YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – September was over last week. So was the unusual rainy season, finally. I can now go jogging every day. Wait, I have a new application to announce before I go outside. This new release is called Grabbo 2.

Grabbo 2 is a sequel to an 11-year-old desktop application that lets you reposition and resize the selected application window. It is something that I really needed to work on so that I can make desktop screenshots of applications that I develop more easily.

Señor Tomato

Señor Tomato

Grabbo 2 lists all application windows that are currently running on your Mac when you launch it. So select one and then click on the Move or Resize toolbar button. Then enter a new position (x, y) or window size value (width, height). Additionally, you can use the countdown timer so that Grabbo 2 will count down to 0, and then it will move or resize the selected application window.

When you have two or more windows from the same application, you may find it difficult to tell which window belongs to which frame record. In this case, you can select one in the list and click on the Overlay button to cover the selected window with a color frame.

Grabbo 2 is not so perfect as the previous version. Grabbo 2 doesn’t work with all applications. For example, it cannot change the window position and size of Calculator.app. Furthermore, every application that Grabbo deals with requires that it has an exception entitlement.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – The rainy September continues. It sucks. Could someone stop the rain so that I can go jogging? For now, it’s not raining. According to the weather forecast, we will have a sunny day tomorrow. Hopefully, that will be true.

Since I cannot go jogging, the best way of spending time at home is writing code, you know? Actually, I’m ready to introduce a new desktop application. This new release is called Ranking Optimas.

App Store Optimization (ASO) is an integral part of generating good revenue by selling software at Apple’s App Store and Mac App Store. It requires continuous effort in improving app’s visibility. Using a wrong list of keywords can make your app undiscoverable, which may lead to an undesirable flow of revenue.

Ranking Optimas is a desktop application that helps you make a good decision in choosing right words to use at the digital store. Ranking Optimas does NOT give you a list of keywords since it doesn’t know how your software title works. Rather, it tells you which group of keywords should be prioritized when you have plenty of them to choose from.

The following is how Ranking Optimas works. You create a keyword project at the Startup screen. You select it and then click on the Edit toolbar button with it so that you will navigate to the Keyword screen. This is where you create a list of keyword groups. After having five or more keyword groups in the list, click on the Run toolbar button, but select the target platform and the country with the drop-down menus at the top. When you click on the Run toolbar button, the application will access iTunes Connect get store data. It is allowed to access once every minute at most. If you have five keyword groups, it’ll take Ranking Optimas six minutes to finish getting store data. The application will automatically close the Progress sheet when it’s done. Ranking Optimas will give you access to the names of top-ranked software titles from iTunes Connect, So click on each View button to see if you find useful keywords from this list. Returning to the Startup screen, select the keyword project and then click on the Analyze button. And Ranking Optimas will show you a horizontal list of keyword groups with ranking numbers.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – After it rained for three continuous days, we’ve finally had a dry day. But it probably won’t last for a long time. It looks like it will rain again tomorrow or on Saturday. What an unusual month this September is!

I had double releases at the beginning of the month. And I have another pair of double releases to introduce to you. The first one to release is Super Highlight Desktop.

Super Highlight Desktop is a desktop application that exclusively works with PDF documents. You can use it to highlight a selection of text with a color you select. It’s not just a single selection of text. You can highlight every single occurrence of text you enter in a text field throughout the document with the click of a button. Moreover, you can remove all highlighters with the click of a button as well. Additionally, you can turn on or off the case-insensitive switch and then click on the Highlight All button if case sensitivity is important to you.

Super Highlight Desktop supports a full undo/redo stack. You can undo and redo the last highlight action by choosing Undo or Redo under Edit. If you change the highlight color, you can undo it as well.

Super Highlight Desktop isn’t an ordinary desktop application that works with PDF documents. It works side by side with its iOS counterpart (Super Highlight Mobile). You can push the revised PDF document with the click of a button so that you can view it with the iOS counterpart. Super Highlight Desktop also lets you fetch all PDF documents pushed by other Macs and iOS devices with the click of a button. Just make sure that they all use the same iCloud account so that you can share PDF documents across different devices.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – Oh, boy… It doesn’t stop raining. We had a brief break two days ago. Today, it continues to rain. I don’t know when I will be able to go out jogging. It looks like we have a new typhoon approaching the Tokyo-Yokohama area.

Well, since I cannot go outside, I’ve been busy writing code for a new desktop application. And I just submitted it to Mac App Store a few minutes ago. This new release is called Desk Shots 5.

The Screenshot application by Apple has been around for some time. It’s very useful if you want to take desktop screenshots. You know, you can take a screenshot for the entire desktop area or a partial area that you define. There are several aspects that make it difficult for us to use it, though. For example, the Screenshot application tells you of the size of the rectangular region but not of its position. You can’t tell whether or not the rectangular region covers the menu bar. Also, you can only define one rectangular area at a time. Some people may not like the idea that you cannot set the base file name apart from ‘Screenshot.’

So here comes Desk Shots 5, the latest version of the 13-year-old desktop application, which started as one that allowed the user to take screenshots of a partial desktop area. Desk Shots 5 now lets you automatically overlay text, circle, rectangle and symbol (SF Symbol) objects over screenshots. Desk Shots 5 isn’t just a screenshot application any more. This version also lets you record a video over a partial desktop area you define.

Desk Shots 5 comes with a status menu. By switching to the menu bar mode, you can take a screenshot or start recording a video from the menu bar commend.

Desk Shots 5 fully supports the Undo/Redo stack. So whether you move a layer from Point A to Point B or change its foreground color, you can undo the last action by choosing Undo under Edit.

In order to define a partial desktop area, all you have to do is use a floating color window, which you can move with your mouse pointer. Then click on the Save button to name this Window Asset. If you want to take a screenshot or record a video, select one of the Window Assets to define a partial desktop area.   Continue reading →