In this final issue of TidBITS for 2014, we have a couple of holiday sales to pass on: a discount on BeLight Software’s Printworks for those who didn’t win a copy in last week’s DealBITS drawing and the WinterFest 2014 sale on essential Mac writing tools. Also this week, Apple pushed out iOS 8.1.2, mostly to address the problem of purchased ringtones that have gone missing. Since releasing iOS 8, Apple has been giving developers a hard time about how they can use its Extensibility features; Adam Engst shares his thoughts on the game Apple is forcing developers to play, and why it’s bad for everyone. Glenn Fleishman takes you on a tour of ScreenFlow 5, a professional app for recording Mac and iOS screencasts. Michael Cohen’s “Take Control of Pages” is now complete, and Michael reflects on his year of documenting the word-processing and page-layout app. Finally in FunBITS, Josh Centers presents his game of the year: Shovel Knight for Mac, which takes you back to the good old days of 8-bit gaming. Notable software releases this week include Default Folder X 4.6.12; Hazel 3.3.3; Labels & Addresses 1.6.9; Safari 8.0.2, 7.1.2, and 6.2.2; OmniFocus 2.0.4; and DEVONagent Lite, Express, and Pro 3.8.3.
In keeping with our tradition, we are taking the last few weeks of the year off, so look for the next email issue of TidBITS on 5 January 2015. Thanks for everything!
Apple has updated iOS 8 to restore missing ringtones that had been purchased from the iTunes Store. Since there are no other fixes of note, don’t rush to install the update.
See who won copies of Printworks in last week’s DealBITS drawing, and if you’re not among them, read on to save 55 percent on BeLight Software’s print design software, or 70 percent on two more-focused apps, Labels & Addresses and Disc Cover.
A group of small software companies have banded together to offer their text-focused apps at 25 percent off in a WinterFest 2014 sale, and we’ve included our Take Control books in the sale.
You might think that capturing video from a screen and editing it into something usable is a niche task, but it’s invaluable when demonstrating how to do something on a computer or iOS device.
Michael Cohen spent the last year writing a book about the three versions of Pages, Apple’s word-processing and layout app that run on the Mac, in iOS, and in iCloud. Now that his book is published, he reflects on how Pages has changed, what he likes about it (and what he doesn’t), and on why Pages is important to Apple.
Apple has been on a bad roll lately, repeatedly threatening developers who take advantage of iOS 8’s Extensibility features with App Store removal, then reversing course in the face of media criticism. Adam Engst isn’t a fan of this behavior.
Shovel Knight brings back old-school gaming with a few new-school niceties.
Notable software releases this week include Default Folder X 4.6.12; Hazel 3.3.3; Labels & Addresses 1.6.9; Safari 8.0.2, 7.1.2, and 6.2.2; OmniFocus 2.0.4; and DEVONagent Lite, Express, and Pro 3.8.3.
Two quick ExtraBITS this week: Michael Cohen discusses his new book, “Take Control of Pages,” with MacVoices host Chuck Joiner, and the new online publication Design Explosions compares Google’s and Apple’s approaches to mapping in iOS.