Version History — Version 3.0

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We also have an illustrated page with the Highlights of Version 3.0.

Version 3.0 — 05 May 2008:

• Changed name to "UTC Global Clock."
• An unlimited number of time displays may now be defined.
• Time displays may now be shown in the menu, as well as the Dock icon and screen corner displays.
• Time Zone may now be specified by selecting the desired country or region from a listing. In the Time Zone Setup window, you may search for time zone regions by typing a few letters of the region's name. Specifying a Time Zone automatically selects the appropriate DST Rule for that region
• New Feature: Time Formats
  • Time Formats let you to specify how dates and times appear.
  • Drag and drop time and date elements (such as hour, minute, etc.), special characters, and user-entered text to fully customize the appearance of time displays.
  • Each time display may feature its own time format, as can the Dock.
  • UTC Global Clock also features an Application Default time format.
• New Feature: Stopwatches
  • Stopwatches can count upward to 23:59:59, up to a user-specified time, or down from a user-specified time.
  • Stopwatches may be paused and resumed
  • The display precision is 0.01 second.
  • Multiple stopwatches may be opened simultaneously.
• New Feature: Hourly Chimes
  • Define chimes via the Preferences Window: Application Preferences: Miscellaneous Options: "Edit Chimes" button.
  • Chimes may be defined for :00, :15, :30, and :45 past the hour.
  • An extra chime may be specified for any number of minutes past the hour.
  • The system alert sound or any installed sound may be specified for any chime.
• New Feature: Timers
  • Create a new timer by selecting "New Timer..." from UTC Global Clock's "File" menu, or by selecting "New Timer..." from any menu bar or screen corner time display.
  • Timers may present alerts at a specified Local or UTC time, or after a certain amount of time has elapsed.
  • Multiple Timers may be displayed.
  • An expired Timer may be "snoozed" by a period of time that you may adjust in Application Preferences.
  • Timers move to a screen corner when started, and the corner may be specified in Application Preferences. Select a different screen by dragging the New Timer window to a different display before starting the timer.
  • Timers reveal time remaining as well as elapsed time, and the time remaining appears in red when less than 30 seconds remain.
  • Timers are saved when UTC Global Clock quits or otherwise exits, and resume when UTC Global Clock is again opened. To clear saved Timers, hold down the [shift] key as you open UTC Global Clock.
  • Running timers may be hidden, edited, or cancelled. All hidden timers may be revealed at once by selecting "Show All Timers" from any time display menu, or from a running Timer's contextual menu.
  • When expiring, Timers may play a sound and/or present an alert and/or simply flash their icons.
  • In the New Timer Window, click on the text to the right of the UTC or Local Time to summon a calendar.
  • Local and UTC Timers default to 10 minutes from the present time.
• New Feature: Daylight Saving Time Rules
  • An unlimited number of Daylight Saving Time rules may be specified
  • Rules may use fixed or ordinal dates.
  • UTC Global Clock contains the most common Daylight Saving Time rules.
• New Feature: Quick Calendars
  • Quick Calendar can display dates between 1905 and 2525.
  • Calendars may be accessed via any time display's contextual menu.
  • Selecting a month from the menu will summon the Quick Calendar window, which allows you to view dates by month and year.
• Date differences (where the displayed time zone's date differs from your local date) may optionally be shown by appending "+" or "-".
• The default text for "a.m." and "p.m." may now be changed in the Preferences window.
• Added preference to open UTC Global Clock at login, either visible or hidden.
• Added preference to share UTC Global Clock preferences (time display and other settings) among all users. This can only function in an administrator's account.
• Added preference to show or hide help tags (tool tips).
• Some warning dialogs in UTC Global Clock may now be suppressed on a case-by-case basis. You may also reset all suppressed dialogs in the Preferences window.
• Descriptive help tags (tool tips) may now be specified for screen corner or menu displays, such as displaying the current date in a help tag.
• Added contextual menu to screen corner displays, allowing you to copy the time, display the date, open the Preferences window, or quit UTC Global Clock.
• Internet Update now more reliably checks whether an active Internet Connection exists.
• Internet Update checking is now much faster.
• Update checks from betas no longer check for betas if preference is disabled to check for betas.
• Separate Dock Icon Utility is no longer needed or used.
• Updated application icon and graphics throughout program.
• Updated documentation. Included is a License Agreement, User Guide, Read Me & Quick Start, and Keyboard Shortcuts .pdf files. All should be available from the Special menu in UTC Global Clock.
• Command-clicking a screen corner time display — which copies the display to the clipboard — now briefly displays "(copied)" in the display as a visual cue that the copy has taken place.
• Internet Update: Pre-release versions now always check for alphas and betas, and the preference cannot be turned off in a pre-release version. When the release version comes out, UTC Global Clock will continue to check for alphas and betas. However, for new users, the default will be not to check for alphas and betas.
• Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard": UTC Global Clock hides the floating windows when the cursor appears over a sheet window. This works around a Mac OS X 10.5.x bug where sheet windows fail to receive mouse input when floating windows are showing.
• You may now copy the Dock display to the clipboard by holding down the [control] and [shift] keys while clicking on the Dock icon.
• Downloading a pre-release from within UTC Global Clock now presents a dialog to confirm the download.
• Update Check URLs and Generate E-mail commands have been changed to point to our new domain: aquiladigital.us.
• UTC Global Clock now checks the position of screen corner displays whenever the time updates. If the screen dimensions change (because of a change to the monitor resolution in System Preferences), or the Dock changes visibility, UTC Global Clock should detect this the next time the displayed time is set to update, and adjust the position of screen corner displays as necessary. (Note: In Low Power Mode, this can take up to a minute, since the time only updates once per minute in this mode.)
• UTC Global Clock now detects if it is opened from a disk image, and offers to copy itself to the "Applications" folder if running from an administrator's account. If running from a user account, UTC Global Clock suggests copying the application to the "Applications" folder.
• After downloading an update, this version of UTC Global Clock will mount the disk image, open the application file, copy it to the Applications folder (if permissions allow), then unmount the disk image and launch the new version.
• Dock icon visibility changing is now disallowed if running from a non-administrative account, since the application cannot be modified under these circumstances.
• Shared preferences option is now disabled unless UTC Global Clock is running from an administrator's account.
• Preferences Window: Application Preferences: Added "High Contrast Menu Displays" preference. When checked, this displays text in the menu bar as before. When not checked (the default), text appears slightly different, but the menu display can accept clicks anywhere in the time display region.
• Reorganized Preferences Window.
• Added feature to Application Preferences: "Auto-Hide Screen Corner Time Displays" to enable and disable the auto-hiding when the cursor enters a screen corner time display.
• Help tags may now be enabled in the Time Format Window, even if the application preference has been set to not display help tags.
• Made major interface changes to the Time Displays tab in the Preferences window. Controls are now grouped by function, and less frequently used controls may be revealed by selecting "Show Advanced Options."
• When a time display is set to show a Time Zone, the name of the region now appears in the Preferences window. If no region is specified, the Offset from GMT is instead displayed.
• Attempting to hide the Dock icon now displays a warning about the associated loss of menu control, and reminds the user about UTC Global Clock's time display menu interface.
• Time displays may now display help tags (tool tips) when the mouse hovers over the time display. Display no help tag, the time display's name, the time and/or the date.
• Preferences window: Time Displays tab: Time displays now highlight when selected in the scrolling list, to aid in identification.
• Preferences window: Time Displays tab: Added "Actions..." menu under time display listing. This pop-up menu lets you duplicate, delete, copy attributes, apply attributes, and create several pre-defined types of time displays.
• Preferences window: Time Displays tab: Menu time displays and Screen Corner time displays now maintain separate text color settings, so you may switch between menu and screen color without having to redefine your colors scheme.
• Preferences window: Time Displays tab: You may apply most of the selected time display's attributes to other displays by holding down the [option] key while clicking the desired attribute. Warning dialogs for most actions may also be suppressed. The following time display attributes may be set in this fashion:
  • Time Color
  • Time Format
  • Time Typeface and Size
  • Background Color
  • Baseline Position
  • Match Surroundings and High Contrast
  • Monitor on which to display
  • Screen Corner
  • Help Tags
  • Horizontal and Vertical Offsets
  • Window Shadows
  • Make Matched Colors Permanent
• Preferences window: Many controls may be activated by holding down the [command] key and typing the first letter of the control's name.
• Preferences window: Time Displays tab: The "+" button below the time displays now creates various types of time displays, depending on which modifier keys are held down as you click the button. The shortcuts are listed in the button's help tag (tool tip).

We also have an illustrated page with the Highlights of Version 3.0.

Back to the Main Page — History Main Page