Minutes ago I have released HoudahSpot 2: Leopard Edition. The press release will go out tomorrow.

Despite having a known name, HoudahSpot 2 actually is a brand new product. This makes it my third commercial product release. Still I have only 2 out there. Indeed HoudahSpot 1.5 has retired to Freeware-land.

I must admit that I had doubts about going 2.0 with HoudahSpot. It's been quite some time since HoudahSpot sales have stalled. Maybe users held out on promises of Leopard improvements. Maybe the competition grabbed the larger share of customers by copying many of HoudahSpot's features.

Now I am more that glad I invested the time to create HoudahSpot 2. There is the satisfaction of having leapfrogged a competition which failed to grasp the best of HoudahSpot's unique features. Most important is however the feeling to have released a very strong product. Since the release of HoudahSpot 1.0, I have become much more proficient with Cocoa. Under the hood HoudahSpot 2 is noticeable prettier.

I am also proud to have found a good feature set balance. HoudahSpot 2 packs quite a lot a features and enhancements without adding to the complexity of the interface. Steve Jobs would boost the fact that the toolbar now has fewer buttons than before.

HoudahSpot 2.0 is probably the strongest release I have ever done. It benefits from many new Leopard goodies. Most important of these is garbage collection. This alone will do away with most of the bugs I have seen in the past. I should also thank my beta testers who helped me to iron out many quirks ahead of time.