Using Gmail on a Mac? Then you may already know about Mailplane — if not, and you’re looking for an email client to use with Gmail, Mailplane is worth a look. The standalone software integrates seamlessly with multiple Gmail accounts and can make email wrangling far less of a chore. Version 2.1 is fresh out of beta and adds useful features like support of offline Gmail using Gears and image insertion within the text of your mail. Don’t forget that Google recently added a feature allowing you to tame your offline email — you can specify which folders appear offline and how much of that mail you really want to tote around. Also included in this release is support for multiple rich text email signatures.

Mailplane is $24.95, although this upgrade is free to all Mailplane 2.0 users and there is a free 30-day trial available. Still not sure what this setup adds over Gmail in a browser? Have a look at the two-minute walk-through for a better idea. Although I prefer a browser over most third-party apps, Mailplane is one of the few exceptions in my personal toolbox.

Did you buy one of those geeky Smartpens from Livescribe and are now looking for more things to do with it? There’s an app store for that. The Smartpen is a digital pen that captures handwritten notes in a format that can be used in a variety of ways. The new store has apps that range from simple games like Hangman to foreign language dictionaries. A quick look around the store shows quite a few apps for 99 cents, and others ranging up to $30.

Travel phrasebooks seem to be all over the store, a smart application for the Smartpen. I see phrasebooks in Japanese, French, German and Spanish, to name a few. Note that apps can be purchased only by customers in the U.S., UK, Australia and Canada only, according to Livescribe. Livescribe is actively looking for developers to build apps for the store. The Smartpen and supplies can only be shipped to the U.S.

This is firmly in the unverified rumor department, but a Chinese source is claiming that netbook maker ASUS is in talks to buy the notebook division of Toshiba. The source of the rumor is reported to be none other than ASUS CEO Jonney Shih, so there may be some truth in this. ASUS has done well in the netbook business since starting the phenomenon with the Eee PC, but its notebooks have yet to catch on with the buying public.

Toshiba is the No. 5 seller in the world, so ASUS would be looking to move up the ladder with an acquisition. Toshiba sells netbooks as does ASUS, but the lion’s share of Toshiba’s sales involve larger notebooks. A deal would definitely give ASUS some credibility in the notebook business. ASUS has stated it wants to be in the top three notebook vendors by 2011, and a deal with Toshiba would go a long way to reaching that goal.

Adobe Labs has released beta versions of Air and Flash, bringing new features and opening up both for better developer support. Both Air 2 and Flash 10.1 now have support for multitouch and gestures, and Flash can use hardware to better handle H.264 video.

The new betas are available for Windows, Mac and Linux, so the much-anticipated mobile Flash is not part of this beta release. Adobe says WebOS will get Flash 10.1 later this year, and Android “next year.”

Adobe Air 2 is said to be more memory friendly and allows Air programs to use flash memory for the first time. Flash 10.1 should provide better video playing, even on systems with low-end graphics systems. Early reports say the beta does not support hardware support using Intel-integrated graphics yet, meaning most netbooks may not see improvements.

Both programs can be downloaded from the Adobe Labs web site. These are beta versions, so install at your own risk and expect that problems could crop up.

This is usually the season for door-busting sales, but I think this one has to do with reducing inventory more than anything. MSI is touting a new online promotion in India, the UK, Australia and Italy, and although I’m not near any of those parts, I checked it out. The promotional link took me to a deal for a free MSI Wind netbook with the purchase of an X600 notebook. The free netbook is the same U100 model I purchased in 2008 and is worth roughly $350. To get the deal, you actually have to print out the online coupon and take it to specific vendors.

Purchasing the X600 gets you a skinny 15.6″ notebook with 1366 x 768 resolution running on an Intel ULV chip and ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics processor. The 2.1-kilogram notebook with 6-cell battery should run for nearly a full workday, and of course, you can always migrate over to your free netbook if you run out of juice.

Sony’s old PRS-500 eBook reader gains a new trick with the addition of ePub format support, says MobileRead. Oh, but it’s quite a trick to get the support. While one would expect this to be a simple firmware update, it isn’t. Well, it’s either that or it’s a way for you to get a new model — you be the judge. To get ePub support, you’ll need to send in your PRS-500 to a Sony Service Center. Sony will “update the firmware” — so it is just a firmware update, yes? — and return your reader to you within 14 days. Plan B is to trade up. Sony will give you $50 off of the $199 Reader Pocket Edition or $75 off the $299 Reader Touch Edition if you trade in your older device. Both of the newer models already support ePub, so you gain the new format as well as a newer device if you go the trade-in route. Don’t wait too long to decide — Sony is migrating its eBook platform and store to ePub before the end of the year.

Early adopters of the PRS-500 might be on the fence here, but if it were me and I had the money, I’d probably take advantage of the upgrade for a little cost savings. The newer devices have a faster refresh rate, 8-level grey scale and, in the case of the Touch Edition, offers a touchscreen display. Nice to see Sony give a little something to the first Reader customers.

Many moons ago I used SPB Wallet on my Pocket PC. And by many moons, I mean not long after Y2K — you kids will have to look that one up on Wikipedia. The application stores passwords, credit card numbers and other personal data in a virtual wallet. There was also a Windows desktop companion program, which made it easier to access and edit information. At long last, SPB announces support for Mac OS X, and it looks pretty slick and just as functional as its venerable Windows counterpart.

“The desktop component, previously available exclusively for Windows, is created to enable Wallet users to easily manage and arrange their sensitive data in a more convenient way, on a bigger screen and with a bigger keyboard. The Mac version of this software provides users with capabilities of editing data, syncing it with an iPhone or an iPod touch over Wi-Fi, as well as syncing every wallet with Google mailbox. It can also be synchronized with Windows Mobile and Symbian versions of SPB Wallet if the devices are connected via USB in Mass Storage mode.”

The OS X version of SPB Wallet is $14.95, but like most all SPB products can be used for a 15-day free trial. This is a bit of software that I used to install on every one of my devices, much like eReader and a few other utilities. If you’re looking for a place to securely store and carry personal info, I recommend taking a look at SPB Wallet.

Microsoft just released Windows Mobile 6.5 last month, but already, there’s talk of testing Windows Mobile 7. That might explain why 6.5 is more of a minor bump after all the time between it and the prior version. WMPowerUser caught wind of the “Maldives” WinMo 7 tester program, allegedly slated for the first quarter of 2010. Now by “tester program” I mean testing by handset manufacturers, not for average Joes and Janes. And there’s no indication that Windows Mobile 7 will hit any earlier than the third quarter of 2010. But it’s a positive sign as other mobile operating systems have caught up to, and in many ways passed, Windows Mobile over the last two years alone.

The big question in my mind isn’t where Windows Mobile 7 will be when it arrives, but rather, where will all of its competitors be at that time. Apple appears to be on a major release schedule each June or July with updated handsets and new operating system features. Google is proving that it can press the gas pedal with Android updates, too — not long after version 1.6 hit the air, we saw a flashier version 2.0 arrive. Nokia’s first Maemo phone is now shipping, but updates for that platform have no history to form a basis. BlackBerry also continues to move forward and, of course, some of us are still waiting for more great things from Palm.

Three quarters of a year can be a lifetime for mobile devices, so my hope is that Microsoft debuts something that’s ahead of its time with Windows Mobile 7.

Say what you will about Palm Pre owners, they are by and large an innovative lot. An enterprising (and electrically savvy) Pre owner has extended the homebrew scene from apps to the physical and built a car mount for his Pre using the Touchstone charger.

The enterprising individual has detailed the process and explained the whys and wherefores of the components chosen for the project. The Pre sits on the Touchstone charger by magnetic connection, and according to the hobbyist, the phone sits firmly on the mount. If you decide to tackle such a project yourself, bear in mind that tinkering with the car’s electrical system can be dangerous, and you could have horrific consequences if proper care is not exercised. Pretty cool, though.

The folks behind Firefox are still hard at work on Fennec, the mobile version of the popular browser. A new beta version 1.0b5, known officially as Firefox for Maemo, is out for the Nokia N810 and N900, and our buddy Matt Miller is taking it for a test spin. It sounds like the most significant change with this beta is it now has official Firefox branding, hinting that the full version can’t be far behind.

Matt found the browser to be a little “slow and buggy,” but that’s to be expected from a beta version. The Mozilla Fennec team has added lots of tweaks as development progresses, including:

• Enabled official branding, with Firefox name and logo
• Support for localizations, currently including Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch and Russian
• Enabled plugins
• Viewport meta tag support
• Fixed a number of sites that resize their content after the page is loaded
• Added a form assistant to make filling forms easier
• Improved panning performance and behavior
• Zooming doesn’t jump around anymore
• Numerous other bugs and polish issues addressed