Black out every display. Lock the keyboard. Clean your Mac.

Block the keyboard before the screens go black

Instead of

Fading the screens first

Because

No keystroke lands during the fade. If blocking fails to start, the screens stay untouched instead of going black over a working keyboard.

Refuse to start below 20% brightness

Instead of

Starting on any display

Because

On a display dimmed near zero, the Leave Void switch is invisible and the user is left clicking blind.

End the clean when a display changes

Instead of

Keeping an exit on a screen that may be gone

Because

The exit has to stay on a screen the user can see. Unplugging, resolution changes, mirroring, sleep, and screen lock all end the clean and release the keyboard.

Release the keyboard after 5 seconds without a heartbeat

Instead of

Trusting the main thread, where the only exit lives

Because

A hung app would otherwise hold every key until a forced restart. The watchdog counts timer ticks instead of elapsed time, so a sleeping Mac does not look hung.

Polar as merchant of record, with payments on Stripe

Instead of

My own Stripe account, Lemon Squeezy, or Paddle

Because

Stripe's sign-up needed a US phone, and forming a US company cost more than I could spend. Lemon Squeezy's review was still pending three days in, and I wanted to launch. Paddle's hosted checkout was not open to me, and Paddle does not manage license keys. Polar accepted an individual seller in Colombia, takes card payments through Stripe, handles license keys and activation limits, and I can keep it after moving to the US.

Selling outside the Mac App Store

Instead of

The Mac App Store

Because

I did not want to give Apple a cut of a $2.99 app. The store also requires the sandbox, and Void blocks key events across the whole system, which I never proved works inside it. Switching would have meant replacing the updater and the license keys too.

Three free cleans, then the paywall

Instead of

A paywall before the first clean

Because

People should see the real app work before they decide to buy.

Tie each activation to the Mac that made it

Instead of

Releasing the other Mac's slot when a copy shows up

Because

Copying a Keychain or running Migration Assistant carried a license to any number of Macs. Releasing the slot remotely would take access from the Mac the copy came from. The new Mac forgets the copy and asks for the key instead, which claims a slot Polar can count.