Mail Status Control is a nice little app for OS X, that indicates new mail with an icon in the menu bar. it also lets you set a keyboard shortcut to create a new mail message without having to switch to the mail app first. Cool!

Download from the developer's website

Warning: banal content! Apple's remote control that comes with all new Macs was fun to fiddle with ONCE. Then it lay there getting ever more dusty. Working at my desk today i listened to iTunes on shuffle mode and often I'd move my cursor to the iTunes Dock icon, pause a little and select "next" to skip to a better song. It just seemed like too much effort, too much distraction from work. So I tried the remote, wondering if it works without the Front Row app running - and it does! And it reacts instantly. So the next track is now one push of the button away. Nice! Now PLEASE get back to work ;)