Backblaze offers unlimited computer backup for Macs and PCs for just $7 a month. Backblaze will backup your music, photos, videos, drawings, projects, and all the other data you have, so it’s safe and secure.

If you need to restore a file, that’s simple too. You can restore files from anywhere by downloading them directly from the web or Backblaze’s excellent mobile apps for iOS and Android. You can even have a backup shipped to you on a hard drive or flash key.

Backblaze offers a Restore Return Refund Program too. Buy a hard drive to restore your data, send the hard drive back to Backblaze within 30 days, and get a full refund on the drive’s price. It’s the perfect solution for restoring large sets of data.

If you’ve ever worried about deleting a version of an important project file, Backblaze has you covered. For just $2/month more, Backblaze will extend your file retention history to a full year. If you need to roll back to a previous version of a file, Backblaze makes it as easy as picking a date in the calendar.

Listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under BLZE, Backblaze is committed more than ever to bringing easy and affordable data storage that you can trust. Over the years, the company has restored over 55 billion files for customers and is recommended by The New York Times, Inc, Macworld, PCWorld, Lifewire, Wired, Tom’s Guide, 9to5mac, and more, so you can rest assured that Backblaze has you covered.

Start a fully-featured free 15-day Backblaze trial with no credit card required today by going to Backblaze.com/macstories. Once you give it a try, you’ll see why so many users swear by Backblaze to protect their data.

Our thanks to Backblaze for sponsoring MacStories this week.

SaneBox is the all-in-one solution to email overload, so you can spend less time managing email and more time on what matters. It works with any email client or service, and any device - literally anywhere you check your email. Oh, and there’s nothing to download or install. It just works.

SaneBox is like having a personal email assistant that automatically organizes your inbox, so you don’t have to, saving valuable time. SaneBox works in the background, so your most important messages always reach your inbox. The rest of your messages are carefully organized into designated folders like SaneLater and SaneNews for later. You can snooze emails, too, setting them aside to deal with when you have the time.

Better yet, if there’s something you never want to see again, drag in into the SaneBlackHole folder. It’s far easier than the hit or miss process of unsubscribing from email lists.

SaneBox has a built-in reminders system too. SaneReminders are a terrific way to stay on task. Send yourself a reminder to do something later, or get a reminder when someone hasn’t responded to one of your messages. SaneReminders is perfect for making sure that nothing falls through the cracks.

Also, because SaneBox works with your existing email setup, there’s no app to download or new email account to set up. You can use any email service and client you want.

Sign up today and save $25 on any subscription. You’ll see big benefits immediately as the message count in your inbox drops, and you’ll be able to maintain control going forward with SaneBox’s help.

Our thanks to SaneBox for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Embarking on a healthy 2023 is easy with Funn Media’s trio of top-rated health and fitness apps: WaterMinder, FitnessView, and Calory. Together, they’ll help you track what you eat and drink and push your fitness to new levels.

WaterMinder makes tracking hydration simple. The app features an elegant interface and myriad ways to input the water and other drinks you consume throughout the day. The app is available on all of Apple’s platforms, is highly customizable, and includes support for Shortcuts, widgets, and Apple Watch complications. With WaterMinder’s rich charts for tracking, hydration reminders, and integration with Apple Health, you’ll have your hydration on track in no time flat.

Fitness tracking is essential to maintaining healthy habits and preventing injury. FitnessView has you covered on both fronts with deep insights into every workout, along with trend-spotting that lets you train smarter than ever before. The app, which is available on the iPhone and Apple Watch, offers deep integration with Apple Health. With extensive stats and goal tracking, FitnessView provides a holistic overview of where your fitness stands today and where you’re heading. The fully-customizable app also includes Home Screen widgets for monitoring your progress at a glance, a long list of workout types, and workout sharing with friends.

Calory rounds out Funn Media’s health and fitness trio with the most intuitive calorie tracker on the App Store. The app’s rich visualization of the calories you’ve consumed and easy input system remove the friction from tracking your goals. Available on all Apple platforms, Calory lets you log what you eat from anywhere, so you never forget to log a meal. Coupled with glanceable charts plotting your progress and access to more detailed stats and a journal view, Calory offers a complete overview of the food and drink you consume, along with deep nutritional data.

Get started down the road to health and fitness with WaterMinder, FitnessView, and Calory by visiting Funn Media’s website today to learn more about these fantastic apps.

Our thanks to Funn Media for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Zones makes time zone conversions effortless. It’s simple, beautifully designed, and available on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, so no matter where you are or what you’re doing, knowing the best time to connect with family and friends in other cities is easy.

With just a glance, you’ll always know exactly what time it is no matter where your friends and family live. Plus, Zones includes:

• Detailed weather information with Apple Weather integration for every time zone you track
• Information about holidays around the world
• The ability to create reminders for each time zone, so you’ll recall the best time to reach out to someone on their birthday or an upcoming holiday, for example

Zones is perfect for remote teams too. The app has a built-in event creation feature that integrates with Apple’s Calendar app, making it easy for colleagues to coordinate meetings and calls.

With Zones, you also get support for the latest Apple technologies. Lock and Home Screen widgets, iCloud sync between devices, an iMessage app for sharing time zone information, and a Mac menu bar app add up to a fantastic user experience.

Of course, Zones is also privacy-focused. It doesn’t collect user data, the app doesn’t require an account, and all versions are ad-free.

Download Zones today for free on the App Store to stay in touch with family and friends. And when you’re ready to take Zones even further, sign up for Zones+ for just $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year to unlock holiday and weather information, plus the ability to create reminders.

Our thanks to Zones for sponsoring MacStories this week.

WinterFest 2022: The Festival of Artisanal Software is back with a fantastic collection of carefully-crafted software for writing, research, thinking, and more at tremendous prices. As in past years, software artisans from around the globe come together to offer discounts direct to you on 19 carefully-crafted apps and a book collection to assist you with everyday knowledge work:

• Aeon Timeline: The timeline tool for creative thinking
• BBEdit: The leading text and code editor for the Mac
• Bookends: The reference manager you’ve been looking for
• DEVONagent Pro: Your smart research assistant
• DEVONthink: Your powerful information and knowledge manager
• Easy Data Transform: Merge, clean, reformat data without coding
• Hookmark: Supplies the missing links
• HoudahGeo: Photo geotagging for Mac
• HoudahSpot: Powerful file search
• HyperPlan: Flexible visual planner
• ImageFramer Pro: Add creative borders and frames to photos
• Panorama X: Collect, organize, and understand your data
• Scapple: Quickly capture and connect ideas
• Scrivener: Your complete writing studio
• SmallCubed Mail Suite: Manage mail like a maven
• Take Control Books: eBooks from top authors that help you navigate the latest Apple tech and apps
• Tinderbox: Visualize and organize your notes, plans, and ideas
• Trickster: Your recently used files, at your fingertips
• Yojimbo: The Mac app that empowers users to effortlessly and securely manage the onslaught of information

There are no gimmicks, no bundles, no gotchas – just saving of hundreds of dollars on great software from thoughtful developers. 

Visit the WinterFest website now for links to these amazing deals or use the coupon code Winterfest2022 at checkout.

Also, in mid-January, the WinterFest folks are organizing an online symposium about the art and craft of software. There will be interviews and panel discussions with leading designers and thinkers, tackling the big issues in software design, including:

• Interlinked systems 
• Tiny methods, tiny objects
• Software ecologies
• AI, agents, and self-organizing documents
• Test-driven development and Improvisatory architecture
• Community and synergy
• Digital humanities

Stay tuned for more information soon.

Our thanks to WinterFest 2022 for its support of MacStories this week.

“If you build a dystopian and cynical security program born out of fear, mistrust, and suspicion, then you will inevitably make your fellow employees your enemies.”

That’s a quote from Honest Security, Kolide’s mission statement, and North Star. It was written by its CEO, Jason Meller, who spent his career in cybersecurity before founding Kolide. 

He was troubled by the widely-accepted idea among cybersecurity professionals that end users should be treated, first and foremost, as threats. This way of thinking informs the traditional approach to device management, which relies on MDMs that take control of devices and come with surveillance capabilities that most companies don’t need or even really want.

Kolide works by notifying your employees of security issues via Slack, educating them on why they’re important, and giving them step-by-step instructions to resolve them themselves.

Kolide’s open-source agent collects data across 43 categories on Mac, Windows, and Linux devices. It can answer questions like:

• Do any of my developers have unsecured SSH keys floating around?
• Does everyone have disk encryption, screen lock, and password managers set up?
• Are there any Macs in my fleet in need of a new battery?

And while Kolide can provide insights that MDMs can’t, its commitment to transparency really sets it apart. Employees can visit the User Privacy Center for an explanation of precisely what data is being collected, by whom, and for what purpose.

Want to see how it works for you? Click here for a free trial, no credit card required, and let us show you what we’re all about.

Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.

In 2021, Kolide went through the SOC 2 Type 1 audit, and they found out just how challenging it can be to prove compliance to a third-party auditor. They also learned firsthand something their customers had been telling them for a while: that they couldn’t have gotten their SOC certification without using their own product.

That product is Kolide, an endpoint security solution for Mac, Windows, and Linux devices. Kolide gives IT admins a single dashboard, through which you can prove that your fleet has the security measures that auditors care about.

With Kolide, you can instantly see whether:

• Firewalls and screen lock are enabled
• Operating systems are up-to-date
• Password managers are installed

Kolide also provides visibility into nuanced issues that MDMs can’t address, like whether developers have unencrypted SSH keys or plain text 2FA backup codes.

Moreover, Kolide balances this visibility with respect for user privacy and autonomy. Users can visit the Privacy Center to see what device data is being collected and why. And when Kolide detects a vulnerability on a user’s device, it reaches out via Slack to notify them of the problem and provides step-by-step instructions on how to solve it. 

At Kolide, they’ve helped hundreds of customers achieve compliance–for SOC 2, ISO27001, or their own internal security goals. And they’ve done so in ways that go beyond “checking the boxes” and actually increase transparency and collaboration between IT and end users.

If you want to know how you can get compliant without compromising your values, then Kolide wants to talk to you.

Try Kolide for 14 days free; no credit card required.

Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Device security is a lot like Mount Everest: it’s tough to scale.

When you’re a small company dominated by engineers, you can keep up with fleet management with nothing more than trust and a spreadsheet. But once you start to hire marketers, designers, and the rest, the number of laptops balloons and the line between “work” and “personal” devices gets fuzzy. 

But fuzzy isn’t going to cut it. You have to prove you’ve got device security under control to close deals with customers, pass a third-party audit, and prove you’re ready for acquisition or an IPO. 

At this point, you start looking for a tool that will give you visibility across all these devices. And you have two options. 

Option one is an MDM, which acts as the puppet master for your whole fleet, forcing compliance through intrusive agents. But for all an MDM’s power, it still can’t answer your most nuanced questions. And when it comes to Linux devices? Good luck with that.

Your other option is Kolide. 

Kolide is an endpoint security solution that gives IT teams a single dashboard for all devices, regardless of their operating system.

Kolide can answer questions MDMs can’t. Questions like:

• Do you have production data being stored on devices?
• Are all your developers’ SSH keys encrypted?
• And a host of other data points you’d otherwise have to write a custom shell script to learn about.

Want to see how it works for yourself? Click here for a free trial, no credit card required, and let us show you what we’re all about.

Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Boom 3D by Global Delight is the premier app for enhancing your Mac or Windows PC’s audio, and right now, it’s 75% off for Black Friday. The app produces exceptionally clear, clean, 3D sound without the need for added hardware. Just use the headphones you already own and let Boom 3D breathe new life into every entertainment experience.

The app’s 3D audio is driven by Global Delight’s patented sound staging algorithm and 31-band equalizer, which create an unparalleled, immersive experience with any headphones. Netflix and Apple offer spatial audio for some of their content, but with Boom 3D, all content benefits from Boom 3D and sounds amazing.

Boom 3D has been carefully crafted to produce spectacular, vibrant sound. The effect is the sort of thing that once you try it, everything else sounds lifeless and flat by comparison. It’s truly extraordinary. Even if your source audio is only recorded in stereo, it will be up-mixed into a stellar audio experience.

In addition to its patented audio technology, Boom 3D features a 31-band equalizer that allows you to precisely tune your Mac’s audio to your tastes. The app has also received praise from hearing-impaired users who can adjust audio to boost frequencies they have trouble hearing. Plus, Boom 3D includes its own audio player that supports a wide range of file formats, offers access to over 20,000 Internet radio stations, and integrates with Tidal.

There’s even a mobile version for iPhone, iPad, and Android users called Boom, which enhances audio played on your mobile device.

Global Delight is currently offering Boom 3D for 75% off for a limited time as part of its Black Friday sale, so don’t wait, download the app today.

Our thanks to Global Delight for sponsoring MacStories this week.