Category: Start Usage Meter

Start Usage Meter 2.5 has been reviewed and approved by Apple and is now available on the Mac App Store.

This update adds compatibility with macOS Mojave’s Dark Mode and focuses on minor usability improvements, as well as fixing an issue that caused an informational message to be inadvertently displayed numerous times on the daily usage window (in some cases). The app now knows you don’t need the same information 3+ times.

Sorry for the delay in getting this update out (just over 2 weeks after macOS Mojave was released. It should have been earlier, and I know better from now on 😀). This update required some refactoring in order to support Dark Mode and be more context-aware for future macOS enhancements that are inevitably going to arrive. Some more details about the UI enhancements in Start Usage Meter 2.5:

About Dark Mode
macOS Mojave introduces Dark Mode for the Mac, which provides a darker appearance for UI items. Start Usage Meter 2.5 introduces support for Dark Mode across the app (including the daily usage window). There’s nothing you need to do, since Start Usage Meter will detect whether Dark Mode is enabled, and automatically show the darker interface.

About the usability improvement
As mentioned, this update includes usability improvements. This primarily surrounds the ability to identify which connection you currently have selected at a quick glance, without leaving the window you’re on. For example, the Usage Details window now displays the currently selected network on the titlebar of the window. You no longer need to click the submenu on the macOS menu bar and scroll through the list to identify your currently selected network.

It seems like a small change; however, this makes sure that the app gives you all the information you need at a quick glance, without needing to tediously click through menus to get the critical information you need.

OS Support Details
Keeping up with my goal of making sure Start Usage Meter supports all versions of macOS (ahem. OS X) going back to OS X 10.7 Lion, Start Usage Meter 2.5 also supports all versions of Mac OS X back to OS X Lion. As long as nothing forces me to increase my deployment target (i.e. Xcode requires all new builds with a new API to target OS X 10.8 or higher), I will continue to build in legacy support in the app as long as it doesn’t hinder the experience on newer versions of macOS. As always, the latest version of macOS runs Start Usage Meter the best.

Start Usage Meter 2.4.4 has been reviewed and approved by Apple and is now available on the Mac App Store.

As previously discussed, this update addresses a few minor issues that affected users on versions of OS X older than macOS 10.12. The app has been slightly overhauled to improve compatibility with OS X versions dating back to OS X 10.7 Lion. The only feature limited to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and later is notifications (since OS X Lion does not have a notification API).

Please note that the best experience with Start Usage Meter is always on the latest version of macOS, although I do my best to support as far back as I can. I have no immediate plans to discontinue support for OS X Lion users, since I know there are still users with machines that cannot progress past it. As long as I still have the tools (i.e. Xcode doesn’t impose a minimum target greater than OS X 10.7), I will continue to target OS X Lion and later.

I appreciate your patience while I repaired the issues aforementioned. I have a few exciting enhancements planned for future updates and will preview them shortly. Even if you’re on a newer version of macOS, you should still update to Start Usage Meter 2.4.4.

Start Usage Meter 2.4.3 has been approved by Apple and is now available on the Mac App Store.

Some changes were required since the deployment of a brand new Start.ca website (that looks fantastic!) which was incompatible with previous versions of Start Usage Meter. Most of the issues were corrected with a server-side adjustment, but there are some client fixes required.

This update:

• Addresses several issues that were introduced due to the last update to the Start.ca website including:
  • Fixed an issue that caused usage data to fail to load after the latest Start.ca website update which could cause an error to display indefinitely
  • Fixed an issue that prevented a users usage key from being populated automatically after the latest Start.ca website update
  • Improved the crash resistance throughout the app to prevent future changes like this from causing the app to crash
  • Completely revamped daily usage window to address crashing and prevent future changes from causing the app to terminate
  • This update also has the benefit of increasing performance and reliability in the daily usage window, so I’m going to go ahead and take credit for that too.

Although the website has since been slightly modified to address some of the issues users on Start Usage Meter were experiencing and usage will now display properly on 2.4.2 and earlier, there will still be some crashing issues on the daily usage window that requires 2.4.3 to be fixed.

Additionally, there is a known issue on OS X Lion that is causing the date selector on the daily usage window to stop functioning. This has already been addressed in the latest 2.4.4 beta and will be released to the App Store sometime next month. This issue is due to a missing API on OS X Lion and does not affect OS X El Capitan or later. 2.4.4 will bring a fix for users on older operating systems.

As always, thanks for continuing to support the usage meter. I love seeing the emails of happy users.