The window lets you know which URL you are saving, and the destination file or Helper Application. The progress bar lets you know how much of the file has been downloaded, and the cancel button lets you stop the transfer. You can continue to surf the net from the other windows. The Preferences controls are in the process of being changed. For the alpha release, the panels have been rearranged and several changes made.
Links provide a way to get more detailed information about the elements in a document.
Previously, form input was limited to input boxes and other simple elements like checkboxes and radio buttons. Now you can write forms that ask for files as input. For hostnames other than ftp or gopher, the Navigator will default to http. If you have an http server named ftp or gopher, you can still get to it by typing the protocol identifier. Cache filenames now have extensions that indicate file type.