I’m writing this from my studio in The Hague. It’s been quite an adventure from when Danger Cove started October first 2011. An expedition that delivered four released apps, one in progress (more on that in a future post) and a whole bunch of projects that looked cool at first, but now live in a folder called “shelved” ;).

It feels awesome that Danger Cove apps are being used by more people than I could hope for. Thanks so much to the wonderful people that took the time to spread the word about them. I appreciate it a lot.

To celebrate, both Porthole and AirVLC are 40% off today! I assume you already got that from the header image though. The offer will end October 2nd at 12pm CET.

I just released Porthole v1.4.4 which restores compatibility with the Apple TV. Apple’s latest update for the little black device changed some AirPlay protocol related things that stopped quite a few third-party AirPlay audio apps to work. The update makes sure Porthole plays by the new rules.

Putting out a fix came sooner than expected, very much thanks to Jason from Industrious One who found the solution and Quentin over at Rogue Amoeba who mentioned Jason’s fix to be “very very simple”, which in turn pointed me in the right direction :).

Have a look at their websites and products, both make excellent apps! Especially if you’re into listening to music or work with audio.

To update to the latest version of Porthole, Check for Updates in-app or download the latest version.

This issue has been resolved. Update Porthole to restore compatibility. Read the follow up for more details.

The latest Apple TV firmware (version 6.0) adds a new layer of mandatory encryption for audio playback that wasn’t required before. This currently prevents unofficial audio based AirPlay apps to work like they used to.

I’m looking into the issue and trying to figure out a solution, if there is one. This requires some research and it might take a while to find a way around the encryption.

The best thing to do at the moment, is to not update your Apple TV to the latest version if you want to stream to it using Porthole. To stay up to date, follow @getporthole on Twitter. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Note that Apple TV’s running 5.3 or below and other AirPlay speakers are unaffected.

For those of you that are familiar with Alfred, you probably need no explanation as to why a workflow for Reign will come in pretty handy. Read on to learn what it does.

Download the Alfred 2 Workflow for Reign

Alfred saves you time when you search for files online or on your Mac. Be more productive with hotkeys, keywords and file actions at your fingertips.

That’s what it says on Alfred’s website. It basically moves a lot of control to your keyboard, so you can keep your eyes on the task at hand. For Reign this means that you can remote control Spotify running on another Mac by simply entering simple commands, like reign n to skip a track or reign o to open the track that’s currently playing in your own Spotify client, so you can star or share it.

It reduces the need to visit the web interface and makes remote controlling Spotify even faster and easier!

Of course, like Reign, the workflow is open-source and free to share. Visit the GitHub project to contribute and read more about how it works. Or just download the workflow file to get started.

Reign is available on the Mac App Store, for free.

The latest update for Porthole adds a brand new feature. A feature that’s been requested quite a few times. Are you ready? This update, adds the option to use your Mac’s speakers while streaming via AirPlay! This means that your tunes will come out of your AirPlay speakers and your Mac. All in beautiful sync.

Instead of switching between local playback and AirPlay, now everybody has at least two sets of speakers!

If you emailed me about this feature in the past, you’ll know that I held off on implementing this. Not because it was technically hard, but because it would require extra interface elements. Porthole has always been about being easy to use and elegant. Too much noise in the interface would compromise this. Hopefully you’ll agree that with version 1.4.0 I’ve found a middle ground that works.

Porthole v1.4.0 with added options for enabling local playback.

As you can see the AirPlay Receivers and computer speaker are both located in separate sections. Porthole still primarily controls your AirPlay output and you’ll mainly use the top section of the menu. Everything is there to: switch between speakers, connect to all and stop streaming all together.

Toggle AirPlay speakers.

Control your Mac’s output.

The bottom section allows you to toggle the computer speaker. By default it’s off. Click the menu item to turn it on, even while Porthole’s already active. The setting is saved and the next time you start streaming it’ll output according to your stored preferences. Click the menu item a second time to turn it off again.

The volume slider allows you to adjust the volume of the computer speaker, separately from the AirPlay volume. Remember that it directly influences the volume of the computer speaker. When you stop streaming, that’s how loud it’ll be.

Excited to try this on your setup? You can get the update via the ‘Check for Updates’-button, located in the Preferences window. Or just download the latest version from the website.