BetterTouchTool is an essential Mac application that has stood the test of time since it was one of the first to be covered by MacStories back in November 2009. In its early days, BetterTouchTool was a simple application primarily designed for adding customizable gestures to MacBook trackpads and Magic Mouse.

Today, BetterTouchTool has evolved to become a powerful tool that enables users to configure customizable gestures for Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad (1-3), customize the Touch Bar and map keyboard shortcuts, bind mouse buttons, create custom mouse gestures, and customize the Siri Remote. Additionally, BetterTouchTool can connect and configure MIDI devices, works great with the Shortcuts app on macOS Monterey & Ventura, and comes with a plethora of predefined actions that can be combined to perform virtually any command on your Mac.

Recently, “Generic Devices” support has been added, enabling advanced users to add support for many devices on their own using simple JavaScript. For example, users have already created scripts even for exotic devices like the Griffin Power Mate, a Philips Foot Control, or the Microsoft Adaptive Controller.

Moreover, a fantastic feature that is currently being finalized and set to release by the end of April is the “Floating Widget Menus.” These menus are scriptable and customizable and can be placed anywhere on the screen, attached to particular windows, or shown upon demand. With a unique plugin system in place, these menus can integrate custom SwiftUI-based widgets and will even work seamlessly with BTT Remote on iPhone and iPad in the future.

Also, check out the new “Transform & Replace Selection With ChatGPT” predefined action that lets you use ChatGPT directly in any of your apps.

BetterTouchTool comes with a 45-day trial, after which you can choose between a license that includes all updates for 2 years and a lifetime license.

For a limited time, MacStories readers can purchase BetterTouchTool for 20% off by using the coupon code MACSTORIESBTT_2023 at checkout. So, don’t delay. Go to folivora.ai to learn more about this fantastic Mac app and take advantage of the special limited-time, 20% discount on BetterTouchTool.

Our thanks to BetterTouchTool for sponsoring MacStories this week.

SaneBox is the all-in-one solution to email clutter and 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.

Recently, SaneBox added Deep Clean, the perfect tool for cleaning out old emails from your inbox, which will keep you more organized than ever before. The feature will clean out the old messages automatically, so you won’t need to pay your email provider for more stoarage and can enjoy a completely unclutterred inbox. Just run Deep Clean and review messages, which are organized by sender, making it easy to decide which to delete and which to keep.

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.

We asked ChatGPT to write a sponsorship post for MindNode, and this was the result:

“Looking for a powerful and intuitive mind mapping app that will help you organize your thoughts and ideas on your Mac and iOS devices? Look no further than MindNode!

MindNode is a versatile and easy-to-use mind mapping app that offers an array of features to help you visualize and develop your ideas. With its clean and intuitive interface, you can easily create complex mind maps with ease, and collaborate with others in real-time.

Whether you’re a student looking to organize your notes, a business professional preparing a presentation, or just someone looking to brainstorm new ideas, MindNode has everything you need to take your creativity to the next level. You can add text, images, and even links to external resources to your mind maps, making it easy to keep all of your ideas in one place.

With MindNode, you can also export your mind maps in a variety of formats, including PDF, OPML, and plain text, so you can share your ideas with others easily. And with the ability to sync your mind maps across all of your devices using iCloud, you can access your ideas anytime, anywhere.

So why wait? Download MindNode today and start organizing your thoughts and ideas like never before!”

We couldn’t have said it better. If you are a procrastinator as we are, why not use our Shortcut to generate your mind maps with ChatGPT.

Our thanks to MindNode for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Right now, “Zero Trust” is in serious danger of becoming an empty buzzword. The problem isn’t just that marketers have slapped the Zero Trust label on everything short of breakfast cereal–it’s that for all the hype, we don’t seem to be getting any safer.

At the heart of Zero Trust is a good idea, but the way most companies execute that idea is incomplete. Specifically, most security practitioners forget that device compliance is a crucial element of Zero Trust.

Think about it: your identity provider can ensure that only known devices access your company’s apps, but just because you recognize a device, doesn’t mean it’s in a secure state. A malware-infected laptop running an outdated OS can’t exactly be “trusted.” And you can’t count on MDMs to achieve total compliance. Things like unencrypted access credentials are out of their reach, not to mention Linux devices writ large.

Kolide solves the device compliance element of Zero Trust for companies that use Okta.

Our premise is simple: if an employee’s device is out of compliance, it can’t access your apps.

Kolide’s unique approach works with Okta to make device compliance part of the authentication process. If a device isn’t compliant, users can’t log in to their cloud apps until they’ve fixed the problem. And instead of creating more work for IT, Kolide provides instructions so users can get unblocked on their own.

Kolide works across your Mac, Windows, and even Linux devices, with mobile support coming soon. Our lightweight agent complements your existing tools, brings a lot of compliance issues into scope and under control, and can complete your Zero Trust picture.

To learn more and see our product in action, visit kolide.com.

Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Here’s an uncomfortable fact: at most companies, employees can download sensitive company data onto any device, keep it there forever, and never even know that they’re doing something wrong.

Kolide’s new report, The State of Sensitive Data, shines a light on an area of security that is often ignored, but is nevertheless a massive hole in many companies’ Zero Trust fortress.

These findings are particularly alarming given the overall state of device security. IT teams routinely struggle to enforce timely OS updates and patch management, meaning that end users are storing your most sensitive data–things like customer records, confidential IP, and plain-text access credentials–on devices that are vulnerable to attack.

This problem has gone unaddressed because until now there hasn’t been a good solution for it. MDM solutions are too blunt an instrument for dealing with sensitive data, and DLP tools are too extreme and invasive for most companies. After all, you’re not trying to ban downloads together, nor regard every download as suspicious. You’re just trying to make sure employees aren’t keeping data for longer than they need or keeping it on an unmanaged or unsecure device.

Kolide offers a more nuanced approach to setting and enforcing sensitive data policies.

Our premise is simple: if an employee’s device is out of compliance, it can’t access your apps.

Kolide lets admins run queries to detect sensitive data, flag devices that have violated policies, and enforce OS and browser updates so vulnerable devices aren’t accessing data.

Our unique approach makes device compliance part of the authentication process. If a device isn’t compliant, users can’t log in to their cloud apps until they’ve fixed the problem. But instead of creating more work for IT, Kolide provides instructions so users can get unblocked on their own.

To learn more and see our product in action, visit kolide.com.

Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Right now, “Zero Trust” is in serious danger of becoming an empty buzzword. The problem isn’t just that marketers have slapped the Zero Trust label on everything short of breakfast cereal–it’s that for all the hype, we don’t seem to be getting any safer.

At the heart of Zero Trust is a good idea, but the way most companies execute that idea is incomplete. Specifically, most security practitioners forget that device compliance is a crucial element of Zero Trust.

Think about it: your identity provider can ensure that only known devices access your company’s apps, but just because you recognize a device, doesn’t mean it’s in a secure state. A malware-infected laptop running an outdated OS can’t exactly be “trusted.” And you can’t count on MDMs to achieve total compliance. Things like unencrypted access credentials are out of their reach, not to mention Linux devices writ large.

Kolide solves the device compliance element of Zero Trust for companies that use Okta.

Our premise is simple: if an employee’s device is out of compliance, it can’t access your apps.

Kolide’s unique approach works with Okta to make device compliance part of the authentication process. If a device isn’t compliant, users can’t log in to their cloud apps until they’ve fixed the problem. And instead of creating more work for IT, Kolide provides instructions so users can get unblocked on their own.

Kolide works across your Mac, Windows, and even Linux devices, with mobile support coming soon. Our lightweight agent complements your existing tools, brings a lot of compliance issues into scope and under control, and can complete your Zero Trust picture.

To learn more and see our product in action, visit kolide.com.

Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Here’s an uncomfortable fact: at most companies, employees can download sensitive company data onto any device, keep it there forever, and never even know that they’re doing something wrong.

Kolide’s new report, The State of Sensitive Data, shines a light on an area of security that is often ignored, but is nevertheless a massive hole in many companies’ Zero Trust fortress.

These findings are particularly alarming given the overall state of device security. IT teams routinely struggle to enforce timely OS updates and patch management, meaning that end users are storing your most sensitive data–things like customer records, confidential IP, and plain-text access credentials–on devices that are vulnerable to attack.

This problem has gone unaddressed because until now there hasn’t been a good solution for it. MDM solutions are too blunt an instrument for dealing with sensitive data, and DLP tools are too extreme and invasive for most companies. After all, you’re not trying to ban downloads together, nor regard every download as suspicious. You’re just trying to make sure employees aren’t keeping data for longer than they need or keeping it on an unmanaged or unsecure device.

Kolide offers a more nuanced approach to setting and enforcing sensitive data policies.

Our premise is simple: if an employee’s device is out of compliance, it can’t access your apps.

Kolide lets admins run queries to detect sensitive data, flag devices that have violated policies, and enforce OS and browser updates so vulnerable devices aren’t accessing data.

Our unique approach makes device compliance part of the authentication process. If a device isn’t compliant, users can’t log in to their cloud apps until they’ve fixed the problem. But instead of creating more work for IT, Kolide provides instructions so users can get unblocked on their own.

To learn more and see our product in action, visit kolide.com.

Our thanks to Kolide 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.

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.