Author's Posts

Glimpses Icon

Today, Glimpses v2.1, an app that creates Still Motion Videos in just a few clicks, is available for download from the Mac App Store.
It’s a free upgrade for everyone who purchased it before.
A free, 15-day trial is available for download here, even if you’ve tried it before.

What Is Glimpses?

When you want to show your awesome photos from your recent vacation but there are just too many, you can either sort through them and heavy-heartedly decide which ones to toss aside, or you show them all – with a Still Motion Video.
Still Motion Videos show photos in very rapid succession, usually for the fraction of a second. Mix that with a soundtrack, and you can make your video action-packed and powerful, or mellow and soothing. Or even both.

Glimpses lets you create such high-quality videos with just a few clicks.
Import your photos (from your Photos.app library, a hard drive, Flickr or Instagram), add one or more soundtracks and you’re set – Glimpses figures out the rest.
The app creates your video in a smart way:

  • The video’s resolution (ranging from 240p to 4K) will be calculated by looking at the smallest photos you supply
  • Its duration is based on the amount of photos you imported, and the duration of the soundtracks you supplied
  • Soundtracks that turn out too long will automatically fade out smoothly at the end of your video, whereas short soundtracks can be looped
  • Pillar- and letterboxes can be eliminated, if the photo’s resolution allows for it
  • Due to built-in facial recognition, photos are positioned in a way that faces aren’t outside of the video’s frame

However, control is always at the user’s fingertips. For example, soundtracks can be edited so only your favorite part of it is used, in an easy-to-use, yet powerful way:

Screenshot of Glimpses' Soundtrack Editor

Additionally, every other aspect of your video can be manually set up:

Screenshot of Glimpses' Video Settings

What’s New in v2.1?

  • Improves integration with macOS by providing a QuickLook plugin that offers an easier and quicker way to identify Glimpses project files
  • Improves integration with Photos.app by supporting drag and drop from the app and offering a Share Extension so photos can be imported to Glimpses without leaving Photos.app
  • Photos can be edited using external editors
  • Shuffle photos to add a random touch to your video
  • Performance improvements, refinements and bug fixes throughout the app

Pricing and Availability

Glimpses 2.1 is available for purchase on the Mac App Store for the price of $19.99 / £14.99 / €19.99.
It is a free update for existing customers of the app.
A free, 15-day trial is available on the website, even if you’ve already tried the app.
Glimpses runs on Macs with OS X Yosemite or newer.

If you’re interested in writing about Glimpses, you can download its press kit here, which contains screenshots, a short sample video and further information.
A limited amount of promotional codes are available to members of the press at press(at)eternalstorms(dot)at.

Links

Glimpses Website
http://eternalstorms.at/glimpses
Glimpses on the Mac App Store
https://itunes.apple.com/app/glimpses/id637565340?mt=12
Glimpses Demo Download
http://eternalstorms.at/glimpses/Glimpses.zip
Glimpses Press Kit
http://eternalstorms.at/press/Glimpses-2-Press-Kit.zip
Glimpses Sample Video on YouTube
https://youtu.be/NCa4Fg6uLoI

I’m looking forward to hearing from you and to see what you think about Glimpses 2.1.
If you like the app, please consider leaving a little review on the Mac App Store, it would help me out a lot!
Should you have any feedback or questions, please be sure to get in touch, I’d love to hear from you! Thank you.

 

Eternal Storms Software Logo

– – – Do you enjoy my blog and/or my software? – – –

Stay up-to-date on all things Eternal Storms Software and join my low-frequency newsletter (one mail a month at most).
Thank you 🙂

Read more

An inactive checkbox is always a bit of a mystery to me.
Why is it inactive? How do I get it to activate so I can select it? More often than not, it takes me a couple of tries fiddling around with other preferences to finally activate the checkbox and be able to select it.
It shouldn’t be that way.

And now I realize I’ve been guilty of having such an inactive checkbox in Yoink‘s preferences myself:

Yoink 3.2 Preferences Inactive CheckboxThe inactive checkbox “Show window near mouse pointer (…)” is inactive and needs extra steps to be activated

It’s exactly what I dislike. What was I thinking?
As a new user who has no idea how these preferences are connected, you just don’t know how to get that checkbox active and, more importantly, how to change the setting available behind the inactive checkbox.
In the worst case, it’d take three steps to activate it. You’d have to:

  1. Select the checkbox “Automatically show when” (if it wasn’t active before)
  2. Change “mouse pointer is at edge of screen” to “drag starts”
  3. and then you’d finally be able to access the newly active checkbox
If I launch Yoink for the first time, I have no idea what’s going on. That’s not a very good user experience.
So with the upcoming update v3.2.1, the checkbox will always be active, and it’s much clearer how these two options are connected:

Yoink 3.2.1 Preferences Active CheckboxIn Yoink v3.2.1, the checkbox is always accessible, eliminating extra steps to be able to select it.

Obviously, not all cases are the same and sometimes, in some places, there might be a good reason to have a checkbox inactive.
But here, it was clearly the wrong choice.

[Update 27.10.2016: I published a follow-up here.]

Eternal Storms Software Logo

– – – Do you enjoy my blog and/or my software? – – –

Stay up-to-date on all things Eternal Storms Software and join my low-frequency newsletter (one mail a month at most).
Thank you 🙂

Read more

… Did

Worked on Glimpses v2.1 (website, mac app store)
Glimpses 2.0, I’m petrified to say, was released and then not updated again on June 7th, 2015 – that’s more than a year ago. An update has been overdue for quite some time.
In version 2.1, I focused on bringing the app up-to-speed concerning the integration with macOS – mainly, the Photos.app.
Version 2.1 includes a Share extension so photos can be sent from Photos.app to Glimpses right from within the app. Glimpses will also accept drag’n’dropped photos from Photos.app, something that didn’t work before, because Photos.app uses promise file drags.
It also includes a QuickLook plugin, which makes identifying project files easier. Photos can now be shuffled and edited in external editors.
Of course, Glimpses also includes many improvements where performance is concerned, as well as usability improvements.
I’ve also transferred the app to the base-location system along with AutoLayout. It took a bit of time, but I think moving forward, probably wanting to localize the app into further languages, this will make things much easier.
Glimpses v2.1 will be released early-to-mid-August 2016 as I’m still working on overhauling its website.

Worked on Yoink v3.2.1 (website, mac app store)
I’ve also been working on an update for Yoink – a typical x.x.1 bugfix release.
It includes bugfixes to its Force Touch capability, alias files and a crash when going backwards in the splash screen.
Yoink v.3.2.1 will be released shortly.

Worked on ScreenFloat v1.5.13 (website, mac app store)
This will be a specific update for early adopters of macOS Sierra, where ScreenFloat currently doesn’t take screenshots (I blogged about it, in case you’re interested about what’s going on).
The TL;DR version: I’m using the screencapture command-line utility via NSTask, and interactive screencaptures are apparently blocked in sandboxed apps on macOS Sierra.
I’m not yet sure how I will fix this issue, as I haven’t heard back from Apple yet about it (although I filed a bugreport: rdar://27610157 and contacted Apple directly).
There are two ways this can go: The easy way, and the hard way.
The easy way would mean me adding a temporary entitlement to ScreenFloat so until I can run my own screencapture solution, it will work unchanged for the time being.
The hard way would mean me developing my own screencapture solution right away and make it in time for macOS Sierra’s official public release.
I’ve started working on ‘the hard way’, just in case.

… Downloaded

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean IconLEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (mac app store)
I love those LEGO games, but somehow missed this one when it was released. I recently picked it up and it’s just lovely. Jack Sparrow is as quirky as ever.

Claquette IconClaquette (mac app store)
A great screen recorder app for Mac.
“Edit your recordings and share them as Animated GIF/PNG or as movie.”
I had something like this in the works myself (especially the animated GIF part), but it never worked quite correctly using Apple’s built-in tools.
I spoke with Thomas, the developer of this app and a fellow Austrian, some time ago and he told me he developed his own GIF creation code for this app – something that takes a lot of effort and dedication.
It’s all around a great app and can only recommend it!

iPulse IconiPulse (mac app store)
A Mac app that shows the system status.
However, I can not for the life of me figure out what all the circles or colors mean. No idea.

Split Screen IconSplit Screen (mac app store)
Resizes your windows to exactly half of your screen size. Can be practical.

Snip IconSnip (app store)
A cool new game by a developer friend of mine, Thomas, where you have to hit a target by snipping a circular object. Very intelligent design!
You can watch an introductory video at the website.

Pokémon Go IconPokémon Go (app store)
In my youth, I completely missed Pokémon. It just went by me. Sure, I’d heard of it and watched other people play here and there, but I never played it myself.
It all changed with Pokémon Go, though. My girlfriend and I go out and play almost daily, and it’s really fun. One of us watches the traffic, the other one plays 😉
Sure, I have no idea what these Pokémon are called or what they can do (something my girlfriend can recall before you can even ask her). It’s still fun when you find (and capture) new ones.
I can recommend getting it, but please be safe out there.

macOS Sierra IconmacOS Sierra beta (public beta, website)
Because of the issues with ScreenFloat, I had to get the macOS Sierra beta. But to not have to install the beta over my production setup, I had to get a new external hard drive (my two backup drives are, well, for backups, and pretty full).
I originally had my heart set on an external SSD, but they weren’t available. My backup plan was an internal SSD with an external enclosure, but I couldn’t get the enclosure. Then I thought I’d get an SD card for my MacBook Pro, you know, because it’s practical and small. But for the price of a 128 GB SD card, I could have bought a dozen external SSDs, or hundreds of external HDs. So I decided on an ordinary, external HD. For a beta OS drive, it works just fine and it was the cheapest solution after all. Plus, it’s a 1TB drive, so I can put other stuff on there and keep the 128 GB partition for future betas of macOS.
Too bad, though, I always thought I’d install beta systems on an SD card. That’s just so cool.

… Read

Working on Fable Destroyed my Life, but I don’t Regret it (polygon)
“We felt invincible. With Lionhead, Peter Molyneux and Microsoft in your corner, what could go wrong?”

Inside Apple’s Perfectionism Machine (mashable)
“From the beginning, the Mac has been about Apple taking responsibility for the whole thing: hardware, software, how applications can work and, increasingly, Internet services”

Why it’s Time to go Back to the Moon (theverge)
“It can teach us about interplanetary living, just as the International Space Station has taught us about life in space.”

Apple’s ‘Differential Privacy’ is About Collection Your Data – but not Your Data (wired)
“Differential privacy is a research topic in the areas of statistics and data analytics that uses hashing, subsampling and noise injection to enable…crowdsourced learning while keeping the data of individual users completely private.”

The macOS Sierra Developer Preview: Different Name, Same ol’ Mac (arstechnica)
“But the Mac feels like it has settled into a quiet and reliable groove, a groove that Sierra is happy to trundle along in.”

Physicists Simulate Sending Particles of Light Into the Past, Strengthening the Case that Time Travel is Possible (earthmysterynews)
“One aspect of general relativity that has long intrigued physicists is the relative ease with which one can find solutions to Einstein’s field equations that contain closed timelike curves (CTCs)—causal loops in space–time that return to the same point in space and time.”

Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix: The Lost Sequel to Fate of Atlantis (mixnmojo)
“It’s a title equal parts fascinating and frustrating to learn about, as it seems to have been more or less exactly what Fate of Atlantis fans would have wanted in a successor.”

… Watched

The Conjuring 2 Movie PosterThe Conjuring 2 (itunes)
Just like The Conjuring 1, this is a great horror flick. The only thing that bugged me was some CGI that felt completely out of place, but it was brief, so it was bearable.
Other than that, if you’re into horror movies, go check it out 🙂

Still of The Talk Show LiveThe Talk Show Live From WWDC 2016 (vimeo)
An interview of Craig Federighi and Phil Schiller by John Gruber. Highly recommended.

Zelda - Breath of the Wild ImageZelda – Breath of the Wild Trailer (youtube)
Can’t wait for this game to come out. I’ve been playing all of these with my cousin, and I’m so looking forward to playing this one with him.

… Ate

Jerk Chicken with Rice and CornJerk Chicken with Rice and Corn on the cob

… Went to See

Danube, Danube-CityBritta and I went for a bike ride to ‘Gänsehäufel’, an open-air public bath, went for a swim and then rode back again.
The most I moved in months!

Eternal Storms Software Logo

– – – Do you enjoy my blog and/or my software? – – –

Stay up-to-date on all things Eternal Storms Software and join my low-frequency newsletter (one mail a month at most).
Thank you 🙂

Read more

In my app ScreenFloat, I use the command line tool screencapture via NSTask to create screenshots. On OS X El Capitan and earlier versions of Apple’s operating system, this worked perfectly fine. Now, on macOS Sierra, I’ve been getting reports that screenshot creation didn’t work anymore, so I investigated.

At first I thought it might be the keyboard shortcut API that has undergone some changes, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, as I saw something actually occurred when I pressed the keyboard shortcut – Xcode’s console printed:

screencapture: cannot run two interactive screen captures at a time

Since I was absolutely sure I’m not launching screencapture via NSTasktwice, I took to Console.app to see if anything unusual was reported there. And there it was:

Sandbox Violation of ScreenFloat on macOS SierraThe output in Console.app when trying to launch an interactive screencapture with NSTask.

deny mach-register

So registering a global Mach service is denied on macOS Sierra. In the back of my mind, I remembered a temporary exception entitlement, but it wasn’t quite the same – com.apple.security.temporary-exception.mach-lookup.global-name. I tried adding it to ScreenFloat’s entitlements file, with com.apple.screencapture.interactive as its value (this temporary entitlement expects an array of string values), but that didn’t help – the same denial and console output occurred. On a hunch, I tried using …mach-register.global-name instead of …mach-lookup.global-name and – tada – it worked!

So I’m all set, right? Well…

Temporary Exception Entitlements

Apple offers a couple of temporary exception entitlements. They may or may not be granted to your app during Apple’s review process. But going through the list, it’s clear that …mach-register.global-name is nowhere to be found, so it’s kind of a private entitlement – which makes it even less likely for it to be granted to your app.

Digging Further

Seeing as the sandbox denial points explicitly to com.apple.screencapture.interactive, not just com.apple.screencapture generally, I tried creating a non-interactive screencapture session with NSTask. To my surprise, it worked – without the entitlement.

So I tried a different command line utility – which. (which will return the executable path to the given command line utility, for example, which screencapture would return /usr/sbin/screencapture). Again, it worked. And again, without the entitlement.

It makes me believe (and hope) that the behavior we see for com.apple.screencapture.interactive is not desired, so I’ve filed a bug report with Apple in the hopes that they can set the record straight soon.

For now, I hope ScreenFloat will be granted the temporary entitlement just so it is functional again on macOS Sierra for the time being. However, if this is in fact the desired behavior, I will have to write my own screencapture utility so ScreenFloat can remain on the Mac App Store.

Bug Reporting

For anyone who’s interested or in a position to view it, here’s the bug report I’ve filed with Apple: rdar://27610157. I do hope to get an answer soon.

Update August 2nd, 2016

As I stated above, com.apple.security.temporary-exception.mach-register.global-name isn’t documented anywhere. Which is also the reason you get an error when trying to submit an app with such an entitlement to iTunes Connect:

ERROR ITMS-90285

So, no dice on the temporary exception. Having to write my own screenshot utility seems more and more likely. I hope I can make it in time for macOS Sierra.

Update September 9th, 2016

The temporary exception is now valid and will go through to Apple’s App Review without a hitch. My own solution is not necessary at this time, but I’m still going to be working on it – you never know.

 

Eternal Storms Software Logo

– – – Do you enjoy my blog and/or my software? – – –

Stay up-to-date on all things Eternal Storms Software and join my low-frequency newsletter (one mail a month at most). Thank you 🙂

Read more