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.

Together 2.6 is now available. This version includes an updated design, Retina graphics, improvements for working with linked files, email indexing and more and prepares the app for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

User Interface

With the introduction of Retina displays and OS X 10.8 on the horizon, the time felt perfect to update Together’s user interface.

Lion softened the look of buttons in the toolbar and with the majority of Together users now using Lion, Together’s toolbar now takes advantage of that style.

The status bar has been removed, with layout and info buttons from the status bar now in the toolbar. The source list on the left gets its own function bar below and buttons to switch between groups and tags above.

Most of the individual preview toolbars have also been removed, and the ones that remain (for bookmarks and web archives) have been simplified. New optional toolbar items are provided to serve the most common functions, such as showing the fonts panel and highlighting text.

All these changes provide more room for content and make more use of the underused toolbar.

In addition, the new Labels toolbar item can now apply the last used label to selected items and there’s a new item in the Items > Labels menu with a shortcut key to do that too.

Also, the groups list now comes in three sizes, and the File and Items menus have been simplified.

Linked Files

Together doesn’t require you to store your files in its library, it can link to files in other locations. In version 2.6, the app can now also rename the original files when you rename items in Together.

Another new feature offer the reverse functionality: when you move items to Together’s library, you can also choose to make aliases in the original locations. This feature also works for folders.

Other Changes

Normally Together uses Spotlight to search the contents of files, but issues with Spotlight and email messages require Together does its own indexing. Performance and memory use when indexing email files has improved considerably in Together 2.6.

Also, the Shelf can now be resized from all sides, support for the discontinued MobileMe sync service has been removed and the app icon has changed colors.

To see a full list of changes in Together 2.6 and to download a 15-day trial of the latest version, see the Together release notes page.

Version 2.6 is a free upgrade for all registered Together 2.x users. A full license costs $39.95 and upgrades from KIT 1.x are $14.95. Education and bulk discounts are also available through this site.

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.

A question I suspect I’m going to get asked a lot is “When will Together support iCloud?”.

The answer is I don’t know. I have spent a lot of time looking at all the things I need to do to make that happen, even done some of it, but I have come to the conclusion it’s going to take a lot longer than I’d like, because both iCloud and Together are all about files and Together does an awful lot with them.

Some of the things I need to do slot in nicely with what is there, but others require significant changes to the very heart of the app, which will take time and need a lot of testing. I cannot even hazard a guess at how long it will take, because everything is new and there are too many unknowns. I want to get it right.

Meanwhile, Apple announced at WWDC that all apps submitted to the Mac App Store need to be sandboxed from November. Application Sandboxing, introduced with Lion, restricts what apps can do in the name of security and these requirements affect both Together and Feeder quite significantly. Without that, I will not be able to deliver further updates to Mac App Store customers. I have completed a lot of work on sandboxing already, and once it is implemented for all three apps I will be able to turn my attention back to iCloud.

In the meantime, I would like to thank all my customers for your patience and understanding.

Many apps have their own Twitter accounts and companies their own Facebook pages to help you keep up to date. Reinvented Software’s apps have been on Twitter for a while, but I’ve never really promoted them.

Twitter

Here are the Twitter accounts for each of the apps:

@feederapp
@togetherapp
@posterapp

Following these can be especially useful if you’ve purchased any of the apps through the Mac App Store, as a tweet will go out once new versions are approved. This is the only place on the web where that happens.

All of these have a pretty low volume of tweets, mostly about updates and the odd vaguely relevant retweet.

Facebook

Reinvented Software also has its own page on Facebook, which you can “like” to see updates much the same as the ones posted on the News page here. The frequency of updates is pretty low.

Reinvented Software on Facebook

Feeder and Poster are also Facebook apps and have their own pages as a result, but there are no updates on there at the moment, so you can “Like” them, just to show that you, er, like them.

Feeder on Facebook
Poster on Facebook