A National Labor Relations Board judge has dropped charges against five scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and told the organization to rescind disciplinary actions against these employees who shared emails at work about a Supreme Court decision on background security checks for JPL employees. Dennis Byrnes, Scott Maxwell, Larry D'Addario, Robert Nelson and William Bruce Banerdt were accused of sending unsolicited emails. The judge compared their email forwarding to employees that use email to sell Girl Scout cookies to each other.

Japanese developer ChatPerf has developed a new app called Scentee that lets iPhone users email or text smells to each other. The app requires the sender and the recipient to have a scent tank -- a plastic piece that plugs into the dock of the phone. When a scent message arrives, a red light lights up and then a mist of spray comes out. Each scent tank has only one fragrance, but the user can swap out different scents.

Earlier this week, the ACLU revealed that the FBI allows its agents to read the emails of citizens without getting a warrant. But some of the biggest email providers including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter are pushing back. These companies will only provide emails to the agency when the FBI provides a probable cause warrant.

Email marketing services company Silverpop has a new feature to help marketers render messaging based on the device that consumers open their emai lon. The feature, called Email Insights, lets marketers test preview what an email will look in up to 30 different apps across multiple devices. The tool also includes analytics about which devices and email apps are being used to open those emails to that they can use that data to create emails that are customized to a user's "preferred device." Last month, the company announced $25 million in new funding.

Target is testing a new discount service called Cartwheel in a move to drive shoppers into stores. Cartwheel gives Target customers access to 5%-25% off deals. The retailer presents the deals on Cartwheel.Target.com by topic. Target will promote this new feature across digital channels, including emails to its credit cardholders, messages to Facebook fans and through its website and mobile apps.

Online retailer ProFlowers was one of many e-commerce flower companies to use personalized emails to sell flowers for the Mother's Day holiday. The company sent an email on May 4, adding mom's name to the subject line thanking customers for past purchases and offering a big discount for a purchase this year.

More than half (55%) of companies earn 10% of their total sales through the email marketing channel, according to the latest report from Econsultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Census. According to the study, 18% of respondents reported that email accounted for over 30% of their total sales.

Digital marketing services company Responsys recorded $48.5 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2013 which ended March 31, exceeding expectations. The company reported its quarterly earnings this week revealing that reported sales were 27% higher than the prior-year quarter's $38.1 million.

Motorola has brought its IT and digital marketing teams together in a move to drive collaboration. "Technology is a business enabler," Eduardo Conrado, senior VP-marketing and IT at Motorola told Ad Age. The teams work together on strategy and on digital platforms to help streamline the company's approach to digital communications, be it social or email, for both internal and external communications.

For PR professionals, managing communications across many social channels and email for various different clients can be a challenge. Dana Humphrey, owner of Whitegate PR, uses Vbout to help keep it all under control. The tool that lets companies manage their various social media profiles, their email marketing efforts, and online reviews through one dashboard. "You can use it the same way you would use Constant Contact or MailChimp," Humphrey told PR Week. "I'm still working on integrating my clients' Constant Contact and MailChimp accounts into Vbout."