UPDATE: We have closed beta testing for the next release, so we no longer need new testers. Thanks to all who volunteered!

Greetings from Fetch Central!

We’re putting the finishing touches on the next Fetch release, and we’re looking for beta testers to help us nail down any remaining bugs. This release has some great stuff that we’re eager to get out, and beta testers will get an early look. Plus we’ll give a free Fetch license to any beta tester who sends us feedback.

The sad fact is, FTP and firewalls just weren’t meant to go together.

Copy and paste dates back to the first Mac OS release in the 1980s, and Fetch is one of a handful of applications from that era that is still actively developed. So it’s about time that the two got together!

“On the Internet,” explains the famous New Yorker cartoon, “nobody knows you’re a dog.” Being able to pass yourself off as someone else may be handy for dogs in chat rooms, but unfortunately it’s also exploited by rogue servers that take on the identity of trusted machines. The risks of such impersonation have been high-profile news lately, with reports about a security vulnerability in DNS, and the security weaknesses of Apple’s new MobileMe service. The DNS vulnerability, in particular, is something that may concern Fetch users, because you wouldn’t want to send your username and password to a machine that was only pretending to be your server.

Etna, NH — Fetch Softworks is pleased to announce Fetch 5.3, a new version of the original Macintosh file transfer program. Fetch 5.3 is expressly tailored for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, featuring an updated appearance to match the unified Leopard look, improved Leopard compatibility, and support for several key Leopard technologies. Fetch takes advantage of Leopard code signing, making the system keychain and the new Leopard application firewall more convenient to use.

Fetch 5.3 is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. It features an updated appearance to match the unified Leopard look, improved Leopard compatibility, and support for several key Leopard technologies.

While there were only minor issues with earlier versions of Fetch on Leopard, if you have upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5, we strongly encourage you to upgrade to Fetch 5.3. Fetch 5.3 is a free upgrade for Fetch 5 users. For more details about this release, see the Fetch 5 Release Notes.

Etna, NH — Fetch Softworks is pleased to announce the winners of an Apple MacBook and four iPod nanos in the “Take Fetch Back To School” essay contest. The winners range from a high school student in Virginia to a university newspaper production chief in California, and their contest entries describe using Fetch in a wide variety of ways.

As reported earlier, the Apple Airport Extreme Base Station with 802.11n has been incompatible with FTP with TLS/SSL (FTPS) connections when running in Network Address Translation (NAT) mode. We are happy to report that this bug has been fixed in version 7.2.1 of the base station firmware, released August 29, 2007.

Etna, NH — Fetch Softworks is celebrating the new school year with the “Take Fetch Back to School” essay contest. Students, teachers, and other school employees in the U.S. can win an Apple MacBook or iPod nano by sharing how they use Fetch in their academic work.

Fetch Softworks is pleased to announce that Fetch 5.2.1 is now available.

This release features numerous bug fixes.