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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 28 July 2014

TinkerTool 5.3 — Marcel Bresink has released TinkerTool 5.3, a maintenance update for the under-the-hood customization system utility that works around an OS X design issue that caused preference settings to be updated only after a major delay. The release also adds new settings that re-enable the Backspace key to navigate backwards in Safari, disable the revised function of the power button to switch to sleep mode (10.9.2 or later only), control the speed of Mission Control animations, and use Notification Center to display information about crashes. Bresink also notes that TinkerTool’s internal architecture has
been updated to prepare for the latest developments in OS X, but does not specifically address support for OS X 10.10 Yosemite. (Free, 3.8 MB, release notes, 10.9+)

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Default Folder X 4.6.8 — St. Clair Software has released Default Folder X 4.6.8, adding compatibility for the public beta release of OS X 10.10 Yosemite. The update also improves the speed of the Rename command and fixes a bug when running in 10.9 Mavericks so you can use standard contextual menus instead of those provided by Default Folder X. ($34.95 new, $10 off for TidBITS members, free update, 10.6 MB, release notes, 10.6+)

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Audio Hijack Pro 2.11.0, Nicecast 1.11.0, Airfoil 4.8.7, and Piezo 1.2.5 — Rogue Amoeba has updated most its roster of audio applications to provide initial compatibility for the upcoming OS X 10.10 Yosemite, including Audio Hijack Pro 2.11.0, Nicecast 1.11.0, Airfoil 4.8.7, and Piezo 1.2.5. Audio Hijack Pro, Nicecast, and Airfoil also update the Instant On component to version 8, which provides support for Yosemite as well as several unspecified improvements and
fixes. Additional individual highlights include:

  • Audio Hijack Pro now makes it possible to capture multiple instances of System Audio at once. ($32, 9.0 MB, free update release notes, 10.7+)

  • Nicecast updates to version 2.4 of the Icecast streaming media server, corrects an issue where the server port could incorrectly increment, and assigns UTF-8 as the Track Title character set when sending to icecast2 servers. ($59, free update, 8.1 MB, release notes, 10.7+)

  • Airfoil adds support for capturing track titles (but not artwork) from the Megaseg DJ software and fixes a hang that occurred in 10.9 Mavericks when the display is asleep. ($25, free update, 14.9 MB, release notes, 10.7+)

  • Piezo restores audio capture from all versions of the Firefox Web browser and improves support for Citrix GoToMeeting VoIP. Piezo 1.2.5 is currently available only from Rogue Amoeba, as the Mac App Store edition is still awaiting Apple’s approval. ($15, free update, 7.5 MB, release notes, 10.7+)

Additionally, Rogue Amoeba’s Intermission pause-and-rewind audio utility has been updated to version 1.1.1 with Yosemite support, though no other changes. If you’re a TidBITS member, you can purchase all these Rogue Amoeba products, as well as the Fission audio editor, at a 20 percent discount.

Read/post comments about Audio Hijack Pro 2.11.0, Nicecast 1.11.0, Airfoil 4.8.7, and Piezo 1.2.5.

Marked 2.3 — Brett Terpstra has released Marked 2.3, which sandboxes the Markdown previewer in order to bring it to the Mac App Store. While Marked 2 replaces the original Marked app in the Mac App Store, Marked 2 is not a free update — though it is on sale for $9.99 for a limited time (both from the Mac App Store and the Marked Web site). The update now supports GitHub Flavored Markdown for the app’s Discount processor option, preserves bookmarks across refreshes and style changes, adds highlight navigation and highlighted word counts, fixes a
problem with reading the most recent file in a folder, improves handling of unreadable and renamed files, and fixes an issue with initial file monitoring when opening in an external editor. Because Marked 2 is sandboxed, previously opened documents may require new permissions. Marked 2 doesn’t currently support OS X Yosemite, but Terpstra promises it will be added soon. ($9.99 new on sale for a limited time, free update, 16.7 MB, release notes, 10.7+)

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