FastScripts 3.3.4 is now available on the FastScripts home page, or by selecting “Check for Update” from the FastScripts menu.

This update addresses a couple nagging usability issues with the FastScripts menu, and improves the functionality of the “invoke” scripting command, useful when you want to spawn a FastScripts script task from another script.

Complete list of changes for this release:

• Fix a bug that caused the Recent Scripts menu item to be erroneously highlighted after invoking a script by search
• Fix a bug that caused the down arrow to skip a search result from the Script Menu
• The “invoke” scripting command now returns results from Automator and Shell Script invocations
• Automator workflows can now be provided with variables, in addition to parameters, when run with the “invoke” scripting command

If you enjoy FastScripts, please consider spreading the word on Facebook or Twitter! Thanks for your support.

Black Ink 2.2.2 for iPhone, iPad, and visionOS is now available on the App Store.

This update brings updated home screen icons so Black Ink will fit in when you configure your device to use Dark Mode or Tinted versions of app icons.

It also includes substantial changes to the clue text area to render text more efficiently and aesthetically, and to minimize the need to shrink the puzzle area to make room for clues.

Here is the complete list of changes for this update:

• Added support for Dark Mode and Tinted versions of the application icon
• Improve the clue text area to better fit clue text in the available space
• Non-applicable comments in some visual NYT clues are no longer displayed
• Printing improvements to avoid splitting a clue’s text across pages or wrapping prematurely
• VoiceOver: Puzzle square status such as being circled or shaded, marked incorrect, etc., are now announced

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!

Black Ink 2.3.3 is now available on the Black Ink site and on the Mac App Store.

This update includes a grab bag of fixes but some that may pop out as useful to you are the fix for the calendar picker, improved clue layout when printing, and exposing more information via VoiceOver when navigating the puzzle:

• Fix a bug that prevented the puzzle chooser from defaulting to the previously selected month and year
• Non-applicable comments in some visual NYT clues are no longer displayed
• Printing improvements to avoid splitting a clue’s text across pages or wrapping prematurely
• Puzzle timer now records puzzle solve timing even if timer is not visible
• If the app is opened in the background, puzzle timer won’t start until app is activated
• Accessibility Improvements:
  • Puzzle square status such as being circled or shaded, marked incorrect, etc., are now announced by VoiceOver
  • Fix a bug that could prevent changed values to cells being reflected by VoiceOver

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

MarsEdit 5.2.6 is now available on the MarsEdit site and has been submitted to the Mac App Store.

This update includes a workaround for a crashing bug on macOS Sequoia, mitigates “-1005” networking errors, and more.

The crashing bug is due to a bug in Apple’s “Token Field” support, which is used by MarsEdit for the tags field. If you’ve noticed MarsEdit crashing when you hover with the mouse over the Tags field, this is the fix for you! The app now suppresses the error thrown by the system, which previously caused the app to crash.

The “-1005” networking errors have been a vexing issue affecting a relatively small number of users, most of whom seem to use WordPress.com or another Automattic based hosting service. While I haven’t gotten completely to the bottom of this issue, I made a change in this version of MarsEdit so that when the error is encountered, the app will now retry a few times to make the same network request. In limited tests so far, this seems to help some users who are seeing the errors.

Here is the complete list of changes for this release:

• Work around a bug in macOS 15.0 that can cause the app to crash when hovering the mouse over the Tags field
• Mitigate the impact of spurious networking issues that cause “-1005” errors for some blogs
• The Micropost panel now opens on the active Desktop even if MarsEdit is assigned to a specific Desktop
• An alert is now displayed if setting a keyboard shortcut fails because of new restrictions in macOS 15 Sequoia
• Temporary posts for automatic preview detection are now backdated 10 years to prevent them showing up in RSS feeds/etc.
• Fix a bug that caused duplicated text when using dictation in the Rich Text editor

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