Release notes

Kinetic Notes 1.6 is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens normally on first launch. The right-click → Open workaround earlier versions needed is gone.

The application updates itself

On its second launch it asks whether you would like it to check for updates. Decline and nothing contacts the network.

A scheduled check does not interrupt you: when a new version turns up, an Update Available button appears in the toolbar and waits until you are ready. Choosing Check for Updates… yourself still answers straight away.

Every download is verified against a signing key built into the application before it is unpacked, and a download that fails that check is discarded rather than installed.

Nothing is measured. No profile of your system is sent, and no record is kept of who was offered what. The update feed is the only network request the application makes.

The title bar is stacked again

The window’s title sits on its own row, with the search field on a full-width row beneath it — the way Notational Velocity had it. That was never removed on purpose: macOS 11 redefined how toolbars are drawn and folded the two rows into one. 1.6 asks for the older arrangement explicitly.

The side-by-side layout is still available, under Settings → General → Show the search field beside the window title.

Also in this release

• Hiding and re-showing the toolbar no longer renames the window “Notation”.
• Check for Updates… is translated into every language the application ships. It had been left in English in the Spanish interface.
• A Help → Support Development item invites donations.
• The Help menu’s Kinetic Notes Web Site item now points at kineticnotes.org rather than the source repository.

This release rewrites how Kinetic Notes talks to the disk. The storage formats are unchanged and verified compatible in both directions, but the code underneath them was new, so it shipped as a beta first. That testing is done and 1.5 is now the stable release.

Carbon File Manager removal

The deprecated Carbon API that handled note storage has been replaced. Two Carbon calls remain, for resolving Alias Manager records and reading volume creation dates.

Files and storage

• Notes are addressed by path instead of opaque FSRef handles.
• Atomic saving through scratch files eliminates incomplete writes.
• Directory scanning uses getattrlistbulk(2) for efficient folder reading.
• The notes folder location is stored as an NSURL bookmark, with backward compatibility.
• Trash and Finder operations use current APIs.

Data and security

• Archiving moved to NSSecureCoding, with byte-identical output.
• Keychain access now uses SecItem. Existing passphrases remain functional.

Interface

• All alerts rebuilt on NSAlert, across 38 call sites.
• Typographic quotes restored in 14 alerts and undo names.
• Welcome notes rebranded across all seven localizations.
• Column headers display opaque backgrounds; grid lines follow the system appearance.

Housekeeping

• Removed obsolete Leopard and Snow Leopard runtime checks.
• Application icon reserved outside the GPL licence.
• Changelog separated from the README.

Localization

Spanish was added as a seventh locale with complete translations, and the rebrand from Notational Velocity to Kinetic Notes was applied across every language.

The first release of Kinetic Notes, forked from Notational Velocity 2.0 β7.

Universal binary

Native Apple Silicon support: arm64 and x86_64, both native in one binary. Rosetta 2 is neither required nor used.

Dependencies removed

• OpenSSL replaced with Apple’s CommonCrypto. Encryption remains compatible — databases encrypted by Notational Velocity still open.
• AutoHyperlinks replaced with NSDataDetector.
• The Sparkle update framework was removed. Updates are a manual download.

Identity

Renamed to Kinetic Notes, with its own notes directory, Keychain service, and bundle identifier, kept separate from Notational Velocity so that both can be installed at once and neither can affect the other’s data.

New

• A first-run import assistant for migrating from Notational Velocity. It copies, never moves, and includes encrypted databases.
• Dark Mode support.

Removed

• Simplenote sync. The service’s integration was part of Notational Velocity and is no longer present.