Filed under: Cool tools, Hacks, Leopard, Developer
Unsanity rides again onto Leopard
We just noted how some of the folks associated with unsanity were branching out onto the iPhone, and now unsanity itself is showing signs of life. In a couple of blog posts they've announced the return of their somewhat controversial Application Enhancer "haxie" technology with a Leopard compatible beta, APE 2.5b1. The APE plugins allow for unsupported functionality to be added to various parts of OS X, but have been blamed for causing problems. In any case, Leopard broke APE and along with it various popular utilities like WindowShade, FruitMenu and others.So if you're the type to throw caution to the wind and have been waiting to get your APE haxies back, the betas of APE, Smart Crash Reports, FontCard, Menu Master, Silk, FruitMenu, and WindowShade are available for download (scroll down) from unsanity.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
utterer said 11:10AM on 2-27-2008
Shhh can you hear that?
It's the sound of Mac OS 10.5 getting a lot less stable.
Unsanity should have quit after Mint.
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noza said 11:12AM on 2-27-2008
Mac users, if you are still stupid enough to install APE or any other piece of Unsanity crapware, you deserve what's comin' to ya.
Seriously, who still thinks "Haxies" are a good idea!?
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iGO said 11:17AM on 2-27-2008
Software like this and others, are reasons why so many users end up complaining about how an upgrade or a subsequent Apple release, fouled up their Macs. And users will wonder why they are having problems, failures, corruptions, etc........but will they ever learn?, probably not.......will they look at Apple with disdain after a failed update?, .....probably.
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Ed said 11:18AM on 2-27-2008
Just seeing their logo next to the post made me shudder.
I'm pretty sure that's not the kind of branding they want, but there you go...
The only other logos I can think of that do that to me are AOL and IE.
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Ralph said 11:27AM on 2-27-2008
Amen, and agreed.
StrangeBum said 2:55PM on 2-27-2008
Well. I don't quite understand what the fuss over this Unsanity stuff is, I just ordered my very first mac, the new MacBook Pro, and am yet to receive it.
But I must agree with AOL and IE, after having used both in the past the sight of their logo indeed makes me cringe. Once I switched to Firefox back in the day, I never looked back (or around for others).
daenney said 11:22AM on 2-27-2008
To be honest, inserting hooks like this in an application is just, well, never mind what it is.
I seriously hope Apple ditches Input Managers on a next update.
Just like Apple a lot of software companies refuse to solve bugs in systems that shows signs of APE because there is no way to tell if APE had any influence and what it had been doing, it can cause all kinds of bugs that other users won't have and in the end it's the software developer that gets blamed for it.
So I'd rather they keep their haxie on Tiger and be done with it.
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Christian said 11:37AM on 2-27-2008
I'm going to repost what I said in the last discussion:
Unsanity is the chop shop of the Mac world, where perfectly good computers and the best operating system on the market go to have people put crappy aluminum spoilers, ugly mag wheels, and random kanji stickers put on.
There's a reason APE was/is broken under Leopard: It is crappy, gosh-awful code that barely worked to begin with. Under a polished, refined, and more secure Leopard, it seemed to have collapsed under its own hackiness.
If you give that company a dollar of your money, you're crazy. Furthermore, TUAW, with whom are their utilities "popular"?
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2shae said 11:51AM on 2-27-2008
Why is everybody so negative about Unsanity ?
Aren't they the ones that created the theming software Shapeshifter, which is a great app and very much missed in Leopard.
I had APE (latest version) installed when I upgraded to Leopard without any problems...don't understand why you're all so negative about them.
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utterer said 12:24PM on 2-27-2008
Because they write bad code and hide it under the cute name of haxie. They kill OS installations and a majority of their products are overpriced novelties (READ: Shape Shifter, Mighty Mouse, etc, etc).
How many other Mac OS X applications/developers have the infamy of being the subject of an apple support document when your computer doesn't start up (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306857)?
Photog Matt said 12:24PM on 2-27-2008
I would never install APE, or anything that rides on it's coat tails. Even on Tiger there were huge problems for me with it. Then I heard the upgrade horror stories, which is more than enough for me. Junkware at it's finest.
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John said 12:30PM on 2-27-2008
I'm shocked by all you commenters. I've read TUAW for the last 3 years, and I've never bothered to offer my opinion here. But you guys have NO REASON to hate Unsanity with the passion that you do. They're very dedicated to the Mac platform and they write one-of-a-kind software. This includes Shapeshifter. Everyone on the Macthemes2.net forums is dying for Shapeshifter to come back. I've tried a lot of their products at one point or another. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them. Unsanity is just another hard-working software company. Some of you really need to loosen the hell up.
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Johnny said 1:10PM on 2-27-2008
I agree. It isn't the best software there is, but for people who like to customize, it is the only choice since Apple has never been interested in allowing people the basic OS function of individualizing their Mac experience. It has bugs, but I never really thought it was that bad and I certainly don't think their intentions were harmful in any way. Is it really their fault that the software they wrote for Tiger didn't allow you to upgrade without removing it? I by no means expect Apple to keep it working, but how much other code had to be re-written for Leopard? Was this the developer's fault?
Dale said 1:34PM on 2-27-2008
Looking through their product offering, is any of this rubbish worth potentially porking your OS X install for?
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Mart said 1:44PM on 2-27-2008
FruitMenu and WindowShade are the only ones I use and they're extremely useful. I don't see how the code for those two little enhancers would have a major detrimental effect on my system.
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josephhenry said 2:23PM on 2-27-2008
APE is pure evil and should be avoided at all costs. I thought I'd rid my iMac of APE many years ago only to find that Logitech used it as part of the Logitech Control Center for my MX Revolution mouse. That was the worse thing about the whole broken Leopard/APE issue. Many of us that had had problems with APE long ago and had gotten rid of it, fell victim once again to Unsanity's crapware.
John, APE has been the source of woe for untold numbers of unsuspecting Mac users. If they're so dedicated to the Mac (as opposed to just dedicated to making a buck) they'd quit making and distributing malware that hacks the operating system to the point of making it unstable. APE does just that. It's pure evil.
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Joe Kohlmann said 2:29PM on 2-27-2008
Yes, Unsanity's APE is a potentially dangerous method of inserting code into Mac OS X system and application resources at runtime. Yes, their products have caused issues with other products. Just don't use anything powered by an Application Enhancer module if it's that big a worry for you. Fact is, Unsanity deserves a lot of credit for pursuing the technology they have developed in spite of Apple's bugs and criticism, much less users' and opponents' own commentary. Look, APE is what they do, what Unsanity's all about - tweaking Mac OS X. To their credit, though it may take a long while, Unsanity has been very open to the Mac community, and they get nothing but scorn in return. Have you read Rosyna's two recent, monolithic posts about APE? Did you read the *several paragraphs* of the latter post dedicated to describing how the "blue screen" issue was caused by a version of APE that was over a year old at the time of release of Mac OS X 10.5? Did you read how APE error checks freaking *everything* it can before executing? To all naysayers, please realize that Unsanity really puts the best of their work into making sure that running APE is a stable experience. If you don't like APE or Unsanity, leave it, they don't need your $20 or your unabashedly harsh remarks. Furthermore, in case you haven't noticed, Rosyna is a tough guy, so he's not about to feel sorry for you if you're the one flaming his work. (Keep this in mind if you ever end up inquiring about a technical issue due to APE, which, may I remind you, you have the option to *not* install.)
Furthermore, uh, why haven't people flamed LinoType for the recent 10.5.2 issue with FontExplorerX? That problem occurred with a *current* release, not a _year-old_ one. Why isn't anybody all over them? Note that I'm not suggesting the Mac community should be; I'm simply illustrating an example to highlight an instance of hypocrisy.
- Joe
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Luigi193 said 2:31PM on 2-27-2008
Yeah... my installation failed cause of them, but I didn't even know it was installed.... it was the fault of my Logitech MX Revolution mouse... thats just low Logitech!!
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Patrick said 2:53PM on 2-27-2008
I'm absolutely horrified about the comments here!
Yeah, APE caused some problems on Leopard upgrades but as the developer stated:
"First, let's talk about the situation behind what happened with APE 2.0.1 and Mac OS X 10.5.0 (note that APE 2.0.2 was released on 2006-11-01, a year before Leopard's release, and APE 2.0.3 is the current version)."
"Due to it being a deadlock, the login process would never continue on Mac OS X 10.5 with APE 2.0.1 installed, no matter how long the user waited."
When people are too lazy to update their software FOR OVER ONE YEAR, especially software which could introduce some problems, they don't deserve it better.
Don't blame it on Unsanity, would you test a version of your software which is over a year old?!? I doubt so...
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JD said 9:11PM on 2-27-2008
So... Now I have to update all my software every year or I deserve to lose all my data? Yeay, progress!