Sparrow cuts through your email clutter

Overwhelmed by email? Mac owners should take a look at Sparrow, an IMAP mail app that aims to cut through the clutter. Sparrow’s elegant design is its strong point. It’s just a simple menu bar and your messages, but with a few added features to make it a full email client.

Much as with the newly revamped Mac Mail program, messages are displayed in threaded conversations but with a quick reply feature that makes responding to an e-mail feel as easy as sending a tweet. You can also expand the menu bar to drag and drop conversations for easy organization. The app supports multiple e-mail addresses, funneling all messages into a unified inbox. (There’s also a free version that will support one Gmail account.) With great Gmail integration, the app also lets you look at your normal inbox or Priority Inbox, and it lets you zero in on unread messages.

There are a lot of things this app isn’t: You can’t hook it up with POP accounts. It has no mobile version. And you can’t set up filters. But for those suffering from inbox overload, however, the app is slick, clean and well worth the price: $9.99, for the Mac.