Acquisition, NewsFire, and Xtorrent all run great on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard!

I’ll keep this short. Xtorrent 2 is now available as a public preview from the Xtorrent 2 preview website. This has been extensively tested over the last two weeks by private testers (many thanks!) and is in good shape for wider testing.

That said, I’m sure there are bugs. There’s at least one important feature yet to come in the coming days. Constructive feedback is appreciated at feedback@xtorrentp2p.com.

The last year has been crazy busy – Inquisitor got bought by Yahoo! and became the focus of my attention in the following months. It was eventually ported to two new browser platforms (IE and Firefox), and was also re-conceptualized as an iPhone app (all of which I’m proud of). For those months my time was under contract to Inquisitor, with side projects like Ski Lodge, NewsFire 1.6, and Safari140 squeezed into the weekends.

The consequence was that my core projects received less attention than they deserved. The good news is that time pressures have changed. Xtorrent is now my priority and after many months of teardown and reconstruction, the next major release of Xtorrent is imminent.

Let’s dive right in… Xtorrent 2 features a brand new torrent engine named Xcore. This engine has been designed exclusively for Mac OS X and written in 100% Cocoa. The result is a lightweight, powerful, and very stable download engine that supports torrent extensions such as encrypted message streams. I made the choice to use the very latest in Cocoa technologies, hence Mac OS X Leopard is now a requirement.

Xtorrent 2 opens up the search feature. In Xtorrent 1.x, search was a closed box over which the user had no control. Xtorrent 2 changes this by letting the user opt in or out of specific search providers, and even extend it by adding their own.

In the user experience department, Xtorrent 2 is more refined than its predecessors. One improvement is a super simple downloads queue along with inline controls that make it easier to pause and resume downloads. Other changes include better search suggestions, refined graphics, Twitter support for sharing torrents, and significantly improved performance in key areas.

Xtorrent 2 will be released initially as a private preview in the coming days. As soon as any rough edges are smoothed out it’ll be released more widely.

Feel free to check out the redesigned website for more details and screenshots. Also, follow us on Twitter or Facebook for news updates.

Thanks!

Inquisitor for iPhone was launched just a few weeks ago in the United States, and the response has been great. Right now, 44 of 46 reviews on the App Store rate it 4 or 5 stars, and the comments have been very kind:

“Hands down, this is the best search experience for the iPhone… Super fast, elegant design that saves you time typing by offering query suggestions as you type… You have to try this and see how amazingly fast it is. You won’t be disappointed!”

“Best. Search. Ever.”

“Better than Google. Easiest and fastest mobile search with high relevancy results.”

Today, we’re pleased to announce that Inquisitor is now available in 11 additional countries: Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand.

Please check it out on your local App Store – we hope you enjoy it! If your country isn’t on this list, stay tuned and we’ll keep you up to date as the rollout continues.

I’m pleased to announce that Acquisition 2.1 (v210) is now available for download.

This release brings auto-updater support (similar to the recent NewsFire beta) to make future software updates as painless as possible. There are also a number of minor cosmetic changes along with general improvements to the app’s ability to consistently find robust connections to the search network.

As an aside, if you’re a twitter user, you can now follow us for the latest news about Acquisition.

It took far too long for reasons I’ll never know, but Apple has finally approved the Inquisitor app for the iPhone.

Late last year, I released my first iPhone app, Ski Lodge, which brought a unique experience to skiers and snowboarders with the iPhone’s combination of GPS, 3G, and rich user experience. While Ski Lodge was my first iPhone app to make it out the door, it was not the first iPhone project I began working on. That particular honour goes to today’s announcement – Inquisitor for iPhone.

The iPhone is a unique platform with many strengths, but also many limitations. A small screen means that app design needs to be uncluttered, direct, and essential. Sometimes slow and error-prone keyboard entry means that search aids are critical. Slow website loading speeds mean that users cannot afford too much back and forth.

It turns out, these limitations map well to Inquisitor’s strengths. Inquisitor’s central premise is that providing a native search experience can provide a better, more direct way to navigate to the information you want. Visiting a webpage just to find another webpage, with all the hunting, pecking, pinching and tapping that entails, can get tiresome quickly.

Inquisitor has always been about speed and simple design. Instant search suggestions attempt to complete your thoughts and save you from the keyboard. Results are designed to be easily read on the iPhone screen, so there’s no need to hunt and peck. A built-in web browser means you can flip between search results and web pages with a single tap. There’s even an extended abstract preview that hovers over webpages while they’re loading, so you’re never left staring at a blank screen. On top of it all, Inquisitor remembers your history and personalizes the experience to you.

You can get it from iTunes. At the moment it is only in the USA store, but we’re working to get it launched everywhere once a few legal hurdles are passed. Oh, and it’s free ($0.99 is so lame).

Hot on the heels of the release of Safari140, I’m pleased to release the first beta of NewsFire 1.6. Similar to Safari140, NewsFire now supports direct posting to Twitter, using the same hotkey shortcut and interface.

In addition, NewsFire 1.6 has an updated visual design and now has built in auto-updater support (via Sparkle) for pain-free upgrades.

Download NewsFire 1.6 Beta 1
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard required.

Ski Lodge has been updated to version 1.0.3 in the App Store. This release now shows the number of open trails and lifts at your resorts, and fixes a minor bug involving the display of temperature information.