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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 26 March 2012

CrashPlan and CrashPlan PRO 3.2 — Code 42 Software has released version 3.2 of its CrashPlan and CrashPlan PRO backup software and online backup service. Most noticeably, an icon has been added to the menu bar that enables you to see the status of inbound and outbound backups (including pause and start capabilities), specify a time period to pause all backups, and open the CrashPlan application. Other new features include an option to pause backups automatically should your laptop run low on battery power; another option to pause backups automatically based on network interface and
wireless network connection; and the capability to restore files from another user with either the original file permissions or with your current file permissions. Existing users will automatically receive the update to their client software, and a handful of known issues are being actively addressed. (Free with 30-day online backup trial, 17.8 MB, release notes)

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Skype 5.6.0.143 — Offering a number of welcome improvements, the Microsoft-owned Skype video and audio telephony client has been updated to version 5.6.0.143 for Mac OS X. At the top of the list is the addition of automatic software updates, which should both alleviate the need to check for updates manually and fix the less-than-reliable Check for Updates menu item. The release also adds a “dynamic mode” to the group calling user interface, which moves the currently talking participant to the top of the screen. This should play nicely with another addition — support for full screen mode in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. The update also enables you to delete messages from a
conversation as well as your history, plus disable automatic adjustment of the microphone setting to help reduce background noise. While these additions should make for a more-pleasant Skype experience, The Verge points out that the Mac release still lags behind Skype 5.8 for Windows in some features, including push-to-talk shortcuts and 1080p video calls. If Skype’s auto-update feature doesn’t see the new release (which, again, should be fixed by this update), you can download it from the company’s blog. (Free, 22.7 MB)

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Keyboard Maestro 5.1 — Stairways Software has released Keyboard Maestro 5.1, which brings a number of improvements and fixes to the automation utility. Most notably, the update adds a new For Each action that enables you to loop over a variety of collections (including files in a folder, mounted volumes, lines in a file, and more), acting on each item in turn. Other additions include a Percent Encode for URL filter and a signed developer ID that is used by OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper security feature. The update also fixes a crash that could occur when a called text factory no longer exists, as well as a lockup when entering quoted strings in calculations.
Read a complete rundown of all the improvements and fixes included in this update at the company’s blog. ($36 new, free update, $25 upgrade from versions previous to 5.0, 16.3 MB, release notes)

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Fantastical 1.2.2 — Flexibits has released Fantastical 1.2.2 with a variety of fixes and improvements. While largely a maintenance update, this release of the calendar utility does include a few handy additions, including vertical resizing of the event list (Mac OS X 10.7 Lion only), searching in event notes, and displaying “Tomorrow” instead of tomorrow’s date in the event list. Among the several fixes, this update addresses an issue where some newly added accounts wouldn’t sync in Fantastical and a failure to update some events for Google accounts. It also adds some localization improvements (including Australian
time zones) and modifies its subscription sync behavior to mimic iCal’s refresh intervals. Note that the update may prompt you for access to your keychain, which is necessary in preparing for the Gatekeeper security function in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. ($19.99 new from Flexibits or the Mac App Store, free update, 8.8 MB, release notes)

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Apple Software Installer Update 1.0 — Apple has released Software Installer Update 1.0 for Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. This update fixes an issue that prevented Software Update from actually installing software that it detected was available. Normally, we recommend relying on Software Update to receive updates to Apple software. However, if you’ve been experiencing any problems with installing updates directly out of Software Update, be sure to download this installer from the Apple support page. (Free, 1.34 MB)

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