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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 8 January 2018

Nisus Writer Pro 2.1.8 — Nisus Software has released Nisus Writer Pro 2.1.8 to fix a crash in macOS 10.13 High Sierra that occurred when saving or loading files that use certain fonts. The powerful word processor also eliminates a crash that could occur when visiting the Language preference pane (particularly after multiple visits), ensures that the Malayalam language uses left-to-right writing mode, and fixes issues with imported Japanese text that could be garbled by incorrect text encoding. Nisus Writer Express 3.5.8 received the same fixes. ($79 new with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members from Nisus Software and the Mac App Store, free update, 225 MB, release notes, 10.8.5+)

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VMware Fusion 10.1 — VMware has released version 10.1 of its VMware Fusion virtualization package in both standard and Pro editions with improved guest support for the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. In particular, it addresses an issue where using Microsoft Office to save modified files to a VMware shared folder would fail, and it eliminates cosmetic problems after switching to or exiting Unity view.

VMware notes a known issue affecting Macs with Intel Skylake processors (see “Apple Updates 12-inch MacBook, Bumps MacBook Air RAM,” 19 April 2016) and Intel Kaby Lake processors (see “Apple Beefs Up iMac and MacBook Lines, Teases the iMac Pro,” 6 June 2017) that are running macOS 10.13 High Sierra. The bug causes Windows 10 virtual machines to display glitches when the resolution is greater than 4096 pixels.

VMware Fusion 10 costs $79 for the standard edition and $159 for Fusion Pro (a $40 drop from the previous release). Those with Fusion 7, 8, or 8.5 licenses can upgrade for $49 (standard) or $119 (Pro). Purchases of version 8.5 made on or after 22 August 2017 are eligible for a free upgrade. You can download a free trial from this VMware store page. ($79.99/$159.99 new, $49/$119 upgrades, free update from version 10, 470 MB, release notes, 10.11+)

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Default Folder X 5.2 — St. Clair Software has released Default Folder X 5.2, making improvements to how the Open/Save dialog enhancement utility works with iCloud Drive. The release also updates the Compress command to archive multiple items within any subfolder in a file dialog’s file list, adds a preference to choose between color and monochrome icons for the toolbar icons, badges application-specific folders on iCloud Drive with the app’s icon, corrects display and navigation of folders on iCloud Drive, ensures correct tracking of iCloud Drive’s recent files and folders menus in macOS 10.13 High Sierra,
and fixes a bug that could result in iCloud Drive folder not being recognized in certain situations. ($34.95 new, TidBITS members save $10 on new copies and $5 on upgrades, 7.0 MB, release notes, 10.10+)

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Ulysses 12.2 — The popular Ulysses writing app for the Mac and iOS has been updated to version 12.2 with a number of Mac-specific bug fixes. A 2016 Apple Design Award Winner, Ulysses recently tied BBEdit in our recent survey of Markdown-capable editors (see “Your Favorite Mac Markdown Editors,” 26 July 2017).

In version 12.0, which was released in October 2017, Ulysses gained the capability to search and replace newlines and tabs, ensured correct export of marked tags to HTML or EPUB, improved the scrolling editor and resizing of sidebars, and added shortcuts to move lines up or down.

Ulysses 12.2 adds the high contrast D12 editor theme with its streamlined use of color as the Mac default. The update also fixes a crash when printing in macOS 10.13 High Sierra, improves scrolling when using Typewriter Mode, corrects large paragraph spacing below image previews, improves pasting of content from specialized clipboard apps (such as Paste), and ensures that moving paragraphs via shortcuts now always scrolls the editor.

Ulysses has moved to a subscription model (see “Ulysses Writing App Moves to Subscription Pricing,” 10 August 2017), which costs $4.99 per month or $39.99 annually for access to both Mac and iOS apps (a student discount is also available for $10.99). It’s available from the Mac App Store (which offers a 14-day free trial on all devices), as well as part of the $9.99-per-month Setapp Mac app subscription service. ($39.99 annual
subscription, free update, 21 MB, release notes, 10.11+)

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ScreenFlow 7.2 — Telestream has released ScreenFlow 7.2, which improves how the screencast recording and video editing app maintains aspect ratio when resizing a partial screen capture. The update also adds a shortcut to play a caption track, improves display of the Google Drive directory, adds Clear In and Out Points to the contextual menu when clicking a selected region, displays length in milliseconds in a selected range of a clip, fixes a bug with Automatic Export type not supporting small resolutions, ensures that Publish to YouTube categories are localized, and upgrades the APIs for Facebook and Vimeo.
($129 new from the Telestream Web site or from the Mac App Store, free update from version 7, $39 upgrade, 56 MB, release notes, 10.11+)

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VLC Media Player 2.2.8 — In late November, VideoLAN released VLC 2.2.7 to address a compatibility issue with macOS 10.13 High Sierra and resolve a regression in ASS subtitle decoding. The open-source media player also fixed an AVI read/write overflow, resolved an issue with AAC 7.1 channel detection, and addressed a crash with the libavcodec module (VLC’s built-in decoding engine). A subsequent version 2.2.8 fixed a single bug.

VLC 2.2.7 also fixed a crash in the app’s update mechanism, which may make auto-updating from older versions of VLC to version 2.2.8 fail. If that’s true for you, download the latest version from the VideoLAN Web site. (Free, 35.1 MB, release notes)

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SEE Finance 2.0.2 — In early December, Scimonoce Software released SEE Finance 2.0, a major update for the personal finance app that was rebuilt alongside the company’s new iOS app. New features include inline transaction entry, support for storing files on iCloud Drive, automatic creation and updating of transfer transactions, a calendar view for transactions, and transaction tags. The new release also improves investment transaction entry and tracking, adds new reporting capabilities, improves budgeting, and
brings redesigned Scheduled Transactions along with a new “pending” transactions option. SEE Finance 2 now requires macOS 10.12 Sierra or later, a big step up from version 1’s minimum requirement of 10.6 Snow Leopard.

At the end of December, SEE Finance was updated to version 2.0.2 with improved duplicate transaction checking, improved CSV file exporting for reports, and a bug fix that adjusted the dates sent for download connections.

Because SEE Finance 2.0 is essentially an entirely new piece of software, Scimonoce Software notes on its Upgrade page that some of the features available in version 1 are not available in version 2 — including loan amortization schedules, transaction filters, memorized transactions, automatic file backups, and built-in Web browsers for downloading files from institution Web sites. Scimonoce Software plans to bring these features back in future updates.

SEE Finance 2 for the Mac is available from the Scimonoce Software Web site and the Mac App Store for $39.99 ($10 less than version 1), and the SEE Finance 2 iOS app costs $4.99. There is no upgrade pricing for the Mac app, though a free 30-day trial is available. Additionally, SEE Finance 2 is on sale from the Scimonoce Software Web site for $29.99 for an unspecified limited time. ($39.99 new, free update from version 2, 24.3 MB, 10.12+)

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MoneyWiz 2.7.1 — In early December, SilverWiz released the Mac version of MoneyWiz 2.7 with a number of improvements and added Face ID support for the iPhone X to its iOS app. The personal finance manager also lets you manually update stock price updates that are available on Yahoo (but missing historical data), fixed a bug where auto-skip changes the sign of the transaction, resolved an issue where a budget transfer in a past period remains after deleting one of the budgets, and increased the speed of Yodlee financial data connections.

Later in December, SilverWiz updated the Mac and iOS editions of MoneyWiz to version 2.7.1 to improve duplicate recognition with SaltEdge transactions, fix a bug with disconnecting an OB account, and fix several crashes. ($59.99 annual subscription, free update, 27.2 MB, release notes for versions 2.7 and 2.7.1, 10.8+)

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1Password 6.8.5 — AgileBits has released 1Password 6.8.5 to improve how the 1Password Extension communicates with the Google Chrome Web browser. The update also optimizes the logic around how rich icons are requested, regularly updates 1Password.com account profiles to ensure that they’re displaying the correct information for used devices, increases the timeout used to connect to the 1Password mini process, and corrects an issue where in-app purchase subscriptions wouldn’t be applied to a 1Password.com account. ($64.99 new from AgileBits and Mac App Store or free with a $2.99 or $4.99 per month subscription, free update, 48.5 MB, release notes, 10.10+)

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Bookends 13.0.2 — Sonny Software has issued Bookends 13.0.2 with automated repair of damaged indexes (resulting in fewer suggestions to rebuild) and improved cloud sync to minimize requests for authentication from Apple. The reference management tool also updates Copy Citation and scanning to work with Microsoft Word 16.x, updates import from Google Scholar to deal with changes made by Google, improves detection of a linked word processor, fixes a bug that prevented PDF page numbers from being updated in the reference edit pane/window, and ensures that metatag searches work when tags contain spaces.

A free trial that’s fully functional for up to 50 references is available. If you purchased a Bookends license more than 2 years ago (Bookends licenses provide 2 years of free updates), you can upgrade to version 13 for $39.99. ($59.99 new with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members, $39.99 upgrade, 45.1 MB, release notes, 10.9+)

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