Mail Designer 2 from equinux (http://www.equinux.com) is a solid update of the Mac OS X app for designing emails and newsletters. The new version adds: support for animated images, support for videos embedded directly within emails, an integrated button designer, and collaborative features for teams.

With animated GIFs and video clips from YouTube or Vimeo, the revved Mail Designer introduces new accents for creating professional emails and newsletters. With the integrated Button Designer, it's possible to create vector-based sales graphics with borders, drop shadows, and color gradients into your newsletters, eliminating the need for a a separate design tool. The Quality Check scans your email for common issues.

Mail Designer 2 makes newsletter creation a team project. You can lend your design to a colleague for changes and corrections. Colleagues and clients can add annotations and feedback. All changes and comments are automatically tracked for review. Emails can be sent directly with Apple Mail or uploaded to external email services such as Campaign Monitor or MailChimp for larger campaigns. You can now also include attachments with your email.

Mail Designer 2 is available at a special introductory price of US$9.99 for a limited time. The price is normally $29.99. The app is available at the Mac App Store. Existing Mail Designer 1 users can take advantage of this special offer to upgrade to the new version.