Pixelmator Pro proves that powerful Mac image editors don’t need to be complex. The app is designed for ultimate ease of use. It’s the ‘image editor for the rest of us’ who want a native Mac app that’s instantly familiar.

The app includes a refined, single-window design that puts the focus on your work instead of your tools. Pixelmator Pro features a completely nondestructive editing workflow that allows you to experiment, unleashing your creativity with the confidence that you can always revert any changes you make.

Pixelmator Pro has full RAW image support, layers, and advanced photo editing for fine tuning. The app also includes extensive machine learning-based tools that can automatically enhance your photos.

Pixelmator Pro isn’t just for photographers though. Illustrators will love the app for its vector tools and SVG file support, digital painters will appreciate the app’s powerful painting engine and extensive set of dual-texture brushes, and anyone who works with video will enjoy its video templates designed with YouTube and social media in mind.

Best of all, Pixelmator Pro’s features are lightning fast because they’ve been built from the ground up using Apple’s latest technologies like Metal 2, which powers the app’s editing engine. Pixelmator Pro is ready for the upcoming Mac Pro too with full support for multiple GPUs.

To learn more, visit Pixelmator Pro’s website where you’ll find even more details along with terrific tutorials. Then, download the app and start editing your images like a pro.

Our thanks to Pixelmator Pro for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Photomator is the best way to edit your photos across all of your Apple devices. The app works seamlessly across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro with advanced tools to make your photos look their best.

Photomator’s state-of-the-art tools are texture-aware. That lets you preserve details other apps can’t, enhancing highlights and deep shadows while getting exactly the look you want. Photomator also offers selective adjustments to the sky and background elements using AI and a long list of machine learning-powered features that help you get the most from its tools.

If you shoot in RAW, you’re covered with Photomator’s support for over 750 RAW formats, including Apple ProRAW. The app supports LUTs for applying color adjustment presets, too.

Best of all, Photomator’s sophisticated tools don’t come at the expense of simplicity. The app is beautifully designed on every platform to make accessing features easy while focusing on your images. That design makes browsing and managing your photo library a breeze, too.

Of course, all edits made in Photomator are non-destructive so that they can be done at any time. Also, so you know what’s coming next from the Pixelmator team, they maintain a public roadmap of their development plans.

To learn more about Photomator visit their website and download a free trial from the App Store. Photomator is just $7.99/month or $29.99/year. There’s a life-time purchase option, too.

Our thanks to Photomator for sponsoring MacStories this week.

If you haven’t heard of Copilot yet, it’s time to check out Apple’s Editors Choice award-winning money tracker app. Copilot makes it simple to monitor your finances while providing valuable insights.

Their native iPhone and Mac apps can do it all: you can track your spending, budgets, investments, and net worth all in one place, allowing you to drill into the details without losing sight of the big picture.

In the Apple community, Copilot is known for staying in sync with new iOS launches, from responsive widgets to tinted icons ready for iOS18. Beyond beautiful design and functionality, Copilot’s mission is to build a future where everyone has a clear picture of their finances, without all the anxiety. Where anyone can reclaim their data from the banks to build their own plan for achieving their goals — with confidence and trust in their tools for doing so.

Copilot’s new Cash Flow section brings them closer to that vision. It focuses on three key areas: income, spending, and net income. You can easily compare your progress over different time frames to see how your financial habits stack up month-to-month or even week-to-week.

For a limited time, MacStories readers can get a special two-month free trial by using the code MACSTORIES when signing up. Visit their website to learn more and download Copilot from the App Store to get started today.

Our thanks to Copilot for sponsoring MacStories this week.

If you’re a developer building a membership website for a client’s business, you should be using Memberful. It’s the best-in-class membership software used by the biggest creators, publishers, and media companies across the web.

Memberful includes everything you need to get the job done, including:

• Seamless WordPress integration;
• Content protection, enabling your clients to offer exclusive blog posts, videos, and downloadable resources;
• A wide array of customizable membership options, allowing your clients to set up membership tiers, recurring subscriptions, one-time payments, and more;
• Built-in payment processing via Stripe, so check-out is simple, and your clients get paid on time; and
• Full customization, so your Memberful implementation matches your client’s branding

We’ve used Memberful at MacStories since 2015 when we launched Club MacStories. Memberful made setting up the Club easy and has allowed it to grow and offer new perks to members as our needs changed and our business grew. What started as a simple newsletter implementation now includes downloadable content, members-only podcasts, and more.

Memberful also scales gracefully from creators who are just starting to those who already have thousands of members. Regardless of the stage of your client’s business, Memberful’s robust API and webhooks make setting up their website a breeze without writing complex custom code. And, with integrations with popular services like MailChimp and Discord, your clients will have even more ways to engage with their audience. Plus, you’ll get comprehensive analytics and can automate email communications, allowing you to easily adjust your marketing strategy as you go and stay in touch with members.

Help your clients monetize their passion by getting started for free with Memberful. It’s the best way for creators, publishers, and media companies to reach their audiences.

Our thanks to Memberful for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Upgraded offers an easy way to get the MacBook you need right away — and in the future.

Choose a new MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, starting at $36.06 and $52.17 a month, respectively, then upgrade to the latest model every two years.

Interest rates start at 0%, and AppleCare+ is included. See for yourself at getupgraded.com.

Here’s how it works

1. Choose your new MacBook. Select anything from an entry-level Air to a fully-loaded Pro. AppleCare+ is always included.
2. Enjoy low monthly payments. The cost is spread over 36 months, with the option to upgrade after 24 payments.
3. Get upgraded every two years. Select a new MacBook, transfer your data, and send the old one back to Upgraded. They’ll refurbish it and give it a new life, saving you the hassle of selling it yourself.

Don’t want to upgrade? You can continue paying off the remaining 12 months to keep it instead.

Trusted partners

Check if you’re eligible to join without impact to your credit score.

Behind the scenes, Upgraded works with trusted partners to make sure everything runs smoothly.

• The upgrade program is financed through Citizens Pay, the same bank used by Apple for the iPhone Upgrade Program.
• GatorTec, an Apple Premier Partner, ensures fast delivery from Apple warehouses across the country.
• All devices come with AppleCare+, meaning insurance and support are covered by Apple if needed.

Upgraded may be a new name in the States, but they’ve been helping large retailers in Europe create similar programs since 2016 and have already served over 200,000 customers worldwide. Early investors include Y Combinator and OpenAI’s Greg Brockman.

Get upgraded today

With low monthly payments, bundled insurance, and effortless upgrades, Upgraded makes it easy to keep your gear up to date. And MacBooks are just the beginning: The company plans to offer more devices soon. See all available options at getupgraded.com.

Your time is precious. So, instead of spinning your wheels as you look for the next thing to watch, read, play, or do, try Sofa for iPhone, iPad, and soon, the Vision Pro. It lets you be more intentional with your downtime by creating organized lists as you discover new things to try.

Most apps are designed for work. Sofa’s different. It’s built for play, with a focus on making the most of your free time. It’s more organized than a list in Notes, with just enough structure combined with extensive customization options to make it your own.

You can track anything you want in Sofa: apps, books, movies, TV shows, podcasts, YouTube videos, websites, travel ideas, restaurants, and more. The app includes over 100 themes, Shortcuts support, Smart Lists, user-defined ingredients, and more. It’s the sort of flexibility, from the lists you make to how the app looks, feels, and works, that you won’t find anywhere else.

Most of Sofa, including unlimited lists, syncing via iCloud, tracking your activity, and automating with Shortcuts is completely free. But, with a Super Sofa subscription, you can add custom ingredients, Smart Lists, item and list pinning, sticky notes, and more.

So, download Sofa today for free, and be sure to take advantage of a limited-time deal just for MacStories readers, who can get 40% off their first year of a Super Sofa subscription by going to sofahq.com/macstories.

Our thanks to Sofa for sponsoring MacStories this week.

In a perfect world, end users would only work on managed devices with IT-approved apps. But every day, employees use personal devices and unapproved apps that aren’t protected by MDM, IAM, or any other security tool.

There’s a giant gap between the security tools we have and the way we actually work. 1Password calls it the Access-Trust Gap, and they’ve also created the first ever solution to fill it.

1Password Extended Access Management secures every sign-in for every app on every device. It includes the password manager you know and love, and the device trust solution you’ve probably heard of on this podcast, back when it was called Kolide.

1Password Extended Access Management cares about user experience and privacy, which means it can go places other tools can’t–like personal and contractor devices. It ensures that every device is known and healthy, and every login is protected. So stop trying to ban BYOD or Shadow IT, and start protecting them with 1Password Extended Access Management.

Check it out today.

Our thanks to 1Password for sponsoring our WWDC coverage this week.

Raycast makes your Mac better because it’s fast, ergonomic, and reliable. Best of all, though, Raycast comes with powerful tools your Mac should have but didn’t. Plus, it’s extensible, with a rich catalog of extensions built by developers around the world that solve every productivity need you can imagine.

With Raycast, everything is at your fingertips. The app’s searchable clipboard means always having what you need a few keystrokes away. With emoji and gif search tools, Raycast makes it easy to express yourself. Plus, there are tools to perform quick calculations, currency and unit conversions, and a lot more.

And with broad developer support, there are extensions available to:

• Track your flights
• Take notes
• Save tasks
• Search for your files
• Run scripts
• Kick off shortcuts
• Translate text
• and even manage your windows

With Raycast, all of this and more can be accomplished quickly and easily without switching contexts, reducing distractions and speeding up every interaction with your Mac.

Raycast is also the best way to interact with AI. It’s an always-on window into ChatGPT that helps you code, write email messages, automate repetitive tasks, and more.

Raycast is free to download and use, but with annual plans that start at what works out to just $8/month, you can go pro with its AI features, theming, and setup sync across multiple Macs.

Visit Raycast’s website today to learn more, download Raycast for free, and see how its Pro accounts can take your Raycast experience to the next level.

Our thanks to Raycast for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Raycast makes your Mac better because it’s fast, ergonomic, and reliable. Best of all, though, Raycast comes with powerful tools your Mac should have but didn’t. Plus, it’s extensible, with a rich catalog of extensions built by developers around the world that solve every productivity need you can imagine.

With Raycast, everything is at your fingertips. The app’s searchable clipboard means always having what you need a few keystrokes away. With emoji and gif search tools, Raycast makes it easy to express yourself. Plus, there are tools to perform quick calculations, currency and unit conversions, and a lot more.

And with broad developer support, there are extensions available to:

• Track your flights
• Take notes
• Save tasks
• Search for your files
• Run scripts
• Kick off shortcuts
• Translate text
• and even manage your windows

With Raycast, all of this and more can be accomplished quickly and easily without switching contexts, reducing distractions and speeding up every interaction with your Mac.

Raycast is also the best way to interact with AI. It’s an always-on window into ChatGPT that helps you code, write email messages, automate repetitive tasks, and more.

Raycast is free to download and use, but with annual plans that start at what works out to just $8/month, you can go pro with its AI features, theming, and setup sync across multiple Macs.

Visit Raycast’s website today to learn more, download Raycast for free, and see how its Pro accounts can take your Raycast experience to the next level.

Our thanks to Raycast for sponsoring MacStories this week.