Program Request(s): App Launcher

I have a large number of apps, that I have on login. However, throughout my day, some get closed by accident, the odd one doesn’t launch, and some
of them are background apps. I would love to have this list of apps that I want open, and whether they are open, and if they are not, I can click, and launch.

The closest thing I’ve found is startup manager. However, it mainly controls what starts up but it can be finicky. For example, I’ve managed to get it so 99% of my apps startup in the background I don’t get blasted with open apps when I login.

1) Is there an app that isn’t a startup app that can accomplish this?

Second Request:

Some apps doesn’t close to background when you click x. They just close. 95% of apps are good with this but the odd one isn’t. Is there a program that makes it doesn’t close, but stays in the background.

I really appreciate the feedback!

https://redd.it/1pfs2l2
@macappsbackup

What is the best Mac Audio Player (Not Streaming Service)?

I want to ditch Deezer after I canceled Spotify 2 months ago. Deezer is not that bad and way better than Spotify but I’m not listening to new music that often anymore so I thought about just going oldschool and buying music again.
There are whole FLAC albums on sale for 6€. On the other hand every streaming service costs me 1400€ in 10 years. That’s a lot of bought albums…

So what is the best player for that kind of usage?

https://redd.it/1pfv4fy
@macappsbackup

macos/web hortcuts to make highlighting text easier

Are there any shortcuts to make highlighting text easier?

If not, could you add a feature like in Microsoft Word where you can select and highlight a sentence by clicking while holding down the command key? Or something more practical.

For example, highlighting the entire sentence with a single click (not just the word). 

https://redd.it/1pfw2pn
@macappsbackup

NotchPrompter - free and open-source teleprompter for macOS
https://redd.it/1pfxucu
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Taskbar for macOS – just a Windows-style taskbar I made for myself and ended up using every day
https://redd.it/1pfzeoc
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Ripple, a Dynamic Island app for Windows, Mac, and Linux is out
https://github.com/TopMyster/Ripple/releases/tag/v1

https://redd.it/1pfzki6
@macappsbackup

Bye-bye Adobe

Today marks the day I removed all Adobe apps from my Mac. It's like a virus—notoriously hard to clean. I've been thinking about this for a long time, but like most people, I was 1) too lazy or busy to learn new software and 2) not all alternative software was ready. Let me explain.

Why I ditched Adobe:

For starters, they aren't a great company from a creative standpoint. They have bought and eliminated many competitors.

Their software is old and bloated. I have a very expensive, high-end workstation, and even on that machine, After Effects struggles.

Their practices are hostile and manipulative. They force you to pay for a year and hit users with unexpected cancellation fees.

Despite these issues, their software remains an industry standard. I started learning it about 10 years ago and became quite proficient, especially with Photoshop, Lightroom, and After Effects.

These are the three main apps I needed to find replacements for. My main rule was no more subnoscriptions, at least not for basic functionality (AI fee is okay).

Starting with Photoshop, a solution came to me. About a month ago, Affinity launched their revamped app, and it's decent. It requires a lot of learning, but I picked up the main operations pretty quickly. I wish them luck. For most tasks, like creating YouTube thumbnails, Affinity is sufficient for me. Of course, I will miss the generative fill feature the most, but we'll see how it goes.

The second one, which is harder, is Lightroom. I used to edit tons of photos every month, but not anymore. I still wanted something that was a one-time purchase and fairly functional. It also needed to be available on my phone, essentially like Lightroom. After extensive searching, I finally decided to buy Photomator. I know, it might not be your first choice, but it's functional, the design is acceptable, all my photos are already in the Photos app, and it has a one-time purchase option along with an iPhone app. I know Apple hasn't updated it in a year, which is a red flag, but I still have hope. Maybe it will buy me 1-2 years until Affinity rolls out a Lightroom alternative. We will see.

The last one, the hardest, is After Effects. I love and hate After Effects. As a motion designer, After Effects is essentially my bread and butter. But it's time to move on. I still have it at work, so I'm covered for now. If I need to use it at home, I considered creating a second user account on my Mac, using a pirated version, and then deleting it. The issue is that with each app, you need Creative Cloud (even for the pirated version), which installs a bunch of additional software on my Mac. I want to avoid that.

In the meantime, I will be learning Blender and Cavalry. Unreal also has motion design features. This will slow me down significantly, but I think it's beneficial in the long run.

Wish me luck on this journey.

https://redd.it/1pg6xm3
@macappsbackup

Neofinder: Why such a short sale window?

So, as I was quite often checking for a sale for Neofinder, seeing as it has now its 30th birthday and they had no Black Friday sale, I was shocked to see such a short sale window. I mean only a little more as a day for a sale? Nearly did not get it for the discount as only 8 minutes were left.




https://redd.it/1pg7jib
@macappsbackup

I am loving MusicHarbor

MusicHarbor is a universal app (it has a version for iPhone, iPad, Mac) that allows you to track releases from artists you follow.

Before finding MusicHarbor I was relying on Apple Music but found the notifications of new albums to be... inconsistent at best.

You can import all your artists from Apple Music, Last.fm, Spotify, and your own local library.

Once you have the artist imported it's easy to see new releases for each artist, including if they are featured on another artist's release.

It's a little pricey for the one-time purchase option, but there are also subnoscriptions if that's something that fits your budget better.

Other users have made posts about it in the past, but it's been a while and the developer is still updating it frequently. I have also found the developer to be responsive when I have reached out with suggestions or questions.

The only downside is the initial price to get in, but I am very glad I spent the money because I use it every week and nothing else comes close to being as good.

https://redd.it/1pg8b4z
@macappsbackup

Any way to TYPE in enclosed characters on a Mac?

On my Android phone, I have a fantastic keyboard app called Irregular Expressions, which enables me to just type in 🄰🄻🄻 🅺🅸🅽🅳🆂 𝚘𝚏 𝕕𝕚𝕗𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥 unicode-based 𝓯𝓸𝓷𝓽 ⓢⓣⓨⓛⓔⓢ 🅣🅗🅐🅣 ωσяк ǝɹǝɥʍʎuɐ.

As far as I know, there's no way to do this on a Mac — instead you have to use Character Viewer, and click enclosed characters and the like one. character. at. a. time.

Does anyone know if there's an app that lets you just type in, for example, enclosed alphanumerics? I realize it would probably only work within the app itself, and I'd have to copy-paste the results out of the app. But I'd love to be able to do this without having to switch to my phone.

https://redd.it/1pgbokw
@macappsbackup

My Go To Apps

‏ My schedule is usually packed, and I’m constantly balancing work and personal projects. Productivity apps became a huge part of how I stay organized. These are some of my favorites

Ice – I used it until I upgraded to macOS 26 last week. It’s incredibly powerful

https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice

‏LibreOffice – My go to for working with Office files.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

‏DynamicLake – I mainly use it for handling calls and converting files, but also for music

https://www.dynamiclake.com

‏Paste – The best clipboard manager in my opinion. I also tried Maccy, but Paste works better for me

https://pasteapp.io/

‏Whisper – I don’t need it often, but when I do, it’s been extremely helpful

https://apps.apple.com/il/app/whisper-trannoscription/id1668083311

‏Lookaway – I tried the trial version and I’m considering buying it

https://lookaway.com

‏CleanShot X – My tool for taking screenshots

https://cleanshot.com

https://redd.it/1pgdsdv
@macappsbackup

I’ll miss the "UNREAD" filter of FB Messenger

https://redd.it/1pgg2ot
@macappsbackup

Together we donated $3,000 USD to charity. Thank you all so much! ❤️

Hey everyone!

Last week I posted about a small charity initiative connected to my app Budget Flow, with the goal of raising up to $3,000 for GiveDirectly by donating my Black Friday weekend developer proceeds.

For those unfamiliar with GiveDirectly: They help people living in extreme poverty by sending unconditional cash transfers directly to them. A large body of research shows that this is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty, with recipients typically using the money for essentials like healthcare, housing, and education.

Thanks to all of you, we reached the full amount and I ended up donating slightly more by rounding up to €2,600 which corresponds to a bit over $3,000 USD. For transparency, I’ve also posted the proof of donation on my Instagram and X accounts.

Thank you all so much for your support! ❤️

https://redd.it/1pgh2tj
@macappsbackup

New MacBook user - need app suggestions!

Just bought MacBook pro over Thanksgiving to help me speed up my development using Cursor.

Struggling to learn Mac after years with Windows. I do need MS office mostly for work stuff. I'm not a designer. But I found keyboard macro could be very useful for me. Also Super whisper looks interesting but expensive!

What are other must have apps that I need to boost my organization and productivity? Any pointers?

https://redd.it/1pggzth
@macappsbackup

How much Cleanshot X take memory?

for me its 400mb? is this normal?

https://redd.it/1pggjss
@macappsbackup

Request to Horizontally Center All PDF Page Content Without Changing Page Size

You want to center the entire content of a PDF page horizontally without changing the page size. Your goal is to merge all elements on each page into a single object and move that object to the exact horizontal center of the page.



In short, you want to realign the page content without altering the page dimensions. For example, the text is not perfectly centered, and you want to shift all content a few centimeters to the left to make it centered.

How do I fulfill these requests? I don't use Acrobat.

https://redd.it/1pgnjk2
@macappsbackup

Building a voice command layer for Mac, looking for feedback

I got tired of dictation that just types words.

I’m working on an open source Mac app (Openvox) that listens to a short voice command and actually takes actions in your tools.

Not “write an email”, more like:

While viewing a Jira ticket: “Summarize what I just did, add it as a comment, and DM the assignee that it’ll hit prod Monday.”
On an error page: “Create a Jira bug with a screenshot + summary and assign it to me.”

It uses local Whisper on device and APIs / browser extensions, and always shows you a draft to approve before sending.

I’m trying to find Mac power users who live in Jira / Slack / email and want to try an early version + tell me what’s broken.

If that sounds like you, I put a short demo + waitlist here:
`https://openvox.io/?src=reddit_macapps`

Happy to answer any questions and also share details on how I’m wiring it into macOS.

https://redd.it/1pgozw1
@macappsbackup

screen recording app for MacOS 10.15

i want a free screen recorder to record screen and internal audio simultaneously
which app is best for that
now i'm used TapRecord in free trial and it good

https://redd.it/1pgn4u1
@macappsbackup

Looking for a lightweight alternative to Obsidian

- I take a ton of courses and also teach part-time.

- I usually use Obsidian for notes.

- My M2 Max MBP display cracked on its own.

- I'm unwilling to pay >$800 for a screen repair when a newish used laptop with better specs costs less than 50% more.

- I dust out the 2018 15" i7 MBP. I use this on-the-go while keeping the M2 Max docked.

- I try to use Obsidian on this computer but it gets real hot real fast and the battery drains.

- I try Bear as a work-around but its too messy and everything is organized by tags, not directories

- I'm looking for recommendations on a macOS native (meaning Swift; not Rust) markdown editor that would work well with a 2018 i7 15" MBP and not heat up the machine.

https://redd.it/1pgskm0
@macappsbackup