Posted By Paul Kafasis on October 22nd, 2013

Update (October 25th, 2013): We now have public betas for Mavericks. Please see this post for full details.

As you may have seen, Apple has officially released Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) today. This new version is a free update, so we expect many users will be running Mavericks very soon. We’ve been using it internally for some months in order to test and update our apps, and we’ve already released some updates. Fission and Intermission are fully compatible with Mavericks, as are our Freebies.

Our updates to other major apps are still in the works. Airfoil for Mac, Audio Hijack Pro, Piezo, and Nicecast all offer partial compatibility with Mavericks, but need additional work before being pronounced fully compatible. We remain hard at work on those updates, and hope to have them out very soon. For now, if any of those apps are a crucial part of your workflow, we recommend holding off on upgrading to Mavericks.

You can check out our Status page for quick details on all our apps running on Mavericks, or read on for more details on individual apps.

Airfoil

Airfoil is one of our most popular applications, so Murphy’s Law dictates that it has the most difficulty with Mavericks. First, the Instant On component which provides enhanced audio capture is not yet compatible with Mavericks. Thus, capturing audio from already-running applications is not possible, and audio capture from Safari (which now requires Instant On) and System Audio is not yet available.

In addition to the above, the new “App Nap” function in Mavericks can cause issues with audio transmission when Airfoil is in the background. We’re working on this, but for the moment, we recommend disabling App Nap on Airfoil. This should only be needed temporarily.

Finally, there are also minor issues where Airfoil’s menus do not properly appear in the OS’s menu bar until you switch away from the app, and back, and with the Stop and Receive buttons in Airfoil Speakers.

At this time, we recommend Airfoil users hold off on updating to Mavericks for a few days while we work on our update. If you do choose to upgrade to Mavericks, Airfoil will need to quit and relaunch any open application whose audio you wish to capture. You’ll also want to use Google Chrome, Firefox, or another browser to capture web-based audio.

Audio Hijack Pro

As with Airfoil, the Instant On component which provides enhanced audio capture is not yet compatible with Mavericks. Thus, capturing audio from already-running applications is not possible, and audio capture from Safari (which now requires Instant On) and System Audio is not yet available.

If the above is not an issue, using Audio Hijack Pro on Mavericks should otherwise work fine. For the time being, Audio Hijack Pro will need to quit and relaunch any open application whose audio you wish to capture. As well, you’ll want to use Google Chrome, Firefox, or another browser to capture web-based audio.

Piezo

By and large, Piezo’s functionality works as expected on Mavericks. However, due to underlying changes in the way it works, it is not possible to capture Safari audio at this time. We’re still working to determine if this will be possible, and how. This update may take longer than others.

In addition to the inability to capture from Safari, Piezo also has several cosmetic issues in the on-face display of file name and counter. Recording does still work as expected, so this issue is not major, though it can be disconcerting.

At this time, we recommend Piezo users who need to capture from Safari hold off on updating to Mavericks. If you do choose to upgrade to Mavericks, Piezo will not be able to capture from Safari. You’ll want to use Google Chrome, Firefox, or another browser to capture web-based audio.

Nicecast

As with Airfoil and Audio Hijack Pro, the Instant On component which provides enhanced audio capture is not yet compatible with Mavericks. Thus, capturing audio from already-running applications is not possible, and audio capture from Safari (which now requires Instant On) and System Audio is not yet available.

If the above is not an issue, using Nicecast on Mavericks should otherwise work fine. For the time being, Nicecast will need to quit and relaunch any open application whose audio you wish to capture. As well, you’ll want to use Google Chrome, Firefox, or another browser to capture web-based audio.

Stay Tuned

Again, we hope to have updates very soon. Stay tuned to this blog and our Twitter feed to get the very latest news.