Here is another beta release of Simon, my website and server monitoring app for macOS.
Simon version 5 is a massive update, introducing a much-requested feature: syncing the Simon data between multiple Macs, plus a Simon Status service, a Link Checker filter, an iMessage notifier, and much more.
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Terminal commands.Please read the warnings and release notes above before jumping in. This is a beta release, not ready for primetime quite yet.
If you are using the direct edition, you can change your Updates preferences to include beta releases, then use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download the beta now!
Here is a third beta release of Simon, my website and server monitoring app for macOS.
Simon version 5 is a massive update, introducing a much-requested feature: syncing the Simon data between multiple Macs, plus a Simon Status service, a Link Checker filter, an iMessage notifier, and much more.
Version 5.0b3 includes a redesigned app icon in the Big Sur style. Yes, I just got the icon updated for the squircle style, but I didn't like the old icon in a squircle, so decided to try again, with a completely new icon. It is inspired by the previous one, modeled after an antique TV, but now slightly more modern:
Please read the warnings and release notes above before jumping in. This is a beta release, not ready for primetime quite yet.
If you are using the direct edition, you can change your Updates preferences to include beta releases, then use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download the beta now!
Here is a second beta release of Simon, my website and server monitoring app for macOS.
Simon version 5 is a massive update, introducing a much-requested feature: syncing the Simon data between multiple Macs, plus a Simon Status service, a Link Checker filter, an iMessage notifier, and much more.
Version 5.0b2 includes an updated app icon in the Big Sur style:
Plus other changes for improved Big Sur compatibility, a new Speak Error notifier, and sync improvements.
Read on for the full release notes:
Please read the warnings and release notes above before jumping in. This is a beta release, not ready for primetime quite yet.
If you are using the direct edition, you can change your Updates preferences to include beta releases, then use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download the beta now!
Here's a quick update of Time Out, my popular break reminder tool, to fix a few issues:
If you are using the Mac App Store edition, you can update via the App Store app.
Similarly, if you are using the Setapp edition, it will handle that update for you.
If you are using the direct edition, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download Time Out 2.7.1 now!
I'm pleased to announce the general release of version 2.7 of Time Out, my popular break reminder tool.
This update includes a new app icon, plus a number of changes for compatibility with Big Sur, including being built for Apple's new M1-based Macs, in addition to Intel ones. It also includes a much-requested new feature to ask to start a break, improvements to the break preview feature, adds several new break themes, and much more.
Apple's latest version of macOS, Big Sur (macOS 11) has a number of refinements to its appearance. One that is immediately apparent is that app icons now look more like iOS ones, with a rounded rectangle (aka "squircle") shape, and often more bold colors.
Time Out's icon has adopted this style, taking the relaxing palm trees and smiling hammock that you know and love, and leaping through the frame into the scene, thanks to the excellent Matthew Skiles:
Version 2.7 also includes several other changes for Big Sur compatibility, including using the Dejal green color for controls and the sidebar if the accent color in General System Preferences is set to "multicolor", and a number of other UI tweaks. It also fixes an issue where the break control panel could move downwards on each break in Big Sur.
As you probably know, Apple recently introduced new super-fast low-end Macs using Apple-designed "M1" chips. Time Out is now a universal app for Apple M1 silicon and Intel on Big Sur; it also supports back to Yosemite (macOS 10.10).
This update adds a much-requested new feature to ask to start a break, as a new option on the Break Schedule preferences page:
If chosen, a time interval control appears to specify a limit, after which it should start anyway. This defaults to 5 minutes (also supports units of seconds and hours; like other interval pickers, tab to or click the units to edit via arrows, typing, or click again to show a menu). When a break is due with this option, the control panel will appear, with a button to manually start the break when you're ready, and the screen won't dim:
When you click the Start Break button, the screen dims and the break continues as normal. If you don't click within the time limit, the break starts anyway; this is needed to avoid accidentally blocking subsequent breaks. As a helpful reminder, a countdown to auto-starting appears once halfway through the time limit.
When clicking the Preview button on the Break Appearance page, the break now appears with a Stop Preview button to dismiss it. The preview has no time limit; it'll remain until dismissed. Dismissing the preview doesn't count as skipping it, so doesn't affect your statistics or daily limits:
If you want to try the full break experience, click the Start button in the sidebar instead.
The default "Icon" theme has been updated to use the new app icon, and a new "Round Icon" theme has been added that includes the old icon, if you miss that.
Other new break themes include a "Dejal Blog" theme, that shows the Dejal blog for news from Dejal, "Dejus Blog", that shows my personal blog, with daily interesting photos, and to complete the set, "Yellow Cottage Blog", that shows my homestead blog, with pictures of feral cats, ducks, chickens, and more. Check 'em out!
As an example of a static remote picture, there's also a "Ducks & Fish" theme, that shows that. You can edit the theme to show a picture of your choosing. Plus an "Inspirational Quotes" theme, that shows a quote for each break, a "Pexels Nature" theme, that shows a random nature picture, and "Photo Slideshow", that can be edited to show 10 local images of your choosing.
When looking at the handy Activity view, sometimes you may want to know more precisely when an app was used (I know I do; I use this feature all the time). So I added the time range to the tooltips for breaks and apps on the Activity page.
A fun feature of the status menu (available to supporters via the General page) is that when you click an item in the menu, the full window expands out from the status menu. That looks especially nice when the full window is aligned with the status menu, so now the Advanced option to reset the position of the full window after displaying the status menu is a checkbox to keep that behavior, instead of a button for a one-time reset. So you can freely move the window around the screen, and it'll be back with the status menu next time, if that's what you want.
Speaking of the status item, I tweaked the size and alignment of it when only an icon or only the countdown is displayed, to look a bit nicer, and fixed break rows not highlighting properly in the status item menu on recent macOS versions, and worked around Apple bug with displaying a time like 59 minutes 30 seconds as "0d".
Another fun thing is throbbing red heart icons that appear to indicate supporter rewards. But some people didn't notice them, and were surprised when a feature reverted after the hour trial. So now the info popover for a reward trial automatically appears each time a page is displayed during the hour trial, to make that more clear.
Oh, and speaking of rewards, a reminder as a reward for reading this far: if you haven't already taken advantage of it, you can become a supporter for free at present; since March I've been giving it away to help people working from home. If you have already got that, don't worry; the new features in this update will be fully unlocked for you.
On the Exclusions page, it now skips breaks during a screen recording by default for new users. Existing users can see this blog post to add this exclusion. It now skips when using Zoom too; see this blog post.
Break Actions are a handy feature to play sounds, show notifications, and more, before, during, or after a break. I fixed a bug where they could occur incorrectly if manually starting a break while paused, and now list scripts in alphabetical order, plus fixed the Sound Action Repeat checkbox color in dark mode.
Finally, I added Dejal Reddit and other tweaks to the Help menu.
Phew, that's quite a lot of improvements!
If you are using the Mac App Store edition, you can update via the App Store app.
Similarly, if you are using the Setapp edition, it will handle that update for you.
If you are using the direct edition, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download Time Out 2.7 now!
Here's a second beta of Time Out 2.7.
The general release will probably be in a couple of days, but I'd appreciate a few people kicking the tires now, to make sure nothing is broken.
A big change in this release is that it is now built for Apple's new M1-based Macs, in addition to Intel ones. I don't have an M1 Mac (yet), so if you do, I'd especially like to hear of any issues. Update: Actually, due to a third-party incompatibility, this version is not built for M1. But I've fixed that for the general release. If you have an M1 Mac, please get in touch to get early access to that.
Another big change is the app icon, adopting the new Big Sur style, thanks to the excellent Matthew Skiles:
Plus a bunch of fixes for Big Sur and more; read on for the full changes in this beta:
If you are using the direct edition, you can change your Updates preferences to include beta releases, then use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download the beta now!
I'm pleased to announce the first beta release of Time Out 2.7!
This update includes changes for compatibility with Big Sur, plus a much-requested new feature to ask to start a break:
When enabled, the break control panel appears without dimming the screen, with a Start Break button to actually start the break:
This update also includes improvements to the Preview feature, to preview themes without affecting stats:
It also bundles several more themes (that are available via the Time Out Extras page), and a bunch of other changes.
Here are the full release notes; read on for more information:
If you are using the direct edition, you can change your Updates preferences to include beta releases, then use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download the beta now!
I'm pleased to introduce the first beta release of a major upgrade of Simon, my website and server monitoring app for macOS.
Simon version 5 is a massive update, introducing a much-requested feature: syncing the Simon data between multiple Macs!
Tests and other data can be viewed and edited on any of your Macs, and checked on a specific Mac:
What's more, notifiers can be performed on any of the Macs, even a different one than did the check. For example, have a Mac in a data center do a check, and play a sound or speak some text on the Mac on your desk if it fails or changes:
Something else many people have wanted, it also includes the ability to check if other copies of Simon are still working:
Other enhancements include a new Link Checker filter, to validate all links on a web page, a Server Result filter, to easily check result codes, an iMessage notifier, to send a message, a new more efficient data format, and numerous other changes.
Read on for the full release notes:
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tags are now included.Please read the warnings and release notes above before jumping in. This is a beta release, not ready for primetime quite yet.
If you are using the direct edition, you can change your Updates preferences to include beta releases, then use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download the beta now!
In between working on my Dejal apps and other projects, I've been hard at work on a big update to one of my consulting projects, SheetPlanner. Version 1.2 is now being beta tested.
SheetPlanner is a powerful macOS app that combines an outliner, todo, project timeline, calendar, notes, links, and more. This update includes a new picture column type, multi-selection in list cells, cell-specific styles and improved style controls, notifications for date cells, a timeline info popover, a date stamp option, and many more great enhancements.
If you're interested in helping test this update, please request the beta via the SheetPlanner contact form.
I'm pleased to announce version 2.1 of Pack, my simple trip packing app for iPhone.
If you missed version 2.0, you may be interested to learn that Pack is now totally free for everyone! It no longer has an in-app purchase to unlock features; everything is available. Read the 2.0 blog post if you're curious why.
Want to get it right now? Download Pack from the App Store. Read on for details.
Version 2.1 includes support for iOS 13, including dark mode. (Don't worry, it still works on iOS 12 too.)
Here's the packing view, where you cross off items as you put them in your suitcase:
Flip over to the Choose Items view to pick what to pack:
And editing items:
You get the idea. Of course, the light mode is also still available. But I know a lot of people prefer dark mode, myself included.
Version 2.1 also includes some improvements to tags, one of the new features of version 2.0, where items can have any number of tags assigned to them, e.g. "Clothing" and "Cold" to enable further categorizing items to guide choosing what to pack for a trip.
Notice in the screenshots above that some items, e.g. "Sweatshirt", appear twice, once under "Clothing", and once under "Cold". Toggling one will toggle the other, since they are just two tags for the same item. You can also arrange the items by name or by person, if that makes more sense to you. (Personally I usually use by person.)
Again, Pack 2 is completely free! So download it from the App Store and try it before your next trip.
If you do try it, please do me a favor and write a review for it. The old version had some 1-star reviews due to old issues, but I'd like to get some more positive ones there, to encourage people to give it a try. Pack has long been an indispensable app for me, and I'm sure others will find it useful too.
Thank you,
David
I'm pleased to announce that my popular break reminder tool, Time Out, is now available via Setapp!
As you may know, Setapp is a third-party solution kind of like the Mac App Store, but instead of selling apps individually, they offer a hand-picked collection of the best apps for one low monthly price. Like Netflix for apps.
And now Time Out is amongst that elite set of apps.
All apps in Setapp are fully-featured, with no up-front purchases, in-app purchases, or ads. And fully supported by the developers. Time Out is no different: the Setapp edition includes all supporter rewards, past, present, and future.
If you're already a Setapp subscriber, I'd appreciate it if you switched over to the Setapp edition, since the more people who use it, the more money I earn from Setapp. Then you'll get future supporter rewards at no cost. But if you prefer to stick with the Mac App Store or direct editions, that's fine too. Whichever you prefer.
If you aren't yet a Setapp subscriber, now is a great time to try it. I'm confident that you'll find several apps that you'll find useful, easily justifying the cost. Try it free for a week! To get started, click the following link (and that'll help me too; if you sign up via this link, I'll get a referral bonus for the lifetime of your account; much appreciated!):
Here's a little update of Time Out, my popular break reminder tool, with just a few tweaks:
If you are using the Mac App Store edition, you can update via the App Store app.
If you are using the direct edition, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download Time Out now!
Here's a beta of a little update to Time Out, to fix a few things.
Only a few changes in this beta:
If you are using the direct edition, you can change your Updates preferences to include beta releases, then use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download the beta now!
I'm pleased to announce the general release of version 2.6 of Time Out, my popular break reminder tool.
A significant enhancement in this update is the ability to have breaks that occur at a fixed number of minutes past the hour. What's more, you can now also have a break offset from the completion time instead of the start time.
These new options are available via a new From pop-up menu on the Break Schedule page, that includes options for Last Due, Last Done, and Fixed Time. Last Due is what previously happened, and the default.
Last Done is a new option, that will reset the break after it is completed, so the next break will occur the frequency interval after that. For example, a 10 minute break every 30 minutes will next occur 30 minutes after the break finishes, instead of 30 minutes after it starts (as with the Last Due option).
Fixed Time is another new option, which will display a field to enter the number of minutes past the hour (0 - 59), and will start the break at that time, or some multiple if the frequency is less than an hour. For example, setting it to 50 for an hourly break will start the break at 09:50, 10:50, 11:50, etc. Or setting it to 15 for a break every 30 minutes will start it at 09:15, 09:45, 10:15, 10:45, etc (you may need to also use the Available option to set a start time in this situation).
The latter two are new rewards for current or future supporters; others can try them for an hour at a time.
But wait, there's more! By popular request, you can now configure a break to last zero seconds, to avoid showing the control panel at all. When the duration is zero, the Appearance page is disabled, since it doesn't apply. Use Actions like Flash Screen or Display Notification instead.
You can also now use seconds as a frequency unit, i.e. have the break occur as often as once per second, if desired (though not recommended!).
Both options can be useful for a 10 second blink reminder that just flashes the screen.
Version 2.6 also bundles the Random Word theme, contributed by Michelle Lim. This theme displays a different word and its definition each time it is displayed — entertaining and informative.
Time Out has been updated to be compatible with Catalina (macOS 10.15). The direct edition now uses the hardened runtime and is notarized by Apple, as required for Catalina.
Including proper sorting of the Activity dates, fixed row heights in the status popover, counting postponing and skipping a break via the Options pop-up menu, always showing the Preferences window, several improvements to in-app purchases, and help updates.
See the release notes for details.
If you are using the Mac App Store edition, you can update via the App Store app.
If you are using the direct edition, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download Time Out now!
Here's a second beta of Time Out 2.6.
Only a few changes in this beta:
If you are using the direct edition, you can change your Updates preferences to include beta releases, then use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download the beta now!
Another release this week: this time a beta of my handy break reminder Mac app, Time Out.
Version 2.6b1 adds a much-requested option for fixed-time breaks, plus better support for blink reminders by enabling zero-length breaks, and having breaks that occur every few seconds. Plus other enhancements and fixes.
Here are the deets:
If you are using the direct edition, you can change your Updates preferences to include beta releases, then use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.
Otherwise, download the beta now!
Another of my consulting projects, SheetPlanner, has also recently had a big update, to version 1.1.
SheetPlanner is a powerful macOS app that combines an outliner, todo, project timeline, calendar, notes, links, and more. This update includes dependency features, new progress and symbol column types, auto-enter options, and many more great enhancements.
Get the app and start a free trial via the Mac App Store.
NewsBlur for iOS version 9 is now available on the App Store.
NewsBlur is a popular RSS service, and the iOS app enables reading stories from the convenience of your iPhone or iPad.
This update includes full screen, autoscroll, customizable story titles, story change highlighter, and return to last read story, among other improvements.
Go to the App Store to get the app, or read the official NewsBlur blog post for more information on this update.
(NewsBlur for iOS is a Dejal consulting project.)
I'm pleased to announce version 2.0 of Pack, my simple trip packing app for iPhone.
And best of all, Pack is now totally free for everyone! It no longer has an in-app purchase to unlock features; everything is available.
Want to get it right now? Download Pack from the App Store. Read on for details.
The app has been completely rewritten from the ground up, using the latest Swift development tools, to provide a solid foundation for future enhancements. But if you used version 1, don't worry, it still loads your existing list.
The basic design philosophy is unchanged: a single list of all things you might want to take on a trip, from which you choose what to take, then flip over to cross things off as you pack. No need to make new trip lists, add extraneous information like weights or quantities, or ugly graphics. Just what you need.
You'll start with the choosing view, but are probably more interested in the packing view. Here it is:
I've enhanced crossing items off, including a subtle haptic feedback. And improved the sharing feature to work better with more apps, and include the packed state as a leading checkmark, or unpacked as a dash, among other changes.
Tap the eye icon to reveal new Packing Options, to control how to display the packing list, including by item name, by tag, or by person, and whether to show all items, only unpacked ones, or put the packed ones at the end, after the unpacked ones:
Flip over to the Choose Items view to pick what to pack:
You can add or edit items:
Other than a modernized UI, including support for the X-style iPhones, a big enhancement is to replace categories with tags, so you can now assign items to multiple tags, e.g. "Cold" and "Clothing":
As before, you can assign items to multiple people, so they show up separately for each person. This used to be a paid feature, but can now be enjoyed for free:
Like with the Packing view, the Choosing view also has some Choosing Options, with the same arrangement options, the ability to show only packed or unpacked, or all items, and buttons to select or deselect all items, and mark the items as packed or unpacked:
So why did I spend all that time rewriting the app, only to release it for free?
My wife and I travel a few times each year, and use Pack before each trip to ensure we don't leave anything we need behind. But I use an iPhone XS Max currently, and the old version wasn't optimized for that. I could have updated it, but the code was rather old and crusty, using old technologies that I don't prefer nowadays. It was also a little unstable in some situations. I prefer writing apps in Swift now, and Pack is a fairly small app, so I decided to rewrite it to address those issues and make it much more modern.
So why free? I am primarily a Mac developer, though certainly have iOS apps, and do consulting on iOS apps (e.g. NewsBlur), but Pack has never been a big earner for me. I originally wrote it for my own use, and actually used it for quite some time before releasing it. I released version 1 for free, with an in-app purchase to unlock premium features, but most people were satisfied with the free features, if they stuck with the app. That was fine with me. I definitely wanted to continue supporting the app, if only for my own use, but didn't think it was worthwhile to continue trying to monetize it.
It's actually quite nice releasing it for free; it takes some of the pressure off me. And of course now more people can enjoy it, too, without having to worry about paying for it.
I will of course continue to use it for every trip, and have plans for several enhancements I want to make in future versions, while keeping the overall design simple and easy to use.
It's not all improvements. One casualty of the rewrite is that I didn't re-implement the Apple Watch app. The old one was built for an early version of watchOS, before it was called watchOS, when it was just a remote view of the iPhone app. It would have had to be rewritten from scratch, and since I didn't tend to use it myself, I decided not to take that time. Sorry if you did use it; please let me know if so. I might re-implement it in a future version, if there's demand, though no promises.
Again, Pack 2 is completely free! So download it from the App Store and try it before your next trip.
If you do try it, please do me a favor and write a review for it. The old version had some 1-star reviews due to old issues, but I'd like to get some more positive ones there, to encourage people to give it a try. Pack has long been an indispensable app for me, and I'm sure others will find it useful too.
Thank you,
David
Pack, my simple packing list iPhone app, has (finally) been updated for the latest iPhone models. It has been rewritten from the ground up to modernize the UI and the code.
Here's what's changed: