CRM4Mac brings iCal, Address book and Apple Mail together into one interface. It also allows you to link documents and log phone calls with particular contacts in your Address Book. A new version, CRM4Mac 2.0, has just been been released, featuring Spotlight support and other improvements.

CRM4Mac doesn’t modify the apps themselves, but simply combines them so that all your events and emails are displayed together, according to date by default. A screenshot from the developer’s website shows it in action:

It displays the Address Book contact linked to the highlighted email. A preview pane can be opened in the main window.

You will either love or hate this idea. People like Mike Salsbury, who feels that the integration in Ximian Evolution makes it better than Apple Mail would probably love it. Others, like me, who value the “purity” of working with mail and only mail in one app, with events and only events in another and so on, will be faintly appalled.

Reviews of earlier verisons of the software are likewise mixed. The developer’s website lists a number of testimonials. But the users’ reviews on MacUpdate, Versiontracker and on other blogs are not all positive. In any case, you have 30 days to trial a fully functional version if you want to test it out for yourself.

CRM4Mac costs USD 49.95 and comes in Panther and Tiger flavours. It is (UPDATE: June 2008 no longer ) available from the developer’s website.

P.S. CRM stands for “Customer Relationship Management”.