Another installment of Touch-up Tuesdays

January 11th, 2011 by Rob Griffiths

After getting through the end-of-year holiday rush, which was combined with the Mac App Store launch (thanks for that timing, Apple!), we’ve finally had a chance to catch up on some minor updates for Name Mangler, Usher, and Witch.

You can get the updates via in-app updating (this can be enabled on the Updates tab of Name Mangler and Usher’s Preferences, and on the About tab in Witch’s System Preferences panel), or by downloading the full versions from our web site.

So what’s new? As always, the release notes page for each app (Name Mangler • Usher • Witch) provide all the details, but here are some highlights:

Name Mangler 2.3.3

  • The help files have been completely rewritten in the new Many Tricks’ style. For you users of Advanced mode, there’s even a handy function reference that lets you navigate directly to each available function.
  • In expired-trial mode (after 25 launches), Name Mangler now limits features (five files renamed at once, no droplet use) instead of presenting annoying dialogs with countdown timers.
  • Name Mangler no longer accepts files dragged and dropped directly from iPhoto or Aperture. Because these programs use an internal database, all renaming should be done either before the photos are added to the programs, or within the programs themselves.

Usher 1.1.1

  • Usher can now manage Elgato TV recordings (playback will be handled by the Elgato EyeTV player).
  • A new Save As contextual menu lets you save a selection of movies, in their native format, to a folder of your choosing. This is basically ‘export without conversion.’
  • Usher should now use less memory usage during some operations.

Witch 3.5.8

  • Using a hidden pref (detailed on the release notes page), windowless apps can be forced to the bottom of the switcher panel when used in application-specific sort modes.
  • Updated help files, and numerous other small fixes and improvements.

Note that both Name Mangler and Witch skipped a minor version number. We did this to keep the version numbers in sync between these releases and those on the Mac App Store (Name Mangler is there already, Witch is still in review).

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How-to: Set playback start/stop points in Usher

January 10th, 2011 by Rob Griffiths

A few users have asked how to set the start and stop points for playing back a particular video—for instance, to skip a portion at the start or end of a video clip that you’d rather not see. (This is the equivalent to setting a Start Time and Stop Time on the Options tab of iTunes’ Get Info window.)

While it’s not quite that simple to mark a video’s start and stop points in Usher, it’s really not much harder. Read on for the quick how-to, in both text and video forms.

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Many Tricks enters the Mac App Store

January 6th, 2011 by Rob Griffiths and Peter Maurer

Unless you’ve been vacationing in Bora Bora for the last three months, you were probably aware that Apple’s new Mac App Store launched today. We were thrilled to have three of our products front and center on launch day: Name Mangler, Time Sink, and Usher were all available when the store opened this morning. (We actually have one more in process right now; a special non-preference-pane version of Witch has been sitting in the review queue for two weeks now.)

So far, it’s been an interesting day, just watching the sales charts trying to figure out what they mean (we don’t get real-time data, so we don’t really know what’s happening with total sales). We did a fair bit of of work to get our apps ready for the store, though, so it’s very gratifying to finally see them there on launch day.

For those who prefer “traditional” software distribution, don’t worry—we’re not going away from that, just taking advantage of a new sales channel. We have apps (Butler and Leech, at least) that can’t be sold on the app store, and we have others (Witch) that have slightly different functionality. So our direct sales model isn’t going away because of the Mac App Store.

Also, we’ll always keep our apps “in sync” to the extent that the App Store rules allow us to do so. That is, if we update Time Sink on our web site, the App Store version will get that same update, and vice-versa1. Due to Apple’s review process, it may occasionally take a bit more time for the changes to reach the App Store, but rest assured, they’ll get there (assuming Apple’s approval, of course).

Our objective with both our App Store apps and our “traditional” apps is simple: to deliver compelling Mac programs that are a delight to use, and to do what it takes to keep our customers satisfied. So whether you want to purchase through the Mac App Store, or via the web, or via our in-app purchasing module, we’ll be there for you.

(1) The two sales channels are distinct, and require different builds of our software. So you can’t update your Mac App Store version of Name Mangler with a download from our site, and vice-versa. If you purchase from our web site, your app has a built-in updater that reminds you when it needs an update. If you purchase from the Mac App Store, the Mac App Store itself will tell you when there are updates to install, and you’ll do the updating via the Mac App Store app.

Posted in Company News, Name Mangler, Products, Time Sink, Usher | 12 Comments »

Usher in the new year with Usher 1.1

December 30th, 2010 by Rob Griffiths and Peter Maurer

Today we released a new version of Usher, with a number of bug fixes, performance improvements, and one very nice new feature.

The big news in Usher 1.1 is the new Notes field. Many users had been creating a Notes Property, but there were problems with this: it was only one line, and you couldn’t use a comma, as Usher would then split your text into separate values. In Usher 1.1, Notes is now our third information type, to go with Tags and Properties. To better reflect all three of these information types, we’ve changed Tags and Properties to Metadata throughout the program.

Notes are written in an auto-expanding free-form text field on the Metadata panel. (If you had previously created a Notes property, its text will show in the new Notes field.) As you enter text, the field will resize as necessary, and eventually, scroll bars will appear. So for all of you who felt trapped by the limitations of your one-line Notes Property, free your fingers to go crazy with the Note field’s new capabilities.

What’s really nice is that Notes is still technically a Property field, which means that text is searchable, and the expanded Notes field is usable in Smart Playlists—we’re not sure why you might want to do this (as opposed to putting such values in Tags or Properties), but you can if you want to.

The other changes in Usher 1.1 (including reduced memory usage during movie ‘crawling’) can be read about on the Usher release notes page. As always, you can download the full version from Usher’s product page, or (much easier) use the in-app update, which you can enable in Usher’s preferences.

Posted in Products, Usher | 2 Comments »

Name Mangler video overview posted

December 17th, 2010 by Rob Griffiths and Peter Maurer

I just finished the second video overview of one of our products (Usher was first). This time out, it’s Name Mangler.

This 15-minute video walks through the Name Mangler interface, demonstrates each of the renaming functions, shows you how to create and use droplets, and explains the program’s preferences. See the ‘Video Introduction’ section of the Name Mangler web page for viewing options—you can choose between a smaller-but-usable 512×384 version, or the supersized 1024×768 original, which is over 80MB in size.

On to the next one now…

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New support option: discussion groups

December 16th, 2010 by Rob Griffiths

In the interest of expanding the available support options for our users, we’ve created discussion groups (which can be read online, or subscribed to via email or RSS) for all of our products. The main advantage of the discussion groups is that users can speak with other users, which isn’t possible via our existing email or trouble ticket support systems.

We’ve set the groups up via Google Groups, mainly because they’ve got a really good group management system. If you have a Google account, you can sign up for each group via the web, and set your preferences (email delivery, etc.) as you wish. If you don’t have a Google account, you can only sign up via email, and you can’t set any preferences. (This page explains what you can and can’t do in Google Groups if you don’t have a Google account.)

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Name Mangler 2.3.1 and Witch 3.5.6

December 8th, 2010 by Rob Griffiths and Peter Maurer

While we’ve had Minor update Mondays and Touch-up Tuesdays in the past, it turns out that Wednesday isn’t very amenable to cute blog title naming schemes (“Wicked Wednesday” just didn’t seem right). So I’ve forgone the fanciful title this time out, which was possible mainly because we have just two minor updates today.

Witch 3.5.6 includes a few bug fixes and a couple new hidden prefs (to disable the fade-out effect for the panel, and to disable the overlay icon for minimized windows). Full details on the release notes page, as usual.

Name Mangler 2.3.1 will be of interest to those who rename lots—as in thousands and tens of thousands—of files at a time. Previous versions of Name Mangler would crash if you had selected thousands of files in Finder or Path Finder, and then clicked Name Mangler’s “Populate with…” icons. Even if you got your long list into Name Mangler, it would then crash during the renaming process. Both of these issues are fixed in this release; you can read the release notes if you want, but really, those are the only two changes.

As always, updates are available via in-app updating (enable this via the Updates tab in each program’s Preferences), or by downloading the programs from their respective web pages.

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Time Sink 1.1.1

December 1st, 2010 by Rob Griffiths and Peter Maurer

Sorry for the emergency one-day minor update, but we broke a bit of code in yesterday’s Time Sink 1.1 release. Unfortunately, that bit of code controlled auto-export, which is something of a key feature. So we’ve pushed 1.1.1 live via in-app updating (and on the site, of course).

If you’re using Time Sink, please update to 1.1.1 to avoid the auto-export issue in Time Sink 1.1. (There are no other changes in this version.)

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Time Sink updated with many new features

November 30th, 2010 by Rob Griffiths and Peter Maurer

Today we released Time Sink 1.1, adding a bunch of useful little features to our activity tracking application. You can get the new version via in-app updates (Time Sink > Check for Updates, or enable automatic checking in the Updates section of Time Sink’s Preferences), or by downloading the full version from the Time Sink web page.

So what’s new in Time Sink 1.1? Quite a few little usability enhancements:

  • Floating time boxOn the Report tab in Preferences, you can enable a floating text box that shows the date/time at the current mouse position when viewing the Activity Report in Time Lapse mode. Check the box labeled ‘Show time at mouse location in Time Lapse mode’ to see this floating box.
  • The brand-new Export tab in Preferences contains the export settings that were previously on the Reports tab. In addition, for those who use auto-export, you can now specify what time of day to run the auto-export. Even better, though, is that you can tell Time Sink to only export data that’s been gathered since the last export—enable this mode, and you’ll have a series of day-by-day reports, each covering just one day.

  • The time barWhen working with the Activity Report window, selecting any subset of your total history will display a new ‘time bar’ at the bottom of the window—it’s the blue bar in the image at right.

    You can drag that bar around to easily see the same time interval for any portion of Time Sink’s history, or drag either end of the bar to to change the displayed time interval. The bar will vanish when you remove the time limits in the Activity Report window.

  • Entries in the Activity Report window now have contextual menus. Control-click (or right-click or two-finger tap etc.) to see the menus; you’ll find options to expand or collapse the view (as you can do in the Time Sink Organizer window using the triangles), along with the same options you get in the Time Sink Organizer’s contextual menus.
  • Two new contextual menu entries allow you to either quit a program or bring it to the foreground—very handy for those times when you realize you left an app running, or decide you want to do something in an app.

The response to Time Sink thus far has been very positive, and we think these new features make it all that much better. Time Sink is $19, and has a fully-functional two week demo period.

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Name Mangler and Time Sink do the bundle thing

November 29th, 2010 by Rob Griffiths

If you’re hunting for a Cyber Monday deal, here are two that involve our products…one of which is good just for today, the other of which starts today:

  • Time Sink is one of the five apps you can get for $20 in the MacUpdate CyberMonday mini bundle. Act fast, though, as this deal expires at midnight (Eastern time) tonight.
  • Name Mangler is one of the 10 apps in the $50 MacPromo bundle. You don’t have to run to the checkout lane quite as quickly for this deal, as it runs through December 31st.

We think both Time Sink and Name Mangler make excellent stocking stuffers for friends and family, so buy early and buy often!

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