AppAddict Newsletter

I have hundreds of contacts and I know almost no phone numbers. My job requires me to gain entrance to numerous rooms secured with keypad combinations. Remembering hotel room numbers is always a challenge. Don’t put a gun to my head and ask me the license plated of my wife’s car. My solution for quickly referencing these little pieces of information regardless of whether my phone or computer is in reach or not is Cheatsheet, a synchronized notes app I that allows me to enter information on my computer or phone that I can easily get to from any device, including my watch, which is a huge help.

With Cheatsheet, I can format notes with rich text if I want and assign one of 200 icons to them for easy visual recognition. I can search my notes within the app or in Spotlight. I can even create new notes with Siri, including type to Siri. Cheatsheet notes can be organized into folders. For security, the app can be protected by a passcode. Both the Mac and the iOS apps can be accessed via the share sheet or in widgets. The Mac also has menu bar access. There is shortcut support for creating, appending to moving and finding cheats. The iOS app featured a custom keyboard for inserting up to 50 different cheats into other applications.

Cheatsheet has been around for over a decade but is frequently updates. The Mac version costs $7.99 in the AppStore. The iOS version comes in a free and a pro version, which is $5.99 a year but it is what provides the ability to:

• Remove limits on the widget, keyboard, and Watch app.
• Protect your cheats with Passcode Lock.
• Organize your cheats with folders.
• Sync your cheats between your devices with iCloud.

If you love the app but hate subscriptions, you can purchase a lifetime license, albeit for the steep price of $69.99

.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I have to tether my laptop to my iPhone, I get nervous about the possibility of some unknown process running in the background and chewing up my data. Even though my mobile provider calls my plan unlimited, I know that there are always gotchas. I tried TripMode a while back, but it was overly complex for my needs, with more settings and options than I wanted to mess with.

I recently found a much simpler menu bar app that I prefer for its simplicity and ease of use. Datacever by developer sameh sayed is an inexpensive app available from the App Store for $6.99. You can allow or deny any app access to the Internet. For the apps you permit access to, you can set data caps. If you don’t want to set a cap, you can still monitor your traffic on a per-app basis. It does exactly what I need and nothing more. The privacy policy states that no data of any type is collected. Your browsing remains private.

If you have ever looked at the DNS logs of your Mac with the browser not running, you know that there are still plenty of apps trying to call home constantly. Control all of that with Datacever and don’t let your data be wasted by needless telemetry,

The command like application, FFmpeg is remarkably powerful but it is also overly complicated for people who don’t use the terminal much or who don’t have the headspace to memorize a bunch of esoteric commands. Thankfully, there are some good front ends. Lossless Cut is one whose main feature is specifically lossless trimming and cutting of video and audio files, which is great for saving space by rough-cutting your large video files taken from a video camera. It is extremely fast, allowing you to trim the video without having a loss of quality caused by having to do (slow) any encoding.

Some Example Lossless Use Cases

• Remove commercials from recorded TV shows
• Remove audio tracks from a file
• Combine audio and video tracks from separate recordings
• Split video into segments to meet social media length limits
• Rotating phone videos that come out the wrong way without actually re-encoding the video

Features

• Extract all tracks from a file (extract video, audio, subtitle, attachments and other tracks from one file into separate files)
• Losslessly rearrange the order of video/audio segments
• Take full-resolution snapshots from videos in JPEG/PNG format (low or high quality)
• Import/export segments: MP4/MKV chapter marks, Text file, YouTube, CSV, CUE, XML (DaVinci, Final Cut Pro) and more
• View FFmpeg last command log so you can modify and re-run recent commands on the command line

Many thanks to Scott Kingery from TechLifeWeb blog for pointing out this gem of a product. It's a good blog to add to your RSS reader for tech tips and leads to new software.

You can download Lossless Cut and get additional information on GitHub.

What about open-source software?" I hear you say. "I'll just review the source code and determine whether it's malicious".

"I would make several points in response to this. The first is: "LOL". Any nontrivial program consists of hundreds of thousands to millions of lines of code, and reviewing any fraction of that in a reasonable period of time is simply impractical. The way you can tell this is that people are constantly finding vulnerabilities in programs, and if it were straightforward to find those vulnerabilities, then we would have found them all"

From - Why it’s hard to trust software, but you mostly have to anyway

I’d say more than 90% of the people who choose FOSS over everything else, don’t have the chops to go to GitHub and look at code to really determine how safe a program is. I use a lot of FOSS and I have nothing but appreciation for the people who develop it, but I don’t think for one minute that it is all somehow safer than any commercial software.

When I was a younger man, I’ll admit to living the pirate life for music and movies. I was around for the original Napster and the birth of BitTorrent. That all came to a screeching halt one weekend when I sat down at my computer and couldn’t connect to the internet. I called tech support, and the stern-sounding lady on the phone told me to go to my computer and read what was on the screen. It basically said, “If I ever download something illegally again, my Internet will be turned off forever.” There was one checkbox, and it just said “OK.” I had to check it to get my Internet back. That was the sudden and dramatic end to my life on the high seas. Since then, I have resisted using a VPN or other methods of accessing content illegally. For one thing it adds a lot of friction and for another, in the streaming age you can get just about anything you want without breaking the bank.

There are legal torrent sites, most notably Archive.org. You can find others with a simple search.

A useful automated too to aid in downloading torrents via an RSS feed is Radarr. It also works on Usenet. Radarr’s features include:

• Adding new movies with a variety of information, such as trailers, ratings, etc.
• Support for major platforms: Windows, Linux, macOS, Raspberry Pi, etc.
• Can watch for better quality of the movies you have and do an automatic upgrade. eg. from DVD to Blu-Ray
• Automatic failed download handling will try another release if one fails
• Manual search so you can pick any release or to see why a release was not downloaded automatically
• Automatically searching for releases as well as RSS Sync
• Automatically importing downloaded movies
• Recognizing Special Editions, Director's Cut, etc.
• Identifying releases with hardcoded subs
• Identifying releases with AKA movie names
• SABnzbd, NZBGet, QBittorrent, Deluge, rTorrent, Transmission, uTorrent, and other download clients are supported and integrated
• Full integration with Kodi and Plex (notifications, library updates)
• Adding metadata such as posters and information for Kodi and others to use
• Advanced customization for profiles, such that Radarr will always download the copy you want

It takes some time and some skill to get Radarr set up correctly, but there are good instructions provided.. There is also extensive documentation..

The easiest way to share files between computers or with other users is through a commercial cloud service like iCloud, Dropbox or Google Drive. The problem with using those services is that your data passes through someone else’s computer. If you are sharing apple pie recipes with your Aunt Sue, that’s not a problem, but if your data is ultra-private documents like financial records, proprietary business information or the like, you should consider a product like Resilio Sync, formerly a commercial product, now free for personal use.

Resilio Sync allows you to sync data between computers and to selectively share files with others. There are clients for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and several NAS configurations. You can “easily send one or more files to multiple recipients without sharing the whole folder or creating a permanent sync connection. Send photos, videos, movies, or any other large file directly to friends. Cloud free.

You can make sure sensitive data stays in your control. Change access permissions at any time using the ‘Advanced Folders’ feature. You can assign ownership to another user, revoke access, or modify read and write permissions on the fly. Sync has built in encryption.

Automatically sync folders to all your devices. Sync photos, videos, music, PDFs, docs or any other file types to/from your mobile phone, laptop, or other storage devices.

Using ‘Selective Sync’ feature, Sync will create placeholder files in your file-system that can be searched locally. Click to download only the files that you need, when you need them, without having to replicate entire folders on every device.

If you have bandwidth issues, you can set limits on download and upload speeds

Because I like checking out new to me software and writing about it, I usually install something new just about every day. Reading r/MacApps and lots of other software discovery sites is how I find new apps. I’ve experimented with several different ways to keep lists of apps I want to check out and here are a few of my favorites.

• Listy - A Private List Manager - this is good for both iOS apps and macOS apps. It tracks whether you've downloaded the app or not and gives you info on the app rating, category and developer as well as a link back to the app store.
• App Wish List & Price Tracker - this free iOS only app hasn't been updated since 2018 but it still works well via the share sheet. It has widgets and notifications for price changes and updates.
• AppRaven - Apps Gone Free (and more) - AppRaven lets you watch apps and developers and gives you notifications based on all kinds of criteria. There is a whole community of app fans using this app, writing reviews and giving folks a heads-up when apps have limited free offers. It has every app in the App Store for all Apple Platforms.
• Things 3 - This popular task management app also has features that serve list making well, including share sheet access, deep links, space for notes and more. If you use it for other things, it makes a good place for an apps wishlist. Works on Mac and iOS.
• App Wishlist Pro - An Apple shortcut that works on iOS and macOS
• Various Notes Apps - The benefit to using a notes app is that it keeps your data centralized, has plenty of space to post multiple links regarding one app (e.g., reviews) and doesn't limit you to just the App Store like some other choices.
  • Obsdian
  • Notesnook
  • Bebop Quick Notes
  • Simplenote
  • Notenik
  • Type
  • Twos

In blogging and in creating instructional documents at work, I go through plenty of screenshots, stock photography and open-source images from the web. In the course of crafting a single blog post, I might use four or five apps.

For screenshots, I use CleanShotX which I call from a keyboard shortcut or the menu bar. It also does annotation. The files are saved to my default screenshot folder that lives on a cloud drive so that I can readily access it from all my computers and devices.

When the file is saved, it activates Clop which optimizes the file size automatically. The optimized file is handed off to Dropover and then an Apple Shortcut (download link) runs that moves the file to another cloud folder, called “Optimized” and which also opens a Dropover shelf so that I can drag the file into place if my current working situation calls for it. Dropover also lets me rename the file, convert to another format and resize the file. I can even open the file in ImageOptim right from the shelf if I want to reduce the file size to a greater extent than Clop performed.

For images other than screenshots, they go straight to my downloads folder, where they get optimized by Clop and then moved to the “Optimized” folder by a shortcut ready for use.

Since I go through numerous images, I don’t want my “Optimized” folder to get bloated, so I use Hazel to move files that are more than one day old. It sorts the files in two ways. Screenshots (which have a special string in the file name)are moved to a “Screenshots-Old” folder. The rest of the image files, which can be jpg, png, svg or webp get sorted by file extension and moved to an archive folder. Hazel does all this based on pre-configured rules, and it all happens automatically.

For images other than screenshots, they go straight to my downloads folder, where they get optimized by Clop and then moved to the “Optimized” folder by a shortcut ready for use.

As multiple monitors become more and more common and as the typical user is much more likely to use a laptop than a desktop, dealing with screen resolutions for different use cases becomes more and more problematic if your Mac is an “everything” device where you game, watch movies and get work done. SwitchResXi s a preference pane utility (with an additional menu bar interface) that has various useful functions for resolution management.

SwitchResX Functions

• Save desktop layouts for any resolution. No more having to rearrange things when connecting a second monitor.
• Automatically switch resolutions when launching any app - useful for games, video players, graphics apps and presentation software like PowerPoint
• Name resolutions according to their purpose (e.g., Gaming, Video, Presentation ) rather than trying to remember esoteric number combinations
• Enables a finer desktop grid than the native Mac grid for more precise arrangements
• Create custom resolutions based on your hardware capabilities

SwitchResX is available from the developer's website and comes with a 10-day free trial. A license for a single computer is $16.00.

I am not the developer. I do not know the developer. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact him directly through the information on his website.

Mac users are notorious for being sticklers for aesthetics. Luckily, customizing the appearance of your device is made easier by various third-party utilities. One of those is Replacicon, an outstanding app that maintains a constantly updating catalog of alternate icons for your installed applications.

The Replacicon interface shows an alphabetic list of your installed apps that you can filter in different ways, showing only the apps in your dock or by permanently hiding apps you don’t want to see listed. It shows you each app’s current and legacy icons, allowing you to hide the current icon if you choose. If you have apps installed outside the default locations, you can add those folders to the ones Replacicon searches.

If you have your own icons for apps, you can import those into Replacicon. You can also use Apple Intelligence to generate new icons if your machine has that capability. The app runs on Intel and Apple Silicon, and on macOS 13 and higher. Your alternate icon selections are maintained across app and OS updates automatically.

Replacicon is a $5.99 one-time purchase from the developer’s website.

I have collected quotes for years. When I’m reading a book, watching a movie or listening to music, if I come across a line I want to remember I write it down. Years ago, the developers at Lickability made an app called Quotebook for iOS that was specifically designed for quote collectors, but it was removed from the App Store in 2016 - although for anyone who still has a copy it is fully functional in iOS 18!

I’ve looked all over for a suitable replacement, and the closest I’ve found is Quotemarks from indy developer Christopher Hale. It is a free app with an IAP just to leave a tip. Quotemarks is great because it lets you import your collection from a CSV file. Anyone who already has a collection is saved from having to manually enter their quotes. The fields you can import include:

• Quote
• Author
• Tag
• Notes
• Date Added

I wish there was a field for the source, but you can use the notes field for that. Of course, you can add new quotes you find one at the time within the app.

Some nice touches with the program include:

• Automatic import of images of well-known authors
• Links to the bios of authors on Wikipedia
• Select the style of quotation marks to use (including none)
• Backup and restore
• Schedule quotes to appear on certain days in a widget
• Use the share sheet to export quotes

Quotemarks is an iOS app that runs in Macs with M-series chips. If you have an Intel Mac you will have to use it on an iPhone or iPad.

If you are looking for quotes to use with the app or for your own personal collection, I have shared my collection on GitHub as either a ZIP file or in individual Markdown notes readable by any text editor or for use in Obsidian.

I am not the developer. I don’t know the developer. if you gave questions or suggestions, you can contact him using the information on his website.

Another good quotes manager is Thoughts

• Inspiration Manager.

I’m a big fan of automation apps for macOS but I’ll admit, even the best ones can have a steep learning curve. If you’ve loaded up at the App Store, you might not even know which app performs a task the best since some of them have overlapping features. You might also have a desire to get into Mac automation but the price of some of the apps makes them an investment rather than a casual purchase. Here is a roundup of information to help veterans and newcomers alike with becoming more productive.

Keyboard Maestro
My Top 10 Keyboard Maestro Macros

Keyboard Maestro Discourse

Hazel
My Favorite Actions for Hazel, the Preeminent File Management Software for the Mac

Noodlesoft Forums

Drafts
8 Use cases for Drafts

Drafts Community

Better Touch Tool
Better Touch Tool Favorites

BetterTouchTool Community

More Automation Tools

• Keyboard Cowboy - Free and Open-Source Automation Software
• Keysmith - A Freemium App to Record Automation Macros With Ease
• Task Til Dawn - A Free Mac Automation App
• Scheduler for Mac - Free Automation Utility
• Connect Your Mac Apps with IFTTT
• Enhance Apple Shortcuts with These Apps

OpenVibe is a social media aggregator for some of the decentralized networks that use Activity Pub, Blockchain and the AT protocol. In this case, that means Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads and Nostr. OpenVibe users can see a consolidated timeline from all four services and when they post, the post is sent to each service. You cal alternatively see the timeline from a single service if you choose.

There are some unique benefits to using OpenVibe.

• If you have a comprehensive list of blocked words and phrases built on a single platform, you can use that list to moderate all the services used in the app.
• For apps that let you make custom moderation lists like Bluesky and Mastodon, you can choose to toggle those lists on or off.
• Not only are your feeds are consolidated, your notifications are too, divided into comments and mentions, follows, reposts and quotes and reactions.
• Your OpenVibe profile consolidates the number of your followers and followed accounts across all networks.
• You can choose the font you want to use with OpenVibe, plus choose light, dark or system for your theme.
• You can search across all four networks at once or any one of them for profile names of the contents of posts.
• Viewing a list of your followers in Bluesky and Mastodon offers you a chance to follow anyone back with a single click.

OpenVibe is an iPadOS app that runs on Mac desktops with Apple Silicon. If you have an Intel Mac, you will have to use it on an iPhone or iPad. You can download it for free from the App Store. There are no ads. The app requires no special macOS permissions and it does not sell user data.

I am not the developer. I don’t know the developer, nor was I asked to write this post. If you have questions or suggestions, use the contact information on the App Store.

For years, Bartender was one of the most highly recommended utility apps in the Mac space. There were many highly complementary recommended reviews in the tech press and from satisfied users. All of that came crashing to a halt in 2024 when the original developer cashed out and sold the app to new owners without anyone immediately disclosing the sale. Because menu mar managers like Bartender require screen recording permissions, security minded users were justifiably alarmed but the tin foil hat brigade lost their minds. All kinds of nefarious plots and schemes were pitched (the commies, spyware, price increases, subscriptions and more). Some people even accused the new owners of counterfeiting messages from the original dev. Telemetry was briefly introduced and then removed, sparking more tin-foil hattery. 

Outside of the Reddit and perpetually online bubble, Bartender remained popular. On Setapp, the subscription app service with 1 million users, it is the number one most downloaded app. The reason for this is simple. Bartender is great, and it has been through several versions. I’ve used it non-stop for over a decade. I have over 40 menu bar apps running most of the time and it manages them without a hitch. The program is under active development and even more features are on the way.

What Makes Bartender So Good

Like other menu bar managers, Bartender allows you to select what is visible on your screen during normal operations. With a click on the Bartender menu, you can see a secondary display of icons, called the Bartender bar, which can also be summoned through a variety of user defined actions. You can also specify that certain icons never appear in either the menu bar or the Bartender bar.

Bartender allows you to make a number of aesthetic changes to the appearance of the menu bar, including borders, colors and corners.

You can create multiple presets containing different configuration of icons if you want to show and hide icons depending on your workflow. Any of those presets can contain groups of icons, basically a submenu. I group all of my cloud services into one of these.

Bartender can automatically load a preset using triggers. The current triggers are:

• Battery - trigger when on battery power or charging, or at a specific level.
• WiFi - trigger when connected/not connected to a WiFi network. Or when connected to a specific network
• Location - trigger when at a specific location.
• Time/Date - schedule when to trigger
• Icon Appearance - useful for icons like VPNs that change appearance when connected

You can choose icon spacing using three categories: normal spacing, small spacing, no spacing.

There is a search feature that lets you bring any of your menu bar icons into view. You can open it from the Bartender menu or from a hotkey.

If you would like to test Bartender, you can get a four week free trial at the app’s website.

If you are still not convinced, but you need a menu bar manager, here are some more options"

• Ice
• HiddenBar
• Barbee
• Vanilla

If you do a lot of file based work on iOS or you need to consistently connect to network and cloud servers from an iPhone or iPad, FileBrowser Professional might be the solution for you. With it, you can connect to the following cloud storage services

• Microsoft OneDrive
• Microsoft OneDrive for Business
• Microsoft SharePoint 2013 or later
• Box.com
• Google Drive (including TeamDrive)
• Dropbox (including Dropbox for Business)
• Backblaze B2
• Amazon S3
• pCloud
• Digital Ocean
• FileBase S3
• iDrive Cloud S3
• Wasabi S3

Additionally you can connect to

• WEBDAV servers
• FTP/FTPS servers
• SFTP server
• External compatible USB devices

FileBrowser Professional provides backup and sync between your device and any file storage option. You can access your Photo Library from within the app. It has a built-in file viewer for Office files, PDFs, images and video allowing you to access the files in place in their network location. You can open and edit files on the network without copying them to your device.

Other features include bookmarks for frequently accessed locations, a history of recently accessed files and batch renaming. You can select groups of files within a folder for different operations.

FileBrowser Professional is $14.99 on the App Store. It works on iPhone and iPad. It is MDM compatible and has custom features for mass deployment.

Zero Duplicates is a free utility that finds and removes duplicate files based on some smart intelligence features. It finds identical files if the content, file extension and file size are the same regardless of the file name. It has built in safeguards which prevent you from using the program to delete all copies of a file. To use it, you specify the directories you want to scan before initiating a scan. It has a function to auto-select all duplicates in a folder; however, this failed to work for me during testing. Deleted files are removed from disk, not sent to the trash. The program does not scan Apple Photo libraries. You need to use other tools for that task.

Within the app, you can preview files and get size, path and file name information. It works with documents, images, videos, audio/music and more.

You can download Zero Duplicates for free on the Mac App Store. For more information, see the developer’s web site.

When I started working in EdTech, instructors were still using transparency based overhead projectors. When interactive white boards arrived, incorporating connected computers for use instead of grease pencils and plastic, it felt like the future, but the high cost of the easily damaged devices coupled with the need for projectors using replaceable bulbs eventually left schools looking for a better alternative, which in most cases is a cheap, large screen television connected via HDMI. Additionally, since 2020, remote meeting software like Zoom, Google Meet and Teams is now used daily in the business world. Presenters who use either of these methodologies need an affordable and dependable tool to assist them with annotation and highlighting. Presentify by Ram Patra fits the bill.

Featured by Apple on three separate occasions, this app with its menu bar interface offers various shapes, colors and gradients, as well as text entry for anything on your display. Even with an app running in full-screen mode, you can toggle Presentify whenever you wish to add an element. If you wish, you can set any element to auto-erase. If you have an iPad connected via Sidecar, Astropad or Duet Display, you can use that as well as Wacom and other drawing tablets. Presentify has a whiteboard mode that you can use independently of other apps. Control of Presentify is achieved through and onscreen palette or keyboard controls.

The other primary feature of Presentify is mouse cursor highlighting, allowing you to change the color, size and opacity of the cursor, which can be used when it is moving or still.

Presentify is a one-time $6.99 purchase in the Mac App Store, with an IAP option to tip the developer. It is also available through Setapp. It’s a well reviewed app that was received positively on Hacker News and Product Hunt.

Glympse

Glympse is a helpful iOS app that allows you to temporarily, safely and securely share your location with anyone who can receive text messages, regardless of platform. The message contains a URL to a map with an icon representing the locale of the sender. Although there is a paid option for organizations and commercial enterprises, the basic application is free and sufficient for the typical user. 

To use Glympse, you use your contacts or enter a phone number, or multiple numbers. There is a space for a short message, e.g., “On the way”.  You choose the length of time to share your location and optionally, your destination. 

You can save numbers and contacts in the Glympse app if you frequently communicate with the same people. For instance, I have my mom and daughter saved in the app since they both live a few hours away. If contacts both have Glympse installed, they can use the app to request that another user share their location. 

Glympse also allows the creation of private groups. “Glympse Private Groups is a feature of the Glympse app that creates a private, invite-only Glympse Group. Members of a Group can share their location to and request the location (within the group) of other members. Any member of the group can see the location of everyone that is actively sharing within the group. They are perfect for sharing with family, carpool, teams, or a group of friends. The Group is private and not accessible by others, unless they are signed in to Glympse, and have received an invite from an existing member.”

Then there are public groups. “Glympse Public Tags is a feature of the Glympse app that allows you to quickly view and share your location with multiple people on a single, shared Glympse map. Anyone who knows your Glympse Public Tag name can view the tag map and add themselves to the map. When you view a tag map, what you are seeing is a map of people who have chosen to join the Glympse Public Tag map.”

I’ve used Glympse for years. I find it simple and easy to use for even technically challenged folks. 

Orange card is a tiny (less than 1MB) free utility, available on the Mac App Store. It has a simple drag and drop (or paste) interface. It’s used to get extended metadata information from the objects you provide it.

• Drives - Drag a Volume (Hard Disk, Solid State Disk, Compact Disk, Digital Video Disk, Network Server, etc.) onto OrangeCard to get detailed information:
• URL - Drop a HTTP or HTTPS URL and OrangeCard will send a HEAD request:
• Files and Photos - For photographs and other file formats with extensive metadata support, OrangeCard provides detailed information about the camera, dates and times, geographic location and more:
• Applications - App bundle info, all the file system attributes and spotlight metadata are displayed on the card when you drag in an application

Orange Card presents you with several small reports to copy out of the program. Choose the one you want

For anyone who collects and shares links regularly, Bridges Link Sharing is a great tool to increase productivity by making the process easier. If you are collecting a list of apps to share on Reddit or links for a blog post, news letter or bibliography, this is a great tool to have.

You can add links to Bridges through the share sheet or the program’s interface. When you save a link, you can accept the default title or create one of your own. Links are saved into folders which are housed in collections for a more granular differentiation. In the Bridges interface, you see a rich preview of the page, its favicon and hero image. It is possible to preview the entire saved page within the app.

When you’re ready to export links, you can do it one at the time or by folder. The export choices are:

• Hyperlink
• Markdown
• JSON
• HTML
• URL

There is also an iOS app for Bridges (priced separately) and all the data resides in a shared secure iCloud folder and syncs between devices. Bridges is $1.99 on the Mac App Store.