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Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

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Re: Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

#171

Post by veidr »

lemonwaterlime wrote: post #168
veidr wrote: post #159

iTerm2[2] and I'm astonished there's less mention of it on this thread (though there is some). That is mainly because I switched mostly to Linux a few years ago, and you'd think the lack of a good terminal app wouldn't be the biggest pain point of switching from Mac to Linux, but it absolutely is. There's no terminal app on Linux even close to as good as iTerm2. [2]: https://iterm2.com/ but it's v3 tho ¯\_(ಠ_ಠ)_/¯

The reason is that there was a recent controversy[0]. Many people have moved to alacritty/kitty/wezterm. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40432446

Huh, seems like one of those "Waffle House now offers CHOCOLATE syrup in addition to cheap maple-flavored syrup, NEVER EATING THERE AGIAN!!" kind of issues.

I noticed the AI feature in the latest update to iTerm2, but it wasn't turned on by default, and I didn't turn it on, so...

¯\\_(ಠ_ಠ)_/¯

Re: Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

#172

Post by jshier »

hi-v-rocknroll wrote: post #104

- LittleSnitch per-application firewall, mostly for selectively granting outbound access but also controls inbound access (In general, you also need the built-in firewall setup and running correctly too.) - BlockBlock, KnockKnock, and RansomWhere, but not LuLu because it caused TCP connections to drop nondeterministically - ScrollReverser to fix standalone mouse scrolling behavior because macOS only has one mouse and…

Latest is a modern, OSS replacement for Bodega (IIUC). https://github.com/mangerlahn/latest

Re: Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

#173

Post by ZeroTalent »

- Arc Browser – a complete game changer in terms of productivity – this app alone is worth switching from Windows/Linux (They have a Windows version, but it's lagging behind, not to mention there's no Android version and sync)

- AeroSpace Window Manager since i got to know it this week (replacing Wins, which replaced free Rectangle)

- Sensei for hardware checks/cleanups

- Yomu for ebooks

- Xnapper for beautiful screenshots for marketing/social media

- Boom 3D for sound enhancement

- ImageOptim for mass optimizing images and removing metadata

- GoLogin for multiple browser profiles/anonymization for work

- IINA for watching video files

I try to be as minimalist as possible with app installations.

Re: Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

#174

Post by iroddis »

__jonas wrote: post #41
iroddis wrote: post #38

Lots of good apps here, but I haven’t seen Shottr, yet. Amazing screenshotting tool, I use it all the time. Fmail2 app for a more native fastmail client is also very nice.

Since the built-in screenshot & screen recording stuff on Mac is already so good, I feel like a third party tool to take screenshots would have to be really amazing for me to consider it instead, I guess the benefits of this one is the annotation stuff?

The annotation tools are really, really good. The colour palette seems well thought out to easily highlight important parts of screenshots. It’s been very helpful when collaborating with people, annotating graphs and logs on the fly.

Re: Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

#175

Post by kstrauser »

veidr wrote: post #171
lemonwaterlime wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason is that there was a recent controversy[0]. Many people have moved to alacritty/kitty/wezterm. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40432446

Huh, seems like one of those "Waffle House now offers CHOCOLATE syrup in addition to cheap maple-flavored syrup, NEVER EATING THERE AGIAN!!" kind of issues. I noticed the AI feature in the latest update to iTerm2, but it wasn't turned on by default, and I didn't turn it on, so... ¯\\_(ಠ_ಠ)_/¯

Nailed it. I thought, “huh, interesting, won’t use it, next item…” and moved on. I was surprised at the firestorm.

Re: Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

#176

Post by kstrauser »

TillE wrote: post #165
yen223 wrote: post #80

I highly recommend reading this list of built-in macOS terminal commands: https://ss64.com/mac/ Some commands I use often: - `pbcopy` and `pbpaste` to copy and paste data via the clipboard - `date -u` to give the date in UTC - `networkQuality` is speedtest but built-in to macOS - `caffeinate` prevents your computer from going to sleep (it's the same as the old Caffeinate program, but built-in now) - `open ...` to ope…

`xattr -cr` is a wonderfully quick way to bypass the security quarantine of unsigned binaries.

So is “right-click => Open” in a Finder window.

Re: Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

#177

Post by kstrauser »

TomMasz wrote: post #156

All these have been mentioned but I can't live without them: - Rectangle - Hazel - iStat Menus - Homebrew - iTerm2 Some others: - One Thing, puts a single task/note/etc. in your menu bar - Übersicht, desktop widgets (uses React) - Be Focused Pro, make using the Pomodoro method a breeze - Informant, shows a selected file's size without using Get Info

I like Be Focused Pro but it’s not end to end encrypted and their privacy policy gives them lots of permission to use your data: https://xwavesoft.com/privacy-policy.html

I switched to Focus.

Re: Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

#178

Post by prometheon1 »

ZeroTalent wrote: post #173

- Arc Browser – a complete game changer in terms of productivity – this app alone is worth switching from Windows/Linux (They have a Windows version, but it's lagging behind, not to mention there's no Android version and sync) - AeroSpace Window Manager since i got to know it this week (replacing Wins, which replaced free Rectangle) - Sensei for hardware checks/cleanups - Yomu for ebooks - Xnapper for beautiful scree…

Could you explain what makes Arc Browser a game changer in terms of productivity?

I use Firefox with a vertical tabs extension and based on the screenshots it looks very similar (also, using Firefox Containers solves the same problem as GoLogin afaict)

Re: Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

#179

Post by antomeie »

Shameless plug here, but, for different reasons, I have to have bluetooth disabled on my iPhone at work, so I can't use AirDrop. Instead, I'm using WireDrop to transfer files via USB. I made the app only for this specific purpose.

[0]: https://wiredrop.app

Re: Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?

#180

Post by girishso »

QuinnyPig wrote: post #51
kcartlidge wrote: post #28

Loads of little things, but you specifically asked for daily use so: - Rectangle for window management (I appreciate you have Magnet and tastes differ) - MarkEdit is an excellent (free) Markdown editor - Highland 2 (not free) for more long-form Markdown writing as it can handle normal Markdown files and feels more polished than similar tools (especially the document map) - VLC as I watch a lot of box sets and it's be…

Authy killed its desktop app, so you've gotta use their iOS version. Personally I switched to 1Password when they pulled that.

I use OTP Auth both iOS and Mac apps available. Pro upgrade is dirt cheap.
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