Mac menu bar customization app 'Bartender' secretly acquired by unknown person, raising concerns
Bartender, a popular app that lets you customize your Mac's menu bar icons and add new features, has been acquired by an unknown party. This led to a lot of buzz on the social networking site Reddit, with users expressing concern, but the company later made an official statement.
A New Chapter for Bartender - Bartender 5
Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown developer
https://9to5mac.com/2024/06/04/bartender-acquired-unknown-developer/
On June 5, 2024, a user reported receiving a warning from the app monitoring app 'MacUpdater.' The warning message read, 'Because the administrator of Bartender has changed to another person, updating to version 5.0.52 or later is at the user's own risk and responsibility.'
A few hours later, a person who said they had 'acquired Bartender' responded to the Reddit post. Ordinary_Delivery_79, who had just registered as a user on Reddit on June 4, 2024, wrote, 'Hey everyone, I'm the new owner of Bartender! Our team took over Bartender from the original developer, Ben S., two months ago. To prepare for an update to Bartender, we had to re-sign the app with Apple using our company's information instead of Ben. So we're just changing the certificate once.'
Ordinary_Delivery_79 continued, 'To be honest, I should have included this in the release notes, but I couldn't update it retroactively, so I wrote about this fact on my blog and shared it with users when they emailed me. We've worked closely with Ben S to understand his vision for Bartender. Our goal is to implement many of the improvements he had planned, address the bugs reported over the past few months, and improve Bartender's performance.' However, there was no explanation of the acquisition, who the new owner was, or why they changed the signature without explanation, which is causing users to become suspicious.
One user wondered why there was no farewell message from Ben S. Another questioned why the latest response email did not provide any details. In addition, Ordinary_Delivery_79's statement that he had 'written the facts on his blog' was unclear. One user pointed out, 'I found the blog , but there was no other information (only that the signature had changed).'
On June 5th, an official statement was made by original developer Surtees on Bartender's official blog. Surtees wrote, 'After the release of Bartender 5, I realized that supporting all our users and maintaining the app at the high standards you all expect was too much for one person to handle. It was a difficult decision, but three months ago I sold Bartender to Applause, a company with the resources and expertise to take the app to new heights. Applause shares my vision for Bartender and is committed to maintaining its core values while adding new features and improvements. I truly believe they are the right team to continue this journey and ensure Bartender remains a valuable tool for you.'
Surtees also apologized for the uproar, saying, 'We understand the transition has not been entirely smooth. There were changes to app signing which unfortunately were not properly communicated to users. We apologise for any confusion or concern caused. Please be assured that Bartender is signed by a developer with a valid Apple ID and notarised by Apple, and we verify apps to ensure they are free of malware.'
On the social site Hacker News, the developer of a similar app called BetterTouchTool has quietly promoted the app, commenting , 'Following the Bartender incident and receiving multiple requests, I'm releasing a tutorial .'
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in Software, Posted by log1p_kr