I was fed up with having to go to the hotmail website and sign in to be able to veiw my emails, so I had a look around the internet and tried various alternatives, but eventually struck gold with Mail.app. In Mail, add a new account (in the Accounts section of its preferences) and choose a POP3 type of account. Fill in all your details and email address. The POP3 server's name is pop3hot.com, and the SMTP server is smtp.hotpop.com.
It worked for me, if you have any problems just post a comment and I'll try to respond...
[robg adds: This older hint seemed to indicate that an external plug-in was required for this trick, either httpmail (which is still in active development) or hotwayd, whose project page now throws up a SQL error. I have not tested any of these solutions...]
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2005111307393417