Bartender, a popular menu bar customization app for macOS with a long history, was quietly acquired by new developers sometime in the past few months. With no word from the app’s original creator or the new owners about the transition, MacUpdater sent out the following alert warning users of the situation.
“The company and developer behind Bartender was replaced in a silent and dubious manner — updates to version 5.0.52 and newer are your own risk and responsibility.”
This sparked a long Reddit thread where the company behind MacUpdater shared more information about its decision to put out the alert. The first warning sign was blog entries on the Bartender website changing from developer-written posts to SEO articles possibly written by ChatGPT. Next, the code signatures on new releases of the app changed — first to “App Sub 1 LLC,” a company with just a few random iOS apps and a highly suspicious website to its name, and then to a newly formed “Bartender App LLC.” Emails to the original owner were returned as undeliverable, and the Bartender website and support channel didn’t provide any information about the acquisition.
As if this weren’t suspicious enough, the first response from the new owners came in the form of a comment on this very Reddit thread — under the not-so-professional username “Ordinary_Delivery_79.” In the comment, they claim to have mentioned the acquisition on their blog and in support emails to customers — but as other Redditors are quick to point out, no one knows who they are or what “their blog” is. One user also posts a screenshot of their own support email, which doesn’t mention the new owners at all.
As reported by MacRumors, MacUpdater also mentioned that it has been looking into the app to check for malicious code and has yet to find any. But users remain worried because the app has permission for screen recording, which can be a huge security risk if the developers aren’t trustworthy.
More recent comments in the thread identify Applause Group, Inc. as possible new owners, a company dedicated to buying apps and expanding their distribution. According to information on its FAQ page, it appears the company doesn’t focus on continued development of the apps it buys, believing that “users don’t want (or need) big overhauls on the products that they already love.”
Until the new owners put out a more official explanation, though, the situation is still up in the air. Many commenters on the Reddit thread have decided to delete the app for the time being, while others are refusing the update and staying with the older version. There are also people who just want to see these kinds of features integrated in the next version of macOS. Hopefully we’ll hear something official soon.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.