Ushering in some changes in Usher

December 2nd, 2013 by Rob Griffiths

Today we’re releasing Usher 1.1.7, but before upgrading, you should read this entire blog post, so you understand what’s happening with Usher going forward.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The minimum system requirement for Usher 1.1.7 is OS X 10.7 or newer; if you’re still running 10.6, DO NOT INSTALL THESE UPDATES. You can download older versions on our support page.

Why 10.7 or newer? Apple recently declared an old security-related API dead (i.e. deprecated), and recommended that all developers switch to the newer API, which we did. But that new API requires 10.7 or newer.

First up, in case you missed it, Usher is not presently available on the App Store. This change may be temporary (if we can resolve some issues with Apple), or it may be permanent (at least for this major version of Usher).

Second, Usher’s new price is $25 (on our site only, for now), down from $35. Why drop the price? Partly because we’d like more people to give Usher a look. But primarily because this version removes the ability to download videos from YouTube and Vimeo. Why did we remove this feature?

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Usher has gone on an App Store hiatus

November 28th, 2013 by Rob Griffiths

As of today, the App Store version of Usher is no longer available for purchase. It may reappear in the future, if we can resolve some issues with the App Store. For now, though, we have removed it from sale.

Why did we do this, and what does this mean for App Store buyers?
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How-to: Start and stop Leech on a schedule

November 26th, 2013 by Rob Griffiths

Note: This article applies to Leech 2; Leech 3 has built-in scheduling support.

One feature that Leech, our simple download assistant, doesn’t offer is scheduling. For many users, this isn’t an issue, as they can use their internet connection whenever they wish. There is a subset of users, though, who have internet connections that may offer more speed at night, or not have capacity limits at night, or may allow unlimited downloading only at night.

A future version of Leech may offer scheduling, but until that comes to be, you can use AppleScript and a scheduling application to handle the task. It’s not overly complicated, but does require a bit of work in Leech and AppleScript.

The first step is to have Leech queue up all download requests, so you can just copy and paste URLs into it during the day, then let it run at night. To put Leech in queued mode, just make sure there’s not a checkmark by the Queue > Start Downloads Automatically menu item, as seen in the image at right.

Once that’s done, you can add URLs to Leech throughout the day, but they won’t start downloading. Next, you’ll need to create two AppleScripts, one to start those queued downloads, and the other to pause them again.
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Toggle Witch off and on via AppleScript

November 15th, 2013 by Rob Griffiths

Recently, a few users have asked about disabling Witch when certain programs are in the foreground. Typically this comes up because of conflicts between Command-Tab or Option-Tab (the two most-common Witch activation keys) and the foreground app. For example, you can’t use Option-Tab in a Remote Desktop Client Windows window, because Witch will grab it. Or when using Fusion to run OS X in a virtual machine, you may find that Command-Tab is trapped by OS X before it gets to your virtual machine.

In those cases, it’d be nice to easily disable Witch, then quickly enable it again when you’re done with the app in question. As of today, you can’t do this within Witch, although we have plans to change that. For now, though, the best solution is to create an AppleScript that will toggle Witch off and on as needed. You can then use any program that can run AppleScripts via hot keys (such as our own Butler) to give yourself a keyboard combo that toggles Witch off and on.

Setting up the AppleScript isn’t overly complicated, though it does differ slightly depending on whether you’re using the App Store or direct version of Witch. If you’re interested in creating your own Witch toggle, read on for the how-to…
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How-to: Enable Moom in Mavericks

October 23rd, 2013 by Rob Griffiths

Moom is fully compatible with Mavericks, but Apple has changed how users enable the OS X feature (access for assistive devices) that Moom (and some of our other apps) uses to get things done. Enabling this feature isn’t much harder than it was before, but it is different.

Here’s the expert version: After installing Moom 3.1, visit the Privacy tab of the Security & Privacy System Preferences panel, and place a check in the box next to Moom’s entry in the window. Once you’ve done that, Moom should work fine. (If, for some reason, it doesn’t work, please check the end of this blog entry for some troubleshooting tips.)

If you’d like a more-detailed walkthrough on getting Moom to work in Mavericks, keep reading…a
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Desktop Curtain and Time Sink updated

October 23rd, 2013 by Rob Griffiths

Today we’re releasing Desktop Curtain 3.0.1 and Time Sink 1.2.2. Neither of these are Mavericks-specific releases; they’re mainly bug fix releases with a couple small new features here and there. As with our Mavericks-specific updates, the following warning applies to these updates:

IMPORTANT NOTE: The following updates will bump the minimum system requirement to 10.7 or newer; if you’re still running 10.6, DO NOT INSTALL THESE UPDATES.

Why 10.7 or newer? Apple recently declared an old security-related API dead (i.e. deprecated), and recommended that all developers switch to the newer API, which we did. But that new API requires 10.7 or newer.

App Store buyers should see the updates shortly; direct buyers can get them through in-app updating, or by downloading directly from our site. If you care about the nitty-gritty details, make sure you check out the release notes pages for each app (Desktop Curtain • Time Sink) to see what’s up.

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Oh when the updates come marching in…

October 18th, 2013 by Rob Griffiths

We’ve been quiet here lately, but that’s not because we haven’t been busy. Far from it; we’ve been testing our apps with Mavericks, and making changes where necessary (mostly cosmetic in nature). We’ve also addressed a number of minor bugs that have been reported (thanks!) since our last updates. So be prepared, we’re updating nearly the entire lineup today—everything here is Mavericks-ready, for whenever Apple ships the system.

As always, direct purchasers can update within the app, or by downloading a new version from our servers. App Store buyers should see the updates (soon, if not already) in the Updates tab of the App Store application.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The following updates will bump the minimum system requirement to 10.7 or newer; if you’re still running 10.6, DO NOT INSTALL THESE UPDATES.

Why 10.7 or newer? Apple recently declared an old security-related API dead (i.e. deprecated), and recommended that all developers switch to the newer API, which we did. But that new API requires 10.7 or newer.

So what’s new and improved today? It’s quite a list…

  • Butler 4.1.16: A number of behind-the-scenes updates for improved Mavericks compatibility, and a couple minor bug fixes.
  • Leech 2.2: We’ve fixed a fuzzy date bug, improved the ‘resume download,’ and squashed a couple of bugs.
  • Moom 3.1: Lots of goodness here, but the biggie is that you can now specify resize dimensions as a percentage of available space. We’ve also changed how custom names work for saved window layouts, added a new AppleScript command, and made a number of other little changes. Check out the Moom release notes page for all the details.
  • Name Mangler 3.3: The big news here is that Mavericks users can use Tags in renaming operations. We also fixed a couple of minor bugs, and added a checkbox to the Terms List dialog that will make Name Mangler check the source file for updates. Full details on the Name Mangler release notes page.
  • Witch 3.9.3: We’ve updated the “how to enable” text for Mavericks users, and worked around a glitch for those using XtraFinder.

    • If you’re scoring at home, that’s five apps updated; the missing suspects (Desktop Curtain, Keymo, Time Sink, and Usher) all have updates in the works, and we hope to have those out shortly as well. Even without updates, those apps will work fine on Mavericks—so if you’re upgrading your OS, you should be in good shape with all of our apps, assuming you apply the updates we have released.

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Saying Goodbye to ‘Buy with Google’

June 24th, 2013 by Rob Griffiths

If you didn’t see the news, Google recently announced that they would be shutting down Google Checkout come November, 2013. Here at Many Tricks, we presently offer Google Checkout as one of our three payment options (direct credit card and PayPal are the other two).

When we relaunched Many Tricks in 2010, having Google Checkout was important, as it was the only alternative to PayPal available to our customers. As such, Checkout accounted for over 20% of our sales in that first year.

But over time, this 20% figure began to drop—even before we added support for direct credit card transactions as a third buying option, it seemed people were moving away from Checkout. Then, when we did add direct credit card purchases, Checkout fell even further. How far? So far in 2013, Checkout accounts for less than 5% of Many Tricks’ buyers.

Given that Google is walking away from Checkout this fall, and looking at Checkout’s greatly-diminished importance to our customers, we’ve made the decision to turn off Checkout at the end of June. So on June 30th, no earlier than 6PM Pacific time, Google Checkout will no longer be available as an option on our site.

If, in the future, we find a decent alternative to Google Checkout that works with our transaction processing house, we’ll see about adding them to our site as a third purchase option. For the short term, though, you’ll be able to choose between using PayPal or paying directly via credit card.

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Name Mangler and Butler updates released

June 11th, 2013 by Rob Griffiths

We held these off for a day, so as to not steal the thunder from Apple’s WWDC keynote. But now that that’s over with, we’re releasing Name Mangler 3.2 and Butler 4.1.15 into the wild.

Name Mangler 3.2 adds support for Notification Center, and the ability to highlight spaces (including special emphasis on leading, trailing, and double spaces) in your filenames. We added/fixed some other stuff, too—for more details, check out the release notes. Direct buyers can get the update via in-app updating, or by downloading the new version from our site. App Store buyers should see the update in the App Store application (if not now, then shortly).

Note: If you’re running OS X 10.6 or 10.7 and downloaded or updated to Name Mangler 3.2 earlier today, please check again for updates. We just pushed out Name Mangler 3.2.1, which fixes a post-rename crashing bug.

We’re sorry we didn’t catch this one in our testing prior to release. We’ve given ourselves a good talking to, and we’ll do our best to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Butler 4.1.15 fixes a couple of minor bugs and updates how Butler handles clipboard content. The Butler release notes page contains the details on these thrilling changes. Update within the app, or by downloading the new version from our site.

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Announcing two free Safari extensions for tab addicts

April 30th, 2013 by Rob Griffiths

Today we’re releasing two free Safari extensions, targeted at those of us who rely on tabs to speed our browsing. Here are the details on each.

⌘-Click Avenger

About a week ago, I tweeted this:

I really really hate sites (autotrader.com is another) that use JavaScript and onclick events to break this functionality. Unbeknownst to me, this behavior also irked the other half of Many Tricks, and Peter was already at work on fixing the problem. A few hours after my tweet, Peter sent this one:

After downloading and testing, I discovered it didn’t actually fix the autotrader.com site, because they were using a global onclick handler. After some revisions (including splitting the two functions into separate extensions), though, the extension now works on ESPN, autotrader.com, and many other similar sites. It may not work for 100% of the sites out there, but it’s been pretty robust in our testing.

Download ⌘-Click Avenger

Unread→Tabs

This extension is for those who use vBulletin forum sites. It adds a contextual menu that lets you open all unread article links in new tabs, with a single click. As of now, it only works for vBulletin, but if you use forum sites based on other systems, we may be able to get it working if you can give us a URL to look at.

Download Unread→Tabs

Technical details

These are free extensions (MIT license), and we’ll be submitting them to Apple’s Safari extensions gallery. However, as we don’t know how long that process may take, we’re releasing them here for those who’d like to use them now.

These extensions are provided as is, without any formal support. If you have the “Install Updates Automatically” box checked in Safari’s Extensions preferences panel, you’ll automatically get any updates we release.

Source code: If you’d like to see the source for either extension, here’s where to get it…

⌘-Click Avenger: Bitbucket • GitHub
Unread→Tabs: Bitbucket • GitHub

Alternatively, you can just unpack the extension on your Mac, via Terminal: xar -xf /path/to/extension.

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