14 DAY TRIAL // Handling more than one email account has turned into quite a standard nowadays. Google, Hotmail and Yahoo are the major providers of webmail service and they cover quite a big chunk of world's Internet users as registration is absolutely free and with the continuous expanding of the mailbox space, these options sound even more appealing.
With more than two email accounts to check daily, the time and effort spent for reading the messages in each of them could easily turn into a tedious and tiresome job. Fortunately there are easy to handle and non-expensive solutions for the issue, embodied under the form of notifiers that sit quietly in system tray and alert the user whenever the mail server receives a new message.
POP Peeper comes as a free alternative for getting notifications when a message is received, supporting multiple servers (such as POP3, IMAP, Hotmail/MSN/Live, Yahoo!, Mail.com, My Way, Excite, RediffMail, Lycos, GMail or Juno/Net Zero), making it suitable for an increased number of users. It retrieves messages from the server and alerts the user of their incoming.
Installing the application includes a bit of configuration concerning the plugins you want to benefit from (WebMail, SendMail, IMAP and SSL), but these can also be downloaded later directly from the interface. The flexibility of the application goes beyond the confinements of a desktop computer as POP Peeper is also portable and during the installation process the user has a chance of saving all the options to installation folder, thus being able to keep it on a memory stick and go from computer to computer maintaining the same personal settings. One of the final steps for configuring the app before launching it refers to setting it to run with Windows, automatically check for updates and perform an update for WebMail plugin unattended.
Due to the built-in wizard, adding accounts is a breeze. The two possibilities in the assistant permit importing accounts from an already installed email client (only Outlook Express, Mozilla, Netscape and Eudora are supported) or you can start creating a single account, an operation that requires more input from the user but is not more difficult. In the latter case, there is assistance as well, and for making a difference between the accounts you get to associate a color for them.
The best part is that, if you do not know the incoming server, POP Peeper offers the possibility of automatically discovering them for you, as it comes with a database of its own. More than this, the user can add as many server as s/he wants, thus enlarging the database.
As for the interface, this is in serious need of a makeover, yet very functional, meaning that you have the accounts on one side and the message window on the other. The options included are typical for any email client and you can compose a message, reply, forward or open a selected email. By default, all accounts are displayed in the left hand side of the main application window, but POP Peeper lets you change the account view from a drop-down menu at the bottom of the screen.
With all accounts configured, when the application is started, you will view all emails from all accounts in a message window, without giving you a tough time making the difference with which message belongs to which account, thanks to the color code option when creating an account. All emails are marked with the color of the account they belong to. Making the software display only the emails of one account requires a simple double click on the desired account.
In the lower part of the screen there are various details related to the selected account, such as the number of new items retrieved, the number of unread messages or the total amount of email. There is also a timer giving the time until the server is checked for new items.
Given that POP Peeper is just an email notifier, it offers the possibility of accessing the default email client at a right click on system tray's icon. Getting it to start what you want requires defining the desired software to be launched at your command. This is achieved from Options menu, under General tab, which also permits setting the behavior of the peeper at double clicking the tray icon (run email client, open POP Peeper or check for new mail).
Additional configuration includes the enabling of the message the moment it is read (you have to enable Advanced Options for this one), defining the time interval for mail checking or schedule it at a preset time. Message retrieval options let you choose what to be collected from the server: entire message, preview, headers, or the number of messages.
Alerts for new email can be as explicit as you want, since POP Peeper can be set up to play a user-defined sound or enable the visual notifications such as displaying a desktop alert, automatically launch the default email client or POP Peeper. Regardless of the choice you make for the alert, you can always enable the flashing of Scroll Lock whenever a new message is detected and the blinking will not stop until you check your message.
New mail notification is also visible in tray icon, which can display the classic icons (mailbox with flag up), color coded icons or rotate the number of new messages. If there is no new mail, the tray icon can be hidden making the software even less intrusive on the user.
The choices for viewing the messages are the regular ones: HTML, rich text and plain text, but very functional for preventing malware infections. In the case of HTML and rich text, there is additional configuration to be made, like blocking external images and data, viewing the entire web page (webmail only), processing attachments or display hyperlink references and image text.
Security options available in POP Peeper refer to both the use of the software and connecting to one of the accounts. This way you can have a password for bringing the software out of system tray and for each of the accounts (password protected ones are italicized).
Composing a message with POP Peeper is nothing fancy as you benefit from all regular options, including file attachment, BCC and CC fields and address book. Regarding the latter, it is fair to say that it is a bit under-developed as it allows a minimum of information input: name and email.
Overall, the application does a wonderful job as there are plenty of notification options and it offers support for various email accounts. Security options can be either per account or for the entire app. However, there is one little glitch that may bring the comfort level down a notch: once POP Peeper reads the new mail, it will automatically appear as read in the email client. A much more convenient handling would be for the new mail to be marked as read only when the user opens it from POP Peeper, not the moment it is retrieved by the software.
The Good
POP Peeper is extremely easy to use and offers multiple account support as well as web mail support. It can import accounts from some of the most widely used email clients on the market (Thunderbird, Outlook/Outlook Express).
The application can be configured to alert you unobtrusively of the new mail. It can also start the default email client whenever a new message is retrieved.
Each account can be color-coded so that you can easily distinguish between them and users can password protect both the access to an account as well as for POP Peeper itself.
It comes complete with email sending options (attachments included), address book, minimizes to system tray (and icon can be made visible only when new mail is available), can support both HTML, rich text and plain text rendering of the messages.
The Bad
The moment POP Peeper grabs a hold of the message on the server, it will be marked as read, and this may come as an inconvenience for some of the users.
The interface is in serious need for repairing if compliance to today's standards is sought.
The Truth
As it is an email notifier, POP Peeper does not come with spam filtering options, but has lots of other options to offer, many of which are not included even in a genuine email client. The application is not complex and can be configured by any type of user. It brings important features to the desktop and it can also be installed on a removable device.
POP Peeper makes for an extraordinary email notification application, capable of handling multiple accounts and giving you plenty of customization options for viewing the messages, deleting them from the server, as well as storing them on the local computer.
Comparing its size, price and the options it puts on the table, POP Peeper turns out to be a must for any user in need for an unobtrusive and easy to handle email notifier.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
