As discussed in a blog post a couple of months ago, my first Mac OS X application, Narrator, was acquired by Minneapolis-based Mariner Software, Inc.

The intervening time has been a transition period, as Mariner updated Narrator to use their branding, licensing, and so forth, and as their support staff got up-to-speed with the app. That process has now been completed, and Narrator is now available on their website.

Visit Mariner's Narrator web page for more information about the rebranded Narrator.

Sales and support for Narrator are now handled by Mariner. Existing Narrator 2 customers can update to the Mariner-branded edition at no cost. If you have any queries about it, please check out their helpful support resources.

I'll be interested to hear your experiences with this transition. If you have any comments (good or bad), please get in touch.

Version 2.1 of my new iPad and iPhone app, Tweeps, has just been approved, and is now available on the App Store.

You can get it at no cost, too. I've decided to make it completely free. Tell your friends!

The two major additions in this release are support for iOS 4, and for the new iPhone 4 device.

The recent iOS 4 operating system release added multitasking and a number of other great enhancements to devices that support it. Tweeps 2.1 now fully supports fast app switching. There's nothing Tweeps can usefully do in the background, but the convenience of flipping from another app (e.g. your preferred Twitter posting client) to Tweeps and back is very useful.

This update also includes a number of minor bug fixes and tweaks to support other changes in iOS 4.

Apple's new iPhone 4 is a very nice little device. One of its key enhancements is a beautiful new "retina display" — twice the resolution of older iPhone devices, with pixels smaller than the human eye can see. Tweeps 2.1 adds higher resolution icons and other images so it looks even better on the iPhone 4.

Learn more about Tweeps, or get it for free now:

I previously mentioned that version 2.0 of my new iPad and iPhone app, Tweeps, was in the approval queue. Well, today it was approved, and now it's available on the App Store.

You can get it at no cost, too, if you're quick — in celebration of the 2.0 release, I've made it free for a limited time. Tell your friends!

The two major additions in this release are the iPad support, and OAuth support.

The iPad support was of course the biggest change, with a new sidebar and expanded content to take advantage of the increased screen space.

But the OAuth support was a more important change, especially for iPhone users. Without that, Tweeps would have stopped working after June, if Twitter sticks with its plan to turn off the old-style authentication. Tweeps uses xAuth, which is a more convenient variation of OAuth; you still enter your username and password in Tweeps, and it authenticates via a complex dance of exchanging tokens and such. Once you've authenticated once (via a secure connection), Tweeps doesn't need to send the username and password again.

Learn more about Tweeps, or get it for free now:

Another minor update, this time for Caboodle, my lean clean snippet machine — a simple app to store text, graphics, PDFs, or other attachments for later access.

As with the recent Simon 2.5.7 and BlogAssist 2.2.5 updates, I'm planning on dropping Tiger support for the next feature update of Caboodle. I'm hoping to get to that in a few months, after I release Time Out 2. Dropping Tiger support will really benefit Caboodle, since it is currently held back by some legacy technologies, which I'll be able to replace with more modern tech. I'm looking forward to working on it.

Download Caboodle 1.3.6 now!

I've just done a minor fix update for BlogAssist, my handy tool to help with HTML markup.

As with the recent Simon 2.5.7 update, I'm planning on dropping Tiger support for the next feature update of BlogAssist. That may not be for a while, though; I have updates of Tweeps, Simon, Time Out and Caboodle scheduled before I get back to BlogAssist. This is a simple app that does its job well (I use it every day), but I do have some great plans for it when I do get back to it in my development schedule.

Download BlogAssist 2.2.5 now!

Simon, my flagship Mac app to monitor websites and servers for changes or failures, has been updated to version 2.5.7. It includes just a couple of changes, but is a recommended update for everyone:

• Fixed a bug in the Port plug-in where it would misbehave if the text to receive or send started with a "-" character. This could affect many people, as the default Incoming Email (POP) service uses this when the server doesn't accept the login.
• Fixed an issue where a notification could fail if the TestChangeCount, TestFailureCount or TestRecoveryCount variables are used.

Please note: version 2.6, currently scheduled for release in July, will require Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) as a minimum OS. So (unless there are any further bug-fix releases) this will be the last version that supports Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

Download Simon 2.5.7 now!

Simon, my essential server monitoring tool, has been updated to version 2.5.6. This update is recommended for everybody, and includes:

• Changed the reports to trim off the filename for the OutputLocation report variable when using the file:// protocol, to avoid breaking reports like the iPhone template.
• The License window is now brought to the front when the application is activated, if it is open, to avoid it being mistakenly hidden behind the Montor window (e.g. if it is automatically hidden).
• Fixed an issue with counting the number of active tests, where it was mistakenly counting "waiting" tests as active, even if they're normally paused.
• Added a hidden preference to output debug information about the internet connection (for use with the automatic offline mode). It can be activated by entering "defaults write com.dejal.simon2 InternetConnectionDebugMode YES" in Terminal.

Download Simon 2.5.6 now!

Narrator, my fun application to read out stories and interviews in multiple voices, has been updated to version 2.0.7.

This is a minor bug-fix update to correct an issue with looking up licenses in certain situations, but is recommended for everyone.

Download Narrator 2.0.7 now!

Time Out, my free tool to remind you to take regular breaks, has been updated to version 1.5.6.

This is minor release that makes the break screen now still appear if the Time Out application is hidden.

Download Time Out now!

Apologies to everyone who has been waiting for the promised Time Out version 2. It is still in the works, but has been delayed due work on IPhone apps. My secret new iPhone app is almost ready for release... but then I'll be doing an update to it for iPad compatibility, then I have a Simon update (version 2.6)... then I'll be ready to work on Time Out 2. So yes, it's still coming this year. I'm looking forward to getting back to it.

I've just done bug-fix updates to a couple of my Mac apps. Caboodle, my lean clean snippet machine, was updated (actually late last week) to version 1.3.5. And BlogAssist, my handy HTML markup tool, was updated to version 2.2.4.

Both of them included a fix for an issue with looking up licenses in certain situations. BlogAssist also enhanced the application icon to 512x512 size, for ideal viewing on Snow Leopard. (Caboodle's icon was updated to 512x512 in the previous update.)

• Download Caboodle 1.3.5 now
• Download BlogAssist 2.2.4 now

Sometimes I'm just too clever for my own good. Or more likely, not clever enough.

My apps have a handy license lookup feature, where you can enter your name and licensed email address and click a Find button to look up your license if you ever need to re-enter it, without having to store the serial number somewhere. But it's long had problems handling diacritical characters (e.g. "é") on the server side, so in Simon 2.5.4 I made a change to solve that. However, that change inadvertently broke another aspect of the license lookup.

So, here's version 2.5.5. I really dislike having to do a bug fix to fix a bug fix, both because releasing is a fair bit of work, and I know that people don't like having to download an update too soon after another one. But in this case it's unavoidable.

The problem didn't affect many people, but it's the kind of problem that must be fixed even if only a few people are affected — can't have licensed users unable to enter their licenses!

Anyway, many apologies to those affected, either experiencing the problem themselves or having the hassle of downloading another update so soon. You can skip this update if you like; if you've already added your license, there's no need to update. If you're still evaluating, you could skip it too, though will probably need to upgrade if you are on 2.5.4 when you do purchase.

Download Simon 2.5.5 now!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Please note that Dejal support will probably be delayed over the next couple of days due to Thanksgiving events, but I will catch up with all queries as soon as possible after that.

Simon, my website and server monitoring tool, has been updated to version 2.5.4. This is a minor bug-fix update, but recommended for everybody.

• Fixed an issue with the Calendar plug-in that caused a conflict with the SMS plug-in on Snow Leopard.
• Fixed a bug in the license regeneration feature that could cause minor back-end issues when diacritical characters are used.

Download Simon 2.5.4 now!

Caboodle, my lean clean snippet machine, has been updated to version 1.3.4. This has a number of improvements... and perhaps should have been called version 1.4, as it straddles the fine line between feature enhancements and bug fixes. This is a recommended update for everybody.

• To improve performance and reduce disk space, imported PDFs, files dragged to the Dock icon, or via the Save PDF to Caboodle print option are now copied to an Attachments folder within the Caboodle data folder, and aliased to the entries. This can be disabled via a hidden preference, by entering "defaults write com.dejal.caboodle ImportAsAlias NO" in Terminal, if destired.
• The entry icons for files dragged to the Dock icon and saved to Caboodle are now set to those files' icons.
• Fixed an issue where entries added by those means could be lost if Caboodle was quit without making further changes.
• Find text operations, e.g. Find Next (Cmd-G), Find Previous (Cmd-Shift-G), now work when the entries list is the active control; the entry text is made active then the operation performed.
• Removed ancient code to move pre-1.0 data, since nobody could still be using those versions.
• Improved the data loading to reduce the risk of using empty data if the existing data can't be loaded.
• Now includes a 512x512 application icon.

Download Caboodle 1.3.4 now!

I've just released an update to Narrator, my fun app to read out stories and interviews in multiple voices.

Version 2.0.6 fixes a couple of small but annoying bugs, and is a recommended update for everyone:

• Fixed a bug where the age, gender, and sliders might not update when changing actors or characters.
• Fixed a bug that could occasionally cause the Play button to stop working when playing/pausing or changing voice attributes quickly.

Download Narrator 2.0.6 now!

I'm pleased to report that we now have a solution for the Snow Leopard incompatibility of Narrator, the fun app to read out stories and interviews in multiple voices.

The issue was a bug in Snow Leopard, which prevented Narrator from open its own documents. The bug stumped Apple's Developr Technical Support engineers, and definitely seems to be a bug in the operating system itself, not in my code. But the DTS engineers finally came up with a workaround for the bug, which this update implements. Narrator can once again open its documents, and so now appears to be fully compatible with Snow Leopard.

My apologies for any inconvenience this bug may have caused.

Download Narrator 2.0.5 now!

And remember, you can still get Narrator and 11 other useful apps for just $49.95 from TheMacBundles for another few days.

Announcing maintenance updates for Dejal Simon, my essential server monitoring tool, Time Out, my break reminder tool, Caboodle, my lean clean snippet machine, and BlogAssist, my handy HTML markup assistant.

Each update includes improvements for Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) compatibility. I'm not aware of any remaining compatibility issues with these products — please let me know ASAP if you do find anything.

Note: Narrator is still partially incompatible with Snow Leopard. It all works, except it can't open documents saved in its native format (but can still open other kinds of documents). I have a Developer Technical Support incident request in with Apple's engineers to help me solve this, but I'm sure they're swamped with queries at present, so who knows how long they'll take to come up with a solution. The last word I have is that it seems to be a bug in Snow Leopard... so we might have to wait for 10.6.2 or later, but I'm hoping that a workaround can be found. [Edit: 10.6.1 doesn't fix it, either.] I'll do a free update as soon as a fix is available. Sorry for any inconvenience in the meantime!

In addition to Snow Leopard compatibility, Simon also includes some other changes:

• Updated the iPhone Report Template to improve the behavior of the back button and other aspects.
• Added a hidden preference to output debug information from the E-mail plug-in. It can be activated by entering "defaults write com.dejal.simon2 EmailDebugMode YES" in Terminal.
• Also added a hidden E-mail plug-in preference to use the recipient's SMTP server instead of the sender's, via "defaults write com.dejal.simon2 EmailUseRecipientServer YES".
• Added Japanese localization, thanks to Koichi Matsumoto.

Download now:

• Download Simon
• Download Time Out
• Download Caboodle
• Download BlogAssist

Narrator, my fun text-to-speech tool to read out stories or interviews in multiple voices, has now been updated to version 2.0.4.

It includes:

• Fixed an issue with the Preferences window, where edits might not be saved when quitting with the window still open (specifically when an edit is still active).
• Fixed an issue that could prevent finding licenses in very rare circumstances.
• Updated the built-in Kagi purchasing tool to the latest version, which fixes some issues with Leopard.

Download Narrator 2.0.4 now!

Caboodle has been updated again... just a couple of weeks after the previous release. This version includes some improvements to adding entries by dragging text and documents to the Dock, and an important safety fix thanks to a helpful customer.

This is a recommended update for everybody, especially people with slower machines.

Changes in version 1.3.2 include:

• Dragging text to Caboodle's Dock icon now adds a new entry with that text (including rich text, e.g. from a word processing document or web page).
• Dragging any document to Caboodle's Dock icon also adds a new entry with that document as an attachment, and the document's name as the Subject. Even easier to add entries!
• Added a safety check to ensure the data has been fully loaded before handing a Services menu request, to avoid risk of data loss if Caboodle isn't running when adding an entry via the Services menu.

Download Caboodle 1.3.2 now!

Note, Caboodle is still available as part of the great bundle from TheMacBundles.com: 11 apps for just $49.95. Take advantage of this deal before it expires!

Caboodle, my lean, clean snippet machine, has had a number of updates recently. This is a little bug-fix update to address some minor issues, but is a recommended update for everybody.

It includes:

• Improved the handling of imports to use multi-threading only when appropriate.
• Added exception handling and an alert when saving the data, in case something goes wrong, e.g. too much data being saved.
• Prices increased slightly.

Tip: Caboodle will be included in the next edition of The Mac Bundles, coming in just a few days. Subscribe to their mailing list to be notified when the bundle is available.

Download Caboodle 1.3.1 now!

Simon, my essential website and server monitoring tool, has just been updated to version 2.5.2. It includes a number of fixes, and is a recommended update for everyone:

• Added exception handling to the Web plug-in, to catch any low-level errors that occur there. Mac OS X 10.5.7 seemed to introduce a bug with URL connections that could sometimes get stuck when reading cookies.
• Added a hidden preference to output debug information from the Web plug-in. It can be activated by entering "defaults write com.dejal.simon2 WebDebugMode YES" in Terminal.
• Updated the Twitter plug-in to use the latest version of the MGTwitterEngine, which fixes issues related to the Twitpocalypse. Simon wasn't affected, as it always fetches the latest tweets, but good to be up-to-date anyway.
• Changed the Report output to avoid making URLs lowercased when outputting the Location variable.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent finding licenses in very rare circumstances.

Download Simon now!