A new release for Growl came out today. There's a huge list of updates/new features/bug fixes in the release notes, you now have better options for application-level control of notifications, including sound, placement, and more.

I love Growl, it's one of the first things I install on a new machine (along with Quicksilver). If you're not familiar, it's a notification framework that allows you to have a simple, non-obtrusive message appear on the screen to alert or inform you about something. Lots of apps support Growl, so you can get notifications about what's playing in iTunes, when a download completes, when a movie is ripped, and more.

Some of my favorite applications with Growl support include HandBrake, iScrobbler, Transmit, and miniStat2.

If you haven't tried Growl, give it a shot and you'll probably wonder how you got along without it.