Updates

Beamer ·

Beamer 1.5.5: shared profiles, shake to come home, and resizable map tiles

Beamer 1.5.5 adds shared crossing profiles to set up your desk from one screen, a shake to come home, resizable Crossing map tiles, a Wayland shortcut to send input out, Italian, and Korean Han/Yeong and Hanja keys. It pairs with every 1.5 version, and your pairings and settings carry over.

  • A quick shake of your mouse or trackpad while driving another machine brings input straight home, even when that machine runs an earlier 1.5 version, with sensitivity from 50% to 200%
  • Turn on Same ways on every machine to share up to eight named profiles across 1.5.5 machines, and click any machine on the map to edit its ways from this one
  • Resize machine tiles on the Crossing map to match your monitors’ physical sizes so crossings line up where screens touch, with each profile keeping its own
  • Available in Italian alongside British English, and the Korean Han/Yeong and Hanja keys now cross between macOS, Windows and Linux when both machines run 1.5.5
  • On Linux under Wayland, an optional Super+Shift+B shortcut sends input out to the shortcut’s machine while input is at home

Beamer ·

Beamer 1.5.4: a fix for the shortcut that moves you between machines

One fix, and nothing else. The shortcut that moves you between machines could pick a machine that had just turned it down, do nothing, and leave your keyboard and mouse where they were. It pairs with every 1.5 version, and your pairings and settings carry over.

  • A press of the shortcut now skips a machine that has just turned it down, or that a hand-over just failed to reach, and goes on to the next one or home, on the Mac, Windows and Linux wherever the desktop lets Beamer use the shortcut

Beamer ·

Beamer 1.5.3: one pointer on show, several ways across, and arm64 Linux

Beamer 1.5.3 hides the pointer on the machines you are not using, gives each machine several edges and corners to cross by, and brings a ready-made arm64 Flatpak for Linux. It pairs with every 1.5 version, and your pairings and settings carry over.

  • The machine you leave hides its pointer until its own mouse or trackpad moves it again, on the Mac, Windows and Linux under X11; Wayland does not let apps hide it
  • Each machine can have several edges and corners, and an edge can wrap round to a machine on the other side; crossings follow only the stretch where two screens actually touch
  • Another machine can take over once the driving one has sent nothing for three seconds, and two machines on the same network can pair by comparing six digits
  • Linux has a ready-made arm64 Flatpak beside the 64-bit x86 one, and both install and update from the Kalkman Code Flatpak repository
  • Sideways scrolling between a Mac and a PC now goes the right way; update every PC you use together
  • Lighter over long sessions, a Mac crash with Caps Lock fixed, and a slow clipboard no longer holds up the mouse and keyboard

Dimmer ·

Dimmer 1.4.0: the first close dims, Macs without a lid sensor, named looks

Dimmer 1.4.0 fixes a first-close bug that dates from 1.0, works on Macs without a lid sensor, and gives every blur box a choice of named looks.

  • The first close after opening the lid now dims the keyboard and screen, which it sometimes failed to do since 1.0
  • On a Mac without a readable lid sensor, Privacy veil, Go dark and Keep awake still work, and nothing polls the lid
  • Snap to blur, Blur by angle and Privacy veil each have a Look menu: Frost, Mist, Slate, Smoke and Charcoal

Dimmer ·

Dimmer 1.3.1: smoother Settings, a preview in every blur box

Dimmer 1.3.1 makes Settings smoother, gives Snap to blur its own blur strength and puts a preview in every blur box.

  • Settings stays smooth while you drag a range or move the lid: the window no longer redraws every box for each change
  • Snap to blur has its own blur strength, separate from the privacy shortcut; your settings carry over
  • Snap to blur, Blur by angle and Privacy veil each have a preview in their box

Dimmer ·

Dimmer 1.3.0: blur follows the lid angle

Dimmer 1.3.0 adds a lid-angle blur with its own tint, timed Pause and more controls in the menu bar panel, and can now check for updates itself if you agree.

  • Blur by angle is an optional bar with its own range; Snap to blur, Blur by angle and the privacy shortcut each have their own tint
  • Pause for 15 minutes or 1 hour and Dimmer resumes by itself; Resume keyboard dimming hands back only the keyboard
  • Cmd+Z undoes range and privacy adjustments in Settings, and each box has its own restore link that resets only that box; the privacy shortcut can be switched off in its own box
  • The panel has every preset Keep awake duration and explains when screen dimming is waiting, retrying or unavailable
  • The opt-in update check is Dimmer’s only network connection; 1.2.1 and earlier must install 1.3 by hand once

Beamer ·

Beamer 1.5.2: a map of your machines, a new Crossing page and Linux fixes

Beamer 1.5.2 adds a map of your paired machines, a Crossing page that lists every way to cross, and choices for what is shared and where the shortcut goes. It pairs with earlier 1.5.x versions, and your pairings and settings stay as they are.

  • Arrange your paired machines on the Crossing map and Beamer works out which edges connect, down to the display
  • A new Crossing page: a ledger under the map says how each machine is reached, the whole edge or any of its thirds, and a corner, each set in its own cell or by clicking the map; an edge you turn off stays off
  • Choose where the shortcut goes: the last machine, the next in order, or the next among the ones you tick
  • Choose what Same on all machines shares, rename a machine everywhere, and leave a machine out without unpairing it
  • Same on all machines passes on only the settings you change, so a setting another machine missed or never chose no longer replaces yours
  • Input that the other machine stops taking comes home within two seconds, and holding the shortcut key no longer switches input back and forth
  • Cmd+Tab and Alt+Tab switch windows across a Mac and a PC, and more special keys cross between them
  • Crossing effects draw at the display’s own refresh rate on the Mac, Windows and Linux, instead of a fixed 60 frames a second (30 for Glow and Beam on a Mac), and Rule, Gauge and Rangefinder keep a brisk pace at a long Length
  • On Linux, typing now reaches the other machine (in 1.5.1 every key press was dropped), input keeps crossing out of GNOME after a pairing or a Crossing change, a clipboard no longer drops the connection, crossing effects show on GNOME, and Overview shows the Wayland input permissions
  • Linux is no longer marked experimental and installs from the Kalkman Code Flatpak repository; KDE Plasma support is new, experimental and not yet tested on real hardware
  • Start at sign-in on Windows no longer raises a UAC prompt, and the Mac shows whether its login item is on
  • Beamer’s memory use no longer grows the longer it runs, on Windows and Linux and with the window open on a Mac, and it does less work while it sits idle or nothing in the window has changed
  • On KDE Plasma 6.7.5, tick the remember box on the input capture prompt before choosing Allow; otherwise it asks again every time Beamer starts

Dimmer ·

Dimmer 1.2.1: now in five more languages

Dimmer now speaks Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Japanese, following your Mac’s language.

  • The menu bar panel, Settings, the welcome, About and the uninstall guide all follow the language your Mac is set to, falling back to English for any other
  • Settings can be made wider and remembers its size, and longer labels wrap rather than being cut off
  • Everything else works as in 1.2.0, and your settings carry over

Dimmer ·

Dimmer 1.2.0: a privacy shortcut out of the box, and Go dark in the panel

Dimmer 1.2.0 brings the privacy veil up with Control-Command-P from the start, puts Go dark and Keep awake in the menu bar panel, and gets on better with how macOS already handles the keyboard backlight.

  • Press Control-Command-P in any app and every screen frosts over until you type or lift the lid; change the shortcut in Settings
  • Go dark and Keep awake are in the panel you get from the menu bar icon, not only the right-click menu
  • If macOS has dimmed the keyboard for inactivity, Dimmer leaves it dark, and one press of a brightness key always hands the keyboard back to you
  • Settings fits smaller screens, opens where you left it, and has a guide to uninstalling Dimmer

Dimmer ·

Dimmer 1.1.0: a Settings window, a privacy veil and Go dark

Dimmer came out on 8 October as a free menu bar app that dims a MacBook’s keyboard backlight and screen as the lid closes, and 1.0.1 made sure your screen brightness always comes back when the lid opens. 1.1.0 adds a Settings window where you draw both ranges on one lid-angle axis, plus a privacy veil, Go dark and keep-awake.

  • Drag the ends of the keyboard and screen ranges on the lid-angle axis, or type exact values; if you moved a slider in 1.0 your angles carry over
  • Snap the lid quickly down into a zone, or press a shortcut you record, and every screen frosts over with the pointer hidden until you type or push the lid back up
  • Go dark from the menu bar icon fades the keyboard and screen off, and keep-awake holds the Mac awake on a timer or indefinitely
  • The menu bar icon can be hidden, VoiceOver can set every value, and it still needs no Accessibility, Input Monitoring or Screen Recording permission

Beamer ·

Beamer 1.5.1: Intel Macs, experimental Linux and three machines

Beamer 1.5.1 adds Intel Mac support, experimental Linux support, pairing between machines of the same kind, and use across three machines. It cannot connect to 1.4.x, so update every machine and pair them again; your other settings carry over.

  • One Mac app for Intel and Apple silicon, and an experimental Flatpak for Linux, tested on one Fedora GNOME desktop under Wayland with a Mac and with a Windows PC
  • Mac to Mac and PC to PC, with every key staying where your fingers expect it
  • Three machines in a chain, and the menu or tray can send input straight to any of them
  • New crossing effects, sizes and twenty-six new colours, kept the same on every machine if you want
  • Fixed since the 1.5.0 beta: a machine that is switched off keeps its place, so an old entry for a machine that never connects no longer holds the edge you need
  • Fixed since the 1.5.0 beta: if the other machine has removed a pairing, Beamer says so once in its window and retries every 30 seconds instead of every 2
  • Fixed since the 1.5.0 beta: on Windows and Linux, the hint “Click, then press the key” in the Shortcut and Stays on this PC boxes no longer wraps and gets cut off
  • Fixed since the 1.5.0 beta: on a Mac, no faint grey square round the pointer while input is away, and the first click after coming home lands
  • Fixed since the 1.5.0 beta: an error that ends a background task is written to Beamer.log, and on a Mac a crash leaves crash.log beside it

HorseDex ·

HorseDex 2.1.1: four widgets, and Plan follows your usual week

HorseDex 2.1.1 adds four widgets and makes Plan’s suggestions follow the week you usually have. On iPhone, iPad and Mac. Nothing you have recorded changes.

  • Four widgets, each with its own name, so you pick the one you want: Today’s log, Last 14 days, This week’s plan, and Today and tomorrow
  • Plan’s suggestions look at the days and activities you have usually done over the last eight weeks, and your own rules still come first
  • A new setting, Show whole days, gives one row per day instead of one per session, with the morning and afternoon kept together
  • A rule like no more than three days’ work in a row now counts the end of the week before, so a horse worked Friday to Sunday is not offered work on Monday

HorseDex ·

HorseDex 2.1: a second horse is easy to set up, and Plan can be cleared

Adding another horse no longer means starting from nothing, and Plan can be cleared by the month or the week when a plan stops being right. On iPhone and iPad. Nothing you have recorded changes.

  • Add a horse from the horse menu at the top or from Settings, and start the new one from everything another horse has, choose what to bring across, or start clean
  • Plan can clear a month or a week: pick exercise, extras or appointments, and days already gone are never touched
  • Opening an episode asks what should come off the plan while it lasts, and days of box rest read Box rest
  • Settings, Your data has a Start again card: put a horse’s care plan back to the default intervals and reminders, or clear its plans from this week on, with a backup taken first

HorseDex ·

HorseDex 2.0: built from your feedback

Built from tester feedback, and clearer. Log opens on your day, Report is now Trends at the top beside search and the diary, Track’s measurements have moved into Log and Trends, and the bar along the bottom has gone from six pages to four. New too: a month view for Plan, a holiday cover sheet, competition results and a Land page. Nothing you have recorded changes.

  • Log opens on today and the last seven days, with a Log an entry button for the form
  • Hide a page you never use, or put the rest in your own order; Trends’ cards can be arranged too
  • Plan has a month view beside the week, and bookings can repeat weekly or fortnightly, with a reminder the day before
  • A holiday cover sheet for whoever’s looking after your horse: contacts, feed, hay, rug size and tack, current medications and anything due, shared as a page or a picture
  • Logging exercise asks Exercise, Lesson or Competition, and a competition keeps its class, placing and score; a ride shared from Equilab adds itself to that day
  • Spending can start its month on your payday, and says roughly when the hay runs out
  • Land, off until you switch it on, for yard jobs like harrowing and fence checks and which horse is in which paddock
  • Search understands more ways of asking, like “when did Bramble last see the farrier”

Beamer ·

Beamer 1.4.4: the PC can cross to an idle Mac again

After a few minutes in the background, macOS could put Beamer to sleep on the Mac, and while it slept the PC could not cross to it. Version 1.4.4 keeps Beamer awake for as long as it runs. Update the Mac; nothing changes on Windows.

  • Pushing the pointer off the PC onto an idle Mac works again, without touching the Mac first
  • The Mac can still sleep when it is idle
  • Pairing and settings stay as they are, and 1.4.4 works with 1.4.3 and 1.4.2

Beamer ·

Beamer 1.4.3: a security fix for pairing

Someone on your network during the minute a pairing code was on screen could capture what the Mac sent, try every code against it on their own hardware and pair with the PC as the Mac. Version 1.4.3 closes that. Update both machines, and pair again if you last paired on a network you do not trust.

  • Pairing now gives someone on your network at most one guess at the code against each machine, however much hardware they have
  • Machines already paired stay paired; to pair afresh, both need 1.4.3
  • If the PC locks while the Mac is driving it, the pointer comes home instead of being left there
  • Hide addresses now hides the few addresses it missed

Beamer ·

Beamer 1.4.1: a security fix

Someone on your network who recorded one connection between your machines could play it back into a new one, and the keystrokes, clicks and clipboard in it would happen again. Version 1.4.1 closes that. Update both machines together, as 1.4.1 cannot talk to 1.4.0.

  • Each connection now has keys of its own, so a recording from one fails in any other
  • 1.4.0 offers the update itself, and a machine on 1.4.1 tells you when the other one still needs it
  • Thanks to the side-by-side project, whose security notes pointed it out

Beamer ·

Beamer is out

One keyboard and mouse or trackpad for a Mac and a Windows PC, in either direction, over your own network. Version 1.4.0 is the launch: free, with the code on GitHub under GPL-3.0.

  • Push the pointer off the edge, only along the parts of it you pick, through a corner or up through the notch, or double-tap a key, and it carries on onto the other machine
  • Glow and Beam, or nine other ways for a crossing to look, and a short arrival around the pointer wherever it lands
  • The clipboard comes with you, text and images, and the Mac’s trackpad gestures work on Windows
  • Each machine has a switch per direction, so you can turn one way off and keep the other
  • Keys and buttons you choose, like a mouse’s back button or a volume key, stay on the machine they belong to
  • Pair once with a six-digit code, by the PC’s address when it is on another network
  • The Mac download is notarised; the Windows installer is unsigned, so Windows asks you to confirm it once

HorseDex ·

HorseDex 1.4: expenses that repeat

An expense can repeat, for the costs that come round at the same amount, like livery or insurance. Each one is added on its date, so the total stays right without typing the bill in every month. Three smaller updates followed it.

  • A repeating expense is set once and added on its own date from then on
  • Settings pages open inside Settings, with a Back button on every device
  • Forms say what needs fixing, and a button that cannot be used looks like it

HorseDex ·

HorseDex 1.3: spending gets its own page

Spending has moved off the Care page onto a tab of its own, and it now takes everything a horse costs rather than just visits. The same release rebuilt the app for iOS 27 and macOS 27, with nothing else changed.

  • Hay, bedding, livery and arena hire sit alongside care visits
  • Count how many you use and it shows how fast it goes
  • Rebuilt for iOS 27 and macOS 27, with your journal, backups and settings exactly as they were

HorseDex ·

HorseDex 1.2: backups that stopped hoarding

Backups keep one copy of each photo and a fixed number of files, and nothing is written on a day nothing changed. The plan also started saying when something you booked is missing from the week.

  • One copy of each photo, a fixed number of backups kept, and no file written on a day nothing changed
  • A photo from the day can go on the picture you share
  • The plan tells you when something you booked is not in the week

HorseDex ·

HorseDex 1.1: what it costs, and what you already know

The biggest update since release. Care visits can carry what they cost, setting up asks what is already true about your horse, and a day in the diary can take a photo. Everything already recorded stays where it is.

  • A care visit can carry what it cost, and the Care page totals them per item over this month, the last twelve months or all time. Only visits that actually happened are counted
  • Setting up asks what is already known about your horse, whether she is a mare, whether there is a diagnosis you already live with, and switches on what those things are usually recorded with
  • Flu and tetanus keep their own dates, on twelve and twenty-four months, instead of sharing one clock
  • Worming has moved from the daily log to the Care tab, with the product used asked for
  • A diary day can take a photo, and there are two diary reminders, morning and evening, each with its own time
  • One visit can be recorded across several horses at once, and your backups now show up under HorseDex in the Files app
  • Fixed: a cost typed as 5,000 was being saved as five pounds. It is now read as five thousand

Tabby ·

Tabby is on the Chrome Web Store

Save the open tabs in a window as a plain .txt list, reopen every link in a .txt, or open every URL found in a block of selected text. Free, and installed from the store rather than loaded by hand.

  • Save this window’s tabs to a .txt file you can keep anywhere
  • Reopen every link in a .txt, in one go
  • Right-click a block of text and open every URL in it
  • Tidying Claude tab groups moved out to its own extension shortly afterwards

HorseDex ·

HorseDex 1.0.1: the Log form keeps its place

One update, three fixes, all to the same moment: writing up the day and being interrupted part-way through.

  • A half-finished entry now survives an interruption. Lock the phone or take a call mid-way through logging the day and the form comes back as you left it
  • Clearing an activity no longer stops the entry saving. A tick left behind by the activity you cleared was quietly failing the save
  • When a save does fail, the app now says what went wrong instead of reporting success

HorseDex ·

HorseDex is on the App Store

The health journal I built for one horse is out for anyone with one, free, for iPhone, iPad and Mac. You write down what you did and what you saw; it keeps the record and shows it back to you over time.

  • No account to create and no server of mine. The records stay on your devices and sync through your own iCloud
  • Log, Report, Track and Care: the day as you saw it, the week or month summarised, weight and condition over time, and the visits and episodes that need following up
  • It records and it never diagnoses. What you note is yours to read and to show your vet
  • Free because I chose to release it, not because anybody asked