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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 20 May 2013

MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.0 — Apple has released MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.0 for MacBook Air models released in the middle of 2012. The release addresses a rare problem that could cause a system to fail to recover from a crash. As always with firmware updates, we recommend relying on Software Update or the App Store app to ensure you get the firmware update for your specific model, and being careful not to interrupt the update process. Apple also notes that your MacBook Air will shut down after the update is complete, and that you should wait one whole minute before restarting it. (Free,
1.69 MB)

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Skype 6.4.0.833 — Microsoft has released Skype 6.4 with a new scheme for scrolling through your chat history. With the new “infinite chat scrolling,” you’ll be able to continually view more messages as you scroll upward through your history. You can also choose to jump to a specific time period by Control-clicking within the chat (your chat history will be indexed at your first login after installing the update). The release also redesigns the search interface within chat to be part of the chat view (and not open in a separate window), improves the way multiple contacts are sent and
received, and adds support for Simplified Chinese, but it also removes custom chat styles for better design consistency across all operating systems. Skype may not prompt you to update automatically, but you can always choose Skype > Check for Updates to get the latest version. (Free, 39.6 MB, release notes)

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PDFpen and PDFpenPro 6.0.3 — Smile has updated PDFpen and PDFpenPro to version 6.0.3, a small maintenance release that fixes Zoom to Width on smaller screens, draws annotations when exporting in TIFF format, adheres to the default font preference with pasted plain text, opens and repairs an additional class of damaged PDF, and adds Polish language OCR. As of this writing, neither PDFpen nor PDFpenPro has been updated to
version 6.0.3 in the Mac App Store. To get the most out of PDFpen 6, be sure to check out the newly released “Take Control of PDFpen 6” by our own Michael Cohen. ($59.95/$99.95 new with a 20-percent discount for TidBITS members, free update from version 6.0, 50/50.7 MB)

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iMovie ’11 9.0.9 — Apple has released iMovie ’11 9.0.9, a small update for the video editing app that is nearing its third birthday (the iLife ’11 suite was originally released on 20 October 2010). This update squashes a bug that prevented iMovie from recognizing video cameras connected to your Mac and improves compatibility with projects that are imported from iMovie for iOS. Finally, it also includes unspecified stability improvements. ($14.99 new from the Mac App Store, free update through Software Update or the App Store app, 1.08 GB)

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Sandvox 2.8 — Karelia has released Sandvox 2.8 with two new designs, named Hydrogen and Kryptonite, that are usable with either left or right sidebars and are geared for showcasing image galleries. Additionally, all designs in the Web site authoring tool have been updated with an improved full-width description that enables image objects to be resized wider manually. The update also adds controls for optimizing images for Retina displays in addition to automatically optimizing images for the higher resolution screens. Other additions include a new Sharing Bar object that consolidates all of Sandvox’s supported social media
buttons, new sharing buttons for both LinkedIn and Pinterest, an improved Twitter button with hashtag and follow options, and automatic language localization for Google Maps. Sandvox 2.8 also improves responsiveness when saving large documents, ensures podcast RSS feeds include iTunes-compatible images, and adds support for the jQuery 1.9.1 JavaScript library. ($79.99 new, free update from Karelia or the Mac App Store, 37.8 MB, release notes)

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BusyCal 2.0.5 — Ensuring future compatibility with Google’s new CalDAV API for Google Calendar, BusyMac has been added to Google’s whitelist of developers with CalDAV access, and in turn has added support for OAuth 2.0 for authorization to BusyCal 2.0.5. After installing the update, you’ll need to sign into your Google account and grant BusyCal access to your calendars. The new release also adds a URL handler for creating new events from third-party apps and an option to dismiss or delete a meeting
request from the Inbox without accepting or declining it. BusyCal 2.0.5 fixes an error that occurred when adding meetings to Google Calendar with non-matching owner email, skips file attachments when iCloud returns a 502 Bad Gateway error, fixes a bug that prevented subscriptions to OmniFocus WebDAV feeds, and corrects a crash that occurred when converting a snooze alarm from absolute to relative. You can learn more about BusyCal in the free “Take Control of Calendar Syncing and Sharing with BusyCal.” BusyCal 2.0.5 is available as a free 30-day trial from the BusyMac site, but the only way to purchase the app is through the Mac App Store. ($29.99 new, free update, 9.4 MB, release notes)

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