I love apps, specifically Mac apps. I’m always on the lookout for something new, something to make my day easier, or just something fun to try. Occasionally I find something great, and I’d like to share some of those apps with you.
Not sure how anyone can live with just one clipboard. Paste gives me 100s of history items with an easy to search interface. Plus, everything is beautifully displayed. It’s a subscription app, but well worth it for me. There are free, or cheaper, alternatives, but I’m very happy with Paste that I don’t look around anymore.
Dash – Free
I use dash not for the detailed documentation it provides, but for the text expansion. I can define any abbreviation I want, and Dash will expand that into whatever I define. Better yet, Dash allows you to add in variables, so you can define specific parts of the expanded text when you use it.
Apple’s calendar is getting better with every version, but to me, Fantastical is still the power user’s calendar. Again, this one is a subscription, but I’ve been using it for years and don’t feel like stopping now.
Great little app that can mute my microphone with a keyboard shortcut from anywhere. Great for Google Meets, Teams, or Zoom meetings. I’ve even mapped that shortcut to one of my mouse buttons, so I can quickly mute and unmute myself. Unfortunately, Apple does have a bug in macOS 12 that’s preventing me from using this app as it mutes my sound and microphone when using AirPods, or any Bluetooth headsets. They do have a workaround but, hopefully, Apple fixes their bug soon.
Can’t live without a good password manager, and 1Password is the one for me. Great user interface, powerful features, and it saves everything including non-password items. To me, 1Password is the best password manger option.
This is a Safari extension that converts YouTube videos into HTML5 embeds. They are much nicer than the standard YouTube player. My favorite feature is the addition of skip ahead or back 15 second buttons. Handy when you watch how to videos.
Raycast – Free
Move over Spotlight and Alfred, Raycast is a new Mac search tool. The great thing about Raycast is that it’s free, it’s extendable, and it has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. It can convert units, keep a clipboard history, take down notes, switch open windows, organize your windows, create reminders, and so much more. One of my favorite features is it lists my current meeting on the main screen, and when I select a meeting, it joins the meeting. No need to check the calendar; which it also has built in. Plus, if you’re a developer, you can build your own integrations too.
I love Twitter, but I hate the official Twitter app. It inserts promoted tweets, doesn’t sync my timeline activity between devices, and just tries to shove too much noise into my timeline. That’s why I love Tweetbot. Tweetbot is about removing all the noise and just showing me my timeline.
Mimestream – Free
Mimestream is a mail application that is built on Gmail’s API. It does a great job at removing email from your browser, yet keeping a lot of the same features and functionality you are use to. This isn’t just another IMAP email client, it’s Gmail specific and works better than other desktop email applications.
Vivaldi – Free
I’m a big fan of Safari & Firefox, but I’m always checking out new browsers, and Vivaldi is one that stands out. It’s built on Chromium, but goes far beyond what other browsers can do in terms of customization. The things it can do with tabs is amazing, you can change the theme to match your style, they allow you to customize quite a bit of the interface, has built in ad blocking, web panels, and so much more. Plus, it works with all Chrome extensions. It also has PWA’s built in, so you can save out sites like Gmail, Meet, or Spotify as standalone apps.
BetterTouchTool is a great way to customize mouse buttons, the Touch Bar, keys on your keyboard, or even set up a workflow so you can open links in whatever browser you want. BetterTouchTool can do a lot more than you think.
1Blocker is available for both Mac and iOS. It blocks ads and trackers in Safari extremely well. Even better than that, on iOS, 1Blocker has a firewall that blocks ads and trackers in most apps. If you try this out and have issues, make sure your firewall is set to HTTP Proxy as I had issues connecting to the internet when it was set to auto.
Those are just some of the apps that make my day-to-day better. Some I’ve used for years, while others are pretty new. All are worth checking out.
Is there an app you really like? Let me know.
