update

I’ve just published an update to BackLog, my freeware developer tool that lets you comfortably retrieve logs from your – or someone else’s, using custom URL schemes – Mac’s log archives.

What’s New
  • Checks for admin privileges at launch
  • Adds a simple update mechanism
  • The optional instructions you can send to users can now be copied in English or German (if you’d like to help translate them, please mail me – thank you!)
  • The sound that plays when retrieving logs completes now respects the “Play user interface sound effects” in System Preferences > Sound is enabled
Availability

BackLog is a freeware app, so if you like it, please take a look at my other apps – thank you!

It requires macOS 10.15 or newer and is currently available in English and German.
It needs to be run from a user with admin privileges (or using ‘sudo’ – user discretion advised).

Due to APIs it uses (OSLogStore), it does not run in the macOS sandbox, but it’s notarized by Apple and runs in the Hardened Runtime environment. When checking for updates (manually started), it connects to eternalstorms.at. Other than that, your internet connection is not used.

It runs natively on both Apple Silicon- and Intel Macs.

Website
Download (831 KB, zip)

If you find the app useful, please check out my other apps I offer for purchase on the App Stores – I’d appreciate it tons.

Enjoy 😊

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With macOS Big Sur and Macs with Apple Silicon on the horizon, I wanted to give a quick update on my Mac apps.
All of them are now available in a new version, making them run nicely under macOS Big Sur, and have been recompiled to natively run on Apple Silicon.

Here’s a quick run-down of what else is new:

Yoink for Mac (website + free trial | Mac App Store | Setapp)
v3.5.11, received numerous quality-of-life improvements

ScreenFloat (website + free trial | Mac App Store)
v1.5.18, adds PDF as export option and fixes a few minor annoyances

Transloader (website | Mac App Store | iOS App Store)
v2.1.1, big upgrade in the works, this update makes sure it runs nicely on the new system and architecture

Glimpses (website + free trial | Mac App Store)
v2.2.3, improves video rendering speed by up to 6x and fixes a couple of minor issues

flickery (website + free trial | Mac App Store)
v1.9.48, minor compatibility update

SiriMote (website | direct download (Freeware))
v1.3.9, improves the connection to the Apple TV Siri Remote and fixes minor bugs

I hope you’ll like them 🤗
As always, if you have any feedback or questions, please don’t hesitate to write me!

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Screenshot showing Yoink and its update-timestamp on the Mac App Store

7 months. I look in disbelief at the Mac App Store’s timestamp of Yoink’s last update, and I’m deeply embarrassed.
As a user, I’d think the app is abandoned. As its developer, I know that’s not true, because soon after I’d released v3.5.8 of Yoink for Mac, I began working on the next one:

Yoink for Mac's GIT commit messages, showing the date of the v3.5.8 commit and the date of when work on the next update began (3 days later)

The user, however, doesn’t know.

The situation isn’t any better for Yoink for iPad and iPhone, either, where the App Store states 5 months since the last update (v2.1.6).
Here, too, I began working on its subsequent update the day after submitting it to the App Store:

Screenshot of GIT commit messages of Yoink for iPad and iPhone, showing the date of v2.1.6, and when work on the next update began, a day later

I cringe even mentioning ScreenFloat (10 months), flickery (11 months), Glimpses (11 months), or Transloader (5! years!).

The problem, I think, is that I do not plan ahead much. I give my attention to the app that – in my view – currently needs it most (which has been mostly Yoink for Mac, and Yoink for iPad and iPhone lately), and whenever I feel the update is done (an arbitrary line I draw spontaneously most of the time), I release it and move on to the next app (or the same one again, if need be).

I want – and need – to do much better here.

So here’s how I’d like to improve:

  • Release what’s ready once a month
    If there have been changes made to apps and those changes are ready for prime-time, release the updates
  • Unless absolutely necessary, after an update, move on to the next app, not keep working on the one I just released an update for
    Aside from the positive effect of giving other apps the attention they need and deserve, it also reduces the possibility of me getting burnt-out working on the same app all the time
  • Be more vocal about what’s going on
    I should be more transparent about what I’ve been and am working on – it’s fun to share!

Here’s hoping. Thank you all for bearing with me 🙂

– Matthias
mail | website | twitter | instagram | facebook

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