AppAddict Newsletter

February 1, 2026

The Prompt I Use to Generate an Obsidian Friendly Log With Backlinks, Tags and Tasks

Keyboard Maestro Macro used to Create Note

Every night, shortly before 12:00 AM, an automation I set up on my Mac opens the ChatGPT app and send this prompt:

Generate my Obsidian AI Daily Log for the last 24 hours.

Requirements:
- Sort everything in true chronological order with timestamps.
- Use one-line summaries for each discussion.
- Structure it as a technical journal, not a chat summary.
- Include these sections:
1) Timeline
2) Signals & Insights (what I learned or realized)
3) Friction & Problems (what broke, confused, or slowed things down)
4) Decisions (explicit or implicit choices made)
5) Open Questions (unresolved issues)
6) Next Actions (concrete follow-ups)
7) Backlinks (Obsidian-style [[topics]])
8) Tags (#macos #automation #clawdbot #health etc.)

Use Obsidian-friendly Markdown.
- “At the end, include the full log again inside a plain-text block between ===BEGIN OBSIDIAN DAILY LOG=== and ===END OBSIDIAN DAILY LOG=== so I can save it to a file via automation. Do not use any clickable links for this block.”

When I wake up in the morning, there is a note in a folder in my vault, named using a repeatable convention so that I can create links each day in my daily note using a template with a variable.

An example note looks like this

## 🤖 AI Daily Log (23:52)

Obsidian AI Daily Log — Last 24 Hours

Timeline

-   01:02 — Generated Obsidian AI Daily Log for January 30 with full technical journal structure and export block.

-   02:44 — Investigated how the macOS utility LeaderKey works and explored command-style use cases beyond apps and URLs.

-   03:36 — Asked whether Calibre maintains logs and explored recommended settings and behavior of the Job Spy plugin.

-   04:44 — Requested a detailed narrative overview of Homeland Season 2, Episode 5.

-   07:05 — Analyzed the macOS security command sudo spctl --master-disable and its system-wide implications.

-   08:02 — Evaluated new eyeglass prescription with emphasis on computer-centric use and identified reputable online vendors.

Signals & Insights

-   LeaderKey functions best as a command dispatcher layered atop existing automation.

-   Calibre logging is present but distributed and inconsistent.

-   Disabling Gatekeeper globally is risky and best reserved for short-term diagnostics.

-   Computer-focused lenses align better with actual usage patterns.

-   Homeland continues deliberate narrative destabilization in S2E5.

Friction & Problems

-   Lack of centralized logging in Calibre complicates troubleshooting.

-   Sparse advanced documentation for LeaderKey.

-   macOS security controls encourage overcorrection due to poor visibility.

Decisions

-   Use LeaderKey selectively as automation glue.

-   Avoid permanent Gatekeeper disablement.

-   Choose computer-optimized eyewear.

-   Maintain AI logs as technical records.

Open Questions

-   Best practices for persistent Calibre job logging?

-   Community-standard LeaderKey command patterns?

-   Safer macOS security toggling workflows?

Next Actions

-   Prototype LeaderKey + shell/KM workflows.

-   Capture Calibre debug logs during test jobs.

-   Write a Gatekeeper troubleshooting checklist.

-   Order glasses optimized for screen work.

Backlinks

[[Obsidian AI Daily Log]] [[macOS Security]] [[LeaderKey]] [[Calibre]] [[Automation]] [[Homeland]] [[Health]]

Keyboard Maestro, The App That Makes Everything Better - Tips for the Automation Curious

When Keyboard Maestro went on sale during the Black Friday season last year, I was surprised by the number of people who purchased the app and then found themselves at a loss for use cases. The community forum run by Peter Lewis, the developer, has a good reputation for being helpful, but in my experience it's full of complex solutions to problems I don't have.

My intention has never been to use Keyboard Maestro as a software development platform. It's always been about this simple question: how can I turn 10 clicks into 1 click--or better yet, how can I not have to click at all?

Triggers

Here's a list of some recent macOS automation patterns I've introduced into the way I use my Mac. I've been inspired by the introduction of the Extra Bar to make nested menus of related macros, and I've stopped relying on trying to remember so many finger-cramping hotkey combinations.

One of the magical things about automating with Keyboard Maestro is the sheer number of ways a macro can be triggered. My most-used triggers are:

Time of Day triggers (do this action at this time)
Application Launch triggers (when this app opens, do this thing)
Periodic triggers (do this thing every X minutes)
Good old hotkeys
Select-from-a-menu triggers
Login triggers (do this thing X seconds after I log in)
Mounted Volume triggers (when this volume is mounted, do this thing)

Macros

Keeping apps alive -- Runs every 10 minutes with a trigger of "If Raycast is not running" and an action of "Start Raycast."
Log out cleanly -- One action quits all apps, the next pauses, then Keyboard Maestro ejects all disks and issues the logout command. This is how macOS is supposed to do it, but if you have apps that hang up your logouts or external drives that don't eject cleanly, you can insert a solution into this macro.
Mark all mail as read -- Uses menu bar commands and simulated mouse clicks.
Mount and unmount attached backup drives -- Keyboard Maestro runs a simple script to mount and unmount USB drives that stay physically connected but don't need to be available all the time. You can do the same with network shares. For example, when a backup or syncing app launches, the mounting script runs; when the app quits, the drive is unmounted.
If Bloom opens, close QSpace and **If Rectangle Pro launches, quit SnapsOfApps******
Display a list of running Dock and menu bar apps and restart (not quit) the one you click -- I like to test software and keep up with new features by running multiple apps in the same category. This keeps my MacBook from getting bogged down.
Automatically connect via screen sharing to other Macs and Linux boxes -- Apple's built-in VNC client supports internal URLs, which Keyboard Maestro can open directly.
Batch open URLs in a specific browser -- I use this with Firefox. The macro closes the current window and opens a new one containing only the URLs I specify.
If Updatest opens, also open Nektony -- When testing apps, I often need them side by side. A macro is the easiest way to make that happen.
Batch quit jobs for groups of apps -- Just as you can open a group of apps with one command, you can close them when you're done.
Backup Homebrew -- This macro backs up my entire Homebrew configuration via a script, then copies the resulting file to a specific folder on my backup drive.
Restart Finder -- If Finder starts misbehaving, issuing killall Finder via a hotkey is far more pleasant than hunting through Activity Monitor.
SSH -- In a home lab environment, I use passwordless sudo and small scripts for one-click terminal access to other machines.
Run Topgrade on a schedule with no prompts -- Topgrade updates Homebrew apps, Mac App Store apps, and various developer tools. Using a time-of-day or periodic trigger, it can run unattended.
Upgrade Mac App Store apps (in Terminal) -- If you're tired of waiting on the App Store UI, you can install the mas CLI and trigger it via Keyboard Maestro.
Open the App Store directly to the Updates tab -- I don't browse the App Store much. When I open it, I'm either searching or updating, and both can be automated.
Create keyboard shortcuts for actions developers didn't assign one to -- In Calibre, my macro opens the metadata editor to the Tags field and advances to the next book during bulk edits. Neither action exists natively; I built both with Keyboard Maestro.
Automatically query ChatGPT each night for a list of topics we discussed and copy it into Obsidian -- The macro opens a new ChatGPT conversation and pastes a reusable prompt.
Copy selected text to Ghostty and press Return -- I couldn't get PopClip to do this, so Keyboard Maestro stepped in.
Copy Obsidian daily notes into Day One -- Redundant, yes, but I've used Day One since 2014 and like keeping a parallel record for continuity.
Open Dropbox briefly to download files I emailed to it -- I prefer not to stay connected to cloud services unless I need them, so a macro connects, syncs, and disconnects.
Open a BBEdit window with the clipboard contents
Open and close backup apps -- I use several backup tools and don't want them running constantly, so Keyboard Maestro launches them on a schedule and shuts them down afterward.
Menu of window-layout launchers using Rectangle and SnapsOfApps -- I have too many layouts to remember their hotkeys, so Keyboard Maestro presses them for me via a menu.
Open System Settings to frequently used panes -- Just shaving off a few more clicks.
Keyboard shortcut to copy the URL of the current page -- It still amazes me that Vivaldi doesn't ship with this, but it took about a minute to fix with a macro.

Hopefully this gives you a few ideas with what you can do with Keyboard Maestro, removing some of the frustration and demonstrating that it's not so much an automation app but a way instead to build your personal infrastructure.

More examples - My Top 10 Keyboard Maestro Macros

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January 30, 2026

SnapsofApps Has New, Powerful Features

Ryan Dekker, the developer of SnapsOfApps, a robust and full-featured window management app, just released an update that adds a bevy of new features aimed at more complex setups involving multiple monitors and spaces. He tackled thorny problems like managing how macOS identifies identical display models and how using a MacBook in clamshell mode affects window management. In under 10 minutes, I was able to install and configure the app to use two displays and eight spaces, launch a dozen apps with individual windows, and have every single aspect of the setup work correctly the first time from a simple hotkey command. All of this comes from an app that costs only $6.99 and includes a seven-day free trial. It also offers a full suite of window positioning tools that rival what the big guns (e.g., Moom and Rectangle Pro) in the field can deliver.

Background

Lagging well behind Microsoft Windows, macOS did not implement a relatively complete suite of native window management features until Tahoe. Even now, the native tools still lack many features found in third-party apps, such as the ability to automatically position apps at launch and rearrange windows when displays change. You also can't trigger layouts via scripts or hotkeys.

As u/arduinoRPi4 pointed out in a recent thread, "Window and space management on macOS is a mess, especially because macOS itself doesn't expose the Spaces API, which is controlled/owned by Dock.app, and different windows send different callbacks and whatnot. [Problematic apps] use private APIs that are in this case unreliable and result in… issues…. Multi-monitor seems like an afterthought on macOS and is really poorly designed in a lot of aspects that it's laughable."

As I recently pointed out, finding a solution for managing windows and apps in a multi-monitor, multi-space macOS setup has been a challenge. I've been looking for an app that could primarily do one thing: open a collection of apps and place their windows in the desired positions, on the desired spaces, on the desired monitors.

I tested:

It was possible to achieve my goal with Keyboard Maestro, but every single window and app had to be added one at a time, with carefully choreographed hotkeys to launch apps, change spaces, and insert delays to prevent commands from overlapping. In subsequent testing, I also found that Rectangle Pro can achieve similar results with relatively little friction.

Not everyone has complex setups--or even cares about window management. For years, I used nothing but a MacBook with its single native display and ran most of my apps in full-screen mode. But there are plenty of people with three or four displays on hyper-powerful Mac Studios and Pros who could benefit from a tool like SnapsOfApps.

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January 26, 2026

Clawdbot Can Do It

Automating repetitive tasks on my Mac has been an ongoing obsession for years. To me, it's the essence of using a computer as the tool it's meant to be. The less often I have to click the same sequence of buttons I clicked yesterday, the happier I am. To that end, I've long relied on Keyboard Maestro, BetterTouchTool, Hazel, Drafts, Apple Shortcuts, and IFTTT.

Two days ago, I read about a new agentic AI app called Clawdbot that runs locally on a Mac and interacts with it in ways previous apps simply couldn't. People have strong feelings about AI. I know I do. I'm not a fan of having my blog posts harvested for their information while never getting the chance to interact with the people who want that information. Nor do I enjoy being flooded with AI-generated content passed off as "real human" effort. But AI agents--tools that let computers do actual work for us--feel fundamentally different. They don't fit neatly into those objections.

I have a spare Mac I use for testing software, so I decided to take Clawdbot for a spin. You can also run it in a VM. Once you see what it can do, you'll understand why you need to be extremely careful about the information it can access. It was a beast to set up. The developer, Peter Steinberger, is a solo creator, not a front for a giant AI company. The product is new, and while there is documentation, it's incomplete and doesn't cover many edge cases. You can install the Mac app using Homebrew--

brew install clawdbot

--but that's only part of the story. The real power lives in the CLI, and to get that you need a package manager like Node. Run

curl -fsSL [clawd.bot/install.s...](https://clawd.bot/install.sh) | bash

in a shell and hope your $PATH and environment don't fight back.

One of Clawdbot's most compelling features is its ability to communicate through familiar messaging apps: WhatsApp, Messages, Discord, Slack, or, in my case, Telegram. You can literally send your Mac a message and tell it to do things. It can email you files or drop copies into cloud storage on your behalf.

The intelligence behind the agent comes from whatever AI service you're authorized to use via an API key--or from a local model if you prefer. All interaction history stays on your computer, stored plainly in a folder of Markdown files. There are already plugins for Mac apps like Obsidian and Things 3, but the most intriguing piece is Peekaboo, a radical framework that can "see" your Mac's screen, understand UI elements (buttons, menus, text fields), and interact with them by scrolling, clicking, and typing. It can chain these actions together in complex ways, and all you have to do is describe what you want in plain English. In effect, you can add capabilities to software that its developer never imagined.

You can even grant Clawdbot access to your Terminal, allowing it to design and execute scripts endlessly. Unsurprisingly, this sets off alarm bells for anyone with sensitive data. I'm not a cybersecurity expert, but I've been around long enough to have a healthy respect for risk. Be careful--but if any of this sounds exciting, it's absolutely worth exploring.

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January 24, 2026

Four New Free and Affordable Apps I Like from Indi Devs

SmartTracker

SmartTracker is a universal app that syncs across all platforms via iCloud. Using the URL from a vendor's page (Newegg, Amazon, Micro Center, etc.), the app tracks prices in near real time. You can set a target price and receive a notification within minutes of a price drop.

Several features stand out: charts, tracking numerical data beyond price, and collections. When I'm shopping for a big-ticket item, I find it useful to create a collection of the same product across multiple vendors. Today I got excited when Micro Center listed Mac minis for $100 less than Amazon--until I noticed the fine print: in-store pickup only, at a single store in Georgia.

You can use the free version for up to five items. The full version costs $19.99 in the App Store. The developer, Hugo Price (u/hprione on Reddit), is responsive to support requests, bug reports, and feature suggestions.

WithAudio

WithAudio is a powerful text-to-speech application under active development, with new features and improvements arriving on a weekly basis. It currently supports English and French, with Spanish and Hindi on the roadmap for the near future.

The app works offline after a one-time download of additional resources, which happens automatically after you enter your license. In addition to choosing a language, you can select from 29 different voices across male and female options.

Using your Mac, you can process entire books, queue long documents, and export MP3 or M4B chapters to build your own audiobook library. WithAudio supports EPUB, Markdown, TXT, and some PDFs. (Pro tip: use Calibre to convert PDFs to EPUB for free.)

The Mac app also lets you follow along as a document is read, automatically scrolling and highlighting each sentence. There's even a Chrome browser extension for reading web pages.

The app is priced at $25.50 for a lifetime license and includes a seven-day, no-questions-asked refund period after purchase. Check out the developer on Reddit: u/s3rgio0

Delvepad

My background is in educational technology, primarily in the K--12 world. I always enjoy finding indie apps for students because they're often built by dedicated developers with real skill in conveying information.

Delvepad, a free and open-source app, fits that description. It's available for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Silicon Macs and is useful as a reference tool for lessons on artificial intelligence and the training of large language models. It includes a glossary and shareable resources.

Check out the developer on Reddit: u/Other_Passion_4710

Unfriction

I'm on a lifelong quest to find the perfect scratchpad. The way I work involves accumulating and processing small fragments of text throughout the day. Sometimes I need that information for two minutes; sometimes I want to keep it forever. Either way, I need a way to find it later, when future me goes looking for it with only the faintest memory of what it contains.

A good scratchpad needs to be as friction-free as possible. It should open instantly, accept information without ceremony, and then get out of the way. That's exactly what Unfriction does

It's a Mac overlay notes app by indie developer and Reddit user u/Cute-River-1592 Beyond its near-instant launch, its features include smart tags, automatic OCR from screenshots and an endless built-in clipboard manager. You can do imports and exports of your notes and choose any file storage location you want. It has a limited free version, and a lifetime license will run you $19.99. for a transferable 2-Mac license.

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January 20, 2026

Spaces and Desktops and My Mental Health

When Something Simple Becomes Complicated

I spent most of my computer using life on a Macbook and only recently started using a dual display setup. I didn’t start this process until after the release of macOS 26, Tahoe. Quite possibly, that may be the absolute worst time to be experimenting with this in the history of the Mac. This is not my favorite version of the operating system. I’ve found that some relatively common applications are resistant to window management across Spaces: Calibre, Obsidian, Better Touch Tool, System Configuration, and Elgato Stream Deck Configuration are all consistently problematic. In addition, having windows from the same application open on more than one desktop creates issues for most window-management applications. Instead of using multiple windows from one browser, I’ve found it easier to just run two different browsers.

I am 100% open to suggestions from anyone who’s been down this road before me. Tell me what apps you use and why. If you have suggestions for best practices, please pass them along. Here’s a list of the tools and applications I’m currently trying to adapt to the way I use my Mac.

Bunch

Bunch manages windows and Spaces indirectly through easy-to-use scripts. The developer, Brett Terpstra, is a Mac legend, and he very kindly helped me troubleshoot some weird problems I ran into—specifically losing the required file association to run the scripts. Imagine Word telling you it can’t open .docx files. That’s what Bunch kept doing to me.

Moom

The folks at Many Tricks are also legendary and genuinely nice. Moom is an award-winning app that lets you move and resize windows using hotkeys or menus. Theoretically, a setup like mine—two displays, twelve apps, eight Desktops—can be triggered with a single shortcut that launches everything and puts the windows exactly where I want them. I say theoretically because, with the apps I use, the results aren’t consistent, and it never gets everything right.

Spencer

Spencer doesn’t have Moom’s window-management depth. It’s designed for saving layouts for groups of Spaces/Desktops or for whatever is currently on screen across multiple displays. The developer is extremely responsive and even sent me a custom DMG that could control Calibre after learning I was having trouble with it. Unfortunately, like Moom, it doesn’t consistently place my apps and windows where I want them, so I end up making manual adjustments every time.

Snaps of Apps

The developer of Snaps of Apps is actively working on adding better Spaces support and improving responsiveness on laptops running in clamshell mode. I’ll continue testing every version he sends me.

Keyboard Maestro

This workhorse can actually do what I want, but it turns what other apps promise to do with a single click into a 50-step macro I have to build manually. That may simply be the price I have to pay to get things set up exactly the way I like them.

Better Touch Tool

For anyone fluent in Better Touch Tool’s action set, building the same kind of workflow as Keyboard Maestro is absolutely possible. It looks something like this:

Navigate to the Space where you want to launch an app
Insert pauses when switching Spaces
Launch the app
Pause
Move the app’s window where you want it
Pause

Elgato Stream Deck

I’m new to this gadget. It provides a physical interface that ties together Shortcuts, Keyboard Maestro macros, Moom hotkeys, and scripts of all types. There’s simply no way I can cram many more hotkeys and trackpad gestures into my brain. I’m full.

Raycast

Raycast is another daily driver with window-management capabilities. I love the “almost maximize” command and invoke it instantly whenever an app tries to force full screen on me.

Stay

Stay remembers where your app windows live and puts them back there when displays change, apps relaunch, or the system restarts. It’s a persistence tool, not a controller—you arrange things once, and Stay enforces that memory. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work consistently. It’s effectively abandonware and seems better suited for people who constantly connect and disconnect external monitors.

My Basic Stack

The mysterious and obscure stack I’m using that’s causing me all these issues (/s) is listed below, If you are interested in why I use these apps, click the links.

Fastmail (Display 1, Space 1)
Mona for Mastodon (Display 2, Space 5)
Things 3 (Display 2, Space 5)
Messages (Display 2, Space 5)
Obsidian (Display 1, Space 2)
Firefox (Display 2, Space 6)
Drafts (Display 2, Space 6)
Calibre (Display 1, Space 3)
QSpace Pro (Display 2, Space 7)
Vivaldi (Display 1, Space 4)
Ghostty (Display 2, Space 8)
QuickGPT (Display 2, Space 8)

Background

My career was in educational technology, and I moved from school to school with a MacBook to put out fires and manage networks. I had one 15- or 16-inch display, and that was it. Now that I’m retired and have a desk of my own—complete with two 27-inch displays—I’m trying to create some new habits. As part of that, I’m attempting to use Spaces and Desktops in my workflow for the first time.

On a laptop with a single display, I was in the habit of running every app in full-screen mode and switching back and forth as needed. Now, with all the screen real estate I have, duplicating that workflow feels absolutely wasteful.

I settled on using four desktops per display, for a total of eight. I typically run around a dozen non–menu bar applications at a time, and I change them up depending on what I’m doing. I have one set of apps I use when I’m writing, another set for media management, and a third set for experimenting with automation tools and my self-hosted server.

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January 17, 2026

The File-Sharing Tools I Trust—and Why

When it comes to sharing data from a Mac, there are plenty of scenarios and plenty of methods. Identifying the right tool for the job comes with experience. Whatever method you land on today might not be the best method in a year--and that's OK. Sometimes a system you already know how to use and troubleshoot is better than something new and unproven, no matter how many bells and whistles it has. And then there's the gradual enshittification of tech, where the useful and free tool you once loved slowly becomes expensive and exploitative.

Regardless of circumstances, the criteria most people use to judge these tools in today's tech world are security, speed, and reliability.

My Use Cases

There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution for sharing files.

It depends on the type of data you want to share: an image, a link, a single document, a 20 MB DMG, or an 11 GB MKV video.
The type of device the intended recipient is using.
The sensitivity of the information. There's a big difference between a funny meme and a copy of your tax returns.
How soon the information needs to be available to the recipient.

Scenario 1 -- I have a link or image and I want to share it RIGHT NOW to the iPhone, iPad, Windows laptop, or MacBook my partner is using.

If you're going from one Apple device to another, built-in tools like AirDrop, Messages, or email are all viable options, with AirDrop being the flakiest. That's usually because both sender and recipient need the correct settings, and the recipient has to be savvy enough to know where the received file ended up on their device.

If you're sharing with a Windows or Android user, a cross-platform messaging service like Signal or Telegram can work. For the tech-savvy, LocalSend is a useful app that's cross-platform, free, and powerful, with a few gotchas. It has to be running on both devices, and anyone with a complicated firewall setup may be in for a headache.

Scenario 2 -- I have several documents I want to share with my partner, who will need to download and use them on her MacBook.

When you're at home, there's no need to send the information through the internet. LocalSend is a good option. You can transfer files even if your internet connection is down.

While it's relatively easy to turn on local file sharing for Macs on the same network, it's a best practice to leave that turned off, as it opens up another attack vector for bad actors. If you resort to email, get in the habit of sending files in password-protected ZIP archives. Free tools like Keka can handle that easily. Another easy-to-use and powerful encryption tool is Encrypto.

If it better suits your purpose, most cloud services (iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive) have Finder integration that lets you share links to files. Just make sure you know whether you're sharing a copy of a file or sharing access to the file--there is a difference.

I don't use US-based cloud storage for most of my files. The two services I do use, Koofr and kDrive, both offer sharing through links. Koofr offers lifetime access to 1 TB of storage for $139. kDrive has a 3 TB subscription plan for just €4.99 a month.

Scenario 3 -- I have a collection of documents, images, and links I want to access from my phone, iPad, and Mac, with changes made on one reflecting on the others.

This is where you need a reliable cloud service. iCloud is built in, but results can vary wildly for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes I have folders on two Macs that live about three feet apart, and they'll go days without syncing Desktop and Documents.

If you're tech-savvy, there are self-hosted options like Immich for photos and Nextcloud, a roll-your-own cloud service with many compatible apps and plugins--but did I mention that it's slow?

Scenario 4 -- I have 16,000 books, 150,000 photos, and 32,000 songs I want to continually sync between four computers on the same LAN for reasons that make sense to me.

For giant jobs like this, the champ is Syncthing. The situation I describe above is my real-world use case. I like to manage my images on my relatively fast MacBook, but I sync copies to two ancient iMacs (running Linux) that I use as giant digital photo frames, while also maintaining multiple backups of my photos.

I also manage my ebook collection on my Mac, while syncing it to my self-hosted server so I can use Calibre Weband Audiobookshelf for remote access.

Scenario 5 -- I am traveling and need to get files onto the hard drive of my home computer so I can remote in and do X to those files.

If your cloud service of choice isn't an option--because it's acting flaky, you have space limitations, or for other reasons--using Blip is worth considering. Blip is a free service that can handle large, multi-GB files and resume transfers if they're interrupted. It uses TLS 1.3 for in-transit security.

It's not pure peer-to-peer; your data uses Blip's infrastructure for signaling. I sometimes have problems getting my devices, all signed into the same account, to see each other. Unlike LocalSend, Blip works across the internet, and plenty of people use it without issues.

My other suggestion in this category is Taildrop, the file-sharing protocol between your personal computers on the same Tailscale network. It's as easy as using the share menu on your Mac or mobile device. It's relatively new and still in alpha, but it's free, and I've never had an issue with it.

Scenario 6 -- I need to share a large file with a random internet stranger I may never talk to again.

This is a case where using a shared link from a cloud service or Nextcloud is your best bet. There are also browser-based sharing services that might work. PairDrop works well as a PWA in Safari.

Scenario 7 -- I have a collection of files I want to share with the internet at large and be able to update and change them.

There's no need to buy a domain name or open an account with a hosting service and CDN. Just use GitHub.

I'm no coder, but I've had a GitHub account for ages for several different reasons. It's what I use to share my automation settings for Keyboard Maestro, Hazel, and Better Touch Tool. Using GitHub Desktop, I can move files into a folder on my Mac and sync them to GitHub in just a couple of minutes.

You don't have to understand pull, push, or git to make use of GitHub. Once you have an account, you can also use it as a free backup service for Obsidian or even blogging platforms like Micro.blog.

A Couple of Newcomers

If you're interested in these kinds of apps, there are a couple of new ones worth keeping an eye on.

Zynk -- a new freemium service worth testing.

Send folders, photos, and multi-gig archives
Works across phones, laptops, TVs, and servers
End-to-end encrypted
Resumable transfers
No size limits
Built-in chat and voice
Share via the app or browser links
Preview files in the app before downloading

Droplet -- still in TestFlight. I'll be writing more about this when it's released. Droplet is an app for almost instantly moving files between Macs and iOS devices. It offers a simple drag-and-drop interface that literally takes about 15 seconds to learn.

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January 15, 2026

Tailscale: The Best Free App Most Mac Power Users Aren’t Using

Someone asked me to name the best free app available to Mac users in 2026. I didn’t hesitate before choosing Tailscale.

Tailscale is a VPN, but not in the usual sense. It’s a private, encrypted, identity-based network where your devices recognize each other no matter where they are. It uses WireGuard technology and is often described as a mesh network. The terminology isn’t important. This isn’t the kind of VPN that simply masks your home IP address or anonymizes web traffic.

Tailscale lets you treat a collection of devices in different geographic locations as if they were all in the same building, plugged into the same network and connected to the same switch. In practice, you can link computers in your home, at your office, while staying in a hotel, and even machines belonging to family members. It works across platforms, and all traffic is end-to-end encrypted. You don’t mess with opening ports or exposing your home network to the internet. You don’t have to learn AWS, firewalls, or how to configure TLS certificates. The computers associated with your free Tailscale account are referred to as your Tailnet.

You don’t have to feel like you’re studying for your CCNA whenever you use software that relies on networking. If some of the details sound confusing, that’s fine. Tailscale doesn’t require you to understand subnets, routing, or DNS to be useful. You install it, sign in, and your devices can see each other.

If that sounds confusing, don’t worry. You don’t need to fully understand it to take advantage of the power of this free tool. You just need to learn how to use the Tailscale app, which isn’t overwhelming at all. You don’t have to understand subnets or routing.

One of the most useful features of Tailscale is the concept of an exit node. An exit node is a computer you control that has internet access. When you need to access the internet in a private and protected way from another computer, you can toggle a single switch in Tailscale to route your network traffic through that remote machine, no matter where you are.

I recently vacationed in Central America and relied on hotel Wi-Fi. I didn’t need to enable—or even install—a conventional VPN on my laptop. I simply chose a computer in my home, 2,000 miles away, as my exit node and used it as my gateway to the internet.

If you have a VPN subscription to a service like Nord or Mullvad that’s limited to a small number of devices, you can sometimes work around that limitation by using one of your machines as an exit node. You can even access that exit node from your phone, whether you’re on a cellular network or Wi-Fi. Once connected, all of your traffic appears to the receiving services as if it’s coming from your home computer.

I use a private tracker to download what are commonly referred to as Linux ISOs. That tracker only works when it sees my computer as being connected from the IP address assigned to my home router. If I’m traveling and need access, I just connect through the Tailscale exit node on my self-hosted server and everything works as expected.

There’s also an Apple TV app for Tailscale. I gave my brother, who lives on the opposite side of the country, access to my Tailnet so he can watch regional sports like NCAA basketball that are only broadcast locally.

Tailscale isn’t a replacement for every kind of VPN. It won’t automatically anonymize all your traffic the way a commercial VPN service does, and it doesn’t make unsafe devices magically secure. You still need good passwords, disk encryption, and basic common sense.

What it does exceptionally well is remove friction. It gives your devices a private, encrypted way to find each other without turning you into an amateur network engineer.

Using an iPhone or iPad with an SSH client, I can connect to my home-based Macs and Linux boxes to run scripts, reboot machines, restart services, and transfer files.

Because I can use macOS Screen Sharing, I can also easily access Macs belonging to family members for whom I provide technical support. When I need to remote into their machines, there’s nothing to set up. They don’t have to find or report their IP address to me. I can see everything I need in the Tailscale app.

Another use case for power users is remote backups using rsync. This is especially useful if you follow the 3-2-1 backup model: three copies of your data, on at least two different types of media, in at least two different geographic locations. You can set up a headless Mac or Linux box at a friend’s or relative’s house and sync your important documents and media with a simple script. As far as your computer is concerned, that remote system might as well be sitting right beside it.

A free Tailscale account allows you to add up to 100 devices and assign management access to three users. If you’re setting up computers for family members or friends who aren’t technically proficient, you don’t have to give up one of those seats. You install Tailscale using your account, and they rarely—if ever—have to do anything other than turn their computer on. From there, you can use tools like Keyboard Maestro, Hazel, and other automation utilities to get real work done.

Tailscale is good, solid technology packaged in easy-to-use apps. It still requires sensible password management, like any other tool. You’ll still want a conventional VPN if you need to anonymize traffic from at least one device. But Tailscale removes barriers that once made these kinds of setups the exclusive domain of network engineers—and it does so quietly, reliably, and for free.

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January 14, 2026

Droppy - A Notch App with a Lot to Like

I've tried a variety of notch apps, and I haven't been truly happy with any of them. I'm not sure whether the novelty of the interface is the problem, or if it's the design of the apps I've used that bothers me. I recently installed Droppy, a free and open-source app built entirely with Swift for speed and stability, and I like it more than the other notch apps I've used.

It isn't overloaded with superfluous features, and the features it does have can be toggled on and off easily. It also seems very stable--I haven't encountered any bugs so far.

Utility Replacements

Depending on which features you enable, Droppy can replace several categories of single-purpose apps:

Clipboard Manager -- Toggled off by default, you can enable a clipboard manager that's accessible from the notch interface. If you cut and paste a wide variety of elements all day long, you'll want something more powerful, but for casual use it gets the job done. It has keyboard controls, lets you choose how many items to keep in your history, and includes privacy protections like disabling password storage or excluding entire apps. If you copy an image containing text--whether it's a photo or a screenshot--Droppy can use OCR to extract that text.
Mini Music Player -- The mini music player displays the current track and album art in the notch, with the usual controls for previous and next tracks, play, and pause.
File Shelf -- Droppy lets you drag files in and out of the notch or into a floating window, much like apps such as Dropover, Yoink, and Gladys.

Extensions

Droppy's architecture allows you to add or remove features through extensions. This keeps the bloat down. You won't be faced with menu options for Spotify or Alfred if, like me, you don't use either of those products. The currently available extensions include:

AI background removal
Alfred integration
Adding the Services menu
Spotify integration
Screen capture of UI elements
Window snapping
Voice transcription

Other Features

A heads-up display appears when you use the keyboard controls for brightness and volume. You can also enable an HUD for AirPods if you use them with your Mac.
On my M2 MacBook Air, Droppy uses about as much memory as Apple Notes or Messages--that is to say, not much. It does consume some CPU cycles and power, but it's not going to hog your system resources.
You can choose to have Droppy appear as a notch even on Macs that don't actually have one. Alternatively, you can have it appear as a Dynamic Island to mimic the behavior on the iPhone. The functionality is the same either way.

Other Notch Apps

I tried Notchnook shortly after it came out, and it felt more like a minimally viable product than a finished app--despite its $25 price tag. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

Review of Notchnook

My second choice in this category is Dynamic Lake Pro, which sells for $15.90 on Gumroad. It has a couple of features Droppy doesn't, such as a weather and calendar HUD and notification support. It's updated frequently, and the developer is very responsive to bug reports and user questions.

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January 11, 2026

Image Workflow with Cleanshot X, Clop, Clotski, NameQuick and Hazel

Apps gain new capabilities through updates. Our preferences change, task requirements shift, and workflows evolve right along with them. It pays to periodically reevaluate the tools and methods we rely on. As a writer and blogger, I go through a surprising number of images every day. My goal is simple: images should be optimized for file size, renamed intelligently, and land exactly where I need them for current projects. After 24 hours, they should be archived--still accessible, but no longer cluttering my active workspace.

Start with Downloads

Clotski is a menu bar utility for browsing, tagging, renaming, and editing metadata for images in user-specified folders--most often Downloads, Screenshots, and project folders. Its superpower is the ability to automatically save images from your clipboard to a location you define in the app's settings. In my setup, copied images are saved as JPGs directly into the Downloads folder.

NameQuick Steps In

NameQuick is a powerful automation tool that has improved significantly since I first started using it. Beyond AI-assisted renaming, it can move, tag, add comments to, archive, or trash images based on rules you define.

In my setup, NameQuick evaluates images in Downloads. Screenshots are renamed based on their content and the app that created them, with "Screenshot" appended to the filename. Once renamed, the files are moved into the folder where my current project files live. I use CleanShot X for screenshots for many reasons, but especially for how well it integrates with Raycast, ExtraBar, and CirMenu.

Other images follow a similar path: they're given short, descriptive filenames and moved into the same project folder.

Optimization

There's no reason to work with image files that take up more disk space than necessary. For that reason, I use Clop to automatically optimize every image I work with, unless there's a rare and specific reason not to. Clop watches the project folder and, when a new image appears, runs a process to reduce its file size. Its interface also makes it easy to upload files to cloud services, send images to an editor, compare diffs against existing images, and handle a handful of other related tasks.

Cleanup with Hazel

Most images in this setup exist for an immediate purpose: a blog post or a document I'm actively working on. By the next day, I usually don't need them anymore. To handle that, I use a Hazel rule that moves any file older than 24 hours into an archive folder. From there, another Hazel rule permanently deletes those files after 90 days.

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January 6, 2026

Smart Ways to Pay Less for Mac Software

You don't need wads of disposable income to enjoy new software on a regular basis, and you don't have to rely exclusively on freeware to get useful work done on your Mac. You're the only one who knows what your budget can support. I've been buying independently developed software since before people called them apps--back when you dialed into a local BBS to download shareware from the computer eccentric you met at the last user group meeting. My hometown even had a store in the '90s where you could rent commercial software. This was before Little Snitch mattered, because most home users didn't even have Internet access.

Saving Money Without Being Miserable

Look for alternatives before you buy.
Use AlternativeTo, a site that suggests apps similar to the one you're researching. The listings are rated and reviewed by regular people and clearly labeled as free or paid, open source or proprietary, with links to download or purchase.
Here’s an example using Hazel as the starting point–I got 19 alternative suggestions in seconds.

Cancel free trials immediately.
When you download an app with a free trial from the App Store, cancel the subscription right away. In 99% of cases, you'll still get the full trial period without the risk of forgetting and getting billed. You'll also get a reminder when the trial is ending, giving you time to decide whether the app is worth keeping.
If you do subscribe, yearly plans are almost always cheaper than monthly ones. Be especially wary of weekly pricing. I recently tried a translation app that cost 49 cents for seven days–after that, it jumped to $10.99 per week.

Use software deal sites you trust.
Bookmark a few reliable discount sites and check them regularly. The folks at Bundlehunt are building their own app store (currently in beta) with discounted apps like MacPilot, Menubar X Pro, KeyKeeper, Workspaces 2, and Alarm Clock Pro.
Another solid option is Apps.Deals, where top-shelf apps like Spencer, TextSniper, and ProcessSpy are frequently discounted. All are on sale now.
Buy in November if you can wait.
November is the best month of the year to buy software. In the indie world, offering Black Friday savings has become a tradition with deep discounts. Reddit, GitHub, and tech bloggers usually maintain running lists of deals. With a little patience and research, 40--50% discounts on premium software are common.
Use AppRaven to track prices and freebies.
Appraven is an iOS app that connects you to a community of people who genuinely love software. It tracks current and historical App Store prices across Apple platforms, which makes it easy to tell whether a "sale" is real.
You can get near-instant notifications when paid apps temporarily go free, browse curated user-created lists, and create wish lists that notify you when prices drop. One of my favorite lists to follow is focused on apps that support Apple Shortcuts.
Use educational discounts if you're eligible.
If you have an email address tied to a K--12 or higher-ed institution, there are a lot of legitimate discounts available. There's even an education-only app store called Student App Centre. Apple also offers education pricing on hardware.
Stick to curated sources for free software.
Curated lists reduce the risk of downloading an unvetted GitHub project that turns out to be malware. A few good starting points:
- MacUpdate Search -- recent releases of free Mac apps
- OSS Software -- more technical, but approachable
- thriftmac -- 400+ quality free Mac apps
- Mr. Free Tools -- software and web services
- MacMenuBar -- Recently Added -- one of the best Mac software sites around
- Today on Mac -- thoughtful reviews
- Top Mac Apps -- from the MacUpdater app
- Privacy Tools -- excellent for security and privacy
- Awesome Free Apps on GitHub -- a long list worth exploring carefully

Saving Money the Dumb Way

Don't download cracked or pirated software. It's easy to find sites with massive catalogs of apps, usually delivered at glacial speeds unless you pay for "premium" access (Bitcoin preferred). Even when the apps are recognizable titles, they're often modified in ways that break Gatekeeper, Apple's built-in malware protection.

To compensate, these sites usually provide a mysterious Terminal script you're told to run. None of this is smart. Even if nothing immediately bad happens, you're often left with an app you can't update without breaking it.I don't lose sleep over Adobe's or Microsoft's profits, but stealing a $4.99 app from an independent developer who built something genuinely useful is just low-class.

I also have mixed feelings about asking developers for freebies or discounts. Some--like Sindre Sorhus--openly encourage students and users in low-income countries to reach out, which makes sense. I'm privileged enough not to need that. On the flip side, I regularly get emails from people who assume I'm the developer of an app I reviewed. Most are polite; some are pushy. Decide where you land, and act accordingly.

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January 4, 2026

Some Useful Single Purpose Apps

Complex, multi-purpose apps with a zillion functions can be fun to learn, even if you never quite feel like you've mastered them. Every time I tinker with my Raycast setup or my collection of Keyboard Maestro macros, I get the nagging feeling that I'm not making the best use of those apps. To remedy that feeling, it's refreshing to discover a few simple apps that do one thing well--and that's all. Here are a few I've been tinkering with lately.

Clean Links (Free) -- Although there's a useful Raycast extension to strip tracking info from links on your clipboard, Clean Links--a universal app that also works on iPhones and iPads--offers a bit more functionality. It can show you the URL embedded in any QR code, and it can also generate QR codes you can share or print. It works with Apple Shortcuts for anyone who enjoys a little automation, and it has a robust privacy policy: no ads, no trackers, no telemetry.
Photo Sort ($4.99) -- Try this: open Apple Photos on your Mac. Select an album--or your entire library--and try to sort by file size. I'll wait… As you've probably discovered, that's not a feature Apple offers, for some strange reason. I had some huge (100MB+) TIFF files and a lot of RAW images in my library, and while finding them was possible, it wasn't simple. With Photo Sort, it's as easy as clicking a button to identify the biggest files and start saving iCloud storage. Photo Sort can also identify high-quality images, helping you spot the keepers (in focus, properly exposed, good white balance) and ditch the blurry, dark, out-of-focus junk.
Russet (Free) -- If you want to use agentic AI tools for your calendar and contacts, or extract data from PDFs without having to search manually, check out Russet. It's a well-designed front end for Apple Intelligence (Apple Silicon only) that requires no API keys and no accounts with third-party AI companies. Russet also has a few whimsical touches that are fun to explore in your downtime, including a feature that collaborates with you to create text-based adventures and immersive stories. You can also take advantage of Apple Intelligence writing tools for proofreading and revision, with an additional option to use a biometric lock to keep your work private. Everything Russet does stays on your device. It doesn't require an internet connection.
Float Tube ($2.99) -- If you use Safari with YouTube, you can't natively scroll through comments and watch the video at the same time. Scroll down, and the video disappears. With Float Tube, a Safari extension, a floating picture-in-picture window appears as you scroll, allowing you to keep watching while reading comments and notes. Float Tube will also display the video's subtitles.
Floxtop ($19.99) -- For years, I've used the same organizing structure for my ~/Documents folder. I created a Hazel rule that sorts files by extension, and while I've made it work, I'd never claim it's the most efficient approach. When I'm looking for an image, I don't always know whether it's a JPG or a JPEG. If someone sends me a Word document, I'd better hope I gave it a descriptive name, because otherwise I'm scanning files until something looks familiar. Floxtop offers a better solution. It uses on-device AI to analyze files and group them into related subfolders. I had dozens of PDF receipts, and it sorted them instantly--without my having to create manual rules like I would with Hazel. It recognizes text and images, and it gives you a chance to review everything before applying changes. Sorting a folder with 100 documents goes from 100 tiny decisions to a single step. And I have to say, I really enjoyed interacting with the developer.

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January 3, 2026

A Mostly Free and Open Source App Collection for Image Workflows

Rather than trying to consolidate all the image tools I use into one giant app with hundreds of features, I prefer to use smaller, specialized apps that are single-purpose or that have a small feature set. They are easier to learn, faster to launch, and often maintained by a very experienced developer with years of experience. Here's a collection of such apps that you might find useful.

Toyviewer, My Default App for Opening & Viewing Images

Dating back to the 90s, Toyviewer (free) can open just about any image format you throw at it, including ones that Preview won't touch. You can view images one at a time or use its slide show mode. For simple, one-off edits, ToyViewer can adjust the brightness, contrast, and color tone of images, and perform enhancements, embossing, etc. It does file conversions, and you can also print from it.

ImageOptim, My Go-To for Shrinking File Sizes

ImageOptim (free), a powerful compression app, can be accessed by dropping images on its icon in the dock, through integration with macOS services, or by opening the GUI and dropping a single file or a batch of files into the interface. It is essentially a wrapper for a powerful set of compression tools. It's capable of reducing file sizes by up to 90% with no discernible quality loss. It does its work quickly, even on older Macs. If you are a Qspace user, you can add ImageOptim to the right-click menu. You can recover the original files without losing access to the converted ones.

XnConvert for Batch Image Operations

If you come across a folder of RAW photos, a collection of giant TIFF files, or maybe some PSD files that never got finished in Photoshop, you can use XnConvert (free) to turn them into something manageable and useful all at once. Not only can you batch convert them into a new format, but you can also do resizing, renaming, adjusting colors, applying filters and effects, and editing metadata all in one go.

Digikam for Management

I keep one canonical collection of photos for myself and my wife in the file system of my daily driver that gets synced to other computers, a couple of backup drives, and two cloud services. I still use iCloud for the photos I take with my phone, but just for the sake of convenience in viewing and sharing; I don't try to make it the comprehensive, go-to source for my entire photo library. Digikam (free) is a huge app with more features than Adobe Lightroom. I use it for facial recognition, tagging, filtering, and file management, but it can do a whole lot more. I installed the Linux version on two old 24-inch iMacs just to use them as extra-large digital photo frames.

Immich for Sharing and Remote Access

I use Immich (donationware) in a Docker container that reads the file structure I maintain in Digikam. Using the companion iOS app, I can remotely access my entire photo collection on my phone using its powerful search features, albums, and tags. I can also use its built-in web server with a domain I own to get to my photos from any Internet computer. The Immich developers give you access to the entire feature set right off the bat, but they do ask that you help support the app financially if you continue to use it.

Some Other Useful Tools

Better Finder Attributes ($24.95) - I am relentless about the way I organize my photos. All my file names contain the date the photo was taken. I have digital photos dating back to 1995 that have lived on many, many computers, drives, and servers through the years. Periodically, the EXIF data gets corrupted or missing or overwritten, but I can always fix it with this app.
Better Finder Renamer ($29.95) - This is the most powerful and fastest renaming utility in the Mac world. If you can come up with a renaming concept in your mind, the chances are that you can accomplish it with this app. Like I said, my naming system is at the heart of my whole management workflow. This makes it easy.
Parachute Backup ($4.99) - If you stay in the Apple Photos world, but you want a good backup option, this is the one to use. Remember, iCloud is a syncing service, not a backup service.
Syncthing (free) - If you manage your own photos in your file system like I do, this is the tool to use to sync them in real time to other computers (e.g., a self-hosted server) within your network.
PhotoSweeper ($15) - The fastest and most full-featured duplicate manager for Macs.
PowerPhotos ($39.95) - If you want to use Apple Photos but need features it doesn't provide, this is the tool to get to manage multiple iCloud libraries, to batch edit metadata, to search multiple libraries at once, and to copy and move files between libraries. If you don't use PhotoSweeper, the PowerPhotos duplicate finder is also pretty solid.
Acorn ($19.95) - If you want to do real editing work on images but don't want to buy an 800-page book of instructions or get an Adobe subscription, the app I suggest is Acorn. A two-time Apple award winner, it's a one-time purchase and you get access to extensive online documentation, a user forum, and tech support. The current version is a universal binary compatible with macOS 14 and 15, but earlier versions can still be downloaded.

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December 31, 2025

ExtraBar is the App of My Dreams

ExtraBar is a new app from the developers at AppItStudio. That's the same team behind ExtraDock and DockFlow, two useful additions to my toolbox in 2025. ExtraBar is one of those apps that solves a problem I didn't realize I had. My Mac's menu bar is cluttered with icons from (don't hate) 40 different apps. Traditionally, the way to tame that was by using Bartender, Ice, or some other menu bar manager. Apple, in an attempt to Sherlock those apps, introduced a few menu bar management tools in macOS 26. In doing so, it changed the back end for utility developers, and it's been a scramble for months for a lot of folks to find something that works the way they want it to.

Enter ExtraBar. It doesn't try to mimic the old menu bar management paradigm. It provides users a way to perform a huge number of actions by allowing them to associate their favorite use cases with menu bar items that can be hidden until needed or left permanently on display. The entire interface is accessible through keyboard shortcuts. Everything I describe below can be done without using a mouse.

Keyboard Maestro In my first day of use, I was able to eliminate the native Keyboard Maestro menu item, which I use multiple times a day, by creating a custom Keyboard Maestro action list with ExtraBar.

Apple Shortcuts There are several apps and a native way to activate Apple Shortcuts from the menu bar, but now I can do that from ExtraBar. This means I can build my own launcher for individual apps. I can batch open groups of apps, documents, and websites easily too.

Messages and Mail I was able to quickly build a menu bar action list that opens Apple Messages to a specific contact, with the cursor in the message box ready for me to type. The same concept applies to my email client.

Raycast I have installed more Raycast extensions than I can keep up with, and I often get frustrated because I can't remember the correct alias or keyboard shortcut for the function I want. Those days are gone. Now I can make a menu to choose from, ordered in any way I want and containing up to 35 items. Some of the apps I was able to eliminate from my menu bar as a result include Drafts, Fantastical, CleanShot X, and Things 3.

One nice touch about the app is that you can export and import action lists. This has been a useful feature in other automation apps, like Hazel and BetterTouchTool, and I think it will be helpful here too.

There are still a lot of possibilities to explore. I can search Obsidian with an ExtraBar action. I can search my Raindrop bookmarks. I can start and record AI Q&A sessions. I've already submitted a feature request to the developers to allow users to create their own action lists (using shortcuts and deep links) that are associated with workflows and not with single apps. They have a history of responsiveness and frequent updates with their other products, and I expect we will see more of the same with ExtraBar.

Learn more about ExtraBar and by all means, buy a copy (€9.99) at the developer's website.

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December 28, 2025

If You're Itching to Spend that Christmas Cash on Some Software, Here's the Second Megalist and some Free Advice

Paid Mac Apps – Power User Index

If you got some cash or gift cards for Christmas and want to try out some new software, you can try a few of these apps. I've installed and tested them all at some point. The links will take you to a short review with download information. If you find a broken link or an app is no longer viable, let me know and I'll make a quick edit. If you're a developer, drop me a DM and I will be glad to check out your work and possibly feature you on AppAddict if it has some unique features the community would appreciate.

Note - In almost all cases, I've listed the purchase and/or subscription price at the time I reviewed the app. Some have undoubtably changed, so make sure you check the current price before purchasing. None of these are affiliate links, they lead to wherever the developer markets his app. This is my hobby, not my part time job.

🗂 File Management, Backup & Disk Utilities

DaisyDisk — Visual disk usage analyzer for quickly reclaiming storage.
SuperDuper — Reliable disk cloning and bootable backup utility.
Backup Loupe — Inspects Time Machine backups for errors and missing files.
Backup Status — Monitors Time Machine health and backup success.
Parachute Backup — Backup solution designed specifically for iCloud and Photos.
Path Finder — Finder replacement with advanced, multi-pane workflows.
QSpace — Keyboard-driven, multi-pane file manager for power users.

📝 Writing, Notes & Knowledge Management

Drafts — Automation-first text capture and processing environment.
iA Writer — Minimalist writing environment focused on clarity and structure.
EagleFiler — Long-standing personal information manager for local archives.
Thoughts — Inspiration and idea manager for creative thinking.
Quotemarks — Personal quote collection and reference notebook.
Bebop — Lightweight quick-notes app for rapid capture.
Scratchpad — Floating notes app designed for temporary thoughts and fragments.

⚙️ Automation, Launchers & Power Tools

BetterTouchTool — Deep customization and automation for input devices.
PopClip — Contextual text actions available anywhere on the system.
Raycast — Keyboard-driven launcher and automation hub.
Shortery — Automation bridge between macOS events and Shortcuts.

🎨 Media, Images, Audio & Video

CleanShot X — Best-in-class screenshot and screen recording utility.
Acorn — Affordable, capable image editor without subscriptions.
Permute — Simple, powerful media converter for audio, video, and images.
Downie — Video downloader with broad site support.
SoundSource — Advanced per-app audio routing and control.
Swinsian — Music player designed to avoid feature bloat.

🖥 Interface, Window & Workflow Enhancements

Better Display — Advanced control over display scaling and external monitors.
Witch — Multi-featured app and window switcher for keyboard users.
Wins — Window snapping and management utility.

🔐 Security, Privacy & System Protection

EtreCheckPro — Deep system diagnostics and troubleshooting reports for complex Mac issues.
Sensei — System monitoring and maintenance tool aimed at advanced users.
NextDNS — Network-level privacy, tracking, and malware protection with granular controls.
CleanMyMac X — All-in-one cleanup and monitoring suite with notable trade-offs.

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December 27, 2025

Getting the Most from Ebooks, A Mostly Free Workflow

One of my passions over the past few months has been growing and curating my collection of ebooks. I've loved reading longer than I've loved computers, but now I love both and this is how I married the two together. As a Mac and iOS user who also has a self-hosted server, I've tried a lot of different apps in an ongoing effort to craft the best workflow.

Background

I was an Amazon customer for a long time, but in February of 2025, the company decided it would no longer allow customers to download their books as user-maintained files and limited them to access with Internet-connected Amazon-approved devices, and implicitly acknowledged that they could and would remove your access to your purchases at their discretion. Before their deadline arrived, I downloaded a thousand+ ebooks and audiobooks I'd purchased over the years. I removed the digital rights management restrictions from my property. Now I can use whatever device I want. I can convert the books to different formats and I can loan them to friends, just like the physical books I purchase at brick-and-mortar stores.

Getting New Books

You can let your conscience be your guide. I still purchase books sold without DRM from various sources, but I also use:

Library Management

Although some UI snobs don't care for its idiosyncratic interface, I use and love Calibre and its many plugins. I can't think of anything I want it to do that it can't handle. Its killer features include:

Metadata including covers, tags, authors, publishers, series, publication date, format, acquisition date, ratings, and custom fields for user-defined data like read/unread.
Built-in OPDS server for use with third-party apps providing remote access for e-reader software and downloaders.
Easy to craft and save complex queries— e.g., science fiction books about time travel published in the 80s rated 3 stars or above or biographies of rock musicians from England published by Oxford Press.
Import covers and metadata from dozens of sources.
Combine books to make your own omnibus editions.
Create virtual libraries for ease of management. Books can belong to multiple virtual libraries.
Supports a huge number of formats: PUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW, AZW3, DOCX, RTF, TXT, HTML, HTM, ODT, LIT, FB2, PDB, CBZ, CBR, DJVU, CHM, HTMLZ.
Offers format conversion.
Remove DRM via a plugin.

Apple's own Books app lets you import and read only three formats: pub, PDF, and iBook. It chokes on DRM. It also lacks queries beyond a basic search for authors and titles. It is very much geared towards selling you new books from Apple's bookstore. I only use it for backup.

Remote Access

I use an Intel MacBook as a daily driver for ebook management. When I am at home, I can use its built-in web server to browse my library on my iPhone and iPad. For remote access and to share with friends and family, I use Syncthing to keep a mirrored copy of my database on my self-hosted server. I run Calibre-Web a free third-party app in a Docker container that I connected to the Internet with a free Cloudflare zero-trust tunnel. Calibre-Web has a built-in OPDS service that connects to apps like Readest and MapleRead, so that I can do queries, read metadata, and download books on a device from anywhere with Internet connectivity.

Reading

I've been using MapleRead SE($8.99), the edition of the software with the biggest feature set. Other editions don't handle PDFs, and the free edition has a five-book limit. The full-featured edition offers extensive formatting of fonts, themes, and highlights. If you need or want language support, it has good tools for search, lookup, translation, highlighting, notes, and vocabulary lists. You can use text-to-speech to turn any book into a pseudo-audiobook. There are multiple ways to get content into your library, which will sync across platforms.

I am testing a relatively new, free, and open-source ebook app, Readest, an offshoot of the Linux app, Foliate, with a richer set of features and support for more platforms. Readest can do a lot of what MapleRead does, in fact, more in some areas, not so much in others. It supports more formats: EPUB, MOBI, AZW3 (Kindle), FB2, CBZ/CBR (comics), TXT, and PDF. The PDF support is new and has some rough edges. At present, I would not use it as my primary PDF reader if you are dependent on those documents for important work. Readest will sync notes and highlights across devices, but it doesn't handle uploading, so you'll have to do that manually if you want that feature to work as intended. One nice feature is the ability to load two books simultaneously, handy if you are working on your language skills and want to see the same book in different languages at the same time.

Community

Goodreads is the OG of Internet book communities and at its inception created a lot of innovative tools. Today it's owned by Amazon, rarely adds new features and is used for data harvesting and to to steer you towards the walled garden of its billionaire owner. There are plenty of other apps and websites out there for book lovers and I encourage you to find one where you fit in.

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December 26, 2025

A Mega-Collection of Free Apps I've Installed and Tested

If you're running short on cash after Christmas, but you still want to try out some new software, you can try a few of these apps. I've installed and tested them all at some point. The links will take you to a short review with download information. If you find a broken link or an app is no longer free, let me know and I';ll make a quick edit. If you're a developer with a free app, drop me a DM and I will be glad to check out your work and possibly feature you on AppAddict if it has some unique features the community would appreciate.

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December 23, 2025

The My Applications App Might Be the Best 99 Cents I Ever Spent

For the avid app collector there are a few tools available to help catalog and curate the assortment of programs that accumulate over time. You can use Apple's built in system report to get comprehensive information but it's rather dense and not illustrated. You can use an app like Apparency, but then you are limited to a single app at the time. My Applications, available in the app store for 99 cents, serves as both a database and a launcher for your computer.

One feature I love is a snapshot of my app usage for the past 24 hours. Typically, for me it averages around 85 or so, depending on what I am working on. When I write app reviews, I try to mention alternatives, which leads to me opening a half dozen browsers or terminal emulators at a time to look at their features. I am also not shy about running a lot of startup items, so that's always going to jack up my daily total by 30 or so apps.

The My Applications general interface includes a count of the number of apps you have installed, 653 in my case. It breaks the apps down into publishers, for example I have 98 apps from Apple itself and 16 from the wonderful developer Sindre Sorhus. Apparently, many apps don't provide publisher information because I have a lot that are not listed. It also breaks the apps into categories such as utilities, productivity, developer tools, graphics and design etc. The categories, while helpful, are a little too broad for my taste, for example I have 227 labeled as utilities and it seems that could have been further narrowed into categories like disk utilities, archive utilities, etc.

The app interface lets you choose sorting by name or last launched. It tells you how many apps you currently have running and how may you have launched in the past day. If you click on individual apps, you have the option to launch them or to get more information regarding size on disk, location, language localizations, download date and date of last update. A complete permissions report is included. The package contents are listed as is a complete description, apparently from the App store or developer's web site if provided. There are even screen shots provided.

One feature I love is a snapshot of my app usage for the past 24 hours. Typically, for me it averages around 85 or so, depending on what I am working on. When I write app reviews, I try to mention alternatives, which leads to me opening a half dozen browsers or terminal emulators at a time to look at their features. I am also not shy about running a lot of startup items, so that's always going to jack up my daily total by 30 or so apps.

(This is an update from an earlier post)

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December 23, 2025

Getting a New Mac for Christmas? A Few Apps to Help Migrate Your Setup

Macs and Mac applications offer so many customizations that it's impossible to remember them all. Quite frankly, it can be easy to forget what's native and what's the result of a setting you've changed in a background utility. Just fine-tuning which apps open specific file types can be challenging if you have to do it from scratch.

Migration Assistant

I've typically used one of Apple's most powerful and functional apps to migrate my setup from one computer to another - Migration Assistant. These days I use Time Machine on an SSD as my source, and it runs incredibly fast. The drawback is that I accumulate cruft, stuff like the wi-fi password to a job I left six years ago and folders in my ~/Library for apps that I uninstalled when Obama was president -- even though I use App Cleaner and Pear Cleaner to do uninstalls. Still, it's worth the trade-off. The cruft really hurts nothing, and the time spent on setup is minimized.

Homebrew

One of the little-known features of Homebrew, a package manager for macOS, is that you can use it for backup and restore operations. The command brew bundle dump creates a text file you can transfer to a new computer, where you can then run brew bundle to reinstall every single app and package straight from the developer. I have 278 CLI packages and 249 casks (apps), and restoring them all would take just seconds to initiate.

Mackup

This app gave me PTSD when I used it in Sonoma before a major bug was discovered. That bug, having to do with moving configuration files and replacing them with symbolic links, has since been fixed. These days, your dotfiles (configuration files) are sanely copied to your choice of cloud services. You can restore a copy of those files on a new Mac, and you won't have to reconfigure your apps one by one.

Supercharge

Supercharge, a multi-featured app from uber-developer Sindre Sorhus, has a feature on its Tools tab to back up the settings for any or all of the apps on your computer. I have never used the "all" feature, but I've copied settings between Macs many times for specific apps using this utility.

Offloader

Offloader can ease the doubt about whether your files have been uploaded to iCloud or not, because it can be hard to tell sometimes. I keep my ~/Documents and ~/Downloads folders synced with iCloud, and they contain some huge sub-folders. Using Offloader, I can be certain that the files exist in the cloud and not just on my machine.

A Few Tips

If you use cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., you will do better by downloading the files from the cloud than trying to restore a local copy and hoping it syncs with what is online. This is a good opportunity to ditch all the individual cloud service apps and consolidate them all with something like Mountain Duck, a single app that can mount multiple remote servers, selectively or all at once. I use it with the services I already mentioned, plus Koofr, Kdrive, Box, and Nextcloud running on my self-hosted server.
Don't do anything with your old machine for a week while you test everything out, just in case you need to pull something off it.
This is a good time to implement a 3-2-1 backup system: three copies of your data, two different media types, one backup offsite. Some helpful apps to accomplish this are Syncthing, SmartBackup, and a few others, including rsync. For full disk backups, I like SuperDuper.
I prefer Time Machine to third-party backup utilities, but there are a few auxiliary apps that can make Time Machine better: Time Machine Editor for setting custom backup schedules (free), Time Machine Mechanic for checking the health of your backups (free), and Backup Loupe for granular control and selective restores beyond what the native app gives you (paid).

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December 22, 2025

Question for Developers About Updates

Why do some apps not cooperate with updater apps that use Sparkle or Homebrew? Does it cost extra money, or is it more difficult to implement than I am aware of? I've heard that you can't use Homebrew unless your app has a GitHub page with more than 50 stars. Is that true? Why do so many apps that have an option within their built-in updaters to "Automatically update in the future" still insist on asking me if I want to update them? For me, the holy grail is an app that can be set to stay up to date and never require anything else from me. Most browsers can do it.

Staying on top of app updates is a constant struggle for me. I know that I am an edge case with upwards of 600 installed apps, but when testing and reviewing software is your hobby, that's what happens. There isn't a single updater that catches every available app on my box, so I run them all on a rotating schedule: Latest, Updatest, Homebrew, MacUpdater (for 10 more days), and even the one built into CleanMyMac (DO NOT COME AT ME). Even with all of those available, there are still a few apps in my stack that don't cooperate with updater apps.

DynamicLakePro - a notch app with lots of features and two pet peeves. It adds itself to my startup items without permission, and although it has its own updater, it doesn't work with anything else.
Badegeify - An app that adds notification badges to the menu bar for apps like Messages, Slack, Teams, and more. It has a habit of showing up in updater apps as requiring a manual upgrade, but then when you run its built-in updater, it tells you that it's at the latest edition already.
The entire Mac App Store - is just an inconsistent mess. Apps show up in updater apps as having updates available, but when you check them in the MAS GUI, you can't force an update. I typically use the CLI version of the MAS because it's built into Topgrade, but even then, there will often be a discrepancy between version numbers, and the same apps will redownload over and over. I've had this happen with Day One and Duplicate Detective.
Tinker Tool, an OG optimization app that's been around forever, wants to use another app from the same developer to download apps, kind of in the same way that Microsoft Office has its own updater app.

Lest I sound like an ungrateful twat, I want to add that, by and large, most of the developers I've contacted, either as a customer or a blogger, have bent over backwards to be helpful. It can be almost surreal to receive help from people I've read about or listened to on podcasts. I'm extremely appreciative of the people who make the apps that help me get work done. Y'all rock.

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