Today, Brent Simmons announced the launch of NetNewsWire 5.0. Congratulations to Brent and the rest of the open source team that made this happen!

NetNewsWire is an important app to me both because I have been actively using it as my news reader for over 15 years, and because it is literally the progenitor of MarsEdit! MarsEdit began as an in-app blogging feature before Brent spun it out into its own app

Recently on Twitter, Becky Hansmeyer observed that MarsEdit and NetNewsWire’s icons appeared to be related:

These two look like they should be a part of some sort of indie blogging software suite and I love it. 💛cc: @danielpunkass & @brentsimmons pic.twitter.com/anKraFqRxN

— Becky Hansmeyer (@bhansmeyer) August 17, 2019

In fact, they are part of some “indie blogging software suite,” as informal as it may be. And MarsEdit has been getting lonely in this suite! After a long hiatus, it’s great to see NetNewsWire being actively developed again, not only by its original author, but with the help of a bunch of fresh new minds who I’m sure will carry it forward for many major updates to come.

MarsEdit 4.3.4 is now available at the MarsEdit home page and has been submitted to the Mac App Store.

This update addresses a bug that was introduced in 4.3.3, causing a crash when applying certain formatting macros.

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 4.3.3 is now available at the MarsEdit home page and on the Mac App Store.

This update includes a few bug fixes, minor cosmetic changes, and improvements to VoiceOver support.

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

• Bug Fixes & Enhancements
  • Fix a bug where the cursor jumped to the beginning of document when undoing in Rich Rext
  • “Ask Text” formatting macro placeholders no longer default to the pasteboard contents
  • Fix a typo and rework wording of the new blog panel
  • Increase vertical spacing between items in the Categories list
• Accessibility Improvements
  • Expand VoiceOver support in the “Add Blog” panel
  • Remove a superfluous column from the Categories table that showed up in VoiceOver
  • Improve VoiceOver announcement of the Preview Window when using default preview template

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.

On Friday I announced a promotion to benefit The National Center for Transgender Equality. I put all of Red Sweater’s apps on sale for 50% off, and pledged to donate the full amount of payments made using the coupon to the charity.

I’m excited to share that when all was said and done, 40 people took advantage of the offer, yielding $843.89 in revenue. I rounded that figure up to $850, and just completed the donation a few minutes ago.

Thanks to everybody who participated and/or helped to spread the word!