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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 26 November 2012

OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 Supplemental Update 2.0 — Reverting to release notes that make haiku seem wordy, Apple has released something called OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 Supplemental Update 2.0 that claims to address “an issue with Keychain that can affect 2012 Mac systems.” It’s recommended for all Macs introduced in 2012, but there’s nothing else that hints at what it fixes or how serious the “issue” might be. It’s available via the App Store’s Updates screen, and if it doesn’t appear for you, it’s presumably not necessary for your Mac. (Free, 26.65 MB)

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Microsoft Office 2011 14.2.5 and 2008 12.3.5 — Microsoft has released Office 2011 14.2.5 and Office 2008 12.3.5, largely to resolve four privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel that could allow remote code execution if the user were to open a specially crafted Excel spreadsheet. Also receiving attention is Outlook 2011, which gets fixes that address problems with automatic
configuration with Outlook.com accounts, importing data from PST files, recognizing and expanding distribution lists, moving messages in Gmail accounts, and the loss of spaces with content pasted in from Word or replying to messages generated in Windows Outlook. If you have troubles updating, be sure to check the Known Issues page, which addresses common problems. (Free updates via the Office for Mac Web site or through Microsoft AutoUpdate, 102 MB/218 MB)

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PDFpen and PDFpenPro 5.9.2 — Smile has updated both PDFpen and PDFpenPro to version 5.9.2, notably fixing a problem that could prevent the PDF-manipulation programs from saving, along with other less-common saving-related bugs. Other unspecified bugs have also been addressed. As usual, the Mac App Store versions lag significantly behind; they’re still at version 5.8.6, released over a month ago. ($59.95/$99.95 new with a 20-percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 46.6/46.9 MB)

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Dropbox 1.6.0 — While apps like Google Chrome and CrashPlan seem to have no trouble updating themselves automatically, Dropbox continues to stumble in that area. If your copy, like ours, hasn’t updated (hover over the Dropbox icon in the menu to see the version in a tooltip), you might want to download Dropbox 1.6.0, which promises faster startup times for users with lots of files, improved overall performance, and improved Web login from the Dropbox client app. The update also features new icons that will look good on Retina displays, a new installer that doesn’t require that you quit the older version first, and
translations for Italian and Iberian Spanish. Or just wait — Dropbox might update itself eventually. (Free, 23.1 MB, release notes)

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CrashPlan 3.4.1 — Although there’s nothing you need to do to get the new version, Code 42 Software has released CrashPlan 3.4.1, giving the popular Internet backup software support for network environments that route traffic through a proxy server. As usual with CrashPlan, new versions are installed automatically, so everyone running CrashPlan should now have version 3.4.1, which also addresses a few bugs. Notably, Web restores can now handle apostrophes in directory and file names, and avoid errors in certain situations. Also, the Backup Report now skips entries with a delta of zero, changing the archive
password no longer results in creating a new custom key in some situations, and there are general performance enhancements. (Free with a 30-day trial of the CrashPlan+ online backup service, 19 MB, release notes)

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BusyCal 2.0.1 — On the heels of the major release of BusyCal 2 (see “BusyCal 2 and Free Ebook about Calendar Syncing and Sharing,” 26 October 2012), BusyMac has now released BusyCal 2.0.1, adding its own alarm window as an alternative to Notification Center alarms, and adding the HH:MM time format to the Appearance preferences. Otherwise, the new version of the competitor to Apple’s Calendar offers a laundry list of bug fixes related to full screen mode, the BusyCal Menu utility, entering times in 24-hour format, meeting invitations, custom date ranges, time zones,
repeating To Dos, and more. A number of crashing bugs have also been eliminated. ($49.99 new, but currently selling for $29.99 solely via the Mac App Store, free update, 8.3 MB, release notes)

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Typinator 5.3 — The competition in the text expansion world continues, with Ergonis’s release of Typinator 5.3. With the addition of support for special keystrokes (such as Tab, Return, and the arrow keys) within expansions, Typinator gains the capability to fill in forms by moving from field to field. Other improvements include faster clipboard-based expansions in most applications, the elimination of a delay when the first expansion is made in Apple’s iWork applications, improved accuracy and speed of cursor positioning, a fix that could insert the clipboard contents instead of the proper expansion in some
situations, and improved compatibility with AccountEdge Pro, Sublime Text 2, Fluid site-specific browsers, Apple Mail, and Quicken Essentials. (€24.99 new with a 25-percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 4.9 MB, release notes)

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Fission 2.1 — Sporting a long list of improvements and fixes, Rogue Amoeba’s Fission 2.1 has made it through the release door (for a recent review, see “Fission 2: Electric Audio-Editing Boogaloo,” 19 September 2012). First among the changes is that the audio editing software is now fully Retina-enabled, but there are more interesting improvements under the hood. Notably, MP3 export now supports both constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR), AAC export now supports High Efficiency encoding (HE-AAC), and support for additional sample rates has been added to
the ALAC, FLAC, AIFF, and WAV formats. Plus, any file can now use the Save As Chapterized AAC option, files imported via QuickTime prevent accidental overwriting by allowing only exports, the Start window now accepts dragged files of all supported file types from the Finder or from iTunes, Save dialogs now properly handle file extensions, audio can be imported from .mov, .wma, .avi, and .mp4 files, and more. ($32 new with a 20-percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 10.6 MB, release notes)

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