It's a good week for Mac users, NetNewsWire has a new version out and now the developers behind Camino, the Aquafied alternative to Firefox, have [released version 1.5][1] adding some features that bring it closer to being a true Firefox 2 replacement.

Camino 1.5 feels much faster than its predecessor and offers a true Mac interface which now duplicates Firefox's session recovery tools, spell checker and RSS detection.

Camino 1.5 includes a new in-line spell checker which uses the native OS X spell checker rather than its own separate spell checker as is the case with Firefox 2. The spell checker doesn't detect every input field (for instance, many search boxes I tested it didn't get spell-checked), but whenever Camino detects a misspelled word it will underline it and right-clicking reveals a drop-down menu of possible corrections.

Version 1.5 also adds support for auto detecting RSS feeds, which are displayed in the toolbar à la Firefox 2, clicking the icon will load the feed into your default news reader.

Camino also now supports session recover even on crashing, so you can always restore your previous tabs and windows.

The browser has also gained an improved "annoyance" blocking system. Camino has always been able to block ads and pop-ups but it now features an improved engine and the ability to block Flash movies (provided you enable Javascript).

Although the new features bring Camino closer to being a full fledged Firefox replacement, regrettably Camino still doesn't (and likely never will) support Firefox's add-on architecture. 

For many users this won't matter, but those of addicted to our add-ons can still dream, because on nearly every other level Camino blows Firefox 2 for Mac out of the water (and note that there are some "add-ons" available for Camino, though nowhere near the number for Firefox 2).

Still, if you're looking for a speedier alternative to Firefox or Safari, Camino 1.5 is your browser.

[1]: http://www.caminobrowser.org/ "Camino"