Black Ink for iOS (iPhone, iPad, and if all goes according to plan, visionOS), is now available on the App Store.

Like its Mac counterpart, core features are free to use, forever. These features include downloading puzzles from a variety of bundled “sources”, and solving the puzzles in the beautifully-rendered Black Ink grid.

Premium features include Check Answer, Reveal Answer, and planned future features such as Printing. Premium features can be unlocked by purchasing a monthly subscription for $1.99 (US), or an annual subscription for $19.99 (US). Exact amounts may vary internationally due to App Store pricing tiers.

Black Ink for iOS has been under development for an exceptionally long time. How long? Nearly 16 years! Looking back through my development notes, I found the very first step was taken on April 6, 2008:

commit b9257fa30eb3b329f5643583608a3f8113d0f282
Author: Daniel Jalkut <[email protected]>
Date:   Sun Apr 6 23:29:07 2008 +0000

    Very first building blocks for touch based Black Ink.

Why did it take so long? A combination of factors, but in a word: priorities. Something else was always swooping in to demand my attention. The app has been roughly working for at least 15 of those 16 years, but there were many rough edges to polish before finally calling it “done” (for now).

Now that the initial release is out, I anticipate more iterative improvements over the coming days, months, and years. I hope you enjoy the app, and that if you do, you’ll share the news of its existence with other crossword lovers in your life.

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

MarsEdit 5.1.2 is now available on the MarsEdit site and on the Mac App Store.

This update continues to improve the stability, performance, and functionality of the app.

Complete list of changes for this release:

• Restore inference of alt text from image file name if it looks like prose
• Improve inference of post title from content when no explicit title
• Improve reliability of plain-text editor syntax highlighting
• Improve first-time authentication behavior with TextPattern blogs
• Fix a crash while refreshing that affected some WordPress blogs
• Fix a crash that could occur when using AppleScript to create a new draft based on an existing post
• Fix a bug where pasting a link on a freshly-uploaded image could cause it to revert to pending upload state
• Fix a bug that prevented default Title field visibility from being respected after editing a post

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

MarsEdit 5.1.1 is now available on the MarsEdit site and on the Mac App Store.

This update improves several issues that snuck through the cracks in the substantial 5.1 update, which was released last week.

Here’s the complete list of changes for this release:

MarsEdit 5.1.1

• Restore functionality of the MarsEdit Micropost app extension
• Cmd-Shift-D shortcut now works to send a post from the Micropost panel
• Fix syntax highlighting of entity references within HTML blocks
• Fix a bug in which published posts sometimems remained in Local Drafts folder
• Fix a bug that prevented Mastodon blogs with MP3 media items from refreshing
• Fix a crash when refreshing a WordPress blog with a malformed featured image post
• Improve performance when initializing a data source with lots of posts with featured images
• Restore dynamic hiding/showing of advanced menu items while holding/releasing option key
• Disable formatting keyboard shortcuts in Mastodon Micropost panel, since it doesn’t support markup

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

MarsEdit 5.1 is now available on the MarsEdit site and on the Mac App Store.

This is a substantial update to MarsEdit 5, featuring all new support for the Mastodon publishing system, which is used to host a large number of independently operated Twitter-like microblogging services.

The addition of Mastodon support is a natural extension of the new Micropost Panel which was introduced in MarsEdit 5. I’ve prioritized the feedback of many users and added the ability to resize, add images, view character count, and more. I will continue to improve upon this in future updates.

While I was working on the improvements above, I spotted the opportunity to improve upon the Tumblr support a bit as well. Previously only one image could be added to a Tumblr photo post. That limit has now been removed. At this point it’s not clear what the future of Tumblr is exactly, but I hope this change will be welcomed by MarsEdit users who continue to enjoy posting on that platform.

Here is the complete list of changes for this release:

• New: Mastodon Support! Download, edit and publish to any Mastodon service
• Microposting panel enhancements
  • Resizable and movable
  • Supports attaching photos
  • Shows character count
  • Now shows the blog’s own icon as a popup menu for selecting target blog
  • Fixed a crash when sharing Wordle results
• Micro.blog specific improvements
  • Updated character limits to match current standards
  • Fix a bug that prevented posts with blockquotes from reliably showing the title field
• Tumblr-specific improvements
  • Can now add multiple photos in Photo posts
  • Refreshing a blog no longer re-downloads all previously downloaded photos
• Other Improvements
  • Performance improvements when sorting a large number of blog posts with content-derived titles
  • Improve design, typography, and wording of New Blog interface
  • HEIC images are now auto-converted to JPEG instead of PNG
  • HTML Entities are now ignored by syntax-highlighting and live spell checking
  • Changes to Custom Field preferences are now reflected immediately in affected post windows
  • Enclosure editor now checks URL for file type and size immediately after pasting in
  • Revise the Safari extension toolbar icon to look consistent with other extension icons
  • Fix a bug that sometimes caused spell checking to fail in Plain Text editing mode
  • Fix a bug in which changes to plain text font did not affect markup tags
  • Fix a crash that could occur when selecting missing items in the Media Manager
  • Fix a crash that could occur when undoing text changes in the Plain Text editor
  • Fix a crash that could occur when selecting missing items in the Media Manager

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