Dropbox has released an update to its desktop clients (which live in the menu or system tray) that feature a cleaner, more modern look and a few new features. The biggest change in this, version 2.0, is more immediate notifications. Directly within the menu, you can see files you've been invited to share right away. You can also share directly from the menu more easily as well, saving you a trip to your Finder/File Explorer. Unfortunately, clicking "Share" still takes you to the website instead of just giving you the link directly. The button is hidden by default until you mouse over it, meaning that the whole thing won't look too cluttered.

The new look is a vast improvement over the old look, with large and clickable buttons and even small thumbnails of your recently shared and updated content. The usual link to your Dropbox folder or to the Dropbox website have been moved to the top, but one downside is that the new look apparently doesn't show you your available storage or a "pause sync" option on the top level — those are buried underneath the settings icon at the lower-right, along with the usual link to open preferences and help.

Dropbox also says that the new notification feature will be available on its iOS and Android clients, as well as on its website. The updates should all be available later today, but in the meantime the company has posted direct download links in its forum. It requires at least OS X 10.6 or Windows XP, but it's "not yet enabled on Linux," Dropbox says.