Marked 2 update includes improved Bear integration

Brett Terpstra released a nice upgrade to Marked 2 yesterday with some improvements for Bear integration. I purchased my copy of Marked a couple of years ago through the App Store. To preview what I was writing in Bear in Marked was a bit tricky. I always wondered why. In fact, it took me a while to figure out how to do it. Well, Brett answers why it was tricky.

Before I start talking too much about Bear, there’s one issue to note. Bear writes its preview files out to a system temp folder that Marked can’t permanently access from the sandboxed Mac App Store version, so users are constantly asked for permission. If you’re using Bear with the Mac App Store version of Marked, I offer a free crossgrade to the unsandboxed direct version. If you use the Help->_Report an Issue_ feature and just send me the top part of the report section (above the ---), I’ll consider that enough proof to provide you with a license. You can also contact me through the support forum.

I took Brett up on his offer for the crossgrade to the unsandboxed version Marked. Now viewing what I’m writing in Bear in Marked works as it does in my other apps.

If you’re using the App Store version of Marked I suggest you also take Brett up on his offer. You’ll be glad you did especially if you use Bear.

You’ll want to delete the App Store version of Marked and then install the unsandboxed version.

 

App Update issue in the Mojave Mac App Store

There’s a Mac and iOS app update for Bear out today. I ran the update on my iPhone, iPad and iMac without a hitch. On my MacBook, the update wasn’t showing up in the Mac App Store Updates section on my MacBook. I knew it was available because as I already said I had run the update on my iMac.

In the old App Store, when you went to the Updates tab it would automatically look for all new updates. In the new App Store it appears to not do the same. Anyway, I closed the App Store and relaunched it, went to the Updates section and the Bear update still wasn’t there.

If this ever happens to you there’s a way to force the page to reload. Here’s what you do. Open the App Store > Updates > Store in the Menu Bar > click on Reload Page. After doing that my Bear update showed up.

Brett Terpstra and nvUltra

It sounds like the successor to nvALT is finally on its way. According to Brett, it is codenamed nvUltra. The final name to be determined later.

You can sign up for the email list, and get notifications and beta access as it comes out by signing at the bottom of Brett’s post over on his website.

Codename: nvUltra – BrettTerpstra.com

You’ve been hearing from me for years about BitWriter, the nvALT replacement I was working on with David Halter. Well, I failed at my part, then we lost touch, and it never came to fruition. Now that my health is back to working state, I attempted to pick the project back up. Turned out David was MIA (hopefully ok), and the code I was left with no longer compiled on the latest operating systems. Seemed like it might be time to let go.

Then I heard from Fletcher Penney. You know, the guy who created MultiMarkdown, and who develops my favorite Markdown editor, MultiMarkdown Composer. He was working on a similar project and invited me to join him on it. Now we have an app nearing beta stage that’s better than any modal notes app you’ve used. Code name: nvUltra.

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Apple Now Providing Free Data Migration for Mac

Apple is now offering data migration services for free when you purchase a new Mac or need to have a Mac replaced or repaired. Until now data migration was $99.

Tidbits heard about the policy change from a reader and confirmed the change with an Apple Store Operations Specialist.

Beginning April 2, there will be no cost for Data Migrations with the purchase of a new Mac or Data Transfers with a repair.

Upgrading my older non-retina iMac to Mojave

My iMac is a late 2013 non-retina model. That’s close to 6 years old but it still runs fine. The only problem has been that it’s still on Sierra.

I’ve been reluctant to upgrade it to Mojave for two reasons. One is I was afraid I would run into the same problems I had when trying to upgrade from Sierra to High Sierra. I wrote about it here. Two is a problem that I read about on several forums where after upgrading to Mojave fonts are blurry on non-retina Macs.

So, here’s what finally convinced me that I needed to bite the bullet and attempt to put Mojave on my iMac. A few days ago Agile Tortoise released a Mac version of Drafts. Drafts is an app that I use regularly on iOS so of course, I wanted to have it on my Mac as well. So off to the Mac App Store I go to get the app. Come to find out the Mac version requires macOS 10.13 or higher and I’m running 10.12. I need to update my macOS.

To make a long story short I upgrade my Mac to Mojave without a hitch. I didn’t notice any blurry fonts but a few articles suggested running this terminal command so I did.

Apple’s macOS Mojave disables subpixel antialiasing, also known as font smoothing, by default. On a MacBook Air or a desktop Mac hooked up to a non-Retina display, upgrading will make your fonts look worse.

Update: We’ve found a better method that will actually re-enable subpixel antialiasing rather than just relying on font smoothing. Open a Terminal and run the following command:

defaults write -g CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled -bool NO

Log out and log back in for your changes to take effect. Thanks to Dean Herbert for reporting this to us.

Via How-To-Geek

I now have Drafts on my Mac as well as the latest macOS.

Moom for Mac window management

The other day, I bought Moom after trying the free trial for about an hour. It’s an amazing Mac app for managing windows. As a side note, I’d tried it several times before but gave up on it because I found getting started confusing.

Before Moom, I was bouncing back a forth between Better Touch Tool and Magnet. I wasn’t really happy with either one and was looking for a replacement. This time around I was determined to understand how Moom works. So, after installing it I did a search for getting started with Moom. I came across this video Wrangle Your Windows with Moom by Kevin Yank that does a great job of explaining how to set up and use it.

If you’re looking for a way to manage windows on your Mac you ought to download the Moom trial and get started by watching Kevin Yank’s video. You’ll be glad you did.

iCloud Drive or Dropbox

I signed up for a Free 2 GB Dropbox account when it was announced10 years ago. Today I have 10 GB of storage on my free account; that’s the 2 GB I got when I signed up plus what I earned for bonuses and referrals. I only use about half of the 10 GB. Until recently that’s where I have stored almost all of my files.

A few months ago I was close to using up my free 5 GB of iCloud storage so I subscribed to the $0.99 per month 50 GB plan. Having heard that several folks, including David Sparks who’s opinions I respect, had moved over to iCloud Drive from Dropbox I decided to do the same since I’m paying for 50 GB.

Since moving my files to iCloud I’ve been second guessing this decision. Here’s why. To me, Dropbox sync is faster and more reliable. I occasionally read or hear horror stories of folks who have had serious iCloud problems. I’ve personally have had issues with iCloud sync. Nothing serious. Just times when things don’t sync. This has had made me considering moving back to Dropbox.

But hears the deal breaker with going back to Dropbox. It was just announced that Dropbox Free Basic is now limited to just three devices. That’s a problem for me because I have four.

I think Kirk McElhearn put this into perspective quite nicely in this post on his blog.

Dropbox has announced that users of free accounts will no longer be able to link more than three devices to their accounts. Those who had linked more devices prior to March 2019 will be able to continue to use them, but will not be able to link any additional devices.

for years, Dropbox has promoted its free service, and now it’s imposing a limit. It’s true that, for many users, this three-device limit will not be a problem, but for others it will. I have five devices linked to my Dropbox account: my iMac (my main computer), my MacBook Pro (my secondary computer), my iPhone, iPad, and a Mac mini server. Actually, there are more; an Android phone I use for testing, and an iPad mini I use for reading occasionally. I don’t need the last two, but in my work I do use the others.

The problem is that Dropbox doesn’t have a low-priced, low-GB plan. I’d happily pay, say, $20 a year for 100 GB, because I am aware that I’ve been getting this service for free for many years. But I’m not spending $100 a year.

Here’s some good advice from Lifehacker if you’re an3 existing user.

How to Unlink Dropbox Devices to Meet the New Limits for Free Users

Going forward, if you have a free Dropbox account, you’re going to want to make a mental plan for how you plan to use the service. In other words, think about how you use Dropbox on a daily, weekly, and even monthly basis: Where do you get the most frequent benefits? Where does it save you the most time? Where do you access your files a lot versus sparingly? Take all elements, weigh them in your head, and use that to help you decide which devices should have access to your account and which will not. It’s a pain—and a silly pain, given that so many of us live in a multi-device world—but it will save you time and frustration as you transition to the new, limited life of a Dropbox free user.