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MUM’s the word…

Monday, August 16th, 2010

…well, it’s actually an acronym, not a word—it’s Minor Update Monday, and here’s what’s on the plate for today’s minor updates. (As usual, you can get the updated version directly from the app, or by downloading the new version from the product page.)

  • Witch 3.5.3 fixes an issue with displaying triggers that had been assigned in the Additional Actions section of the Triggers tab. In prior versions of Witch, the keys were set, but Witch wouldn’t properly show those values on the Triggers tab. Now it does. Also, for those who use Witch with the ‘Releasing all modifier keys activates the selected window’ option unchecked, Witch now properly respects the delay setting, and won’t show its window if you release the activation keys before the delay time is reached.
  • Leech 2.0.5 adds one new feature, a timestamp indicating at what time a file finished downloading.
  • Name Mangler 2.2.2 now allows renaming of aliases, fixes a bug relating to non-ASCII characters in regular expressions and Advanced Mode, allows you to copy-and-paste files, URLs, and paths to the file list area, and allows dragging-and-dropping of URLs and paths to the file list area (file drag-and-drop was already supported).
  • We’ve got some news about Key Codes, our free tool for Mac developers that displays the key code, Unicode value, and modifier key state for any combination of keys that you press. The news? Key Codes is now open source, so you can download the source to see how it works. We haven’t published this under any official open source license, but feel free to use it in any project you wish as you see fit. It’d be nice if we received an acknowledgment, but it’s neither required nor expected. (Key Codes also received a very minor update to version 1.0.4.)
  • Finally, not related to any of our programs, but if you’re reading this entry on our blog (instead of via RSS), you may notice we have a new handwritten blog header, complete with a bird-like interpretation of our company logo. Peter did the work, and I think the end result is terrific—it adds some color and personalizes the blog section of our site just a bit. But why a running bird? As Peter noted in a comment to another post here, “The Running Bird is really just one of the less obvious motifs I saw in our new logo once we were finished with it. That’s one of the things I like about that logo, by the way: With a little bit of imagination, it can be a lot of things—it’s a Many Tricks logo, as it were.”

In bigger-project news, Usher is approaching a public beta release, and Peter and I are starting to work on an entirely new application, one that I think will be useful to anyone who uses more than one Mac at home or work…but more on that project once we have something worth talking about!

Posted in Company News, Developer, Key Codes, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Witch | 5 Comments »

It’s minor update Monday!

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Today we’re releasing minor updates to three of our programs; these are primarily bug fix releases, with little in the way of new features. You can download the latest version from each program’s respective product page, or just check for updates within each program. The updated programs are:

  • Butler: Version 4.1.9 fixes a drag-to-Stack issue, and adds our in-app purchasing module. [release notes]
  • Leech: Version 2.0.4 fixes a problem with ‘shadow’ downloads (which were invisible, but definitely happening), as well as with duplicate downloads, from certain sites. [release notes]
  • Name Mangler: Version 2.2.1 adds the in-app purchasing module, and solves a couple of issues that could arise when renaming both files and folders at the same time. [release notes]

With these releases, and last week’s release of Witch 3.5.1, things should quiet down a bit here (in terms of updates) as we return to work on Usher, Butler, and a project to be named later.

Posted in Butler, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Witch | 8 Comments »

A look at our 2010 product release timeline

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Many users have been asking me about our plans for products we haven’t yet updated, namely Witch, yFlicks, and Butler. In response, I offer this generic timeline of our plans for the rest of 2010:

Please note that this is a rough timeline, and subject to change based on our workload, customer demand, the phase of the moon, and the price of soybean futures on the daily spot market. However, it should provide a bit more detail on what our priorities are, and the approximate timeframe in which we hope to ship each of our apps. (It doesn’t show minor releases, which may include bug fixes and/or new features; those will be ongoing for each product.)

Read on for a bit more detail on each of the products in the timeline.
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Posted in Butler, Company News, Leech, Name Mangler, Paddock, Products, Witch, yFlicks | 19 Comments »

The terms of the Many Tricks software license

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

I’ve had a few questions on how Many Tricks’ programs are licensed: is it per computer, per user, per user per computer, or something else? Given the confusion, I thought I’d explain here so it’s (hopefully) clear. I’ve posted this same information to our FAQ pages. And yes, we do have a full, legalese-filled software license, which covers what’s below and adds some required legal terminology.

The objective in our licensing is to keep things simple and fair. To that end, all of our products fall under one general usage license. Here’s how the licensing works: It’s basically a “buy only one” license model, except in the case of possible simultaneous usage. These situations should help clarify that basic rule:

(more…)

Posted in Butler, Company News, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Witch, yFlicks | Comments Off on The terms of the Many Tricks software license

Name Mangler 2.1.1 released

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Please check for updates in Name Mangler (in Prefs > Updates), as we just released version 2.1.1 with one new feature and one important bug fix:

  • New ‘shuffle’ mode (Command-S in Sort pop-up) to sequentially but randomly modify filenames; useful for images for a picture frame, for instance.
  • Fixed permissions issues for users running on non-admin accounts. Thanks to Fr. Augustine Hoa Tran and Neil Massello for reporting this problem.

Thanks to Sparkle, you should be able to update quickly and easily from within the app. If this doesn’t work, please let me know. Alternatively, you can still use the download link on the Name Mangler product page, of course!

Posted in Name Mangler | 5 Comments »

The future looks all Sparkle-y

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

As I noted in the Name Mangler 2.1 announcement, all future Many Tricks products will include support for in-app updates via Sparkle.

If you’re not aware of Sparkle, the reality is you’re probably aware of Sparkle. If you’ve ever run an app that let you download and install an update directly within the app, chances are good it’s using Sparkle to do that behind-the-scenes magic.

This amazing tool is open source, and supported by donations—and we’ll be doing some stuff in the future to support the project, as we think it’s a great addition to our code base.

Because you do lose some control over your machine in Sparkle-enabled apps (when they automatically download an update you didn’t ask for), all of our apps will include a simple on/off toggle for automatic update checking. If you’d rather check manually, just turn off the automatic updates. Personally, though, I leave Sparkle enabled in all the apps I use that include it; it makes product updates incredibly simple.

I’m thrilled we’re taking this step, as it simplifies what was a too-complex task for our programs—clicking a couple of buttons beats going to your browser, downloading and expanding an archive, quitting the original program, finding the original and new versions on your disk, and replacing old with new. Instead, Sparkle does all the heavy lifting ; you just click a couple of buttons and your app is up to date.

So thanks, Sparkle, for making our users’ lives simpler!

Posted in Butler, Company News, Developer, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Witch, yFlicks | 12 Comments »

Many Tricks’ Welcome Back sale event

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

I made brief mention in my new site launch tweet that we’d be having a “launch day promo.” And so, here it is. True, it’s no longer launch day, but we’re still in a festive mood here, so what the heck…

Starting right now—but ending on Thursday (March 25th) at 10:00pm Pacific time—you can get 25% off your total order when you buy any two or more Many Tricks products at the same time. (You can do this easily by clicking the Continue Shopping button after adding the first product to your cart.) The eligible products are Butler, Leech, Name Mangler, and Witch.

After adding at least two products to your cart, enter the super-secret discount code welcomeback in the (wait for it) Discount Code box, then click Update Cart. You’ll see the 25% discount reflected immediately.

Even better, if you buy Leech and/or Witch, you’ll get the current version of each product as well as the soon-to-be-released next versions. (Name Mangler was just updated, and a Butler update is quite a ways out, so this bundled upgrade feature doesn’t apply to those two products.) Once new versions of each app come out, we’ll post instructions on how to get your free upgrade.

“But wait, I just bought a product from you, after the site came back to life! So I miss out!?” No, actually you don’t. We’ll be sending you ‘early adopters’ a personal discount code that you can use for 25% off your your next purchase on any Many Tricks product. This is our way of saying “thank you” for purchasing so quickly after our site came back to life.

Once again, this sale ends for everyone at 10:00pm Pacific time on Thursday March 25th, so act quickly to save some yourself some cash.

Posted in Butler, Company News, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Witch | 1 Comment »

We now support Google Checkout

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

In addition to PayPal, you can now purchase Many Tricks’ products via Google Checkout. On each product’s cart screen, you’ll see both PayPal and Google Checkout logos—just click the logo of your choice to use that method of payment.

Please let me know if you have any problems with the new service—we’ve already received one order via Google Checkout, though, so I’m confident it’s working fine.

Posted in Butler, Company News, Leech, Name Mangler, Witch | Comments Off on We now support Google Checkout

Free Name Mangler upgrades for past donors

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

As a follow-up to the last post, if you’ve donated for Name Mangler in the past, just drop us an email and we’ll send you a free license for Name Mangler 2.1.

Posted in Name Mangler | Comments Off on Free Name Mangler upgrades for past donors

Name Mangler 2.1 released

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

The first product to be updated on our new site is a personal favorite of mine, Name Mangler. Now at version 2.1, there are only three substantive changes in this version—one bug fix, one most-welcomed new feature, and one change in status.

First, the boring bug fix: Name Mangler no longer chokes on colons or slashes in pre-existing file names. But as Peter points out in the release notes, “you still shouldn’t use those.”

Much more interesting to me, and hopefully to all of you, is that Name Mangler is the first Many Tricks product to support automatic updates via Sparkle. No more multi-step upgrade process, just a smooth, slick in-app upgrade, all thanks to Sparkle. We’ll be doing this with all of our apps as we release new versions, but Name Mangler is first out of the gate.

Finally, as noted by its prominent position on our main page, Name Mangler is now an official Many Tricks product, selling for $10. In the past, Name Mangler was a piece of donationware. In the evolution of Many Tricks, we’ve decided that such terms are harmful to both consumers and developers, so we now have only two types of programs: regular and free.

Our regular programs, now including Name Mangler, all give you liberal free trial policies, followed by reduced functionality and/or nagging after the trial limits have been reached. As much as we’d like to build a business around optional donations, donation rates that run under .5% of those who download really aren’t sustainable.

Our free programs—which we’re calling Baubleries—are just that, free. No nags, no reminders, no limits, no request for donations.

It is our intent to continue developing both regular and free programs in the future. As always, our objective will be to deliver a best-in-class experience, regardless of whether you’re using a free or paid-for Many Tricks application.

Posted in Company News, Name Mangler | Comments Off on Name Mangler 2.1 released

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