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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 3 April 2017

Tinderbox 7.0.2 — Eastgate Systems has released Tinderbox 7.0.2, ensuring that multiple items dragged in from Bookends 12.8 and DEVONthink Pro are imported correctly and correcting the repositioning of overlapping adornments when using the Move To Front and Send To Back commands. The personal content assistant also improves performance in several use cases, enables you to Command-drag the main window to change its size without changing the width of the text window, corrects the Note > Create Composites submenu, ensures that closing an inspector no longer prevents undoing prior inspector actions, modernizes the app’s text
drawing capabilities, and brings back tabs in macOS 10.12 Sierra. ($249 new with a 25 percent discount for TidBITS members, $98 upgrade, 30.4 MB, 10.10+)

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Apple Configurator 2.4 — Apple has released Apple Configurator 2.4, the Mac utility that schools and businesses use to manage and deploy software to multiple iOS and tvOS devices. The update brings a unified Prepare workflow for iOS and tvOS; enables installation of PDF, EPUB, and iBooks Author books into iBooks; adds the capability to restart or shut down iOS devices; can restrict joining Wi-Fi networks; and adds support for the Touch Bar on the 2016 MacBook Pro. The release also adds new profile payloads and restrictions for tvOS, including Conference Room Display,
Single App Mode, Restrict Remote App Pairing, and Restrict Incoming AirPlay. Apple Configurator 2.4 now requires macOS 10.12.2 Sierra and works with iOS 7 and later, although some features require iOS 10.3 or tvOS 10.2. (Free, 64.2 MB, release notes, 10.12.2+)

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macOS Server 5.3 — Apple has released macOS Server 5.3 with added support for new Configuration Profile payload changes and commands introduced in iOS 10.3 (see “iOS 10.3 Adds New File System, Find My AirPods, and More,” 27 March 2017). You’ll be able to configure restrictions for Dictation, limit modification of AirPlay and View Screen permission settings, restrict Wi-Fi network connections to managed networks, initiate a restart or shut down, and play the Lost Mode sound on a device.

For managed Macs running macOS 10.12.4 Sierra (see “Apple Releases macOS 10.12.4, watchOS 3.2, and tvOS 10.2,” 27 March 2017), macOS Server 5.3 enables admins to restrict access to iCloud Drive, iCloud Desktop and Documents, iCloud Keychain, and the capability to allow Touch ID to unlock a supported Mac. The release also enhances control over caching server size, adds support for setting a device name at enrollment time, and brings a new Classroom configuration option that allows modification of AirPlay and View Screen permissions on student devices.

Profile Manager in macOS Server 5.3 also now supports the new device management capabilities introduced in tvOS 10.2. Admins can configure Device Enrollment Program settings, install enterprise apps, create new Conference Room Display and Single App Mode profile payloads, and configure restrictions to disable AirPlay and pairing with the Remote app. Profile Manager can also set the name of Apple TVs, restart them, and erase them. ($19.99 new, free update, 198 MB, release notes and security content, 10.12.4+)

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Skype 7.49 — Microsoft has released Skype 7.49 with the capability to see the number of mutual friends you share with searched contacts. The Internet telephony and messaging app also adds support for input field buttons on the Touch Bar on 2016 MacBook Pro models, including Send Files, Send Video Message, Send Location, Send Contacts, and the Emoticon Picker. (Free, 44.4 MB, release notes, 10.10+)

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BBEdit 11.6.5 — Bare Bones Software has released BBEdit 11.6.5, adding two new buttons to the Menus & Shortcuts preference pane: Simple Menus and Full Menus (which toggle between hiding and displaying the “advanced” menu commands). The venerable text editor also fixes a bug that prevented BBEdit-specific menu commands from being properly converted when upgrading from TextWrangler, resolves a problem with Grep case transformations during replacement that failed to work correctly for non-ASCII characters, fixes an issue with installing BBEdit’s privileged helper tool on some systems, and patches a small
memory leak. ($49.99, free update, 14.0 MB, release notes, 10.9.5+)

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DEVONthink 2.9.11/DEVONnote 2.9.11 — DEVONtechnologies has updated all three editions of DEVONthink (Personal, Pro, and Pro Office) and DEVONnote to version 2.9.11, utilizing the Markdownifier Web service for decluttering clipped Web pages and articles (and removing a dependency on the third-party Instapaper service, which recently made its public API available only to logged-in users).

The three editions of DEVONthink improve sharing of notes from Evernote and Apple’s Notes, add a contextual menu for creating or closing tabs, enable recent destinations in menus and panels to be expandable, add the capability to Shift-click on a link in a Web view to capture it, utilize relative links for local resources in HTML and Markdown documents, enable easier addition and removal of PDF markup annotations, and fix a number of PDF-related issues in macOS 10.12 Sierra. The Pro and Pro Office editions add favorites to the Move, Replicate, and Duplicate contextual and action menus.

DEVONthink and DEVONnote also make the author name available to templates (using %author% placeholder), improve import of Google Chrome bookmarks, and update the German localization. (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 all editions of DEVONthink and DEVONnote. 10.9+)

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Safari 10.1 — Apple has released Safari 10.1 for OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite and 10.11.6 El Capitan (macOS 10.12.4 Sierra also includes it; see “Apple Releases macOS 10.12.4, watchOS 3.2, and tvOS 10.2,” 27 March 2017). The update adds the capability to drag the Show Downloads list into a standalone window, brings Paste and Go to the Safari Smart Search field’s contextual menu, and resolves a bug that caused background tabs to suddenly appear in the foreground. It also deals with numerous security vulnerabilities, including multiple
memory corruption and validation issues related to WebKit, a spoofing and denial-of-service issue that existed in the handling of HTTP authentication, and address bar spoofing. Safari 10.1 is available only via Software Update. (Free, 10.10+)

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Security Update 2017-001 (Yosemite and El Capitan) — Apple has released Security Update 2017-001 for OS X 10.10 Yosemite and 10.11 El Capitan, bringing a few select patches from the macOS 10.12.4 Sierra release to the two older operating systems (see “Apple Releases macOS 10.12.4, watchOS 3.2, and tvOS 10.2,” 27 March 2017). The security update addresses a memory corruption issue in both systems that could allow a maliciously crafted JPEG file to arbitrarily execute code, as well as a timing side channel issue that affected El Capitan that could leak sensitive user information. (Free. For 10.10.5 Yosemite, 495.2 MB; for 10.11.6 El Capitan, 700.6 MB; security content release notes)

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