Watanabe
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Olympus still loving E-series DSLRs, but teases new Micro Four Thirds lenses to confuse you
The Micro Four Thirds form factor may be a compelling choice for those seeking portability with affordable prices and notable quality, but there's no doubt that many folks are still loyal to the conventional DSLRs. If you're one such Olympus fan who's concerned about the fate of the larger E-series lineup, fret not: Akira Watanabe, head of product development, reassured PCPOP that the E-series models are here to stay because of their unique features, though his team's still pondering over the idea of replacing the budget triple-digit line (like the E-620) with the PEN series, as suggested by his colleague previously. But shifting the focus back to PEN, Watanabe teased that his crew's developing some MFT lenses to boost the portfolio, though little is revealed other than that these will cater users who have specific photographic needs. Very intriguing indeed -- maybe some fisheye and tilt-shift love?
Xtorrent and Inquisitor officially out of beta
When it comes to 'lickable' interface design, there's no question that indie Mac developer David Watanabe is a top practitioner. His latest projects, the BitTorrent client Xtorrent (discussed here in beta form) and Safari search extender Inquisitor v3 are both debuting as full-fledged, bye-bye-beta products today. Inquisitor is free, and Xtorrent's Pro mode will set you back $20; the unregistered version has a download speed throttle among other limitations.Xtorrent's journey through the beta process has resulted in some criticisms leveled: for the use of open-source code from the Transmission project that may cause problems with some torrent trackers, and for Mr. Watanabe's sometimes brusque approach to customer service. While I can't speak to the tracker issues (in general, if one torrent client doesn't work for you, try another), we have an example of good end-user experience handling with Xtorrent and a point raised by our own David Chartier about the rather harsh phrasing of the license entry dialog (over here on this Flickr thread, of all places). The developer responded to the criticism not only with a rephrased dialog (requiring a new build) but also with a license code recovery page on the Xtorrent website. Well played, sir.
