Synergy: history

Version history

Confused by the version numbers? See this blog post explaining the difference between the 3.4 (stable) and 4.0 (alpha/experimental) series.

Please see the new Synergy product pages

Please note that the new Synergy product pages are now online at https://wincent.dev/products/synergy. The page you are currently viewing will no longer be updated and is being kept online for historical purposes only.

4.0.1a (1 September 2009)

Require Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or above.
Remove "Unregister" button from user interface to avoid unintended unregistrations.
Provide means of entering new serial number when upgrading from a very old license.
Remove old code paths to reduce disk and memory footprint.
Remove duplicate classes across different bundles, reducing disk and memory footprint as well as silencing some console warnings.
Eliminate all Interface Builder warnings about geometry (clipped views) and inappropriate settings.
Replace all calls to deprecated APIs with Mac OS X 10.6 equivalents.
Switch to Clang/LLVM compiler.
Fix warnings issued by new compiler.
Eliminate unnecessary local variable clearing.
Fix two minor resource leaks discovered by static analysis.
Internal reorganization.
Many changes to supporting projects (Wincent Buildtools and WOPublic).

3.5.5a (24 August 2009)

Bugfix for ticket #1365 ("Consecutively repeated tracks don't get submitted to last.fm").
New menu item in the Synergy Global Menu for conveniently disabling and enabling last.fm "scrobbling" on the fly.
Remove out-of-date localized resources, providing a reduced disk footprint.

3.5.4a (17 August 2009)

Minimum system version requirement bumped to Mac OS X 10.5.8.
Trim disk and memory footprint by removing code used only on older versions of the operating system.
Update WOPublic open source component to latest version (robustness improvements).
Qualified for use with iTunes 8.2.1/Mac OS X 10.5.8.

3.5.2a (7 July 2009)

Offer to quit pre-existing versions found executing when new version is launched.
Display title in preferences window (fixes bug #1343).

3.5.1a (2 July 2009)

Added a checkbox to temporarily disable the submission of track information to last.fm (fulfills feature request #1310); this is ideal for those times when you don't want what you're currently listening to be "scrobbled" to the website.
Removed some out-of-date localized resources.

3.5a9 (26 June 2009)

Bumped minimum system verison requirement to Mac OS X 10.5.7; it is hoped that Apple has fixed the crashing bug in NSAppleScript when running using Garbage Collection.
Lots of back-end refactoring (required by migration of some code into the WOPublic open source repository).
Qualified for use with iTunes 8.2.

3.4 (25 June 2009)

Merge in changes from 3.3 restricted-availability release.
Universal Binary version of login-tool (used by installer); necessary for compatibility with Snow Leopard.
Qualified for use with iTunes 8.2.

3.2.2 (2 April 2009)

Performance optimizations in pop-up button classes.
Qualified for use with iTunes 8.

3.2.1 (9 June 2008)

Final fix for missing cover art problem caused by iTunes 7.6.1 and 7.6.2 (fixes bug #668).

3.5a7 (29 April 2008)

Work around missing cover art problem caused by iTunes 7.6.1 and 7.6.2 (fixes bug #668).
Speed up cover art retrieval.
Catch NSGenericExceptions thrown by Leopard Script Bridge (fixes bug #657).
Note: the crashes caused by NSAppleScript under Garbage Collection remain; Apple has confirmed that this is a Leopard bug and intends to fix it, although hasn't announced when the fix will be made available. If you are experiencing these crashes often with this alpha release you may consider switching to the stable 3.2 series instead, which can be downloaded from here.
For a list of code-level changes for this release see either the short summary or the detailed log.

3.2.1b (29 April 2008)

Work around missing cover art problem caused by iTunes 7.6.1 and 7.6.2 (fixes bug #668).
Speed up cover art retrieval.

3.5a6 (4 April 2008)

Fix iTunes respawn bug introduced in 3.5a3.
Fix corrupt Portuguese localizable strings.
Update all other localizable strings files.
Note: iTunes 7.6.1 is not recommended for use with this or any other version of Synergy because it introduces a bug which often prevents Synergy from retrieving artwork; I have a workaround in mind which involves delaying artwork queries, but I am hoping that Apple will fix the issue in the next iTunes release.
Note: the crashes caused by NSAppleScript under Garbage Collection remain; I am still working on switching to alternative APIs. If you are experiencing these crashes often with this alpha release you may consider switching to the stable 3.2 series instead, which can be downloaded from here.
For a partial list of code-level changes for this release see either the short summary or the detailed log.

3.5a5 (23 January 2008)

Fix Audioscrobbler breakage introduced during the conversion to Objective-C 2.0 (see bug #641, "audioscrobbler/last.fm submission broken").
Drop use of NSAppleScript in several places seeing as it appears to cause crashes under Garbage collection (see bug #640, "NSAppleScript freaks out under Garbage Collection"); this is not a total replacement of all NSAppleScript use, but it is start and should hopefully reduce the number of crashes seen in the previous alpha seed.
Add "Edit" menu to Synergy Preferences application; without this users couldn't conveniently copy and paste in their registration information.
Qualified for use with iTunes 7.6.
For a partial list of code-level changes for this release see either the short summary or the detailed log; a future modification to the build chain will enable the production of complete changelogs rather than partial extracts.

3.5a4 (8 January 2008)

Fix crashing bug for people with stale entries in their login items (see bug #636, "Synergy 3.5a3 crashes on launch").
Fix inappropriate localization in Synergy Preferences menus (items appearing in Spanish which should have been in English) caused by new behaviour in the new Interface Builder that comes with Leopard (see bug #637, "Synergy Preferences.app menu in Spanish").
Fix reference to "NewApplication" in Synergy Preferences Help menu (see bug #638, "Help menu says "NewApplication" instead of Synergy Preferences").
Connect Help menu in Synergy Preferences to online documentation.
Include upgrade notes in the accompanying README file (basically, no explicit upgrade action is required on the part of the user; Synergy automatically detects old installations and offers to clean them up).
For a list of code-level changes for this release see either the short summary or the detailed log.

3.5a3 (7 January 2008)

Massive code audit with many changes for better Garbage Collection support and performance and general modernization (use of newer APIs, more optimal patterns, Objective-C 2.0 features).
No longer distributed as a System Preferences pane and therefore no installer is required or used.
Switch to using new login-item API provided by Launch Services; this should definitively fix the failure to launch at login after upgrading (see bug #605, "Synergy will not open at launch").
Localization clean-up: some of the localizations were significantly out of date and had drifted too far from the main English line of development to be managed using automated tools, these resources have been temporarily removed and those which could be brought up to date with the English version have been updated.
Modernize version numbering mechanisms to include Git-based build number.
For a list of code-level changes for this release see either the short summary or the detailed log.

3.5a2 (27 November 2007)

The previous build was functioning but incomplete due to a bug in the Xcode 3.0 build settings interface. This release is identical in every way except that it has been repackaged to include the missing components.
A list of code-level changes for this release can be found here.

3.5a (27 November 2007)

Rewrite in Objective-C 2.0.
This release is the first Leopard-only release of Synergy; for users of older versions of Mac OS X the 3.2 series is still available for download here.
Qualified for use with iTunes version 7.5; iTunes 7.5 is a highly recommended upgrade as it fixes a bug in the cover art export in the version of iTunes that shipped with Mac OS X 10.5 (see bug #601, "Can't retrieve art from iTunes on Leopard final").
A list of code-level changes for this release can be found here.

3.2 (24 October 2007)

[Note] "Xidius' Transparent Bar" replaces "Safari" as the default button set; this button set is especially designed for Leopard but also looks great on Tiger.
[Note] Default button-set spacing reduced to zero pixels; the vast majority of button sets are designed with this in mind and so look better "out of the box".
[Note] Final compatibility changes for Leopard: this version of Synergy has been tested against the latest preview release seeded to developers; additional testing will be performed after Apple makes available the final retail version.

3.1.5 (2 October 2007)

[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes version 7.4.2.

3.1.5b (23 August 2007)

[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes version 7.3.2.

3.1.4 (23 July 2007)

[Note] 7 new button sets ("Leopard" by Colin Dunn; "Blue Bar", "Glass Bar", "Orange Aluminum", "Orange Steel", "Transparent Bar" and "White Tiger Bar" by Xidius), specially created to blend well with the forthcoming Leopard version of Mac OS X, added to the online gallery of free button sets.
[Note] First sweep through codebase for Leopard compatibility.
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes version 7.3.1.

3.1.4b (9 July 2007)

[Enhancement] Increased robustness for notification-handling code.
[Note] Now uses latest version of the installer (Install 1.3.1).
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes version 7.3.

3.1.3 (11 June 2007)

[Enhancement] Various enhancements to the installer (documented here).
[Note] One new button set ("Kamino 2" by Bastian Olea) added to the online gallery of free button sets.
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes version 7.2.

3.1.3b (15 May 2007)

[Bugfix] Better escaping of special characters in URLs when performing cover art searches on Amazon (see bug #566).

3.1.2 (23 April 2007)

[Enhancement] Optimizations to main controller class.
[Note] Three new button sets (by Bretton Lewis and Stefan Haddewig) added to the online gallery of free button sets.
[Note] Dropped price of single-user licenses purchased through Kagi from 10€ to 9.95€. Licenses purchased using PayPal continue to be only 5€.

3.1.2b (10 April 2007)

[Bugfix] Tweaked code to ensure that the three handshake retries in the face of an AudioScrobbler "BADAUTH" response really do take place.
[Bugfix] Eliminated a possible iTunes respawn that could occur if iTunes was quit while there were still items in the AudioScrobbler submission queue.

3.1.1 (26 March 2007)

[Enhancement] Optimizations and source-code clean-up in NSApplication subclass.
[Enhancement] Now attempts up to three handshake retries if AudioScrobbler returns a "BADAUTH" response; should fix issue with last.fm now requiring periodic re-logins (apparently once per week; see this forum thread for more information).
[Bugfix] Corrected incorrect encoding on various localized InfoPlist.strings files in both the Synergy preference pane and in the main application.
[Bugfix] Corrected minor typographical errors in AudioScrobbler logging.

3.1.1b (8 March 2007)

[Bugfix] Corrections to Spanish translation (bug #528, "Translation errors in Spanish version of Synergy").
[Note] Third-party "AutoRate" script (see "Sample Track Change Items" folder on the Synergy disk image) compatibility updates by Glenn McDonald.
[Note] Additional translations by Sebastian Sparrer added to the German localization (bug #519, "Non-translated strings in Synergy 3.1").
[Note] Minor update to the Russian localization by Alexander Vasilyev.
[Note] Two new button sets by Evan Robert added to the online gallery of free button sets.
[Note] Qualified for use with the just-released iTunes version 7.1.

3.1 (4 December 2006)

[Enhancement] Added some explanatory text to the Audioscrobbler account details sheet indicating what Synergy does and discussing compatibility with other Audioscrobbler tools such as iScrobbler.
[Bugfix] Fixed spelling in Audioscrobbler logging (printed "infomation" instead of "information").
[Notes] Other than the already-noted spelling error, no bugs were found during the beta testing cycle so the 3.1 release is declared stable. A future release will address the feature requests submitted during the beta cycle.

3.1b2 (seeded to beta testers 11 November 2006)

[Bugfix] Before sending data to Audioscrobbler escape legal-but-reserved characters as defined in RFC 2396 (previously only escaped illegal characters).
[Enhancement] Added detail to log messages if the Audioscrobbler servers return a FAILED response.
[Enhancement] If the Audioscrobbler returns a FAILED message in response to a submission, wait until it is time to submit the next track before retrying with the failed track; the previous version tried again after the Audioscrobbler-specified delay (usually one second).
[Note] Beta validity period extended from two weeks to three weeks.

3.1b (seeded to beta testers 11 November 2006)

[Feature] Audioscrobbler (last.fm) support (feature request #108); preliminary documentation appears here.
[Enhancement] Extensive code auditing for code clean-up and optimization.
[Bugfix] Correction to Norwegian localization of preference pane (bug #495).
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes version 7.

3.0 (5 September 2006)

[Enhancement] Elegant new icon design by Adam "Elroy" Mazzitelli.
[Feature] Implemented feature request #445 ("Display confirmation sheet when clicking 'Defaults' or 'Revert'").
[Bugfix] Minor changes to the "Get artwork from Synergy" sample script included on the Synergy disk image that allow it to work when running in German (and probably other languages as well); modifications provided by Reto Baumberger.
[Bugfix] Remove drag limitations when setting the position of the Floater (fixes bug #309, "Floater won't move to 2nd screen if 2nd screen is above main screen").
[Bugfix] Final workaround for font changes made by Apple in the move to Tiger that made rating stars in the central feedback bezels (when using the hot keys to change song ratings) appear too small and hard to distinguish (bug #425, "Open stars in hot-key floater"). The fix originally introduced in Synergy version 1.9 gave stars of the correct size but they were not fully solid. This new workaround should give stars that are equally good-looking and solid on Tiger, Panther and Jaguar.
[Bugfix] Double-clicking a button set in the Finder causes that set to become active even when the user has the "Choose random button style" preference set (bug #442, "Double-click on a Synergy Button set displays random button set").
[Note] Five new buttons sets (two by Charles Hodgson, one by subscriber3 and two by Jon Redmond) added to the online gallery.

2.9 (15 June 2006)

[Feature] New item in the Global Menu, "Transfer cover to iTunes"; fulfills feature request #8 ("Embed album art in track file").
[Enhancement] Optimizations to string-handling code.
[Note] Included the "Get artwork from Synergy" script by John Burgess on the Synergy disk image (see the "Sample Script Menu Items" folder).

2.8 (27 April 2006)

[Feature] Floater background transparency can now be set to totally transparent (sample screenshot) or totally solid, in addition to the previously available range of choices (feature requst #413).
[Enhancement] Installation disk image now includes two new sample "Track Change Items": "AutoRate" and "AutoResume" submitted by Glenn McDonald.
[Note] One new button set by Leonardo Alcantara added to the online gallery.
[Note] Included missing French localized files by Marc Shapiro for the installer.

2.7 (3 April 2006)

[Bugfix] Fixed typographical error in "Composer" tool-tip in preferences (bug #359).
[Bugfix] Added translation for "Composer" to French localization of preferences (bug #378).

2.6 (9 March 2006)

[Bugfix] Final workaround for font changes made by Apple in the move to Tiger that made rating stars in the Floater appear too small and hard to distinguish (bug #179). The fix originally introduced in Synergy version 1.9 gave stars of the correct size but they were not fully solid. This new workaround should give stars that are equally good-looking and solid on Tiger, Panther and Jaguar.
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes version 6.0.4.

2.5 (17 February 2006)

[Bugfix] Floater totally failed to display ratings if they were not whole-star ratings (bug #366).
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes version 6.0.3.

2.4 (23 January 2006)

[Bugfix] Corrected problems setting Hot Keys with modifiers when running natively on Intel machines; such keys could be set and used but the modifiers would not be shown within the user interface (bug #350).
[Bugfix] Additionally performed code audit of all Hot Key functionality, refactored, and fixed long-standing inability to set Hot Key combinations that use key code 0 (corresponds to the "A" key on most Western keyboards).
[New] 24 new free downloadable buttons sets by Ricardo Rivera, Piotr Gajos, Dougy and Wolfgang Bartelme — including four Editors Picks — added to the online gallery.
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes version 6.0.2.

2.3 (23 December 2005)

[Notes] This release fixes all reported, reproducible issues with respect to Synergy's Universal Binary status. It should now run identically (and natively) on both Intel and PowerPC platforms.

2.3rc2 (release candidate 2) (30 November 2005)

[Bugfix] Fixes a problem with license code validation on the Intel platform caused by byte-ordering issues (bug #339).

2.3rc1 (release candidate 1) (29 November 2005)

[Enhancement] Synergy is now a Universal Binary meaning that it can run natively on both PowerPC and Intel processors.
[Enhancement] The embedded Growl framework has been upgraded to the latest available version (0.7.2). Growl support is only active when running on Panther (Mac OS X 10.3) and higher. Given that Growl has historically caused problems when running on Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2) I'd appreciate hearing confirmation from users running that version of the OS that there are no problems.

2.2 (14 November 2005)

[Enhancement] Upgraded installer to Install version 1.3, which is a Universal Binary that runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel processors.
[Note] Updated automatic version checking feature to reflect move of wincent.dev server to Rackspace.
[Note] Qualified for use with Mac OS X 10.4.3.
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes 6.0.1.

2.1 (4 August 2005)

[Bugfix] Work around bug in Tiger Launch Services which could cause the Synergy icon to appear in the Dock (bug #192).

2.0.1 (30 June 2005)

[Bugfix] Restored compatibility with Mac OS X 10.2 which was broken in Synergy 2.0 in the change to Tiger, Xcode 2.1 and the new version of the Growl framework (bug #265).
[Bugfix] Minor corrections by Alexander Vasilyev to the Russian localization.
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes 4.9.

2.0 (27 June 2005)

[Note] Updated the embedded Growl framework from version 0.6.2 to 0.7. This means that if you have Growl 0.7 or later installed on your system then Synergy will try to coalesce multiple notifications into a single notification (useful for rapidly skipping through tracks when a Growl notification is already on screen); note that not all Growl display plug-ins support coalescing.
[Note] Qualified for use on Mac OS X 10.4.1.

1.9 (13 May 2005)

[Bugfix] Fixed problem where the album cover shown in Growl notifications would lag one song behind iTunes (bug #193).
[Bugfix] Changed the unicode character used to draw the rating stars in the Floater when running on Tiger. This corrects the "small rating star" problem seen on Tiger (bug #179).
[New] 8 free new button sets added to the online gallery. The gallery now contains 131 free sets in all.
[Note] Now uses Install version 1.3 which provides more reliable upgrades for users performing upgrade installs (specifically it offers to clean up files from prior installations even if those files are in locations that are writable only by an administrator and the user has elected to do a "current user only" install; to perform the cleanup the user must enter an administrator password).
[Note] Recompiled with GCC 4.0 which should result in a better optimized executable.
[Note] Now uses version 0.6.2 of the Growl framework (upgraded from 0.6.1).
[Note] Qualified for use on Mac OS X 10.4.
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes 4.8.

1.8.1 (18 April 2005)

[Note] Optimizations to iTunes querying method for better performance.
[Feature] Display of composer in Floater is now optional (bug #177).
[Bugfix] Added missing space between artist and composer in the Floater; now shows, "Artist (Composer)" instead of "Artist(Composer)" (bug #178).
[Bugfix] Fixed problem where text might not display in the Floater when it is set to the smallest possible size (bug #176).
[Bugfix] Fixed potential "beachball" on quitting iTunes (bug #188).
[Bugfix] No longer uses composer as part of the track identifier which means that art downloaded prior to version 1.8 will continue to be recognized (bug #173).
[Bugfix] Minor corrections to the German localization by Armin Korn.
[Bugfix] Minor corrections to the Traditional Chinese localization by Jack MH Lin.
[Note] Qualified for use on Mac OS X 10.3.9; once Tiger becomes available compatibility testing will be undertaken (and fixes applied if necessary).

1.8 (13 April 2005)

[Bugfix] Fix delays which may occur when no Internet connection is available and Synergy tests the network status by moving those tests into separate threads (bug #131).
[Bugfix] Suppress "Stopped" notifications that iTunes (version 4.7 and later) sends on quitting; this prevents the "Stopped: (null)" message from being sent to Growl when iTunes quits (bug #142).
[Bugfix] Correct the incorrect ordering in Growl notifications; notifications now show "Artist (Composer)" instead of "Composer (Artist)".
[Feature] If the user elects to display the album cover in the Floater but no art is available, a subtle, semi-transparent question mark is displayed to indicate that Synergy has not (yet) found art from either iTunes or Amazon. Previous versions showed the Synergy icon under these circumstances (bug #22).
[Note] For increased security, additional checking is performed on Track Change Items prior to launching. Items will only be launched if both they and the containing folder are owned by the current user and the permissions are set so that only the current user has write privileges. If these conditions are not met, Synergy logs a warning to the console. (Note that by default, Mac OS X does create new folders and items with appropriate permissions.)
[Feature] Composer now shown in the Floater, if available and user has checked "Artist" in the Synergy preferences. The pattern used is the same as the one adopted for Growl notifications in version 1.7; that is, if both artist and composer are defined for the track then the Floater will display "Artist (Composer)", and if only one is available then only one will be displayed (bug #60).
[Note] Further optimizations made when querying iTunes for faster response times.
[Bugfix] Simplified Chinese localization is no longer incorrectly categorized as Traditional Chinese.
[New] Traditional Chinese localization by Jack MH Lin.
[New] 12 free new button sets -- including one editor's pick -- by Ultraman, Eerk Hofmeester, Errol Sayre and FreeFrog Designs added to the online gallery. The gallery now contains 123 free sets in all.
[New] Testing on pre-release versions of Tiger indicates that Synergy is compatible with the next generation of Mac OS X.

1.7.1 (7 March 2005)

[Bugfix] Restore compatibility with Mac OS X 10.2 by eliminating crashes caused by the Growl framework when running on Jaguar; this means that Growl is now only supported on Mac OS X 10.3 and above (bug #123).

1.7 (4 March 2005)

[Feature] Growl support when used in conjunction with iTunes 4.7 or later (bug #35); see http://growl.info/ to learn about Growl, or look at the Synergy screenshots page to see how Synergy integrates with Growl. Synergy sends the same update information to Growl that it displays in its own Floater (although it doesn't make a lot of sense to have both Growl and the Floater turned on at the same time); this includes, title, artist (and/or composer), album, year, duration, rating and cover art information, according to which items you have active in the Synergy preferences. Clicking on a Growl notification brings iTunes to the front. See the FAQ for information on how to install and configure Growl.
[Feature] Ability to execute custom Apple Scripts or launch other items on track or status changes (requires iTunes 4.7 or later); this can be used to do things like update your current status in iChat with the details of the currently playing track, or anything else that can be performed by a script. Synergy looks for track change items in "~/Library/Application Support/Synergy/Track Change Items". Synergy scans the Track Change Items folder only once at startup, so after making changes to the contents of the folder you must stop and restart Synergy for the changes to take effect.
[New] 32 free new button sets -- including three editor's picks -- by Aaron Martin, Eric Deerly, Kevin Asher, Mark, Mathias Temmen, Mick Care, Ricardo Rivera, Ryan Edwards, Scott Vogel, Teb Hobgood, Wynn H Burton and Xidius added to the online gallery. The gallery now contains 111 free sets in all.
[New] Turkish localization by Alphan Gunaydin.
[Bugfix] Include non-localized strings in Swedish version of installer (thanks to Pär Boberg).
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes 4.7.1.

1.6.1 (22 December 2004)

[Bugfix] Corrected display error in the Synergy preferences.

1.6 (22 December 2004)

[Bugfix] Upgraded installer to Install version 1.2.3, fixing a rare (one crash report in 18 months) crash.
[Bugfix] Corrected incorrect references to the price of Synergy which appeared in the English localization (the price was shown in dollars instead of euros).
[Bugfix] When entering registration information, Synergy now automatically strips any excess leading or trailing whitespace (that is, tabs, spaces, newlines) from the entered license code and email address; this makes it easier to copy and paste from the registration notice into Synergy without accidentally introducing additional characters which would otherwise result in an invalid license code/email address combination. In addition, the license code is no longer case-sensitive (the email address, however, still is). See bug #69 for more information.
[Bugfix] Fix a number of small leaks (leaked Apple Events); the reduced memory footprint may lead to improved performance. There are some small leaks still remaining, but these are Apple bugs in NSAppleScript and are known to Apple.

1.5 (8 December 2004)

[Enhancement] Further optimizations to communications engine when running with iTunes 4.7; the number of communication events has been cut in half (or much more, depending on your usage patterns).
[Bugfix] Make sure that Floater fades out immediately if iTunes is quit (bug #32).
[Bugfix] Auto-show/hide of menu bar controls and Global Menu when running with iTunes 4.7 works again (bug #48)
[Bugfix] Floater now updates when Internet Radio track information changes in iTunes (bug #1).
[Bugfix] Show a tooltip in the preferences user interface indicating with the Communications Interval slider is ghosted on systems where iTunes 4.7 is installed (bug #33).
[Bugfix] Fix crash on repeatedly skipping tracks with Mac OS X 10.2.8/iTunes 4.7 (bug #34). This fix has a secondary performance benefit for all users because it eliminates a number of timer firing events, and restores the old behaviour in which the floater will resize instantly without animating if the user repeatedly skips tracks with multiple clicks or hot key presses.
[Bugfix] Removed harmless console warning, "Unknown error trying to send Apple Event", that would appear if user tried to interact with iTunes just as it was launching or exiting.
[New] Ten free new button sets -- including two Editor's Picks -- by Matt Widmann, Chris Messina, Kevin Lee, Matteo Discardi, Pieter Hudig, Sami Nowak, Shane Smith and Zed Bailey added to the online gallery.
[New] Partial Portuguese localization by Neto.
[New] Partial Italian localization by Michele Mangili.
[New] Partial Simplified Chinese localization by Xiong Wei.

1.5b (23 November 2004)

[Feature] Complete rewrite of communications subsystem: when Synergy is used with iTunes 4.7 it no longer has to periodically poll iTunes, resulting in vastly improved responsiveness and reduced resource usage.
[New] Multiple additions to the Online Button Set gallery. The gallery now contains 70 free sets, including 11 news sets by Aaron Martin, David Nicholson, Greg Granito, Hervé Pfeiffer, Mike R Manzano and Thomas Stitzer.

1.4 (26 October 2004)

[New] Corrections and many additions to the Online Button Set gallery at <http://wincent.dev/buttons/>. The gallery now contains just under 60 free sets; including 11 new sets (by David Drucker, Eric Stumbaugh, Oliver Waters, Phil Daulton, Stephen Way and Wynn H Burton).
[Bugfix] Fix two instances in which Synergy displays a dialog, but the dialog might be obscured by other application windows, potentially confusing the user.
[Bugfix] Removed some harmless warnings that could be written to the console under some circumstances.
[Enhancement] Downloaded covers now saved in JPEG instead of TIFF format to conserve disk space.
[Enhancement] Synergy no longer keeps a permanent, duplicate copy of cover art supplied by iTunes; it instead maintains a "Temporary Album Covers" folder, and then removes the folder at program termination to recover any disk space that was used.
[Enhancement] Many performance optimizations for speed, and massive clean-up of source code which should enable future feature enhancements and fixes to be implemented more rapidly.
[Bugfix] Minor correction to Dutch localization.
[Update] Norwegian localization updated.
[Update] Russian localization updated.
[Bugfix] Fixed broken "More..." button in the Russian localization.

1.3 (8 September 2004)

[Feature] New "More..." button in the Menu Bar tab of the Synergy preference pane, which provides users with a convenient means of downloading free, double-clickable Button Sets.
[Feature] Online Button Set gallery launched at <http://wincent.dev/buttons/>; there are currently 48 free button sets available for download, including 10 never-seen-before sets ("Aqua", "Aqua Buttons with Drop Shadow", "Synblack", "iTunes", "Icky", "iTunes Bordered", "Untitled", "AquaButtons", "Safari Graphite" and "Blue").
[Feature] New "power user" feature (accessible from command-line), display floater on desktop. To activate, enter "defaults write org.wincent.Synergy desktopFloater -bool true" in the Terminal and restart Synergy. To deactivate, enter "defaults write org.wincent.Synergy desktopFloater -bool false".
[Bugfix] Fixed disappearing play/pause button while previewing music from the iTunes Music Store.

1.2 (28 August 2004)

[Feature] Total overhaul of the button set system. Prior versions embedded button sets within the Synergy package. Version 1.2 embeds only two sets, "Safari" and "Safari Aqua", and for other sets looks in "~/Library/Application Support/Synergy/Button Sets/" (for the current user only) and "/Library/Application Support/Synergy/Button Sets/" (for all users on the machine). This means users can easily add, remove or rename sets. The sets themselves are package folders with an extension of "synergyButtons". Users can double-click on a set in the Finder and Synergy will automatically switch to that button set and copy it into "~/Library/Application Support/Synergy/Button Sets/", if possible. (Note that the user must run Synergy 1.2 once before this functionality will take effect, so as to register the file extension with Mac OS X Launch Services.) In the future, no more button sets will be added to the Synergy bundle itself; rather they will be distributed as separate, downloadable package(s).
[Feature] Additional choice (1) in the "Show recently played songs" section of the Global Menu.
[Feature] New button sets: "TigerBlue", "TigerGrey", "TigerWhite" by Henning Kanemann; "Fish" by The Fishman; "Hark" by Hark; "Panther" by Piotr Gajos; and "TigerHand Aqua" and "TigerHand Graphite" by Chris Messina.
[Feature] Internal optimizations and speed enhancements.
[Enhancement] Improvements to installation scripts allowing for more fine grained selection of what is installed/uninstalled.
[Enhancement] If automatic version checking is turned on, Synergy only shows one reminder per version (instead of showing a reminder on each launch).
[Bugfix] Fixed long-standing, but functional, mislabelling of the notifications used to communicate between the Synergy background application and the Synergy preference pane.
[Bugfix] Fixed error in installer script that was preventing login items from being updated for those users who chose to start Synergy at login.
[Bugfix] Fixed issued with the Revert and Defaults buttons in the preferences (changes were correctly modified on disk and/or in memory, but were not visually reflected in the preview of the Synergy menu bar buttons inside the Menu Bar tab of the preferences).
[Bugfix] Conducted extensive audit of entire codebase (32,000 lines) and found and fixed multiple memory leaks.
[Note] Trimmed download size by replacing embedded documentation with a link to the Synergy website; the material in the embedded documentation has always been and continues to be available online.
[Note] Qualified for use on Mac OS X 10.3.5.
[Note] Built using the latest version of Apple's Xcode tools (1.5).

1.1 (13 July 2004)

[Bugfix] Fixed issue in which the preference to not "Show Global Menu as a separate item" would be ignored unless the "Only when Menu Bar control buttons are hidden" preference was also set.
[Bugfix] Minor correction to the German localization (Hot Keys preference panel).
[Note] Installer now includes Swedish localization.
[Note] Now uses Install 1.2.2.

1.0 (17 June 2004)

[Note] This is the first wide-scale public release which reinstates Amazon automatic cover download support; support was trialled on a smaller scale with the 1.0b limited-release beta seed. Please note that the access to the Amazon servers is provided at their discretion and Wincent provides no guarantees as to the ongoing availability of the cover download service.
[Bugfix] Non-square album art is no longer forced to appear as square in the Floater.
[New] Partial Norwegian localization by Tore Torsteinbø.
[Note] Updates to Russian, German and Swedish localizations.
[New] "Konfunction" button set (by the author of the "3D button set, Hector Cabarcas of BambaDesign).
[Note] Now uses Install 1.2.1 (corrects bug preventing users from cancelling an "all users" install).
[Note] Recompiled using the latest version of Apple's Xcode Tools; qualified for use on Mac OS X 10.3.4; qualified for use with iTunes 4.6.

1.0b (limited-release beta seed)

[Note] Reinstates Amazon automatic cover download support. This release uses much more caching and queries the Amazon server less aggressively. This represents a trade-off because it means that album covers may take slightly longer to download than in previous releases, and the additional caching causes Synergy to use more memory; but conversely, the reduced load on the Amazon server means that Amazon is less likely to block access again in the future.

1.0a8 (29 March 2004)

[Feature] The Floater now displays track and artist names when streaming Internet Radio.
[Bugfix] Synergy now cooperates better with applications that try to define the same hot key combinations.
[Bugfix] Synergy now grants users a new 7-day trial period when using a new version for the first time; previously the same 7-day period applied to all versions 1.0a and up.
[Feature] Russian localization by Alexander Vasilyev [known issue; the "About" credits are not yet translated into Russian].
[Note] Updates to French localization.
[Note] Qualified for use with Mac OS X 10.3.3.
[Note] Now uses Install version 1.1.2.
[Note] It appears that Amazon access may again be re-instated.
[Note] Price adjustment: Synergy licenses now start at 5€ (Euros) instead of $5USD.

1.0a7 (8 March 2004)

[Feature] New "Warehouse" and "Trib" button sets, and updates to the "Black" button set, by Simon Pottier.
[Feature] New "Rings" button set, by Rob Schultz.
[Feature] New "Walt" button set and a new glyph for the Synergy Global Menu by Walt Dickinson.
[Feature] New "GarageBand" button set by Damon Vaughan.
[Feature] You can now hide the Global Menu from the Menu Bar if you don't wish to use it (see the Menu Bar tab in the Synergy preferences) by using the new "Show Global Menu as a separate menu item (not integrated into Play/Pause button)" preference and the related sub-setting, "Only when Menu Bar controls are hidden". Irrespective of these settings, the functionality of the Global Menu continues to be available by clicking-and-holding the Play/Pause button.
[Bugfix] When Synergy was requested to select a button set at random, the "Black" button set would never be selected.
[Bugfix] Trimmed some unnecessary files that were mistakenly embedded in the Synergy.prefPane bundle.
[Note] Japanese, Spanish and German localizations for the installer updated; the installer now offers more specific information about where Synergy will be installed; and fixed bug where users would be needlessly asked for an administrator username and password when uninstalling (now using Install version 1.1.1).

1.0a6 (2 March 2004)

[Enhancement] Improved upgrade procedure thanks to the use of Install version 1.1; if you have Synergy set as a login item, the upgrade procedure will explicitly update your login items to point to the newly installed version of Synergy. [Known issue: A small number of strings in the Japanese, Spanish, and German localizations of the new installer have not yet been updated; they are currently being translated and will appear in the next release.]
[Feature] New "Black" button set by Simon Pottier.
[Bugfix] If preferences were set to not show "Extra visual feedback for play, pause, next and previous track actions", feedback would still briefly appear after using song-rating hot keys (or any other keys which always show feedback) if play, pause, next or previous track hot keys were pressed before the previous feedback overlay had faded out.

1.0a5 (17 February 2004)

[Bugfix] Worked around an Apple bug in their LoginItemAPI which was causing the System Preferences to crash after clicking the "Apply" button for some users (bug #237). Relatedly, users who cannot get Synergy to automatically launch at login should see bug #201, which contains detailed instructions to identify the cause of the problem.
[Bugfix] Updated to use Install version 1.0.5 (more fixes to the Japanese localization).

1.0a4 (6 February 2004)

[Feature] Automatic version checking (default checking interval: once per day); instructions for disabling or modifying this feature are in the FAQ.
[Bugfix (Panther)] Isolated and worked around the cause of the "escalating Mach port usage" problem (bug #238) that some users of dual-CPU machines were seeing some of the time after upgrading to Panther, greatly improving stability for those users.
[Bugfixes] Fixed potential crash (bug #139), and delays for some users without permanent Internet connections (bug #142).
[Enhancements] Optimizations to reduce CPU and other resource usage.
[Note] Updated to use Install version 1.0.4, which fixes a layout problem in the Japanese localization (the text inside the "Install" button was truncated/displaced because the button was too narrow).

1.0a3 (2 February 2004)

[Feature] Two new button styles by Chris Treadway of re-fresh, "xScope" (designed to match the visual style of xScope by the Icon Factory) and "Apple" (designed to match the Apple-provided Menu Extras).
[Feature] Five new button styles by Damon Vaughan (author of the popular "Safari" and "Safari Aqua" styles): "Simple", "Tabbed", "Divide", "Brushed" and "Clean".
[Bugfix (Panther)] Corrected problems when using "Unremarkable" button style and attempting to widen the button spacing. This problem did not occur under Jaguar because Jaguar effectively ignores the non-standard DPI setting in the button graphics files.
[Bugfix] Removed tool-tips that appeared in preferences when hovering over yet-to-be-implemented features.
[Note] Updated to use Install version 1.0.3, which features a new Japanese localization by Akira Ikeda.
[Bugfix] In German localization "Standart" corrected to "Standard" in the Button style pop up menu.
[Note] Updated "About" information in the Synergy Preferences, and the credits page on website and in documentation to reflect the contributions of Puppy Duke RIP, Fokke de Boer and Jonas Barrestam.

1.0a2 (27 December 2003)

[Note] This release temporarily disables automatic album cover downloading, while issues with Amazon are being negotiated/resolved. Please note that you can continue to use Synergy with any covers that you have already downloaded, and with any covers embedded in your music files via iTunes.
[Note] Qualified for use with the new iTunes version 4.2.
[Note] Recompiled on Panther using XCode 1.1; this release is qualified for using on Mac OS X 10.2 or Mac OS X 10.3.
[Note] Amended website and other text to reflect the inclusion of a brand new button set by Drew Pauley, "Synerama", that was introduced in Synergy 1.0a but accidentally omitted from the release notes.
[Note] Added Felix Kühne to the "About" window in the installer, the Synergy Preferences "About" tab, and the website to acknowledge his contribution of the German localization for the Synergy Installer.
[Bugfix] Bumped buttons in "Unremarkable" button set upwards by one pixel.
[Feature] New button set, "Spacesaver", contibuted by Puppy Duke RIP.
[Bugfix] The option to select a random button style on startup was only selecting from a subset of possible button styles.
[Bugfix] No longer display feedback bezel if there is an error trying to change the shuffle or repeat mode of iTunes using hotkeys (for example, as occurs when this operation is attempted and iTunes has no current selection, such as immediately after launching iTunes but before starting playback).
[Bugfix (Panther)] Shuffle and repeat mode feedback bezel icons again appear at full size (this problem was caused because Panther respects the DPI settings of the files whereas Jaguar does not).
[Bugfix (Panther)] "Start Synergy at login" code completely reimplemented using Apple's LoginItemAPI, thus fixing problems with this feature on Panther.
[Bugfix (Panther)] Eliminate console warnings about unreleased NSEvent objects caused by Panther's different behaviour, which causes mouseUp events to be sent only under specific circumstances.
[Bugfix (Panther)] Changed floater drawing method to work around delay issues on Panther where the floater would not immediately appear if the user tried to bring it onto the screen with the "Show/Hide floater" hot key, or by clicking a forward or back button in the menu bar.
[Bugfix (Panther)] Reduced number of warnings logged to console and improved the responsiveness of the Synergy/iTunes interaction by increasing the timeout limit for Apple Event-based communication (iTunes and Apple Event performance appear to be markedly different on Panther).
[Bugfix (Panther)] Fixed cosmetic glitches in the highlighting behaviour of items in the Global Menu.
[Note] Restored "Multicolored" button set by popular demand.
[Bugfix] Minor corrections to German localization.
[Note] Updated to use Install 1.0.2 which includes minor bugfixes and feature enhancements: Recompiled on Panther using Xcode (like previous releases, this version is qualified for use on both Panther and Jaguar); Fixed potential problems when attempting to run Install for the current user only from a directory where the path included special characters; Fixed potential problems when installing for all users: if a file operation failed (which in itself is extremely unlikely in the default configuration) it would fail silently; The lock/unlock button is now only ghosted at critical points, bringing the user interface in line with the pattern defined by Apple's System Preferences application; New menu item, "Reveal files on disk", to help users who wish to perform manual (drag-and-drop) installations; for clarity, renamed "Show files" menu it to, "Show files list"; After an uninstallation, there are now two buttons available ("Go Back" and "Quit"); previously there was only one ("Go Back"); Added Spanish localization by Wincent Colaiuta; the "Files" directory name now appears as localized (German, Spanish) when viewed in the Finder (but only if the "Always show file extensions" option is disabled in the Finder preferences); Choosing "About Install" from the "Install" menu now shows engineering and localization credits); German localization updated (by Felix Kühne) and various errors corrected and adjustments made; Fixed problems on attempting to resize uninstall window during or after an uninstall operation; "Uninstall" button now ghosted when no checkboxes selected in the uninstall files listing; Files list in the "Uninstall" window now updates dynamically; for example, deselecting a file turns the name light gray; selecting it turns the name black; files in the process of being removed are shown in dark gray; successfully removed files appear with a "strikethrough" font; Fixed display bug when clicking on the lock button text (previously, a subtle white highlight box was visible when clicking on the text); In line with Apple's conventions, clicking on the lock button text is now equivalent to clicking on the lock button itself: this is especially helpful in non-English localizations such as Spanish, where the text actually reads "Click here to make changes".
[Note] Distribution now includes a separate "Read Me" file (in PDF) explaining the installation procedure for those who wish to do a manual ("drag-and-drop") install instead of using the Install application. The document is currently available in English and Spanish.
[New] Support and discussion forums for Synergy and other Wincent products now online.
[New] Automated serial recovery system for users who lose their registration information; see: <https://wincent.dev/a/support/registration/>.

1.0a (2 September 2003)

[Note] This build is labelled as 1.0a to indicate its "alpha" status, meaning that it is mostly a bugfix release intended for compatibility improvements with Panther, and it is not yet feature-complete. The next release, 1.0b, will be feature-complete (the two major features still to be completed are the ability to transfer album art back to iTunes, and preferences for displaying the Global Menu as a separate item, or not at all).
[Bugfix] Resolved problem with Synergy stealing the "A" key in Panther.
[New] German localization by David Dauer (all interface elements in Synergy application and preference pane).
[New] Dutch localization by Paul Bánsági (all interface elements in Synergy application and preference pane, as well as disk image).
[New] New button set, "Synerama", by Drew Pauley.
[Updated] Totally revised "3D" button set by Hector Cabarcas of BambaDesign.
[Bugfix] Feedback floater position correctly set even when changing monitor resolution or number of monitors.
[Feature] Automatic update checking when connected to the Internet can alert you to the availability of new versions. Note that in this version the preferences for this feature have not yet been added to the User Interface. They will appear in 1.0b.
[Bugfixes] Bumped music glyph graphic one pixel to the left for better alignment.
[Enhancement] Optimized binary size in effort to compensate for size of added localizations.
[Enhancement] "Start/Stop" button in the preferences now updates its state if Synergy exits abnormally (for example, if you issue a "killall Synergy" command in the Terminal).
[Note] Qualified for use with iTunes 4.0.1; iTunes 4.0.1 is a recommended upgrade for all Synergy users as it removes the previous limitation of inability to access song information for tracks playing from shared playlists.
[Note] Compiled using Apple's latest compiler, GCC 3.3, requiring minor changes to the codebase.
[Note] Updated to use Install 1.0.1 (which includes minor bug fixes).
[Note] Changed search order for finding album cover art: now searches iTunes, then disk, then Amazon (previously searched disk, then iTunes then Amazon).
[Note] When choosing "Show Album Covers Folder" from the Synergy Global Menu, the cover of the currently playing song will be selected in the Finder (if it exists, otherwise the folder will be shown with no items pre-selected). This enhancement also works for users that run PathFinder instead of the Finder.

0.9.9i2 (26 June 2003)

[Feature] Now comes with an easy-to-use Installer application.

0.9.9i (9 May 2003)

[New] Japanese localization by Akira Ikeda (all interface elements in Synergy application and preference pane).
[New] French localization completed (all interface elements of the Synergy application, preference pane and disk image).
[Note] Localization page added to Synergy website.
[Note] In all other respects this version is identical to version 0.9.9, and as such is a recommended download only for French- or Japanese-speaking users.

0.9.9 (6 May 2003)

[Feature] Now checks iTunes for album cover art before searching Amazon (iTunes 4 only).
[Feature] Playlists submenu in Global Menu now active.
[Feature] New option in "Advanced" tab of preferences: "Bring iTunes to front when switching playlists" (defaults to off).
[Feature] Global Menu now integrated into Play/Pause button (menu no longer appears as a separate item in menu bar, but instead is accessed by clicking-and-holding the Play/Pause button; it can also be accessed by control-clicking or right-clicking).
[Feature] New button sets, "Safari" and "Safari Aqua", by Damon Vaughan. "Safari" now replaces "Standard" as the default button set.
[Feature] New item in Global Menu -- "Show Album Covers Folder" -- shows the folder where Synergy caches its album cover images (useful for people wishing to drag album images into iTunes 4).
[New] French localization by Hervé Bismuth and Frédéric Latour (documentation and parts of Preference Pane not yet localized).
[Enhancement] Rating stars in floaters now look more "solid".
[Enhancement] Minor performance optimisations.
[Note] Documentation and website extensively revised in preparation for Synergy version 1.0.
[Note] This, and all previous versions of Synergy, work with Apple's new iTunes 4; iTunes 4 is a recommended upgrade to all Synergy users, as it offers increased performance and eliminates some limitations in iTunes 3 (such as the inability to interact with Synergy while displaying a visualiser).
[Bugfixes] Fixed visual glitches in preference pane when switching button sets and at least one control button is not enabled; Removed harmless console warnings when releasing mouse button outside of Menu Bar controls, and warning at startup, "Font GB18030Bitmap: in _readBasicMetricsForSize, claims 0 max advance but is fixed-pitch"; worked around Apple bug which produced occasional "_DPSDiscardEvents: ignoring eventTime endpoint" warnings in console; Global Menu now uses a bitmap graphic rather than a font-based icon, so displays correctly even on machines with non-standard fonts; worked around changes made by Apple to Cocoa in Mac OS X 10.2.5, ensuring that Synergy menu bar buttons behave like the buttons in iTunes, and improving button responsiveness on all versions of Jaguar; now only displays feedback windows for "Previous" and "Next" track Hot Keys if iTunes is running (when iTunes is not running, those Hot Keys have no effect); ordering of Global Menu Items is now correctly preserved when changes are made to the menu "include" settings; fixed tooltips in preferences (duplicates, typographical errors).

0.9.8 (24 April 2003)

[Feature] Improvement to accuracy of album cover downloads: optionally pre-process ID3 tags to remove words likely to confuse the Amazon search engine (for example, "Disc 1", "Disc 2", "Soundtrack", "OST" and so forth); if you have suggestions for other words that should be filtered, email me.
[Enhancement] Further speed improvements by replacing AppleScript-based code with pure Apple Events.
[Bugfixes] Prevent downloading of album cover if user only wants to show Synergy icon or no graphic in floater; can now replace "~/Library/Application Support/Synergy" or "~/Library/Application Support/Synergy/Album Covers" with symbolic links or aliases pointing to other folders; remove unnecessary console warning when opening preference pane; "Initiate connections to the Internet automatically when required" preference in "Advanced" tab now functions correctly.

0.9.7 (15 April 2003)

[Feature] Optional automatic downloading of album covers from the Internet. Downloading occurs in a separate thread, and covers are cached locally. "Buy from Amazon" item added to Global Menu to purchase additional copies of currently playing album. (Note: the accuracy of this feature relies directly on the completeness of ID3 tag information in your iTunes library.)
[Feature] Option to change floater graphic, displaying current album cover, Synergy icon, or no graphic.
[Feature] New item in Global Menu for turning floater on and off.
[Enhancements] Auto-scrolling "About box"; minor-adjustments to layout of items in the preferences; now distributed as an "Internet-enabled" (self-disposing) disk image to enhance ease of installation; refined documentation to reduce download size; can now press Return/Enter to finish editing Floater position.
[Note] Reduced default spacing between menu bar buttons; adjusted floater layout code to enhance appearance of album cover feature (album covers appear larger, text appears smaller).
[Bugfixes] Can now use the "Show/hide floater" hot key to toggle floater even when preferences are set to "Show floater always" (in this case, the hot key effectively turns the floater on or off until the user presses the hot key again); less console output; selecting an item from the "Recently played tracks" list in the Global Menu now works correctly even if iTunes is not running; worked around Apple text-wrapping bug in Floater-positioning sheet.

0.9.6 (17 March 2003)

[Enhancement] Hot keys now differentiate between a simple "press and release", and a "press and hold". Effectively, pressing and holding "Previous" and "Next" (for more than a third of a second) will now cause iTunes to scrub back or forward through the song (rewind or fast forward); normal playback resumes when the hot key is released. A simple "press and release" continues to operate as before, causing iTunes to skip tracks. Similarly, the volume can now be continuously adjusted by pressing and holding the appropriate hot keys (previously, the volume would only move one unit for each key press).
[Feature] New hot keys for "Increase rating" and "Decrease rating" (in addition to the rating hot keys already added in version 0.9.3).
[Enhancement] The "Next" and "Previous" menu bar buttons now behave exactly like the corresponding buttons in iTunes. In other words, a "press and release" skips tracks, but a "press and hold" will initiate a rewind or fast forward operation. Just as in iTunes, if you move the mouse pointer off of the button while still pressing the mouse button, normal playback will resume, and if you move the pointer back inside the button area then the rewind/fast forward operation will reactivate.

0.9.5 (10 March 2003)

[Feature] After pressing the hot key combination to bring iTunes to the front, you can now press it again to hide iTunes.
[Feature] In the Advanced tab, there is now the ability to set the communication interval between iTunes and Synergy; at shorter intervals the Synergy floater and global menu will update more responsively (but Synergy will use more CPU); at longer intervals Synergy will use less CPU (but will update its interface less frequently).
[Bugfixes] Fixed problem where rating stars would appear too dim in the floater when not in "mini-mode"; the Synergy floater is now fully multiple-monitor aware; fixed minor memory leak.

0.9.4 (4 March 2003)

[Feature] Added new "mini-mode" to the floater, accessible by dragging the floater size slider all the way to the left. In this mode, the floater is reduced to a single line in height.
[Feature] Added items to Synergy global menu for changing repeat mode (repeat off, repeat one, repeat all), as well as the ability to cycle through the modes using a hot key.
[Feature] Added item to Synergy global menu for toggling shuffle mode (on or off), as well as hot key toggling.
[Feature] Visual feedback provided when changing shuffle and repeat modes (graphics provided by Adam "Elroy" Mazzitelli).
[Feature] Added ability to bring iTunes to the front using the Synergy global menu, or with a hot key.
[Feature] Ability to toggle "mute" status of iTunes using hot keys, with visual feedback.
[Feature] Option to choose the behaviour of the "Previous track" action; you can now have it first return to the beginning of the current track (like iTunes), or directly to the preceding track (default Synergy behaviour).
[Feature] Additional button styles: "Unremarkable", by Lawrence Campbell; "Multicolored", by "Hien". If you would like to see your own button styles included in a future version, please contact me.
[Feature] Option to choose a random button style at startup, and whenever Synergy hides and redisplays its Menu Bar controls.
[Enhancement] Increased the range of allowable hot keys, including those which were previously intercepted by Apple (Command+F14, Command+F15) or Cocoa (for example, Command+1, Command+2 and most other combinations using Command). You can now even choose reserved combinations (but commonsense is advised: for example, it would probably be unwise to assign, say, Command+Q to "Next track"!).
[Bugfixes] Floater always resizes if set to "Show floater always"; fixed a memory leak in Global Menu code; hot keys for setting ratings now disabled if there is no current selection in iTunes.
[Enhancement] Redesigned the Play/Pause image that appears in feedback floater when the iTunes state is unknown, to reduce similarity to "Frame Advance" button in Apple's DVD Player application.
[Enhancement] Improved responsiveness of hot key visual feedback, especially on slower machines.
[Enhancement] Improvements to preferences user interface (added new "Advanced" tab to accommodate additional options, clarified wording in tooltips and label text, greater context sensitivity in tooltips, other corrections).
[Note] You can now purchase Synergy through Kagi, in addition to the existing PayPal option; references in the program now point to the new purchasing page where you can choose from either of these options. Substantial discounts are now offered on multi-user licenses.

0.9.3 (25 February 2003)

[Feature] Optional "3D" alternative appearance for menu bar control buttons (graphics provided by Hector Cabarcas). If you would like to submit additional button graphics, read the guidelines in the Frequently Asked Questions and then send them to me.
[Feature] Ability to set iTunes rating (0 to 5 stars) using hot keys; full visual feedback is provided in the same style as Apple's volume adjustment window.
[Feature] Option to show iTunes rating in floater.
[Feature] Ability to leave floater permanently on screen, instead of fading out after a delay; relatedly, the floater duration slider now provides continuous visual feedback during adjustment.
[Bugfix] Totally eliminated "unwanted iTunes respawn" problem. If you are still seeing unwanted iTunes relaunches then they are most likely caused by other iTunes accessory programs running on your machine.
[Note] Reduced communication interval between Synergy and iTunes so that status updates are obtained once every three seconds.
[Bugfix] Made corrections to default preferences file included inside the Synergy Preference Pane bundle (the settings in this file could cause a failure to detect duplicate hot key settings when a user reverted to, or started from, default settings and then made customisations).
[Enhancement] Improved the layout of items in the floater to make better use of space when resizing, and the Synergy icon now shrinks when the size of the floater is reduced. Also improved "crispness" of display by rounding all non-integer values to integers.
[Enhancement] Embedded documentation is now optimised prior to distribution (for smaller download size).
[Note] Shaved off two pixels of wasted space at the left and right extremes of the menu bar control button area.
[Note] Expanded online documentation with an online Synergy tour.

0.9.2 (20 February 2003)

[Bugfix] Added another layer of checking before initiating communication between Synergy and iTunes; this should go some way towards fixing the "unwanted iTunes respawn" problem that some users have been reporting. Further improvements to follow.
[Enhancement] For convenience, now distributed as a disk image (.dmg) rather than a StuffIt Archive.

0.9.1 (11 February 2003)

[Bugfix] No longer displays a separator hyphen in the Recent Tracks menu if user has chosen to "Include artist information" but no such information is available.
[Bugfix] Fixed incorrect tool tip in General settings tab.
[Bugfix] Fixed problem where the floater would not always resize if "Display floater when iTunes track changes" was switched off and hot keys were used to skip tracks.
[Enhancement] Added Synergy website link to all Help pages.

0.9 (3 February 2003)

[Feature] Seamless support for any iTunes data source: audio files on disk, Compact Discs, Internet Radio Tuners, iPods and more. All of these formats are now compatible with the "Recent tracks" feature, although some formats do not provide album and artist information.
[Feature] Option to include or exclude Year and Track Duration information in floater, with more options on the way.
[Enhancement] Communication engine between Synergy and iTunes completely re-written to improve efficiency and enable new features.
[Bugfix] Fixed problems where floater text would not update if "Display floater when iTunes track changes" was not checked and the user pressed a hot key to force the floater to appear immediately.

0.8 (29 January 2003)

[Feature] Hot key to raise or lower iTunes volume.
[Feature] Hot key to show or fade out the floater at will.
[Feature] When controlling iTunes volume, Synergy displays a transparent feedback window styled after Apple's volume adjustment window (stylized Synergy icon provide by Adam "Elroy" Mazzitelli).
[Feature] Option to provide more visual feedback when using the play/pause, previous track and next track hot keys (again using a transparent feedback window).
[Feature] Option to include artist information in the recent tracks menu.
[Feature] Options to include or exclude album and artist information from floater; with more customisation options planned for the future.
[Enhancement] Some users were seeing Classic iTunes launch instead of the native Mac OS X version. Now Synergy forces Mac OS X to open the non-Classic version when "Launch iTunes" menu item is selected, or the Synergy "Play" button is pressed and iTunes is not running.
[Enhancement] Reduced download size by: stripping out some unnecessary support files from the preference pane package; changing file formats on some included images; reducing file sizes on screenshots in the documentation; and distributing as a preference pane only (without the "test drive" application).
[Bugfix] Floater no longer confuses artist with album for mp3s which have incomplete ID3 information.

0.7 (22 January 2003)

[Feature] Ability to set floater location.
[Enhancement] Almost all communication between Synergy and iTunes is now done using pure Apple Events (not AppleScript), which is much faster than even compiled AppleScripts.
[Enhancement] Worked around Apple bug that was causing visible artefacts around menu bar buttons, especially noticeable for users running "themes"; at the same time increased the clickable "hotspot" area of each button, thus making them easier to rapidly target.
[Bugfix] Various spelling and consistency errors in the user interface and documentation corrected.
[Bugfix] Floater duration slider now works.
[Bugfix] Play button is now perfectly centred between forward and back buttons (previously was off by one pixel).
[Bugfix] Selectively turning off menu bar buttons and then hitting "Apply" no longer causes visual glitches.
[Bugfix] Fixed crash that would manifest with automatic control showing and hiding activated if you quit iTunes, and then immediately pressed a menu bar button.
[Bugfix] Made Synergy's console output less verbose; an oversight in recent versions was causing some debugging messages to be output in the shipping version of the product.
[Note] Synergy now queries iTunes for information once every 5 seconds (previously it did so every 10 seconds); which means that the menu bar buttons and floater will update much faster now when iTunes is operating in the background. Synergy CPU usage is still around 0% after this change.
[Note] For consistency, menu bar button behaviour reverted to match standard system button behaviour (actions only triggered on release of mouse button; and user can cancel action by moving mouse pointer away from the control before releasing the mouse button); at the same time, increased the clickable area of each button to make them easier to hit.
[Note] The "Apply" and "Don't Apply" buttons now match exactly the behaviour of the Apple supplied Preference Panes when switching panes or closing the System Preferences window.

0.6 (18 January 2003)

[Enhancement] Function keys can now be used as global Hot Keys without the need to hold a modifier key.
[Feature] Preferences for floater duration, transparency and size (also changes font size).
[Bugfix] Order of items in the floater changed to match order in menubar tooltips (Trackname, album, artist).
[Note] Replaced references to "floating notification window" in documentation and interface with the simpler term "floater".

0.5 (15 January 2003)

[Feature] Added floating notification window with fade-in, fade-out, full mouse "click-through", and dynamic animated resizing.
[Enhancement] Many additions to the documentation.
[Enhancement] Cleaned up icon in system Help Viewer supplied by Adam "Elroy" Mazzitelli.
[Note] Spanish localisation applies to Synergy application only, not the the preference pane.

0.4 (13 January 2003)

[Feature] Option to display a Synergy global menu which contains iTunes related functions not accessible from the iTunes Dock menu.
[Feature] Option to display menu bar controls only when iTunes is running, hiding them when it is not running.
[Feature] Option to show/hide individual menu bar controls.
[Feature] Option to show/hide all menu bar buttons with a Hot Key.
[Enhancement] Play/Pause control now changes appearance to reflect whether iTunes is playing, paused or stopped.
[Enhancement] Controls now darken when clicked so as to provide feedback.
[Enhancement] Messages are sent to iTunes when the mouse button goes down, rather than when the mouse button is released, making the controls more responsive.
[Enhancement] Reduced the anti-aliasing level on the menu bar control buttons to improve their crispness.
[Enhancement] Shadows under menu bar controls are now turned off by default.
[Enhancement] New icon from Adam "Elroy" Mazzitelli.
[Enhancement] Option to alter the spacing between the menu bar control buttons.
[Enhancement] A shortcut to Synergy Help added to disk image.
[Enhancement] Disk image background updated to make installation instructions clearer.
[Addition] Much additional documentation added; the new Synergy website is now a mirror of the current documentation.
[Addition] Bug tracking interface now in place with public access for users wishing to report bugs or check on their progress towards resolution.
[Addition] Now displays a registration reminder at launch in an effort to improve the download to payment ratio seen in versions 0.1 to 0.3 (3,000 downloading users for each paying customer).
[Redesign] Communication between the Synergy Preference Pane (which provides the user interface) and the Synergy Application (which does all the work behind the scenes) is much improved, so changes made in the Preference Pane are now much more quickly reflected in the Menu bar.
[Redesign] Menu bar controls are now contained within one item on the Menu bar, instead of a separate item for each control, improving application launch time.
[Redesign] Massive redesign of the codebase will permit new features to be added more quickly in the future.
[Bugfix] Eliminated the delay in updating tooltips and buttons when a Hot Key is pressed.
[Bugfix] Fixed weird "Revert" button behaviour in Preference Pane when no preferences file exists on disk.

0.3 (30 November 2002)

[Feature] Now comes as a pane for the System Preferences application (a stand-alone application is included for "testdrive" purposes but is not recommended for long-term use as it has no user interface for changing the Synergy preferences).
[Feature] Option to have Synergy launch automatically on login.
[Feature] Ability to start and stop Synergy from the Preference Pane.
[Feature] All documentation moved into Synergy Preference Pane bundle and viewable through system Help Viewer.
[Redesign] No longer uses Finder to establish whether iTunes is running (useful for users of alternative file-browsers such as PathFinder).
[Enhancement] Distribution disk image now features a background image containing installation instructions.

0.2 (24 November 2002)

[Feature] Hovering over the play/pause button now shows the name of the current track in the tool-tip.
[Bugfix] The quit dialog now consistently comes to the front, rather than appearing just behind the frontmost application.

0.1 (23 November 2002)

Initial release.

Synergy links