However it is the release of Camino 1.5 that needs to be heralded, because it addresses some of the frustrations Mac users experience with Firefox. Camino is optimized for Mac, and as I said it is brisk. Well, the brisk browser added some key functionality that makes it better.

For instance, Camino 1.5 includes some awesome new features like spell checking (using the OS X dictionaries), feed detection and hand-off, sessions saving and recovery, and some improvements to its tabs. And it is fast. Though it doesn’t have the plug-in support that Firefox has, and may have few “pimp-out” options, Camino is a worthy download.

Camino is developed by a very small group of volunteers led by guys like Sam Sidler and Mike Pinkerton. Mozilla should be throwing more resources at this project, which utilizes the Gecko engine and offers an exponentially superior experience compared to other Mac browsers. Anyone who has tried it – has never gone back. Don’t take my word for it – try it for yourself.

On the other apps, I would like to point you to the excellent Net News Wire review by none other than Judi Sohn of our WebWorkerDaily team.

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Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks