BlogMatrix Sparks! 1.7.4-beta for Windows is available here. If you're running an older version of Sparks! we suggest you upgrade to this version.

The following changes have been implemented:

• The radio recorder will restart and/or retry if it cannot connect or if the network dies during recording. The parameters for this is controlled by the Advanced button next to the Bitrate field in the recording schedule. The documentation for this feature is here (more coming today)
• It is possible now to manually configure the programs used for recording Internet streams or creating the final output files (i.e. it's possible to write MPEG-4 rather than MP3s). More details will be forthcoming on this feature.
• The MP3 ID3 information written with recordings can be easily changed (using the Advanced button)
• The default values for all Advanced Encoding can be changed by "My Radio Stations > right click > Advanced Encoding Defaults"
• Sparks! is a first class blog reading application.
  • Import your OPML blogroll using "My Bloggers > right-click > Subscribe..."
  • Use the green >| arrow button to go to the next unread blog. All unread entries will be listed.
  • Use the green > arrow button to go to the next unread blog entry.
• There's a cool new "blogger" icon
• The "Recent Recordings" and "Recent Downloads" cabinet that was under "My Radio Stations" et al. has been moved to a single cabinet called "Recent Podcasts and Recordings" at the top level. This cabinet contains all the attachments downloaded in the last 48 hours
• The browser has a status bar
• There is a built in media player for audio and video files. Video bloggers take note! Use the two buttons next to the location field (in the upper right corner) to play externally

The next release will focus on BitTorrent and improving Podcast reception.