LimeWire 2.2.0 beta is has just been posted to the LimeWire web site at http://www.limewire.com/index.jsp/download_beta.

This version includes a number of new features and fixes, including:

<ul>
<li> Elegant metadata display. No more "change view" button; you just turn columns on and off. You can also view the metadata for a file if its available simply by mousing over that search result.
<li> Automatic requering. When a download fails, a new search for that same file is automatically launched, and the download is automatically attempted again.
<li> Menus appear in Mac menu bar on OS X, with "Quit," "About LimeWire...," and "Preferences..." options meeting the OS X look and feel guidelines.
<li> Reduced number of inter-ultrapeer connections to conserve bandwidth for UltraPeers.
<li> Added loading information to splash screen.
<li> Splash screen had a new edgy, "extreme sports" kind of look instead of the former "file sharing for Marth Stewart lovers" feel -- our shameless attempt to appeal to the rising generation.
</ul>

Other changes that will remain largely invisible to most users include:

<ul>
<li> Dynamically sized "route tables" -- generally bigger for ultrapeers, smaller for leaves. Performance increases in many situations, though slightly worse in others. Overall, this will bring an excellent improvement to the network.
<li> Eliminated "TTL boost" between leaves and ultrapeers to reduce bandwidth consumption for messaging, leaving more bandwidth for downloading files.
<li> Connection authentication support.
<li> HTTP 1.1 upload support.
<li> URL decoding support on uploads.
<li> Send bitrates for all audio, even if missing ID3 tags.
<li> Uses TTL of 1 for "watchdog" pings.
<li> Bugfix: uploads handle "Range" requests properly.
<li> Bugfix: "N'th child of root bug" from repeating search is fixed.
<li> Bugfix: "ConcurrentModificationException" from XML/QRP is fixed.
<li> Bugfix: "FileNotFoundException" for "ads.props" is fixed.
</ul>

We hope everyone likes the new version. You will also notice that the free version of LimeWire no longer bundles Gator.<p>