Softpedia >Mac >Business >Time Out >  Changelog

Time Out Changelog

What's new in Time Out 2.9.7

Mar 14, 2024
  • Fixed another crash on pre-Sonoma macOS versions. Sorry about that!

New in Time Out 2.9.6 (Mar 12, 2024)

  • Fixed a crash on pre-Sonoma macOS versions. Sorry about that!

New in Time Out 2.9.5 (Mar 10, 2024)

  • Fixed the settings window unexpectedly appearing after restarting the Mac, when the Dock icon is hidden.
  • Fixed the app launch helper unexpectedly opening Terminal on older macOS versions.

New in Time Out 2.9.4 (Mar 7, 2024)

  • Fixed the settings window unexpectedly appearing after restarting the Mac, when the Dock icon is hidden.
  • Fixed misnaming the app in the sidebar when using a When Open app exclusion.
  • Fixed the Also skip breaks during focus exclusion option.
  • Fixed a break with a large negative duration when scheduling from the calendar with no more events.
  • Fixed the tooltip for the Ask When to Start scheduling option.
  • When there are multiple displays available, now uses the names of the displays in the menu.
  • Fixed the With Inactive Menubar option for multiple displays.
  • The other displays now fade out and back in correctly.
  • Fixed requesting full calendar access when using the calendar exclusion option (need full access to look for matching events).
  • Fixed the Skip button appearing when previewing a break if the end early option is enabled.
  • Fixed the option to alert of another copy of the app.
  • Added support for break-specific pause via a URL like timeout://break/micro/pause/30m, where micro is the break name, and 30m means pause for 30 minutes.
  • Also break-specific resume via a URL like timeout://break/micro/resume.
  • Fixed using a timeout://pause URL without an amount (to pause all breaks indefinitely) possibly crashing.
  • Fixed the settings window unexpectedly appearing when using a timeout:// URL.
  • Bonus: added the Sinclair Trails 2023 theme, with random timelapse clips of driving around the US.

New in Time Out 2.9.2 (Apr 19, 2023)

  • Now uses more modern ways to start the break helper, the automatically start on login option, and access the System Settings.
  • Fixed app icons not appearing in the Activity log for apps with display names that don't match their filename.
  • Fixed a break sometimes stopping too early when using the Ask When to Start option.
  • Fixed a break not being rescheduled past midnight when a natural break occurs.
  • Added themes for the Sinclair Trails blog and YouTube channel, and updated the Tropical Rain theme.
  • Fixed the Speak Time break action script.
  • Can now use a URL of timeout://settings to open the Time Out settings window, in addition to the existing timeout://preferences (useful for scripting and shortcuts).

New in Time Out 2.9.1 (Sep 9, 2022)

  • Fixed an issue where the Icon theme could be damaged.
  • Fixed a crash when choosing the new Calendar scheduling option.

New in Time Out 2.9 (Aug 31, 2022)

  • Added a status message to the breaks in the sidebar, to indicate why a break was skipped etc.
  • Added the ability to schedule breaks using calendar events.
  • Added an Exclusions option to skip breaks when busy on the calendar.
  • Support for Monterey focus.
  • Added an Advanced option to hide the Pause function.
  • New break options to pause or reset an individual break.
  • Plus other improvements. Read the release notes on the Updates page in the app for full details.

New in Time Out 2.9 Beta 1 (Aug 4, 2022)

  • Added a status message to the breaks in the sidebar:
  • The break items in the sidebar now display a status message, e.g. to indicate that the break has been postponed or skipped.
  • When a break is skipped or postponed due to an app exclusion, the app name is included.
  • So if you ever wonder why a break didn't occur as expected, look at this status message.
  • Added the ability to schedule breaks using calendar events:
  • A new Calendar option is now available in the From pop-up menu on the Break Schedule page.
  • If chosen, a pop-up menu of your calendars, and a field to filter on event text is displayed.
  • The first time this is chosen, the app will prompt for permission to access your calendars.
  • When using this option, Time Out will look at the specified calendar for events containing the specified text, and start a break at the start of the event, and finish at the end.
  • If the event text filter field is left blank, all events will be used; specify something else to use the same calendar for multiple breaks.
  • Multiple values can be entered in the filter field, separated by commas, e.g. "break, lunch, snack".
  • A reload button is available to reset the due date, if you edit the events.
  • Since the calendar controls the duration, frequency, and availability of the break, those controls are disabled.
  • This feature is available as a reward for current supporters; others can try it for an hour at a time.
  • Support for Monterey focus:
  • Renamed the Exclusions option to skip breaks during Do Not Disturb to focus, Apple's new name for it in Monterey.
  • The first time this option is enabled, the app will prompt to get permission to look at the focus state.
  • If declined, you can enable it via System Preferences ▸ Security & Privacy ▸ User Availability.
  • This feature will still work with the old Do Not Disturb state from previous macOS versions.
  • Added an Advanced option to hide the Pause function:
  • Sometimes it can be very difficult to resist the temptation to pause Time Out to avoid breaks, even though you know you shouldn't.
  • So for people who don't want the Pause function, there is now an option on the Advanced page to hide it.
  • This feature is available as a reward for current supporters; others can try it for an hour at a time.
  • New break options to pause or reset an individual break:
  • Added a Pause Break or Resume Break command to the break options menus. So a break can be paused independent of other breaks.
  • The Pause Break menu item can be chosen to pause indefinitely, or choose a shorter time from the submenu.
  • This is of course not included if the new Advanced option to hide pause is active.
  • Also added a Reset Break command to these menus. This will start the work period again from now, just for this break.
  • But wait, there's more:
  • Fixed the Flash Screen break action on M1 Macs. It now uses the built-in screen flash, so doesn't have color or duration options.
  • Fixed the Fadeout Sound break action not showing the fade out time interval field.
  • Updated the Stop Screensaver break action script.
  • Breaks due on future days are no longer adjusted when having a natural break (idle).
  • When resetting a From: Fixed Time break, the next due time now respects the fixed time.
  • Break names are now cleaned up to avoid invalid characters that can cause saving the break to fail.
  • Updated the Exclusions to remove DVD Player, and change FaceTime, Photo Booth, and QuickTime Player to include "System" in their paths.
  • For new folks, the exclusions for Zoom are now When Frontmost, to avoid a common support query. Existing data is not changed, in case you like them When Open.
  • The Pause All Breaks menu item can now be chosen to pause indefinitely, instead of needing to choose that from the submenu.
  • When paused indefinitely, the status item text now shows "--".
  • Improved the highlighting of the status item rows.
  • Hidden a couple of rarely-used diagnostic logging options.
  • Fixed a performance issue where the app could use more CPU than it should in some unusual circumstances.
  • Time Out now requires a minimum of macOS Catalina (10.15).

New in Time Out 2.8.1 (Jun 3, 2021)

  • A quick fix to have the Do Not Disturb break exclusion option off by default, as apparently a lot of people leave DND on all the time, resulting in unintentionally missing breaks. Sorry about that!

New in Time Out 2.8 (May 25, 2021)

  • New option to end a break early.
  • New option to postpone breaks for app exclusions.
  • Added an option to skip breaks when Do Not Disturb is on.
  • Can now show the time since the last break in the status item.
  • Control Time Out via URL schemes.
  • New LCD Digital Clock break theme.
  • Plus other improvements. Read the release notes on the Updates page in the app for full details.

New in Time Out 2.7.1 (Dec 2, 2020)

  • Fixed an issue that caused text for the Text theme to be forgotten.
  • Fixed the Break Preview prematurely stopping.
  • Tweaked the new Ask to Start feature to immediately ask when due, instead of waiting for a natural break.
  • Tweaked the appearance of the status menu.
  • Worked around an issue with displaying a time like 23 hours 45 minutes as "0 seconds".

New in Time Out 2.7 (Nov 22, 2020)

  • Big Sur:
  • Time Out is now a universal app for Apple M1 silicon and Intel on Big Sur; it also supports back to Yosemite (10.10).
  • Controls use the Dejal green accent color on Big Sur if the accent color in General System Preferences is set to "multicolor".
  • Improved the row heights in the sidebar on Big Sur.
  • Fixed the break control panel moving downwards on Big Sur.
  • Fixed the appearance of the Activity headers on Big Sur.
  • Improved the layout of some other controls.
  • Updated the app icon for the Big Sur squircle style.
  • New option to ask to start a break:
  • Added a new option in the "when this break is due" pop-up menu: Ask When to Start.
  • If chosen, a time interval control appears to specify a limit, after which it should start anyway. This defaults to 5 minutes (also supports units of seconds and hours).
  • When a break is due with this option, the control panel will appear, with a button to manually start the break when you're ready, and the screen won't dim.
  • When you click the Start Break button, the screen dims and the break continues as normal.
  • If you don't click within the time limit, the break starts anyway; this is needed to avoid accidentally blocking subsequent breaks.
  • A countdown to auto-starting appears once halfway through the time limit.
  • Improved break preview:
  • When clicking the Preview button on the Break Appearance page, the break now appears with a Stop Preview button to dismiss it.
  • The preview has no time limit; it'll remain until dismissed.
  • Dismissing the preview doesn't count as skipping it, so doesn't affect your statistics or daily limits.
  • If you want to try the full break experience, click the Start button in the sidebar instead.
  • Added several new break themes:
  • Updated the default Icon theme to use the new app icon.
  • Added a Round Icon theme that includes the old icon, if you miss that.
  • Added a "Dejal Blog" break theme, that shows the Dejal blog for news from Dejal.
  • Also added "Dejus Blog", that shows the author's personal blog, with daily interesting photos.
  • And to complete the set, "Yellow Cottage Blog", that shows the author's homestead blog, with pictures of feral cats, ducks, chickens, and more.
  • As an example of a static remote picture, added a "Ducks & Fish" theme, that shows that. You can edit the theme to show a picture of your choosing.
  • Added an "Inspirational Quotes" theme, that shows a quote for each break.
  • Added a "Pexels Nature" theme, that shows a random nature picture.
  • Added "Photo Slideshow", that can be edited to show 10 local images of your choosing.
  • Other changes:
  • Added the time range to the tooltips for breaks and apps on the Activity page, for a more precise indication of when each occurred.
  • Changed the Advanced option to reset the position of the full window after displaying the status menu from a button to a checkbox, to keep that behavior, instead of a one-time reset.
  • Improved the size and alignment of the status item when only an icon or only the countdown is displayed.
  • Fixed break rows not highlighting properly in the status item menu.
  • Some people missed the red heart icons indicating supporter rewards, so now the info popover for a reward trial automatically appears each time a page is displayed during the hour trial.
  • When manually starting a break while Time Out is paused, actions are now performed as expected, instead of performing them after resuming.
  • Now skips breaks during a screen recording by default for new users. Existing users can see this blog post to add this exclusion.
  • Also now skips when using Zoom too; see this blog post.
  • Worked around Apple bug with displaying a time like 59 minutes 30 seconds as "0d".
  • The scripts for Break Actions are now listed in alphabetical order.
  • Fixed the Sound Action Repeat checkbox color in dark mode.
  • Updated the Help menu to include the Dejal Reddit and other tweaks.

New in Time Out 2.6.1 (Sep 3, 2019)

  • Fixed some situations where the new Fixed Time option didn't calculate the best time.
  • When the Break Appearance page was selected then you choose a break with a duration of zero, the Actions page is now selected instead.
  • Now automatically shows the Learn More information when first displaying the Support Time Out page, to help answer common questions.
  • Improved the auto-start option to avoid showing the Preferences window when starting up the Mac.

New in Time Out 2.6 (Aug 7, 2019)

  • New Break Schedule option to have breaks at a fixed number of minutes past the hour.
  • Break Schedule now supports smaller duration and frequency, e.g. for a 10 second zero-length blink break.
  • New Random Word theme, that defines a different word each break.
  • Plus other improvements. Read the release notes on the Updates page in the app for full details.

New in Time Out 2.5 (Oct 18, 2018)

  • Mojave dark mode and compatibility.
  • New option to choose which days of the week a break is available.
  • New option to disable the app switcher, force quit, and shut down panels during a break.
  • Plus other improvements. Read the release notes on the Updates page in the app for full details.

New in Time Out 2.4 Build 2044 (Mar 19, 2018)

  • Added a Statistics page under Activity:
  • Added page buttons to the Activity page of the preferences, with Activity and Statistics pages.
  • The Activity page is the same as before.
  • The new Statistics page includes a summary of breaks, pop-up menus to choose the kind of counter and break(s) to display, and a line chart of count values.
  • The count options include the number of times a break was postponed, skipped, or done in a day, or the total duration of that break.
  • The menus also enable displaying those counts for all breaks, or just a specific one.
  • When showing All Breaks, the values for each break are stacked.
  • The chart will not be shown initially; come back after a couple of days to see it, once some history has been gathered.
  • Also includes a Share button to the right of the page buttons, to make it easy to tweet etc the stats.
  • Option to disable buttons for a few seconds:
  • Added an option to the Break Appearance page to disable the Postpone and Skip buttons for a few seconds.
  • The number of seconds can be changed; it includes the fade-in time.
  • This feature helps break a habitual clicking of the buttons; to encourage you to consider if you really need to skip a break.
  • This is available as a reward for current supporters. If you were a supporter in the past, but it has expired, you can extend your supporter status to use this feature, or try for an hour at a time.
  • Advanced option to change the idle detection threshold:
  • Added an option to the Advanced preferences to change the amount of time the computer isn't being used to count as a natural break.
  • By default, it counts a natural break after 1 minute, pausing the countdown for the Pause Countdown and Count Backwards scheduler options, then if still idle after twice as long, it starts giving you credit for the time if Count Backwards is chosen (which is the default).
  • This is a change from before; it used to default to 30 seconds, but 1 minute seems better.
  • If this isn't long enough (e.g. you spend a lot of time reading rather than actively using your Mac), you can increase the threshold.
  • Refined the break scheduler:
  • The break frequency now can't be less than the duration; it doesn't make sense to work for negative time.
  • The break should no longer be due further away than the frequency, unless you manually skip it multiple times.
  • If a break would be due in the past after rescheduling it, it is now reset. This should fix the issue where a break could sometimes start soon after waking from sleep.
  • Fixed an issue where manually starting a break soon after another one could leave the actions in an unexpected state.
  • Enhanced postpone and skip limits:
  • When a postpone/skip limit is set and has been reached, postponing or skipping via the File menu, action menu, or global keyboard shortcut is now disabled, so the limit can't be bypassed.
  • Fixed the postpone/skip left display when a limit is turned on when already postponed/skipped more than that today.
  • Preferences window tweaks:
  • The Time Out item is now always in the Window menu, to make it easier to re-display the preferences window if closed.
  • When the Dock icon is hidden, and the status item is shown, the status popover will now appear on clicking the mouse, instead of releasing it; a subtle improvement.
  • Can now use the up and down arrow keys and type selection to navigate in the sidebar, e.g. show the preferences window or status popover and press "G" to go to the General options.
  • Other changes:
  • Updated the Start Screensaver and Stop Screensaver script actions, to work more reliably on recent macOS versions. Thanks to Johan Kaving.
  • Removed the help book, since it didn't work properly in recent OS versions. The help is still available on the web, and has been updated for version 2.4.
  • Some tweaks to the supporter stuff, to fix an issue with previous supporter features incorrectly showing as unavailable.
  • Fixed typos in some Break Appearance tooltips.

New in Time Out 2.4 Build 2042b Beta 3 (Mar 6, 2018)

  • Option to disable buttons for a few seconds:
  • Added an option to the Break Appearance page to disable the Postpone and Skip buttons for a few seconds.
  • The number of seconds can be changed; it includes the fade-in time.
  • This feature helps break a habitual clicking of the buttons; to encourage you to consider if you really need to skip a break.
  • This is available as a reward for current supporters. If you were a supporter in the past, but it has expired, you can extend your supporter status to use this feature, or try for an hour at a time.
  • Advanced option to change the idle detection threshold:
  • Added an option to the Advanced preferences to change the amount of time the computer isn't being used to count as a natural break.
  • By default, it counts a natural break after 1 minute, pausing the countdown for the Pause Countdown and Count Backwards scheduler options, then if still idle after twice as long, it starts giving you credit for the time if Count Backwards is chosen (which is the default).
  • This is a change from before; it used to default to 30 seconds, but 1 minute seems better.
  • If this isn't long enough (e.g. you spend a lot of time reading rather than actively using your Mac), you can increase the threshold.

New in Time Out 2.4 Build 2041b Beta 2 (Feb 20, 2018)

  • Statistics page improvements:
  • Added some text stats above the chart.
  • Replaced the menu button with pop-up menus to choose the count/duration and break to display.
  • When showing All Breaks, the values for each break are now stacked.
  • Now uses the break label colors.
  • Added diamond markers for the data points on the chart.
  • Added tooltips when pointing at the markers to show the actual number.
  • The Duration now shows nicer labels in the vertical axis.
  • Removed the All Counts option, since it doesn't really make sense.
  • Added a Share button to the right of the page buttons, to make it easy to tweet etc the stats.
  • Other changes:
  • Fixed typos in some Break Appearance tool-tips.

New in Time Out 2.4 Build 2040b Beta 1 (Jan 12, 2018)

  • Added a Statistics page under Activity:
  • Added page buttons to the Activity page of the preferences, with Activity and Statistics pages.
  • The Activity page is the same as before.
  • The new Statistics page includes a pop-up menu to choose the kind of counter and break(s) to display, and a line chart of count values.
  • The count options include the number of times a break was postponed, skipped, or done in a day, or all three, or the total duration of that break.
  • The menu also enables displaying those counts for all breaks, or just a specific one.
  • The chart will not be shown initially; come back after a couple of days to see it, once some history has been gathered.
  • This feature will be further extended in a subsequent beta release.
  • Refined the break scheduler:
  • The break frequency now can't be less than the duration; it doesn't make sense to work for negative time.
  • The break should no longer be due further away than the frequency, unless you manually skip it multiple times.
  • If a break would be due in the past after rescheduling it, it is now reset. This should fix the issue where a break could sometimes start soon after waking from sleep.
  • Fixed an issue where manually starting a break soon after another one could leave the actions in an unexpected state.
  • Enhanced postpone and skip limits:
  • When a postpone/skip limit is set and has been reached, postponing or skipping via the File menu, action menu, or global keyboard shortcut is now disabled, so the limit can't be bypassed.
  • Fixed the postpone/skip left display when a limit is turned on when already postponed/skipped more than that today.
  • Preferences window tweaks:
  • The Time Out item is now always in the Window menu, to make it easier to re-display the preferences window if closed.
  • When the Dock icon is hidden, and the status item is shown, the status popover will now appear on clicking the mouse, instead of releasing it; a subtle improvement.
  • Can now use the up and down arrow keys and type selection to navigate in the sidebar, e.g. show the preferences window or status popover and press "G" to go to the General options.
  • Other changes:
  • Updated the Start Screensaver and Stop Screensaver script actions, to work more reliably on recent macOS versions. Thanks to Johan Kaving.
  • Removed the help book, since it didn't work properly in recent OS versions.

New in Time Out 2.3 Build 2037 (Oct 2, 2017)

  • Added an option to the Break Appearance preferences page to enable displaying the number of times a break has been postponed, skipped, and/or done each day, so you know how "good" you're being today.
  • Also added options to enable limiting the number of times a break can be postponed and/or skipped each day. Useful if you find those buttons too hard to resist, but still want them there sometimes.
  • Added an option to the Break Name preferences page to show the break label as a miniature pie chart of today's postponed/skipped/done counts.
  • Added and updated several break themes.
  • Several changes and fixes for High Sierra compatibility, and other improvements.

New in Time Out 2.3 Build 2032b Beta 2 (Sep 30, 2017)

  • Added a Cosmic Symbolism theme, as a bookmark to the Cosmic Symbolism -> http://www.cosmic-symbolism.com/ website, similar to the other zooming ones. Kindly contributed by Justin Hall.
  • Added an Away From Desk theme, that simply displays a message about being away from the desk for a RSI break. Kindly contributed by John Braine.
  • Some fixes for the new break label features.
  • Restoring a purchase now re-displays the message of thanks in the sidebar; you can dismiss it via the (X) button next to the message if desired.

New in Time Out 2.2 Build 2029 (Mar 14, 2017)

  • Optionally track breaks and/or app usage via a new Activity feature:
  • Added an "Activity" item in the sidebar, that optionally shows a chart of activity, including breaks you've taken, apps you've used, and time away from the Mac.
  • Activity tracking is off by default, for privacy reasons. You can enable it via a button at the top of the Activity page, which displays a menu with options to Track Breaks, Track Apps, and clear the recorded activity.
  • On the right-hand side of the Activity page is a slider to zoom the scale; you can also pinch to zoom on a trackpad. The scale goes from 1 day to 1 minute, or even to individual activity items.
  • Each line of the activity chart shows the activity grouped together for the scale time period, arranged with breaks before apps, and the longest first. For example, if at a 15 minute scale, it might show 5 minutes of a break, 5 minutes of Safari usage, 3 minutes of Mail, 2 minutes of natural breaks (idle).
  • Hover over an activity in the chart to see a tooltip with the break or app name, how many times it occurred in this time period, and how long for.
  • Recorded activity lives on your Mac, and isn't shared with anyone else.
  • This feature is available as a reward for current supporters. If you were a supporter in the past, but it has expired, you can extend your supporter status to use this feature.
  • More themes:
  • Added a "Muscles" theme, contributed by "saltymouse", to show a random exercise (from a customizable list) with reps to do during breaks.
  • Added a "GiphyStretch" theme, contributed by Sean Carey of Giphy, to show a series of stretching GIFs.
  • Added a "GiphyPuppies" theme, also contributed by Sean Carey, to show a series of puppy GIFs.
  • Break theme improvements:
  • Extended the break theme JavaScript to support a window.webkit.messageHandlers.getTimeOutConfig.postMessage('') message to get a JSON of the break configuration. It will call back to a timeOutConfig(json) function, passing the JSON. Properties include format (the JSON format, initially 1), identifier (the break's unique identifier), name (the break's name), durationSeconds (the break duration expressed in seconds), durationString (e.g. "10 minutes"), frequencySeconds (the frequency in seconds), frequencyString (e.g. "1 hour"), beginningSeconds (the fade-in time), endingSeconds (the fade-out time).
  • Also extended the JavaScript to support a window.webkit.messageHandlers.getTimeOutState.postMessage('') message, to get a JSON of the break state information. It will call back to a timeOutState(json) function, passing the JSON. Properties include format (e.g. 1), nextDue (e.g. an ISO date like "2016-09-29T23:27:51Z"), lastStarted, lastDone, lastDeferred (also dates), lastPhase (e.g. done, skipped, or postponed), and currentPhase (e.g. pending, starting, started, or finishing).
  • Let me know if you'd like any other properties for these to help drive your custom themes.
  • Fixed an issue where choosing None for the break theme would revert back to the default Icon theme, even for supporters (this is expected for non-supporters).
  • Break action improvements:
  • On the Actions page, renamed After Finish to After Done, to be consistent with other uses ("finish" is when the break is expected to end, "done" is after it has actually successfully completed, as opposed to other ends of the break like "skip" or "postpone").
  • Added a View menu:
  • Added a View menu to the menu bar, to enable easier navigation of the preference pages (the keyboard shortcuts can still be used when the menu bar is hidden).
  • Other improvements:
  • Added an alert when turning on the option to automatically start Time Out, if the app isn't in the Applications folder.
  • When using a MacBook Pro with integrated and discrete GPUs, now attempts to remain using the integrated GPU, to save battery.
  • Now remembers the visibility state of the Preferences window. If you close it, it will remain closed when you next start the app, or if you leave it open, it will re-open. The window will always display when later switching to the app, when the Dock icon is shown.
  • Improved the scheduler's idle handling to cope with macOS calling the timer less frequently than requested (as a power-saving measure).
  • Added a separate Exclusions preference to skip breaks when the Mac display is asleep (in addition to the preference to skip during the screensaver).
  • Moved the Learn More button on the Support Time Out page, to make it more discoverable.

New in Time Out 2.2 Build 2028 Beta 3 (Mar 5, 2017)

  • Added a View menu to the menu bar, to enable easier navigation of the preference pages (the keyboard shortcuts can still be used when the menu bar is hidden).
  • Added an alert when turning on the option to automatically start Time Out, if the app isn't in the Applications folder.
  • When using a MacBook Pro with integrated and discrete GPUs, now attempts to remain using the integrated GPU, to save battery.
  • Now remembers the visibility state of the Preferences window. If you close it, it will remain closed when you next start the app, or if you leave it open, it will re-open. The window will always display when later switching to the app, when the Dock icon is shown.

New in Time Out 2.2 Build 2027 Beta 2 (Feb 6, 2017)

  • Fixed a crasher on launch for people on macOS 10.11.x and earlier. Sorry about that!
  • Minor tweaks to the Support Time Out page.

New in Time Out 2.2 Build 2026 Beta 1 (Feb 5, 2017)

  • Optionally track breaks and/or app usage via a new Activity feature:
  • Added an "Activity" item in the sidebar, that optionally shows a chart of activity, including breaks you've taken, apps you've used, and time away from the Mac.
  • Activity tracking is off by default, for privacy reasons. You can enable it via a button at the top of the Activity page, which displays a menu with options to Track Breaks, Track Apps, and clear the recorded activity.
  • On the right-hand side of the Activity page is a slider to zoom the scale; you can also pinch to zoom on a trackpad. The scale goes from 1 day to 1 minute, or even to individual activity items.
  • Each line of the activity chart shows the activity grouped together for the scale time period, arranged with breaks before apps, and the longest first. For example, if at a 15 minute scale, it might show 5 minutes of a break, 5 minutes of Safari usage, 3 minutes of Mail, 2 minutes of natural breaks (idle).
  • Hover over an activity in the chart to see a tooltip with the break or app name, how many times it occurred in this time period, and how long for.
  • Recorded activity lives on your Mac, and isn't shared with anyone else.
  • This feature is available as a reward for current supporters. If you were a supporter in the past, but it has expired, you can extend your supporter status to use this feature.
  • More themes:
  • Added a "Muscles" theme, contributed by "saltymouse", to show a random exercise (from a customizable list) with reps to do during breaks.
  • Added a "GiphyStretch" theme, contributed by Sean Carey of Giphy, to show a series of stretching GIFs.
  • Added a "GiphyPuppies" theme, also contributed by Sean Carey, to show a series of puppy GIFs.
  • Break theme improvements:
  • Extended the break theme JavaScript to support a window.webkit.messageHandlers.getTimeOutConfig.postMessage('') message to get a JSON of the break configuration. It will call back to a timeOutConfig(json) function, passing the JSON. Properties include format (the JSON format, initially 1), identifier (the break's unique identifier), name (the break's name), durationSeconds (the break duration expressed in seconds), durationString (e.g. "10 minutes"), frequencySeconds (the frequency in seconds), frequencyString (e.g. "1 hour"), beginningSeconds (the fade-in time), endingSeconds (the fade-out time).
  • Also extended the JavaScript to support a window.webkit.messageHandlers.getTimeOutState.postMessage('') message, to get a JSON of the break state information. It will call back to a timeOutState(json) function, passing the JSON. Properties include format (e.g. 1), nextDue (e.g. an ISO date like "2016-09-29T23:27:51Z"), lastStarted, lastDone, lastDeferred (also dates), lastPhase (e.g. done, skipped, or postponed), and currentPhase (e.g. pending, starting, started, or finishing).
  • Let me know if you'd like any other properties for these to help drive your custom themes.
  • Break action improvements:
  • On the Actions page, renamed After Finish to After Done, to be consistent with other uses ("finish" is when the break is expected to end, "done" is after it has actually successfully completed, as opposed to other ends of the break like "skip" or "postpone").
  • Other improvements:
  • Improved the scheduler's idle handling to cope with macOS calling the timer less frequently than requested (as a power-saving measure).
  • Added a separate Exclusions preference to skip breaks when the Mac display is asleep (in addition to the preference to skip during the screensaver).
  • Moved the Learn More button on the Support Time Out page, to make it more discoverable.
  • Fixed an issue where choosing None for the break theme would revert back to the default Icon theme, even for supporters (this is expected for non-supporters).

New in Time Out 2.1 Build 2025 (Sep 20, 2016)

  • Better Schedule options:
  • Changed the way the scheduler handles the first break of the day, so the work time is now equal between each break. For example, a 10 minute break every hour will now start the break after 50 minutes of work time, and so on throughout the day.
  • Now displays the work time next to the frequency control.
  • Replaced the Reset After Duration natural break option with a checkbox to reset after a specified interval of idle, screensaver or sleep time, where you can choose the threshold interval. Off by default, and is a supporter reward, like the old option.
  • Added an option to reset the break after finishing a higher priority break. This is useful to keep lower priority breaks (e.g. Micro) aligned with higher priority ones (e.g. Normal). Off by default, and is also a supporter reward.
  • The Status item can now omit Micro breaks:
  • Added an option on the General preferences page to only include long breaks in the status menu bar item. Off by default, so all breaks are included, but if you only want a countdown to the next lengthy break (of a minute or more), you can turn this on.
  • New menu commands to improve discoverability:
  • Added an Edit Break command in the break Options menu, to make editing breaks more intuitive. This is equivalent to simply selecting the break in the sidebar, and will show an alert mentioning this.
  • Added a Start Next Break command in the File and action (cog) menus to manually begin the break that is next due. Especially useful as it can have a global keyboard shortcut assigned to it via the Shortcuts preferences.
  • Added a Reveal Data Folder command in those menus, to quickly and easily show the Time Out data folder in the Finder, as an easier way to add or edit sounds and themes, or send the data to Dejal for diagnostics.
  • Improved Play Sound action:
  • Added a Reveal Sounds command to the sound pop-up menu in the Play Sound action, to show the Sounds folder in the Finder.
  • Added headings in the Play Sound menu, to indicate where each of the groups of sounds are located on disk.
  • Added some new built-in sounds: two different bells and a ticking clock. If you find any short public domain sound that others might like, let us know!
  • Added a Post Tweet action:
  • Added a new Post Tweet action to post an update to Twitter. It is only available from macOS Sierra (10.12), due to a bug in previous OS versions that prevents authorizing accounts.
  • It includes an account popup to choose from which account to post. This could be fun for social peer pressure — tweet when completing a break.
  • More actions:
  • Added the Sleep Mac action (available via the Time Out Extras page) to the default set. This AppleScript simply puts the Mac to sleep. Useful if you want it to be asleep during a break or at the end of day.
  • Added the Start Screensaver action (also available there) to the default set. This AppleScript simply activates the screensaver. Useful if you want the screensaver on during a break.
  • Also added a new Stop Screensaver action. This AppleScript deactivates the screensaver if it's active. Useful as an action at the end of a break.
  • Setup Assistant assistance:
  • Added a comment on the first page of the Setup Assistant to explain how to change the duration and frequency controls: "tab/arrow between components; arrow up/down or type to change values; click or spacebar to show a menu of options."
  • Updated the tooltips of those controls to give the same tips.
  • When returning to the Setup Assistant later in the app session, it now opens to the first page again, instead of whichever one was displayed when last closed.
  • Supporter improvements:
  • After trying supporter rewards, the Support Time Out page is selected, to hopefully help clarify that the features reverting is not a bug.
  • For the Mac App Store edition, if a purchase hasn't been registered with the Dejal server, it will now ask you to do so when you next show the Support Time Out page, to avoid an issue that affects some people.
  • Other improvements:
  • When launching the direct edition for the first time, if the Mac App Store edition has previously been used, the direct edtion will use the same data, to make migration easier.
  • Global shortcuts are now correctly removed after trying supporter rewards.
  • If not using the Event Monitor idle detector (as set on the Advanced preferences), no longer unnecessarily sets up the event monitors on launch.
  • Possible workaround for an Apple bug that causes the clipboard to stop working.
  • Fixed a crasher on macOS Sierra (10.12) when displaying the support info popovers.
  • Fixed a crasher when changing preference pages.
  • Updated the help book.

New in Time Out 2.1 Build 2024b Beta 2 (Sep 18, 2016)

  • Fixed an issue with the previous beta where the status item could show an invalid countdown when the new Only include long breaks option is on and there are no long breaks.
  • Possible workaround for an Apple bug that causes the clipboard to stop working.
  • When launching the direct edition for the first time, if the Mac App Store edition has previously been used, the direct edtion will use the same data, to make migration easier.

New in Time Out 2.1 Build 2023b Beta 1 (Sep 1, 2016)

  • Better Schedule options:
  • Changed the way the scheduler handles the first break of the day, so the work time is now equal between each break. For example, a 10 minute break every hour will now start the break after 50 minutes of work time, and so on throughout the day.
  • Now displays the work time next to the frequency control.
  • Replaced the Reset After Duration natural break option with a checkbox to reset after a specified interval of idle, screensaver or sleep time, where you can choose the threshold interval. Off by default, and is a supporter reward, like the old option.
  • Added an option to reset the break after finishing a higher priority break. This is useful to keep lower priority breaks (e.g. Micro) aligned with higher priority ones (e.g. Normal). Off by default, and is also a supporter reward.
  • The Status item can now omit Micro breaks:
  • Added an option on the General preferences page to only include long breaks in the status menu bar item. Off by default, so all breaks are included, but if you only want a countdown to the next lengthy break (of a minute or more), you can turn this on.
  • New menu commands to improve discoverability:
  • Added an Edit Break command in the break Options menu, to make editing breaks more intuitive. This is equivalent to simply selecting the break in the sidebar, and will show an alert mentioning this.
  • Added a Start Next Break command in the File and action (cog) menus to manually begin the break that is next due. Especially useful as it can have a global keyboard shortcut assigned to it via the Shortcuts preferences.
  • Added a Reveal Data Folder command in those menus, to quickly and easily show the Time Out data folder in the Finder, as an easier way to add or edit sounds and themes, or send the data to Dejal for diagnostics.
  • Improved Play Sound action:
  • Added a Reveal Sounds command to the sound pop-up menu in the Play Sound action, to show the Sounds folder in the Finder.
  • Added headings in the Play Sound menu, to indicate where each of the groups of sounds are located on disk.
  • Added some new built-in sounds: two different bells and a ticking clock. If you find any short public domain sound that others might like, let us know!
  • Added a Post Tweet action:
  • Added a new Post Tweet action to post an update to Twitter. It is only available from macOS Sierra (10.12), due to a bug in previous OS versions that prevents authorizing accounts.
  • It includes an account popup to choose from which account to post. This could be fun for social peer pressure — tweet when completing a break.
  • More actions:
  • Added the Sleep Mac action (available via the Time Out Extras page) to the default set. This AppleScript simply puts the Mac to sleep. Useful if you want it to be asleep during a break or at the end of day.
  • Added the Start Screensaver action (also available there) to the default set. This AppleScript simply activates the screensaver. Useful if you want the screensaver on during a break.
  • Also added a new Stop Screensaver action. This AppleScript deactivates the screensaver if it's active. Useful as an action at the end of a break.
  • Setup Assistant assistance:
  • Added a comment on the first page of the Setup Assistant to explain how to change the duration and frequency controls: "tab/arrow between components; arrow up/down or type to change values; click or spacebar to show a menu of options."
  • Updated the tooltips of those controls to give the same tips.
  • When returning to the Setup Assistant later in the app session, it now opens to the first page again, instead of whichever one was displayed when last closed.
  • Supporter improvements:
  • After trying supporter rewards, the Support Time Out page is selected, to hopefully help clarify that the features reverting is not a bug.
  • For the Mac App Store edition, if a purchase hasn't been registered with the Dejal server, it will now ask you to do so when you next show the Support Time Out page, to avoid an issue that affects some people.
  • Other improvements:
  • Global shortcuts are now correctly removed after trying supporter rewards.
  • If not using the Event Monitor idle detector (as set on the Advanced preferences), no longer unnecessarily sets up the event monitors on launch.
  • Fixed a crasher on macOS Sierra (10.12) when displaying the support info popovers.
  • Fixed a crasher when changing preference pages.
  • Updated the help book.

New in Time Out 2.0.2 Build 2022 (Mar 24, 2016)

  • Scheduler improvements:
  • By popular request, increased the number of digits for the Break for duration and Every frequency on the Break Schedule page from 2 to 3, so you can enter 150 minutes to have a break every 2.5 hours, for example.
  • Also added an option on the Exclusions page to automatically skip breaks that fall due while the screensaver is active, the display is asleep, another user is active, or the Mac is asleep. This defaults to on.
  • Tweaked the scheduler to avoid App Nap interfering with idle detection and starting breaks when the window is closed and no status item is shown.
  • Scheduler logging (in Advanced preferences) is now off by default for new users.
  • Mac App Store fixes:
  • Fixed another issue that prevented purchases from working for some people with the Mac App Store edition.

New in Time Out 2.0.1 Build 2021 (Mar 15, 2016)

  • Added Dejus YouTube themes:
  • Added a couple of themes that play videos from the author's Dejus YouTube channel: Dejus Chickens (videos of David's chickens) and Dejus Water Features (David's ponds and fish).
  • If you enjoy the videos, check out the channel for others, and like the videos and subscribe to the channel!
  • The theme HTML isn't the best; if anyone can improve the video player to play the playlist in random order (while retaining looping when all videos played), and/or adapt the video size to the screen, please get in touch.
  • These aren't included in the Mac App Store edition, but can be downloaded from the Time Out Extras page.
  • Made some things more intuitive:
  • On first launch, now selects the Break Schedule page by default, instead of General, to make it more obvious that the break items can be selected to edit the breaks.
  • When trying a supporter reward, the ❤ icon button next to the control now remains visible and red, to indicate that it is being tried.
  • Also, when first trying a supporter reward, the information popover now automatically appears, since some people didn't discover this.
  • Mac App Store fixes:
  • Fixed an issue that prevented purchases from working for some people with the Mac App Store edition.
  • After successful purchase, now asks you to create or update your supporter account, so your supporter status can be restored.
  • Changed the Restore Previous Purchases feature to use the supporter account, since the StoreKit restoration approach isn't available for non-renewing subscriptions.

New in Time Out 2.0 Build 2020 (Mar 4, 2016)

  • Redesigned app icon:
  • Time Out 2 has a new app icon, designed by Aaron Mahnke of Wet Frog Studios.
  • Get started quickly with the Setup Assistant:
  • Added a new Setup Assistant window, which appears the first time you open Time Out. You can also display it anytime via the Time Out or action (cog) menus.
  • The first page enables adding the usual breaks: Normal and Micro, like in version 1. Change them as desired, or uncheck them if you'd rather start from scratch.
  • The second page includes a button to open the Privacy System Preferences, so the keyboard activity can be monitored for idle detection.
  • Redesigned Preferences window:
  • The Preferences window has a fresh modern appearance, with quick-access buttons at the top, a sidebar listing the breaks, and other options.
  • The breaks display a color label, when they are next due, and when they were last done.
  • The due/done times can be displayed as absolute dates (a date and time) or relative times (how long until or since it).
  • When hovering over break items, a couple of buttons appear, to manually start a break or perform other options, like postponing, skipping, disabling and deleting the break.
  • No longer needs to be in the Dock:
  • Added the ability in the General Options to show or hide the Dock icon.
  • When Time Out is in the Dock, it'll also appear in the Cmd-Tab app switcher, and have menus. The Preferences window is automatically shown when the app is brought to the front.
  • When it is not in the Dock, it also won't appear in the Cmd-Tab switcher, and won't have menus — but all features can be accessed from the Preferences window.
  • New menubar status item:
  • Added an optional status item in the right of the menubar.
  • Shows an icon and countdown to the next break.
  • The style of icon can be chosen (including an icon representing the next due break), or no icon used.
  • It can show a brief or longer countdown, or the start or finish time, or duration of the next break.
  • Supports light and dark menubars.
  • When the Dock icon is shown, clicking the status item in the menubar shows or hides the Preferences window.
  • When the Dock icon isn't shown, clicking the status item shows a popover that looks and works just like the sidebar in the Preferences window, but clicking an item will show the corresponding page in the Preferences window.
  • The tooltip for the status item lists all of the breaks and when they're due, with the next due at the top, so you can quickly see when each break will next occur without having to click the status item.
  • If you turn off both the Dock icon and status item, a warning message explains how to get back to the Preferences. This is permitted for people who want to make it harder to change the preferences for self-control reasons.
  • Assign global keyboard shortcuts to start, defer, pause, etc:
  • Added a Shortcuts Options page, which lists all of the global keyboard shortcuts, so they can be set in one place.
  • Shortcuts can be assigned to manually start breaks, postpone or skip the next or current break, pause, resume, or reset all of the breaks, and/or stop any playing sound.
  • The postpone and skip shortcuts will apply to the next due break, or if a break is currently starting or underway, to that break. So you can avoid a break with a quick keypress if needed.
  • These shortcuts work from any app.
  • Add any number of breaks:
  • Renamed the Breaks menu as File, and moved it to the usual place.
  • Added a New Break (Cmd-N) command in the File menu, to add additional breaks.
  • Added support for deleting breaks via the Delete key or menu item.
  • Added Undo support for some operations (notably adding and deleting breaks).
  • Added the ability to drag the breaks to reorder them, which sets their priority, so lower breaks are skipped in favor of higher breaks.
  • Rename, label and comment on breaks:
  • Added a Break Name page to enable editing the break name, choosing a color label for the break, and adding some comments.
  • The label is shown in the sidebar, and can be displayed in the status item to quickly see which break is coming up next.
  • Also included is a customizable keyboard shortcut control. If set, the shortcut is shown in the sidebar and status popover, and can be used from any app to manually start the break.
  • Scheduling improvements:
  • Changed the way the breaks are scheduled, to use a single timer with due dates instead of multiple timers, enabling more flexibility.
  • The Schedule times now use a more compact interval picker that supports pop-up menus for values, arrow keys to change values, etc.
  • The due dates are now restored when the app is relaunched (e.g. after a system restart), so they continue as if Time Out weren't interrupted. (If a break would have been due already, its due date is reset to the full work duration.)
  • Added a new idle detector, which should be more reliable than the old one. The new one is enabled by default, but you can switch to the old one or disable it in the Advanced preferences.
  • Limit breaks to a time range:
  • Added an Available pop-up menu on the Break Schedule page, with "Any Time" and "Only Between" items. If "Any Time" is selected, the break can occur at any time of the day; if "Only Between" is selected, From and To time controls appear to set the available time range.
  • If an "Only Between" time range is set, the next due time will be the From time plus the frequency (the "Every" field).
  • The From time is especially useful for daily breaks, e.g. for a "Lunchtime" break set to every 1 day, you could set the From time to 12:00:00 (noon) and the the To time to 13:00:00 (1 PM), to ensure the break starts at noon, but no later than an hour after that if postponed (e.g. via a natural break).
  • Support for natural breaks:
  • Changed the scheduler to be smarter: after 30 seconds of idle, the countdown stops (if using the natural break preferences), and after 1 minute of idle, it starts counting upwards (if that preference is set), until the break frequency time is reached.
  • Choose how to handle a natural break. Continue Countdown to ignore idle. Pause Countdown to stop the timer while idle. Count Backwards to pause briefly then count upwards until the duration is reached. Reset After Duration to reset the break due date after the break duration of idle time. For example, with the latter if you have a 10 minute break every hour, and you have a natural break for 10 minutes, leaving the computer idle for 10 minutes will skip to the next hour.
  • Added a pop-up menu to choose whether to wait for a natural break (idle) or start immediately when a break is due.
  • With the latter, when a break is due, it will wait for a natural break of at least 15 seconds, to avoid interrupting you when you're busy. If you keep working for a minute, it starts the break anyway.
  • Better appearance:
  • The Break Appearance options now uses a new color well that includes a palette of colors in addition to the color picker, and changed the transparency slider to an opacity slider & field.
  • When there are multiple screens available, the Break Appearance preferences has extra options, to specify whether to use the screen with the active menubar, or the screen with the inactive menubar, or a specific screen.
  • Connecting or disconnecting a display will now update the Appearance page, showing or hiding the screens pop-up as needed.
  • Customizable HTML-based break themes:
  • Time Out now supports multiple customizable break themes!
  • The Theme pop-up menu includes a None item to not fade the screen(s) during the break (just showing the control panel); Blank to fade without showing any content, and a list of available themes.
  • Some default themes are included. You can also customize them or add your own. Choose the Reveal Themes item in the menu to show the Themes folder in the Finder, or Get More to display the Time Out Extras page in your browser.
  • Themes use HTML, so can display local content (potentially including JavaScript-driven apps), or web pages.
  • Themes can communicate with Time Out via some special callbacks. See the source of the Text theme for an example, where it makes the text specific to each break. More information is included in the source comments.
  • Fading in to the break, and out back to work, is now much more efficient, and uses a geometric animation curve to make it more natural.
  • Added an Info button next to the Theme pop-up menu. Click it to show a popover with information about the selected theme, including clickable links to author and original websites, where available.
  • Also a Preview button to try the theme; equivalent to manually starting the break.
  • Redesigned & movable control panel during breaks:
  • The progress bar and postpone/skip buttons now appear in a redesigned control panel that can be moved around the screen.
  • The control panel now fades in at the same time as the break, so the postpone/skip buttons can be used while the break is starting.
  • The break theme and control panel only appear on one screen, if your Mac has multiple screens; the other screen(s) just fade to a blank color (which can be different than the theme screen).
  • Add actions to notify of due, starting or finishing breaks:
  • Merged the Sounds and Scripts pages into an Actions page, which now supports any number of actions, and more versatile scheduling of them, including before the break is due.
  • You can now play a sound or some other action some period of time before due, after the start of the break, after fading in, before fading out, before finishing, after finishing, or after postponing or skipping. Lots of flexible options!
  • Integrated the scripts into the Add Action (+) button menu, so any scripts you add are treated like full actions.
  • The script actions include an Open button to enable quickly editing scripts, e.g. "Open with Automator".
  • When the Add Action button menu is first shown, or if the scripts folder is empty, it includes a "More..." item at the end. Choosing that will display an Open sheet, asking for permission to copy the default scripts into the folder. After that, it re-shows the Add Action menu with the scripts listed.
  • Included Reveal Scripts and Get More functions in the Add Action button menu. They aren't shown until the default scripts have been installed. They respectively reveal the scripts folder in the Finder and display the Time Out Extras website.
  • Included a Preview button (with an eye icon) to try the associated action.
  • Added a new Display Notification action, that shows a Notification Center panel, with custom title and message text, and optionally a sound.
  • Added a new Fadeout Sound action, that fades out any playing sound over a specified number of seconds. Useful for long sounds (e.g. music), or in combination with the Repeat option in the Play Sound action, to gently stop them after a suitable interval, e.g. at the end of the break. Like the other actions, specify when to start fading out via the action offset & stage controls in the action header.
  • Added a new Flash Screen action, which includes options to set the flash color and speed.
  • Added a new Speak Text action to use speech synthesis. It includes a voice pop-up menu which can display just your preferred voices (set in System Preferences > Dictation & Speech > Text to Speech > System Voice > Customize), or all available voices, grouped by region and gender like in System Preferences. It also has an Attributes popover that enables fine-tuning the voice rate, pitch, inflection and volume.
  • Enhanced app exclusions:
  • Changed the Exclusion options to show the full path, and added the ability to skip breaks when an app is open but not frontmost.
  • Also added MPlayerX, QuickTime Player and VLC to the default Exclusions, and removed Podcast Capture (since it isn't included in Yosemite).
  • Faster app updates:
  • Time Out now uses the popular Sparkle framework for app updates, so it can finally download and install updates itself.
  • Changed the Updates options for the Sparkle framework, and to display the release notes right there, since there's space.
  • Added a Via SSL option to the Updates preferences, to use a secure connection to check for and download app updates. This is on by default, but can be turned off if it doesn't work for some reason.
  • Several advanced options:
  • Added an Advanced preferences page, with a number of options that most people won't need.
  • Includes an option for the idle detector: None to not detect idle, the Event Source like in version 1, and the new Event Monitor that is more reliable.
  • Includes a checkbox to alert of another copy of Time Out, which can interfere with starting breaks.
  • Includes a checkbox to control whether or not clicking an item in the status popover should animate to the full window size.
  • Also includes a button to reset the position of the Preferences window when using the status popover, so they line up nicely. When you turn off the Dock icon, it is automatically lined up. The window can still be freely moved, but it looks nice having them aligned.
  • Includes a number of options to output diagnostic information to the Console log.
  • Includes a handy button to show the Console log, i.e. launch the Console app.
  • New supporter options:
  • Time Out can be used for as long as you like for free, but the more advanced features are only available to try for an hour at a time, as many times as you like.
  • These features are highlighted throughout the app by a heart icon that appears next to the control. Clicking it displays a popover to explain the limit.
  • The Support Time Out page includes buttons to purchase three supporter durations (3-, 6- and 12-months). Becoming a supporter helps to fund continued development. These are one-time payments, not a subscription, though you can extend your support later if you wish.
  • All the features will remain available even after the supporter period, though some future enhancements may only be available to current supporters.
  • Click the Learn More button for more information.
  • This page also includes buttons to restore any previous purchases, and redeem a coupon code.
  • Help improvements:
  • Added an About Time Out item to the top of the Help (?) pop-up menu, that displays the standard About window with the version number etc, for those without the Dock (and thus menus) shown.
  • Added a help book, available via the Help (?) menu and online.
  • Optimized for Yosemite and El Capitan:
  • Time Out now requires a minimum of OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), and supports 10.11 (El Capitan).
  • Now uses the latest technologies.
  • Now uses the third-party Fabric Crashlytics framework to automatically capture crash reports. Automatically aggregating crash reports will enable faster fixing any that occur.
  • If a crash occurs, Time Out will now display a window on next launch to ask for information about the crash, which may help trace the cause. There are also optional fields for your name and email address, in case there are any questions.

New in Time Out 1.7.1 Build 1036 (Nov 26, 2012)

  • Fixed issue that prevented the timers from starting when auto-launched until Time Out is brought to the front the first time.
  • Now sets the state of the auto-launch preference checkbox from whether or not it'll actually be launched, rather than just what was previously chosen (a subtle difference).
  • Fixed the minimum OS requirement, so trying to launch it on an OS version before 10.7 will give an alert instead of unexpected behavior.

New in Time Out 1.7 Build 1035 (Jul 26, 2012)

  • Added a Volume slider to the Sound break preferences, enabling sounds to be played quieter if desired.
  • Added a checkbox to enable repeating the start sound until the end of the break; useful to loop short sounds as an audio cue of the break.
  • Reimplemented the auto-launch preference to work with Mountain Lion and sandboxing.
  • Removed the quit confirmation preference.
  • Removed the in-app purchase options, since not compatible with 64-bit, and rarely used. (Standard edition only)
  • Fixed display of license entry date in the Licenses editor. (Standard edition only)
  • Fixed drafting an email if a license couldn't be found. (Standard edition only)
  • The standard edition of the app is now signed with a Developer ID to support Gatekeeper on Mountain Lion. (Standard edition only)
  • Time Out now requires a 64-bit Mac and a minimum of OS X 10.7 (Lion).
  • Many other behind-the-scenes improvements made possible by dropping older OS versions, PowerPC and 32-bit support.

New in Time Out 1.7 Beta 2 Build 1034 (Jul 20, 2012)

  • Fixed an issue with the first beta where the break timers were not being stopped correctly when they're reset.

New in Time Out 1.6.5 Build 1032 (Apr 23, 2012)

  • Fixed incorrect display of when the next normal break is due.

New in Time Out 1.6.4 (Feb 22, 2012)

  • Improved compatibility with Mac OS X 10.7.3.
  • The donation button in the Preferences window now shows the Licenses window instead of going to the Dejal Store web page. (Standard edition only)

New in Time Out 1.6.3 (Nov 12, 2011)

  • Idle detection didn't work for a few people, so now tries a different approach if the idle interval appears invalid.

New in Time Out 1.6.2 (Sep 29, 2011)

  • The break timers are now reset when idle for the specified interval, even while still idle (it used to only reset when no longer idle).
  • Breaks can now occur when idle, to avoid missing breaks when the computer is left alone for a few minutes, but less than the reset interval.
  • Updated the Start Speech Automator workflow, and added a Speak Time script that does just that.

New in Time Out 1.6.1 (Sep 16, 2011)

  • Fixed a bug that could prevent the breaks and/or menu items from working properly for some people.

New in Time Out 1.5.7 (Jan 6, 2011)

  • Changes to be compatible with the Mac App Store.
  • Time Out Free for the App Store requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later, and omits the built-in update mechanism, since updates are done via the App Store.

New in Time Out 1.5.6 (Feb 16, 2010)

  • The break screen now isn't hidden if the Time Out application is hidden.

New in Time Out 1.5.5 (Sep 11, 2009)

  • Enhanced Snow Leopard compatibility.

New in Time Out 1.5.4 (May 5, 2009)

  • Replaced the use of an undocumented routine to check the idle time with an approved one, to fix compatibility with Snow Leopard.
  • Updated the bundled Adium scripts to support the current versions of the Adium instant messaging client, thanks to Nic Munroe. Note: if you used a previous version of Time Out, the scripts won't be replaced, in case you've customized them. You can download the updated scripts from the Time Out Extras site.
  • Fixed an issue with the Preferences window, where edits might not be saved when quitting with the window still open (specifically when an edit is still active).
  • Removed the old crash reporter, since it doesn't support Leopard crash logs.
  • Now requires a minimum of Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

New in Time Out 1.5.3 (Jun 20, 2008)

  • Improved the idle detection when the computer was sleeping.
  • Added a hidden preference to output debug information about scheduling and idle detection to the Console log. It can be activated by entering "defaults write com.dejal.timeout DebugScheduler YES" in Terminal. You shouldn't turn this on unless you think Time Out isn't working properly, as it outputs quite a lot of information.
  • Fixed a cosmetic bug with the Check for Updates feature when using a general release and wanting only general releases, and a beta release is available.

New in Time Out 1.5.2 (Feb 5, 2008)

  • Added support for Spaces in Leopard; the break now appears on all Spaces, even if you switch Spaces mid-break.
  • Enhanced the URLs for the Help menu to better support localization.
  • Switched the distribution method to ZIP archives instead of disk images, as it's simpler for everyone.