TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – I wanted to release one more desktop application in August. Well, things can always go wrong when you discover a major bug. Anyway, a new software title that I submitted to Mac App Store several minutes ago is called Text 1-2-3D Materials.

Text 1-2-3D Materials is a successor to an existing desktop application called Text 1-2-3D. Text 1-2-3D Materials lets you turn a simple text string into a 3D object with a depth and chamfers. It comes with a built-in library of more than 110 materials (skins) that you can apply to individual text nodes. You can create any number of text nodes under the same scene. You can save the entire scene as an image file to your disk with just a click of a button after setting up a shared folder.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – Although I admit that News isn’t a very popular category compared with Games and Productivity, it’s quite an accomplishment to me that another desktop application of mine, AllNews Desktop, joins the top league in the U.S. market. aClocks Desktop took a top slot soon after I submitted it to Mac App Store at the beginning of this year. So I now believe I know how I can get desktop applications chosen for top slots.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – The FontsView series is now more than 6 years old. FontsView is something that I frequently use to pick the best font family for a specific text string. Well, I’ve rewritten it in Swift from scratch. This new software submission to Mac App Store is called FontsView 4.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – Without a lot of introduction, let me announce that I just submitted a new desktop application to Mac App Store several minutes ago. This new submission is called Textician.

Textician is a simple desktop application that lets you turn a text string into an image with gradient colors. You have access to a built-in library of 140+ gradient color styles. All you have to do is (1) to enter a string in the input field, (2) to select a font family from a drop-down menu, (3) to select a gradient color style. Additionally, you have an option of applying or not applying the outer glow effect to the text image.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – I use the SQLite database to store every bit of user-defined information like window positions & sizes, checkbox status, the default open-folder & save-folder paths. So it’s very important for me to make sure that an application under development is writing to its database files. Although I have a desktop application called FireSQL 3, I don’t really need to edit database tables. All I need is something that allows me to view the database table content. And I keep using an old application called ViewSQL Pro. Although Mac App Store got rid of it a few years ago, it’s still robust enough to run under Sierra. Well, this ViewSQL guy is almost 7 years old! It’s time for a regime change. So what I need is something similar to FireSQL 3 that just lets me view the content of the SQLite database table. Voila! I submitted a new desktop application to Mac App Store. This new release is called FireSQLView.

FireSQLView works with an unencrypted SQLite multi-table database file and lets you view the content of a table you select. It reads pragma info on the database table you select. So you can of course see the data type of each table field. The most important feature of this application is the ability to view blob data as a picture. You must have a field with data sizes corresponding to a blob field, though.   Continue reading →