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Amerpie by Lou Plummer

Working in educational IT since the 90s. Dedicated Mac user trapped in a PC world. Obsidian fanboy. Blogger. Friendly 😊
Obsidian Posts | AppAddict | Living Out Loud | /Now Page | Find Me

Apps

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    Remote Helper for Mac

    Remote Helper
    Remote Helper


    Remote Helper for Mac is the companion for the iOS app, Remote Mouse and Keyboard. When used together, your iOS device can control a Mac, a PC, an Apple TV or an iPad.

    The features include:

    • Control the cursor on a Mac and serve as a virtual mouse to select, double click or right click any element
    • Enter text on a Mac from the iOS keyboard
    • Media controls - mute, pause, volume up, volume down, next track, previous track. Works in multiple apps
    • View your computer screen on your phone
    • Issue system commands from your phone to your Mac - sleep, shut down, restart
    • Launch any app on your Mac from your phone
    • Use Siri on your phone to send commands to your Mac
    • Run custom AppleScripts on your Mac from your phone. An example script is included that opens Netflix in the Chrome browser.

    The Mac app is free to download, but it requires the iOS app to actually do anything. The iOS app has a lifetime purchase. The amount differs depending on where you are. Today in the US, it was $10. There is an option to subscribe on a month by month basis for $1.99 with a seven-day free trial.

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    Four Single Purpose Apps - Cheap/Free


    Cheap and Free Apps
    Cheap and Free Apps


    There's something to be said for apps that do one thing well. Here are a few that I've found lately.

    FNable - If you use your function keys much, you may grow tired of having to toggle them with the FN key. Be default, macOS treats function keys as system controls. This little app allows you to toggle the behavior simply be pressing and holding the FN key for three seconds. You definitely want to find this app on sale though. It is regularly priced at a whopping $25 . It is currently available at Bundlehunt for $1.50.

    Quill - Quill is a menu bar notes app similar to Scrap Paperand Scratchpad with one big difference, you can use images in Quill notes. The notes sync across Macs, but there isn't an iOS app. You can, however, export your Quill notes easily enough if you want to view them on your phone. It is $.99 in the App Store.

    Trace - Trace is a minimalist time tracking app. When you manually start a session of, it records the apps you work on and the time you spend in them. You can pause and resume sessions. It reports the amount of time you spend in each app and other facts, like your most used app. It is a free app. For more detailed automatic reports, try Activity Watch, also free.

    SpaceSaver - With SpaceSaver, you can save the state of your open applications and windows, and easily restore them later. You can have multiple sessions and switch between them with ease. It doesn't have the prettiest interface but what it lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for in function and price - free!

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    Browser Deputy from the Folks at Anybox

    Browser Deputy
    Browser Deputy


    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.

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    Language Tool - Free is Good, Paid is Better, but Expensive

    Language Tool
    Language Tool


    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.

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    Folder Tidy - On Demand Fast Power

    Sorting Rules
    Sorting Rules


    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.

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    Black Friday Software Sales

    Black Friday Software Deals
    Black Friday Software Deals


    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:

    Sales

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    MacWhisper - Transcription Powerhouse

    MacWhisper Interface
    MacWhisper Interface


    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.

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    Clotski - A Clever Tool for Your Image Management Workflow

    Clotski
    Clotski


    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,

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    Notesnook is the Best New App I've Seen in a While

    Notesnook
    Notesnook

    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.

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    The Top 25 Most Downloaded Mac Apps

    Top 25 Apps
    Top 25 Apps


    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.

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    Using Supercharge

    Supercharge Options
    Supercharge Options


    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.

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    Mac Compression Utilities

    Compressed File
    Compressed File


    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:

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    MarkEdit - A Pure Markdown Editor for Free

    MarkEdit in Action
    MarkEdit in Action


    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.

    MarkEdit Settings
    MarkEdit Settings

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    Bluesky Resources, If You're Curious

    Blue_Sky_Logo_Cropped-alpha

    I am by no means an expert on Bluesky. My account is coming up on a year old and I have about 1400 posts on the site, the majority of them from cross posting. Until the great migration happened, I didn't have much real involvement with people there. As someone with an interest in tech, I've stayed abreast of what's happening behind the scenes and out in public. As a compulsive note taker and data hoarder, I've collected some information in the forms of guides and articles that I am happy to share. I'll be adding more and you can bookmark this page to see what gets aded. Also, feel free to send me any links you have to share.

    You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for the collection.

    If you want to connect on Bluesky, I am amerpie.lol.

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    Recents App for Mac - A Free Intelligent File Launcher

    Recents
    Recents


    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.

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    Two Free Apps for Mac OS Installation Ease

    Mist
    Mist


    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.

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    Bluesky Apps for Mac Users

    Deck Blue
    Deck Blue

    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.

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    Shareful - A Free App I Use Every Day

    Shareful
    Shareful

    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.

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    Another Curated Collection of Free Software

    Free Apps
    Free Apps


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

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

    Fedica
    Fedica


    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.

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