Over at BeBits there are a number of updates you might not be aware of. From an updated printer driver for Hewlett Packard printers, to the proposal of a new Preference Panel design, and more. Bebits has been host to thousands of applications, drivers, documents, and a plethora of "different" types of downloads for many years, making it truly the repository for everything BeOS related.

I'll run through the last five updates as of this writing, in reverse chronological order. Ready? Here we go...

BePreferencePanel Design
Andrew Bachmann has packaged up a new concept idea based on the brainstorming on the BeBits wiki pages, bundling the package in the form of a zipfile. The zip download consists of two Gobe Productive documents which explain the menu and panel components of the proposed BePreferencePanel design, and a set of html pages formatted in the BeBook style which outline the API used.

I've taken a look at the included mockup shown in the html pages and it seems clear this merits further discussion and inclusion into Haiku in the future.

HaikuFox Theme
Developer "tigerdog" fixes a couple of nagging issues with this update to the popular Firefox theme, notably a bugfix for a bugfix. We recently mentioned this update, but it bears repeating again for those that want to evangelize and advocate the BeOS/Haiku platform, as nothing screams geek like pimping out your Firefox to look like another Operating System.

So go ahead, download the theme and be proud to show it off to your friends, neighbours, school, the local church, that nice lady down the street with the new video iPod (ooh, shiney!), your pastor, your bishop, your priest (just what religion are you, anyhow?), yadda yadda yadda.

FreeSCI
What the hell is it, I hear you asking... FreeSCI is a portable interpreter for SCI games, such as the Space Quest series (starting with SQ3) or Leisure Suit Larry (2 and sequels). I know, you haven't played with Larry (not -that- kind of playing!) since well, since your mom bought you that spanky new pentium for your good grades in high school.

To relive those years of yesteryear, it requires the efforts of ye ol' em-yuh-lah-tor. Say it loud and proud. This update brings the BeOS port on par with the latest stable version of the project, the last BeOS specific update being July 14, 2004 when originally ported.

Transmission
Right off the bat you know this has to be a significant update since the first item in the changelog is New BeOS interface. How cool is that? Not only does Eric Petit release a new version of Transmission, but he throws in a new interface to the Be Operating System. Damm cool. All kidding aside, this is probably one of the most anticipated apps people are watching get developed as it means they can get their educational material that much faster with the BitTorrent protocal. :P

Updates to Transmission also include a rewritten choking algorithm (sounds violent), only using one port for all torrents (hrm.. naval reference?), and it remembers download and upload sizes from one launch to another (ah, it's NASA approved!). Now go get it!

PCL6 Printer Driver
Michael Pfeiffer is in league with the devil. Either that, or he has been drinking vast quantities of caffeine beverages to get the following features into this new release:

• Added color support (untested?).
• Added (untested) support for landscape orientation.
• Added copy command.
• Added media sources.
• Enabled duplex mode.
• Replaced jetlib to avoid license issues with HP.
• Added Add Printer dialog that allows the selection of the protocol class.
• Made some features dependent on the chosen protocol class.
• Implemented delta row compression.
• Implemented RLE compression.

Sweet Jesus! This has to be one of the ubermost Printer Drivers in history! Thanks good buddy!

That about sums it up for the moment. Some of you may be wondering why I skipped over ScummVM. The reason is simple. I do not play Borken Sword. :P