Black Ink 2.5 for iOS is now available on the App Store.

This update adapts the crossword-solving interface of the app to better support the iPhone Duo’s multiple layout scenarios. I knew in particular when I saw the “open book” style interface, that it was time for me to add a long overdue feature to the app: inline clue lists.

This should be a welcome update not just for iPhone Duo users, because the inline clue support is also there for iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro. There are also a handful of unrelated bug fixes and enhancements.

Here’s the list of all the changes in this update:

• iPhone Duo: enhanced designs to match every iPhone Duo mode
• Inline clue lists can now be displayed next to the puzzle grid when there is room
• Pull to refresh now shows download progress in the puzzle list
• Tap and hold on the calendar arrow buttons to navigate quickly through months
• The calendar interface now returns to the previously selected month for easier past-solving
• Improved behavior when downloading from puzzles sources that skip holidays
• Improved feedback when downloading from puzzle sources with no older puzzles
• Monospaced numerals are now used for calendar dates

If you enjoy Black Ink, please consider writing a review or rating the app on the App Store, and spreading the word on social media! Thanks for your support.

MarsEdit 5.4.6 is now available on the MarsEdit site and on the Mac App Store.

This update further improves performance in the plain text editor when working with long posts, reduces CPU usage in the rich text editor, and fixes a bug that could leave a post stuck in the “Publishing” state.

Complete list of changes for this release:

• Improvements to syntax-coloring performance when editing long posts
• Fixed a bug that caused high CPU usage when using the rich text editor
• Fixed redundant reloading of the main window preview during blog refresh
• Fixed a bug that could cause the app to get stuck in “Publishing” state for a post, preventing further “Send to Blog” actions until closing and reopening the document
• Fixed a crash when attempting to “Refresh All” with no blogs configured
• Fixed a bug that prevented last-ditch backups from being saved for posts with very long titles
• Fixed a bug that could cause the Options panel to not expand on a future macOS release

If you enjoy MarsEdit, please consider writing a review or rating the app on the Mac App Store, spreading the word on social networks, or of course, by writing about the app on your own blog! Thanks for your support.

Black Ink for iOS 2.4 is now available on the App Store

The app now features a calendar-based puzzle browser:

Other improvements include the addition of folder dedicated to storing the previously solved puzzles, improvements to Files app integration, and support for drag and drop.

Complete list of changes for this release:

• New calendar interface for browsing and downloading puzzles by date
• Completed puzzles are now automatically moved to a subfolder in the puzzles list
• Black Ink now shows in the “Open With” menu item in the Files app when selecting a puzzle file
• Drag and drop of puzzle files to the app is now supported
• Fixed a bug that caused image clues to draw outside the visible clue area
• Fixed a bug that caused full-color clue images to draw inverted
• Fixed a bug that delayed the latest puzzle from a source from appearing
• Fixed a bug that caused some clue text to exceed the bounds of the clue area
• Fixed a few small dark mode UI coloring issues

If you enjoy Black Ink, please consider writing a review or rating the app on the App Store, and spreading the word on social media! Thanks for your support.

MarsEdit 5.4.5 is now available on the MarsEdit site and on the Mac App Store.

This update is focused on performance and polish, with particular improvements to the speed of syntax highlighting and live preview updates. It also includes fixes for several issues that caused changes in the options panel not to be persisted when publishing a post. Finally, there are a good number of smaller fixes throughout the app:

• Reduced flickering and reloading of content in the preview window
• Improved typing and scrolling performance in plain text mode
• Fixed issues that could cause sections of text to have stale syntax highlighting
• Markdown list notation that uses only 2 or 3 spaces per indent is now rendered correctly in the preview window
• Restored expected behavior when preview content is “pinned” to the bottom while writing a long post
• Restored the ability to use the space key in the main post list to scroll through posts one at a time
• Fixed a bug that could cause long text values to truncate instead of growing the pertinent text field
• Fixed a bug that could cause successful blog refreshes after a failed one to fail to save to disk
• Fixed a bug that could cause a post to publish twice if a network connection drop occurred during posting
• Fixed a bug that could cause an authentication panel to appear repeatedly after canceling it
• Fixed a bug that caused the wrong post to be opened when double clicking shortly after changing the selected blog
• Fixed a bug where dragging the last “Published” image from the Media window failed to add the image to the targeted post
• Fixed a bug that could cause a toolbar icon to appear with inverted colors
• Fixed multiple bugs that could cause a crash when the server returns an unexpected result
• Fixed a number of memory over-usage problems
• Improved security when the server tries to redirect from an HTTPS to an HTTP URL
• Posts whose date can’t be parsed no longer display as January 1, 2001
• The Crash Reporter now avoids re-submitting old crash logs when the app terminates unexpectedly
• Tumblr specific improvements:
  • Fixed a bug that caused “Private” posts to be switched to “Draft”
  • Fixed a bug that could cause posts containing certain phrases to signal a connection error
  • Photos attached to a Tumblr post are no longer silently dropped when publishing needs to authenticate or retry

If you enjoy MarsEdit, please consider writing a review or rating the app on the Mac App Store, spreading the word on social networks, or of course, by writing about the app on your own blog! Thanks for your support.