If you're a keen user of Skype 3 then you were probably one of the keenest to download and test the new version of Skype 4, which entered beta testing last month. We downloaded and installed it immediately, but were quickly disappointed. The biggest problem was the re-designed interface which was arranged to give video calls the priority. Who really uses Skype to make video calls? Seriously? In business, I don't want to necessarily 'see' the other user when I make a call.

Skype 4 Beta 2 is now available and a the user-interface now enables you to select a compact version (read: the same design as Skype 3.x), received more informed and clearer alerts, so you can see when a call is incoming and more. We're not entirely convinced by Skype 4 and it seems our web users feel the same way, if you take a look at our end-user rating.

Skype 4 Beta 2 link.

Anyone who uses a laptop and their desktop PC will be aware of the scenario where you want to access, download and reply to both your company and personal email, whilst working from different locations. One way around this would be to configure your desktop machine to delete email from the server and enable your laptop to leave the email on the remote server. However, this can cause issues - you might use your desktop PC for over 80% of your work and, if you've set this to delete the email from the server, you can't access old email from your laptop. One answer is to use a synchronisation tool that will compare the database from both email clients and merge data.

SynchPST 3.2 is such a tool. It's not free, but for anyone who uses a desktop and laptop, with Microsoft Outlook, you won't mind spending cash on a tool that synchronises your email effectively, between each computer.

SynchPST link.

Many of us are not allow to use our company email for personal correspondence. For that reason, we tend to read and access our email through our Google Mail account or via Facebook. Google Mail has the advantage in that it can obtain email from other accounts, enabling you to pool email from multiple sources in to one mailbox. However, you need to open a web browser to keep checking your mail and this isn't alway convenient.

Gmail Notifier 0.6.3.6 is an add-on for Firefox that enables you to check multiple Gmail accounts and will display a simple blue icon when you have new mail. You only need to check your mail folder when you see the red envelope swap to a blue image. Simple and a basic way of checking your mail.

Gmail Notifier link.

Skype is an easy way of keeping in contact with other users, business colleagues and people situated outside of your office. You can choose to call them via your Skype phone, through a old-style message or via video conferencing, providing you've both got a fast broadband connection.

Skype 4, albeit as an early beta preview, has been made available to download. Although further features are planned for the future, the beta preview ships with a revamped user-interface that has been designed to complement the rise of faster broadband, assuming that end-users will be more likely to use video conferencing than text-based chat. We're not so keen. The interface is now huge and, if you're anything like us, we just use Skype to chat briefly with other users and for the occasional quick Skype-based International call.

Skype 4 link.

Although it's used by many corporations, Outlook has a rather outdated and clunky way of storing your email. It's used the same .pst database system for years and can take a lot of system resources when downloading, processing and storing your email (although this does seem to have improved with Outlook 2007). It's too easy to get frustrated, cancel the downloading email or even attempt to close Outlook. Either way, you'll then have to re-download the same emails again in the future and may be left with duplicates on your system.

Outlook Duplicate Items Remover is a free tool that you can use to search through your Outlook email folder and check for duplicate emails. Any duplicates are then moved to a separate folder where you can simply erase from your database.

Outlook Duplicate Items Remover link.

If you upgraded to Microsoft Office 2007 you may have found that Microsoft Outlook different little from the previous version. Indeed, there are some users who prefer the previous Office 2003, with it's more simplistic user-interface, rather than the ribbon you find in the latest suite. However, there aren't too many alternatives to Outlook that offer the flexibility and collaboration tools. Install Outlook 2007 across a number of workstations and it isn't a cheap solution for enabling your staff to access their email.

eM Client 1.1 is a brand new email client that resembles Outlook 2003, with it's simple user-interface. It will import your Outlook email, offers you access to a calendar and planned new features include the facility to synchronise with your Google Calendar and more.

eM Client link.

If you use your email client to write to different users, you might want to customise your messages depending on the recipient. For instance, if you write to the boss, you might want your email to be formalm with a particular signature. Write to your customers and it could be more informal with a basic signature, as you might not want them calling you on your direct line.

Live Signatures 2.1 is an Outlook add-on that will enable you to customise your email with pre-configured information. You could add a disclaimer for emails sent to recipients outside your company and add your date, time and even the songs you're listening to through your audio player. Whether this should be a free product is debatable.

Live Signatures link.

With many of us moving over to web mail, this enables us to access our incoming email from just about any location, as long as you have access to a web browser. If you're at work, you can't set up your email client to download your personal email and you won't want to be seen to be checking your Gmail account every 10 minutes to see if you've received mail. The answer is an assistant that will keep checking your account to see if you have a new message and then notify you discreetly.

GmailAssistant 1.0 is a free tool that will reside in your system try and keep checking your Gmail account. It will handle more than one account, so you could use it to check your other accounts or other people's accounts (with permission). It's based on Java, so you could use it on any operating system with Java installed. Hopefully your work machine will have Java pre-installed.

GmailAssistant link.

If you were going to consider an email client, what would be your final choice? There aren't too many email clients available and the market is dominated by the paid-for Microsoft Outlook and the free Mozilla Thunderbird. Recenty Qualcomm stopped developing the Eudora email client and decided to help with the next version of Thunderbird. Indeed, at one stage there were rumours that there wouldn't be a new version of the free email client.

Mozilla Messaging is the new corporation that will bring you Thunderbird 3 and it will be out sometime during late 2008. The new version of this email client will integrate a PIM and calendar, a radically improved search engine, enhanced user-interface and much more. If you've an existing Thunderbird developer, why not get involved?

Mozilla Messaging link.

If you work across multiple computers, you probably use a different email client on each to download and process your email. On your work PC you may have Microsoft Outlook installed, your Mac-based laptop may use Mozilla Thunderbird, whilst you may only bother with an online mail service from your home PC. Either way, you'll be using different email clients to access your email. Wouldn't be handy to be able to bring the email under one interface, on one system?

MailStore Home 2 is a free application that you can use to import, collate and read your email, using one central interface. Indeed, you can also back up and restore your email if you want to safeguard your correspondence.

MailStore Home link.