Apps

Pinmate 1.3.0 is out. This update is about three things: making your tags genuinely useful, keeping Pinmate within reach on Mac, and sync that stays out of the way when you just want to save something quickly.

If you have been using Pinboard for years, you know how fast a collection grows. Tags help you stay organised — but only if you can find and apply them easily. That is what 1.3.0 sets out to fix.

Browse all your tags

The Tags tab is no longer an empty-looking list of manually added favourites. You now see all tags from your Pinboard collection, with counts for each one.

Search by name, pin favourites with a star, and jump straight to bookmarks with a given tag. Pull down to refresh if you have just saved something and it has not appeared yet.

Tag faster when saving

When adding or editing a bookmark — in the app and in the share extension — there is now a “Your tags” section.

Type to search your existing tags, tap to add one, and see at a glance what you already have. Everything is sorted alphabetically, so you are not scrolling through a random order.

The share extension also fetches tags via Pinboard’s tags/get endpoint, so you can work with your full tag list on the go. And Save is no longer blocked while metadata is fetched in the background. Sharing from Safari should be quick — and now it is.

macOS: always there, never in the way

On Mac, Pinmate gets a menu bar icon. From the menu you can show or hide the window, create a new bookmark, open preferences, or quit the app.

Cmd-Shift-P shows or hides the main window. Cmd-F focuses the search field. The red traffic-light button hides the window; the app keeps running in the background.

Do not want a Dock icon? Turn it off in Settings. Pinmate then lives only in the menu bar — handy if you want it as a quick bookmark tool without cluttering your Dock.

More than web pages

The share extension now works for PDFs in Safari as well, and you can save PDFs, images, feeds, and other non-HTML URLs via the share sheet.

Open links in the in-app browser with Reader mode, or keep using the system browser — whichever you prefer.

Sync that feels steadier

Behind the scenes, a lot of work went into reliability:

• Each tab (Mine, Popular, Recent, Network) has its own cache and loads independently
• Pinboard 503 errors are handled with serialised requests, automatic retries, and longer backoff
• Corrupt bookmarks in a download are skipped rather than failing the whole list
• Settings shows a clearer connection status: “token saved, last sync failed” vs “not connected”
• Token validation now genuinely tests against posts/all
• Last refresh shows date and time; whilst refreshing, you see a clear status

Small but important fixes: Popular items could accidentally appear in Mine, the review prompt waits until sync is idle, and retry on an error banner no longer opens the bookmark underneath by mistake.

Tip

Tags or bookmarks not showing straight away? Pull down on Mine or Tags to refresh manually.

Update now

Pinmate 1.3.0 is available for iOS and macOS. Open the App Store or Mac App Store and tap Update — or search for “Pinmate” if you do not have the app yet.

Questions or feedback? Get in touch via the app or on social media. Happy reading — and happy tagging.

Pinmate is your fast bridge to Pinboard. Share any URL from Safari or other apps, fill in title, description, and tags, then save instantly. Your feeds are cached locally, so there is always something to read — even offline.

MicroSphere 1.5.0 is live. This release is about making everyday Micro.blog use a bit smoother: clearer workflow, calmer screens, and the same privacy-first approach — no adverts, no tracking SDKs, and your token stays in the Keychain on your device.

Workflow

Bookmarks as read-later
Saved posts can be marked unread, read, or archived, with filters for each state. Handy if you treat bookmarks less like a pile and more like a queue.

Feed filters
Timeline and Mentions can be filtered to show all posts, photos, links, or conversations — useful when you only want one kind of update.

Drafts dashboard
The Drafts screen now opens with a summary: local drafts, Micro.blog drafts, totals, and sync status, so you can see what’s waiting without digging.

Compose modes
New post modes help you start Micro, Long, Photo, Link, and Reading posts with the right shape from the outset.

Appearance settings
Choose Comfortable or Compact feed density, and set the trailing swipe action to Save, Reply, or Conversation.

Interface polish

Feed post cards have cleaner spacing, softer depth, and clearer unread and focused states. Loading and error screens use calmer MicroSphere-branded placeholders, with Try Again where it helps. Compose toolbar controls follow your chosen accent colour more consistently, and the editor bottom toolbar has smoother spacing and shape.

Age assurance (iOS 26+)

On iOS 26, social features use Apple’s Declared Age Range check before timelines, mentions, posting, and Share Extension publishing are enabled. Users under 13 cannot access those features. If verification fails or is declined, a retry screen is shown.

No age data is sent to Micro.blog — only a local allow/restrict decision is cached briefly on your device.

On iOS 17–25, social features work as before, without an age prompt.

Get MicroSphere

Download on the App Store

Questions or feedback? Reply on Micro.blog, mention @marc0janssen, or use Settings → Contact in the app.

I’m very happy to announce that ShellMate is now live.

ShellMate is a companion app for Sea Salt & Paper, designed to make scoring quicker, clearer and a little more fun. It helps you keep track of scores without needing scraps of paper, mental arithmetic or lengthy discussions about who scored what.

The app has been built with a simple, dark interface and a playful glitch-inspired style that fits the wonderfully strange world of Sea Salt & Paper.

You can find more information about ShellMate here:

apps.mjanssen.nl/shellmate…

ShellMate is available now, so it’s time to shuffle the cards, collect some mermaids and see who dares to call Last Chance.

🌊 🧂 📝

apps.mjanssen.nl/checkd/

Build 152

Play vs Computer — cooler, lighter, longer

Playing against Mr. No-Patzer should no longer run your battery down or warm up your iPhone quite so aggressively. We’ve made the chess engine work smarter during AI games: less redundant analysis, lower CPU priority, and lighter background processing — without changing how the opponent plays.

Smoother visuals

Seasonal effects (such as falling snow) now run at a lower frame rate, reducing unnecessary GPU use whilst you’re playing.

Reliability & compatibility

• Fixed build issues that could prevent the app from compiling correctly
• Ensured the app and iMessage extension always report matching version numbers
• Improved Swift 6 concurrency safety in tactical analysis

Summary: 3.3.1 is primarily a performance and stability release focused on AI games, with under-the-hood fixes to keep builds and versions in sync.