Postcards is an utility that lets you roll your own postcards or e-cards and send them easily with Mail.app.

To get started all you need to do is drop an image from your iPhoto library (or from anywhere for that matter) onto the app’s main window.

You can resize and reposition it, add a message in the pane to the right (adjust the font and text size to suit), and then add a stamp to the top of the postcard:

You can add a stamp from the library that comes with the app in the slide-out drawer on the right, or you can double-click on the stamp on the postcard.

You then get the chance to make your own stamp, using the built-in stamp editor:

Even the postmark can be customised.

When the postcard is finished, ⇧-⌘-A opens it up in a new Mail.app message, ready to go.

The developer also provides a zip file of handwriting fonts to add that extra touch of hand-crafted realism.

In an extra nice touch, the app can capture an image from an iSight camera. Since mine is built-in into the top of the screen, I can grab an image of wherever I am and send it.

In minutes you can knock up a postcard to a loved one or a swanky promo for your pet project:

Postcards is shareware (USD 10) and available from the developer’s web site . You can try before you buy, but the postcards are watermarked “unlicenced” until you pay.

[Thanks, Anthony!]mail.app, apple mail, postcards, ecards, photos, iPhoto, roll your own, plugins, addons, anti-productivity, iSight, George Bush

Tags: addons, anti-productivity, Apple Mail, ecards, George Bush, iphoto, isight, mail.app, photos, plugins, postcards, roll your own

Freeverse, the company which makes the iChat transcript manager for Mail.app Chatalog also make a clever little chess app that integrates with Mail, Address Book, iSight and more for the full iApp chess experience.

The game interface is striking.

It presents the two players hovering over a board which comes with “fantasy” and “traditional” pieces:

If you choose the “play by email” option (solo and network play are also available), it sends each move and any comment to a Mail.app message.

Your opponent clicks on the attachment and his or her copy of Big Bang Chess opens to show the new move and to allow the counter move.

The email keeps a reference of all comments through the game:

(Playing with yourself, while fairly common in the blogosphere, makes for a less than riveting game.)

Address Book, iChat and iSight integration offer further ways of enhancing the traditional play-by-email exchange.

Freeverse’s Big Bang Chess is part of a games package that also includes Checkers (a.k.a. Drafts), Reversi, Backgammon and Tic-Tac-Toe (a.k.a. Noughts and Crosses).

The Big Bang Board Games Suite costs USD 24.95. A demo is available from the Freeverse web site.mail.app, apple mail, address book, isight, ichat, chess, play-by-email, games, clever

Tags: Address Book, Apple Mail, chess, clever, games, iChat, isight, mail.app, play-by-email