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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 9 December 2013

Apple Remote Desktop 3.7.1 — Apple has released version 3.7.1 of the Admin and Client editions of Apple Remote Desktop, adding support for OS X 10.9 Mavericks, improving the reliability of the kickstart command line utility, and fixing the “Display full screen” option in Control & Observe preferences. The update also improves support for Macs with multiple displays and multiple IP addresses, adds automatic copy and paste between local and remote computers, and improves reliability of screen sharing sessions.

Additionally, the remote desktop management software fixes a bug that caused the OS X firewall to block Remote Desktop connections. Apple notes in a support page that if you previously lost access to Remote Desktop after updating to version 3.7, restarting the client computer after installing version 3.7.1 should automatically add the correct firewall rule. Finally, Apple has updated the app’s companion Dashboard widget to version 3.7. ($79.99 new from the Mac App Store, free update via Software Update (12.9 MB) or as separate Admin (19.6 MB) and Client (5 MB) downloads)

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Sandvox 2.8.7 — Karelia has released Sandvox 2.8 with fixes for minor incompatibilities with OS X 10.9 Mavericks, as well as an issue with partially drawn Site Navigator icons (particularly on Mavericks). The Web site authoring tool also restores word-wrapping to long site menu titles on certain designs (and sub-menu titles on all designs), fixes an alignment issue in the sidebar with Facebook Like buttons, fixes a problem with extracting non-image media files from sites, and improves options for filenames for better compatibility when transferring documents via legacy filesystems. As with many of this week’s software
updates with Mac App Store editions, Sandvox remains at its previous version number (2.8.6) at Apple’s software storefront. ($79.99 new, free update from Karelia or the Mac App Store, 38 MB, release notes)

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1Password 4.1.1 — AgileBits has released 1Password 4.1.1 with the option of updating an existing Login password directly in the browser extension. And if you have more than one Login for a site, you can choose which one you want to update. The new release also adds a new multi-column display option, a print feature that can handle individual items or a list, the capability to search across all fields, and localizations for Dutch and Afrikaans. It also fixes a problem where syncing won’t start automatically after items are imported and a bug that created generated passwords for “com.apple.Safari” instead of the
current Web site.

The Mac App Store version of 1Password is set to be updated to version 4.1 with these same changes (4.1.1 is for those who purchased through AgileBits). However, 1Password remains stuck on version 4.0.8 at the Mac App Store as of this posting (which makes this writer question why he ever thought it was a good idea to buy his copy from Apple’s storefront). ($49.99 new with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members when purchased from AgileBits, free update, 35.6 MB, release notes)

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BBEdit 10.5.6 and TextWrangler 4.5.4 — While nary a new feature has been added to BBEdit 10.5.6, Bare Bones Software stuffed this version of its flagship text editor full to the gills with well over 90 fixes. One notable change sees BBEdit no longer requiring items in the Stationery application support folder to have the Finder “Stationery Pad” option turned on in order for them to appear in BBEdit’s Stationery menu or palette. As per usual, the release notes are breezy and sound like they’ve been written by an actual person. Here are just a few of our favorite nuggets from this update:

Application startup performance has been significantly improved. Anyone who has complained that BBEdit is slow to launch is going to have to find something else to complain about.

In a Markdown document, a list which is immediately preceded by a horizontal rule —- or a headline is now recognized as such. The documentation says to put blank lines before and after “block elements” (like lists and horizontal rules), but the implementations all support this format. #likeUnscramblingAnEgg

Hex Dump just got made wicked fast. You’re welcome.

Bare Bones has also updated TextWrangler to version 4.5.4, with the free text editor receiving most of the same fixes and refinements accorded to BBEdit. Note that as of this writing, neither Mac App Store editions of BBEdit or TextWrangler have been updated to the most recent releases. ($49.99 for BBEdit, 12.9 MB, release notes; free for TextWrangler, 9.8 MB, release notes)

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ScreenFlow 4.5 — Telestream has released version 4.5 of its ScreenFlow screencast recording app with a number of improvements and a lengthy list of fixes. The update expands support for publishing screencasts directly to Dropbox and Google Drive as well as sharing them to Facebook, and the Upload Manager now uploads videos in the background. Other changes include the capability to manage transitions and mark favorites, an added search field to the Video & Audio filter popover, a fix for a bug that caused edits to be lost on OS X 10.9
Mavericks, and the added capability to double-click a source to send it to the timeline when in the media library list mode. ScreenFlow 4.5 now requires 10.7 Lion or later. For a complete rundown of the new features, download the PDF release notes from Telestream’s support page. Note that as of this writing, the Mac App Store version of ScreenFlow sits at version 4.0.4. ($99 new from the Telestream Web site or $99.99 from the Mac App Store, 33.8 MB)

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Piezo 1.2.3 — Rogue Amoeba has updated Piezo to version 1.2.3 to add initial compatibility with OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Like the simultaneously updated Airfoil 4.8.2, Piezo 1.2.3 gains an overhauled audio capture engine to support Mavericks, and some audio capture sources may behave differently. (If you experience problems, you can submit feedback with this handy support form.) Additionally, due to this large under-the-hood change, Piezo can no longer capture audio from Safari in Mavericks (but a Rogue Amoeba blog post notes this limitation can be worked around easily by streaming audio from Google Chrome or Firefox instead). Other changes include added compatibility with the Microsoft Lync instant messaging and conferencing app, a fix for a glitch with the counter and file name on Mavericks, and an update to requiring 10.7 Lion and later. Note that as of this writing, the Mac App Store version of Piezo is stuck at version 1.2.2. ($15 new with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members when
purchased from Rogue Amoeba, free update, 7.2 MB, release notes)

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Airfoil 4.8.2 — Rogue Amoeba has updated Airfoil audio transmission utility to version 4.8.2 with initial compatibility with OS X 10.9 Mavericks, though Mavericks compatibility for the Airfoil Video Player is still in progress. (A Rogue Amoeba blog post offers more details on Airfoil Video Player compatibility.) The audio capture engine has also been overhauled to support Mavericks, and Rogue Amoeba warns that some audio capture sources may behave differently. (If you experience problems, you can submit
feedback with this handy support form.) The release also updates the Instant On component to version 7.1 to improve System Audio capture and audio capture from Safari, supports enhanced metadata and remote control of Vemedio’s Instacast for Mac as well as iTunes Radio, ensures that Airfoil and App Nap play nicely with one another, and fixes an issue with the Airfoil menu bar icon not appearing at launch on Mavericks. ($25 new with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 14.5 MB, release notes)

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Fission 2.2 — Rogue Amoeba has released Fission 2.2 with support for importing more audio formats. The audio editor can now import MPEG layer 1 and 2, AIFF-C, Ogg Vorbis, Shorten, RealAudio, Windows Media Audio (WMA), AMR, QDesign Music, WavePack, and Monkey’s Audio. The update also fixes several crashes with the Batch Converter, reports file sizes in powers of ten (matching the Mac OS X Finder), removes outdated references to QuickTime importing, and now always displays the Start window at launch (and if the window is manually closed, Fission will remember not to open it until the next launch). ($32 new from Rogue
Amoeba with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 14.3 MB, release notes)

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Marked 2.2 — Brett Terpstra has released Marked 2.2, calling it a “pretty big update” on his blog (for our review, see “Marked 2: A Must-Have for Markdown Writers,” 1 November 2013). In addition to stability, speed, and rendering fixes, notable changes to the Markdown previewer include the capability to create blank new files and open them in your editor, separate word counts/stats for different panels of the CriticMarkup preview, and the capability to quickly locate and edit nested files within a multi-file
document (Terpstra promises to explain and demonstrate this final feature in screencast soon). Other changes include an update to version 4.4 of MultiMarkdown, tweaks to memory management, a fix for a bug where renaming or moving a file would result in a File Type Fail, and a fix for a crash that occurred when canceling a word repetition processing session. Terpstra has also created a Github repository for sharing custom Marked styles, and he explains how to create and use styles on his blog. ($11.99 new, free update, 16.2
MB)

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Nisus Writer Pro 2.0.7 and Nisus Writer Express 3.4.6 — Nisus Software has released Nisus Writer Pro 2.0.7 and Nisus Writer Express 3.4.6, both maintenance releases offering a festival of fixes. Both editions of the word processing app squash a bug that caused a crash for those running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard after pasting table cells with an applied list style or when closing documents with some smart content, load language icons in the background to avoid a slowdown with 10.9 Mavericks, and fix an issue that caused a crash when editing an equation in the MathType equation editor. On the
hyphen front, the update ensures that hyphenation patterns are properly respected (some hyphenation for non-English languages was suffering in the previous releases) and that soft hyphens successfully transfer to Microsoft Word. Nisus Writer Pro 2.0.7 also resolves a change-tracking issue that triggered unpredictable behavior after typing over text with a straight quote that was then automatically corrected into a smart quote — since we reported this one, we’re particularly happy to see it fixed so quickly. (Nisus Writer Pro: $79 new, free update, 179 MB, release notes. Nisus Writer Express: $45 new, free update, 50.9 MB, release notes.)

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Fantastical 1.3.11 — Bringing the same precise timing capabilities of its calendar entries to reminders, Flexibits has released Fantastical 1.3.11 with the addition of a due time field when you select Due Date in a task. The calendar app also fixes errors when using iCloud, an issue that prevented Outlook events from updating, a bug that made Fantastical appear partially offscreen when using multiple displays on OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and a potential hang when creating events with invitees on Mavericks. ($19.99 new, free update from Flexibits and the Mac App Store, 11.7 MB, release notes)

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DEVONagent 3.6 — DEVONtechnologies has updated its three editions of DEVONagent (Lite, Express, and Pro) to version 3.6 with new plug-ins for searching IEEE Xplore and EUR-Lex, plus improved plug-ins for searching Blekko, Google Patents Search, and the American Chemical Society. DEVONagent Express and Pro increase the maximum download size to 64 MB, while DEVONagent Pro adds an AppleScript command for retrieving objects of an HTML page for a specified scanner. The Pro edition also improves reliability of newly reported results, adds a new PingUrl to the plug-in API to send an initial request
to an engine before searching (to disable JavaScript), enlarges the icons in the Objects pane of the Search and Browser windows, and fixes CSV export compatibility with Quick Look. As of this writing, all three DEVONagent editions remain at version 3.5.2 in the Mac App Store. (All updates are free. DEVONagent Lite, free, release notes; DEVONagent Express, $4.95 new, release notes; DEVONagent Pro, $49.95 new with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members, release notes)

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DEVONthink and DEVONnote 2.7.2 — DEVONtechnologies has updated all three versions of DEVONthink (Personal, Pro, and Pro Office) and DEVONnote to version 2.7.2. DEVONnote and all three editions of DEVONthink receive improved support for OpenMeta tagging, the addition of a New Group button to the Take Note panel (plus the Clip to DEVONthink panel in DEVONthink), support for Mavericks tags entered via the title bar of documents or via save dialogs, bug fixes for several freezes in Mavericks, and a workaround for a broken script issue caused
by Evernote and EvernoteHelper.

All three editions of DEVONthink can now convert images to rich text (RTFD) and save PDF forms with entered data on Mavericks, and contextual menus that appear when viewing images now have an Edit command. Additionally, the update provides more reliable thumbnailing of QuickTime movies on Mavericks, enables viewing of PDF document sizes in centimeters and inches instead of just pixels, and improves handling of the Activity panel in Full Screen mode. DEVONthink Pro and Pro Office add RSS feeds without links (such as from Simplenote), and DEVONthink Pro Office adds support for MailTags 4 as well as a Start/Stop Server command in the Tools menu. (All updates are free. DEVONthink Pro Office, $149.95 new, release notes; DEVONthink Professional, $79.95 new, release notes; DEVONthink Personal, $49.95 new, release notes; DEVONnote, $24.95 new, release notes; 25 percent discount for TidBITS members on DEVONnote and all editions of DEVONthink)

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KeyCue 7.1 — Following up on its recent upgrade to version 7.0 (see “KeyCue 7.0,” 10 October 2013), Ergonis has released KeyCue 7.1 with a couple of new features and improvements. The update adds new attributes for custom themes (such as separator lines between menus and uniform menu/submenu widths); adds a keyboard shortcut for searching; ensures the search field works with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) input methods; and works around an issue that resulted in incorrect characters instead of key symbols. (€19.99 new with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 3.4 MB, release notes)

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