It's official: the impressive changes in version 1.0.4 definitely did not stop with Beta 1. Due out "soon," Beta 2 will offer a 50-100% increase in file transfer speeds over LANs using a combination of powerful new preferences.
1) On-the-fly file compression when sending files must be explicitly enabled; since most files sent these days are already compressed, trying to compress them again slows down the process by consuming a lot of CPU time without reducing the amount of data sent.
2) A new speed throttle on the file transfer manager that allows you to select previously unavailable speeds. The previous hard-coded speed was near top-speed, but on some slower machines top speed can actually cause 100% CPU usage sending your file, so we didn't use that. Naturally, #1 significantly helps reduce CPU usage.
So how about results? My previous top speed here on my LAN going just through a router was just shy of 400k/sec. Now I'm able to achieve speeds of over 700k/sec.
On to #2! One of the most-requested new features is finally here: a user-resizable splitter between the conversation window and the new message area. Want a bigger text box? Now you can have one--as big as you want it. This great new feature will also be available in Beta 2. I haven't tested it yet at all on OS X or very extinsively on Linux, but it works great on Windows so far.
There's more, but I can't give them all away now. :) In any event, we'll definitely need some good testing with these changes, so, testers, rev the engines, it'll be time before too long!