Changelog

GlanceCam 4.2 addresses a change in the way that macOS 15 Sonoma handles special characters inside URL credentials.

This affects you only if your cameras' usernames or passwords include symbols such as @ / ? # and you have updated (or are planning to update) to the new operating system; if that's the case, please read the detailed release notes inside the app, which will provide every information you need, as it might be necessary to update your device credentials to stream on the last macOS.

This version also includes a few of additional improvements:

- When an invalid character is detected in credentials, GlanceCam doesn't just encode it to make it "safe" according to the new standard enforced by Sonoma, but also shows a warning symbol inside Settings, which you can click to gather more informations about the recent URL standard change.

- When you contact me for assistance via the Support menu > Contact support via email, a privacy-focused report is generated and included in the message to help with troubleshooting, but on a couple of occasions that report was truncated on Sonoma; this version includes a fix to that issue.

- Users who don't have Apple Mail set as their default email client (for instance, Gmail Users) can now copy the auto-generated report and then manually paste it into their application of choice before contacting me for assistance; to do so, please click the Support menu > Copy support report for other email clients.

As always, I remain available at support@cdf1982.com if you need assistance with anything.

I want to take this opportunity to wish you a joyful holiday season and a wonderful start to 2024!

Ciao, Cesare

GlanceCam is ready on day one for macOS Sonoma and includes multiple improvements. I recommend to review the release notes for GlanceCam 4.1 (the previous version from today) to find out about everything that's new this September.

This version 4.1.1 reverts the video engine to the one previously used in the app: earlier today a crash on launch on Intel Macs running Big Sur has been reported, and then I was able to reproduce the issue on Mojave; to be safe and as fast as possible in addressing a potential issue, I decided to immediately return to the established, rock-solid engine that's been in use for years, up to GlanceCam 4.0.

First of all, I would like to personally apologise to everyone who might have been affected by that crash: making GlanceCam as reliable as possible is my first and most important goal, and actually the reason I was launching an update for Sonoma on the day the new macOS ships.

I also want to thank Luca for immediately reporting this to me, and assure all Users that I immediately dropped everything to provide this update as soon as possible.

As for the newer version of the open-source video engine I use in GlanceCam, I still plan to re-introduce it in a future release (it had the potential to be slightly faster), as soon as any issue on older operating systems – which I'll report to the open-source community later today – will be completely resolved.

Finally, I've been able to snuck in a small feature update in this release: in GlanceGrids, when clicking while holding down the Command key, you now have the option to move the selected Camera to the previous or next spot.

Please consider leaving a 5-star review, upgrading to GlanceCam Pro or leave a (very much appreciated!) tip to support the app and keep development going... and if you have any suggestion or need assistance, I'd love to hear from you (preferably via the Support menu > Contact support via email, or at support@cdf1982.com)!

Ciao, Cesare

GlanceCam 4 is here! This major new version introduces GlanceGrids and lots of improvements.

Let's start with what GlanceGrids are and why I think you'll love them.
Having multiple cameras in a single grid is one of the most requested features by GlanceCam Pro Users.
Personally, I've often found regular grid implementations pretty limiting, because you have to decide in advance if you want a 2x2 or a 4x3 layout and then you're stuck with it; so, I spent the last 18 months building something different and, I'm confident you'll agree, better...

A GlanceGrid is a preset of multiple cameras displayed in a single window with a flexible layout that automatically adjusts from a grid (2x2, 3x3, etc.) to a single row (i.e. 8x1) or column (1x8) based on the window's resizing.

You can open separate GlanceGrids, each with a different preset and layout; is also possible to mix single-camera windows, GlanceGrids and USB-cameras.

Beloved features like Always on Top and Insta-zoom are still available with GlanceGrids; there are a lot of customisations for GlanceGrids as well, as you'll be able to read about in the more detailed release notes available inside the app or by exploring the interface: each element has an explanation tooltip that appears when you leave your mouse pointer still on it for a moment.

When you're ready to try GlanceGrids, which are included in GlanceCam Pro, just click on File > Add GlanceGrid window (or use the CMD + G keyboard shortcut).

And we're not done with what's new in GlanceCam 4... there are lots of improvements to the standard version as well:

- Roll Up is a new way to keep a camera you only occasionally look at active, but without taking up too much screen space: when this cool trick is enabled, you see that camera only when your mouse pointer enters the window area and, as soon as you move your mouse away, the camera "rolls up" leaving only the title bar visible. You can activate/deactivate Roll Up by pressing the R key.

- GlanceCam is now more secure: by enabling Require authentication to open Settings (in Settings > Behavior), you can make sure that your camera URLs and the included credentials cannot be seen by other people with access to your Mac. Importing and exporting your cameras always requires authentication as well.

- You can now customize how many times GlanceCam will try to restore a connection if a video stream is disrupted (Settings > Behavior > Number of reconnection attempts).

- There's a new contextual menu for quick access to frequently used features that you can activate by clicking on a camera with the left mouse button while holding down the Command key.

- The diagnostic report that GlanceCam auto-generates when you request assistance (Support menu > Contact support via email) now automatically redacts your credentials from URLs.

- Bugs have been squashed! Special thanks to Graziano for noticing an issue with Cycle mode, to Mel for reporting that switching cameras via the URL scheme wasn't working as expected, and to Michael for pointing out an unexpected overlapping behavior with Insta-zoom. This version also improves how Insta-zoom handles multiple screens.

- In addition to the existing GlanceCam Pro custom aspect ratios (4:3, 16:9, etc.), there are two new special (and rarely needed!) options, Freeform and Delayed mode; you can learn more about them in Settings.

GlanceCam now requires macOS 10.14 Mojave.

So many hours of design, development, and testing went into version 4, I really wish with all my heart you'll love it.
I am constantly grateful for people using GlanceCam, and I hope you'll appreciate the continued commitment (this is the 32nd update since 2018) to make it the best Mac app possible.
If you do, please leave a 5-star review and consider upgrading to GlanceCam Pro or leaving a tip!

As always, feedback is very welcome, as well as any request for help you might have; please reach out via the Support menu > Contact support via email!

Ciao e grazie, Cesare

This update fixes a couple bugs and layout issues reported by Diggory over the week-end (thank you so much for helping me improve GlanceCam!) and also restores the CMD+3 keyboard shortcut to maximize a window within the screen bounds, which I accidentally broke in the last update (sorry!). –Cesare

Quick update with a couple of small bug fixes to GlanceCam 3.8, which improved 'Out of my way', introduced 'Stay out of my way' and included an updated video engine.

Out of my way is the cool and beloved GlanceCam feature that allows you to grab a file or access another app below a camera window, even when Always on top is enabled.
You can trigger Out of my way by holding down the Shift key while moving your mouse pointer into the window area; when you do so, the window bounces to the opposite side of the screen for an certain time interval and then, after that delay, it returns automatically to the original position.
Until today, Out of my way duration was fixed to 3 seconds, but you can now pick your desired delay between that minimum and 15 seconds by adjusting a slider in Settings > Behavior.

And if you've come to rely on Out of my way, you'll love Stay out of my way: if you hold down Command and Shift while moving your mouse pointer into a GlanceCam window, you'll send it to the opposite side of the screen permanently, until you manually move it to another position.

I want to thank Dirk for recommending both features!

Finally, GlanceCam video engine has been updated to the latest and most reliable version, with minor bug fixes and improvements to make things work even better.

As always, 5-star reviews, GlanceCam Pro upgrades or tips are very appreciated, and keep GlanceCam development going... and if you have any suggestion, I'd love to hear from you at support@cdf1982.com. –Cesare

A quick update with a few small fixes:
- By default, Cycle mode now pauses when your screen locks (i.e. the screen saver starts) and resumes automatically when it unlocks. If you have "Never pause playback" enabled in Settings, though, the cycle will continue even when the screen is locked. When your Mac goes to sleep, Cycle mode will always pause itself and automatically resume when the computer awakes.
- On recent version of macOS and with many Glances configured, the Settings window might have opened with the list of cameras "scrolled down", hiding the first entry; now, when you open Settings, the first Glance is always the one you'll see at the top of the list.
- The tooltips for Cycle mode now include this clarification on the behavior of this feature: "Finally, a note about Cycle mode and cameras with different aspect ratios: usually, GlanceCam detects the aspect ratio of a video stream and resizes the window to avoid "black bars"; this is intentionally disabled in Cycle mode because having cameras with different aspect ratios cycle would cause a periodic resizing "dance" which would be distracting to see."
Thank you so much for letting me know you love Cycle mode as much as I do! –Cesare

Let's kick off November with a cool update meant specifically for GlanceCam Pro Users: Cycle mode!
Before I detail what Cycle mode is, rest assured lots more is coming to all GlanceCam Users soon (this is the 5th update in less than a month... releasing the Apple silicon version unlocked lots of mental energy for yours truly!), but it's been a while since the last "Pro-only" advanced feature was added, and this is a good one.

First of all, thank you to James, Steve and Shawn, who have asked for a way to cycle through different cameras in a single window.

Cycle mode makes that possible: choose one of your windows and have it rotate some or all of your Glances (cameras) according to a time interval you define. This is especially useful with a large window or while the app is full screen.
While only one window can be put in Cycle mode, you can still keep as many others "single camera" windows open while this rotation is enabled.

By default, all cameras are included in Cycle mode with a 30 seconds time interval dedicated to each one, but you are free to decide which Glances you want to include and for how long they should remain on screen.
Intervals can be configured in the 10 to 60 seconds range, in steps of 10 seconds, and can be different between cameras included in the cycle. Please note that longer intervals are preferable, especially for remote cameras, as the timer starts when loading the stream begins, not when the image appears; so, if a camera takes 5 seconds to show the image and the cycle is set to 10 seconds, you'd only see the image for 5 seconds before switching to the next one.

You can enable Cycle mode by selecting the Glance menu > Enable Cycle mode, or by pressing the C key without modifiers while the window you want to enable it for is active; the same menu item or keyboard shortcut disables it, as it does saving any change to Settings or quitting GlanceCam (Cycle mode is not persisted between launches of the app).

Here's an example of how Cycle mode can be configured: let's say you have 3 Glances configured; you might include camera 1 in Cycle mode and keep it visible for 30 seconds, exclude camera 2 and include camera 3 for 10 seconds. When you turn on Cycle mode, camera 1 and 3 will alternate, with Glance 1 remaining visible for 30 seconds and Glance 3 only for 10, with a total duration for the cycle of 40 seconds before it starts again.

I hope you'll love this new feature... it's already one of my favorites!

As always, your feedback at support@cdf1982.com is what keeps development going (while your Pro upgrades and tips keep the lights on ;)

Ciao from Italy, Cesare

This minor update restores the Out of my Way functionality on Ventura, after a regression that's been reported by a few Users (thank you!).
Out of my Way is the cool GlanceCam feature that allows you grab a file or access another app below a camera window, even when Always on top is enabled.
You can trigger Out of my Way by holding down the Shift key while moving your mouse pointer into the window area; when you do so, the window bounces to the opposite side of the screen for 3 seconds and then, after that delay, it returns automatically to the original position.
If you've never tried it, it's a quite useful "dance". GlanceCam has lots of cool tricks and shortcuts like this one, please check the FAQs (https://cdf1982.com/glancecam/faqs#shortcuts) to discover them all!
As always, please don't hesitate to reach out at support@cdf1982.com if you have suggestions or problems you think I can help with, and thank you for your support of GlanceCam! –Cesare

GlanceCam 3.6 for Ventura is here, fully compatible with the new release of macOS and Stage Manager.

This version also introduces an optional Zoom feature that's been requested by some Users a while back (thank you both for the suggestion and patience, Gretar and Olof!).

GlanceCam works great on macOS 13 Ventura and is amazing in combination with Stage Manager, behaving exactly as you'd expect: with Always on Top enabled, your cameras remain visible in all Stages, just like they did (and do) with Spaces; if you don't use Always on Top in combination with Stage Manager, GlanceCam behaves like all other apps, moving to the side when you switch applications... but your camera preview remains live on the left sidebar even when it's not on the main stage!

Zoom mode is available to all GlanceCam Users and might be useful for occasionally taking a closer look to a section of the stream. Here's how it works:
- You can enable Zoom mode for the active window either by clicking the Window menu and then Toggle Zoom, or by pressing the Z key (no modifiers required).
- The same Toggle Zoom menu item or Z key disables Zoom mode, when you're done.
- When Zoom mode is active, the upper left area of the window displays a miniature of the whole camera, while the main area shows the zoomed-in image.
- The white rectangle you see in the miniature area corresponds to the currently zoomed-in section of the stream, and you can click within that rectangle and drag it around to move the magnified area.
- Below the miniature in the upper left corner, there's a small funnel shape that's only partially filled in white; if you click and drag up and down in the funnel-shaped area, you zoom in and out (as you zoom in, the funnel fills up, and vice versa).

A couple of additional notes on some implementation details of this feature:
- A window that has Zoom mode enabled cannot be moved around the screen by dragging its background, as you usually can do with all GlanceCam windows; this is because the drag interaction of moving the window conflicts with the drag interaction required to move the zoomed-in area. You can obviously move the window around by dragging its title bar.
- Each time you enable or disable Zoom mode, the video stream reloads; this is required because Zoom mode is implemented with the Magnify plugin of the amazing video engine GlanceCam uses under the hood, VLCKit, but it wouldn't make sense to always load (and therefore show) the plugin for a feature that's only needed occasionally by a small number of Users.
- Zoom mode is not persisted between sessions: it's always turned off when you launch the app or open a new window, but when you enable it, it remains active until you disable it again or close the window / quit the app; so, if you change camera in a window that had Zoom mode already on, the Zoom will be enabled for the stream you're switching to.
- If you're a GlanceCam Pro User (thank you!), you can put as many windows as you want in Zoom mode.
- Zooming capabilities are not available for built-in / USB cameras.
- If you save a Snapshot while Zoom mode is enabled, the image saved to disk will be the same you're looking at, with the miniature area and the zoomed-in view.
- The miniature area and the funnel are fixed in size in the plugin, and might appear quite small on Postcard or Regular size windows; Zoom mode works best with large windows or full screen.

If you've ever need to take a closer look to sections of your cameras or specific details, this convenience feature might be useful to you, and I hope you'll like it!

As always, reviews, Pro upgrades and tips are very much appreciated, and keep GlanceCam development going... and if you have any suggestion, I'd love to hear from you at support@cdf1982.com.

Thank you so much for all your loving words about GlanceCam for Apple Silicon! Here's what's new today:

• If you have multiple displays, new windows are now created at the center of the active screen (the one with the mouse pointer), instead of always on the main one;

• Keyboard shortcuts for resizing a window to 'Postcard' (⌘ 0), 'Regular' (⌘ 1), 'Large' (⌘ 2) and 'As big as possible' (⌘ 3) are now disabled if such window is currently full-screen.

Finally, I have an apology to make: in the release notes for GlanceCam 3.5 I asked Users running High Sierra to contact me (and I still need to hear from you, please read why at the bottom); one of you did with a kind and useful email that I read in the middle of the night on my phone, but wasn't able to find the next morning, as I probably deleted it by accident (yeah, reading emails without glasses at night, not a great idea). I feel bad for not responding, so if you're reading this, would you please forward your email to this clumsy developer? I'm very sorry, and thank you!

And if you missed them, here's GlanceCam 3.5 for Apple silicon release notes from last week:

After SO. MUCH. WORK. GlanceCam for Apple silicon is here!
The performance difference you'll notice on new Macs proves the effort was worth it: CPU and RAM usage decrease significantly, while everything else works as reliably as you're used to!
My goal was to make the transition less noticeable as possible – except for performances, of course – while building the foundations for the next 10 years of GlanceCam. I'm happy with the results and hope you'll be too!

Please know it wasn't for lack of trying that this major update didn't ship earlier: while Rosetta2 granted excellent performances, I've been at work on native support since Apple's announcement.
After many challenges, and thanks to the kind Beta Testers who helped me make this work great, the future of GlanceCam is brighter than ever.

I won't lie, what would make this launch perfect now would be for you to take a moment and leave a 5-star review :-) or maybe even consider going Pro if you aren't already (or leave a tip if you are ;).

As for new features, please know that with this major step forward finally in your hands, plenty is coming!

One last thing... I need to hear from Users who are running GlanceCam on macOS 10.13 High Sierra: in the last year, I've received 3 reports of issues on that operating system, but the way GlanceCam is built with privacy in mind means that I have no idea how many of you are still are running 10.13; and actually, you could be on High Sierra and have zero issues, especially if you don't have multiple windows open (the problem was a freeze when streaming multiple cameras concurrently). I've thoroughly investigated the issue and had to come to the conclusion that it's outside my control (it's an OpenGL bug in the OS fixed starting in macOS 10.14), therefore I need to at least consider the possibility to drop support for High Sierra in a future release. But if you're still using GlanceCam on 10.13 and have a good experience and no problems, I'd hate to leave you behind. Please, get in touch at support@cdf1982.com and let me know how's your experience running GlanceCam (and GlanceCam Pro) on High Sierra!

After SO. MUCH. WORK. GlanceCam for Apple silicon is here!
The performance difference you'll notice on new Macs proves the effort was worth it: CPU and RAM usage decrease significantly, while everything else works as reliably as you're used to!
My goal was to make the transition less noticeable as possible – except for performances, of course – while building the foundations for the next 10 years of GlanceCam. I'm happy with the results and hope you'll be too!

Please know it wasn't for lack of trying that this major update didn't ship earlier: while Rosetta2 granted excellent performances, I've been at work on native support since Apple's announcement.
After many challenges, and thanks to the kind Beta Testers who helped me make this work great, the future of GlanceCam is brighter than ever.

I won't lie, what would make this launch perfect now would be for you to take a moment and leave a 5-star review :-) or maybe even consider going Pro if you aren't already (or leave a tip if you are ;).

As for new features, please know that with this major step forward finally in your hands, plenty is coming!

One last thing... I need to hear from Users who are running GlanceCam on macOS 10.13 High Sierra: in the last year, I've received 3 reports of issues on that operating system, but the way GlanceCam is built with privacy in mind means that I have no idea how many of you are still are running 10.13; and actually, you could be on High Sierra and have zero issues, especially if you don't have multiple windows open (the problem was a freeze when streaming multiple cameras concurrently). I've thoroughly investigated the issue and had to come to the conclusion that it's outside my control (it's an OpenGL bug in the OS fixed starting in macOS 10.14), therefore I need to at least consider the possibility to drop support for High Sierra in a future release. But if you're still using GlanceCam on 10.13 and have a good experience and no problems, I'd hate to leave you behind. Please, get in touch at support@cdf1982.com and let me know how's your experience running GlanceCam (and GlanceCam Pro) on High Sierra!

This was planned as a small update devoted to fixing obscure and rare bugs, but grew into a major release with two convenient new features:
1. "Out of my way" is a trick you'll love and is available to all GlanceCam Users!
You know how sometimes you want to grab a file below a GlanceCam window or access something behind it, even if Always on top is enabled?
You can now hold the Shift ⇧ key while you move your mouse into the window area and make it bounce to the opposite side of the screen for 3 seconds; after that delay, your window will return to the original position.
Since the Shift key is not used by the operating system as a modifier while dragging files, you can begin to move an icon, realize a GlanceCam window is the same spot where you wanted to drop it, and only at that point hold ⇧ to get GlanceCam out of your way for a moment; the only requirement is that you start pressing Shift before your mouse enters the window area, and then you can release it immediately after the window starts bouncing to the opposite side of the screen.
If you hold the Shift key and move your mouse over multiple windows, they will all bounce; those in the left half of the screen will align to the right edge, while those in the right half will go to the left edge.
You'll need to wait 3 seconds and allow a window to return to its original position before you can invoke Out of my way again.
A big thank you to Dirk for inspiring this feature!
2. You can now display video from a built-in or USB camera directly attached to your Mac; while this is not a key feature of the app, it has been requested in the past and might be convenient, so now all GlanceCam Users can do so by clicking 'Add Window for built-in / USB camera' in the File menu (or with the ⌘ B keyboard shortcut).
A few details about this niche feature:
• GlanceCam Users can open one built-in / USB camera window in addition to the standard GlanceCam window; GlanceCam Pro allows to open as many windows of this type as you need.
• This "transforms" GlanceCam into a realtime viewer for such attached cameras, but does not mean that you can use this app to send cameras' video to apps like Zoom... it's just for glancing at a different kind of camera.
• While it might seem similar to a regular GlanceCam camera, this special window is quite different, as it uses a specific video engine and required to tweak almost everything. Not everything possible in a standard GlanceCam window is available for built-in and USB cameras: there is no audio support, Always on top can only be toggled on and off for all windows, HTTP GET actions are not available, as aren't snapshots...
• The basic functionality you might need is there, though: the special window can go full-screen, supports Always on top, can be resized with shortcuts (you need to prepend the Shift key to usual combinations), and remembers its size and which device was last selected; it has the usual dropdown button for selecting different sources (if, for instance, you have both the built-in MacBook Pro camera and a USB device), which again is also possible with keyboard shortcuts.
• If you quit GlanceCam with one built-in / USB window open, it will reopen the next time you launch the app; but only one built-in / USB camera window will reopen, so in the rare case that you have two or three, you'll need to manually reopen the additional devices.
• You might even decide to "bend" GlanceCam use case to only display built-in and USB devices and no IP camera, even if it's not what the app has been designed for.
• This feature has been tested with a wide range of built-in cameras and USB devices, including the app Camo, and works well, but it's not perfect, nor compatible with every device out there, so your success using this feature will depend on your hardware.
As always, please don't hesitate to contact me at support@cdf1982.com and, if you find GlanceCam useful, please consider leaving a 5 star review. Thank you! –Cesare