One of the most popular entries on this blog is “The ins and outs of Apple shipment and order tracking” However, that post is nearly two years old, and things move on.

We recently took advantage of the Apple Black Friday sales to order a new 13″ Macbook for Lana. Of course, this had me revisit that post and start tracking the status of the deliver. In this case it was a straightforward standard configuration with nothing else added onto the order, so it was processed as a Fast Ship (EMEA) order.

The Apple order status page and tracking links showed that UPS were the carrier. It took at least a day for their tracking system to show any details however. Checking back every now and then was annoying.

That led me to discover the awesome Delivery Status dashboard widget, and also the equally awesome Delivery Status Touch for the iPhone and iPod Touch, from JuneCloud. Both allow you to insert your order numbers/tracking numbers for a large variety of online shops and couriers including Apple, Amazon, UPS, TNT, Fedex, DHL and more. They will then show you the order/tracking status in a lovely UI. The dashboard widget also has Growl integration which is great as you don’t need to keep going into Dashboard to see if things have changed.

The iPhone/Touch app is available from the App Store and provides the same basic functionality, but also allows you to see the actual provider order/tracking page as well as showing you locations on a map. It can sync with the dashboard widget as well so you only need to enter the order or tracking numbers once.