Every power user or techie (or nerd or geek) has their pet utilities, without which a computer just does not feel like “home.” For me, the most important of these has, for the past few years, been Objective Development’s LaunchBar.

I’ve tried Quicksilver, that up and coming free youngster, but it just was too much of a mess for this OCD detail nut. LaunchBar knows what it is meant to do, and it does it beautifully. More recently, as LaunchBar seemed to be in a state of languor, and as Apple introduced Spotlight in Tiger, I have tried to do away with my LaunchBar habit.

Today I go to Objective’s site, just for the hell of it, and lo and behold, a new beta version! And they haven’t been sitting around doing nothing, either. 4.1 boasts full spotlight integration, further integration with Address Book and iTunes, support for Automator workflows, and a bunch more features, performance improvements, and bug fixes.

I’m impressed.