Rogue Amoeba and Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks)
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.
MrJeff2000 says:
October 22nd, 2013 at 6:36 pmAny possibility of reviving Pulsar?
Quentin Carnicelli says:
October 22nd, 2013 at 10:55 pmMrJeff –
Not really, SiriusXM added enough encryption that it become prohibitive for us to keep trying to get around it. Check out Radium from Cat Pig Studios though.
Sascha says:
October 23rd, 2013 at 6:29 amWhat does it mean “already-running” application ? Should i open Nicecast first, the open iTunes? Or are there other problems ?
Greetings from Germany
Håvard Pedersen says:
October 24th, 2013 at 7:37 amI am seeing problems with Pong Saver, two monitors and mix of fullscreen and regular apps. Not sure who to blame, but often when the screensaver exits, windows are moved outside of the viewable area. :-/
Paul Kafasis says:
October 26th, 2013 at 11:46 amSascha: “Already-running” means the application is already open when you try to capture its audio. Without the Instant On component, Nicecast (or Audio Hijack Pro or Airfoil) then need to relaunch that application in order to capture its audio. We always recommend installing Instant On, which removes the need for the source app to be relaunched, but it was not immediately available on Mavericks.
See the update, however, for versions of the software which contain Instant On.
Håvard Pedersen: It’s not likely that the screensaver itself has anything to do with that – you’ll want to test with other screensavers. If you can nail it down to PongSaver, get in touch via our Support system.