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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?

#22

Post by afloatboat »

Raycast

- Replaces Spotlight for opening applications

- Replaces Magnet for window management, same features but don’t have to run a separate app now.

- keeps a clipboard history

- allows me to convert colours and units

- integrates with my calendar to show me upcoming meetings, shows them in my menu bar and lets me join them with one click

- allows me to prevent my Mac from sleeping (for certain durations) with caffeinate command

- has a variety of plugins available

Probably forgetting a lot of things I use it for, but even without the premium features I use it all the time.

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

#25

Post by danaris »

LaunchBar, whose primary purpose isn't nearly as necessary since Spotlight mostly took up that functionality (can you tell I've been using it for a while?), but provides both very quick access to a simple calculator, and a pretty robust clipboard manager.

HiDock, which automatically switches my Dock between left-edge (when I'm using my laptop on its own) and bottom-edge (when I have it docked with the much larger screen on my desk).

iStatMenus, which makes it vastly easier to tell when my Bluetooth mice and keyboards need charging.

Fluor, which automatically switches my function keys between their macOS "media/feature key" setting and standard function keys based on app (primarily so I can use them as intended in games like Final Fantasy XIV).

MacPorts, IMO still the superior macOS package manager. I honestly don't know why Homebrew suddenly started getting so much attention several years ago, to the point that many devs don't even appear to know that there is another option, when MacPorts is older and doesn't take over an otherwise highly useful directory (/usr/local; MacPorts uses /opt/local).

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

#28

Post by kcartlidge »

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 better than the Apple options

- SourceTree for source control (not as good as Git Extentions on Windows but more to my tastes than the VS Code plugins, Fork, or GitKraken for example)

- BitWarden as I'm cross-platform so don't want to rely on the Apple Keychain

- Authy for two-factor authentication - not the Google, Microsoft, or similar option as I don't want to be tied to a tech giant account that can get switched off

- PCloud (with encryption and a mapped drive) for the same cross-platform reason, plus again I don't want my backups tied to a tech giant account that can get switched off

- PGAdmin 4 for database management during development

- Keka for handling archives/zips as it usually handles files fine when Apple's archiver won't (eg some EPUBs when renamed to zip)

- Fastmail for being able to manage multiple custom domain emails, aliases, and even nameservers from a single (paid) user account (I'm aware it isn't a Mac app but I do often use Outlook from Office 2019 to access it despite the excellent web site)

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

#29

Post by anVlad11 »

Choosy - is a must for me. It lets you select the browser/profile after clicking on any link or define the rules for opening them. For example, if a link contains a certain domain or it's source application is Slack, it will be opened in Work profile of your browser.

Obsidian - note taking, making presentations for work-related stuff.

iTerm 2 - it's better than default terminal emulator, but i consider moving to Alacritty to see what's so hype about it.

Scroll Reverser - macOS still doesn't know the difference between mouse scrolling and trackpad scrolling.

While i can't recommend Arc browser, i still use it daily. I don't believe it will exist in it's current form in two years, but now it's much more usable than other Chromium-based browsers for me.

I also have a simple shortcut in Siri Shortcuts that calls m1ddc tool to change the external monitor current input between HDMI and DisplayPort.

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