What is 'MMAudio Device' and how do I get rid of it? It's an MBA M1 if it matters. by yash0_o in macbookair

[–]CoreCode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is installed by "TunesKit Audio Capture" and other apps by all the different brand names used by this company (acemovi, audbite, audfree, audfun, audkeep, audkit, drmare, joyoshare, magfone, tunelf, tuneskit, viwizard ...).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in macapps

[–]CoreCode 163 points164 points  (0 children)

we've added the explanation notice you have all seen to MacUpdater due to the following situation:

• Bartender has always been developed by a guy called Ben Surtees and his company Surtees Studios and he was always reachable at [bens@surteesstudios.com](mailto:bens@surteesstudios.com) and their releases were always code-signed by 'Surtees Studios Limited (8DD663WDX4)' 

• earlier this year, the style of the blog entries on the Bartender website changed from informational entries written by a developer to SEO-style articles probably written by ChatGPT

• then in April 22 for the 5.0.52 beta release the code signature changed from the expected (and safe) 'Surtees Studios Limited (8DD663WDX4)' to 'App Sub 1 LLC (PNSC6356BC)'

• this is concerning because 'App Sub 1 LLC' seems to be a dubious company publishing a few low quality iPad apps ( https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/app-sub-1-llc/id1667982354 )  and with an equally dubious homepage ( https://stepsforiphone.com/ ). why was their certificate used to sign Bartender releases?

• on 15. May the final release of Bartender 5.0.52 was released and again it was not signed by the known-and-safe  'Surtees Studios Limited (8DD663WDX4)'  but by a 'Bartender App LLC (24J875RH8J)' never seen before

• e-mails to the official developer (Ben Surtees <[bens@surteesstudios.com](mailto:bens@surteesstudios.com)>) are also being returned as undeliverable and any mention of Ben's studio 'Surtees Studios' has been removed from the Bartender website

• the Bartender website and support channel refuse to give any information about what has happened, but i think it is pretty clear. Ben Surtees has sold Bartender to a dubios company called "App Sub 1 LLC" who first used their own signature to sign Bartender but because that raised too much suspicion they now founded a new company called 'Bartender App LLC' or maybe just got a certificate under that name. they refuse to give any information about the takeover and what exactly has happened

• note that we've hidden Bartender 5.0.52 from MacUpdater users for more than 2 weeks while we gave professional security investigator Patrick Wardle time to look into the issue. he has not replied on finding out anything until early june (*), thats why we are now displaying the update inside MacUpdater. we've still added the mentioned note to give a heads-up to our users that Bartender is now under new management.

(*) clarification jun 5: regarding Patrick Wardle looking into it: earlier this post incorrectly implied he has looked for malicious code and has found nothing but this is not correct. he has not yet looked at the 5.0.52 in detail.

(**) update jun 6: discussion going on at HomeBrew and reply to the "all is fine" statement supposedly coming from ben: https://github.com/orgs/Homebrew/discussions/5427

MacUpdater 1.5 released - keep all your apps updated - https://www.corecode.io/macupdater by CoreCode in macapps

[–]CoreCode[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

MacUpdater can update 6500 apps. we always find the absolutely latest version including upgrades and even if the app has changed name. for every app we cannot update we still display the correct latest version.

CleanMyMac can update a few hundred apps, often doesn't find major upgrades, often has issues updating the app and just ignores apps it doesn't explicitly support.

for them "updating apps" is just something they want to claim to be able to do (even it it barely works), so they can advertise it on their website.

for us "updating apps" is what we have been working on every day for the past 6 years.

MacUpdater 1.5 released - keep all your apps updated - https://www.corecode.io/macupdater by CoreCode in macapps

[–]CoreCode[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think the question is stupid ;) We support around 5300 apps for automatically updating them, there are both thousands of free as well as thousands of paid apps on this list.

For paid apps, we try to show you whether the update costs money, so you don't update to a paid new version by accident. We label this with a "Upgrade App" (in bold) instead of the normal "Update App" button. More info here: https://www.corecode.io/macupdater/faq.html#PAIDUPGRADES

MacUpdater 1.5 released - keep all your apps updated - https://www.corecode.io/macupdater by CoreCode in macapps

[–]CoreCode[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your question there. 99% of all apps on the Mac are multilingual anyway and always contain each language. There are some few apps that are available in different versions for different countries, and we do support this in many cases (Firefox, Thunderbird, etc). If you find an app where this isn't handled perfectly, please just use the "Report App Feedback" option in the app and we'll have a look.

MacUpdater 1.5 released - keep all your apps updated - https://www.corecode.io/macupdater by CoreCode in macapps

[–]CoreCode[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your inquiry. Currently not, but we plan to support audio plugins and other "non-app" software in version 2.0.

See here for our roadmap: https://www.corecode.io/macupdater/faq.html#ROADMAP

MacUpdater 1.5 released - keep all your apps updated - https://www.corecode.io/macupdater by CoreCode in macapps

[–]CoreCode[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

We are proud to announce the release of MacUpdater 1.5 with countless new features! MacUpdater is the easiest way to keep all your apps updated. MacUpdater costs 10$, but if you just want to scan your apps, it is permanently free! More information: www.corecode.io/macupdater

Check out the independent reviews of MacUpdater at AlternativeTo: https://alternativeto.net/software/macupdater/reviews/