Postbox 3 launches with more social, more integration

We've tracked the progress of the Postbox email client for a while now, and it keeps getting better. Postbox -- an evolution of the Mozilla email client -- combines ease-of-use and email power tools to create a full-featured client with great polish. Version 3.0 brings with it not only new features, but a variety of improvements to system integration as well.

• More GMail features, including native "Label" support, "Important" view, "Send and Archive," support for GMail shortcuts and the ability to add detected dates as Google Calendar events.

• More social features, such as importing avatars from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more, displaying job titles and company names from LinkedIn, easy access to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles and the ability to update Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn right from the email client.

• More integration with services including Dropbox, Evernote, iCal/Google Calendar, and Growl 1.3. Version 3 also adds Lion Full Screen support and multi-touch gestures.

There's more, including a new "Favorites Bar" that's worth checking out. Postbox also includes the ability to create a set of "canned responses" -- templates tailored for various types of repetitive inquiries -- quickly accessible when replying. Postbox has come a long way as far as being "Mac-like," and this release is looking great to me so far. If you bought Postbox after August 15th, 2011, this upgrade is free. Previous users can upgrade for US$9.95. A new Postbox license runs US$29.95. If you're looking for an alternative to Mail with a full suite of social and system integration features, Postbox is a good bet.