The folks behind Transmission, an open source torrent client, have just released a new version. The [new version is available][1] for nearly all the platforms Transmission supports -- namely Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD. Transmission may well be the only torrent client in existence for the now abandoned BeOS, but the version is not part of the update. The new version of Transmission features some much requested features including the ability to selectively download and prioritize files within torrents and new torrent creation tools. Missing from this upgrade are encryption tools, but the rumors in the [Transmission forums][2] are that encryption will arrive with the next revision. Other general fixes/improvements in this version include: >* Speed and CPU load improvements * Fix to UPnP * Rechecking torrents is now done one-at-a-time to avoid heavy disk load * Better rechecking of torrents that have many files * Many miscellaneous improvements and bugfixes * Partial licensing change In addition to those there are also some changes specific to the Mac client: >* Overlay when dragging torrent files, URLs, and data files onto window * Ability to set an amount of time to consider a transfer stalled * More progress bar colors * Various smaller interface improvements * Italian, Korean, and Russian translations One word of caution for those looking to upgrade: **complete your existing downloads before upgrading or you will lose data**. Actually, I tested that all-caps warning for you and nothing of the sort happened to me. All my existing torrents reloaded just as they were, but considering the all-caps, bold warning on the download page, you might be better off heeding it. Transmission remains my favorite Mac torrent client and the new features are great -- particularly the selective download files which allows you to grab a torrent like the SXSW music sampler and only download the few songs your actually want. You can grab the update [straight from the Transmission site][3] or existing users will be prompted to upgrade from within the application. [1]: http://transmission.m0k.org/index.php [2]: http://transmission.m0k.org/forum/ [3]: http://transmission.m0k.org/download.php