there are options for knife cut in the tool panel now but they don’t seem to work (eg. cut, go over to tool panel and select midpoint and nothing happens ie. cuts stay at exact) however using F6 after knife cut does let you change the cuts to midpoint just fine. Anyone else see this? I’ll submit bug report if you’ll confirm this.
2.53b windblows r 30594
P.S. to knife cut you have to left click while holding down the K key now edit mode, only on selected edges