As promised in the blog post earlier tonight announcing the first Alfred v2 beta, here are a few workflows Mega Supporters can import to get started.

Update: The workflows from this post have been removed, as these are now built into Alfred. In the Workflows tab, click the + button at the bottom of the workflows list and choose from the Examples menu :)

After many months of hard work, we can finally share the first Alfred v2 beta. As you've seen from the recent sneak peeks, there are huge improvements and some great new features, like workflows, that will make Alfred more powerful than ever before.

Rather than waffle on about v2, I'll re-iterate a few things below then let Mega Supporters download the beta and have a play. :)

This is a beta release: While it has been tested and Andrew & I have been using it as our day-to-day Alfred version, you may still encounter unexpected behaviour or bugs. Some features may also change between now and the final release, so be flexible, especially when it comes to workflows.

To help us keep track of bug reports, please email us or join our forum, rather than tweeting us.

Beta is limited to Mega Supporters: To help us limit the volume of feedback for the beta, only Mega Supporters can take part at this time. If you have a single user license from v1, you can choose to upgrade to Mega Supporter to join the beta. If you prefer to wait until it's fully tested, hold off until v2 goes to general release to upgrade to a v2 single user license. Questions about licensing? Have a look at the FAQ.

Keep version 1 handy: Some features are not yet complete in this beta; for example, there is no iTunes Mini Player yet. You can keep versions 1 & 2 running concurrently by choosing different hotkeys, and we don't recommend deleting v1 just yet.

Over the coming weeks, we'll be releasing new builds when they're ready, will publishing documentation and help pages, and prepare for the general release.

Cheers,
Andrew and Vero

As we prepare for the imminent first v2 beta release, a few close friends of Alfred have been helping test during the early stages and have started creating workflows. One of them is David Ferguson, a proficient extension developer since Alfred's early days.

Love Rdio? You'll be blown away by the way David has integrated it. Prefer to use Chrome as your everyday browser? You'll now be able to get to your bookmarks easily. He will also be updating his highly popular AlfredTweet extension for v2.

We can't wait to see these first workflows take shape, and look forward to the ones you'll create.

Rdio workflow

Chrome Bookmarks

AlfredTweet

It's great to see the workflow canvas put to good use; here is part of the workflow for the much-anticipated AlfredTweet update.

Exciting stuff, isn't it?

Cheers,
Vero

One of the joys of writing a new version from scratch is the ability to improve and re-think many of the small imperfections from the previous version. You'll find that v2 is full of clever little touches that will make your experience more pleasant.

Andrew took great pleasure in improving this particular aspect of the user experience; Users with external screens would occasionally find that Alfred was confused about where to appear on screen after disconnecting from the second screen. The preferences for v2 resolve that, as you can position Alfred's window on your screen and, regardless of your resolution, he'll remember it next time.

This is one of the many areas that have received attention and polish to make using Alfred as pleasant and easy as possible. You can look forward to discovering the rest for yourself during the beta!

In v2, you'll be able to theme Alfred to match your desktop or your mood. The theme editor has been overhauled completely so not only will you now be able to change colours, but also fonts, sizes, width and height of Alfred's window, and even the roundness of corners.

v2 Default Theme: Standard sizes and fonts

v2 Tiny Theme: Square corners, small Menlo font, thinner window and Terminal colours

v2 Avatar theme: Large Papyrus font, wide window, rounded corners and blue colour scheme

We're still on track for a first beta release to Mega Supporters in the first half of January, so keep your eyes peeled! If you currently have a v1 single user license and want to take part in the beta, you can upgrade your license to a Mega Supporter to join the fun!