not the Note can be copied and how long (in seconds) until the Note goes away after it is opened. Yup, you can actually do the whole “this message will self-destruct in 30 seconds” bit. But on a more serious note, this would be nice when you need to send a message (say, with a password) to a friend or family member. Otherwise, you can use Burn Note as a registered or anonymous user, you can set a password required to view and perhaps most important — all Burn Note messages are deleted after 72 hours if they go unread. That being said, there are some additional technical details in terms of how the messages are actually stored which break down as follows;

“All Burn Notes are stored encrypted on our servers using secure encryption algorithms and unique-per-message salts. Salts are extra encryption keys that are added to the server’s encryption key. If the sender sets a password for the Burn Note then the password is used as the encryption key for increased security. Passwords are never stored on our servers. Burn Notes are only decrypted once when they are viewed and then they are immediately deleted.”

Via [Burn Note] and [All Things D]

To get multiple Google Calendars on you Windows Phone just point your browser to m.google.com/sync, and select the ones you want on the phone. While on that page you can also make some changes to email. More specifically, you can change what email address your phone sends email from if you have custom email addresses on your Gmail account.

Google has also improved search on Gmail so that it will look through all conversations. NO longer will you be limited to just the emails that are on your device when searching through Gmail.

These are all some pretty small improvements, but it’s nice to know that Google isn’t completely ignoring Windows Phone users. Especially since the OS could start growing more quickly when the Lumia 900 hits the US.

Read [Google+]

If you are sporting an Amazon Kindle Fire and had been wishing and hoping for a Hotmail app to come available, well, today is your lucky day. The team over at the Inside Windows Live blog have recently announced that the app has come available. Those interested will be able to download Hotmail for the Kindle Fire (for free) by way of the Amazon Appstore.

The app is measures in as a 4.7MB fill and has been released as version 7.8.2.45.7396. In terms of features, the Hotmail app is touting the ability to “sync all your mail, contacts, folders, and subfolders via the more robust Exchange Active Sync protocol.” Otherwise, the official description of the app and the key features are listed below…

Hotmail app for Android
This official Microsoft Hotmail application gives you easy access to Hotmail so you never miss an e-mail. Send and receive e-mails in your Hotmail account on the go from your Android. Use your existing Windows Live ID to sign in, or easily sign up to get one. With this convenient app for Android, you’ll have easy access to all of your favorite Hotmail features.

Key Features

• Get messages on your device without delay with push e-mail
• Sync your calendar and device contacts
• View your folders in Hotmail, including sub folders
• Send pictures from your device using Hotmail
• Use with support for multiple Hotmail accounts
• Share, receive, and view attachments

Via [Inside Windows Live] and [Amazon Appstore]

Skype-owned GroupMe has updated it’s apps to remove one mostly unused feature and to add a new one. Gone from GroupMe is conference calling, but now you can Like individual messages.

Conference calling is gone from GroupMe mostly because users never really used the feature. However, if you did use the feature in the past month you can now use it indefinitely. If you really want to use conference calling, you can contact GroupMe directly to have them enable it for you. It’s great that GroupMe doesn’t take it away entirely, though Skype (which bought GroupMe last year) would probably prefer you use the Skype app for your voice chatting.

The new feature that’s added to the GroupMe app is Likes, which has nothing to do with the Facebook Like button. Liking in GroupMe lets you save individual messages in your chats. So, if you friend says something particularly important or funny that you don’t want to forget, you can just Like it to save it forever. Your friend will get a message that you Liked their message, and everyone in the chat can see how many Likes each message received. So it is kinda like the Facebook Like button, but it doesn’t actually involve Facebook, which is something.

Read [GroupMe] via [The Verge]

Recently Google updated the Gmail for iOS app to add Scribbles for quick pictures, and now Google has brought Scribbles for Gmail to the mobile website for Gmail.

Right now you can go to mail.google.com from any Android or iOS device as well as the PlayBook to play around with Scribbles. It’s just a simple drawing tool that lets users create quick pictures to send to their friends, but it can be fun. It means you’re able to send anything you want as long as you sketch it out. Google is looking for your best pictures from Scribbles for Gmail, and you can send it to them, so long as you don’t mind the fact that Google could upload, share, or redistribute your pictures.

Unfortunately this can’t be used on the desktop version of Gmail, but you presumably would have other sketching apps available on your computer that would be a bit easier to use.

Read [Gmail Blog]

Sparrow, a third-party mail client for Mac has just been updated to a new version. Now available in version 1.5, the Sparrow mail client brings in three new major features that should make email management on your desktop computer a better experience. First of the new features of Sparrow is Dropbox support which will allow you to drag, drop, send (and sync) a mail with attachments in a simpler manner. Sparrow also syncs your files into the cloud even without you noticing it. Next is the ability to keep control of the images that are displayed in your mail. You can now set this to be displayed only once or always. Finally, the updated Sparrow mail client now has a new smart search & Gmail-like tokens which should help you find mail that you’re looking for faster, as in seconds faster according to the Sparrow blog.

Sparrow is available as a free download or as a premium version that will cost you $9.99.

Via [Sparrow]

Developer John Heaton has found a string of code within iOS that could point to Apple’s iChat going to the mobile platform at some point in the future.

The strings of code mention Jabber and AIM, both of which are in iChat, alongside FaceTime and iMessage. The code could just be standard for all of Apple’s platforms, as MacRumors points out. That would make sense, but be rather depressing. An integrated iChat app would make instant messaging much easier on the iPhone, rather than making users rely on sometimes buggy third-party apps for those services.

If the strings are the same across all platforms, it could give more evidence of Apple bringing iMessage to the Mac, which would also make sense. It fits with Apple’s recent assertion that the Mac is just another device on the same level of the iPhone and iPad in terms of what data goes through it. If your iMessages get pushed to each iOS device just like photos in Photostream and music from iTunes, it would make sense for them to be sent to the Mac as well. Again, this is all just hints based on code, but we can always hope.

Read [MacRumors] via [Pocketnow]

In our first release for iOS, Shortmail requires a Twitter account, and turns your Twitter username into a Shortmail email address.

Of course, if you were already a Shortmail user, simply download and install the app and login using your existing credentials. In addition, the Shortmail app comes with push notifications and just like the web version – has the messages limited to 500 characters (or less).

And for those not quite as familiar with Shortmail, it is described as being a “new kind of messaging that combines the best parts of email, text messaging, and Twitter.”

Shortmail for iOS follows the debut of Shortmail.com which received international attention for its bold moves to reinvent email. Following many suggestions from the Email Charter (http://emailcharter.org), Shortmail attempts to solve the problem of information overload by putting a small cost – that of conciseness and clarity – onto the sender.

Bottom line here, the Shortmail app on iOS just seems to fill the void for those who were enjoying the web version and have been looking to begin using the service on more of a full-time basis.

Via [Twitter @shortmail] and [Shortmail (App Store link)]