The new Cannonball Gmail app for iPad visually separates important messages from marketing, newsletters, and other mail. But CIO.com blogger James A. Martin quickly came up with five reasons why the app won't replace the native iOS Mail or the official Gmail apps. Cannonball, a new, free iPad app for Gmail users, is the latest iOS email app that aims to transform the mobile email experience. It does a good job making message organization more visual, but it doesn’t accomplish much more than that. Cannonball places your personal correspondence in a list on the left of your screen. To the right, you see large thumbnails that represent other types of email, such as newsletters, marketing messages and social-media notifications (Screen shot: Cannonball Corp.) It’s a nice way to unclutter your inbox, but the thumbnail images distract from more important messages. It’s not a big problem, and it might be less of an issue if the thumbnails were smaller. I like how Cannonball places photos of recent and frequent contacts to the right when you compose an email, which makes it easy to select a recipient. But Cannonball won’t replace either the iOS Mail or Gmail apps for me, for a number of reasons: * Currently, there’s no iPhone version of Cannonball, and I check email on my iPhone way more often than on my iPad. Releasing an iPad version was the developer’s first priority, because the app needs the larger screen to do its visual-organization thing. But that means users need to switch to another mail app on their iPhones. * Email management is limited. Unlike with the Gmail app, you can’t mark messages as spam and add labels. * Cannonball’s settings give you only two options: turn the Cannonball server on, which is selected by default; and reset unsubscribe, which is not. It’s not clear exactly what these options mean, and I found no in-app help. * The app slips in a “Sent from Cannonball.io” email signature in each messsage you compose or reply to, and I don’t see any way of changing that. * Sliding left on a message reveals a big red “Delete” button. But in my tests, Cannonball only archived messages. I’m not sure why because I had already unchecked the archive option in my Gmail app, and none of the other email apps I’ve tested force me to archive instead of delete. If you’re looking to shake up your iOS email experience, consider Skimbox, another new, free app that separates important messages from the other stuff; Birdseye Mail, which gives email the Flipboard treatment; or Mailbox, a popular app owned by Dropbox. Related content feature The CIO’s new role: Orchestrator-in-chief CIOs have unique insight into everything that happens in a company. Some are using that insight to take on a more strategic role. By Minda Zetlin Dec 04, 2023 12 mins CIO CIO CIO opinion Fortifying the bridge between tech and business in the C-suite To be considered a tech-forward company today, there has to be a focus on tech fluency across the C-suite, which creates a unique opportunity for CIOs to uplevel their roles and expand their footprint across the enterprise. By Diana Bersohn and Rachel Barton Dec 04, 2023 7 mins CIO CIO CIO brandpost Sponsored by G42 Understanding the impact of AI on society, environment and economy By Jane Chan Dec 03, 2023 4 mins Artificial Intelligence opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe