Apple is releasing OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion today. Current Reinvented Software apps will work fine on 10.8. In addition, all three apps either already have, or will have, additional support for OS X 10.8 specific technologies.

Note that older versions of Feeder 1.x and KIT 1.x no longer work on 10.8, see the previous post about this for more information.

Together 2.6.1

When used on OS X 10.8, Together 2.6.1 will show an additional “Share” toolbar item (and corresponding Share submenu in the Items menu) for using the built-in sharing services, such as Twitter, Mail, etc.

Together will also post notifications to the new Notification Center (instead of show Growl alerts). This version is currently available both from this site and the Mac App Store.

Feeder 2.3.3

Similar to Together, when used on OS X 10.8, Feeder 2.3.3 will show additional items in its Share toolbar and menu items and will also post notifications to the Notification Center instead of Growl. This version is currently only available from this site; the Mac App Store version has been awaiting review for the last two weeks.

Poster 1.3

Poster is a Mac App Store-only app and version 1.3 has been awaiting review for the last two weeks, so this version is not currently available.

Once version 1.3 has been approved, Poster will also use the Notification Center instead of Growl on 10.8. Also on 10.8, once posting is complete, a Share button will be shown for sharing various links through the built-in sharing services. You will be able to choose which link to share, such as an individual photo, album or Flickr set.

All the current versions of Reinvented Software apps work fine on OS X 10.8, however the previous generation versions of Feeder 1.x and KIT 1.x will crash shortly after launch.

Unfortunately, I can’t find a suitable workaround, nor can I build new versions of these apps, so 10.8 spells the end of the line for them.

Users of Feeder 1.x and KIT 1.x can still upgrade to Feeder 2.x and Together 2.x respectively for $14.95.

To upgrade, go to the Reinvented Software store, choose an Upgrade license, click Continue and enter your registration code on the next page.

If you need your registration code, you can retrieve it by going to the Lost Codes page.

MobileMe is shutting down. If you host a podcast there you will need to move it soon. Here are the things you will need to do:

• Find a new place to host your web site and / or media files.
• Change Feeder’s settings and upload the files to the new location.
• If your feed URL has changed, tell iTunes to check the new location.

Hosting

You will need to get some kind of web hosting with enough storage space to host your files and providing enough bandwidth for your needs. You can see how much storage space you need by looking at how much is used by your podcast files on your iDisk in the Finder. To find out how much bandwidth you have been using each month, look at the Summary section on http://www.me.com. Click “Details” next to the Data Transfer figure for a full breakdown.

Most podcasters either use general-purpose web hosting (e.g. GoDaddy or Dreamhost) alone or a hosted weblog (such as one from wordpress.com or Google’s Blogger) in conjunction with something like Amazon S3 or Libsyn to serve the media files, or some combination of those.

Feeder has the ability to publish feeds and enclosures to different servers and can also post to most blogs automatically, so you can choose the solution that best suits your needs.

Changing Feeder’s Settings

Before changing the settings for your feed, first make a copy of it.

• To duplicate a feed, select it and choose File > Duplicate from the menu.
• If you like, you can change the name of the feed in the sidebar to show which is which. This name only appears in Feeder and not the feed itself.

To change the settings:

• Click Publish, then click the Settings button.
• From the Server pop-up menu, choose New Server to create a new server to use when publishing.
• Adjust the other details as necessary. The top section of the settings concerns the feed itself and you can expand the Enclosure and Images sections to change the settings for those too.

When you are done, publish the feed to make sure it all works. You may see an alert to submit your feed to the iTunes Store. You do not need to submit it again, but unless iTunes is using a FeedBurner URL, you will need to follow the instructions below to change the feed’s URL in iTunes after you have completed the other steps.

The next step is to upload the media files to the new server. Start with your artwork:

• Click the (i) button in the lower left of the window to show the Info list.
• Select “iTunes Podcasting” from the list (“Feed” must be selected above the list).
• Click on the artwork and choose “Upload Settings” from the menu, then check the “Upload Next Time Feed Published” checkbox. The Upload Settings option will not be available if the artwork file can no longer be found. Drag the artwork from your iDisk to the artwork box instead.
• Publish your feed.

Next you will need to upload your media files again. It is up to you to decide whether to upload only the most recent files or all of them:

• Double-click each item to edit.
• Check the Upload checkbox in the Enclosure section. If you do not see a checkbox, the enclosure file will no longer associated with the item and you will only see the URL, Type and Length fields. Drag the file from your iDisk to the Enclosure section to attach it again.
• Close the window and choose to save the changes.
• Publish your feed.

Updating iTunes

If the server move means that your feed’s URL will change, you need to tell the iTunes Store and subscribers to check the new URL. You can do this by publishing the original feed one more time with its New Feed URL field filled out.

Note you do not need to do this if you are using FeedBurner to track your podcast, instead you will need to tell FeedBurner to use the new URL in your feed’s settings there. You can get that URL by choosing File > Copy Feed URL from the menu.

To set the New Feed URL:

• With your newly published feed selected, choose File > Copy Feed URL from the menu.
• Select the original feed that you duplicated earlier.
• Go to the “iTunes Podcasting” section in the Info list again.
• Scroll down to the very bottom and paste the URL into the New Feed URL field.
• Publish the feed.

The iTunes Store checks your feed every day or so and new subscriptions will use the new settings straight away. Existing subscribers will switch to using the new feed the next time their feeds are refreshed.

Feeder 2.3 is now available. This version improves sharing on Twitter and Facebook, adds capabilities for working with online iTunes podcast artwork, allows automatic reordering of items and more.

Sharing

Since its release, Feeder 2 has been able to send updates to Twitter and Facebook automatically after publishing, or manually on demand. Version 2.3 makes this feature more accessible by placing a new Share item in the toolbar. Also the “Post to Twitter” and “Post to Facebook” menu items have been improved to show the account name being used. Apple has already announced that OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will add global sharing services for sending things to Twitter, Flickr and so on. In future, the Share menu will support those too.

Posting to Facebook has been updated to handle expiring authorization, which will require you to reauthorzie Feeder to post to Facebook every few months for new accounts. Feeder will make it clear when this needs to be done.

As of this release, URLs sent to Twitter are now always considered to be the length of its t.co shortened URLs as, since last November, all URLs are wrapped in this way regardless of whether a URL shortener is already used. This negates the need to use your own URL shortener unless you require statistics or other such information.

iTunes Podcasting

Apple recently announced an increase in the recommended size of iTunes artwork to 1200 pixels square, which Feeder now supports, and online artwork files for individual podcast episodes.

Previously episode artwork could only be embedded in the file itself, if possiblem but Apple TV is now able to show per-episode artwork without needing to download the audio or video files. Feeder now supports this, and using it is a simple as dragging artwork to the artwork box and it will be uploaded when the feed is published.

And More…

This version can also reorder all the items in a feed automatically by title or publication date date and includes the ability to move linked feed files to your Feeder library. See the Feeder downloads page for a full list of changes.

Feeder 2.3 requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later and is a free upgrade for all registered Feeder 2.x users. A 15-day trial version is available for download from this site. A full license is $39.95 and upgrades from version 1.x are $14.95. Bulk and education discounts are also available. Feeder is also available from the Mac App Store.

Just to follow up on my previous post that mentioned sandboxing, if you follow the Mac news, then you’re probably already aware that Apple gave developers (and dare I say it, users) a reprieve on sandboxing until next March.

Considering I had spent the last two months working on it and had already wrapped up the work on Together and Feeder on Oct 28, you might think I’d be pretty peeved, but I’m not, because sandboxing sucks.

I won’t be releasing sandboxed versions of Together or Feeder on the Mac App Store until it’s a requirement, because the apps will lose certain capabilities that I know people appreciate and to some extent define the usability of the app. Things you really take for granted, like the ability to store your files wherever you please. Poster isn’t too badly affected by sandboxing, mostly because it’s a fairly straightforward app, and I have already been forced to change certain things so it behaves as though it is sandboxed.

If you know how sandboxing works, it won’t take you long to work out that, in its current form, it is incompatible with some of Apple’s own apps on the Mac App Store, such as Final Cut Pro. Quite how Apple is going to resolve the situation is unknown.

For now, be aware that if you purchase apps from the Mac App Store — any app, not just my own — it is possible Apple can dream up new rules that could hobble the functionality of those apps in the name of security or anything else at any time, whether or not they ultimately choose to go ahead with sandboxing.

It’s my personal opinion that, while some of the ideas of sandboxing are good, others are just not worth the compromises, even sacrifices, that must be made, and the concept was not well thought through. I know I’m not alone in this view, so let’s hope Apple can take a more moderate approach that will work well for everyone.