You don’t have to wait until next year to get your hands on the new features in Mail 3.0. The third-party apps and plugins that may have inspired the new features are available now.
However odd and unsettling this year’s WWDC keynote was (Leander Kahney has some interesting thoughts
), it was good news for Mail.app fans.
Apple has spent some time and energy working on Mail. With the exception of templates, the other new features previewed by Steve Jobs will make it a better productivity tool.
With notes, to-dos and the ability to manage RSS feeds (See Apple’s new Leopard Mail web page
for more), Mail 3.0 really will “help you to do more with your Mail” as Apple suggests.
Oddly, Apple’s press release
rather oversold these advances. “Leopard’s Mail includes breakthrough new features that have never been seen before in a Mail application,” it pronounces.
Not true. And not smart either. Why the Apple PR machine didn’t adopt a more honest approach (”Leopard’s Mail takes some great ideas and makes them even better”), I don’t know. It’s as if Thunderbird, MailTags, Event Maker, Note to Self, or the stationery in Outlook Express and other mail clients never existed.
In any case, the good news is that you can take advantage of these new features now (if not always in quite the polished form Leopard promises).
To-dos (not system-wide) — MailTags
Templates (not HTML) — Mail Templates, Roll your own
Notes (not RTF) — Note to Self
RSS feeds (in your Inbox) — FeedMailer, rmail
I can’t make up my mind about the new HTML templates. My inner plain-texter revolts, but I can see how some people will find them tremendous fun.
Tags:
Apple,
Apple Mail,
iCal,
Leopard,
mail.app,
Notes,
Productivity,
RSS feeds,
templates,
todos
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