TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 31 January 2011

GraphicConverter 7.1 — Lemkesoft has updated its one-stop image conversion shop GraphicConverter to version 7.1. New this time around is an option to scale images to iTunes Cover size, support for importing .srw files, a digital lightroom mode, and a 100-percent preview mode in the browser. Also introduced is a variety of options for manipulating slideshows. Additionally, the new version adds support for PDF exporting with alpha channel and updates the raw image converter. Localizations for German, Danish, Japanese, and Portuguese are all updated, too. Nearly a dozen bug fixes round out the update;
full release notes are available at Lemkesoft’s site. ($39.95 new, free update, 100 MB)

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Skype 5.0 — Now out of beta testing, the “Gold” release of Skype 5.0 for Mac offers group video chats, albeit for a fee, and makes some minor user interface changes based upon user feedback. These changes, detailed on Skype’s blog, include slimmed-down windows, easier access to the text chat panel, and the resurrection of full-screen video calls. (Free, 19.5 MB)

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Dropbox 1.0.20 — Version 1.0.20 of Dropbox, the online file synchronization tool, fixes a command-line interface issue with Shared Folders and, according to the release notes, provides other unspecified “small tweaks.” Users of version 1.0.12 or later will receive automatic updates the next time files are synchronized; users of earlier versions can download the update here. (Free, 21.6 MB)

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Airfoil 4.0.1 — Rogue Amoeba has updated its audio redirection software, Airfoil, to version 4.0.1. Among the fixes are an update to its Instant On extra so that it no longer corrupts audio from Spotify, System Audio, and other sources, and which fixes a memory leak problem. Other memory leaks have been plugged as well, along with a video tearing problem that affected the Airfoil Video Player. This version also adds support for .dvdmedia packages and other file containers that contain VIDEO_TS folders. A complete list of fixes and changes is available here. ($25, free update, 11.1 MB)

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Transmit 4.1.5 — If you have ever noticed file permissions changing when you edit a file from the Amazon S3 service with Panic’s Transmit, that little infelicity has been fixed with the version 4.1.5 release. There are only a few other changes in this update, including improved compatibility with Automator, an unspecified issue with Transmit disk, and a “possible listing crash with a certain SFTP server”—oh, wait, that’s the complete list. The update can be downloaded now from the company’s site and the Mac App Store. ($34 new, $19 upgrade, free update,
22 MB)

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Opera 11.0.1 — Version 11.0.1 of Opera Software’s eponymous Web browser has been released, and with it come a number of (repeat after me) “security and stability enhancements.” Unlike certain other developers that use this by-now well-worn phrase, Opera actually provides a list of these enhancements. None of them are particularly exciting—the top featured item in the release notes is the implementation of “Support for window.DOMStringList object of the W3C DOM3 DOMStringList Interface”—but if you have experienced certain specific issues with Opera, you
might find that they have been addressed in this release. (Free, 13.2 MB)

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iTunes 10.1.2 — Apple has released iTunes 10.1.2, which adds support for CDMA iPhones, such as the Verizon iPhone that is scheduled to start appearing in customers’ hands in early February (see “Verizon Wireless Gets iPhone 4 with Mobile Hotspot Capability,” 11 January 2011). Following Apple tradition, the update also comes with an unspecified number of unspecified “important stability and performance improvements.” The update can be downloaded from Apple’s site or via Software Update. (Free, 93.1 MB)

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Drive Genius 3.1 — Prosoft Engineering has released version 3.1 of its disk repair utility, Drive Genius. This update features a revised disk defragmentation utility that no longer requires the user to boot from a DVD or a different hard disk in order to defragment the system volume. Instead, users can simply install Drive Genius as an application and run it. ($99, free update, 18 MB)

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Mellel 2.8 — RedleX, the Israel-based developer of the popular Mellel word processor, has announced price drops along with the new features in version 2.8. In addition to fixes to the software that any new version brings, Mellel 2.8 brings two new features: sorting and change tracking. The sort capabilities include sorting by word, paragraph, section, and table cell. The program also allows sorting by a secondary item, and the capability to ignore common words, such as articles, or parenthesized text in sorts. The new track changes feature can show the document in original or final
state, with changes either shown or hidden, and it can display only those changes made by specific authors. One interesting touch provides a single author with the capability to modify a document under multiple names. RedleX is using this upgrade to announce the end of “for-pay” upgrades. From now on, owners of registered copies of the software purchased after the end of December 2007 have a permanent license; those who purchased the software earlier must purchase an upgrade to the permanent license. RedleX is also dropping the price: the retail price has gone from $49 to $39, and the educational price has dropped from $35 to $29. ($39 new, $29 educational, free update, 39 MB)

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BBEdit 9.6.3/TextWrangler 3.5.3 — Bare Bones Software has updated its flagship HTML and text editor BBEdit to version 9.6.3. The update consists solely of bug fixes, including resolutions for crashes that could occur when deleting files from folders watched by a project file list, a crash in the CSS formatter when faced with certain rule malfunctions, and a hang when the Find Differences command encountered a permissions problem. Also corrected are memory consumption issues, text formatting bugs, and various syntax coloration glitches. Full release
notes are available at Bare Bones’ Web site. The free TextWrangler, BBEdit’s younger brother, received mostly the same under-the-hood fixes in its 3.5.3 release. (BBEdit: free update, $99.99 new, 15.9 MB; TextWrangler: free, 13 MB)

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