As expected, Nik (and Nikon) have introduced a new version of Capture NX. The completely rewritten product features an improved user interface, speed improvements, and some new tools, such as an Auto Retouch tool that can be used to remove dust. Owners of Capture 1.x can update for US$109.95 (the full price is US$179.95 in the US; prices may vary in other regions). A 60-day free trial is already available on Nikon sites. Official purchasing won't begin until June 20th.
Let's outline the things that'll be of most interest to continued Capture users. First, Capture NX 2 finally supports multiple monitors well. You can have your file browser open on one monitor and the picture you're working on full screen on another. There are some restrictions to what you can put where, but overall this is a welcome change. The browser itself, like ViewNX, has changed for the better, and the browser in Capture NX 2 may actually allow most to just skip ViewNX (filters, ratings, and sorting is now fully supported). There's now a Quick Fix function in the Edit List, and overall the Edit List layout is much more functional than before. The U-Point feature that provides Capture NX's primary attraction for quick editing has been improved to allow you to set U-Points for other things than just basic color and contrast changes. Now you can also apply U-Points to noise reduction, sharpening, and almost anything else the program can do.
The bad news is that workflow and, in particular, batch processing isn't really addressed in this update. Handling large numbers of images through Capture NX 2 is still not fixed (and probably the reason why you'd keep ViewNX around). Speed is certainly improved in some areas, but not enough to make Capture NX 2 the product it needs to be. That pesky Camera Settings tool (formally Camera Adjustments) is still a pain to navigate, and creating and applying a common set of changes to a large group of images is much more cumbersome than, say, it is in Lightroom.
Curiously, Nikon jumped their own embargo on the announcement, demonstrating the product two days early at a photo fair in Bievres, France and discussing it in other venues, as well. Another interesting tidbit is that Nikon claimed to have sold 8650 Capture NX 1.x licenses in France, yet shipped 17,000 copies with D3 and D300 models into the country. If the user base tripled worldwide the same way, then the update revenues may easily pay for all those free copies.
For those of you wanting to learn Capture NX 2 quickly, Jason Odell already has an updated version of his eBook available. Some authors were seeded with early copies of the product in order to make sure it was supported on day one.