Time Out 2.0 will be in general release on Monday!

But you don't need to wait; you can get it now via an exclusive launch weekend at MacUpdate.

Go visit MacUpdate to download Time Out 2.0.

If you haven't been following along, learn more about the changes in version 2.

Time Out 2.0 has been accepted for the Mac App Store, so I'm now able to schedule the general release. It will be one week from today, on Monday, March 7!

Here's one last beta (unless any significant issues come up), with a couple of cosmetic tweaks:

• Fixed a cosmetic issue where the status popover could leave a selected item when clicking the Start or Options buttons.
• Fixed a typo in the Speak Text action.

If you are using a version 2 beta, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.

If you aren't on the beta yet and want to join, visit the What's New page to sign up for an invite to download the beta.

Note: the beta invites will close in a few days. So if you want to try it before the general release, get in quick.

Time Out 2.0 is currently in review for the Mac App Store! A bit faster than expected. I'm hoping for a general release in early March; we'll see. Quite exciting, after years of work on this upgrade!

Here are a few more improvements for both editions:

• Improved the scheduler to automatically skip breaks (if that option is on) when a higher priority break was done or deferred within the priority interval.
• When not a supporter, an animated ❤ icon button now appears to the left of the Add Break (+) button, and that button is disabled if there are already two breaks (supporters can have more).
• Removed the ❤ icon button for the Next due Break Schedule button, since anyone can edit this field.
• Various other changes requested by App Review for the Mac App Store edition of the app.
• Fixed centering of the Setup Assistant window.

If you are using a version 2 beta, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.

If you aren't on the beta yet and want to join, visit the What's New page to sign up for an invite to download the beta.

Simon version 4.2 is now in general release!

This update has lots of improvements, including:

Added an Exclude Block filter

• Added a new Exclude Block filter that outputs the text outside the block, instead of inside like the normal Block filter.
• Enhanced the Block filter feature to support specifying whether to output the text before the Start, the Start text itself, the text between the Start and End, the End text, and/or after the End text, or any combination of those, optionally joined by some separator.

Added difference analysis filters

• Added new Extract List, Extract Changes to List and Rich Text Representation of Changes filters, kindly contributed by Max Cardale. Read the comments for those filters for detailed descriptions of each.

New filter variables

• Added support for {FilterIndex}, {FilterPreviousText} and {FilterInputVariable} filter variables to support referring to prior filters, e.g. the second filter can see the previous text of the first filter via {Filter1PreviousText}.
• Added support for reverse-numbered filter variables of the form {FilterPrior1InputText}, where the number counts from the filter before the current one. All of the Filternumber variables are available as FilterPriornumber ones. These are "smart" variables that are not available to notifiers, since they just duplicate values already available. (In case you weren't already aware, you can add a number after Filter for any filter variable, to access variables of prior filters; the numbers count from 1 for the first filter.)
• Added a description of the numbers in filter variables to the help book.

Email improvements

• The Preview now supports the Email notifier; it will display the message that is sent, with placeholder values for any variables. (Tip: you can check that an email notifier is configured correctly by showing the Preview or just clicking the Reload toolbar button, or File > Notify Now.)
• Added support for STARTTLS connection security and Password (PLAIN) authentication in the Email Transport panel.
• If the Port field is clear, or contains a standard port number for a connection security, it is changed to the typical port number when the connection security is changed.

Preview improvements

• When the Preview page is displayed for a service, filter or notifier that supports previews (i.e. email and scripts), it displays a message "Reload to Preview", rather than automatically sending an email or running the script (resulting in unexpected placeholder emails or script actions). Click the Reload toolbar button, or the File > Notify Now menu command, to actually preview the item.
• Added special case support for Web content encodings specified in the source instead of the header (e.g. or for Chinese).

Several fixes of the reports feature

• Fixed an issue with uploading reports to remote FTP servers.
• Fixed a crasher when adding a new report with the Preview pane selected.
• Fixed a logic error that prevented recent checks, changes, etc from being listed on the detail pages.
• Fixed incorrect last report date display when the report hasn't been generated yet.

More convenient upgrade licensing

• When adding an upgrade license, now automatically looks up the original license, instead of just telling you it's needed (which can cause confusion, since it's an unusual situation).

Lots more security and stability improvements

• Updated the Sparkle updater framework to the latest version.
• Added a Via SSL option to the Updates preferences, to use a secure connection to check for and download app updates. This is on by default, but can be turned off if it doesn't work for some reason.
• Also updated license refresh etc URLs to use TLS/SSL.
• Scripts are now saved as Base64-encoded text, to preserve formatting.
• Fixed a common crasher when editing at the Auto Pause pages.
• Fixed another crasher when changing pages at the bottom of the window.
• Fixed a cosmetic issue where the editor info background could show garbage in some situations.
• Fixed a couple of rare crashes with deleting items.
• Fixed a crash with using the Convert Domain/IP command with a large text field.
• Fixed a rare crash with reports.
• Fixed a rare crasher with the Find filter.

If you are using version 4, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.

Otherwise, download Simon 4.2 now!

Good news: Time Out 2.0 has been submitted to the Mac App Store! It'll take a few weeks to get through the review process, but it could go into general release any time after it is approved (assuming Apple doesn't reject it entirely, which of course I can't rule out)!

Anyway, for the direct edition, here are a few more improvements (which are also in the Mac App Store edition):

• Now shows a pointing hand cursor when over the ❤ icons next to support reward controls, to make it more obvious that you can click them for more information.
• Added an activity indicator on the Updates page, while the release notes load from the Dejal server.
• Now fades in the activity indicators (e.g. on the Updates and Support Time Out pages), so they only appear if the content takes a noticeable amount of time to load.
• Various changes to support the Mac App Store edition of the app. Yes, Time Out 2.0 will be available both direct and via the Mac App Store (assuming they don't reject it).

If you are using a version 2 beta, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.

If you aren't on the beta yet and want to join, visit the What's New page to sign up for an invite to download the beta.

Time Out recently went to beta 4, and Simon was feeling left out. So here's a beta 4 of Simon too!

Just a couple of changes:

• Scripts are now saved as Base64-encoded text, to preserve formatting.
• Tweaked the new filters.

If you already have Simon 4, update in the app. Otherwise download Simon 4.2b4 now!

Here's a third beta release of Simon 4.2.

Changes in the update include:

• Added new Extract List, Extract Changes to List and Rich Text Representation of Changes filters, kindly contributed by Max Cardale. Read the comments for those filters for detailed descriptions of each.
• Added support for reverse-numbered filter variables of the form {FilterPrior1InputText}, where the number counts from the filter before the current one. All of the Filter<b>number</b> variables are available as FilterPrior<b>number</b> ones. These are "smart" variables that are not available to notifiers, since they just duplicate values already available. (In case you weren't already aware, you can add a number after Filter for any filter variable, to access variables of prior filters; the numbers count from 1 for the first filter.)
• Added a description of the numbers in filter variables to the help book.
• Fixed a crash with using the Convert Domain/IP command with a large text field.
• Fixed a rare crash with reports.

If you already have Simon 4, update in the app. Otherwise, download Simon 4.2b3 now!

A quick update to fix an issue in the previous beta release of Time Out version 2:

• Fixed excessive CPU usage due to the animation of the ❤ icon for the Support Time Out sidebar and status popover items.
• Fixed some file logging that wasn't respecting the Advanced preference.

If you are using the third or second beta, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.

If you are still using the first beta, you can use the link in your beta invite email to download the new version, or use the Check for Updates feature in the app, and manually update.

If you aren't on the beta yet and want to join, visit the What's New page to sign up for an invite to download the beta.

Here's the third beta release of Time Out version 2!

This beta has more refinements, including:

• Added a help book, available via the Help (?) menu and online.
• Updated the About Time Out window.
• Tweaked the border colors of the Analog Clock break theme.
• Added a Via SSL option to the Updates preferences, to use a secure connection to check for and download app updates. This is on by default, but can be turned off if it doesn't work for some reason.
• Also updated the Support Time Out URLs to use TLS/SSL.
• Some people didn't notice the supporter trial message, so now the ❤ icon for the Support Time Out sidebar and status popover items gently animates to help catch the eye.
• Added URL handler support for promo codes.
• Moved the accessibility access check to after the Setup Assistant, to avoid the possibility of being prompted before it is explained.
• Fixed a crasher when locking the screen by showing the Login Window.
• Fixed some other very rare crashers.

If you are using the second beta, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.

If you are still using the first beta, you can use the link in your beta invite email to download the new version, or use the Check for Updates feature in the app, and manually update.

If you aren't on the beta yet and want to join, visit the What's New page to sign up for an invite to download the beta.

I hope you like these improvements! Please let me know of any issues you notice, or ideas for improvements. Thank you for helping make this update great!

It's been a while (due to work on Time Out 2), but here's a second beta release of Simon 4.2.

Changes include:

• Added support for {FilterIndex}, {FilterPreviousText} and {FilterInputVariable} filter variables to support referring to prior filters, e.g. the second filter can see the previous text of the first filter via {Filter1PreviousText}.
• When the Preview page is displayed for a service, filter or notifier that supports previews (i.e. email and scripts), it displays a message "Reload to Preview", rather than automatically sending an email or running the script (resulting in unexpected placeholder emails or script actions). Click the Reload toolbar button, or the File > Notify Now menu command, to actually preview the item.
• Added special case support for Web content encodings specified in the source instead of the header (e.g. <meta charset="gb2312"> or <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=gb2312"> for Chinese).
• Updated the Sparkle updater framework to the latest version.
• Added a Via SSL option to the Updates preferences, to use a secure connection to check for and download app updates. This is on by default, but can be turned off if it doesn't work for some reason.
• Also updated license refresh etc URLs to use TLS/SSL.

Download Simon 4.2b2 now!

(By the way, if you prefer to access websites via TLS/SSL, you can do so for the Dejal site via https://dejal.net/. I'll move the main dejal.com site over later.)

Here's the second beta release of Time Out version 2!

This beta has several significant changes, including:

New and updated break themes

• Added a fancy Analog Clock theme.
• Added a flexible Text theme, which includes text that can be edited during the break to say whatever you like (and you changes will be remembered for subsequent breaks).
• Added two infinitely zooming image themes: Arkadia (website) and Zoomquilt (website).
• Updated the Emoji Zone theme to use the faster HTML renderer (see below).

Other theme improvements

• Added support for a faster HTML renderer (technically a WKWebView instead of a legacy WebView) for themes. Themes use this new one via a "type" : "html5" property in their Info.json file. As this property implies, the html5 web view works best with modern HTML5 pages; HTML4 pages generally work better in the old one.
• Note that the "html5" web view requires Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) for local themes. This includes the new Analog Clock and Text themes. Remote themes work with it in 10.10 (Yosemite) too.
• Now reloads the Themes popup menu contents when activating the app, so themes added in the Finder show up immediately.
• Themes that use the "html5" type can communicate with Time Out via some special callbacks. See the source of the Text theme for an example, where it makes the text specific to each break. More information is included in the source comments.

Smarter scheduler

• Made the scheduler a bit smarter: when skipping a break because a higher priority one is due soon, it now tries resetting the break first. This avoids a situation where a break could get pushed out too far over time.

Help improvements

• Added an About Time Out item to the top of the Help (?) pop-up menu, that displays the standard About window with the version number etc, for those without the Dock (and thus menus) shown.
• The Help menu now appears on clicking the button, instead of having to release the mouse button.
• Clarified the message on the General Options page when both the Dock icon and status item aren't shown, to spell out how to display the Preferences window.
• If trying supporter rewards when making a purchase, the sidebar message is now changed appropriately to avoid confusion.

Supporter improvements

• Trying supporter rewards now persists if you quit the app partway through the trial.
• Finished implementing the Redeem Promo Code feature.

Updater and crash reporter changes

• Updated the Sparkle updater framework to the latest version.
• If the app crashes, the crash reporter window now appears on top of the Preferences window instead of underneath it.
• Disabled the app sandbox, since Sparkle can't update sandboxed apps. The data location won't change, so everything should work as before.

If you are already using the first beta, you can use the link in your beta invite email to download the new version, or use the Check for Updates feature in the app. Note that a manual update is required, due to an issue with the updater; that should be the last time that is needed, though.

If you aren't on the beta yet and want to join, visit the What's New page to sign up for an invite to download the beta.

I hope you like these improvements! Please let me know of any issues you notice, or ideas for improvements. Thank you for helping make this update great!

It's been a long time coming, but the day has finally arrived: Time Out version 2 is at last in beta release!

I've actually been designing and prototyping Time Out 2 since 2007, off and on, if you can believe that. Work started in earnest a bit over two years ago, and while it kept being delayed by contract work (I like to eat and pay bills), I've persevered.

Over the course of development, there were 33 alpha releases, tested by a small faithful group of alpha testers.

Now, the app is complete, and I'm ready to expand the testing pool. This first beta release is available to anyone who wants to try it; just visit the What's New page to sign up for an invite to download the beta.

I've written many blog posts providing descriptions and screenshots of version 2, and will post more about various aspects during the beta cycle.

This is a massive upgrade. Here is a summary of the major enhancements. Click to jump down, or simply scroll, to read more about each.

• Redesigned app icon
• Get started quickly with the Setup Assistant
• Redesigned Preferences window
• No longer needs to be in the Dock
• New menubar status item
• Assign global keyboard shortcuts to start, defer, pause, etc
• Add any number of breaks
• Rename, label and comment on breaks
• Scheduling improvements
• Limit breaks to a time range
• Support for natural breaks
• Better appearance
• Customizable HTML-based break themes
• Redesigned & movable control panel during breaks
• Add actions to notify of due, starting or finishing breaks
• Enhanced app exclusions
• Faster app updates
• Several advanced options
• New supporter options
• Optimized for Yosemite and El Capitan

Redesigned app icon

• Time Out 2 has a new app icon, designed by Aaron Mahnke of Wet Frog Studios.

🔝

Get started quickly with the Setup Assistant

• Added a new Setup Assistant window, which appears the first time you open Time Out. You can also display it anytime via the Time Out or action (cog) menus.
• The first page enables adding the usual breaks: Normal and Micro, like in version 1. Change them as desired, or uncheck them if you'd rather start from scratch.
• The second page includes a button to open the Privacy System Preferences, so the keyboard activity can be monitored for idle detection.

🔝

Redesigned Preferences window

• The Preferences window has a fresh modern appearance, with quick-access buttons at the top, a sidebar listing the breaks, and other options.
• The breaks display a color label, when they are next due, and when they were last done.
• The due/done times can be displayed as absolute dates (a date and time) or relative times (how long until or since it).
• When hovering over break items, a couple of buttons appear, to manually start a break or perform other options, like postponing, skipping, disabling and deleting the break.

🔝

No longer needs to be in the Dock

• Added the ability in the General Options to show or hide the Dock icon.
• When Time Out is in the Dock, it'll also appear in the Cmd-Tab app switcher, and have menus. The Preferences window is automatically shown when the app is brought to the front.
• When it is not in the Dock, it also won't appear in the Cmd-Tab switcher, and won't have menus -- but all features can be accessed from the Preferences window.

🔝

New menubar status item

• Added an optional status item in the right of the menubar.
• Shows an icon and countdown to the next break.
• The style of icon can be chosen (including an icon representing the next due break), or no icon used.
• It can show a brief or longer countdown, or the start or finish time, or duration of the next break.
• Supports light and dark menubars.
• When the Dock icon is shown, clicking the status item in the menubar shows or hides the Preferences window.
• When the Dock icon isn't shown, clicking the status item shows a popover that looks and works just like the sidebar in the Preferences window, but clicking an item will show the corresponding page in the Preferences window.
• The tooltip for the status item lists all of the breaks and when they're due, with the next due at the top, so you can quickly see when each break will next occur without having to click the status item.
• If you turn off both the Dock icon and status item, a warning message explains how to get back to the Preferences. This is permitted for people who want to make it harder to change the preferences for self-control reasons.

🔝

Assign global keyboard shortcuts to start, defer, pause, etc

• Added a Shortcuts Options page, which lists all of the global keyboard shortcuts, so they can be set in one place.
• Shortcuts can be assigned to manually start breaks, postpone or skip the next or current break, pause, resume, or reset all of the breaks, and/or stop any playing sound.
• The postpone and skip shortcuts will apply to the next due break, or if a break is currently starting or underway, to that break. So you can avoid a break with a quick keypress if needed.
• These shortcuts work from any app.

🔝

Add any number of breaks

• Renamed the Breaks menu as File, and moved it to the usual place.
• Added a New Break (Cmd-N) command in the File menu, to add additional breaks.
• Added support for deleting breaks via the Delete key or menu item.
• Added Undo support for some operations (notably adding and deleting breaks).
• Added the ability to drag the breaks to reorder them, which sets their priority, so lower breaks are skipped in favor of higher breaks.

🔝

Rename, label and comment on breaks

• Added a Break Name page to enable editing the break name, choosing a color label for the break, and adding some comments.
• The label is shown in the sidebar, and can be displayed in the status item to quickly see which break is coming up next.
• Also included is a customizable keyboard shortcut control. If set, the shortcut is shown in the sidebar and status popover, and can be used from any app to manually start the break.

🔝

Scheduling improvements

• Changed the way the breaks are scheduled, to use a single timer with due dates instead of multiple timers, enabling more flexibility.
• The Schedule times now use a more compact interval picker that supports pop-up menus for values, arrow keys to change values, etc.
• The due dates are now restored when the app is relaunched (e.g. after a system restart), so they continue as if Time Out weren't interrupted. (If a break would have been due already, its due date is reset to the full work duration.)
• Added a new idle detector, which should be more reliable than the old one. The new one is enabled by default, but you can switch to the old one or disable it in the Advanced preferences.

🔝

Limit breaks to a time range

• Added an Available pop-up menu on the Break Schedule page, with "Any Time" and "Only Between" items. If "Any Time" is selected, the break can occur at any time of the day; if "Only Between" is selected, From and To time controls appear to set the available time range.
• If an "Only Between" time range is set, the next due time will be the From time plus the frequency (the "Every" field).
• The From time is especially useful for daily breaks, e.g. for a "Lunchtime" break set to every 1 day, you could set the From time to 12:00:00 (noon) and the the To time to 13:00:00 (1 PM), to ensure the break starts at noon, but no later than an hour after that if postponed (e.g. via a natural break).

🔝

Support for natural breaks

• Changed the scheduler to be smarter: after 30 seconds of idle, the countdown stops (if using the natural break preferences), and after 1 minute of idle, it starts counting upwards (if that preference is set), until the break frequency time is reached.
• Choose how to handle a natural break. Continue Countdown to ignore idle. Pause Countdown to stop the timer while idle. Count Backwards to pause briefly then count upwards until the duration is reached. Reset After Duration to reset the break due date after the break duration of idle time. For example, with the latter if you have a 10 minute break every hour, and you have a natural break for 10 minutes, leaving the computer idle for 10 minutes will skip to the next hour.
• Added a pop-up menu to choose whether to wait for a natural break (idle) or start immediately when a break is due.
• With the latter, when a break is due, it will wait for a natural break of at least 15 seconds, to avoid interrupting you when you're busy. If you keep working for a minute, it starts the break anyway.

🔝

Better appearance

• The Break Appearance options now uses a new color well that includes a palette of colors in addition to the color picker, and changed the transparency slider to an opacity slider & field.
• When there are multiple screens available, the Break Appearance preferences has extra options, to specify whether to use the screen with the active menubar, or the screen with the inactive menubar, or a specific screen.
• Connecting or disconnecting a display will now update the Appearance page, showing or hiding the screens pop-up as needed.

🔝

Customizable HTML-based break themes

• Time Out now supports multiple customizable break themes!
• The Theme pop-up menu includes a None item to not fade the screen(s) during the break (just showing the control panel); Blank to fade without showing any content, and a list of available themes.
• Some default themes are included. You can also customize them or add your own. Choose the Reveal Themes item in the menu to show the Themes folder in the Finder, or Get More to display the Time Out Extras page in your browser.
• Themes use HTML, so can display local content (potentially including JavaScript-driven apps), or web pages.
• Fading in to the break, and out back to work, is now much more efficient, and uses a geometric animation curve to make it more natural.
• Added an Info button next to the Theme pop-up menu. Click it to show a popover with information about the selected theme, including clickable links to author and original websites, where available.
• Also a Preview button to try the theme; equivalent to manually starting the break.

🔝

Redesigned & movable control panel during breaks

• The progress bar and postpone/skip buttons now appear in a redesigned control panel that can be moved around the screen.
• The control panel now fades in at the same time as the break, so the postpone/skip buttons can be used while the break is starting.
• The break theme and control panel only appear on one screen, if your Mac has multiple screens; the other screen(s) just fade to a blank color (which can be different than the theme screen).

🔝

Add actions to notify of due, starting or finishing breaks

• Merged the Sounds and Scripts pages into an Actions page, which now supports any number of actions, and more versatile scheduling of them, including before the break is due.
• You can now play a sound or some other action some period of time before due, after the start of the break, after fading in, before fading out, before finishing, after finishing, or after postponing or skipping. Lots of flexible options!
• Integrated the scripts into the Add Action (+) button menu, so any scripts you add are treated like full actions.
• The script actions include an Open button to enable quickly editing scripts, e.g. "Open with Automator".
• When the Add Action button menu is first shown, or if the scripts folder is empty, it includes a "More..." item at the end. Choosing that will display an Open sheet, asking for permission to copy the default scripts into the folder. After that, it re-shows the Add Action menu with the scripts listed.
• Included Reveal Scripts and Get More functions in the Add Action button menu. They aren't shown until the default scripts have been installed. They respectively reveal the scripts folder in the Finder and display the Time Out Extras website.
• Included a Preview button (with an eye icon) to try the associated action.
• Added a new Display Notification action, that shows a Notification Center panel, with custom title and message text, and optionally a sound.
• Added a new Fadeout Sound action, that fades out any playing sound over a specified number of seconds. Useful for long sounds (e.g. music), or in combination with the Repeat option in the Play Sound action, to gently stop them after a suitable interval, e.g. at the end of the break. Like the other actions, specify when to start fading out via the action offset & stage controls in the action header.
• Added a new Flash Screen action, which includes options to set the flash color and speed.
• Added a new Speak Text action to use speech synthesis. It includes a voice pop-up menu which can display just your preferred voices (set in System Preferences > Dictation & Speech > Text to Speech > System Voice > Customize), or all available voices, grouped by region and gender like in System Preferences. It also has an Attributes popover that enables fine-tuning the voice rate, pitch, inflection and volume.

🔝

Enhanced app exclusions

• Changed the Exclusion options to show the full path, and added the ability to skip breaks when an app is open but not frontmost.
• Also added MPlayerX, QuickTime Player and VLC to the default Exclusions, and removed Podcast Capture (since it isn't included in Yosemite).

🔝

Faster app updates

• Time Out now uses the popular Sparkle framework for app updates, so it can finally download and install updates itself.
• Changed the Updates options for the Sparkle framework, and to display the release notes right there, since there's space.

🔝

Several advanced options

• Added an Advanced preferences page, with a number of options that most people won't need.
• Includes an option for the idle detector: None to not detect idle, the Event Source like in version 1, and the new Event Monitor that is more reliable.
• Includes a checkbox to alert of another copy of Time Out, which can interfere with starting breaks.
• Includes a checkbox to control whether or not clicking an item in the status popover should animate to the full window size.
• Also includes a button to reset the position of the Preferences window when using the status popover, so they line up nicely. When you turn off the Dock icon, it is automatically lined up. The window can still be freely moved, but it looks nice having them aligned.
• Includes a number of options to output diagnostic information to the Console log.
• Includes a handy button to show the Console log, i.e. launch the Console app.

🔝

New supporter options

• Time Out can be used for as long as you like for free, but the more advanced features are only available to try for an hour at a time, as many times as you like.
• These features are highlighted throughout the app by a heart icon that appears next to the control. Clicking it displays a popover to explain the limit.
• The Support Time Out page includes buttons to purchase three supporter durations (3-, 6- and 12-months). Becoming a supporter helps to fund continued development. These are one-time payments, not a subscription, though you can extend your support later if you wish.
• All the features will remain available even after the supporter period, though some future enhancements may only be available to current supporters.
• Click the Learn More button for more information.
• This page also includes buttons to restore any previous purchases, and redeem a coupon code.

🔝

Optimized for Yosemite and El Capitan

• Time Out now requires a minimum of OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), and supports 10.11 (El Capitan).
• Now uses the latest technologies.
• Now uses the third-party Fabric Crashlytics framework to automatically capture crash reports. Automatically aggregating crash reports will enable faster fixing any that occur.
• If a crash occurs, Time Out will now display a window on next launch to ask for information about the crash, which may help trace the cause. There are also optional fields for your name and email address, in case there are any questions.
• Sandboxed for increased security.

🔝

Phew!

Sound good? Visit the What's New page to sign up for an invite to download the beta.

Simon version 4.2b1 is now available.

This first beta includes the following changes:

Added an Exclude Block filter

• Added a new Exclude Block filter that outputs the text outside the block, instead of inside like the normal Block filter.
• Enhanced the Block filter feature to support specifying whether to output the text before the Start, the Start text itself, the text between the Start and End, the End text, and/or after the End text, or any combination of those, optionally joined by some separator.

Email improvements

• The Preview now supports the Email notifier; it will display the message that is sent, with placeholder values for any variables. (Tip: you can check that an email notifier is configured correctly by showing the Preview or just clicking the Reload toolbar button, or File > Notify Now.)
• Added support for STARTTLS connection security and Password (PLAIN) authentication in the Email Transport panel.
• If the Port field is clear, or contains a standard port number for a connection security, it is changed to the typical port number when the connection security is changed.

Several fixes of the reports feature

• Fixed an issue with uploading reports to remote FTP servers.
• Fixed a crasher when adding a new report with the Preview pane selected.
• Fixed a logic error that prevented recent checks, changes, etc from being listed on the detail pages.
• Fixed incorrect last report date display when the report hasn't been generated yet.

More convenient upgrade licensing

• When adding an upgrade license, now automatically looks up the original license, instead of just telling you it's needed (which can cause confusion, since it's an unusual situation).

Lots more stability improvements

• Fixed a common crasher when editing at the Auto Pause pages.
• Fixed another crasher when changing pages at the bottom of the window.
• Fixed a cosmetic issue where the editor info background could show garbage in some situations.
• Fixed a couple of rare crashes with deleting items.
• Fixed a rare crasher with the Find filter.

If you're using a recent version of Simon already, you can update to this beta by checking for updates in the app. If you haven't used a beta previously, you may need to change your Updates preferences within Simon to include Beta & General Releases. Otherwise, you can download Simon 4.2b1.

Simon version 4.1.1 is now available for download.

Please update to this release for El Capitan compatibility, including:

• Fixed a crash on OS X 10.11 when changing tests with the Preview displayed.
• Improved the layout of the Preview.
• Added exceptions to 10.11's restrictions on http:// access.
• Fixed several issues raised by the latest development tools.

It continues to work on Yosemite (10.10 and later) too.

Download Simon 4.1.1 now!

Announcing the general release of Simon version 4.1!

This update is free for licensed customers of Simon 4. It includes several significant improvements and fixes.

Redesigned web feature

One of the most noticeable changes is a redesign of the Web (HTTP) feature. It now uses a list of pages including Parameters, Headers, Cookies and Other. Clicking on one shows the corresponding page.

Support for custom headers

Another much-requested enhancement to the Web feature is support for custom headers. This enables you to send extra values to the server, for example a "User-Agent" so the server thinks the request is coming from a specific web browser.

Load dynamic web content

Many websites nowadays use JavaScript to load additional content after the initial HTML is loaded, for example to incorporate updating values from a database, or activity tracking, and other uses. Previously, Simon wouldn't see that dynamic content — it only looked at the base HTML. Now, you can enable a new option to load the dynamic content a specified number of seconds after the base HTML loads, to incorporate such later changes.

Plus much more

There are many more changes, including various tweaks to the UI, moving the Delete function to the Edit menu, adding a crash reporter to make it easier to capture issues, and localization improvements (including adding Chinese).

Read the release notes for full details of the changes.

Download Simon 4.1 now!

Oh look, another beta!

• Fixed an issue in the previous betas with the Username and Password fields in the Web feature.
• Simon now uses the third-party Fabric Crashlytics framework to automatically capture crash reports. Previously it would attempt to ignore crashes, so it might crash a little more than before, but hopefully not. Automatically aggregating crash reports will enable faster fixing any that occur.
• If a crash occurs, Simon will now display an assistant window on next launch to ask for information about the crash, which may help trace the cause. There are also optional fields for your name and email address, in case there are any questions.
• Updated a few pages in the help book.
• Integrated a German translation into the help book.

EDIT: A quick update to fix another couple of issues:

• Fixed a crasher in the Web feature when quickly editing custom headers or cookies.
• Fixed an issue in previous betas with the Web feature when using a username and password.

EDIT 2: Hey why not make it a trio: another quick update with some further tweaks of this area:

• Fixed another crasher in the Web feature (caused by earlier beta changes).
• Fixed an issue in previous betas with the Web feature when editing Parameters values.

Download Simon 4.1b7 now!

One last beta, with just localization changes. English customers can feel free to skip this update if you like, though it's trivial to update.

• Added Chinese localization, thanks to WeiOSX. Anyone familiar with Chinese, please provide feedback on this work (any issues or improvements).
• Removed Japanese localization, as it has not been updated for a while. If anyone experienced with Japanese localization would like to take over this, please get in touch.
• Updated the German and French localizations in some of the plugins (where they hadn't been used before).

Download Simon 4.1b4 now!

I'm pleased to introduce zCloud, a new app in the Mac App Store to quickly and easily share screenshots and other files.

zCloud lives in your menu bar, and has shortcuts to take screenshots, upload them to Dropbox, and place a link to share them on your clipboard. Just hit the shortcut then paste the link to share with co-workers, friends or family.

You can also drag any file to the menu bar icon to upload and share it.

The preferences enable you to choose what happens when you upload a file, and enable automatically uploading screenshots from the Desktop:

zCloud can even watch any number of folders to automatically upload new files:

The screenshot shortcuts can be fully customized:

The history of uploaded files can be viewed via the menu bar icon, enabling re-sharing, viewing or removing previous items:

zCloud was written by Dejal, as a contract project for zFoundry, LLC. To find out more about Dejal's consulting / contract development service, visit the Dejal Consulting page.

Learn more about zCloud via the zCloud site or the Mac App Store. Available now!

One more beta with a few fixes, for good measure. This will probably be the last beta before general release; please let me know if you find any issues.

• If the When pop-up menu for a test filter is changed to None, the filter plugin controls are now removed, as expected.
• Changed the (-) button to set the When pop-up menu to None for the last filter or notifier in the test.
• Fixed an issue where the Preview source wouldn't finish loading if the Preview is displayed on launch of the app.

Download Simon 4.1b3 now!

Just been a couple of days, but here's another beta of Simon 4.1, with some exciting changes:

Redesigned Web feature

• The Web (HTTP) editor has been significantly redesigned, to use a list of pages including Parameters, Headers, Cookies and Other. Clicking on one shows the corresponding page.
• The Method pop-up menu is now on the Parameters page, since it indicates how the parameters are sent.
• The Username and Password fields are now on the Other page; they are only useful if you connect to a server that has an authentication challenge (as displayed in a web browser via a sheet; not the same as a in-page form-based login).

Web feature support for custom headers

• The new Headers list enables you to add custom headers to send with the request, e.g. Accept, User-Agent, etc.
• Note that sending a request via Post will set the Content-Type and Content-Length headers, overriding any you may add.

Download Simon 4.1b2 now!