PWM-Safe Mode pins hardware brightness to 100% on built-in MacBook panels and supported Apple displays, so software dimming never has to fight backlight flicker.
Auto-Brightness (Ambient Light Compensation) is paused while Tap Zap is running so the system stops fighting your slider — fully restored on quit.
Auto-show the popover on first launch so the menu bar icon is easy to find — silent on every launch after.
Warmth slider now glides smoothly to the new value when you tap a preset, instead of snapping.
Preset buttons no longer flash mid-drag — they only highlight once you release on a matching value.
License activation screen redesigned: bigger logo, real focus ring on the input, shake on error, staggered entrance, ZAP-style activate button.
Fixed: flicker warning silently disappeared on macOS Tahoe (26.2) because the legacy IOKit display path stopped enumerating — now uses a Tahoe fallback.
Fixed: prior brightness wasn't always restored correctly when toggling PWM-Safe Mode on built-in panels.
v2.22
macOSApril 15, 2026
A more natural warmth curve.
Replaced the old linear warmth math with a chromaticity-based CCT → xy → RGB mapping for a more natural mid-range progression.
Added a smooth red tail from 2000K down to pure red, removing the abrupt drop at the bottom of the warmth slider.
DAY, EVENING, and NIGHT presets now snap to exact Kelvin points on the curve: 4000K, 2700K, and 0K (pure red).
Preset highlights now use a tolerance check so the correct button lights up reliably on the new curve.
Honest flicker warnings: separate mild and severe states, with the severe warning making it explicit when software dimming cannot help (built-in panel below 80%).
v2.19
WindowsApril – May 2026CurrentBeta
PWM-Safe Mode arrives on Windows. Cursor tint. Brightness floor.
PWM-Safe Mode pins hardware brightness to 100% via WMI on built-in laptop panels and DDC/CI on supported external monitors — auto-reverts cleanly if the lock can't be verified.
Multi-monitor support: every DDC/CI-controllable external is locked together. Externals that don't expose DDC/CI keep the existing manual "set to 100%" guidance.
Cursor tint restored: common system cursors now inherit the active warmth and brightness filter instead of staying bright white on a separate layer.
Brightness slider now stops at 10% by default. New ALLOW EXTREME DIM setting unlocks dimming below the floor when you really want it.
Matched the warmth curve to macOS — same chromaticity-based mid-range and same smooth red tail. Both Magnification and Legacy paths use the new curve.
Per-monitor DPI awareness so the popup window stays crisp on 4K and high-DPI laptops.
Auto-show the popup on first launch so the tray icon is easy to find — silent on every launch after.
Honest flicker-warning copy aligned with macOS — clearer language about what software dimming can and cannot do.
v2.18
WindowsApril 14, 2026
Brutalist UI overhaul.
Background, header, and footer panels rebuilt to match the macOS design system — same #0D0D0D deep black, same #1A1A1A panel grey, same red.
New fader caps with the same 4-stop gradient as macOS, plus pill-style value badges in Consolas Bold (red border for warmth, grey for brightness).
Settings screen retitled and rebuilt with proper vertical alignment on every row.
Center divider, fader track spacing, and gear icon position fine-tuned for clean rendering on dark backgrounds.
Drop-shadow gap on the right and bottom edges of the popup eliminated.
v2.15
Windows2026
Native rewrite. Around 200 KB. Zero runtime dependencies.
Complete rewrite from WPF / .NET 8 to native C++ on the Win32 API — no .NET runtime, no Electron, no install footprint.
Color filter now runs on the Magnification API (MagSetFullscreenColorEffect) for system-wide coverage.
Custom GDI drawing for the brutalist UI: studio faders, gradient caps, tick marks, the lot.
System tray integration with a popup window that anchors near the tray.
Settings persist to %APPDATA%\TapZap2\ as a plain INI file.
Sleep / wake handled via WM_POWERBROADCAST, single-instance enforcement via global mutex.
Fixed: 4K and high-DPI scaling issues from the .NET build.
v2.14
macOS2026
Slider stability fixes.
Fixed: slider rubber-banding bug on macOS 12 Monterey.
Replaced the SwiftUI fader implementation with a pure NSView + CALayer path for tighter control.
Drag tracking now uses screen coordinates for stable behavior across multi-monitor setups.
v2.13
macOS2026
Brutalist redesign.
Bold UI redesign — the brutalist black / red / white aesthetic the app ships with today.
Red status indicator unified across the popover.
Improved fader precision at the very top and bottom of the slider range.