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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 21 October 2013

LaunchBar 5.6 — In addition to compatibility with OS X 10.9 Mavericks, LaunchBar 5.6 boasts support for the recently released 1Password 4 (see “1Password 4 for Mac Better Than Ever,” 3 October 2013). With this latest update to the keyboard-based launcher from Objective Development, you can use Shift-Space in 1Password 4 to trigger a full search and Command-Return to edit a 1Password item. The update also improves how the LaunchBar Dock icon hides, fixes the Show in Contacts action for contact groups, improves support for plain text snippets with HTML content, fixes
Growl notifications for those running 10.7 Lion and earlier, and fixes the Search in Evernote action. For a limited time, get a free copy of “Take Control of LaunchBar” with new LaunchBar purchases! ($35 new with a 20 percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 5.4 MB, release notes)

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ReadKit 2.3.2 — Webin has released ReadKit 2.3.2, a small maintenance update to the RSS client and read-later app that nonetheless eases a few specific frustrations. The new version fixes sync problems with Feedly, an issue with the built-in browser collapsing when items were marked as read, the storing state of the “Is shared” checkbox on the Pinboard sharing panel, and minor issues with OPML importing. ($6.99 new from the Mac App Store, free update, 3.9 MB)

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DEVONthink and DEVONnote 2.7 — Improving support for OS X 10.9 Mavericks and Markdown, DEVONtechnologies has updated all three versions of DEVONthink (Personal, Pro, and Pro Office) and DEVONnote to version 2.7. On the Mavericks front, all three editions of DEVONthink adjust the appearance of labels to hew more closely to the look and feel of Mavericks, add compatible tags when exporting, support tags created by the Mavericks Finder, and ensure more reliable importing and indexing of images and PDF documents. (DEVONnote picks up the label
appearance and tagging changes.) All three DEVONthink titles also add Markdown support to the Take Note panel, bring support for formatted notes and Markdown text formatting language in the Sorter, and enable all text documents to be displayed as Markdown. The updates to DEVONthink also make several synchronization improvements, including deletion of transactions older than 24 hours and encryption of metadata and content at the record level.

The Mac App Store version of DEVONnote fixes a problem with importing notes from Evernote, and it now requires 10.8.3 Mountain Lion (the version available from DEVONtechnologies requires 10.6.8 Snow Leopard or later). However, as of this writing, DEVONnote 2.7 isn’t available in the Mac App Store. (All updates are free. DEVONthink Pro Office, $149.95 new, release notes; DEVONthink Professional, $79.95 new, release notes; DEVONthink Personal,
$49.95 new, release notes; DEVONnote, $24.95 new, release notes; 25 percent discount for TidBITS members on DEVONnote and all editions of DEVONthink)

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1Password 4.0.3 — AgileBits has released 1Password 4.0.3 in response to sync problems related to Dropbox that had bedeviled many users. Now available in the Mac App Store, version 4.0.3 resolves a problem that could cause syncing with Dropbox to stop after 1Password mini was restarted. (If you’re not familiar with 1Password mini, which was recently introduced with the release of 1Password 4.0, check out “1Password 4 for Mac Better Than Ever,” 3 October 2013, for an overview of
the new features, and “Take Control of 1Password” for complete documentation.) Unfortunately, 1Password 4.0.3 doesn’t seem to solve a second bug that prevented instant syncing of new changes. Until that’s addressed by a soon-to-be-released update, you can force a sync by locking or unlocking 1Password or switching vaults. AgileBits is still running a temporary launch sale on its site and in the Mac App Store where you can purchase a new license for $39.99 or upgrade for $24.99. ($49.99 new, free update for those with a 1Password 4 license, 32 MB)

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Instacast 1.0.3 — Vemedio has released version 1.0.3 of Instacast for Mac, upgrading the podcast app’s syncing engine to Instacast 4 and improving syncing with Instacast Cloud to keep subscriptions, played/unplayed states, and deleted episodes in harmony across the company’s Mac and iOS apps. The update also improves Auto-Flattr donations to content providers, fixes the Copy Podcast URL function, and improves local file sharing with Instacast for iOS 4.1.1. ($19.99 new, free update, 5.9 MB, release notes)

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Downcast 1.0.3 — Boosting the Mac version of its podcatcher app with AirPlay support, Jamawkinaw Enterprises has released Downcast 1.0.3 with a number of new features and improvements. The update adds a preference to prevent screen dimming while playing videos, hides the cursor during video playback, makes significant improvements in iCloud syncing and stability, ensures the progress indicator is displayed when importing files, and makes several improvements to VoiceOver. It also fixes a bug that caused episodes to be marked for streaming instead of being downloaded and an issue that prevented the played/unplayed status from
syncing correctly. ($9.99 new from the Mac App Store, free update, 6.1 MB, release notes)

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Java for OS X 2013-005 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 17 — Apple has released Java for OS X 2013-005 for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and 10.7 Lion and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 17 with just the barest of information about the updates. Updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_65, both releases make the standard promise of “improved security, reliability, and compatibility.” However, Apple’s security page provides a long list of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) identified in the previous Java release (version 1.6.0_51)
that are addressed by version 1.6.0_65. Additionally, Apple notes that this latest release of Apple’s version of Java SE 6 will also uninstall Apple’s Java applet plug-in from all Web browsers, forcing you to go to Oracle’s Web site to download the latest version of the Java applet. The updates are available via the App Store app or Software Update and direct download, and Apple reminds you to quit any Web browsers and Java applications before installing either one. (Free, 64 MB for 2013-005 and 69.5 MB for Update 17)

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Little Snitch 3.3 — Objective Development has released Little Snitch 3.3, a maintenance release to the company’s networking monitoring utility that provides compatibility with OS X 10.9 Mavericks, rejiggers the welcome window, and moves some alerts to Notification Center. The update also improves the behavior of Profile Switching Alerts and when filtering during a system startup, fixes an issue that displayed IP addresses instead of the actual hostnames, improves positioning of the Network Monitor window on multiple display setups, and fixes a bug that prevented a Network Monitor document from being saved from
the closing dialog. ($34.95 new, free update, 20.8 MB, release notes)

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Fission 2.1.4 — Rogue Amoeba has released version 2.1.4 of its Fission audio editor, adding full support for OS X 10.9 Mavericks and moving to the 64-bit frontier for future performance gains. The update replaces the QuickTime engine for opening files with Rogue’s own internal libav for handling multimedia, which may not support some “extremely rare” file formats. The saving pipeline has been revamped, which improves how the Mac App Store version saves ringtones. The new version also improves its handling of extra-large AAC and
Apple Lossless files, slims down the debugging window, and makes it possible to drag an iTunes song into the Mac App Store version with a single attempt. ($32 new with a 20-percent discount for TidBITS members, free update, 14.2 MB, release notes)

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