Yojimbo, a great new information manager from the Bare Bones stable, has been updated. All the fine features that first lured me away from StickyBrain are still there, but now there’s even more to like about it.

First, it is now AppleScript-able. Almost all the items in Yojimbo can be scripted, so I would expect some nifty scripts to appear soon which will speed Yojimbo up even more. (UPDATE: Within minutes of me putting this up, Fraser Speirs writes in the comments about some scripts he has already knocked out for web archives and NetNewsWire headlines and that he has posted on his wiki . Sweet!).

Secondly, searching has been significantly improved. It now searches like Mail.app and iTunes, automatically inserting an AND between separate words. The toolbar displays the search stats as it does in other apps. The “All” search option is more comprehensive.

Thirdly, several existing features have been tweaked. You can now sync with .Mac when Yojimbo is not running. Launching the app is noticeably faster and some bits of the interface have been reworked to make them clearer.

Fourthly, PDF handling is much better, especially with password-protected PDFs.

There’s no sign of the nested folders that many users requested after the first release, but I’m sure that they are not far away. Nor is there any sign of closer integration with Mail.app, which is one of my hopes.

Lastly, there is now a “Buy Yojimbo…” command on the application menu when running in demo mode. That’s important because you should buy it or, at least, take the product tour at Bare Bones, try it out and then buy it .

Software as smart and pretty as this deserves its reward.

(Sorry about the pun).yojimbo, information manager, pdfs, applescript, nested folders, syncing, bare bones, productivity

MacBiff is a “biff” program that sits in the menubar and polls multiple IMAP accounts for new mail.

Unlike many notification utilities, though, it takes full advantage of the functions and flexibility of IMAP servers and folders.

If you are looking for a powerful and flexible mail-check utility for your IMAP accounts that also works with Growl, you will want to read the rest of the review and see the screenshots after the jump.

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