Mac Notifications

Nowadays, we feed ourselves with a lot of information. We socialize with our friends online. We always check our emails on the go. In the past I have Friendster and Multiply but now I use Facebook and Twitter. I also have emails in Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail. I also read a lot of stuffs online: Macworld, TUAW, Cnet news, PhilMUG, etc. We absolutely have a lot of information and we need to keep ourselves up to date and organized.

I have a lot of applications now on my Mac from photo editing tools, productivity apps, games and utilities. Some of the utilities I use for keeping myself organized and updated with everyday information are these notification apps. Here are just some of the apps I use and are free online or on the Mac App Store.

Gmail Notifr

One of the very first app I downloaded online. This small app keeps me updated on the emails I receive in Gmail. The limitation of this application though is that it can only be used with Gmail. Another limitation is that it only displays the subject of the email without its contents. But hey, it worked for me for a while. This small app is recommended.

Want to download, just click on the link: Gmail Notifr

Boxcar

Given the limitation of Gmail Notifr, I found one very useful application to integrate my social networking accounts, emails and rss feeds -- now enter Boxcar. I found out about this application in TUAW (article here). What I find great in this application is the integration to my Mac and iPod Touch. You have to create an account then start adding their available services. Although they provide tab grouping online, I don't find this available in their beta release for Mac. I have to check it though in my iPod Touch but I think it's not available too. Maybe the developers can improve on this for easier organization and navigation. But nevertheless, this application is great and for free -- highly recommended.

Want to download, just click on the link: Boxcar

MailTab for Gmail

Now I would still want a dedicated notification for my Gmail. Given the limitation of Gmail Notifr, I found this very useful app in the Mac App Store. The limitation of the Gmail Notifr has been addressed in MailTab for Gmail. Not only do you see the subjects of your emails, you also see their contents, get to reply to them and create new emails. You basically do every stuff you make in Gmail minus the browser, now isn't that cool!

Want to download, just click on the link: MailTab for Gmail

These are just some of my recommendations to keep you updated with all your personal stuffs. There are a lot of these applications that are maybe better than what I have showed here. But aside from functionality, I totally love them because they are free. Open source programs are also available on the Mac. I haven't seen any of these available though in Windows. I just love my Mac!