Portal - Escape Into Nature 4+

Autumn is upon us - the leaves are changing, the birdsong is shifting as flocks migrate to warmer climes, and a new macOS has just arrived! To celebrate, our recent Portal for Mac v1.4 release brought new features, improvements, and fixes to help you enjoy the magic of this season of change.

Changes in v1.4.1
This minor update builds on our v1.4 release with a few additional tweaks and fixes:

- Nanoleaf Blocks Support: You can now enjoy full compatibility with Nanoleaf’s latest Blocks lights.
- Audio Fixes: We’ve addressed some rare crashes when switching default output devices.
- Settings Window Fix: Fixed a visual glitch with the scroll background appearance in the Settings window on macOS Sequoia.
- Cache Cleaning Improvement: The “Clear Cache” button is now disabled while the cache is being cleaned to prevent interruptions.

New Features in v1.4
- Offline Playback: Following popular demand, you can now download your favourite portals and enjoy them wherever you are, even when you've migrated off-grid! Tap the three dots on a portal screen and select "Make Available Offline." Easily manage your downloads in Settings > Storage.
- Start Playback on Launch: Want Portal to start playing as soon as you log in? Now you can! Combine this with the ‘Launch at login’ option, and Portal will be there to greet you every time you start your Mac. Settings > General > Start playback on launch.

Improvements in v1.4
- macOS Sequoia Support: Optimised for the newest macOS, with enhancements to security, performance, usability, and animations ensuring Portal runs as smoothly as ever.
- Offline Indicator: A handy new tick icon shows which portals have been downloaded and are available offline.
- Enhanced Search Integration: Portals now appear in Spotlight and Siri search results (macOS Sequoia only).
- Shortcuts Support: Portal images are now accessible when setting up portals in the Shortcuts app along with a new “Open a Portal” action.
- Library Enhancements: Enjoy the new scroll parallax effect on library tiles, clearer author attribution in articles, and links to external sites now underlined for easy identification.

Fixes in v1.4
- An issue where Nanoleaf lights didn’t correctly transition brightness when un-synced has now been fixed.
- Fixed a stall that could occur when playing previously cached videos.
- Addressed several edge case bugs that caused the Library layout to look a little skew-whiff.
- Removed excessive padding at the top of Library articles that begin with a heading.

Compatibility
Please note that Portal v1.4 does not support macOS Ventura. This will allow us to focus on delivering the very best experience possible with the latest features and functionality available on the most recent macOS versions. However, if you're unable to upgrade, please don’t worry - Portal v1.3 will continue to work on macOS Ventura for the foreseeable future.

As always, we’re incredibly grateful to the Portal community for sharing your feedback and helping guide us on which features you’re most excited about as well as the things that are bugging you out. A special shout out goes to Renzo from Italy, whose sheer enthusiasm for having Portal play on launch meant we just had to sneak it into this release!

If there’s a feature you’d love to see or a bug that needs squashing, please don’t hesitate to reach out at [hello@portal.app](mailto:hello@portal.app) - we’d love to hear from you :)

Many thanks,

Andy, Alex, Nick, Stu & Tim - Team Portal.