TidBITS 2015 Holiday Hiatus and Membership Update

The end of December draws near, and this marks our final email issue of TidBITS for 2015. We’ll be wrapping things up for the rest of the week, so keep an eye on our Web site for new articles, but after that it’s time for us to descend into holiday hibernation. As is our custom, we’re taking the final two weeks of the year off from publishing TidBITS so we can all spend more time with family and friends, reflect on the past year, rest up a bit, and ponder whatever Apple and the rest of the technology industry have in store for us in 2016. The next email issue of TidBITS will come out on 4 January 2016.

From the TidBITS standpoint, 2015 was successful, and we’re closing out the year invigorated by the results of our reader survey (“TidBITS 2015 Reader Survey Results,” 7 December 2015), which has given us more insight into what you want to read. And we hope that will in turn bolster the TidBITS membership program, especially given our challenge to remove banner ads from our Web site if membership revenues increase by $5,000 (“Become a TidBITS Member and Banish Banner Ads from Our Site,” 7 December 2015). To sweeten the deal, we’ve just added 17 more apps to the collection of Mac software
which TidBITS members can buy at a discount, including 25 percent off Prosoft Engineering’s Data Rescue, Drive Genius, Data Backup, Picture Rescue, Clean Exit, and Hear, as well as 30 percent off Plum Amazing’s CopyPaste Pro, iWatermark Pro, PhotoShrinkr, X-Mirage, iClock Pro, yKey, PixelStick, TinyCal, TinyAlarm, Mount Watcher, and PhotoMatte. That brings the full list of discounted apps to 70, and the amount a TidBITS member could save to $645.

Of course, we’re always grateful for our long-term corporate sponsors: Smile, ScanSnap, and Automatic.

Tonya and I are also thankful for the highly capable and amiable assistance of Josh Centers, Michael Cohen, Agen Schmitz, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Joe Kissell, Jeff Carlson, Rich Mogull, Lauri Reinhardt, and Bruce Dumes, along with the many Take Control authors and editors. You’re all wonderful, and while we try to say thank you regularly, we wanted to make public our appreciation for your participation in our team effort here too.

Funding from TidBITS members enabled us to commission numerous articles this year, and our thanks to those who broadened and strengthened the voice of TidBITS, including Geoff Duncan, Glenn Fleishman, Mariva H. Aviram, Topher Kessler, Dave Kitabjian, Dan Moren, Randy Singer, Jason Snell, Steven Aquino, Chris Armstrong, and Steve McCabe. Our gratitude also goes out to the indefatigable volunteers who translate TidBITS into Dutch and Japanese each week, to those who leave comments on articles and participate in TidBITS Talk, and to everyone who finds time to read what we write.

Thank you, one and all, and may all your holiday wishes come true.