Sketch is a design platform that combines an award-winning native Mac app with powerful, cloud-based collaboration tools. Since it first launched in 2010, Sketch has become the go-to toolkit for over one million people — from freelancers and solo app developers, to the world’s largest design teams.

From the very beginning, Sketch have proudly called the Mac their home — and it shows with their app. It combines thoughtful features, an intuitive interface, and the best of native macOS technologies.

With Sketch, you get all the things you’d expect from a great Mac app — from a native UI with dark mode support, to custom shortcuts and great integration with Apple’s hardware.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or a long-time Mac user, Sketch feels instantly familiar. Controls and tools work just the way you’d expect them to, making it easy to turn your ideas into fully-polished designs and prototypes.

When you’re working with others, you can save designs to Sketch’s Cloud platform and share them with a link. Collaborators and teammates can view them and leave feedback in any web browser, on any platform. Developers can even inspect files and download production-ready assets when it’s time for handoff, all at no extra cost.

Sketch have some exciting updates coming up too — with an all-new UI for macOS Big Sur and real-time collaboration with other designers, right inside the Mac app. And with a 30-day free trial to get you started, there’s never been a better time to check it out.

Our thanks to Sketch for sponsoring MacStories this week.

SaneBox is your personal email assistant that automatically organizes your inbox, saving you valuable time. SaneBox works on top of your existing email service, making sure that only the most important messages reach your inbox. The rest of your messages are carefully tucked away in designated folders like SaneLater and SaneNews for reviewing later. You can snooze emails, too, setting them aside to deal with when you have more 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 great way to keep on top of tasks. Send yourself a reminder to do something later or get a reminder that someone hasn’t responded to a message. For example, bcc: [email protected] and the message will show up back in your inbox only if the recipient doesn’t reply within three days. With SaneReminders, nothing falls through the cracks.

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

Sign up today for a free 14-day SaneBox trial to take back control of your email. You’ll see substantial benefits immediately as the message count in your inbox drops, and you’ll be able to maintain control going forward with SaneBox’s help. MacStories readers can receive a special $25 credit automatically by using this link to sign up.

Our thanks to SaneBox for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Ulysses is an extraordinary text editor for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone with an unparalleled set of advanced features and a beautiful design that received an Apple Design Award. What sets Ulysses apart from the pack is a carefully balanced set of advanced tools that writers appreciate in a refined, elegant, distraction-free UI that makes writing a pleasure.

No matter whether you’re writing at home, the office, or on-the-go, Ulysses is always there to help. The app includes fast and reliable sync, so you’ve always got what you need with you.

With the latest update, Ulysses has added grammar and style checking for over 20 languages, offering suggested changes for all sorts of issues. There’s also a special dashboard in the sidebar that includes statistics, keywords, footnotes, and an outline of the headings in your writing that provides a bird’s-eye view of your work and a way to navigate your document.

Ulysses’ Library sidebar brings order to your writing too, allowing you to organize it into groups that can be nested. The app also features powerful search and filtering options, keyword support, and in-line images that can be stored locally or remotely on a server.

Ulysses lets you set character, word, and other types of writing goals that can be attached to a single document or entire group. Goals can be combined with deadlines too, which is a fantastic way to form good writing habits.

When you’re finished writing, Ulysses has lots of export and publishing options too. Your work can be exported as plain text, Markdown, TextBundle, rich text, DOCX, ePub, HTML, and PDF and published using WordPress, Medium, or Ghost. To learn more about Ulysses, visit ulysses.app.

Ulysses is a free download and try before deciding whether to subscribe for $4.99/month or $39.99/year. Students can subscribe for six months at a time for $10.99. MacStories readers can take advantage of a special extended three-month free trial for a limited time. It’s a terrific way to discover the app’s full capabilities, so be sure to check out Ulysses’ new features right away.

Our thanks to Ulysses for sponsoring MacStories this week.

CardioBot is a heart rate and activity tracker built from the ground up to help you lead a healthier life. The app is based on the latest studies by the American Heart Association and Mayo Clinic, and with the release of version 5, CardioBot is better than ever.

CardioBot uses a simple Heart Points system to help you keep track of whether you’re getting the recommended amount of aerobic exercise every day. There’s even an iOS 14 widget to help you track your points right on your Home Screen, and a heart rate widget for get a quick update throughout your day.

The app also tracks your resting heart rate and lets you know if you experience any significant changes. If you’ve got the latest Apple Watch Series 6, CardioBot can monitor your blood oxygen levels too, an important measurement of overall wellness. Of course, as with past versions, CardioBot also tracks your workouts to make sure you’re hitting your target heart rate and whether you’re getting enough sleep.

All of these advanced features are packed into a beautiful and recently-updated iPhone UI that makes it simple to understand your heart data and track your fitness progress using variety of graphs and trend analysis. CardioBot also includes an elegantly-designed Apple Watch app.

Download CardioBot from the App Store and start tracking your heart rate and activity today.

Our thanks to CardioBot for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Protect your iPhone with maximum protection and minimal bulk with YOUMAKER cases. Working out with your iPhone is a great way to get in shape while enjoying music, podcasts, and the latest health and fitness apps. But it’s also a common way phones are dropped, smashing screens or worse.

With a YOUMAKER case, you can exercise and participate in your favorite sports worry-free. YOUMAKER is dedicated to protecting your phone. Its cases are slim and tough, meeting MIL-STD drop tests so that you can enjoy the outdoors.

YOUMAKER has a case for every taste and style. The Round Edge model protects every surface of your iPhone with a stylish, comfortable rounded-edge design that’s easy to grip while working out. Another great choice is the Aegis, which features a beautiful, dual-layer transparent design, a built-in screen protector, raised edges to protect your iPhone’s camera, and works with wireless charging.

Another terrific choice is the MNS case, which features an innovative built-in kickstand that can prop your iPhone up horizontally or vertically. Whether you want to watch video hands-free or shoot video without a tripod, the MNS has you covered, protecting your iPhone while expanding its functionality.

Right now, MacStories readers can get 20% off YOUMAKER’s entire store with the discount code XX6KKEWD. Visit YOUMAKER’s store today, because this discount will be available for a limited time only.

Our thanks to YOUMAKER for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Project management software should work for you, not against you. Tara AI eliminates the configuration nightmares and lack of support for cross-functional teams that can make getting up and running with project management apps a headache. It’s the solution for teams that value their time and are looking for a tool that works with their existing Git workflow.

With Tara AI, engineering teams can reclaim valuable time and effort that would otherwise be wasted sifting through a bottomless pit of tickets. Tara accomplishes that through a simple, modern design that gets out of the way, allowing teams to move quickly and efficiently, delivering releases on schedule. The app combines sprint planning with a unified task view to provide a clear, bird’s eye view of your project and priorities, all synced to Git, so everyone from engineering to sales knows what’s happening and when.

From the time you sign up and create a workspace through every phase of your project, it’s the design of the entire process that sets Tara apart from the pack. Tara is loaded with thoughtfully-considered features like quick stats that show the progress you’re making during sprints with daily and weekly progress insights alongside commits and pull requests. Modern teams move fast and expect their tools to just work. Tara AI 1.0 delivers with no user or task limits, completely free of charge.

To learn more and signup to try Tara AI for free today, visit tara.ai now.

Our thanks to Tara AI for sponsoring MacStories this week.

A new professional app for the iPad launched last week. It’s called Muse, and it turns your iPad into a tool for thought.

Muse gives you a spatial canvas for your research notes, sketches, screenshots, PDFs, and bookmarks. File managers and note-taking apps put your content into sorted lists and grids. By contrast, Muse is inspired by your desk: personal, creative, even a little messy.

You can pull in documents and clippings from iCloud or Dropbox, your iCloud photo library, or drag-and-drop from other apps. Use your Pencil to draw on, around, or in between everything, discovering and making connections between ideas as you go. And the zooming interface allows you to nest all your content to create a beautiful, explorable knowledge garden.

Muse is $99.99 per year, but you can try it for free with up to 100 cards. It’s a terrific way to dig in and understand how Muse can help you organize your projects.

Download Muse from the App Store today. Because deep thinking doesn’t happen in front of a computer.

Our thanks to Muse for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Textastic is the most complete and versatile code editor available for your iPad and iPhone. The app’s versatility starts with its extensive support of syntax highlighting for more than 80 programming and markup languages. Textastic handles highlighting for HTML, JavaScript, CSS, PHP, C, C++, Swift, Objective-C, Java, LaTeX, Python, Ruby, Perl, Lua, and dozens more.

Textastic is also a full-featured Markdown text editor that includes a built-in web server and Safari support for previewing your work. The app is compatible with Sublime Text and TextMate syntax definitions too.

Textastic goes well beyond the features of a classic text editor, though. You can manage remote file transfers with FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Dropbox, and Google Drive and there’s a terrific, full-featured SSH terminal built right into the app. Because Textastic supports tabs, you can even have multiple files and SSH terminals open simultaneously.

With robust search and replace that supports regular expressions, keyboard shortcuts that are customizable, and support for Git repositories using Working Copy, it’s the most powerful code editor you’ll find anywhere with a long list of features, including support for the Files app, drag and drop, printing, iCloud Drive, Split View, multiwindowing, context menus, and a whole lot more.

The app is regularly updated and maintained too. With the release of version 9.3 in June, Textastic gained new keyboard shortcuts for code comments, a setting for automatically inserting a matching closing character for parentheses, square brackets, and curly brackets, code awareness that allows for automatic indentation based on syntax context, an adjustable line height setting, and a setting for displaying the selected line indicator in a document’s gutter. Dark mode has been improved too, allowing users to select a separate code editor theme and keyboard appearance and preview Markdown using a dark color scheme.

To learn more about Textastic and what it can do for your code editing needs on the iPhone and iPad, visit textasticapp.com, to download a copy today. You’re going to love it.

Our thanks to Textastic for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Sidequest is a brand new extension exclusively for Slack that enables you to create helpdesks and personal task inboxes that teams love, 100% inside Slack. With Sidequest, you get the perfect combination of the dependability of a helpdesk system, the effortlessness of a task management app, and the convenience of Slack, all in one terrific, integrated package.

When it comes to helpdesks and request tracking tools, we all seem to share the same love-hate relationship. For many teams, helpdesks are the only way to process a large volume of requests efficiently and reliably, but at the same time, they can feel incredibly impersonal, old-fashioned, and inaccessible, especially when used for internal purposes, such as an IT service desk.

Sidequest makes you love your helpdesk again, by combining the reliability of traditional ticketing systems and the ease of use of modern task managers inside Slack. It allows your workspace members to create tasks in public or private support channels as well as for each other in personal task inboxes. As soon as a ticket has been created, Sidequest becomes the single point of truth, so your team always has a shared understanding of the task at hand, its history, and its status. That way, everyone is on the same page, and nothing slips between the cracks.

Better yet, there is no need to install new software or to set up accounts, as Sidequest lives 100% inside Slack. And because Sidequest is made in Germany, your data and your users are fully protected by GDPR, which is one of the world’s strictest data protection laws.

Start your new helpdesk today with a 30-day free trial of Sidequest by visiting getsidequest.app/macstories. Then, use promo code MACSTORIES for 50% off the first six months. Love your helpdesk again, with Sidequest for Slack.

Our thanks to Sidequest for sponsoring MacStories this week.