Search results for "Must-Have Mac Apps"

My Must-Have Mac Apps, 2018 Edition

Last year when I wrote about my must-have Mac apps, I was coming off a tumultuous year that started with a daily commute into Chicago for my old job and ended with me working from home. As the year came to a close, I was exploring what that meant for the way I work on the Mac.

That process continued into 2018. With the number of new things I took on in 2017 and the transition to indie life, I made the conscious decision to step back and settle into my new life. That wasn’t easy. There’s a natural tendency to take on everything that crosses your path when you go out on your own, but I’ve seen too many people fall into that trap in the past. Instead, I concluded that 2018 would be the year to improve the way I already work by refining existing workflows and reevaluating how I get things done, including on the Mac.

Three events led me to work on my Mac more in 2018. The first was the 27-inch LG 4K display I bought in January. It was a big step up from the 23-inch 1080p one I had before and, combined with a VESA arm, improved working at my Mac substantially.

The second factor was our MacStories coverage of the App Store’s tenth anniversary. For it, we produced seven extra episodes of AppStories that were released in the span of one week, which kept me in front of my Mac recording and editing for long periods of late May through June.

Third, just after WWDC, I destroyed the screen of my iPad Pro thanks to the trunk hinges that invade the interior of the 2016 Honda Accord.1 I decided to hold out for the new iPad Pros, but that meant writing for four of the busiest months at MacStories without a good iOS work solution. I used a current-generation 9.7-inch iPad some, but it couldn’t compete with my LG display.

As 2018 comes to a close, the changes I’ve made haven’t been dramatic despite the extra time I’ve spent in front of my Mac. Instead, I’ve fine-tuned existing workflows and added new apps for specific tasks.

Below, I’ve broken down the 49 apps I use roughly by activity and function. I’ll mention where Apple’s apps fit into my workflow as I go because without them there would be a few big holes in the landscape of apps I use, but the focus of this roundup is on third-party apps, not Apple’s.

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  1. I’m right there with you on this one John. ↩︎

My Must-Have Mac Apps, 2017 Edition

It’s been quite a year. At the start, I was still commuting to Chicago every day to work in a law office full of Windows PCs. Now I work from my home studio surrounded by Apple hardware, moving back and forth from a late-2016 MacBook Pro to iOS devices as I write and talk about apps each day.

When I was commuting, iOS played a central role. I was on the move and used my iPhone and iPad to write for MacStories when I wasn’t practicing law. Now, I have a dedicated workspace where I connect my MacBook Pro to a 4K 27” display and a fast, wired Internet connection.

During 2017, the work I do changed too. Not only did I leave my law job, but in addition to writing at MacStories, Federico and I launched AppStories, and I began selling sponsorships for the site and podcast.

With no commute, a dedicated workspace, and massive change in the work I do each day, how I get work done has changed significantly too. I continue to work on macOS and iOS, but the Mac now plays a bigger role in my workday than ever before. I haven’t abandoned iOS for work, but now, I work on iOS because I want to, not because I need to.

Just over two months into working from home, I’ve begun to reevaluate how I use the Mac. I expect to continue evolving how I work on macOS throughout 2018 as I feel my way around the best ways to be productive. Still, a couple of overarching themes can be seen in my picks below that I expect will continue to guide me in 2018.

First, I primarily use my Mac for work. If I watch a video, read a book or article, or play a game, it’s more likely to happen on iOS, which I expect to continue. The primary exception to that rule is listening to music, which I often do as I work. Second, I don’t like to be limited to macOS. As much as I work on my Mac, I value the option to do things like pick up my iPad to read email messages or grab my iPhone while I’m away from home to make a quick edit to something I’m writing.

With that context, below are 40 Mac apps and a few web services that I used this year and consider my must-have apps, divided into seven categories:

  • Writing
  • Reading and Research
  • Images and Video
  • Podcast Recording and Production
  • Utilities
  • Communications
  • Task Management and Planning

I’ve also included a few awards at the end of the story that highlight some of my favorites among the exceptional group of apps I use every day on my Mac, including an App of the Year.

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My Must-Have Mac Apps, 2013 Edition

Must Have Mac Apps 2013

Must Have Mac Apps 2013

For the past three years, I’ve been running a series called “My Must-Have Mac Apps” that, once a year, would list the apps that I found indispensable on my Mac. This year, considering the changes that I went through from a workflow perspective, I thought it would be appropriate to start focusing on iOS as well. The first installment was about the iPad; today, I’m going to talk about the Mac.

As I wrote when Mavericks was released, I don’t need my Mac as much as I used to. I can do most of my work from iOS (particularly from my iPad mini), but that doesn’t mean that I don’t need a Mac for some tasks or that I’ve stopped using it altogether. I still have to use a few OS X-only apps and tools to get work done – stuff that wouldn’t be possible on an iPad, no matter how hard I try.

I may not be covering new Mac app releases on a weekly basis anymore, but, honestly, 2013 has been the year of iOS 7, with thousands of third-party developers shifting their focus to Apple’s mobile platform in order to update and redesign their apps in time for September. And the fact that Mavericks didn’t bring a radical new design or groundbreaking user features didn’t help either, as developers of Mac apps chose to release updates that focused on under-the-hood improvements and general optimizations.

And yet, in spite of a new design direction and several changes to built-in apps, iOS 7 still doesn’t come with valid alternatives to the stuff OS X is great at: a filesystem with easy management of files that can be opened by multiple apps, precision editing with a cursor, command line utilities, system-wide automation tools, and more. For as much as the iOS ecosystem is maturing and changing at an incredible pace, I haven’t stopped using my Mac and there are some things that can only be done on OS X. And therefore, like every year, I have put together a list of the apps that I consider my must-haves – apps that I install every time I set up my Mac and that I use regularly.

This year, I’ve simplified the list and gotten rid of extra layers for apps that I’m no longer using. You can compare the 2013 list to last year’s one and follow links from there to go back to previous years. You also won’t find last year’s section for price and Mac App Store stats at the bottom: developers often make price changes and release new versions of their apps outside the Mac App Store, so, ultimately, those stats couldn’t be properly contextualized over time.

The list below is organized in four sections: Main, for apps that I use several times every day; Writing, for tools that I employ to research and craft articles for MacStories; and Image & Video Editing, listing apps that allow me to put together screencasts, GIFs, and images for the site. Each app is listed with its App Store/website link and, at the end of the article, you’ll find my Mac app of the year.
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My Must-Have Mac Apps, 2011 Edition

One year after my “Must Have 25 Mac Apps” article, I believe it’s time to revisit that list of software I said I would install every time on a new Mac.

A lot of things have changed since September 2010. For one, Mac apps can now be distributed through the Mac App Store, which has proven to be a feasible and reliable platform for developers to showcase their apps to OS X users. The Mac App Store comes built into Snow Leopard since version 10.6.6, and over the past months we’ve taken a look at different numbers and stats showing how Apple’s youngest storefront is set to fundamentally revolutionize app distribution on desktop computers. But the Mac App Store’s release leads to another change happened in the last 12 months, and that’s Lion.

Originally previewed at the “Back to the Mac” event in October 2010, Lion was publicly released in late July after a round of betas that started becoming available to Mac developers since February. Lion has enabled Apple to bring new features to the Mac App Store such as delta updates for apps and in-app purchases, not to mention the fact that all new Macs sold since July 20 have Lion pre-installed, and thus the Mac App Store. At a developer level, Lion is allowing Objective-C coders and OS X designers to come up with new solutions that take advantage of Apple’s latest technologies such as natural scrolling, push notifications, popover controls, full-screen mode, and Versions. Lion has spawned a new breed of Mac software that it’s just starting to leave a sign in the average consumers’ minds, who are increasingly demanding and looking forward to applications that have been properly enhanced for Lion.

And last, there are new Macs in Apple’s line-up. Since September 2010, Apple has updated all its Mac models (except the Mac Pro) and discontinued the white MacBook, the most obvious victim of Apple’s new crown jewel – the MacBook Air. New Macs come with trackpads specifically geared towards Lion’ multi-touch support, and the new Sandy Bridge CPUs by Intel make the process of booting a Mac, and even switching between applications faster than ever.

In a way, the “September 2011” Apple is both identical and different from the company we were covering last year. But title changes and cloud strategies aside – how does the new Mac ecosystem affect the apps I listed on this site a year ago? Read more

AppStories, Episode 93 – 2019 Themes from Our Must-Have iOS and Mac Apps→

On this week’s episode of AppStories, we discuss the themes that run throughout our 2018 iOS and Mac must-have apps and what they mean for 2019.

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My Must-Have 25 Mac Apps

Over the years I’ve had to mess with many OS X installations, backups, failures and restores. That’s just the usual life of a OS X geek in a place where people are scared of leaving their Windows PCs, but really would like to get a Mac. In fact, I’m quite proud of all those friends of mine I’ve managed to convince to get on the other side, but I’m even more proud of them because now they’re teaching the basics to someone else. This is the usual chain of events in a life of a standard OS X geek.

Having to deal with installations and restores, I’ve come to the point where I know exactly which apps to install depending on what that user needs, and how. A good friend of mine was so used to Firefox I had to bet (I’m serious) that he would like Safari more if only he gave it a chance. But that’s not the main story here. Over the years I created some sort of personal list of the first apps I install on a fresh new Mac every single time, right after the Network preferences are set up and ready to go. This list, which by no means used to exist on a physical side, is now embedded below for future reference (either mine, or my friends’) and you, who may find a couple of hidden gems in there.

It’s not a huge roundup, and it’s not for every one. These are not my favorite apps: these are first 25 Mac applications I install every time I have a fresh OS to play with, and they’re pretty great. You can call them my must-haves. Read more

The MacStories Holiday Gift Guide for the Apple Nerd in Your Life

With Black Friday sales in full swing and the holidays around the corner, we here at MacStories thought we’d each share gift ideas for the Apple nerd in your life. Some of these items are currently on sale, so be sure to get your shopping started and check them out soon.

Federico

UGREEN 300W 48,000mAh Battery

I love this big, chunky battery with a handle.

As I recently mentioned on Unwind and NPC, I’ve been really into the idea of gadgets that are “portable, but for the home” this year. These are accessories that are portable in the sense that they can be moved around, but you wouldn’t commute or travel with them. In this case, I was looking for a powerful battery I could place on my living room table to charge multiple devices at once, such as Silvia’s MacBook Pro and my iPad Pro, or my Legion Go and iPhone. The internal capacity of this battery ensures it can stay on for hours when charging a single device like a Steam Deck, too.

The battery comes with a front-facing display with details about its charge and in/out wattages, and it even offers an LED light on the side for illuminating your environment. Plus, if you have a 140W USB-C charger, filling it up completely doesn’t take too long. This has to be one of my favorite tech purchases this year, and I can’t recommend it enough.

UGREEN Nexode Pro 100W Charger

Speaking of UGREEN, I also like their latest 100W GaN charger. Part of the company’s Nexode line, this is a compact USB-C wall charger that can output up to 100W via its first USB-C port when used by itself. This one is actually bag- and travel-friendly, and it’s become my new default for fast-charging the iPhone and iPad Pro.

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iOS and iPadOS 18: The MacStories Review

There is still fun beyond AI.

There are two versions of iOS 18 coming out this year.

Or, think about it this way:

Inside Apple, there are two versions of iOS 18. The version I’ve been able to test since June, and which will be the focus of this review, is the debut of iOS 18, which emphasizes user customization and smaller app updates. The other one – and, arguably, the version most are anticipating since WWDC – is iOS 18.1, which will mark the launch of Apple Intelligence in the United States later this year as well as the beginning of a process to roll out more AI features over time.

Technically, iOS 18.1 is going to be a major update to iOS 18.0, which will introduce the first slate of AI features on iPhones and iPads; in spirit, it might as well be the version of iOS 18 that is going to steal the spotlight and become The Conversation in our community for months to come.

However, due to a mix of legal and political reasons, as an Italian citizen, I won’t be able to participate in that discourse just yet. Thankfully, there’s plenty to like in iOS 18 even without Apple Intelligence, especially if, like yours truly, you’re the kind of MacStories reader who cares about apps, minor system tweaks, and making your Home Screen look nice.

This is what my review will focus on this year. There are two versions of iOS 18: I’m going to cover the fun, nerdy one.

I’ve been writing annual reviews of iOS (and later iPadOS too) for ten years now. During this time, I’ve seen my fair share of mobile OS trends, and I’ve observed how Apple judiciously iterated on their post-iOS 7 design language and stoically ignored the majority of the tech industry’s fads, staying the course of their vision for what their ecosystem of devices and OSes should empower people to do.

Never have I been in the position to witness the company finding itself unable to ignore a major industry shift. That’s exactly what is happening with AI. As we saw back in June, Apple announced a roadmap of AI features that will be gradually doled out to users and developers over the iOS 18 cycle. Most of them won’t even be launching this year: I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them just in time before the debut of iOS 19 at WWDC 2025.

What’s even more fascinating is realizing just how much of a priority Apple Intelligence must have been for the iOS, iPadOS, and macOS teams. Let’s face it: if it weren’t for the handful of additions to iOS, which are also cross-compatible with iPadOS, I wouldn’t have much to cover today without Apple Intelligence. This is quite apparent in macOS Sequoia: as John will cover in his review, with no Apple Intelligence, there are only two main features worth analyzing in detail.

Thus, dear reader, don’t be surprised if this will be my shortest annual iOS review to date. Plus, it’s not like I was particularly looking forward to Apple Intelligence anyway.

In any case, as I argued in my preview story back in July, the smaller features that found their way onto iOS and iPadOS this year are still interesting enough to justify a “traditional” review. And it’s not just that these are good features: they’re also my favorite kind, for they’re primarily about customization and apps. From more flexible Home Screens to Control Center finally becoming extensible with third-party controls, some big improvements to Notes and Journal, plus a brand new Passwords app, how could I not be excited about iOS 18?

This intrinsic duality of iOS 18 is the reason why I’ve never felt so ambivalent about a new version of iOS. Or, think about it this way:

Inside me, there are two takes. I fundamentally dislike generative AI tools and, from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think I’m ever going to take advantage of Apple’s features that modify text or create images. At the same time, I’m excited about the prospect of a smarter Siri that is better integrated with apps; and today, with the version of iOS 18 that is shipping to customers, I think there are plenty of smaller features worth appreciating, especially if you’re into customization.

Today, we don’t need to reconcile those two takes. We don’t have to be grownups for this one. We’re just going to dive into what makes iOS 18 a smaller update than previous years, but a fun one nonetheless.

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