Sparrow for iPhone would surely file as a dream come true for mobile email addicts if it weren’t for its lack of push notifications for incoming email messages, as we noted in our video review. Enter Sparrow Push, a handy little Cydia tweak for jailbroken devices that adds this useful feature to the otherwise awesome email client.
Once installed, Sparrow Push will enable notifications for incoming email messages even when the program is in the background, allowing you to stay on top of important email messages as they hit the server…
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swQdIS0jH-Q[/tube]
Power users who jailbreak their devices and were previously put off may want to reconsider their Sparrow for iPhone purchase as with this tweak the app becomes a real replacement for the stock Mail app.
According to the developer’s website, rather than check for email periodically, the Sparrow Push tweak “enables this functionality using IMAP idle”, allowing for optimized performance that conserves your device’s battery.
Sparrow Push uses a very efficient implementation using the same APIs that VoIP apps like Skype use. Since there is an additional, permanent internet connection and Sparrow becomes active everytime there is activity in the email account, there will be a higher battery usage, but it should be comparable to what Apple Mail’s exchange push implementation is.
Once you install the tweak, you’re advised to restart Sparrow and your device.
Sparrow Push is now available for free on the Cydia Store, via the BigBoss repo.
Update: So apparently the Sparrow Push tweak makes music stop after closing the Music app, Spotify, etc. Hence, we’d recommend holding off until an update is issued to fix this problem. iOS Developer, Ron Melkhior, is also working on his own push notification solution for Sparrow, so that could prove to be a better option. Stay tuned. Thanks to @Hrvi for the heads up.