When it comes to file syncing utilities, people have wildly varying
needs. They may have a USB drive with a set of files they need for work
but want to keep a canonical copy of the same files at home. Perhaps
they like to have a full disk clone as a backup or, like me, a regular
copy of an Obsidian vault copied to a cloud service.
If you are a master at the terminal, you might be able to make rsync do everything you
want, since most file syncing utilities are GUIs for rsync with a few
bells and whistles thrown in, but if you are a mere mortal, you probably
want to opt for an app.
Free File Sync is an excellent
choice. It’s backwards compatible on Macs all the way back to OS X 10.10
Yosemite. It’s free, open source and cross-platform with Windows and
Linux. I use it on a Mac (in conjunction with NTFS for Mac) to sync
files between a USB drive and a directory an external NTFS SSD. The
default settings work for many use cases and it’s a breeze to create and
save sync jobs.
The other app I recommend, Sync
Folders Pro, is $8.99 in the App
Store. It has two features that Free File Sync doesn’t have
including a set it and forget it scheduler. I have a Keyboard Maestro macro
that launches Sync Folders Pro every day at 1:59am and closes it five
minutes later. In the interim, a scheduled sync of my Obsidian vault
occurs with a folder on my Google Drive. If you purchase Sync Folders
Pro from the App Store, you can download the Plus edition from the
developers web site at no added charge. This edition gives you the
ability to make full disk clones.
Back in the olden days, lazy vendors of things like security cameras
used to have websites and software that only ran on Internet Explorer
because of a proprietary protocol called Active X. Even today you will
find certain websites developed for Chromium browsers like Chrome, Edge
and Brave that don’t work correctly on Firefox or Safari, which use
other browsing engines. Then you have websites than can run in a
browser, but work (arguably) better in an app: Zoom, Figma, Discord,
Microsoft Teams etc. For web developers and bloggers, the three
different browsing options present a challenge, as web pages can look
different from browser to browser. That’s why Raycast has a command to “open URL
in a different browser.” To help get this madness under control, the
king of open-source software, Sindre Sorhus created the free
but valuable app, Velja.
Once you install Velja and configure it, your links will open where you
want them to. If you’ve created your own progressive web apps with
Safari or Edge or using something like Coherence or Unite for sites like Facebook,
you can create your own rules to open links that way.
If you use an outliner to plan, sketch out ideas or help you write and
you don’t need the bells and whistles required for heavy academic work,
check out Zavala by developer
Maurice Parker. A universal app with offline capability and full iCloud
syncing, Zavala has some features like custom fonts, not found in more
expensive products like Omni Outliner, Cloud
Outliner or Bike.
As more and more people grow tired of corporate controlled social media
they are turning back the clock to the early days of the web and taking
up blogging. There is a growing IndieWeb culture worldwide. Most
blogging platforms like Micro.blog, Bear Blog, Tumblr, Pika and various Word Press iterations have online
editors for use within a web browser in which you can compose your
posts. By and large they are all lacking. You’re locked into using rich
text when you’d rather use Markdown or vice-versa or maybe you’re asked
to code stuff and you’re not a coder. MarsEdit, the blog editor by
Red Sweater software steps in admirably to fill the gap. With MarsEdit
you can choose your writing style, WYSIWYG or different styles of
Markdown. It provides word processing features like search and replace.
If you choose Markdown, you can get previews of rendered text quickly.
The focus is on writing. There’s even a typewriter mode to keep what
you’re typing centered on the screen. There are multiple ways to get
images into your blog posts, including from iOS devices, Apple Photos,
file selection or drag and drop. No Internet access is required to
compose and you can use the built in calendar to schedule posting
whenever you’d like.
Mars Edit works with WordPress, Micro.blog, Tumblr, TypePad, Movable
Type, and any blog that supports a standard MetaWeblog or AtomPub
interface.
A license for MarsEdit will set you back $59.95 or you can get it from
Setapp.
If MarsEdit doesn’t suit your style, other editors to consider are Scrivener
and Ulysses.
There are a lot of options for screenshot utilities on the Mac, from the
built in ability to capture images that’s built in to the OS, to the
full featured freemium app Shottr by
indie developer Electric Endeavors for still images to even more
powerful still and video capture products like SnagIt by
TechSmith. The product I personally use, CleanShot X hits the sweet spot in the
middle. It may be over kill if you just need to screenshot memes for
social media, but if you are a blogger, need screenshots for work
documents or deal with tech support regularly, you should take advantage
of the 30-day money back guarantee and try it out.
CleanShot X has over 50
features, including several new ones in the just released version,
4.7:
Annotation
CleanShot Cloud uploads
Scrolling capture in any app
Screen recording with built-in camera overlay
Background tool (with new and custom background presets)
Text recognition (with automated cursor sizing)
Pin screenshots (and toggle them visible/invisible)
Hide icons and widgets
Self-timer
New Features in version 4.7 include:
Ability to resize screen shots
Cursor automatically resizes to match text found in the image
10 new background gradients wallpapers, as well as custom wallpapers
Saved presets for screenshots
Autoformats text when entered on a screenshot
Hide desktop now hides widgets too
Pinned screenshots can be toggled visible and hidden
CleanShot X is $29 for the current version with one year of updates and
1GB of cloud storage. If you need pro features like availability on
multiple machines, guaranteed perpetual updates, unlimited cloud
storage, custom domain association - a pro version is available for $10
a month, $8 a month if paid annually. CleanShot X is available as part
of SetApp.
If you have a Dropbox
account, even a basic free one, you’d be well served to install Maestral, an open-source Dropbox client
for macOS. It allows you to locate your Dropbox folder wherever you
want, not just in your ~/Library/Cloud Storage folder where Apple wants
to force you to keep your files. Since it’s not an official Dropbox
client, it doesn’t even count against your three-device limit. Having
even a basic Dropbox account can be useful if you use IFTTT, want to avoid
iCloud for any reason or have legacy apps that require Dropbox. Maestral
even allows you to have multiple accounts on the same computer. It has
fine grained controls to dial in selective sync however you want. The
application has been around for a while and is still under active
development. There is documentation available for technical subjects
like symlink compatibility and gitignore files. If you don’t feel
sufficiently challenged in life, Maestral even has a CLI for you to use.
I am not the Dev.
One of my favorite utilities, one I’ve used through several version is
Dropzone 4 from Aptonic. It is a
menubar app that performs a variety of functions. Similar to apps like
Yoink, Unclutter and Dropover, it provides a space to
park files you need to copy elsewhere later. You can also create a grid
of folders where you frequently copy files to have them always available
even if Finder isn’t open. One of my favorite features is shortcut
integration. I use a
shortcut by Jarrod Blundy over at HeyDingus! to upload images to my
blog host (Micro.blog). I get prompted
to provide alt-text and after doing so I get a Markdown link
conveniently copied to my clipboard. Other features include:
• Shorten URLs quickly using TinyURL shortener. Just select a URL to
shorten and press Ctrl+Option+Cmd+S and the shortened URL is
automatically copied to the clipboard. • AirDrop integration lets
you drop files or folders from any app and share them with your other
Macs over the network. • Imgur integration lets you share images
fast and get a link for pasting. • Quickly resize and convert
images between different sizes and formats. • Upload files to
Amazon S3 • Upload files to your FTP server • Upload files to
your Google Drive • Download and install add-on actions that let
you upload to services like Google Drive, YouTube and many others. • Powerful multi-tasking engine allows you to run multiple tasks at
once and track the progress of each one through the in-grid task status
area. • See how tasks are progressing at a glance in the animated
menu item. • Launch Dropzone actions with the newly added keyboard
shortcuts feature • Add applications, folders or actions to your
grid easily by dragging and dropping them on the Add to Grid area. • Develop your own actions using the updated and massively improved
Ruby or Python API
When downloaded from the Aptonic
website the app is $35 for a lifetime license. The same license is
$39 if you get it from the App
Store. If you don’t want to spend that much or just try it out, you
can pay $1.99 per month. If you are a SetApp subscriber, you
are in luck as Dropzone Pro is included in your subscription.
For years, Bean, a free
word processor for macOS has been my go-to when I needed to create a
document with rich text, tables and images. Weighing in at only 8MB, it
starts instantly and places little demands on even my wife’s 10-year-old
machine. It reminds me of Microsoft’s WordPad in a way, only better. The
developer, James Hoover issues regular updates including one as recently
as last month. Hoover has written, “About Bean, some have said, “Why
switch from Word? It has everything that I need!” So, keep using Word; I
used Word for years and was reasonably happy with it. But Word is a big
brute of a program. Sometimes using Word is like going out for lunch and
getting this huge platter of greasy food when all you wanted was
something light, like half a sandwich.” It’s not a Word replacement, but
how often do you need all the bells and whistles?
Bean
natively reads and writes these file formats:
• .rtf format (rich text)
• .rtfd format (rich text with graphics)
• .bean format (identical to .rtfd)
• .txt and plain text (Unicode and legacy)
• .webarchive format (Apple’s web archive format)
Bean
transparently imports and exports these formats:
• .doc format (MS Word ‘97, minus images, margins, and page size)
• .docx format (Word 2007, minus images and some formatting)
• .odt format (OpenDocument, minus images, margins, and page size)
Bean
can export all of the above formats to these formats:
• .html (web page format)
• .pdf
• .doc compatible (with images intact)
Features • Live Word Count • Make Template Documents •
Free-Form Headers and Footers • Page Layout View (Optional 2-Up) • Dark Mode, Alternate Colors • Split-Window Editing • Full
Screen / Focus Mode Editing • Date-Stamped Backups • Find
Panel with Regular Expressions • Word Completion and Dictionary • Inspector for Formatting • Highlighter • Select By Text
Style • Floating Window
YouTube in undeniably a force in the modern world. My 77-year-old father
watches it daily as does my four-year old granddaughter. If you watch
YouTube on a PC running macOS, Windows or Linux, I suggest you do it
with FreeTube. FreeTube is a
privacy lover’s dream, using no trackers and allowing you to subscribe
to your favorite channels without an account. All user data is stored on
your machine and is never sent to or stored on the Internet. The data
for videos is either scraped or obtained through the Invidious API. The
interface is similar to YouTube and easy enough for a child to use.
FreeTube is open source and THERE ARE NO ADS. You can
even download videos using a one-button interface. You can create
playlists and lists of favorites. I honestly do not know why this app
isn’t more well known.
Settings
FreeTube has plenty of settings and you can make the interface as
spartan as you want by turning off different
elements.
Distraction Free
The Sidebar
Sidebar
Video Buttons
There are buttons on each video for the following functions:
If you are an Apple Music subscriber, you know it’s not the best at
letting you know about upcoming new releases. If you are really into
music, you may get your news from social media or the entertainment
press but there is a better way, the MusicHarbor app. This app will scan
your music library to find the artists you listen to and create a list
of upcoming albums you may want to put on your calendar. In some cases,
you may even find recently released albums you weren’t aware of. It is a
versatile app, allowing you to listen to single tracks or whole albums
within its interface. You can use it to find videos that will open and
play in Apple Music. The interface is extremely customizable as is the
search feature. You can add and remove artists at will. The app is so
in tune with my preferences that it let me know about a new Johnny Cash
album, and the Man in Black has been dead over twenty years.
On Macs, the default app for opening disk image files (DMG) is the
native DiskImageMounter.app. You are not limited to using this app,
however, you can use other tools like FastDMG or Keka to mount these disk images, one
of the most common file types for downloaded apps from the Internet. The
app that works best for me is RapiDMG. When you make
RapiDMG your default app for opening disk images, double-clicking on the
file mounts the disk image files, extracts the application contained in
it to the Applications folder, deletes the DMG (if that is your
preference) and then highlights your new installed app in the finder. It
happens fast. If you are really into automation, you can use an app like
Hazel or the built in folder
actions service to automatically process DMGs in your downloads
folder as soon as they are downloaded. RapiDMG is free to try for seven
days, and a lifetime license is a whopping $0.99 in the App
Store. No data is collected about your machine during this process.
The app was last updated seven months ago. The developer is on Twitter
@branchseer
When you need to share a file with someone, or maybe get a file
from you home computer to your work computer, you have a variety of
options depending on your needs and security constraints. You can use
Airdrop between Apple devices. You can upload to a cloud service. You
can use email. There’s another way, and it’s cross platform (macOS, iOS,
Windows, Android), encrypted, fast, free and direct. Using the Blip app, your files are sent directly
to the target device without being uploaded to someone else’s web
server. You can use Blip to send files anywhere there is another device
with the app installed. There are no ads and it’s very fast. There is no
limit on file size, and it works with folders as well as data on
external drives. You can even use it for Final Cut Pro projects.
You can reach the developers at hello@blip.net or on Twitter @blipnet
If you have a lot of date saved in the default Apple Notes app and you
aren’t interested in migrating to Obsidian, Notion, Joplin or Evernote,
you still don’t have to settle for the limited formatting and back
linking options you are provided. ProNotes, a free app, allows you to
use standard Markdown syntax, if you choose to, in order to format your
text.
Markdown
You can also choose to use a floating
toolbar with formatting tools. You can even use slash commands for
titles, headings, code blocks, checklists, numbered lists and even
tables.
Slash Commands
Bi-directional links
macOS Sonoma introduced the ability to link
to other notes. ProNotes
allows you to view all notes linking to the current note via the
Backlinks feature.
It’s universally agreed upon, even by the most rabid of Mac Fanboys,
that Apple has dropped the ball by never providing anything more than
basic clipboard management. You get to have one thing on the clipboard
and when you overwrite it, it’s gone. Thankfully, there a plenty of
alternatives to choose from. I’ve tried many of them and settled on the
one that’s included in the free application launcher, Raycast
along with the CopyQ
extension as my daily driver. The features I want are included:
Can pin frequently used snippets (like my OpenAI API key)
Searchable
Includes copied files
Includes colors
Includes images (you can copy text from within images)
I also have PastePal,
which was my daily driver for a long time. It is buy once and use
forever and has iCloud clipboard syncing with an iOS app.
I own Copy ‘Em which
features sequential copying/single pasting.
I have access to Paste
through Setapp. It’s a great clipboard manager, although without Setapp
is a ridiculous $29.99 a year for the Mac Version. It includes the
iCloud synced iOS app.
I also tried out the free open-source app, Maccy which is lightweight and very fast
but I wanted more features. Other full featured choices include Paste
Queue and Copy Paste
Pro.
In the world of text editors for the Mac there are lot’s of choices. I
come to the decision making process as a non-programmer who occasionally
does some basic scripting with the help of Ai. Visual
Studio Code is the most popular among programmers with an estimated
70% market share. Personally, I don’t care for its non-standard
interface and rarely use it. My go to for tasks of any complexity is the
free version of the venerable BBEDit, a program
whose marketing tagline is “It doesn’t suck.” My most used feature is
the global search and replace across files. I routinely point BBEdit at
directories containing hundreds of text files (usually in Markdown
format) to make changes in my Obsidian vault. It’s also useful to make
changes to plist, xml and opml files. In fact, you can open almost any
file, including huge ones, in BBEdit. It has extensive text
transformation abilities to change case, remove line breaks, etc. It
even has a built-in color wheel to generate codes for CSS.
The battery on my M2 MacBook pro routinely keeps me going more than 14
hours on a single charge. Because replacing batteries is environmentally
disruptive and expensive ($200 or more), I want mine to last as long as
possible. To help me achieve this, I use AlDente Pro, a multifeatured
battery app that starts at login and keeps my battery from exceeding a
70% charge. Li-ion batteries work best and last longest when they are
kept between 20% and 80%. To stay calibrated, they occasionally need to
run a full cycle (once a month or so). AlDente can handle this for me.
Another feature is heat protection. Charging your battery when
temperatures are high can result in damage. High temperatures can happen
because of excessive CPU usage or a demand for rapid charging. Heat
protection guards against this. If I am going to be away from a power
source for a prolonged period of time, I can easily change the app’s
settings to allow me to top off my battery at 100%. For automation fans,
AlDente Pro has a full range of Apple Shortcuts support. Licensing is
three-fold - a free version featuring only charge limiting is available.
A full featured one-year subscription costs $10.43 and a lifetime
license is $21.97. The program is also available on SetApp.
When I have a question I want to run by a LLM, my first stop isn’t my
paid Raycast subscription with
AI. It isn’t even the Google
Gemini Pro that I pay for. It’s not even any of the AI apps I get
with my Setapp subscription. I use a
free shortcut
that anyone can get from Github. When I set
it up, I plugged in my pay as you go API key from OpenAI and in six
months of almost daily use, I’ve spent around $5. I have a hotkey
assigned to launch the shortcut using Keyboard Maestro but
most of the time I just launch it from the menu bar menu Shortcuts
provides. It’s not limited to Mac’s only though. It also works in iOS
and iPadOS. It’s capable of carrying on a running conversation. The
thing I like about it is that it creates a text file in iCloud at
Shortcuts/ChatGPT-log and then a folder named by date and time. The text
document contains information about the tokens you’ve consumed if you
find that information useful. You can choose to configure it to save its
transcripts in Apple Notes if you want to.
The shortcut allows you to create a custom prompt if you want to. It
copies the last response to the clipboard automatically.
I have a MacBook at home running macOS 14.4. It’s on my home network
with Verizon as my ISP. I run Nord VPN 24/7. At a side job, I use a
variety of computers including a PC running Windows 10 22H2. They have a
FortiGate corporate firewall. I have no problem connecting the two
computers using a free utility from Google called Chrome Remote Desktop. With
practically the same functionality as more expensive and harder to
configure applications like Screens or Jump Desktop, I can establish a
password protected connection and control the screen of the remote
computer in either direction. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t even get
Screens, a $79 program to work for me under the same conditions and I do
this stuff for a living. To top it all off, I don’t even use Chrome as
my default browser. I use Microsoft Edge, with which this
extension/utility is fully compatible.
If you need to access a remote computer, perhaps your parents for tech
support reasons, I heartily recommend Chrome Remote Desktop. Before
installing at work, check with your IT department for permission.
There are several companies that offer periodic deals on Mac software at
huge discounts. I put up with emails from these companies just so that I
get notifications when these sales happen. Probably my favorite of these
companies is Bundle
Hunt. I’ve been buying from them for over a decade. In their last
sale, I got a great app, Alarm Clock
Pro, the most full featured clock app I have ever used. It’s a vital
part of my workflow at my day job. Not only does Alarm Clock Pro alert
me at specified times, it also automatically opens a web page to the
time clock website my employer uses so that I can punch in or out as
appropriate.
You can also have Alarm Clock Pro launch apps at specified times, useful
for starting up the file syncing software that backs up my Obsidian
vault every morning at 2am. Other features include multiple world
clocks, a timer, a stopwatch and scheduling of emails and texts. The
alarms can include a custom message in a dialog box or full screen
message, custom audio files or music. It will take a photo from a web
cam or a screenshot at a specified time. It can log you out, sleep or
restart your computer on a schedule. It can even open files and folders
at a specified time.
The downside is the price if you don’t get it on sale. A monthly
subscription is $1.83. A one-time purchase with no upgrades is $29.99
and a lifetime purchase with upgrades is a whopping $119. One upside is
that a license includes both the Mac and Windows version of the program
if you live that cross-platform life. You can also get an App
Store version for $24.99.