One of the cool things about Mail is that the icon in the Dock actually shows you the number of unread e-mails in your Inbox. Well, if you're like most, your e-mail isn't really simple any more. It can be complex. So many e-mails in and out constantly can be confusing, and sometimes difficult to quickly filter through them all to find the really important ones.

A company by the name of ecamm networks has developed a way to help with this. It's called the DockStar. Before I explain how it works, let's look at what the application looks like:

As you can see, the application works in conjunction with Mail by enhancing the Dock icon. It still shows the number of unread e-mails, but it allows you to break it down into visual categories. In the sample on the far left, for example, the blue could indicate all unread e-mails, the yellow could be all work-related unread e-mails, and the red could be all unread e-mails from a loved one.

Setting this up is easy. Simply run the install. Once it's done, there will be a new section in the Preferences of Mail called "DockStar". It will look like this:

To customize your DockStar, simply change the settings to suit your needs.

For more information on this application, click here. Cost is $8 if you find it useful.