ABT Data Consulting has released Speed Download 1.8fc1, a new version of the tool for speeding up download times when you’re online.
Speed Download offers multithreading so you can go online and download as many files as you want, simultaneously, Tony Yazbeck of ABT said. It works with Internet Explorer, Netscape and Opera Web browsers (with more browser support coming soon).
Speed Download, a US$20 application, sports a download queue that supports schedules. It’s Carbonized so it runs under Mac OS X. However, it also has multi-processor optimizations when running Mac OS 9 or higher.
“This is a major upgrade,” Yazbeck told MacCentral. “We have been extremely pleased with the tremendous amount of user support that we have received and have taken a lot of their requests and have put them into version 1.8. One of the most amazing features of this release is that Speed Download is automatically activated from most browsers simply by clicking on a file URL to download, so you’re ALWAYS downloading at extremely fast speeds. We’ve also included more contextual menu support to give our users even more control and options, and much more under-the-hood tweaks.”
He said that version 1.8fc1 offers faster and more refined performance; an easier and more automated installation procedure; more Contextual menu features; beefed up Mac OS X support; customizable column views; an enhanced Scheduling mechanism; the ability to choose User Agents; support for authentication; better Transfer logs; and more.
For more info or to download Speed Download 1.8fc1 (a 962 k file) go to the product Web site. System requirements are Mac OS 8.6 or later (with the proper CarbonLib extensions) or Mac OS X 10.0.0 or later.