Simon 3.4b2 is all about the Email and SMS notifier plug-ins.

Ever since the Email notifier was introduced, several years ago, it has been problematic — configuring email settings can be quite difficult.

This release replaces the Automatic email mode with a new Apple Mail one, which (as the name implies) uses Apple's Mail app to send the email. It has a convenient list of accounts, just like in Mail (if you have that option enabled there), and when it notifies it launches Mail in the background (if it is not already running) and quietly sends the email.

So this makes configuring the Email notifier easier, and it should be much more reliable than the old "Automatic" mechanism. As a bonus, you'll have a record of the sent emails in your Sent mailbox in Mail (you can always use a rule to delete them if you wish).

If you don't want to use Mail, or want more control, you can still use the custom SMTP and sendmail transports.

Finally, the SMS notifier plug-in also uses the new Apple Mail mechanism, as an alternative to the Clickatell service.

Here are the release notes with more information:

• Replaced the Email notifier's Automatic transport with a new one, now called Apple Mail, that sends the message via Apple's Mail app. (Standard edition only)
• The From field is now replaced by a pop-up menu of mail accounts for the new Apple Mail transport. (Standard edition only)
• The Reply-To and X-Header fields are now disabled in the Apple Mail transport, since those are not supported by the new mechanism. (Standard edition only)
• Added a hidden preference to switch back to the old Automatic transport, just in case (it will be removed in a future version). It can be enabled via defaults write com.dejal.simon EmailUseLegacyTransport YES in Terminal. (Standard edition only)
• Also updated the SMS notifer plug-in to send email via Apple Mail, and use a pop-up menu for the From address. (Standard edition only)

Download Simon 3.4b2 now!