AppAddict Newsletter

These days, it is not uncommon for someone to have hundreds of open tabs in as browser. I usually run about 40-50 myself. I’ve tried several solutions to quickly find the tab I’m looking for without much success. Since installing Browser Deputy, I’ve been pleased with the way it incorporates into my workflow. I can summon the app with a hotkey and quickly find a tab, a bookmark or an item from my browser history, no matter what app I am in.

Browser Deputy works with the following browsers:

• Safari
• Chrome
• Edge
• Brave
• Firefox
• Vivaldi
• Opera
• Arc

Aside from providing a quick search for browsers, Browser Deputy also lets you perform web searches with various built-in engines or custom ones that you add yourself. I use a custom Google search that removes all the AI crud and provides the good old ten blue links that we once took for granted. It was easy to add to the list.

The other useful feature in Browser Deputy is the ability to search menu commands in whatever open app you happen to be in, not just browsers. It doesn’t give you a heads-up display of the commands like KeyClu, but it will activate any command you search for.

Browser Deputy is available for download from the dev’s website. A three machine license is $11.99.

Mac apps have had rudimentary built-in grammar checkers for a while. Grammarly was the first well-know commercial product to elevate the capabilities of that tool genre, becoming extremely popular with students in particular. Lately, LanguageTool has surged in popularity. It is integrated into many well-known writing apps across multiple platforms, including macOS and iOS.

Professionally, I am tasked with composing Confluence (knowledge base) documents for Jira, the ticketing system my job uses. Personally, I maintain three blogs as a non-monetized blogs as a hobby. I write a lot as a result. I have been using the free version of LanguageTool for a couple of months. It does a better job than the native spell checkers I previously used, and it helps with things like missing commas and omitted words. I took advantage of a Black Friday sale to sign up for a year on the Pro Plan. As a result, the app now has a much larger range of tools for me to use.

LanguageTool has a plugin for Safari, Firefox and Chromium browsers. It has a tool specifically built for Microsoft Office, Google Docs, Apple’s Pages and LibreOffice. For email users, it works with Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird and Gmail. It even has a plugin for Obsidian, where I do most of my writing. On a Mac, it is also optimized for uses in other apps like Messages and Notes. There is a native editor app for Mac users.

Language Tools’s capabilities are sizable.

• Grammar
  • Word order
  • Verb tenses
  • Subject/verb agreement
  • Commas and in-depth punctuation

• Style
  • Repetition
  • Over-used words and phrases
  • Wordiness
  • Foreign terms
• Semantics
  • Lack of clarity
  • Word confusion
  • Double negatives
• Format and Typography
  • Consistency for numbers and letters
  • Spacing
  • Time and date formats
• Spelling
  • Misspelled names and acronyms
  • Casing errors
  • Easy to import your Mac's personal dictionary

LanguageTool works not just with English, but with many other languages as well. It provides detailed stats on what it has done to aid you in writing. You can use a limited feature set or turn on what it calls "picky mode" for more frequent suggestions to strengthen your writing. It does not duplicate what macOS and ChatGPT offer in so far as it does not change the tone of your writing, but it will paraphrase sentences for you.

I am pleased so far with the suggestions I receive from LanguageTool. It definitely makes what I write more polished. It is not a cheap tool. Without the Black Friday discount, it is $5.83 a month, or $70 a year. Casual users can get plenty of benefits from the free plan, while students or more serious writers can benefit from deciding to go pro.

Folder Tidy by Tunabelly Software is a tool anyone can use to perform quick sorts on any giant directories of files that seem overwhelming to tackle manually. It has built in sorting rules for 19 different types of files, including folders. These rules can be toggled on or off, but you cannot edit them. In addition, you can make your own very granular rules. The example they give is representative of the power of the app. “Move all files with the extension “DOCX” that contain the word “invoice” and were last modified in the past year to a folder labeled “Invoices.”

What’s remarkable is the speed at which Folder Tidy operates. It uses macOS technology called Grand Central Dispatch to use all available cores to accomplish the tasks you assign it. In my case, it took about a second to sort and move directories with hundreds of different media files to subfolders on a different drive. I had to do some troubleshooting after it failed to move all the files on the first try. It turns out that my Spotlight database needed to be rebuilt, a problem I’ve had before which also affects some search utilities, like Houdah Spot, that rely on it.

Folder Tidy is not a replacement for Hazel. While it does what it sets out to do quickly and well, it is a file sorting utility that doesn’t have the depth of actions that Hazel does. If you already own Hazel, there is no reason to add Folder Tidy. One other important thing to know is that Folder Tidy is a manual app. It doesn’t watch folders and run action on the enclosed items automatically. 

I paid $2.49 for the app on Black Friday. It is ordinarily $9.99.

It’s time for all the AppAddicts out there to load up during the yearly bargain day called Black Friday. The sites listed below have some repetition, but take a quick look through all of them. Some contain software for specialty roles, like devs, creators and designers.

So far this year, I’ve purchased:

• MacWhisper
• FolderTidy
• Quick Capture - Obsidian
• SubManager
• Fileside

Sales

• Rare Deals and Discounts on Software, Apps & SaaS
• Black Friday - Indie Goodies
• Black Friday WordPress Deals 2024 - wpbfdeals
• Awesome-Black-Friday-Cyber-Monday: Awesome deals on Black Friday: Apps, SaaS, Books, Courses, etc.
• Best Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2024 Deals for Developers & Designers
• SaaS Black Friday 2024
• Awesome-Black-Friday-Cyber-Monday-deals: 🟢 2024 Deals Live - Black Friday & Cyber Monday, Christmas & Holidays Deals for Developers, Techies, & Entrepreneurs,
• Black-Friday-Deals: Black Friday Deals for macOS / iOS Software & Books
• Indie App Sales!
• Discover Launch Deals on Indie Products
• DealHunt - Free Curated Deals with Savings up to 80%
• Black Friday Times, unmissable deals on software, services and more.
• Creator Black Friday Deals

I made my first purchase of the 2024 Black Friday season by purchasing the transcription app, MacWhisper by indy developer Jordi Bruin for 40% off of the usual price of €49.99. This app uses OpenAI’s Whisper technology to transcribe all types of audio files with quickness and accuracy into text.

It requires macOS 14 or higher and works best on Apple Silicon, although it is functional on Intel processors. You can use any type of input device, including your Mac’s built-in microphone. MacWhisper can, if you choose, replace the built-in dictation on your computer. Transcription is done on your device, not on a remote computer. The default output is a .whisper file containing the original audio and the transcribed text, however it has numerous export choices:

• SRT and VTT subtitles
• CSV
• DOTE
• DOCX
• PDF
• Markdown
• HTML

The transcription speed is remarkable, happening up to 30X over real time using metal and GPU technology. Transcripts may be easily searched. Filler words (um, ah, etc.) are automatically removed. You can edit the transcripts to correct spelling of names or other words.

With the Pro version of the program, I get batch transcriptions of multiple files. I can transcribe YouTube video and use my OpenAI key to take advantage of Cloud Transcription and ChatGPT integration. I can take advantage of translation services to convert text into other languages. It also adds a menu bar interface for global transcription and the ability to paste text into other apps.

Students, non-profits and journalists always get 50% off the price by contacting the developer. There is a free version of the app that lacks the AI integration of the Pro version. It is available on Gumroad.

Clotski is a 99 cent menu bar app available in the Mac App Store. Its simple menu lets you designate watched folders where you keep images accessed as part of your workflow, for instance screenshots and downloads. You can view thumbnails of the images, the size is customizable and get info on them which includes name, size, dimensions, creation date, tag, caption and modification date. Tags and captions can be added from with Clotski. The information presented can be customized, and other metadata can be added if you wish. You can open the image with your default app or choose from other compatible apps from an “open with” menu. When viewing the list of images in a folder you can choose a list, grid or gallery view, and you can choose the sort order based on date or file size in ascending or descending order.

One feature that is especially helpful is Clotski’s ability to automatically download any images you copy to the clipboard into a folder you designate. You can set your own naming convention, as well as choosing to save them in either jpg or png formats.

For keyboard warriors, Clotski can be summoned with a custom shortcut, and it can be navigated without the use of a mouse. For further organization, Clotski lets you create collections of photos along with tags and folders. Collections can be accessed from a drop-down menu within the program If desired, you can designate an automatic tag to be applied to images you add to newly collected images. You can use the tags just with Clotski, or you can sync them with the Finder.

While working with images in Clotski, you can copy or drag them into documents on which you are working. Clotski does not have any native editing functionality,

There are many, many notes apps available for Mac users, from simple plain text notebooks to complex PKM managers. I thought I was familiar with the main players, but I just discovered an app with which I was unfamiliar, and I am blown away by its features. The app is Notesnook, and it reminds me very much of Evernote before it was enshittified. It’s a privacy lover’s dream app with features that anyone can love:

• Notes importer
• Automatic 2FA
• End to end encryption
• Mac, web and iOS apps
• Web clipper
• Pro plan is 34% of what Evernote costs and $10 for educational users

Notesnook provides real time syncing for free and paid accounts. The free plan offers plain text exporting and the pro plan lets you export notes to other apps as PDF, Markdown or HTML, unlike Evernote which has a proprietary format. It has unlimited storage and offers unlimited notebooks and tags in the pro plan.

Other notable features include:

• Offline access
• Unlimited devices
• Images and attachments
• Wikilinks
• Three different 2FA options
• Shortcut integration
• RTF and Markdown formatting
• Tables
• Callouts
• Reminders
• Encrypted backups
• Widgets
• Shares extensions
• Mobile web clipper

I will continue to use Obsidian for journaling and as an automated life record, but I'm moving my work notes, serial numbers, financial info and other reference material over to Notesnook.

I looked at the list of the top 25 most downloaded apps as compiled by MacUpdater, who I figure are as good a source as any and drew a few conclusions.

1. VLC
2. Pages
3. AppCleaner
4. Numbers
5. Keynote
6. iMovie
7. The Unarchiver
8. GarageBand
9. Android File Transfer
10. Speedtest
11. Amphetamine
12. Google Chrome
13. Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
14. Microsoft Teams
15. Transmission
16. HandBrake
17. Firefox
18. Microsoft PowerPoint
19. Microsoft Word
20. Microsoft Excel
21. ImageOptim
22. OneDrive
23. Bartender
24. Magnet
25. IINA

Only five of the apps in the list are paid apps. They are  the big three in Microsoft Office, the menu bar manager, Bartender and the window manager, Magnet.

The vendor with the most apps on the list is surprisingly, Microsoft with five.

For it' market share to be as small as it, Firefox must have a higher proportion of Mac users employing it than PC users.

I would wager that VLC’s popularity is due to its longevity and because of enterprise deployments. I know I have been putting it on images in the educational space for as long as I can remember. IINA seems more popular with more knowledgeable users,

Despite all the predictions made about Bartender’s future after the botched handling of its sale, it is the most downloaded paid app in the ecosystem after Microsoft Office.

I have never been a big user of window management tools, and I had no idea Magnet was as popular as it is. It has 165,000 reviews in the App Store and a 4.9 rating.

I find it interesting that the top 25 apps did not include a single notes app, automation tool or clipboard manager. The only messaging app is Microsoft Teams, and I hesitate to say that is its primary function.

The presence of the six-year-old Android File Transfer app is mind-blowing. I suspect this indicates that the download figures are worldwide and include countries where Androids have huge market share.

The high ranking of App Cleaner is good for two reasons - it demonstrates that an app doesn’t have to be updated constantly to be useful (last update was 2023-07-05). It also shows that lots of people believe in doing more than just dragging unwanted apps to the trash.

Although I use a lot of apps that have a menu bar interface, most of them are hidden by Bartender. An app has to be super useful and be something I use frequently to remain visible at all times. The latest addition by Sindre Sorhus, Supercharge is an instant add. It has a great many uses and has replaced other utilities that have narrower focus. More tools are being added regularly, so if you have this app, make sure to install updates as soon as they are released to get new features. I won’t cover them all, just the ones I use personally.

From the Menu Bar

The menu bar icon presents the following option in a drop-down:

• Hide all windows
• Show Desktop
• Quit All Apps
• Hide My Email (opens this buried item in System Settings)
• Private Relay opens this buried item in System Settings)

Tweaks

• Unminimize windows when app becomes active
• Dim icons of hidden apps in the dock
• Create new text file with Option+N
• Open new files after naming
• Auto-adjust column widths in Finder
• Quit an app when closing its last Window (I don't usually like to mimic Micro$oft behavior, but I like this feature)
• When clicking on an active icon in the dock, hide app
• Add to Finder's context menu
  • Copy path
  • Copy file name
  • Image dimensions
  • Make symlink
  • Move to...
  • Copy to...
  • Open in Terminal (for folders)

The ability to make those modifications in the Finder makes it much more powerful.

Shortcuts

• Toggle desktop widgets
• Open Passwords from menu bar
• Hide all windows
• Quit all apps (except menu bar apps)
• Show desktop

I was using the beta feature to close visible notifications which definitely had a beta feel to it, until I discovered that Better Touch Tool's implementation of this feature closes not just visible notifications, but all existing ones. I'm sure Sindre will get this working similarly in future releases.

Tools

I work on an MBA at home and an iMac for work. For apps that don't have iCloud sync, using the export and import settings tool has been extremely useful and has saved me a ton of time. It's also useful when I want to experiment with how an app is set up, allowing me to revert settings if I don't like what I get after changing things around.

You can get a fully functional copy of the app here. The only limitation is a reminder to buy the app every 12 hours, and no automatic updates. All data and settings carry over if you buy it.

I suggest you just go ahead and buy the app. If there was ever an Instabuy, this is it.

When it comes to opening compressed files in just about any format, the most downloaded utility is The Unarchiver from MacPaw. There’s not much you can throw at it that it can’t handle, including old files from StuffIt and DiskDoubler. It can even extract files from some Windows .exe installers. The problem with The UnArchiver is that it does decompression only. If you want to make your own archives, you need another program. Natively, macOS can create ZIP and DMG files but that’s it.

BetterZip 5 from macitbetter is a much more full-featured app, although it isn’t free. It’s $24.95 for use on up to five Macs for personal users. It is also available on Setapp. Better Zip has some pretty cool superpowers:

• Quicklook extension for viewing files inside archives without opening them
• Edit archived files in an external application, and BetterZip can save the changes back and update your archive.
• Open and extract winmail.dat files.
• Open, extract, and modify ePub files.
• Extract images and sounds from PDFs
• AES-256 Encryption, password manager, password generator
• Finder Integration and share menu
• Filtering - only extract certain files from archives
• Integration with Alfred and Hazel

Keka is a perennial favorite of many Mac users. It has a free version on the developer's websiteand a $5 version on the Mac App Store. Keka has compression and decompression tools. Keka can divide large files into multiple parts that will automatically reassemble after decompression. You gain the ability to use 256-bit encryption. You can also take advantage of a drag and drop interface into the Keka main window, or by simply dropping files onto the Keka icon in the dock.

For those who want scripting and a CLI as well as a GUI, Peazip is probably the best bet. A free app, it also has the widest array of security features.

• Offers two-factor authentication
• Opens 200 types of compressed files in the GUI
• Multiple file management features: convert archives, search in archives, bookmarks, tabbed browsing,
• Portable - can be run from a USB or other external drive
• Open Source
• Cross platform (Linus, macOS Windows)

Some Finder alternatives offer compression and decompression, including:

• Commander One
• PathFinder
• Qspace

Markdown documents are written in plain text and generally saved with a .md file extension. Various apps like Obsidian and Bear use Markdown by default. There is a whole ecosystem of tools around the easy-to-use language where you use various keyboard elements to create styles that can be interpreted by browsers and other apps. Markdown lets you add:

• Bold
• Italic
• Quotes
• Lists (numbered, bullets, and checklists)
• Links (to web pages and images)
• Code blocks
• Headers
• Tables

There are different flavors of Markdown, but the most commonly used one is referred to as GitHub-flavored Markdown. As a blogger, I prefer to write in Markdown to format my posts for the web. The free app, MarkEdit uses 100% pure GitHub Markdown. Out of the box. The interface is pretty bare bones, but you can customize the toolbar to use the various tools on selected text. MarkEdit permits the insertion of multiple carats, so you can highlight disconnected blocks of text. MarkEdit is intended to be a minimalist writing tool. It has a good feature set. There isn't any bloat. There are plenty of other editors that have preview, different flavors of Markdown and more. It's just a matter of taste and what your needs are. 

The latest version incorporates Apple’s writing tools, allowing you to use proofreading and AI rewriting tools to change your text. Although I am not personally a fan of AI-generated content, there probably isn’t any harm in letting it make a business email more professional if need be.

MarkEdit does not contain a viewer to show your text with the formatting enforced. I suggest Brett Terpstra’s app Marked 2 if you’re not going to be looking at your content in a browser.

The Recent Items section of the Apple Menu lists your 10 most recently opened documents. There are some apps that let you increase that number, but not by much. At most, you’ll have a couple of days work to refer back to. The app, Recents, will trace you work back by months in some cases.

Recents breaks your workflow down on a per-app basis and provides the most recently used documents for each one, even if the app itself doesn’t have a recent files menu. For example, I use Rapidmg to open disk images. The program normally opens the disk image, moves the contents to my Applications folder, and then dismounts and closes without any intervention from me. There is no menu. Using Recents, I can see a list of the last 15 DMGs I’ve opened, and reopen them at will.

Recents works with a wide variety of apps and file types. In the admittedly confusing file structure we use at work, I often can’t remember the exact path of saved documents, but I know the app I created it with. Using Recents, I can easily find and open what I am looking for in a centralized location. Some of the apps with which I use Recents are:

• Microsoft Office
• Console
• Preview
• PDF Expert
• VLC
• Obsidian (opens vaults, not documents)
• Motrix

The app has a light and dark mode and can be set to mimic your system preferences. Recents can be access three ways:

• From the dock
• From the menu bar
• Hidden and summoned from a hot key

Recents can be downloaded from the developers website. It is a free app.

On most modern Macs, the later Intel builds and all Apple Silicon models, you can boot into recovery mode, access disk utility and download and install a new operating system. Unless you can’t. Then you have a problem. Or, maybe you are experimenting with Open Core Legacy Patcher to install a later version of macOS on a device that doesn’t officially support it. In that case, you are going to need a copy of an OS, preferably bootable, and some sort of media to copy that OS installation onto. You can do the installation through other methods, like target disk mode or various imaging applications too, but they take some know how. The other thing you can use these files for is when experimenting with virtual machines in something like Virtual Box, UTM or VMWare Fusion.

Mist

To get a copy of the firmware and OS you need, I know of no easier method than using Mist, a free app available on GitHub. With Mist, you can get everything from the latest beta, all the way back to Mac OS X 7.5. You can get Intel or Apple Silicon installers, or the universal installers available for macOS Big Sur and later.

Balena Etcher

If you are planning to use an SD card or a USB drive, things work better when you flash the media than when you try to fiddle with partitions and permissions on your own from the command line. Luckily, there is an app for that. It is Balena Etcher, a free app with built-in safeguards to keep you from erasing the wrong drive. Balena Etcher will also create bootable media for Windows and various Linux builds too.

The social media platform, Bluesky, has been getting a lot of press lately as a mass migration from X has taken place over the past two weeks. Bluesky has added nearly five million new users. For any Mac users wanting more than the default web interface, there are a few tools available.

Deck Blue

To mimic the old Tweetdeck experience, Deck Blue is your best bet. Best run as a progressive web app through any browser that supports the feature, Deck Blue offers a customizable multi-column interface. You can set how often you want the page refreshed, and you can hide certain types of posts. For a minimum of $1 a month, you can have up to four feeds and use post scheduling.

Skeets

Skeets is an iPad app that also runs on Macs with Apple silicon. It has more features than any other Bluesky client. Some features require a subscription, $1.99 a month, $17.99 a year.

Features 
• Hold reading position when refreshing
• Edit posts
• Post notifications ($)
• Thread Unroll ($)
• Bookmarks ($)
• Drafts ($)
• Push Notifications filter ($)
• Trends in Search
• In-App Translations
• VoiceOver-friendly
• iOS Shortcuts support
• Actionable Push Notifications
• Alt-Text Generator (for images with text)
• Hide like/repost/comments numbers
• Async video upload
• Search within user profiles
• Shorten user handles
• Low data mode
• Customize main app color ($)

Sky.app

Sky is a free app available on GitHub. It looks very much like the iOS app, but it does add keyboard shortcuts for those that rely on them.

There are certain apps that really should be incorporated into the operating system. One of those is Shareful by Sindre Sorhus. The share menu on the Mac seems like an afterthought when compared to the comparable menu in iOS. Many developers fail to implement the feature in their apps, and Apple itself leaves it purposefully underpowered for some reason. Thankfully, Shareful exists with three supremely useful functions.

Copy

Copy the shared item to the clipboard and so you can quickly paste it into another app. This is my most frequent use case. I have a number of Apple shortcuts that have text output. I use Shareful to copy that output to use in other places. Without Shareful, I'd have to use the text to create a file, then open the file and copy from there. Another useful option is to use this app to copy a screenshot to the clipboard through the share menu.

Save As

Choose a directory to save the shared item to.

Open In

Open the shared item in any app. You can open the current Safari URL in a different browser. In Safari, click the share button, select "Open In…", and then select a browser. There is a Raycast extension that also does this if you are a Raycast user.

Frequent use cases:

• In Photos, use the “Open In” share service to open one or more photos directly in Photoshop.
• Quickly copy content from an app that doesn't normally support copying.
• In Safari, right-click an image, and use the “Open In” share service to open it directly in another app.

Shareful is available on the Mac App Store. If you do not have access to the App Store, you can download a version from the developer's website, although it is not updated as often.

Here’s a list of free software that I’ve tried and liked since the last time I posted a similar collection

• ClipGrab, a free alternative to Downie 
• Air Battery - A Free App to Monitor Battery Levels 
• Keyboard Cowboy - Free and Open-Source Automation Software 
• Try PDF Gear, It's Good, It's Free 
• Topgrade - Upgrade All the Things 
• Activity Watch - Free No Effort Time Tracker 
• XnConvert - Free Batch Image Converter and Editor 
• Noizio - A Background Sound App for Mac 
• Five Free Single Purpose Apps (Dockey, Hyperkey, Hyperduck, Unclack, Cleanup Buddy)
• iTerm - You Don't Have to Be a Developer to Use It 
• The Time Machine Mechanic 
• Neat Download Manager 
• Quitter - A Free Utility That Works 
• Reminders Menu Bar
• Opening Batches of Apps, Documents, Folders and Web Pages 
• A Folder Plugin for Quicklook 
• Notenik - A Well Designed Plain Text Notes Plus App 
• Sherlock - Find Usernames from 400 Different Social Networks 
• Daily - A Dead Simple Free Task Manager 
• The Zen Browser 
• Licensed - A Nice Single Purpose App for Keeping Track of Your Software 
• Gladys - Free Shelf Utility that Syncs With iOS 
• Marta - A Free Dual Pane File Manager 
• Five Free Single Purpose Apps  (Trash Sweep, Speediness, Justatext, Quick Recorder,KeyCastr)
• Deskpad - A Virtual Monitor for Screen Sharing 
• Kiano - A Unique Image Sorter and Viewer for Apple Photos 
• Duplicati - Free Encrypted Offsite Backup for Your Mac 
• Encrypto - Free File Encryption App 
• Good Old Time Machine Editor - A Useful Free Utility 
• Virtual Buddy - Run Mac and Linux VMs with Ease on Apple Silicon for Free 
• Free Startup Manager with Many Options 
• A Different App for Managing Background Items 
• FASA - An App to Copy an Image and Paste It as a File 
• Task Til Dawn - A Free Mac Automation App 
• Three Free Apps for Text and Writing (Nissus Thesaurus, Megawords, Esse)
• Scheduler for Mac - Free Automation Utility 
• A Day With Vivaldi Browser

There’s been a great deal of buzz recently about an iOS only app called Croissant that can post to X, Mastodon and Bluesky all at once. From all reports, it’s a pretty nice app, but it costs $60. There is a free app, Openvibe, that also works on macOS and adds posting to Threads to its ability list, but it’s owned by some crypto bros and that may give some folks pause. I’ve been using a free service/app for a while on my Mac and iOS devices that doesn’t have those drawbacks, plus it adds a lot more services and has a built-in scheduler for up to 10 posts. 

Additionally, if Mastodon is your jam you can get all kinds of info in your account including:

• Recent follows
• Recent unfollows
• Follower info

The name of the app is Fedica, and it is available on the app store. It also has a web interface. The platforms it connects to are:

• Twitter/X
• Instagram
• YouTube
• TinkTok
• Facebook Pages
• Mastodon
• Bluesky
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Threads

You can post polls and threads on platforms that support them, plus you get unlimited drafts to store posts you may want to make later.

There are some paid options geared more towards business owners than individuals that offer scheduling more than 10 posts and getting more frequent reports, but they are expensive, starting at $29.99 a month. For personal use, the free options are fine for most people.

For many, the consumer landscape today includes subscriptions in lots of areas, for news. TV channels, music services and software. Was life better when we all just paid a single cable bill instead of cord cutting? Was it better when you had to pay an upfront price on any software you wanted to use? I don’t know the answer to that. I remember when it cost nearly $300 to get a copy of Microsoft Office with Outlook Included, which didn’t include anything like cloud storage or a free email account. Cable bills got to be well north of $100 a month. These days, you can use Office in about five minutes for less than $10. If you get a good deal and sign up for a full year, you can often get a premium TV subscription for roughly the same amount per month.

Keeping track of all this is challenging though. An old-fashioned spreadsheet might do the trick, but for a polished experience with a few extra bells and whistles, I use an app from Touchbits, Inc. It’s called (wait for it) Subscriptions, and it cost either $1.99 a year or $7.99 for a lifetime purchase ($14.99 for a family license). It is a universal app, so it works on your phone, iPad and on your Mac.

For me, it ticks all the boxes. It lets me categorize each subscription (entertainment, software etc.). I also have the option of using tags for further categorization. It can handle weekly, monthly and annual subscriptions. There is a place for the URL associated with my account information for each sub. You set a renewal date for when the next bill is due and for what amount. There is a reminders option for those due dates. You can select a payment account if you want to track that. The Subscriptions app saves a price history so you can see what changes vendors make over time. Finally, there is also a notes field.

The app has analytics to help you track spending over time and by category. There are several view and sorting options as well. The data syncs via iCloud across all platforms. You can export your data via a CSV. It has a backup and restore feature, but it is a proprietary database file and there doesn’t look there is a way to import data from anywhere. I’ve been using it for nearly a year, and I’ve recommended to lots of people.

If you’ve been online for a long time, you very well may have accounts on dozens of services, including social media platforms. Despite your best attempts at privacy, there may well be old posts floating around that you wouldn’t want associated with you currently. People change over time, and comments that seemed clever when you were a teenager may seem pretty cringe today. There are services out there that offer to clean all that up for you, but they are expensive and require that you turn your credentials over to a third party. Luckily, there is a universal Mac app that can do total or selective removal of your content from 30+ different apps, websites and services. It’s called Redact Privacy. It removes posts, DMs, photos, videos, likes, and other unique content on various social networks. You can delete by keyword, sentiment, content type, and more.

It has a free tier that will :

• Delete unlimited tweets, retweets, and likes from Twitter/X
• Anonymize unlimited Reddit posts and comments
• Delete up to 30 days of content on Discord & Facebook

To access the other services requires a subscription, but paying for a single month for $7.99 should give you adequate time to clean up your posts. Subscribing lets you take advantage of scheduled deletions if for some reason you need that. The app is available on the Mac App Store.

The paid version offers:

• All social media services fully unlocked
• Full access to the automated scheduler
• Deep-scan your posts with the File Importer
• Advanced social media management tools
• Edit and Deletion modes
• Priority, 1:1 support
• Custom text editing options
• Manage entire servers or communities with "Moderator mode"

Included services include:

• Discord
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Anilist
• Reddit
• Linkedin
• Slack
• Imgur
• Letterboxd
• Deviantart
• Disqus
• Gyazo
• Pinterest
• Skype
• Spotify
• Steam
• Github
• Pixiv

As a person who writes a lot for my job and for fun, I have a need to make sure I’m not being to verbose and to make sure that what I’m composing is appropriate for the audience it’s aimed at. I found a simple tool by indy developer Arthur Smith, Text Count, that makes it easy to get character, word and sentence counts and to get a readability score on the Flesch-Kincaid scale. It analyzes sentence length and word length, plus syllable count to assign a score from 1-100 to the text. The higher the score is, the better. Most business communication should fall in the range from 60-70. A low score indicates that you need to simplify what you’ve written.

Another useful element of Text Count is an estimated reading and speaking time. The app does not require you to paste the text anywhere. It analyzes what you copy to the clipboard. For people like me, who do their writing in a text editor instead of something like Microsoft Word, it’s a handy tool.

Some high-end writing apps like iA Writer have some of these tools built in. Obsidian offers a word and character count out of the box, and you can download a plugin for a readability score.

Text Count is $2.99 at Gumroad.