Mac OS MacOS recommended tools, apps

Nalin said:
I use iStat Menus, it can control fans as well, not to forget the brilliant system hardware monitoring it does right on the status bar. I do want to give sidecar a try, but waiting for OLED iPad hopefully.



Oh my zsh along fish like autosuggestion plugin, Dracula theme for terminal, home-brew all are must haves for me.


Isn't this done by default on MacOS these days, my 16" MBP remains plugged in almost 24x7 and it holds the charge on 80% only.
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You dont need to wait for an OLED ipad.. I have a s8+ and the 12.9 m1 .. There is no comparison between the two screens.
In theory, the s8+ is better coz no blooming etc.
In practice, the HDR rendering on the mini LED is leagues better than the s8+

You already seem to have the 16 mbp.. I hope you are using infuse or at least IINA for media..
Plex / vlc HDR support is broken on macbook and you would be doing yourself a disservice if you are not using a HDR compliant player on that beastly HDR screen (afaik, currently only infuse and optimus player fullly support HDR.. IINNA also does but its a bit hit/miss)
 
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superczar said:
You dont need to wait for an OLED ipad.. I have a s8+ and the 12.9 m1 .. There is no comparison between the two screens.
In theory, the s8+ is better coz no blooming etc.
In practice, the HDR rendering on the mini LED is leagues better than the s8+

You already seem to have the 16 mbp.. I hope you are using infuse or at least IINA for media..
Plex / vlc HDR support is broken on macbook and you would be doing yourself a disservice if you are not using a HDR compliant player on that beastly HDR screen (afaik, currently only infuse and optimus player fullly support HDR.. IINNA also does but its a bit hit/miss)
Click to expand...
Didn't know about Infuse or Optimus players tbh, I used to have INNA since everyone recommended it on Reddit afaik but these players are not much used on my machine since I stream mostly YouTube etc. apart from occasional Netflix and Apple TV. Dolby Vision on official Apple TV app was awesome none the less.

Mini LED doesn't seems natural to me especially in bright HDR scenes, I prefer OLEDs over it if I want to watch videos and stuff. I know brightness won't be as good but still.
 
Mini led is so bright that sometimes it is borderline uncomfortable in a dark room. It is how HDR is suppesed to be. Real world is also sometimes uncomfortably bright especially when moving from dark to bright areas.
My tv is far better in this aspect. May be because the 55 inch size lightens up the room a lot so the discomfort is not there plus the lack of peak brightness compared to an iPad pro.
But if I turn on some mild ambient lights then the experience is really good. HDR is so prominent on an iPad pro that even Ted Lasso looks fantastic.
I think there should be an option to turn it off. Not everytime I want to look at HDR especially at night.
 
If you regularly join meetings on your mac, this apps shows you the upcoming meetings and lets you join in one click -
apps.apple.com

‎MeetingBar for Meet, Zoom & Co

‎Meetings at your fingertips! MeetingBar shows your calendar events in the status bar. Create and join meetings in one click. Powerful MeetingBar shows your events list & details in the status bar and allows you to create & join meetings in one click. The app has advanced settings so that you...
apps.apple.com
 
Heisen said:
AlDente - Charge Limiter, the pro version is better because it offers sailing mode.

It keeps your battery at certain % when plugged in, very essential for battery health in the long run. I recommend 40% to 60% in sailing mode, which means when plugged in, it will charge up to 60% and let it deplete to 40% and start charging again. Keeps it in that range.

There is nothing like this on windows laptop, sad. :(
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You are a savior, I was looking for something like this for my mostly AC powered macbook.
 
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I use Hidden Bar to hide apps.
Screen Shot 2023-07-02 at 11.41.36 AM.jpg

Scaler Bandwidth Monitor for the Net Speed indicator.

Maccy Clipboard manager. Others are some macros and you know the others.
Screen Shot 2023-07-02 at 11.44.41 AM.jpg


OnyX for clearing and fixing stuff.
 
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Trying out BetterTouchTool: https://folivora.ai

It seems to be a swiss army knife of tools lol.
smnrock said:
BetterSnapTool gives more customization option i guess and its cheaper as well. At least in my case, i wanted something similar to windows PowerToy's fancyzone feature. This allows me to customize the window size(s) based on my preference.
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Have you tried Rectangle Pro?
Is BetterSnapTool more PowerToys like? I am looking for a replacement for Fancyzones as well.
 
I use a very minimal app called Tyke. It's more of a productivity tool, gives you a easy to access notepad sort of thing for anything and lives in your top bar whatever it is called, next to wifi icon. I use it to keep snippets of text for easy access,
 
sabkabadlalegaterafaisal said:
Trying out BetterTouchTool: https://folivora.ai

It seems to be a swiss army knife of tools lol.

Have you tried Rectangle Pro?
Is BetterSnapTool more PowerToys like? I am looking for a replacement for Fancyzones as well.
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i tried non pro version and then bought magnet, none of these were giving me what i wanted. As i mentioned, i use 32" 4K screen and wanted to split screen into 3 zones. 60% percent vertical zone and 40% area into two horizontal zone. This is easily possible in fanzyzone, and was able achieve in BetterSnapTool. So immediately contacted apple support to cancel magnet purchase got refund of 999rs :) and purchased bettersnaptool for 299.
 
Heisen said:
The method they use to check for battery replacement, is they measure the charge cycles on the battery from some command, I forgot that. If charge cycles are more than 600 then you are eligible for battery change. I saw this 5-6 years ago, I suppose it's still the same today.
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second that using the same
Screenshot 2023-08-10 at 16.51.32.png
 
https://better-mouse.com for making using mice on MacOS bearable. 7 day trial, 800 rupees one time payment.

free and open source alternative that does not work right now for gestures: https://github.com/noah-nuebling/mac-mouse-fix/

There's also LinearMouse and MOS that are FOSS but don't do gestures.

There's also SteerMouse and xGestures which I haven't tried but found from this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/wktwyy

It's truly infuriating how bad the mouse experience on MacOS became once MacMouseFix stopped working for me. I have been considering getting a Magic Trackpad for a week now.
 
With the increasing popularity of MacOS - I think, the time is right to make this thread. As someone who uses both Mac and Windows, making sure that both systems run alike (I find Windows more flexible still) is important. Here are some tools I find indispensible. I hope to learn more from people who are more adept than I am (I am not at all adept).

I am not associated with any of the programs listed here. I am merely a user!

Clipboard tools

As someone who is tired of the lack of clipboard managers, I have long been in search of good ones. I know there are a few more with more functionalities, but these two apps serve me well. If there are more, I would love to learn about them.

github.com

GitHub - p0deje/Maccy: Lightweight clipboard manager for macOS

Lightweight clipboard manager for macOS. Contribute to p0deje/Maccy development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

1733396994612.png

www.planckapp.com

Planck - Cross-platform Clipboard Manager

Sync and search everything you copy, anywhere, anytime.
www.planckapp.com www.planckapp.com
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Screenshot Tool
I use a lot of screenshots and all. I would love for Shottr to have video capture abilities too. But the screenshot tool does a great job of being a great alternative to ShareX on the Mac. It does not record video, but I guess, that is still okay for me.

shottr.cc

Shottr – screenshot app for pixel professionals

Shottr is a free macOS screenshot app with scrolling screenshots, OCR, annotation and measurement instruments.
shottr.cc shottr.cc
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Context Menu
True to its name, it does a lot of supercharging. Once I started using this, there was no way for me to go back. This is an all-round brilliant tool with some really nifty features and ability to configure shortcut keys to everything from minimising all windows to swiping away notifications.

sindresorhus.com

Supercharge

Elevate your Mac experience
sindresorhus.com

1733396861407.png

I will keep post other apps I use as we go along. I am looking forward to learn more from you guys!
 
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Could not agree more. And that most features are free is even more surprising! I love this app. Definitely makes the Mac a lot more flexible!
 
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