Software roundup - new Quicksilver and Firefox 2.0 beta 1

Quicksilver

Is still the bomb. Freshly released 1β49 seems faster, more responsive, and has noticeably redesigned the preferences menu to be more in-line with Apple’s HIG. Plus, a lot more documentation and detail on how to use the features.

If you have a Mac and are not using QuickSilver you really don’t know what you’re missing, especially if you’re a CLI jockey or heavy keyboarder. It rocks. I’ll wait while you go download it. Run, don’t walk. Heavily encouraged by the entire LifeHacker crew and GTD productivity gurus like Merlin Mann.

Firefox

Released the 2.0 beta 1. Have to admit the new beta seems quite a bit faster on my G4 1.5Ghz 12″ PB than 1.5.x and phenomenally stable (so far). Still seems to be consuming more memory than I think is polite for a browser, but I’ll wait for the final release before passing final judgement.

Takes a bit getting used to the changed tab behaviour (closing on the tab rather than on the right as before), but so far have to say I’m really impressed. Also like the new rss feature so you can add subs to your favourite reader rather than LiveBookmarks. Much easier for beginners to start using rss. Built-in, as-you-type spellchecking in text fields is also a welcome addition. Killer feature for me ? Re-open recently closed tabs in the History which is something I constantly need (as a suggestion to the dev teams, I’d also really love an “archaeological” history menu as a preference which allows you to go back through a sorted list of what you looked at each day in the reverse order you looked at it rather than alphabetically.)