SecondClock 1.2

Today I’ve submitted an update for SecondClock to the Mac App Store. I was thinking about this update for a long time, had different versions running and I’m still thinking if it’s the right thing to do, but I believe that it makes the usage of the App easier and is therefore a benefit for new and old users.

The old version used a list of all Timezones macOS is providing using an API (knownTimeZoneNames). This is nice, as it covers all timezones, but it makes it difficult to find the timezone a specific city. In addition I had a long popup button (dropdown) to select the timezone. I wanted to improve this.

The new version contains a list of all capital cities and cities with more than 100000 citizens. This enables a better and easier selection of the timezone displayed in SecondClock. In addition I’ve changed the popup button to a so called comboBox. This let’s you select as before or type and autocomplete from the list of cities. So instead of scrolling all the way down to e.g. “Oldenburg”, you just type “Old” and it will already have the correct city.

I hope this update is an improvement and doesn’t upset people who don’t find their city in the list. I might extend the list in the future.

The way the App Store works is that it will install updates automatically on the Macs of the users. So the update had to be compatible with the settings and history of the users data. There might be some more timezones in the history part of the app, but these can still be selected, changed or deleted. For old timezones which are not associated with a city within the app, the app will select the first city it finds with the same timezone when selected.

I already have some more ideas for the app, the implementation of this change was critical for one of those new ideas, that’s why I’m releasing it now.

SecondClock is available in the Mac App Store for 0,99€ (or equivalent other currencies).