When the message comes back, you have the option to keep the message unread and even flag it for follow-up. That way, when the message comes back as the original receipt date, you’ll be sure not to miss it.

(I still wish there was an option to have the message come back to the top of your inbox but, unfortunately, you get into a tricky gray area when it comes to the ethical dilemma of modifying the original message.)

I’ve become absurdly-addicted to the 14-day trial I downloaded earlier this month and I’m sad to see the trial end. Still, the add-in is only $29.95 and that’s a pretty small price to pay for what could be a very effective tool for maintaining your always-ridiculous and always-overflowing inbox.

That’s Boomerang for Outlook in a nutshell.

Well, back in August (2010), Baydin launched a port of the Boomerang functionality for Gmail – via an extension/add-on for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, respectively. (Although, I did notice it’s not currently compatible with the most recent Firefox 4 beta. Sad, but true. – 2/22/2011) In my opinion, it’s even more powerful and intuitive than it’s Outlook-based big brother. (Kinda like how Gmail is more intuitive and powerful than Outlook. Go figure.)

Indeed, right within a message, you can utilize the Boomerang drop-down menu to have that message come back to you at a later date for follow-up. Alternatively, while composing a message, you can tell Boomerang to bounce that message back to you as an automatic reminder (again, in whatever kind of timeframe you wish) OR have the message come back to you if the message has no follow-up. That’s right, if someone doesn’t reply to you, Boomerang will remind you about it. Freaking awesome.

Boomerang for Gmail is in a free beta now but if you’re eager to reward the awesomeness that’s baking in the kitchen of Baydin HQ, you can donate a small chunk of change to ensure that development of the Gmail plugin is continued. I highly recommend it.

Have you tried Boomerang? What do you think? What are some of your favorite Outlook/Gmail-based productivity tools?

For the former, you can check out MP3Tunes, Musana or TunesBag. (And I’m sure there’s more out there.) These services allow you to upload tracks (MP3s and WMAs, typically) from your existing collection without having to worry about whether or not your home PC is connected to the Internet.

MP3Tunes currently grants you 2 GB of storage on free accounts. Upgrades are available and are pretty cheap. The next available plan offers you about 50 GB of space for $4.95/mo or $39.95/yr. One additional benefit of signing up with a premium plan is the ability you’ll receive to listen to your tracks via a selection of Locker-enabled devices (including mobile phones) which means that you don’t even need a computer to listen to the tracks you’ve collected at home. Once you have your plan, simply grab the company’s LockerSync software to upload your tracks.

Next up is musana. In my rather humble opinion, musana is the weakest of the bunch… at least for now. The site currently does not offer an uploader (not that we could find, anyway) available for use which means you’re going to have to use your browser’s file select option to upload your tracks. Once you have uploaded some tracks, the player’s interface is “neat-looking” but not as intuitive as it should be. (Not bad, mind you, just not great.)

Granted, the site is still in “private beta” so things might improve. Although, the last post to the company’s official blog was back in February ‘08. That said, I wanted to include the site as an option for music lovers on-the-go but don’t be surprised if musana ends up in the deadpool.

Finally, in the “upload-&-listen” cateogry, we have tunesBag. While tunesBag states that they currently allow for unlimited uploading via the tunesBag uploader application, you’ll need to contact them directly if you wish you upload more than 5-7 GB of music.

Your Best Bet Overall, Though…

If you’ve got a broadband connection at home, your PC is always on and you really want to minimize the amount of effort required to get your collection accessible from any computer you might be at, you may want to take a look at the following two free, albeit similar, services.

First up is JukeFly. With JukeFly, you sign up for an account, download the “server” application, point it to your music collection and then, well, nothing. Your music collection is instantly accessible from wherever you can hit jukefly.com in a desktop Web browser. The interface (shown below) is a little cartoonish (it’s entirely Flash-based) but it allows you to do everything you might normally do from iTunes or Windows Media Player: create new playlists, shuffle, search, rate songs, etc.

There’s even some social networking functionality built-in. You can share your collection with others, comment on songs or view other users’ comments on the same song and/or artist, find lyrics (if available,) and even connect to your last.fm account. It’s a pain-free way to access your favorite tunes on the road.

Our favorite pick…

The second and final option we’ll be covering here is Orb. Orb provides you with the same option as JukeFly (being able to access your music collection on the road without having to upload your entire catalog) but takes it a step further; thus making it our favorite choice overall.

In addition to being able to access your tunes (in a brilliant, iTunes-esque Web interface, by the way,) Orb also provides you with the option to browse your home videos, pictures and documents from a remote machine.

(Personally, I thought that Adobe might actually phase Fireworks out now that the program is being produced by the same company that releases that other graphics program, Photoshop.  Guess I was wrong.)

The official announcement on the Adobe Labs site provides plenty of information on what the new versions bring, including a brand new interface, but does not, however, provide decent screenshots.  So, here are some captures from Adobe Dreamweaver CS4: (click on the image for the larger version)

(Dreamweaver CS4 main window)
(CSS options dialog after selecting font…should make for quick and easy CSS maintenance.)

(Adobe Extension Manager CS4)

  (Validation Checker)

Some of the notable new features for Dreamweaver include:

Live View - View your web pages under real-world browser conditions with the new Live View in Dreamweaver — while still retaining direct access to the code. The new rendering mode, which uses the open source rendering engine WebKit, displays your designs like a standards-based browser.

Photoshop Smart Objects - Photoshop and Dreamweaver integration has evolved to the next level of compatibility and functionality. Drag and drop an Adobe Photoshop® PSD file into a Dreamweaver page to create an image Smart Object.

Adobe® AIR™ authoring support – Create multiplatform desktop applications from your Dreamweaver HTML and JavaScript sites with new Adobe AIR™ authoring support.

Read more about the new releases over at Adobe Labs.  Or, download the betas and give them a spin yourself.  (Note: the trial period for beta testers is two measly days.  However, if you already own a copy of the respective program [or the CS3 suite], you can test it for a tad longer.)