Leech is a download manager from Many Tricks that seems to take a "less is more" approach to controlling downloads. With the newly released version 1.1 it integrates with Safari, Camino, and OmniWeb via a SIMBL plugin (or, as some insist, hack), allowing it to take over downloads from any of those browsers. In addition to pausing and resuming downloads, Leech also features a rule based system that allows you to control what happens to files once they're downloaded, filing them to different folders or opening them in different applications according to file type. It also features drag and drop of URLs onto its Dock icon, Keychain integration, and a full searchable history menu.Leech is €9.95 (~$15) and a demo is available. Registered users of other download managers can get a 30% off coupon.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-17-2008 @ 1:38PM
daneel said...
I already have a copy of Speed Download. Does Leech do anything that SD doesn't ? Or is it at least lighter or quicker ?
Basically, are there any advantages over SD ?
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5-17-2008 @ 1:50PM
Chris McCorkle said...
Not compatible with Firefox?
Not compatible with me.
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5-17-2008 @ 3:37PM
james said...
what is the friggin point of these dumb download managers?
they don't do anything more than what safari, firefox, opera already do just fine. maybe you didnt know that theres already a pause button in safari. and you can set it to automatically open "safe" files, as well as set whatever folder you want it to download to.
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5-17-2008 @ 3:51PM
Stephen said...
Say, for example, you are downloading 20 RAR files from RapidShare - Safari will try to download them all at once. Speed Download will download the first 4, while the rest are queued. They also have many other advantages that most people probably won't use.
5-17-2008 @ 5:59PM
larsalan said...
well, speed download is an ftp client.
5-17-2008 @ 6:34PM
Blair said...
I don't know about this one, but iGetter and Speed Download certainly do more than Safari's download manager. If the server supports it (and almost all do), then the client will make multiple connections, which will almost always maximize the throughput of your connection.
5-17-2008 @ 5:08PM
Oskar Krawczyk said...
No love for Safari 3.1.1 - clicking download always launches Safari's native downloader, ergo the "Integrate with browser" doesn't do much.
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5-17-2008 @ 6:21PM
Rae Whitlock said...
I'll be sticking w/ Firefox + downThemAll.
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5-17-2008 @ 6:39PM
Jason said...
No Firefox support? Come on!
I own Speed Download but never use it. I love FlashGot + cURL. There's no download interface one the downloads start but it's very lightweight. I can run 30+ downloads in the background and I hardly even notice.
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5-18-2008 @ 12:01PM
Peter Maurer said...
Oskar Krawczyk: Did you install the Browser Integration component from Leech's "Leech" menu and restart Safari? If so, something's wrong; and I'd be happy to try and work this out via mail.
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Regarding Firefox support: Firefox is a Carbon application, so we can't use the same mechanism we're using for those other browsers to interface with Firefox.
I do plan on having a look at Firefox's plug-in interface, though, but I'm completely new to this, as I, personally, have always preferred Camino to Firefox in terms of Gecko browsers. So if anyone who knows a thing or two about Firefox is willing to talk to me about this, please contact me via mail. Thanks!
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