The latest Acquisition beta, version 128.1, is now available for testing. This release brings a new aesthetic that cleans up the lines and modernizes the basic layout that has been in place for nearly four years, thus laying the interface groundwork for some very cool innovations to come.

That’s not all, however. This release adds some oft-requested filtering tools to the download pane. The first tool is a tab-filter that shows items based on their state – active, inactive, or complete. The second tool is a simple filter field that matches against file names. Together, these are useful for managing lengthy download lists.

In general I’ve been quite happy with my iMac Core Duo. However, there is one major problem that myself and many others have experienced – the iMac’s wireless networking performance is severely crippled when connected to an Airport base station – transfer speeds are slowed by at least 50%. This has been discussed and carefully documented by users, yet more than a month later and a substantial system update later, Apple has yet to even acknowledge the issue.

I certainly understand that this is a brand new architecture and there will be some kinks along the way. Nonetheless, wireless networking is a pretty crucial feature these days. It’s not as if this were some peculiar incompatibility with obscure hardware – it’s Apple’s computers and Apple’s own wireless gear. In fact, the only workaround is to abandon the build-in wireless hardware for a third-party network adapter!

Supposedly this glitch is due to new wireless components in the iMacs. I find it hard to believe that this type of glitch wouldn’t have been discovered during testing. Perhaps they did notice it but decided that it wasn’t important enough to hold up release. Let’s just hope that the new MacBook Pro is not similarly afflicted and likewise hope that Apple finally gives this issue the priority that it deserves.