AppAddict

Two Free Apps for Mac OS Installation Ease

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...

November 20th, 2024 Mac Apps

Bluesky Apps for Mac Users

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 BlueTo 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...

November 19th, 2024 Universal Apps

Shareful - A Free App I Use Every Day

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. CopyCopy 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...

November 18th, 2024 Mac Apps

Another Curated Collection of Free Software

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...

November 17th, 2024 Mac Apps

Fedica - Post to Multiple Social Networks at Once, On a Schedule - For Free

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...

November 16th, 2024 Universal Apps

The Best App for Subscription Tracking

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...

November 15th, 2024 Universal Apps

Redact Privacy - An App for Cleaning Up Your Internet Presence

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...

November 14th, 2024 Universal Apps

Text Count - An App for Those Who Write

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....

November 13th, 2024

Search Selected Text with Snapsrch

Snapsrch is a utility that lets you conduct searches on selected text in a convenient popup. Out of the box, it is preconfigured to search Google, Bing, Wiktionary, Google Translate and Wikipedia. Adding other search options is a breeze. I included AllMusic, YouTube, Amazon, Max, DuckDuckGo and Reddit in just a few minutes. I have not included any AI searches in my setup, but they are just as easy to set up. Using it is as easy as selecting the text and opening Snapsrch with a hotkey. If you don't have any text selected, and you invoke the hotkey, you...

November 12th, 2024 Mac Apps

Three Free System Utilities

DeeperIn the spirit of old standbys like Onyx and TinkerTool, Deeper provides a GUI to tweak multiple system settings, including a few I haven't seen before, including: • Make TextEdit open with a new document instead of the file dialog box • Turn off the verification of disk images. I've probably opened 10,000 disk images in my life and I don't remember one failing to verify. I've wasted hours! • Make the "Save As" dialog box open in extended form PesterSimilar to the paid app, Due, this alarm/timer app will keep reminding you to do something until you kill it....

November 11th, 2024 Mac Apps

Connect Your Mac Apps with IFTTT

As a Mac automation fan, I make use of apps most people are familiar with, like Keyboard Maestro, Hazel and Better Touch Tool. Since 2010, however, I have also used a web service to connect a wide variety of websites (including Reddit) and Mac apps in a number of ways. That service is IFTTT (If This Then That) and it offers over 2000 integrations with apps and web services many of then Mac compatible. Here are some of the ways I use IFTTT with Mac Apps Create Day One Journal Entries• Social media posts from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter • Liked...

November 10th, 2024 Universal Apps

A Day With Vivaldi Browser

I decided to be open-minded and spend some time with a new browser for a few days after using Microsoft Edge for the last two years for reasons related to my job. The browser I decided to test is Vivaldi and after a day of using it just like I use my normal daily driver here are a few of the things I like. SecurityI've been concerned that the implementation of Manifest 3 browser extensions in Chromium browsers, preventing them from using the full version of uBlock Origin, would be an issue. After turning on Vivaldi's built in tracker, ad...

November 9th, 2024 Universal Apps

Raycast New Notes Feature Available Now

One of the most popular features in Raycast, the extensible keyboard launcher, has been its floating notes feature. Using a quick keyboard shortcut, users have been able to summon a window into which they could type or paste information. Hiding the note and bringing it back was easy, but there wasn't a lot more to it than that. With the recent release of Raycast notes in version 1.8.5, floating notes have been replaced with a new feature. Raycast notes now support markdown. If you know the syntax, great. If not, the notes window has a toolbar where you can select...

November 8th, 2024 Mac Apps

Scheduler for Mac - Free Automation Utility

If you are into Mac automation, you have probably invested in tools like Keyboard Maestro or Shortery which let you launch apps, run scripts, display messages and open documents using certain triggers. If you are new to the platform or don't want to make the investment in a paid program right now, there is a simple and easy to use app for you. Scheduler for Mac can do all the tasks outlined above. It can run AppleScript, shell scripts and python scripts. Scripts can be run as root. Here are a few real world examples of how I use scheduling:...

November 7th, 2024 Mac Apps

Dockside - A New Shelf Utility

There is a new player in the category of apps that includes Yoink, Dropover and Dropshelf. Dockside, from Hachipoo Apps is a shelf utility that uses the space on either side of your dock (if you position it on the bottom of your monitor). For those of use who position our docks on the left or right sides of the screen, Dockside places a couple of landing places at the bottom of the display, hidden until you need them. Dockside creates a shelf for your Downloads folder and the default location you have designated for screenshots. In addition, you specify...

November 6th, 2024 Mac Apps