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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 17 December 2012

Dropbox 1.6.5 — If you’re a Dropbox user running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or earlier, you might have noticed that notifications have been missing. Happily, Dropbox 1.6.5 fixes that problem, and it ensures that Dropbox autostarts after updating and fixes an issue with icon overlays in the Dropbox folder. If you aren’t sure which iteration of Dropbox you’re running, hover over the Dropbox icon in the menu to see the version in a tooltip, and if the main Dropbox download link gives you an older version, check the Dropbox forums. (Free, 23.1 MB, release notes)

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Lightroom 4.3 — Adobe has released Lightroom 4.3 with support for 20 cameras and 42 lens profiles (including the iPhone 5) and fixes for a variety of bugs. Amongst the highlights, the professional photo cataloging and editing application fixes a problem with uploading to Flickr if the photo’s filename contained an apostrophe, ensures that Catalogs from Photoshop Elements 11 are updated, properly imports AVCHD video, fixes an issue where TIFF images could experience a tonal shift, and fixes a flickering problem with videos created on the iPhone 4. Additionally, Lightroom 4.3 now supports Retina
displays when using either the Library or Develop modules. ($149 new, free update, 419 MB, release notes)

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iTunes 11.0.1 — With the release of iTunes 11.0.1, Apple rectifies one of the glaring omissions of its initial release — displaying duplicates (just one of the excised features noted in “iTunes 11: The Features Apple Removed, and Alternatives,” 4 December 2012). Previously found in the File menu, the new Show Duplicate Items command has now been shifted to the View menu. Another complaint about iTunes 11, especially for those with large music libraries, was its frustratingly slow search. (In a library of over 41,000 songs, just typing the first character of a query in
the search field would bring up Mac OS X’s spinning beach ball for 5 to 6 seconds.) Apple promises that iTunes 11.0.1 will be more responsive when searching through larger libraries, and this does seem to be the case in our initial tests. The update also fixes a couple of bugs: one where new purchases in iCloud wouldn’t show up in libraries with iTunes Match turned on and another where the AirPlay button didn’t appear as expected. We’ve also noticed that the column browser can be displayed in certain situations when the sidebar is showing, something that wasn’t always possible in 11.0. You can get the new release via the Mac App Store (Mountain Lion), Software Update (Lion and Snow Leopard), or direct download. (Free, 198 MB)

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Sandvox 2.7.3 — Karelia has released Sandvox 2.7.3 with a few publishing and hosting enhancements added to the Web publishing tool. The update adds a simplified local hosting setup that enables you to publish your site to any location on your Mac, enables you to add FTPS support from the Preferences window, and adds a test to ensure that your site is reachable from the Internet (and not just your Mac). The release also squashes a couple of bugs, including a fix for instances of unwanted square brackets that would appear if Facebook was selected as your site’s comments provider. It also improves overall stability, and in
particular when importing Sandvox 1 documents. ($79.99 new from Karelia or the Mac App Store, free update, 31.3 MB)

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TextExpander 4.0.4 — Smile has released TextExpander 4.0.4 with added support for cut, copy, and paste for items in the snippet list. The update also adds a popover to help resolve conflicts with snippet abbreviations, draws duplicate snippets in blue (versus orange for conflicts), adds expand abbreviation '<abbreviation>' syntax to the AppleScript expand command, restores support for the %j day-of-year macro, and fixes a number of other minor bugs. Be sure to download the latest version from the company’s Web site, as this update fixes a problem that prevents the in-app
update mechanism from working properly. ($34.95 new with a 20-percent discount for TidBITS members, $15 upgrade (free for purchases after 15 January 2012), free update, 8.9 MB, release notes)

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TinkerTool 4.95 — Marcel Bresink has released TinkerTool 4.95, a small update to his under-the-hood customization system utility. The app now offers a setting that enables the debug menu of Disk Utility and the App Store application in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or later. For 10.8 Mountain Lion users, the release adds settings to control smoothing and to disable the default behavior of asking if you want to save new documents to iCloud in supported apps (such as iWork, TextEdit, and Preview). It also adds a pane to control Resume behavior for individual applications in Mountain Lion. (Free, 3.9 MB, release notes)

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Mac mini EFI Firmware Update 1.7 — Apple has released Mac mini EFI Firmware Update 1.7, which deals specifically with video flicker issues caused by the HDMI port on the recently released Mac mini model (see “Apple Releases New iMac, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini,” 23 October 2012). The update requires OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion. As always with firmware updates, we recommend relying on the App Store to ensure you get the firmware update for your specific model, and being careful not to interrupt the update process. (Free, 4.53 MB)

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