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Yummy 3.4.2

The way that Yummy talks with Pinboard is using what’s called an API, an application programming interface. Pinboard’s API is based on the now-defunct Delicious bookmarking site, now also owned by Pinboard.

Why am I telling you all this? The funny thing is, the Pinboard API is not very good for syncing your whole collection of bookmarks with a third-party app. Of course, this is the whole raison d’être for Yummy.

Since 2008, Yummy has gone through a few iterations of its synchronisation code. In the very early days, it was limited by both the hardware and the software of the time. The slow, single-core CPU of early iPhones, plus the lack of memory, meant that some approaches just wouldn’t work reliably. Plus I had to make it sync with both Pinboard and Delicious.

Yummy 3.4.2 represents the latest update. It’s the fastest version yet and is more efficient, taking less of a toll on your battery life.

There are also a few bug fixes and minor improvements that most people won’t notice. I guess that’s the theme of this release!

It’s now with Apple for review and hopefully will be available to download very shortly.

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Quick Calendar for Apple Watch 1.2.1

Quick Calendar 1.2 had a completely new Apple Watch app. Written in SwiftUI, it presents the future of the Watch app and the widgets on all other platforms. It looks better and is much cleaner and more future proof than the old version.

Custom highlight in Quick Calendar Watch app
Custom highlight in Quick Calendar Watch app

Sadly there was also a bug: it didn’t update to the “current” date, always highlighting the date it was first launched rather than today. Version 1.2.1 fixes that.

But that’s not all.

Since we’re talking about the “today” highlight, version 1.2.1 also gives you the ability to change the highlight colour. This is probably the most common feature request, so I’m happy to be able to include it now!

The update has just been submitted to Apple and should be available to download shortly.

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Quick Calendar 1.2.0

This new version of Quick Calendar for iPhone, iPad and Watch can be thought of as a taste of the future. In practical terms that means:

  • Fix for the Watch complication
  • All New Watch App

Let’s start with the app. The new version looks better, has better visual affordances and offers a better foundation for the future.

watchOS Quick Calendar
watchOS Quick Calendar

The “look” isn’t purely about aesthetics. It makes better use of the very limited available space, and the highlighted date is much clearer. It always bothered me that there were no clues about how you could move between months. Both swiping and turning the crown worked but not everyone found them. Using a simple list, a familiar interface convention, fixes that1.

Finally, the foundation. It’s now written in SwiftUI, the latest Apple technology. The neat thing is that it’s possible to use the same code on all platforms, from the Watch all the way to the Mac. The goal here is feature parity for all versions.

The complication has bugged me (pun intended) for some time. In hindsight, I was probably overthinking it.

You can update complications basically in two ways: on a schedule or when something happens. The schedule seems like the obvious one: we know when the next day starts, right? But what happens when I step from a plane and into a new time zone? The date might be different. So rather than take the “easy” route, previous versions of Quick Calendar attempted to update the complication periodically. This works for a day or two but then watchOS says “you’ve used up all your time” and doesn’t run it again. In short: it took a week to test every change I made! And nothing helped.

Version 1.2.0 takes a different approach. It generates a timeline, allowing watchOS to update the complication without any further intervention. That pretty much always works. If you ever find yourself in a new time zone and with the complication showing the wrong date, you can force a refresh by opening the app. As I say, easy in hindsight.

Apple approved this very quickly, so it’s already available to download.


  1. A current limitation is that you can’t go back to a previous month. Long story short, this is a limitation of SwiftUI. I’m looking to see if there are workarounds. ↩︎
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Yummy 3.4.1

There are three things in this release: a fix, an improvement and a new feature.

The most visible change is that Yummy 3.4.1 supports Dark Mode.

Yummy: Dark mode
Yummy: Dark mode

For most screens, this is supported automatically. There is one exception: the bookmark list view. In the olden days — that is in 3.4.0 and earlier — you could switch between having a white, green, red or blue background to help distinguish between accounts. This option is still present and is unchanged in the new version. If you want to use automatic dark mode, go into the settings screen and switch the background colour to “Default.”

The fix is for the tip jar feature, which was broken in 3.4.0. I have not changed any code. Submitting a new version will allow Apple to review it properly which, for reasons unknown, they didn’t last time.

In iOS and iPadOS 14 there’s a new notification when an app programmatically “pastes” from the clipboard. Earlier versions of Yummy had a coding error. The logic looks like this:

Get contents of clipboard
If “copy URL from clipboard” is enabled and the thing on the clipboard is a URL then

  Present “New bookmark” screen


I’m spelling it out like this because I want to be clear that nothing nefarious was going on. Anyway, the new version improves that logic by only reading the clipboard after checking that the “copy URL from clipboard” option is enabled.

If “copy URL from clipboard” is enabled then

  Get contents of clipboard
 
  if the thing on the clipboard is a URL then

    Present “New bookmark” screen


In order to effectively support dark mode, the minimum supported version is now iOS and iPadOS 13.0. I appreciate that this is a big jump since 3.3.x but most users are already on newer versions.

The update is now with Apple and should be available to download shortly. Enjoy.

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Yummy 3.4

Despite its public image as an engineering discipline, there’s an awful lot of art in writing software. As with any art, there’s often a lot of experimentation and not all of it pays off.

New shortcut menuIt’s been eighteen months since the last release of Yummy and, while you might have concluded that it is no longer being maintained, the truth is mostly there in the first paragraph.

Yummy 3.4 is both less and more than it was originally intended. Many new features ended up on the cutting room floor. Some were good ideas that just didn’t work well. Some turned out not to be possible. Some were too ambitious. Some will hopefully return, others will not.

Saved searchAnyway, it’s now with Apple and should be on your device shortly. Here’s what you can expect.

  • Full-text search, multi-account support and site status checks now come as standard for everyone!
  • Instead of the upgrade for the “pro” features, we now have a “tip jar.” While there’s no obligation to contribute, if you’d like to recognise the longevity of Yummy and the fact that there have been over forty free updates across a dozen versions of iOS, now you can
  • Slightly tweaked visuals, fitting in with modern iOS conventions better
  • A “Popular Links” widget for Notification Centre
  • Type multiple tags in the share extension
  • Removal of 3D-touch support, replaced with the iOS13-standard long-press shortcut menus
  • Support for all the recent iPhone and iPad devices

There are also some “behind the scenes” changes that you shouldn’t notice but you never know.

  • Yummy now no longer stores your password. It used to be stored in the iOS KeyChain, a place that Apple provides for just this kind of thing. It’s secure and Wandle Software has never had access to it. Now, Yummy doesn’t even store it. Instead, Yummy converts it into an API token and stores that instead (also in the keychain). You can also enter the API token directly if you prefer. If you logged in using a previous version, Yummy converts your password into a token and deletes your password from your device
  • Experimental support for “low data mode.” In short, if enabled Yummy no longer does site status checks and other high-bandwidth activities

The minimum supported version of iOS is now 11.4.

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Quick Calendar 1.1.2

This is a kind of embarrassing release for two reasons.

First, the bug that gets fixed should never have made it out of Wandle HQ: the Watch complication would never update. Apple changed the way background updates worked and… I didn’t spot it. Because I tend to have a new development version every day when I’m working on it, I didn’t notice that it didn’t update.

Second, while I fixed it pretty quickly and tested it, I actually forgot to submit it to Apple. Doh. This was mostly because it now worked on my own watch.

But, as an added bonus, I added a small update: the complication now works on more watch faces.

The iPhone and iPad versions are completely unchanged, except for the version number.

Anyway, it’s now with Apple and should be available to download shortly.

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Quick Calendar 1.1.1 for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch

As the new version of Apple’s mobile operating system heads to iPhones around the world, you’ll be pleased to know that an update of Quick Calendar compatible with it is already available for download.

As you can gather from the version number, it’s a very small update. There are basically two changes.

First, it works with Dark Mode on the iPhone. And the iPad, but the public version of iPadOS won’t be out for another week or two.

Second, I enabled the “works without iPhone” option on the Watch app. Due to a lack of test hardware, I’ve not been able to test it but in theory it should work. Let me know if you try it successfully!

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Yummy 3.3.3

You’ll find a new version of Yummy on the App Store. It’s one of the usual “fixes and minor improvements” releases.

There (should be) no user-visible change… except if you have one of the recently released Apple devices with new screen sizes. In that case, you’ll find that Yummy now knows about the whole screen!

In the meantime, I’m continuing to work on Yummy 3.4 that will have some more substantial changes.

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Quick Calendar 1.1

Quick Calendar version 1.1 is just now on its way to the App Store, ready for download!

Which version, you ask? The Mac version or the iPhone version?

Quick Calendar for Apple Watch

All the above. And more!

Version 1.1 on the Mac brings a couple of frequently requested features:

  • Support for macOS Mojave. This means, mostly, it works much better when using Dark Mode
  • You can now change the colours of the days

And, of course, there’s the usual minor changes and fixes.

Version 1.1 of the iPhone version brings support for all of Apple’s recently released new hardware. And by that I don’t just mean the iPhone and iPad, but the Apple Watch, too!

The Watch app allows you to skim back and forth, month-to-month, using the digital crown. (Really annoys me that you can’t do that in the month view in the Calendar app!) There’s a complication that can be used instead of Apple’s date complication on some watch faces.

As before, Quick Calendar is free to download. No purchase is required to get its full functionality, but if you like it please do add to the Tip Jar available in both apps.

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Smart App Banner 1.1.2

This almost happened without any fanfare at all, and, while it’s a tiny update, it seems that releasing software without even a tiny blog is fair to both the users and the people who develop it.

And, this time, the developer wasn’t me.

The change to our Smart App Banner WordPress plugin is small but was submitted by a user. You shouldn’t notice anything new or different but it’s a nice, internal update that should limit the risk of Bad Things happening in the future.

Enjoy!