TEMS

If you prefer not to use a dedicated mail client to access your mailbox, but want to get notified about incoming messages, then you should think about using an e-mail checking application.
TEMS is one of the available alternatives you can choose from. It implements a simple e-mail notification system that alerts you whenever a new message is received in your inbox and reads it out loud.

Checks POP3 accounts for new mails

TEMS requires no advanced knowledge in order to be used, since all its options are simple and clear. It is capable of monitoring more than one POP3-enabled account and detect when a new message is received in the inbox.
You start by entering the username and the passwords of each of your accounts and add it to the list of supervized mailboxes. Once you do so, TEMS connects to the POP3 server and scans your inbox to detect unread messages.
On different occasions, we experienced some trouble adding new accounts to TEMS and the application failed to retrieve the number of unread inbox messages.
Get notifications and have new messages read out loud to you
In order to have a message read out loud on demand, you must enter its number. TEMS enables you to adjust the voice volume and the speaking speed, which is particularly useful for non-nativ e English speakers.
Once configured, TEMS can be sent to the system tray, so as to not interfere with your work. You can set the time interval for checking the inbox for updates and instruct the application to read the sent date, the sender name, the subject and the body of the e-mail.

An e-mail alerting and message reading application that requires improvements

Overall, TEMS can come in handy to any owner of a POP3 account who does not rely on an e-mail client to get notified about incoming messages. Please note that TEMS has not been recently updated, so you might experience some difficulties making it work with your POP3 account.