Mail Forward is a “webmail translator” that allows you to use Mail.app to read your AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, and Yahoo webmail. It can also forward email from standard POP accounts.

It works by accessing your web mail or POP mailbox and forwarding each piece of mail through your SMTP mail server. You can manage up to 20 different accounts this way.

Mail checks can be scheduled and AppleScript support offers further options for tweaking the forwarding.

A new beta released today contains modifications to work with Hotmail service changes. It will also display a warning message if an SMTP server name that is known to be unsuitable for forwarding mail is entered in the Preferences dialog.

SMTP servers that send a multiline connection greeting are now supported.

MacFreePOPs does the same thing. It is free but harder to set up.

Mail Forward comes as a demo that will work for 30 days, after which registration will cost USD 19.95. You can get it from the developer’s web site .webmail, AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo, mail.app, apple mail, plugins

You don’t have to travel as far as China to find prominent Internet companies engaging in censorship .

AOL has taken to bouncing messages that refer to a petition against its decision to use Goodmail’s email validation service, according to reports in C|News and The Los Angeles Times .

This is the latest twist in a long running saga over AOL’s decision to charge for the assured delivery of email into its customers’ inboxes.

I can scarcely believe the stories are true.

All ethical considerations aside, politically the censorship plays completely into the hands of those who fear, rightly it seems, that the new arrangement will restrict Internet traditions of free speech and communication (among other things).

UPDATE: It seems that the censorship was an unfortunate accident caused by a “software glitch”.AOL, goodmail, email, spam, censorship, free speech, email tax

A month ago, AOL announced that it would hire the firm Goodmail to extract money from organisations and companies in order to ensure the delivery of “certified safe” emails into AOL customer inboxes.

According to the New York Times, the development is “a major change in the economics of the Internet”.

When the shift from its free whitelist to a pay-per-email scheme was announced, some supported it . An op-ed piece in the New York Times by Esther Dyson also argued it was a good idea.

Others were horrified, calling it a naked grab for cash or an attack on free speech .

Bennett Haseldon has now produced a good piece on the development, which has been posted on Slashdot.

He argues that “the market” will not serve to correct imbalances in the new system and, more importantly, that the Goodmail system does not respect the fundamental your right to receive email from whomever you want, not only from people who have paid Goodmail (or anyone else) a fee. Interesting reading.goodmail, AOL, email, email stamps, whitelist, guaranteed delivery

AOL has launched a beta test of its Connect for Mac app.

If you have an AOL screen name, you can log in, read the beta announcement and (I am guessing) download the beta from AOL’s beta web site.

Connect for Mac allows AOL members to initiate an online connection to the Internet without launching the full AOL client.

It is already easy to use Mail.app with AOL . Presumably, this makes it even easier.AOL, mail.app, apple mail, beta, connector

Four interesting things from the world of email in general:

• ClickZ provides a brief overview of an email’s journey from the time you click Send to the message’s arrival at its destination.
• According to CNet News , a judge has ordered that a defendant needs to hand over all his email to the plaintiff. What’s interesting about this is that the defendant’s email is housed with Gmail. Gmail, you will remember, says in its privacy policy that deleted emails “may remain in our offline backup systems” indefinitely. “Delete it and it’s gone” doesn’t seem to apply with Gmail. That’s bad luck for the defendant.
• In The New York Times, David Pogue posts a funny email from Hotmail about how to deal with unwanted email from the provider. It runs, “Free Hotmail users: If you do not wish to receive Hotmail member letters, you may close your Hotmail account.”
• The New York Times also has an op-ed piece on Goodmail (registration required, but worth it) , the company that has been hired by AOL to provide “safe” delivery of wanted emails to its customers. There was a fair bit of coverage about this new “email tax” a few weeks ago.

email, gmail, hotmail, goodmail, AOL, privacy

Mail Forward is an app that will forward your email from AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo! or from any POP account to Apple Mail, where you can read in greater style and comfort (see an earlier Hawk Wings post for screenshots and so forth).

An updated version released today changes the Yahoo! server login sequence for improved reliability and offers preliminary support for Hotmail/MSN Windows Live Mail beta accounts.

Mail Forward is shareware (USD 19.95) and is available from the developer’s web site .AOL, gmail, hotmail, MSN, yahoo, POP, mail.app, apple mail, Windows Live Mail, plugin

Over 50 organisations have written an open letter to AOL asking it to rethink plans to use Goodmail’s CertifiedEmail, which the letter describes as “a threat to the free and open Internet”.

The groups range across the social and political spectrum from the Electronic Frontier Foundation to the Gun Owners of America.

The letter suggests:

This system would create a two-tiered Internet in which affluent mass emailers could pay AOL a fee that amounts to an “email tax” for every email sent, in return for a guarantee that such messages would bypass spam filters and go directly to AOL members’ inboxes. Those who did not pay the “email tax” would increasingly be left behind with unreliable service. Your customers expect that your first obligation is to deliver all of their wanted mail, and this plan is a step away from that obligation.

If you feel strongly about this issue, you can sign the letter as an individual or as an organisation .AOL, email tax, email, goodmail, Internet, not apple mail