Blackhole Media's Macster has become the official
Napster client for the
Mac OS. As a result, Macster Preview 5.5 has been slightly
revamped and rebranded as Napster 1.0b1, complete with
Napster's famous "cat" logo.
This was a pretty smart move on Napster's part; Macster's interface was already Mac-friendly and the feature set was approaching completion. Napster's (imaginary) money should bring the client up to par with the Windows version rather quickly, and the influx of Blackhole Media people into Napster means that the Mac client will never be ignored (AOL could learn a lesson or two...). Former Macster users will now be able to obtain top-of-the-line customer support through Napster.
I had long been looking forward to the "official" Mac version of Napster, which I had wanted to be identical to the Windows version, but now I realize that the purchase of Macster is probably best for both Napster and the illegal-MP3-downloading public.
It's worth noting that the upload/sharing feature has been enabled since Preview version 5. The biggest remaining problem is the issue of extremely busy Napster servers, which is not Mac-specific.