After over 6 months of work in secret, we can officially announce that Alfred version 2 is coming!

When we first launched Alfred in February 2010, we hadn't anticipated that Alfred would grow up to become butler to millions of users, winning awards and engraining himself into our lives. Version 1 grew organically, with numerous releases over almost three years.

In version 2, Alfred will be even more polished and user-friendly than ever. To achieve this, Andrew has rewritten Alfred from the ground up to make every aspect more efficient, more powerful and more flexible, reusing only around 15% of code from v1. Of course, we've also taken great care to ensure existing users would still feel at home with v2.

Over the coming weeks, we'll be sharing sneak previews of the new v2 features. We'll also put out a beta once v2 is near completion in early January.

Did you say beta version?

Yes indeed! When the beta version is ready, we'll invite Mega Supporters to give us a hand in testing v2. Your help in putting Alfred through his paces in previous development releases in the past has been invaluable, and we thought you might enjoy playing with a new shiny app ahead of release. :)

In order to keep a handle on the number of beta users and the feedback we'll receive, only Mega Supporters will get early access.

If you'd like to become a Mega Supporter, you can upgrade your Single User license or, for new Powerpack users, grab a Mega Supporter license. The upgrade is great value and gives you a lifetime of updates included!

Everyone who has bought since 1st December 2012 will receive a free upgrade to v2, so if you buy today, you'll get your v1 license instantly, and receive a v2 license when it's released.

All users who bought prior to 1st December are eligible for a discounted upgrade and can either upgrade to a Mega Supporter license today, or a Single/Family license on release day.

We've created a License FAQ page with answers to most license-related questions.

Once the beta is available, we'll provide documentation for developers who want to make their extensions compatible with v2. In most cases, this will be easy and will give you even more flexibility.

I hope this news is as exciting for you as it is for us. Follow us on Twitter @alfredapp as we won't be able to resist posting some screenshots and sneak peeks over the coming weeks! :D

[Update: Have a look at the v2 tag on the blog to see all sneak previews we've posted to date!]

Yesterday, Apple released iTunes 11, bringing on some changes to the way external applications like Alfred can interact with it. Andrew has been working hard today to make a few fixes to keep your experience with Alfred's Mini Player enjoyable.

We'd also love to support the iTunes "Up Next" feature, so we're keeping an eye on whether Apple adds AppleScript support for this!

Here's what's changed

We updated the way Alfred sets the tracks you've asked him to play, so be sure to keep the Alfred playlist checkbox enabled in the preferences so that your tracks play in a predictable order.

A few hotkeys were also updated; the "random track" hotkey has changed:

From ⌘ ⌥ ↑ to ⌘ ⌃ ↑

and so were the star hotkeys:

From ⌘ ⌥ # to ⌘ ⌃ #

We also removed iTunes DJ, as this is no longer support by iTunes 11.

Today, Alfred 1.3.1 has been released. The main new feature of this release is especially for Mountain Lion users; you can now use Notification Centre instead of Growl for extensions and general Alfred notifications.

Another handy improvement for Powerpack users is that when copying/moving files, Alfred will remember the destination folders, making it easier to move files next time!

This release also includes some nice bug fixes and little improvements, which you can find in the Change Log. Note that if you're already using pre-release build 261, there's no need to update as this is the same build. Otherwise, check for updates in-app or download version 1.3.1 from our website.

Wishing everyone a great weekend,

Vero

It's that time of year; Meeting new fellow students, cracking open the first page of a new notebook, heading to class and getting ready for the school year ahead.

Or maybe I graduated too long ago and forgotten that, in reality, it's more along the lines of grabbing a large coffee to stay awake through class and hoping that the new professor isn't too weird.

Whichever way you plan to start your school year, Alfred can help you get things done better and faster with web searches, custom searches and extensions.

Default web searches

Alfred comes packed with useful default searches to help you be more productive. Start your search with the keyword "wiki" to search Wikipedia - but remember to check your sources!

DuckDuckGo is a super useful tool that lets you search a vast number of search engines with the !bang shortcuts. Start with the keyword "duck" and see just how flexible it is. If you're using the Powerpack, you can set DuckDuckGo as your default fallback search, so that you can use the !bang shortcuts without the "duck" prefix - even better!

Need to translate text? Type "translate" and paste the text or URL of the page you want to translate. Hit return and Google Translate will work its magic.

Custom searches

Custom searches give you the ability to add searches for anything you might need frequent search access to. For example, search your Delicious bookmarks library (replace our username with your own) or search Pinboard for your own bookmarks.

Creating these is very quick yet can save you a lot of time, so have a look at our help page on creating your own custom searches for internal wikis, study resources or almost any site. Check out the fan-run Alfred Tips site for many of the favourite custom searches out there.

Extensions

If you really want to kick it up a notch, the Powerpack allows you to use extensions, along with many other great useful features like Clipboard History and 1Password integration.

While writing essays, use Dave Ferguson's Word Counter to track your progress.

If you're a fan of Evernote, as we are, you'll find a wide range of Evernote extensions for adding notes in our extensions gallery.

Sweating bullets before your first class presentation? Can't help you there, but you can use Seb Clarke's Caffeine Manager to switch on Caffeine.app with a keyword to make sure your laptop doesn't go to sleep mid-presentation, leaving you to concentrate on keeping your classmates awake!

Entertainment

The school year, of course, isn't all work and no play. Sneak a bit of fun into the classroom with Kailey Lampert's Hangman extension. Start by typing "hangman new", then see how good your vocabulary and guessing skills are! [Kailey and Alfred take no responsibility for time having disappeared when you next look at the clock!] 

Need to get something ordered? Use the "amazon" keyword followed by your search term for quick access to your local Amazon online store.

If you're like me and can't study without music, you've got plenty of options. The iTunes Mini Player, part of the Powerpack, gives you keyboard-based access to your iTunes collection. If you prefer Spotify or Rdio, some Alfred users have created some brilliant extensions for each one of them, which you can find in the Music page of the Extensions gallery.

Whatever you may be studying and whether you're starting or finishing this year, may it be a great year! Learn everything you can, meet everyone you can and enjoy yourself. :)

Cheers,
Vero

[Image credit: Kate Ter Haar on Flickr]

Today, Alfred 1.3 is available through auto-update [non-Mac App Store] and from our website with lots of lovely additions. We've been using these new features ourselves over the past few weeks and already can't live without them!

Multi-file Buffer

You can now pick multiple files directly from Finder or navigate to them in Alfred and add them to your file buffer. Once you've picked all your files, you can perform an action on all of them. With this feature in your hands, Speedy Gonzales will be left in the dust behind you!

QuickLook

You've been clamouring for QuickLook integration, and here it is.  Preview your files and documents using OS X's QuickLook by pressing Shift or ⌘Y. Simple yet so useful!

Compact View

We've added a compact view in Alfred's Appearance preferences, allowing you to make Alfred's results view smaller. Handy for users of the shiny new Retina Display MacBook Pros.

Show more results

Alfred will now show you all matched results for your Default Results searches; Just keep scrolling down for more results.

1Password improvements

We've made the very popular integration with 1Password even better, by making Alfred find and handle your 1Click bookmarks even more intelligently. You can also choose to include your 1Password bookmarks in default results without the "1p" keyword and copy the 1Click URL to clipboard with ⌘C.

And much more...

Once again, the change log for this release is pretty hefty with many more improvements and fixed, so if you're curious, grab a coffee and read all the details.

Cheers,
Vero