Nathan Manceaux-Panot (Reddit, Hacker News):
Rewrite Git history with a single drag-and-drop. Undo anything with ⌘Z. All speed, no bumps.
[…]
From small refinements to sweeping reworks, you do everything faster in Retcon. Edits take fewer steps, and don’t mess with the repo’s state.
This seems really cool, though it’s not really a replacement for a general-purpose Git client. There’s a 14-day trial, after which it’s $49.99/year. For me, at least, complicated history rewriting is not very common, and Tower can do much of it—and has undo—albeit not as smoothly. Perhaps it would make sense to subscribe for a month at a time now and then when it’s needed to get out of a jam.
Previously:
App Subscriptions Developer Tool Git Mac Mac App macOS 14 Sonoma Programming Retcon Undo Version Control
Cihat Gündüz (Reddit):
FreemiumKit is the ultimate solution for Apple platform developers to integrate and manage in-app purchases and subscriptions effortlessly. With support for all Apple platforms, FreemiumKit provides a seamless and efficient way to handle your app’s monetization.
They have a comparison table vs. RevenueCat, which I’ve heard consistently great things about. Currently, it’s free, with a proposed monthly fee based on income.
The last time I looked at RevenueCat, I think it was free up to $10K in monthly revenue. Currently, it looks like the cutoff has been reduced to $2.5K/month, beyond which they take 1%. They say this is “tracked revenue,” which I take to mean it includes Apple’s cut, even though they say “only in months where you make more than $2.5k.” So for the App Store Small Business Program the threshold would be less than $2,125/month in pay to the developer (since VAT is removed, too). Maybe 1% is reasonable for what they offer, but whereas before it seemed like a no-brainer to start with their SDK, now I would be inclined to look more closely at what it offers over StoreKit 2.
Seou H.:
Switching to FreemiumKit had an incredible impact on my development process. I was able to clean up a significant amount of code, removing extra classes and unnecessary complexity that RevenueCat required. This cleanup wasn’t just about aesthetics—it made my app more efficient and easier to manage.
[…]
Built-in SDK components like PaidFeatureView and PaidStatusView were incredibly customizable, allowing me to focus on the user experience without worrying about the technical nitty-gritty. Instead of having to write an entire ViewModel for handling in-app purchases, I could use a one-liner from FreemiumKit. This freed me to concentrate on what mattered most: building a great app.
Previously:
App Store App Subscriptions Business Developer Tool FreemiumKit In-App Purchase iOS iOS 17 Mac Mac App Store macOS 14 Sonoma Payments Programming RevenueCat
Greg Dell’Era (via Ric Ford):
35 years ago, Coda Music Technologies, now MakeMusic, released the first version of Finale, a groundbreaking and user-centered approach to notation software. For over four decades, our engineers and product teams have passionately crafted what would quickly become the gold standard for music notation.
Four decades is a very long time in the software industry. Technology stacks change, Mac and Windows operating systems evolve, and Finale’s millions of lines of code add up. This has made the delivery of incremental value for our customers exponentially harder over time.
Today, Finale is no longer the future of the notation industry—a reality after 35 years, and I want to be candid about this. Instead of releasing new versions of Finale that would offer only marginal value to our users, we’ve made the decision to end its development.
[…]
Finale authorization will remain available for the foreseeable future: Please note that future OS changes can still impact your ability to use Finale on new devices.
The FAQ recommends not updating to Sequoia.
William Gallagher:
That development of Finale began in the 1980s, and the first version came out in 1988. It required a Mac Plus, Macintosh SE, or Macintosh II, and preferred those Macs to have 1.5MB of RAM.
To put this in historical context, Finale soon gained a competitor whose name is better known today — but whose original function is forgotten. Apple’s current digital audio workstation app Logic Pro began as the third-party Notator Logic in 1990, and was a rival scoring app.
[…]
MakeMusic and Dell’Era are recommending that users migrate to Finale’s major rival, Dorico Pro. Normally Dorico Pro 5 retails for $579, but users of any version of Finale or PrintMusic can buy it for $149.
See also: Adam Engst and ATPM reviews of Finale 2000, Finale 2001, and Music Press.
Business Finale History Mac Mac App macOS 14 Sonoma Music Sunset Typography
Dan Vincent (via Hacker News):
The Apple II and Commodore 64 with their 6502 and 6510 CPUs clocked at 1 MHz could trade blows with Z80 powered computers running at three times the clock speed. And the IIGS had the 6502’s 16-bit descendant: the 65C816. Steve Wozniak thought Western Design Center had something special with that chip. In a famous interview in the January 1985 issue of Byte magazine, Woz said,
“[the 65816] should be available soon in an 8 MHz version that will beat the pants off the 68000 in most applications, and in graphics applications it comes pretty close.” End quote. That’s already high praise, but he continues further: “An 8 MHz 65816 is about equivalent to a 16 MHz 68000 in speed, and a 16 MHz 68000 doesn’t exist.”
[…]
But that “should” in “should be available” was doing a lot of work. Eighteen months later when the IIGS finally shipped, there was no 8 MHz ‘816. It was as nonexistent as Woz’s imaginary 16MHz 68000. 8MHz chips were barely available three years later. What happened?
[…]
So why were IIGSes with chips rated at 4 MHz not running them at that speed? Why 2.8 MHz? Isn’t that… weirdly specific? Did an 8 MHz machine really get put on ice due to executive meddling? To solve these mysteries I descended into the depths of Usenet, usergroup newsletters, magazines, and interviews. My journey took me through a world of development Hell, problematic yields, and CPU cycle quirks.
Dave Haynie:
Way back in ’85, a 4MHz ’816 cost noticably more than
an 8MHz 68000. Things are going to be even more skewed now.
680x0 Apple II Apple IIGS History Mac Processors Steve Wozniak Tony Fadell
