Linked List: April 4, 2019

Thursday, 4 April 2019

BBEdit Returns to the Mac App Store ★

Bare Bones Software:

When the Mac App Store debuted in 2011, BBEdit was one of its first products available for sale. However, due to technical and business constraints we encountered in the store, we decided to withdraw BBEdit from the Mac App Store in 2014.

Following BBEdit’s exit from the Mac App Store, we had many conversations with our customers, and with Apple, regarding the issues that we had encountered with the store.

In the spring of 2018, Bare Bones and Apple announced that, subsequent to the release of macOS Mojave (10.14) and the accompanying refresh of the Mac App Store, BBEdit would be returning to the store.

This was made possible by changes to the OS itself which allow Mac App Store versions of BBEdit to function to their fullest extent while complying with Mac App Store rules; as well as changes to the Mac App Store business mechanics which make it possible for us to distribute our software through the Mac App Store as part of a sustainable business model.

They’ve made this work by using a subscription model for the Mac App Store version: $40/year or $4/month — a veritable bargain.

The App Store has welcomed BBEdit back warmly, with a nice top-of-the-front-page feature on developer Rich Siegel and BBEdit’s incredibly long history as a Mac stalwart, along with two other features: “BBEdit: A Writer’s Secret Weapon” and “Tame Your Text Files” — both good guides to BBEdit’s rich feature set. (Those App Store articles will open in the App Store apps on Mojave or iOS.) Even a nice tweet from Phil Schiller.

This welcome news coincides with today’s 12.6.3 update for all BBEdit users, which, as ever, is accompanied by copiously detailed release notes.

SoundSource 4 ★

Huge update to Rogue Amoeba’s audio management utility for the Mac — the “What’s New in Version 4” page is a long read even for existing SoundSource readers. And if you’re not familiar with SoundSource, their description is spot-on: “Sound control so good, it ought to be built in”.

Basically, SoundSource is a menu bar app that gives you quick access to input and output devices, and level settings, and lets you apply equalizer effects — both system-wide and on a per-app basis. All with a thoughtful, intuitive interface.

SoundSource is also a great example of a distinctive, branded UI that still looks and feels in every way like a standard Mac app. $29 for new users, $19 upgrade for existing SoundSource 3 users.

Cardhop for iOS ★

What Fantastical is to Apple’s Calendar app, Cardhop is to the Contacts app — a vast improvement over a built-in system app, with a very convenient natural language parser for doing everything from searching to creating. That’s no surprise, since Cardhop is from Fantastical’s developer, Flexibits.

Everything great about Fantastical is there in Cardhop — thoughtful interaction design, gorgeous appearance, and terrific attention to detail. They’ve also made a cool intro video, and Ryan Christoffel has a detailed review at MacStories.

And it’s just a one-time purchase for $4 in the App Store. Ridiculously cheap.

Shocker: Barr’s Summary of Mueller Report Might Be Fishy ★

Ellen Nakashima, Carol D. Leonnig, and Rosalind S. Helderman, reporting for The Washington Post:

“There was immediate displeasure from the team when they saw how the attorney general had characterized their work instead,” according to one U.S. official briefed on the matter.

Summaries were prepared for different sections of the report, with a view that they could made public, the official said.

The report was prepared “so that the front matter from each section could have been released immediately — or very quickly,” the official said. “It was done in a way that minimum redactions, if any, would have been necessary, and the work would have spoken for itself.”

Mueller’s team assumed the information was going to be made available to the public, the official said, “and so they prepared their summaries to be shared in their own words — and not in the attorney general’s summary of their work, as turned out to be the case.”

Imagine the right’s reaction if there had been a two-year independent counsel investigation of Barack Obama, led by Robert Mueller, regarding election malfeasance and obstruction of justice, and when completed, attorney general Eric Holder released nothing but his own 4-page summary that basically said “nothing to look at here”.

I’m sure that would have flown.

I don’t know if it’s going to happen in days, weeks, or months, but the Mueller report will be released. This Barr summary is such a ham-fisted gambit — it really doesn’t make any sense at all if the report actually looks good for Trump.