Hi folks,

🎉 XSpeak is turning one year old, which is quite a thing for me to realize.

One year of weekly or biweekly updates. One year of your continuous feedback. One year of issues and fixes, debugging, polishing animations, adding features, rewriting subsystems from the ground up, and reviewing thousands of AI-generated results to improve their quality.

There have been good moments and bad moments. First users. First paying customers. First mention in an article. Critical feedback. Critical issues and sleepless nights. And frankly speaking, I love every single moment of it.

XSpeak has grown from a small iPad app into a full-featured, multi-platform meeting notes available on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Transcript editing? Sure. Playback? No problem. Custom Skills for AI analysis? Here they are. Need to transcribe an audio file? Sorry, haven’t done that yet, but it’s on the way :)

I’m proud of what has been built over the past year, and I’m thankful to all of you for your support. It always motivates and helps notice problems. There’s still a lot to do, and I’m not going to stop here. If you’d like to stay updated, join r/XSpeak.

Problem

Communication is hard and takes up a significant part of our lives:

• Work meetings where you need to take notes and participate at the same time
• Difficult performance reviews when you’re unsatisfied with evaluation results
• Team stand-ups where it’s hard to follow everything that happens
• New subject areas where you don’t fully understand what people are talking about

XSpeak helps in these situations:

• It transcribes conversations live and records everything
• It analyzes conversations in real-time and provides you with relevant facts, suggestions, highlights your actions, or even produces whatever you need via custom skills

Compare

Compared to Hedy, XSpeak is local-first, doesn’t require you to register an account, and is more affordable ($49.99 vs. $299.99).

Pricing

• $49.99 lifetime
• $3.99/month, 7-day trial
• $19.99/year, 7-day trial On the free version, you get transcription with speaker identification, and your history is limited to 3 recordings. 👉 XSpeak on App Store

What’s New

Since my last post here, the new features include:

• Full audio playback with word-by-word highlighting
• Automatic export to folders
• Automatic text replacements
• And many other things

Anniversary Discount 🎁

Use this link to redeem offer code for ~40% off the lifetime plan. It’ll be active for the next 2 days.

Thank you! Looking forward to your feedback!

I built VaultSort, a Mac app for organizing files, finding duplicates, and protecting sensitive data. The latest version adds two features I think are particularly useful for people who care about privacy and security.

Problem:

It is easy to accumulate sensitive files on your Mac without realizing it. Tax documents, financial records, personal photos, passwords, and other private information can end up scattered across your drive. Finding those files manually is difficult, and protecting them often means dealing with complicated encryption tools.

VaultSort makes this easier by combining file organization with local-first privacy and security tools.

You can encrypt files and folders by simply tapping a YubiKey or using Touch ID. VaultSort uses hardware-backed WebAuthn authentication with a key that is actually derived from your hardware, so you can protect your
files without having to remember another encryption password.

The new Guardian feature also uses a local AI model to help identify potentially sensitive files on your Mac. The analysis runs locally on your device, so your files are not uploaded to a cloud service for analysis.

Comparison:

Compared with tools like VeraCrypt, VaultSort is designed to make encrypting individual files and folders much easier. You do not need to manage encrypted containers or deal with a complicated workflow. You can select the files or directories you want to protect and encrypt by tapping your YubiKey or Touch ID.

We also have advanced organization features comparable to Hazel, but which also integrate with AI so that you can create new organization jobs using natural language.

Compared with general Mac cleanup and organization tools like CleanMyMac, VaultSort focuses more on what happens to your sensitive data after you find it. In addition to organizing files and finding duplicates, you can identify sensitive data and protect it with hardware-backed encryption.

Pricing:

VaultSort is free to download, with premium features available for a $24.99 one-time purchase. There are no subscriptions and free updates are included.

I am offering 25% off the purchase price with checkout code Q0MTK4MG - this discount expires on July 28th.

https://vaultsort.com

More information about Guardian:
https://www.vaultsort.com/news/3d1de86f-57f3-418b-90a5-76720a5877f3

I built VaultSort independently, and this is my own app.

Terms of Service: https://www.vaultsort.com/terms
Privacy: https://www.vaultsort.com/privacy
My GitHub: https://github.com/justinhaubrich
My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-haubrich-6641b188/

Hey r/macapps,

I've been building Port22 for the last few months. I run a few AI coding agents at once, Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode, and I found myself stuck at my desk because of them. They stop every few minutes to ask permission to run a command, and nothing happens until someone says yes.

Port22 is a menu bar app for your Mac and an iPhone app. Every agent running on your Mac shows up in one list on your phone with a live view of what its doing. When one needs permission, you get a notification and answer it right there.

A few things I've spent the most time on:

• It shows the real question. An early version tried to figure out the options itself and made its own Approve and Deny buttons. It got them wrong sometimes, which is not something I wanted happening with shell commands. Now it only shows the exact question and options the agent wrote.
• The session waiting for you always comes first, so you dont have to hunt for it.
• No account needed. Pair it with your Apple ID in three simple steps.
• Works at home and away. At home your phone talks directly to your Mac. Away from home it works over cellular too. Only your Mac and your phone can read the data, and none of your code is stored.

Supported today:

• Claude Code
• Codex
• OpenCode

Coming next:

• Hermes
• OpenClaw

The problem

If you leave agents running, you have two bad choices. Turn permissions off and you dont see a risky command until after it runs. Keep permissions on and you have to stay near your Mac waiting for prompts.

Remote desktop or SSH helps you get back to your Mac, but it doesnt tell you an agent is waiting for you. You still have to notice it yourself.

How its different

• SSH apps like Termius or Blink Shell give you a terminal, but you still have to find the right session. Port22 tells you exactly which one is waiting.
• Screen sharing apps like Jump Desktop or Screens work, but using a full Mac desktop on a phone isnt a great experience. Port22 is built for this one job.
• Cloud agent apps start a new session on their own servers. Port22 connects to the sessions already running on your Mac, in your own folders, with your existing setup.

Where it falls short:

• Mac only.
• It supports terminal based agents, not Cursor's built in agent.
• Its not trying to replace screen sharing, it just solves one problem really well.

Pricing

Free includes 1 Mac and 2 active sessions. Its not a trial and theres no time limit.

Unlimited Macs and sessions is $19.99/year as a founding price.

Its not available yet. Beta opens on or before July 31, and I'll be letting people in a batch at a time.

Happy to answer any questions, including what doesnt work yet.

Join the waitlist: Waitlist

While you're reading this, I'm probably sleeping or sleep deprived.

I'm trying to fall asleep, so might as well tell you about, Sxitch, an app I made because I kept getting disoriented while switching workspaces.. like, "Why is obsidian in workspace 1 when its meant to be in 3??"

So basically, I planned to do a mega release for it on Monday (20 Jul), because people have gotten used to its name based workflow in 30 minutes, and even loved that it works with muscle memory..

Like you literally just press a hotkey of your choice (right command is default) and then keep typing the apps name until no more apps match (which is usually in max 3 presses), like s will open spotify, or fir and fin will open firefox and finder respectively.. No confirmation required..

but since I'm a student, I had 2 tests, (on Tue & Wed) so the update got pushed by 3 WHOLE DAYS.. like its an atrocious delay..

However, I knew people wanted the features I promised them:

• more layout options (like circular layout)
• window positioning
• a few bug fixes

- key remaps

Guess what.. I absolutely smashed those 2 tests, so in a good mood, i reached home and added these features in a whim, to make the entire feature list

• app (free) & window (pro) switching
• an intuitive hotkey picker
• sxitch window positioning (free)
• multiple layouts (free)
• blacklists (pro)
• key remaps (pro)
• hotkey based app opening (pro)
• vendor prefix stripping, (free)
• hiding and quitting apps (pro)
• open sourced
• native swift app

Now how does this compare against RCMD or Dory?

• RCMD uses cycling for a bunch of features.. I DON'T like cycling.. there's almost always some element of randomness in cycling, and sxitch aims to solve that.
• Dory is cursor / mouse based. I haven't had to charge my mouse like ever because I'm just too comfortable with the keyboard and the trackpad gets, so if you're a keyboard person, Sxitch is better.

Pricing model is simple:

• Free for core app switching

Lifetime discounts (limited time only):

• Get the app here
• See the pricing plans in detailed here

Imagine some clever catchy line to tell you about the boring stuff:

• Sxitch is signed and notarized
• is open source and has both a free and a pro version
• a bit about myself, developer of Rustcast and Creator of MystikoLabs Project

The problem:

Capturing a screenshot is a solved problem; a dozen apps do it well. What isn't solved is everything around the capture. For example, finding a screenshot again. When you have multiple screenshots that just show the time the screenshot was taken. Sharing screenshots safely the API key you forgot to blur, the EXIF data you didn't know was there. Recordings that come out long and full of dead air, where the fix is re-recording or opening a real video editor. And sensitive captures sitting in plain sight on the Desktop. I wanted one app that does the whole lifecycle capture it, polish it, protect it, and find it again later.

What it does:

Capture. Draw a selection once, then decide: screenshot, annotate, copy, record video, record GIF, scrolling capture, or pin it to the screen as a floating window. Press Space to flip between region and window picking, just like the macOS tool. Scrolling capture auto-scrolls and stitches whole pages, waits for lazy-loaded images, and detects sticky headers and cookie banners so they only appear once.

A full editor. 14+ annotation tools including numbered callouts, word-snapping highlights, blur/pixelate, cut-out bands, and signatures. One click auto-censor emails, phone numbers, credit cards, SSNs, and API keys. A beautifier adds gradient backgrounds, window frames, and shadows, and you can round-trip between annotating and beautifying as much as you want.

Recording with post-production. Record screen, system audio, mic, and webcam, then fix the recording instead of re-doing it: auto-zoom on every click, keystroke overlay, speed ramps through the boring parts, a synthetic scalable cursor, webcam picture-in-picture, and on-device auto-captions. Export as MP4, a looping "GIF but tiny" video, or a 9:16/1:1 crop for social. The original file is never touched.

Smart Library. An opt-in, fully on-device index of every screenshot, you can search by the text inside it, the app you captured, your own label, or just by meaning ("deployment pipeline" finds your CI dashboard). It even indexes screenshots taken with macOS's own Cmd-Shift-4, since it watches the save folder. Sensitive apps are blocklisted from indexing, card numbers and tokens are stripped before anything is written, and there's a forget button for any capture or the whole database.

Plus the rest of the ordinary stuff you’d expect: OCR text capture, color picker, QR scanner with malicious-payload detection, a Touch ID encrypted vault for sensitive captures, EXIF/metadata stripping, a floating shelf that collects your last few shots, and uploads to your own Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, S3, or WebDAV. No vendor cloud, no subscription to share a link.

How it compares:

CleanShot X is the polished commercial benchmark for screenshotting in my opinion. it has great capture, annotation, and recording, with sharing built around its own cloud. macshot is free, open-source, native, and genuinely good. It has annotation, recording, scroll capture, auto-censor, and OCR. I have a lot of respect for what its developer built. We were working on our apps around the same time; they just shipped their story to the world faster, and I'm only now getting around to marketing mine. So the comparison isn't "they can't do X," it's what mine does differently I made a Smart Library that searches your screenshots by text, app, or meaning entirely on-device (and indexes shots from other tools too, since it watches the save folder), a post-production editor that adds auto-zoom on clicks, keystroke overlays, speed ramps, on-device captions, and a 9:16 reframe to a recording after the fact; and a Touch ID encrypted vault for captures that shouldn't sit on the screenshot folder. Uploads go to storage you already own (Dropbox, iCloud, Drive, S3, WebDAV) rather than a vendor cloud. I also allow local AI and other frontier models to be used to prompt captures (there are presets and you can add your own in the settings).

Pricing:

Free. No trial, no license, no account. (There's a companion Window Manager if you want it, $7.99 once for 2 Macs, but the screenshot app doesn't need it.)

Transparency:

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/easysnaps/

Privacy Policy https://easysnaps.org/privacy/

Terms of Service https://easysnaps.org/terms/

Contact [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Details:

Runs entirely on-device: capture, OCR, AI search, and captions never touch a server. No telemetry outside the opt-in beta program. Native Swift, macOS 14+, 25 languages. Developer ID signed and notarized, Sparkle auto-updates, not on the App Store.

https://easysnaps.org

https://easysnaps.org/screenshots/

Problem:

I sit at a standing desk all day writing code and my posture is shot. Shoulders forward, lower back doing its own thing. I know the exercises that fix it, the knowledge was never the problem. The problem is remembering to actually do them when you're deep in work at 2pm.

I built a menu bar app that handles the remembering for me. It has two modes: Sit/Stand for standing desk users (alternates intervals with a live countdown in the menu bar) and Move mode if you just want a recurring reminder to get up. It also has a daily posture exercise and stretching checklist grouped by problem area (lower back, shoulders, neck) with instructions for each exercise/stretch and little checkmarks per set. Resets every morning with a reminder so you actually do them.

I actually started as a personal tool because I didn’t want to pay subscriptions, but then I got good results and thought I’d share it.

No account, no network access, no analytics. It's sandboxed and stores nothing but your settings locally.

Comparison:

SitApp and Posture Reminder AI use your webcam to detect slouching in real time, which is clever, but catching yourself slouching doesn't fix the underlying issue of weak and tight muscles. You sit up for a minute and drift right back. Time Out and other break apps do the reminder part well but know nothing about posture or exercises.

Lumbar Jack is the combination I wanted: interval reminders plus the corrective exercises that address the actual cause, one purchase, no camera pointed at me all day.

Pricing:

$3 once, no subscription.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/lumbar-jack/id6787187868

Site: https://lumbarjack.h360.dev

Happy to answer questions, and keen for feedback. First Mac app after years of backend dev so be gentle.

I have a powerful Windows desktop at home that I use for development and GPU-heavy work, and a MacBook Air that I take with me when travelling or going to meetings.
Occasionally I need to use the full Windows machine remotely from the MacBook - not just access files, but work in Windows apps for a few hours. The home PC can stay powered on, and I have a decent internet connection at home.
I am mainly looking for something reliable and secure over hotel/mobile networks, with good image quality and low enough latency for normal development work. I would rather avoid opening RDP ports directly to the internet.
My current idea is Tailscale for private network access, combined with either Windows App/RDP, Parsec, or Sunshine + Moonlight.
What are people here actually using from a Mac to access a Windows desktop remotely? Which setup has been the most reliable for longer work sessions?

Dock Star basically puts your whole Mac on your desktop - maybe it should be called Desktop Star? I only saw it come along here once.

It looks like a very nice app, especially for people who maybe are a bit chaotic, or do not feel for structuring their entire Mac.

I want to buy it as a present for someone. But before I do so, I would like to know if there are similar apps that can do the same - or even better.

If there are people here that use Dock Star, I would love to read your experiences.

I'm the developer of 2Do. This is its biggest Mac update in over 16 years, with too many improvements to list.

Problem

2Do is for people who need more than a basic to-do list without being forced into a specific workflow. There is no wrong way to use it. Keep a simple list, follow GTD, manage detailed projects, or create your own workflow.

It supports tasks, checklists, projects, tags, Smart Lists, reminders, durations, locations, scripting, and Claude Cowork through MCP. It can sync (two-way!) with Apple Reminders, Todoist, Fastmail, iCloud CalDAV, self-hosted CalDAV, Toodledo, and Dropbox. It can also import existing data from Things 3 and OmniFocus.

2Do also lets you share individual lists with other people over local Wi-Fi. No internet connection or cloud service is required.

Comparison

Compared with Things 3, 2Do offers more sync choices, including Apple Reminders, Todoist, CalDAV, Toodledo, and Dropbox. It also provides flexible Smart Lists, different sort methods (and so much more!) and can import an existing Things database directly.

Compared with OmniFocus, 2Do offers a less prescriptive workflow while still supporting projects, subtasks, tags, priorities, start and due dates, recurring tasks, and advanced filtering. It can also import an existing OmniFocus database.

See the full feature comparison chart.

Pricing

No Subscription. A direct 2Do Mac license normally costs $49.99 USD. New customers can currently get 30% off, reducing the price to $34.99 USD, with code 30OFFMYORDER at checkout.

The direct version is a perpetual license with no recurring charge. It includes 18 months of updates, and you can keep using the last version covered by your license indefinitely. Renewal is optional and currently costs $39.99 USD for another 18 months of updates.

A free 14-day trial is available from 2doapp.com.

Happy to answer questions about the update.

Problem I built Prism to solve I built Prism to solve the friction of constantly switching to browser tabs to use AI. Web-based AI tools break your flow and lack proper OS integration. Prism is a native macOS AI assistant designed to feel like a real Mac app instead of another browser tab. It handles multi-provider chat, Quick AI, browser automation, system-wide writing help, file creation, image generation, and even study tools like quizzes and flashcards, all with local-first privacy controls.

Comparison Compared to other AI wrappers or tools like BoltAI or TypingMind, Prism goes far beyond a simple menu bar chat window. While those apps are great for basic AI messaging, Prism acts as a deep OS-level productivity suite. It offers unique features like native browser automation, file creation, and built-in study tools that competitors lack. I am shipping frequent updates based on user feedback, so the app is actively improving rather than sitting as a one-off release. If you try it and something feels missing, I would genuinely like to hear what would make it better for your workflow.

Pricing & Plans Prism offers flexible pricing whether you want to use the app entirely for free, bring your own API keys, or use our premium hosted models. All paid subscriptions include 2 seats.

• Prism Free (Permanent): $0/mo (Basic app access, 10 AI requests per day across your own keys and local models).
• Prism (Standard): $3/mo (Full app access, local proxy to route IDEs/CLIs, web overlay, and 2 seats. Hosted AI added separately), Includes 3 day free trial.
• Prism Plus: $15/mo (Full app access + ~350 messages of hosted AI usage included on GPT-5.6, Claude, or Gemini and many other providers).
• Student Yearly: $10/yr (Full app access for students with a verified .edu email, hosted AI added separately).
• Lifetime License: $60 one-time (Permanent app access. Use your own keys/local models, or add hosted AI usage packs a-la-carte).

Standard and Plus plans have yearly options as well with 2 months free.

LAUNCH PROMO Launch Special: The first 15 lifetime-license buyers get $60 in GPT-5.6 credits, which includes 8M Terra and 2M Sol tokens. Purchase by Sep 1; credits are active through Sep 5. This makes the license effectively pay for itself on day one.

Future Updates

• Upcoming: iOS, Android, and Windows apps for others who do not have a Mac.

Transparency & Trust: 

I am the sole developer behind Prism. I'm a student developer and you can verify my identity on my LinkedIn Profile or see my work on my GitHub Profile. You can also review Prism's Privacy Policy & Terms on our website.

Link: https://prism-app.tech

Only 1 spot left! Use Code: SPECIAL25 to get 25% OFF on the license!

I am trying to make a PDF Form for a number pad template for Karabiner/keyboard maestro, to keep track of what I set it to do. (and easily make new ones for new set ups, thus a template)

I've made the PDF, put in text fields... BUT, the whole things is unstable, easy to mess up and edit, and just tabbing thru fields doesn't work.

Is there a way to "lock it" so that only the set text fields can be changed?

I've decided I like this place, so I am hanging around despite some of its quirks.

Take your average question, let's say it's someone asking about a simple app to keep a window on top. Within an hour, the replies will include:

• A free open-source utility
• A $5 single-purpose app
• A $30 app that also performs 46 unrelated functions
• A recommendation for Raycast
• Someone saying that Alfred can do it better
• Someone else announcing that subscriptions are destroying civilization
• That guy who accuses everything of "being AI"
• The developer of a completely different app, praising the question and dropping a link to his unrelated app "if you're interested"

This is a feature, not a bug.

Few things make me sadder than someone who confesses that they have been thinking about getting an app like Keyboard Maestro, but they're holding off because they "are not a power user." We need to clear up some misconceptions. First of all, their reaction is understandable: in KM, there are colored blocks, nested actions, variables, conditions, triggers, and mysterious references to shell scripts. The whole thing looks less like a Mac app and more like the control system for a nuclear reactor. Most people just want to open an app, do something, and close it. They do not want to spend Saturday afternoon creating a four-finger trackpad gesture that resizes Finder, launches Obsidian, mounts a server, and tells the kitchen Echo to play London Calling.

Some of us do.

The Power User Defined

A Mac Power User (MPU) is not necessarily someone who knows how to write code, who uses the Terminal exclusively, or has memorized every defaults write command ever posted on Stack Overflow.

A power user is just someone with a low tolerance for friction and a high tolerance for tinkering. That's the whole entrance exam. If you've ever been annoyed enough at a repeated task to wonder whether there's a better way, you're already qualified. The apps aren't the hard part; deciding you're allowed to use them is.

They notice repeated friction, investigate whether it can be removed, and then spend 45 minutes automating a task that previously took eight seconds. This looks irrational until the automation fires correctly for the first time. At that moment, the heavens open, angels sing, and those eight seconds become a matter of principle.

What matters isn't technical skill; it's the persistent belief that the Mac could behave better if only someone would make it listen. When you stop seeing applications as singular entities and begin seeing how they form an interrelated system, that's when you have the mental framework required of an MPU.

A screenshot is not just a screenshot. It must be captured, annotated, compressed, renamed, filed by date, and moved into an archive folder after 30 days. Ideally, none of this should require conscious thought. (Confession: this is my actual workflow via Screenshot X, Hazel, Clop and NameQuick). The question is never just, "What does this app do?"

It is, "Can I trigger it with a hotkey, AppleScript, URL scheme, command-line tool, Shortcuts action, Stream Deck button, or unusually aggressive trackpad gesture?"

They do not:

• Necessarily know how to code
• Have a "clean" setup; most of us are one launcher away from chaos
• Agree with each other about anything, ever

That last one matters. Put two power users in a room and you'll get three opinions about clipboard managers.

We Hold Strong Opinions About Little Things

A power user can remain calm during the failure of an operating-system upgrade or a smoking router. If some app moves one menu bar icon without permission, however, the day is ruined.

Small interface problems become deeply personal:

• An app opens on the wrong display.
• A window refuses to remember its size.
• A network share does not reconnect after sleep.
• A menu command lacks a keyboard shortcut.
• A utility uses 340 MB of memory while allegedly doing nothing.
• A new app is Electron-based, or worse yet, subscription-based.

None of these problems threatens civilization. Still, each one produces the same response: "There has to be an app for this."

There usually is.

It costs $7.99 on Gumroad, was made by one person somewhere in Eastern Europe, and has settings for things you did not know macOS could detect.

Just a Little Too Proud

Every hobby has its peacocks, and ours are easy to spot. The menu bar with thirty icons, curated like a trophy shelf. The person who has "finally settled" on a text editor for the fourth time this year and announced it in a post. The one who describes their file naming convention with the quiet confidence of someone who has never once found the file they were looking for on the first try.

I can make these jokes because I am these jokes. My Mac feels broken if certain utilities are missing, and I have absolutely rebuilt a workflow that already worked because a new app looked interesting. The peacocking isn't malice; it's enthusiasm with nowhere to go. The only version that deserves an eye roll is the one aimed downward, at people who just want their computer to work. Those people aren't doing it wrong. They're the control group.

Enter r/MacApps

The sub is our natural habitat: developers answering questions in their own threads, lifetime-license hunters comparing notes like coupon clippers, and "best clipboard manager?" arriving roughly every eleven minutes and still getting sincere answers. Rarely does anyone get mocked for asking a basic question. The worst outcome is leaving with four new apps you didn't plan to buy.

That's the tell. Power users aren't gatekeepers by nature; they're recruiters. Ask one a question about window managers and your real problem becomes ending the conversation. You'll eventually find out that half of the complex setups presented are just hobbies, not necessities. The best Mac setup gets out of your way and lets you work without fighting you; utility count has nothing to do with it. Conversely, there's nothing wrong with tinkering with apps as an enjoyable pastime IF you have the self-awareness to know that is what you are doing. Always remember, the time preparing to work is not actually work. Don't be the guy who, on the clock, builds elaborate macro chains in Keyboard Maestro to rename screenshots, run them through an image optimizer, and archive them by year; only to capture two screenshots a month.

Wannabe power users are welcome here, and if you don't want that label, that's fine. Someone has to keep us honest

"...we have had to remove the AIRMAIL account and email address as it “compromised my MacBook laptop and infected other email accounts..."

Note: to say this user is not at all tech savvy would be an understatement.

The email address in question is IMAP/SMTP that originates within an organization website where I have security on all the email addresses. No one else has reported an issue. I do not have an issue.

I tried a number of apps to get her set up but she had issues with all of them before Airmail, which is not what I generally recommend.

Have you ever seen this and what do you think?

TIA.

Like many Mac users, I kept running out of storage and never really found a cleanup app I felt comfortable using. Some felt too focused on subscriptions, some were a bit too aggressive, and some were powerful but not very approachable.

I wanted something calmer: a native Mac app that simply shows what it wants to remove before removing anything. So I built Duply.

What it does:

• Finds rebuildable junk like caches, logs, and browser leftovers (with sizes and locations)
• Detects true duplicates using file hashes
• Finds large files and visualizes disk usage with a treemap
• Avoids sensitive areas like Keychain, Preferences, .ssh, and system folders

Everything stays on your Mac.

How it compares:

• vs CleanMyMac: no subscription and no background agent running all the time. You open it when you need it, and it doesn't nag you.
• vs DaisyDisk: DaisyDisk is a great visualizer but leaves the actual cleaning to you. Duply finds the rebuildable junk and duplicates for you, but still shows everything before touching a single file.

Pricing:

• $4.99 one-time purchase
• No subscription
• No IAP
• No account

I'm the developer behind Duply, and I'm curious what Mac users think about a tool like this. What files would you trust a cleanup app to remove? What would make you feel comfortable using a tool like this?

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6785094887

Hey everybody!

ExtraBar is a command center utility for your mac, at first we referred to it as a menu bar manager, but while it does help you tame your menu bar by removing their native icons and managing them through it, it is not a traditional hide/show menu bar manager like Bartender.

Background

macOS Tahoe introduced several challenges to menu bar managers, and ExtraBar was our attempt to create a simple alternative. After fighting a losing battle with edge cases, we quickly pivoted towards a different approach, which is a customizable menu bar, one that's better referred to as a command center.

ExtraBar has 16 different actions for the apps you add to it like open, quit, force quit etc however, it's main power is deep links. Anyone would have used deep links before know how powerful they are, and how much time could be saved on operations your perform every day, that has a deep link.

Examples of deep links

(there are millions of deep links, those are just random examples):

- Open WhatsApp to a specific conversation

- Any operation on Raycast like caffeinating your mac or any action from any extension you install

- Open Notion or Figma to a specific page in the browser or directly in the desktop app

- Trigger a Keyboard maestro macro or a BTT gesture directly by using their native URL scheme (deep links)

Read more on Raycast and deep links

Video

In the video you can see me playing with different actions such as Open with App (Bloom), Raycast - which is literally built on top of deep links, as well as how I customized my CleanShot X menu with just what I need using Raycast Extensions.

Core Features

- 5 Display Modes: Menu bar, Floating bar, Collapsed mode, Notch mode & Hide/Show launcher style

- Built with focus on Keyboard navigation, you can call ExtraBar with your keyboard and navigate the menus however you like with numbers or arrows.

- Fully customizable menu bar with 15 actions (Open with, Run Script, Run Shortcuts, Hide/Show, Deep links, Keyboard Shortcuts and more)

- Included bookmark manager (seen in video) with cloud sync between devices, web dashboard, soon to be fully cross platform, read more here

Comparison

As I mentioned ExtraBar is different from apps like Bartender or Barbee as it's not about hiding and showing apps. Instead ExtraBar is about menu bar customization, and turning your menu bar into a command center that's personalized to you.

Pricing

€15 Summer Sale is running until 1st of August (40% off)

Problem

Two shapes of writing tool exist today and neither fit how I actually write on my Mac. One is a separate chat window (ChatGPT, Claude) that needs constant copy-paste in and out. The other is a generic rewriter (Grammarly, Apple Writing Tools) that flattens everything to the same neutral voice, regardless of whether I'm messaging my wife or a client. Both interrupt whatever app I'm actually working in.

Comparison

vs Grammarly: Grammarly runs in the cloud and applies one house style everywhere. Lyra runs 100% on-device via llama.cpp with Metal, and builds a private local corpus of how you write to each specific person, so rewrites preserve your voice to that recipient instead of flattening it.

vs Apple Writing Tools: Apple's rewrite is generic, one-shot, and doesn't learn anything about who you're writing to. Lyra is ambient (fires when you pause), recipient-aware, and includes reply-assist in Gmail and Outlook that drafts replies in your voice to that specific sender.

Pricing

Free: 500 rewrites per month. Pro: $9.99 per month or $99 per year.

Link: heylyra.co.uk

About me / transparency (per Tier 2)

Solo dev based in London. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pratik-garg-11537825

Contact: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

Privacy Policy: heylyra.co.uk/privacy.

Terms: heylyra.co.uk/terms.

Apple Silicon only, macOS 14+. Model runs locally: ~1GB on 12-19GB Macs (Qwen3-1.7B), ~3GB on 20GB+ Macs (Gemma 3B).

Happy to answer questions.

https://reddit.com/link/1v2kyb1/video/kf7rk4jhhleh1/player

Hey r/macapps!

A huge thank you to everyone who tried Grambo, reported bugs, and shared feedback after my last post. 

One piece of feedback that stood out was that after applying an AI rewrite, it was hard to tell what exactly had changed. For grammar fixes it wasn't a big deal, but for larger rewrites and tone changes, it made reviewing your writing more difficult.

What's new:

• Comparison View to see exactly what changed between your original and rewritten text.
• Custom Server URLs for BYOK, so you can connect to your own OpenAI-compatible AI endpoints.
• Various bug fixes and improvements based on your feedback.
• Better reliability and overall performance.

For anyone seeing Grambo for the first time, it's a native macOS writing assistant that helps you fix grammar and rewrite text anywhere on your Mac with a keyboard shortcut.

Comparison:

I tried tools like Grammarly, LanguageTool, and Refine, but I kept running into the same issues:

• Too many clicks and interruptions
• Distracting underlines and popup-heavy UI
• Heavy workflows when all I wanted was quick rewriting
• Limited personalization
• Expensive subscriptions for simple use cases
• Most tools focus heavily on grammar correction instead of fast tone adaptation

So I built Grambo initially just for myself.

Features:

• Grammar correction & AI rewrites
• Keyboard-first workflow
• Custom prompts
• Memory for names and writing context
• Rewrite history
• BYOK support for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama, and custom server URLs
• Optional Grambo Cloud if you don't want to manage APIs or local models

Privacy:

• Grammar correction works locally on-device.
• API keys are securely stored in Keychain.
• No tracking of your writing activity.
• Your writing is never used for AI training.

Pricing:

Lifetime: $14.99 (launch offer, regular $39.99)

Grambo Cloud: $2.99/month

If you use your own API keys or local AI, you don't need a Grambo Cloud subscription.

Note: If you're on a version below 2.0, please re-download the app. We updated the licensing and update system, so older versions won't update correctly.

Trust part:
I am the ex-technical head of the Voicenotes app (~1M+ users). I have more than 6+ years of development experience.

Developer: https://profile.sabeencs.com
Website: https://gramboapp.com
Privacy: https://gramboapp.com/privacy-policy
Terms: https://gramboapp.com/terms-of-service

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and feature requests. Thanks again for helping shape Grambo!

P.S. I've been quietly working on something outside the Mac app...
Grambo for iPhone and iPad is officially on the way. Stay tuned.

Bonjour à tous,

J'utilise Canary Mail depuis quelques années et j'en suis très content. Cependant, depuis l'essor de l'IA, l'équipe de développement semble se concentrer uniquement sur son évolution, au détriment de l'application elle-même.

Depuis plusieurs mois, je rencontre des difficultés pour retrouver mes e-mails avec cette application. Les recherches sont interminables : il faut plus de deux minutes avant que les résultats ne s'affichent, ce qui est particulièrement frustrant lorsqu'on est au téléphone. De plus, la consommation de RAM est excessive : après certaines recherches, elle dépasse les 10 Go et ne redescend pas, sans parler de l'utilisation du processeur.

En fin de compte, je recherche une application rapide et efficace qui ne télécharge pas tous mes e-mails sur mon appareil, mais effectue les recherches directement sur le serveur. J'aimerais également pouvoir accéder à toutes mes boîtes de réception depuis un seul et même espace, sans que mes e-mails ne transitent par les serveurs de mon client de messagerie.

En résumé, je recherche un client de messagerie simple et basique offrant toutes les fonctions essentielles, ce qui semble rare de nos jours. Thunderbird répond à certains de ces critères, mais il n'existe pas de version iOS. J'apprécie de ne pas avoir à utiliser plusieurs applications pour accomplir la même tâche.

L'application Mail d'Apple ne permet pas de limiter le stockage des e-mails, et je ne connais aucune application qui ne passe pas par les serveurs du client de messagerie.

I'm not on gmail and I have 15 emails to manage.

Merci pour votre aide. Si un développeur souhaite créer le client de messagerie idéal, ce serait formidable, et je suis certain de ne pas être le seul !

I built AppUFO.app to Localise iOS Apps with AI. It translates the xcstrings file from Xcode in a few seconds.

Problem
Some weeks ago I went to localize one of my Apps. This was my first time localizing an iOS App. I quickly realised how long the process takes (3days+) & how expensive it is ($100+ for each language). This is not acceptable in 2026 with all the AI. So instead of working on that app, I took a tangent and built this mini tool for mac.

Comparison

• vs onesky: Both Apps have basic features like Glossery, Character limit, Ai Context. Onesky is have the option of human translators. AppUFO is fully offline (accept AI translation), is a lot cheaper, allows you to use the latest LLMs & the process is lot faster. AppUFO is targeted more for the indie dev.
• vs lokalise: Both Apps have the same basic features. Localise works with web, ios, android & other software, while AppUFO is dedicated for iOS Apps. Lokalise has a lots of team features, while AppUFO is targeted for indie devs. AppUFO is a lot cheaper & affordable.

Pricing
€39.99 Lifetime, no subscription. Bring-Your-Own-AI-API-KEY
€9.99 Monthly - AI translation included, no API Key required.
€69.99 Monthly - AI translation included, no API Key required.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6790789186

Website: https://appUFO.app

Trust/Transparency

I'm Melvin! I have been developing apps for the last 13 years. You might know me from the last post on TinyFast.

I would love to answer any question you have. Let me know what you think. I Would love to hear feedback from other devs.

some of you know me from clarity, the file manager i posted here a few months ago. this is a different app, same developer, and i want to be upfront about that from the start.

while building clarity i kept going deeper on one specific thing: what your files quietly reveal about you. personal id numbers sitting in old screenshots. gps coordinates in photos. your name in every document. and increasingly, whether an image was ai-generated. that rabbit hole got big enough to be its own focused tool, so i pulled it out and built privacy scanner around just that.

the ai part is why i shipped it now. the eu ai act's article 50 starts applying on 2 august, and it's about disclosing when content is ai-generated. privacy scanner reads the c2pa content credentials and ai markers that generators embed, locally, so you can see what your own files carry. it reads embedded metadata, it does not analyze pixels.

problem: your files carry a lot about you without you knowing. personal ids from 25 countries, gps and camera data, author names, download-source urls, and ai-generation markers. most tools handle one slice, and the web-based ai detectors make you upload your image to their server.

comparison: metadata cleaners strip exif but do not detect personal ids or read c2pa. the online ai-detection sites all upload your files. privacy scanner does pii, metadata, and c2pa detection in one place, on device, with no network access at all. you can verify that yourself, the sandbox has no network entitlement, so nothing can be uploaded even in principle.

pricing: scanning is completely free and unlimited, including all ai and c2pa detection. if you want to fix things (strip metadata, block out personal ids, export clean copies, generate a signed audit report you can verify with openssl), that's a one-time $9.99. no subscription.

macos 14.6+. happy to answer anything about how it works.

https://apps.apple.com/app/privacy-scanner/id6761814576

Hi 👋 guys and girls :) i would need your help!

I would need some fit files (garmin activity) for hiking, walking, running? You are probably asking yourself why, I’m building an app for macos which would give you an easy to read data from those analytics. I have only cycling activities thats why im asking you for your help. No data will be shared with any 3rd parties! You can also poke me on DM to get even more overview of the project.For testing purposes l’m missing those activity types.

Thank you for your time reading this and maybe even helping me out!

By the way, Rilmazafone is used to make the DMG for Rilmazafone

Problem: when I started developing macOS applications, I realized that there is no easy solution for making DMG files. Sure, there are plenty of CLI tools, but they require you to rebuild and check that your inputs are correct, they have tons of parameters that you need a manual to understand. .DS_Store is an old format with no documentation.

Comparison: DMG Canvas is the established tool, solid, but closed source. For a tool used to distribute your own applications, I think having access to source code is important. The CLI tools exist too, create-dmg, dmgbuild, appdmg. But they're CLI-only tools, with no way to visualize what you're making.

Advantages: Rilmazafone is fully native, everything is implemented in Swift, including .DS_Store writing and parsing. It has a CLI helper allowing it to work as a part of a pipeline.

I've been using it myself for months now to publish other applications.

Its WYSIWYG canvas shows what your users will see in Finder pixel-for-pixel. You can drag your applications or folders around, you can add complex backgrounds to them, all using native graphics. You can freely add symbols, text, images, gradients, and then save all that as a template for later use by you or your team.

It can also code-sign your DMGs, so they're ready for notarization.

Pricing: $19.99 one-time purchase in the Mac App Store. The application is open-sourced on GitHub. The AppStore version gives you an auto-updating, sandboxed, Apple-verified application, and a way to directly support development of this and other applications.

Go to the AppStore page

GitHub repository

Note: I'm the developer of this and many other applications, including Phosphene that's currently at 770+ stars.

Series · Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | more parts coming

Part 2 ended in the middle of my story with the 2014 13-inch MacBook Pro. This is where Part 3 continues.

Compared with my 2008 MacBook, the 2014 MacBook Pro felt much thinner. I noticed the difference most in its display lid.

I was used to working with a MacBook on my knees, sometimes while keeping it connected to the charger. It still used MagSafe, but the thinner MagSafe 2 connector came loose by accident much more often. The original MagSafe connector on my 2008 MacBook felt much more stable to me.

That MacBook served me extremely well. More importantly, the apps I was finding were helping me build a macOS workflow that felt like mine.

Finding Files Without Spotlight

Years ago, when I used Windows XP, I was satisfied with its slow file search because it searched file names. I never needed the search engine to read the contents of every file.

Later, I used Everything on Windows. It did the simple job I wanted, but almost instantly.

My needs did not change when later versions of Windows introduced indexed search. A large part of my drive contained source code, and I did not want Windows indexing the contents of all those files. When I disabled indexing, it simply fell back to a plain file name search in the current folder. That was perfectly fine for me.

Spotlight brought the same kind of indexing to macOS, along with CPU activity for work I never asked it to do. I eventually disabled file indexing and kept using Spotlight mainly to launch apps.

I expected Finder to do what Windows did and fall back to a plain file name search in the current folder. Instead, with indexing disabled, Finder simply tells me that no files were found, even when I search a folder containing only a few files. The same thing happens while indexing is still in progress. I was surprised then, and I still am. I cannot understand Apple's decision to leave Finder search broken this way.

Spotlight also sometimes keeps a USB drive or SD card busy while indexing it and prevents me from ejecting it when I want to. This is especially annoying because I never asked it to index those drives.

In 2015, I found Find Any File. It became my only graphical replacement for the system file search. It searches directly by file name without requiring a content index and returns results quickly. It can search file contents when requested, but that is not how I use it.

The interface looks simple, but the app has much more inside, including hidden preferences for advanced needs.

When I contacted the developer in 2015, he explained that Find Any File could search the HFS catalog directly, much as Everything reads the NTFS Master File Table on Windows. It could even do this with some AFP network volumes backed by HFS.

That email helped me understand why the app felt so different from Spotlight.

Find Any File is another rare app whose current Mac App Store binary I tested locally and confirmed to be unsandboxed. As I explained in Part 2, Apple requires new Mac App Store apps to use App Sandbox, while some older apps that were already in the store were allowed to preserve their existing architecture. That makes long-maintained apps like this especially difficult to replace inside the store.

I bought Find Any File more than ten years ago. It is still updated, no one has forced me to pay again, and I still cannot remember finding a single bug in it. That combination is rare.

The Calculator I Could Make My Own

As a student, I used many different calculators. PCalc became my favorite. I first used it on my iPhone 3GS and later bought the Mac version.

What made it different for me was its customizable interface. I liked that the calculator was resizable and that I could customize every button, letting me shape it around the way I worked instead of adapting to a fixed layout.

PCalc began in 1992, long before I found it. It is still maintained and still feels like the same focused app I liked from the beginning.

Learning How Much Memory I Actually Used

I like finding unusual and useful apps, then trying them to see whether they improve my workflow. iStat Menus is one of the apps I kept.

When I first tried it, I wanted to add some useful information to the menu bar. I ended up keeping it for a completely different reason. Today, my menu bar is minimal, and iStat Menus adds only one icon showing the charge levels of my batteries.

What made me appreciate the app even more was its ability to keep a history of my MacBook usage. I can review my memory use over the previous 30 days instead of judging it from a single moment in Activity Monitor. This shows me how I actually use my MacBook's RAM over time and how much I really need.

That history helped me understand how much RAM would be enough for me when I upgrade to a new MacBook. It gave me a practical answer instead of a guess.

The version I bought was later followed by another paid major version. I still recommend supporting it. Sometimes we need developers to keep pushing updates, but sometimes they need us to support their work.

Seeing How Fast My Drives Really Were

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test was one of my favorite benchmark tools. I remember seeing this app everywhere, in YouTube videos and screenshots across the web. It still appears in those places after so many years. Its two large read and write gauges have become iconic, and I believe many of you will recognize the interface immediately.

The simple interface delivered exactly the information I wanted to know. I liked using it to compare the speed of my MacBook's drive with the drive in my Windows PC. The app also let me choose the test file location, so I could point it to a microSD card or external drive and find out its actual read and write speeds.

A standalone version arrived on the Mac App Store in 2011, and Blackmagic Design continues to update it.

Three More Mac Developer Interviews

These interviews are exclusive to my Reverse Everything blog. I hope other developers, especially new ones, find them useful.

Find Any File — An Interview with Thomas Tempelmann

Ighor July

What motivates you to continue developing and supporting Find Any File after so many years?

Thomas Tempelmann

Find Any File provides a side income that I rely on. I also enjoy getting feedback for my work, which is why I make my products personal instead of hiding anonymously behind a company name.

I also earn a little from another app, iClip, although its popularity has declined because there are many competitors. On the other hand, Find Any File has become popular enough to maintain a good reputation without advertising, which is not one of my strengths.

I have tried to create other apps that would earn money, but none of them has worked out so far. I keep trying, though.

Ighor July

What advice would you give to independent developers who hope to maintain and support their apps for ten years or longer?

Thomas Tempelmann

Keep your users happy. Even if they ask for features you do not want to implement or cannot implement, show that you understand what they want and politely explain why you cannot fulfill the request, even if the reason is simply that you do not have enough time or the effort would not be worthwhile.

When possible, add small things, even if you would not find them useful yourself. Users will tell others and praise your effort and reliability. That is how I still have a near-perfect five-star rating on the Mac App Store.

Read the complete Find Any File interview.

PCalc — An Interview with James Thomson

Ighor July

What motivates you to continue developing and supporting PCalc after so many years?

James Thomson

Stubbornness, mainly :) Really, it's still a good app to keep up with the changes each year, and keep learning. But, I want to keep it going. It's been 34 years, so I don't feel I can really stop now! Maybe when I get to 42 years. Plus, it has provided a good income, and it's nice to be able to pay the bills.

Ighor July

What advice would you give to independent developers who hope to maintain and support their apps for ten years or longer?

James Thomson

The easiest thing is to make something because you actually want to use the app yourself. Don't just make something because you think it will make money. If your heart is not in it, you will get bored of it easily!

Read the complete PCalc interview.

iStat Menus — An Interview with Bjango

Ighor July

What motivates you to continue developing and supporting iStat Menus after so many years?

Marc

That’s a great question. It’s a joy to work on a tool that we use ourselves, and it always brings a smile to my face when I see it in someone’s menu bar. It’s even been in TV shows before!

Ighor July

What advice would you give to independent developers who hope to maintain and support their apps for ten years or longer?

Marc

Honestly, it comes down to people liking your app enough that they’ll use and recommend it. The challenge often isn’t technical. It’s about building up trust and respect.

I also feel like getting noticed is harder now than it used to be. There’s a good chance luck and timing played a big role in how things turned out for us.

Read the complete iStat Menus interview.

Part 4 will continue with more of my Mac experience, more apps that stayed with me, and more stories from the people who built them.

Series · Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | more parts coming

This post was originally published on Reverse Everything and is shared exclusively with r/macapps

https://reddit.com/link/1v2b8ig/video/llxo9hi85jeh1/player

Hey guys!

I’m a solo indie developer, and I’ve been working on a project that I’m really excited (and a bit nervous) to share with you all: WallTune. It’s an app I designed specifically to make multi-monitor setups look amazing without the headache.

Here is a quick breakdown:

🚨 The Problem

If you use multiple monitors, you probably know the struggle. Setting up your wallpapers and lock screens across different displays is surprisingly clunky. You get everything looking perfect, then you unplug a monitor, plug it back in, and suddenly your whole setup is messed up. The old trial-and-error method of applying a lock screen, locking the Mac to see if it looked right, unlocking it, tweaking it, and repeating was driving me crazy.

🆚 The Comparison

Most apps out there force you to choose: they either manage static images, or they manage videos (like Wallper, Wallspace, or Backdrop). WallTune handles both JPG and video wallpapers flawlessly in one place. You don't need to juggle different apps depending on the aesthetic you want today.

Additionally, the built-in gallery features hand-curated wallpapers. They are specifically tested to ensure they look stunning in high-resolution, even when stretched across a dual-monitor setup—instead of just pulling unverified random content from the web.

Also, unlike other video wallpaper apps that need to run constantly in the background eating RAM, WallTune integrates directly with the native macOS engine—meaning once you set it, you can completely close the app.

🌟 Key Features

Match what’s actually on your desk

Live editing your lock screen. Adjust how your video looks across all your displays in real-time

With WallTune’s Live Editing, you can adjust your monitor settings, crop, and position your media, and see exactly how everything aligns across your entire multi-monitor setup live.

Find something that fits your setup

Browse image and video wallpapers without leaving the app

WallTune includes a Gallery for discovering image and video wallpapers. You can open an item, check its details, preview it on your monitor layout, download it, or add it to a playlist. You can also add your own folders and browse your local files.

Wallpapers that follow your Focus Mode

Connect a WallTune playlist to a macOS Focus Mode.

WallTune can connect playlists to macOS Focus Modes. For example, your desktop can use one playlist while you are working and switch to another when your Personal Focus becomes active.

Independent Playlists

Need different vibes on different screens? You can set up completely independent playlists. This means your main display can cycle through your work wallpapers while your secondary monitor plays a relaxing background video, giving you total control over each screen individually.

Make it part of your Shortcuts

Use WallTune actions inside Apple Shortcuts to create your own automations.

WallTune works with Apple Shortcuts, so you can include your wallpapers in larger routines and personal automations (pick random, next/previous, activate playlist, etc.).

And yes, the Lock Screen too

Native Lock Screen wallpapers that keep working even when WallTune is closed.

Video wallpapers can also be applied to the Mac Lock Screen natively. With multiple displays, you can repeat the same video on each screen or use one composition across the entire setup on spanned mode. You do not need to keep WallTune open in the background!

Send wallpapers straight from the web

There is no need to manually download files to your Mac and move them around.

I've recently built a companion Safari Extension for WallTune (and Chrome / Edge support is coming very soon!). Whenever you find a cool image or video while browsing the web, you can send it directly to your WallTune library or even set it as your current wallpaper in just one click.

💳 Pricing, Link & 🎁 GIVEAWAY!

WallTune is available for a $10 one-time fee (no subscriptions). You can check it out here: 👉 https://walltune.app

🎉 5 LICENSES GIVEAWAY! To celebrate the launch, I’m giving away 5 free licenses!

• How to enter: Just leave a comment below with an image of the wallpaper you are most excited to put on your dual-monitor setup!
• Rules: One entry per person. No purchase necessary. I will randomly pick and announce the 5 winners in 48 hours.

Since I’m building this solo, community feedback is everything to me. Good luck with the giveaway and I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts!

Mod Note (Tier 2 Transparency): WallTune is fully code-signed and notarized by Apple. I am a solo developer—you can check out my portfolio here https://dribbble.com/ozonostudio and connect with me on LinkedIn here https://linked.in/in/ozonostudio . Thanks!