Sometime in the last day or two, Apple added a public webmail beta program to the iTools home page. So what's that have to do with Marvin Martian seen at right? Keep reading...
The beta is probably the best implementation of a webmail system that I've yet seen, and I've tried a number of them (yahoo, webmail, and others). The clean interface is lifted from mail.app, but what makes the program so usable is the expanded feature set. You can create folders for storing mail, search for message content from the main page, easily select all messages, control how many messages are viewed per page, enable email forwarding and auto-replies, and check other POP mail accounts. These features alone make Apple's webmail program very useful ... and, of course, you can access it from a PC or a Mac (unlike iTools itself).
The truly unique feature, though, is its integration with mail.app. As you may (or may not) know, you can associate images with various names in your address book, and future emails from those individuals will appear with their picture at the top of the email. The new Apple webmail program takes this one step further. You can now upload your image to be used on mail you send from webmail, which is a nice touch.
What's more interesting is that mail.app running locally in OS X has some interaction with the compilation of public images on the webmail server. If you use mail.app and receive mac.com mail from someone who has their image stored on the webmail server, you will see their picture in the email. Previously, you would have needed to have that image saved locally first in your Address Book application.
Give the webmail beta a try if you're looking for a good way to check your email (mac.com and other POP accounts) from anywhere. And upload an image if you'd like to let everyone know what you look like; I've included mine on this post so you can recognize future emails from me ... hey, nobody said you had to use your actual photo!

