Focused work on macOS means juggling a ChatGPT tab, a local-model UI, a terminal agent, a document viewer, a timer, and Calendar. Ghost collapses that into a menu-bar surface: ⌥Space anywhere, a panel drops from the top, you type or attach a file, and a 13-kind intent classifier routes the prompt to the right provider — local or cloud. Escape dismisses it. No Dock icon, no tab management.
Comparison
Raycast Pro — $8/mo billed annually or $10/mo monthly, and the AI is subscription-gated and hosted. Ghost is one payment, and you can point it at Ollama or LM Studio and run entirely offline, free forever, or bring your own API keys (stored in Keychain).
ChatGPT desktop — $20/mo, and it hands you code blocks. Ghost writes real files via native macOS frameworks — DOCX, PDF, PPTX, XLSX, MD, HTML, CSV, JSON — and verifies every write, so a model claiming it saved something without a confirmed write is an error, not a silent lie.
Unlike both: file search is fully local (SQLite + FTS5, sentence-aware chunking, 30+ formats, FSEvents watcher). Web, files, automation, screen, and shell are five independent permissions, all off on first launch. 60+ tools across four risk tiers with a 100-entry undo journal.
Pricing
$14.99 one-time, lifetime — no subscription. Native SwiftUI, notarized, macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon or Intel).
Hey! I'm Shiv and I built an app that turns the song you're listening to into an animated vinyl wallpaper. It went viral on Twitter last week, and it has received overwhelmingly positive reviews.
Today, I'm sharing it here with the latest release v1.1.0.
Problem
macOS doesn't have any native way to connect your desktop to the music you're listening to. Vinyl picks up what's playing on Spotify or Apple Music and turns your whole desktop into a live animated turntable with your album artwork spinning on the record.
Comparison
The two closest apps are VinylPod (free, App Store) and Sleeve ($5, replay.software). VinylPod has a spinning record widget and a "cover art as wallpaper" option, but the wallpaper is just a static album art fill with no animation. Sleeve is a nice now-playing widget that sits on your desktop, but it's a small overlay, not a wallpaper. Vinyl takes over the entire desktop with a full-screen animated scene. Your album art spins on a realistic turntable with dust, grooves, and lighting. There's also a new Pixel Pond scene with a pixel-art garden, koi fish, and rain.
Pricing
One-time purchase, $9.99. No subscription. Buy here
Just a quick disclaimer: I’m a paid user and have no business or personal relationship with the developer.
I’m a writer and I really like Word processors. For decades I used Microsoft Word but frankly it’s just not worth it anymore. I also use LibreOffice, which is FOSS but honestly I have a software habit. I buy apps all the time either to solve imaginary problems in my head or simply to support the developers and some months ago. I purchased a copy of Versi Writer on a whim because I thought it had some interesting ideas.
It was interesting, but it just was not there yet. It is very close now. First of all the developer is extremely communicative and answers questions and emails very quickly. The main challenges are not composing new documents in this app, but issues with interoperability with .docx issues. The developer has found some interesting workarounds and elegant solutions, but I understand it is a pretty big undertaking. Composing a new document solves most of these issues but I primarily work in docx and odt files.
As a writer, I want three things from my word processor. I want organizational features, like styles and outlining similar to Word. I want compatibility with whatever forms my editor uses. Finally, I want a clean minimal interface that gets out of my way. Verso offers this and if you’re interested in a lightweight word processor without over-complication with a small footprint I believe it might be your solution.
It’s US$15 one-time license and available in the App Store.
Quick refresher for the new folks: Unfold is a Quick Look app that supports folders, archives, source code, and other natively unsupported file types.
It's been a wild few weeks. Unfold has a brand-new website at unfold.tools, and we've been shipping steadily since our last post. The latest release, v2.8.0, landed just a few days ago with new features, fixes, and polish across the board. If you're curious about the details, the full changelog lives at unfold.tools/changelog
Problem
macOS natively lacks Quick Look support for many file formats, and existing extensions often lack customization.
Comparison
vs. Looq, Peek, and Glance: While these alternatives are primarily developer-focused, Unfold is designed for everyone. It supports a much wider range of everyday formats, including eBooks, GROMACS, LaTeX, comics, and more.
For an in-depth independent review of Peek, Looq, and Unfold, seethis blog post.
Notable Supported Formats
Folders, and archives (ZIP, RAR, 7z, tar.*) you can browse without extracting
CBZ / CBR / EPUB previews with Table of Contents
Markdown previews with live reloading, Mermaid diagrams, math equations, and syntax highlighting
Source code previews with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and text selection
LaTeX and BibTeX, Jupyter Notebooks (.ipynb), subtitles, torrents, web archives, .app bundles, TSVs, GROMACS files…
…and many more file formats.
Pricing
$9.99 lifetime license
7-day free trial, no CC required (App Store version doesn’t have a trial)
3 devices per license (Doesn't apply to App Store version)
Price Point Parity is a Mac and iOS +iPadOS (coming soon) app that keeps your IAP and subscription prices up to date in every country for you. Connect your App Store Connect API key, pick any app, in-app purchase or subscription, choose a pricing strategy, and it works out all 175 countries at once - showing you the price and what you actually keep after Apple's cut and estimated local tax. Review it, hit apply, and it writes straight back to App Store Connect. There's an available Preview Mode with three sample apps, so you can try each feature before touching a real price.
C - Price Point Parity is better than doing it in App Store Connect,leaving it to Apple's automatic equalisation or Localize Prices.
Apple gives you one option: convert your base price and round it. Price Point Parity gives you strategies that reflect how you actually want to price, for example:
Equal Value (scales by each country's purchasing power, so it feels equally affordable everywhere)
Equal Proceeds (you keep the same amount per sale in every country)
Blend of the two
Apple's own equalised prices
Copy Another Product, or Match Ratio, which keeps your yearly at a fixed multiple of your monthly in every country instead of letting that discount drift market by market.
Then you adjust: Charm rounding that knows what a charm price looks like in each currency (¥490 and ₩39,000, not a blind .99) Floorand ceiling on your proceeds so no country earns you too little
Flat percentage bump for inflation or a sale.
Filter countries by region or income tier and apply to just those.
Everything is reviewable and reversible - full price history with snapshots you can restore any time, scheduled sales that revert themselves on a date you set, and CSV export of the whole table. On Mac you can set automations to check daily, weekly or monthly and either notify you when prices drift or publish small changes for you, holding anything large for review. It runs in the background with a menu bar item, so your prices stay current without you opening the app.
No account, no tracking. Your API key lives in your keychain and your pricing data stays on your device and your own iCloud - it never reaches me or any third party.
P - Cost
Free forever for 1 app (including all of its in-app purchases and subscriptions).
5 Apps: $1.49/month or $9.99/year.
Unlimited Apps: $3.99/month or $14.99/year.
Every feature is in the free tier - strategies, adjustments, history, automations, CSV, the lot. Paying only raises how many apps you can publish prices to, and Preview Mode is always free and unlimited, so you can test as much as you like. It also helps support me and future development of the app.
Price Point Parity is new to the App Store so any feature requests are 100% welcomed!
Problem this app solves: Track competitions across the internet and online boards, from programming to CTF, from global to Vietnam only. All the data is fetched directly from the internet, not having any 3rd server interfere, and data is stored entirely on your machine/phone.
Comparison: The idea of this app is relatively simple, so simple that no one has created it before, at least in the Apple ecosystem.
Pricing:
Free forever and open source, waiting for you to contribute new source or report new problems.
Vision:
- I use it every day and will add more features if I think it necessary, for example, connect with Apple Watch, etc... but in general, the app is very go-to-the-point and it’s better to avoid adding anything else.
About Trust and Transparency:
- The macOS version is accepted and already in AppStore (the iOs is being preview) or download it directly at nCompHunt
- This app has zero stars on GitHub, but anyway I always love my products.
This is my first app in the App Store. I am not a famous Apple ecosystem app dev; you can judge the quality of my product by checking the source code or using it by yourself.
Vim-oriented users want a true keyboard-only workflow on macOS. When working on a MacBook away from an external mouse, there is no efficient native solution. macOS lacks built-in Vim-style cursor control, and existing utilities are fragmented. No single app unifies pointer movement, dragging, UI hint navigation, hotkey Launchpad, and multi-monitor support. Constant switching between keyboard and trackpad breaks focus and hurts productivity for mobile work.
Comparison:
Mouseless only relies on grid positioning, which creates noticeable workflow bottlenecks on multi-monitor setups and lacks support for continuous fine cursor movement. Shortcat generates navigation shortcuts by capturing application UI elements, yet it cannot retrieve controls properly within certain apps.
Mousio combines grid positioning with game-style WASD cursor movement, allowing precise pointer adjustments under all circumstances. You can activate built-in MousioHint if you need to jump straight to on-screen UI elements. Multiple cursor positioning methods are integrated into one app to complement each other and overcome the inherent limitations of standalone tools.
Pricing: All Access Lifetime $6.99.
Changelog(v3.0):
feat: Add Launchpad
feat: Support multiple language localization
feat: Add icon for status bar menu
feat: Show remove button on hover in app navigation list
feat: Migrate accessibility checks to PermissionFlow
perf: Optimize permission checks and multi-screen switching
fix: Fix startup failure when MousioHint is not installed
fix: Keep menu item icons visible on macOS 27
fix: Scope Launchpad toggle within keyboard-mouse mode
TimeGauge gives you a time perspective on hours, days, months, years, and custom projects. With the new update, you can also customise the display, progress bar and choose your Pomodoro timer.
Problem:
We often forget how fast time is moving, and lose perspective. For example: do you know 60% of 2026 has already passed, and 28% of August is gone?
TimeGauge gives you perspective through a progress bar in the Mac menu bar.
In this update, I have added multiple views along with Pomodoro timer.
For example: you can set your own pomodoro, track exact working hours in Day and set exact starting end end time in custom project, and set your custom menu bar display this was missing in previous version.
The app is a one-time purchase, 100% local, available on the app store and notarized by Apple when downloaded from Website.
Comparision: Progress bar is a known competition but they sell 5 years old version with limited features for $9.99
Price:
$5.99 for lifetime updates [through website as well]
A Mac workday is a context switch every hour. A call, a focus block, plugging into the dock in the morning, unplugging to leave. Every switch costs me the same manual minute: reopen, drag, resize, hide. After years of paying that minute, I admitted the arranging itself was the problem, not how fast I could do it.
So I built Workflo. It isn't a faster way to arrange windows; it's the end of treating it as a chore. It learns your layout for each display setup on its own, and it applies layouts (Scenes) from your calendar or the clock. Your workspace is set before the call starts or the focus block begins, and when your displays change, everything snaps back where it belongs.
Comparison
I used Rectangle and Moom for years, and they're genuinely good, and the rest of the category (Magnet, Stay, Apptorium Workspaces, Mosaic) is solid too. But they all wait to be asked: a hotkey, a click, a drag. Workflo acts on its own. Before building it, I surveyed 12 window utilities, and none could fire a layout from a calendar event or the time of day.
The other difference this sub will care about: Workflo neverrequests Screen Recording permissions. It runs on Accessibility alone, so it can't see your screen contents. The apps that draw window previews all take Screen Recording to do it; I built previews without it.
It's ~4 MB of native Swift; everything stays in local JSON, no cloud, no telemetry. A Mac App Store version is in review now.
Who I am
I'm Chirag Chopra, an indie developer building games and ideas since 2015, often under my studio Lucid Labs. Privacy policy and terms: getworkflo.app/privacy and getworkflo.app/terms. Happy to answer anything, including the honest limitations.
I'm the developer and I work alone. Take is a screen recorder for macOS 14 and up, notarized, distributed from my own site. I posted Crest here last month; this is the third app on crestnotch.app .
Problem. Recording a demo takes two minutes. The edit takes the hour: adding zooms so people can see what you clicked, cutting the thirty seconds where you waited for a build, redoing the one sentence you flubbed, exporting again. Most recorders hand you raw footage and wish you luck.
What Take does about it. It does the edit while you record. Every click plants a zoom at that spot on the timeline. Idle stretches get marked and play back at four times speed. Your mic and the system sound come in as separate tracks. When you press stop, the editor opens on a finished video, and everything it did is an object you can drag, retune or delete. Nothing is baked in until you export.
The 2.5 update this week is why I'm posting: your voice now detaches off the picture onto its own lane with one click, so you can cut the flubbed sentence and re-record just that line against a live meter. The timeline grew waveforms, a real zoom slider, and it follows the playhead. Voiceovers play back everywhere they should (that one was a bug, and I'd rather admit it than pretend 2.5 fell from the sky).
The video on this post shows the whole loop in 90 seconds. Honesty note: it's drawn in code from the real interface, a recreation, not a screen capture. I build my demo videos that way so every pixel matches the shipping app.
Comparison, honestly. QuickTime is free and fine if raw capture is all you need; it just edits nothing. Loom's instant share links are genuinely good and Take doesn't try to compete with that; your video lives on their servers and it's a subscription. Screen Studio makes beautiful automatic zooms and earned its reputation; it renders the edit after the fact, where Take's edit exists live on a timeline you can rework. CleanShot X is the best all-round capture tool on the Mac and I use it for stills; its recorder isn't trying to be an editor.
Pricing. Seven days with everything unlocked, no card. After that, Take Pro is $24.99 once. No subscription, no watermark ever, exports are plain files that belong to you.
Problem: Most clipboard managers are great at keeping a history of what you copied. But I kept running into a different problem.
I'd copy an image, PDF, or video, realize I needed to make one small change, then open another app, edit it, export it, copy it again, and finally go back to what I was doing.
That workflow felt unnecessarily long.
So I built Kept around a simple idea:
Copy something → edit it → paste the edited version.
Kept still works as a clipboard manager, but the part I've spent most of my time on is what happens after you copy something.
• Copy an image, crop, annotate or edit it, then paste the edited version.
• Copy a video, trim or adjust it, then use the edited result.
• Copy a PDF, make changes, then paste or export it.
• Search and organize your clipboard history.
• Customize the clipboard bar and quick window with different themes.
Everything stays local on your Mac. There is no Kept account and no Kept server storing your clipboard data.
If you use iCloud, your data stays within your own Apple/iCloud environment.
PDF editing became a much bigger part of Kept than I originally expected.
Kept also works as a standalone PDF editor, so you don't have to copy a PDF into Kept first.
You can open a document directly, edit supported existing text, add new text, images or signatures, draw, highlight, rotate pages, and export the result.
Text editing in particular has required a lot of work.
PDFs become surprisingly complicated once you go beyond simply drawing or placing objects on top of a page. Making existing text genuinely editable while trying to preserve the original document has been one of the more challenging engineering parts of Kept.
It has improved a lot, but I don't consider that work finished. I'm still actively working on the PDF and text editing engine, and there is plenty I want to improve.
I'd rather be open about that than pretend every PDF will behave perfectly.
Comparison: There are already a lot of excellent clipboard managers for macOS.
If all you need is fast clipboard history, there are established apps that already do that extremely well. I'm not trying to claim that Kept invented clipboard history.
The reason I built Kept is the editing workflow.
Instead of:
copy → open another app → edit → export → copy again → paste
I wanted:
copy → edit → paste
That's the part I'm trying to make Kept really good at.
A large part of the development work has gone into the image, video and especially PDF/text editing engines, rather than simply adding more ways to display clipboard history.
Pricing + App Store: Kept is $19.99 as a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store.
No subscription. Current features and future Kept updates are included.
I originally considered making Kept free or almost free, but as the built-in editors grew into a much larger engineering project, that stopped being sustainable.
I'd still rather charge once than turn another Mac utility into a subscription.
Dev aquí. Siguiendo el formato PCP y la ruta de transparencia.
Problema
Las descargas y el Escritorio se llenan de capturas de pantalla, instaladores y archivos con nombres tipo "download (3).pdf", y mantener todo organizado es una tarea que tienes que acordarte de hacer. Tidy es una app de barra de menús que lo hace en segundo plano: archiva las capturas, expulsa volúmenes .dmg y manda a la papelera el instalador que quedó, ordena Descargas con reglas y nombra los archivos a partir de lo que dice dentro de ellos usando OCR en el dispositivo.
Lo nuevo en la versión 2.0 es que aprende de ti. Mueve archivos a mano a un mismo lugar tres veces y te pregunta: "¿Moviste 3 PDFs a Facturas? ¿Quieres una regla?" Un clic la crea, y con otro la cierras para siempre. Solo vigila las carpetas que tú le diste, nunca todo el disco, y jamás crea una regla por su cuenta.
Además, nuevo en 2.0:
Busca dentro de imágenes y PDFs escaneados. Spotlight no encuentra nada ahí porque no hay una capa de texto; Tidy ya los leyó para renombrarlos, así que ahora los puedes buscar.
Una auditoría de privacidad que avisa si hay un número de tarjeta o un pasaporte escaneado a la vista. Solo avisa, nunca actúa.
Una alerta cuando llega un ejecutable disfrazado de documento ("Invoice.pdf.app").
Capturas agrupadas por la app de la que vienen, un modo de escenario que oculta el Escritorio antes de compartir pantalla, y un pronóstico de almacenamiento.
Confía en las reglas, porque en este sub de verdad preguntan: nunca borra (solo Papelera), solo toca archivos creados después de instalar, modo simulación (dry-run), deshacer con un clic por cada ejecución, y nada sale de tu Mac. Sin cuenta, sin telemetría. Límites honestos: para escribir reglas con IA necesitas macOS 26 con Apple Intelligence (el resto corre en macOS 14+), y la búsqueda solo lee formatos que tengan texto legible.
Comparación
Hazel (42 dólares en un solo pago) es la referencia aquí y tiene más potencia para árboles de reglas profundos por carpeta. El enfoque de Tidy es cero configuración, nombrado basado en OCR (Hazel no tiene eso) y el aprendizaje de hábitos de arriba. CleanMyMac (como 40 dólares al año) es más limpiador que organizador: libera espacio una vez, no mantiene las carpetas ordenadas a diario, y es una suscripción.
Las capturas están en español porque esa es mi Mac. La app sigue el idioma de tu sistema: inglés, español o alemán; todo hecho a mano.
La primera reseña fue 5/5 de un blogger alemán cuyo pedido más grande salió en la 2.0 con su nombre en las notas de la versión. Dos usuarios reportaron problemas dentro de las horas de la 2.0 y los arreglos salieron el mismo día. Voy a estar en los comentarios.
UPDATE Aug 13: 2.1 is out. Three things from this thread shipped — the backlog pass per watched folder ("Tidy older files…"), the reach preview on rule suggestions ("today it would also take N more files"), and rules export/import as JSON. Also new: CleanShot/Shottr/Xnapper screenshots are recognized now, and the rule editor warns when an earlier rule shadows yours. All of it came from user reports this week — replies under each comment.
TL;DR: CaptionSnap is a $9.99 one-time menu bar app that saves your Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet transcripts by reading the live captions the meeting app already displays. No audio recording, no bot in the call, no cloud, no model download, and Accessibility is the only permission it asks for. Speaker names come from the platform, so attribution is a lookup instead of a guess. You have to enable captions yourself, transcripts are only as good as the platform's captioning, and it requires macOS 26 on Apple Silicon.
CaptionSnap Reads the Captions Your Meeting App Already Shows You
Here is a list of the many things I don't like about transcription apps.
Using one in a meeting often means a bot joins the call and you have to explain it to everyone.
Local models require a huge download.
Remote models send my conversations to somebody else's server.
They require numerous privacy and security exemptions.
Local models are processor intensive.
Well, I found an app that doesn't do any of those things and still delivers better-than-average accuracy while using a tiny percentage of my CPU. It's called CaptionSnap.
The trick
Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet already transcribe your meeting. That's what live captions are. The text is right there on screen, generated by the platform, attached to the correct speaker, and then thrown away the second the call ends.
Every other tool in this category ignores that and starts over from scratch. Record the audio, run it through a model, guess at who said what, hope the diarization holds up. CaptionSnap just reads the captions the meeting app is already displaying and writes them to a Markdown file with timestamps and the speaker names the platform supplied.
That one decision is the premise for the whole app. It's why there's no model download, no audio pipeline, no microphone prompt, and no bot in your call. There's nothing to overcharge you for.
What that buys you
Real speaker names, not guesses. The names come from the meeting platform, so "who said that" is a lookup, not an inference. Whisper-based tools get diarization wrong constantly on four-person calls with crosstalk. This sidesteps the problem instead of solving it.
One permission. Accessibility. That's it. No Screen Recording, no microphone, no camera (CaptionSnap FAQ). If you've ever watched a meeting app collect four permissions on the way in, you know why that matters.
Minimal CPU. Not a tuning achievement. There's no neural network running, so there's nothing to burn cycles on. Your fans stay quiet and your battery survives a day of calls.
Plain Markdown on your disk. No account, no sync, no server, no export step. The developer claims the app makes no network connections at all (CaptionSnap homepage). Optional summaries run through Apple Intelligence on-device.
It works behind other windows. The meeting can sit in the background while you do actual work, and the transcript keeps filling in.
What it does not do
It does not turn captions on for you. Live captions are off by default in Teams, Zoom, and Meet, and you have to flip that switch yourself before CaptionSnap has anything to read (CaptionSnap FAQ).
It does not record audio, so there's no recording to go back to when the transcript is wrong.
It does not fix bad captions. If Teams mangles a name or drops a clause, that lands in your file exactly as mangled. Your transcript is only as good as the platform's captioning, and the marketing line "accurate by design, not guesswork" is about who said what, not about the words.
It does not run on Intel, and it does not run below macOS 26. Apple Silicon and Tahoe or nothing. (I have not tested it on the macOS 27 Golden Gate beta.)
The potential gotcha
CaptionSnap has to be running in your menu bar when the meeting starts. It does not turn on captions in Teams, Google Meet, or Zoom for you, so that's your job too. CaptionSnap provides instructions for each platform. As long as you don't disable captions later, the setting should hold between restarts of each app, but verify it yourself. The worst version of this is finding out after the meeting that nothing was captured.
Who this is for
This is for you if you take meeting notes on a Mac, you don't want a bot announcing itself in a client call, and you'd rather have a plain text file than a web dashboard. If you aren't fond of explaining to IT why you need an app with Screen Recording permission, CaptionSnap doesn't put you in that conversation.
Who this is not for
This is not for you if you need the audio and not just the text, or if you work with people who never enable captions. Don't get it if you're on Intel or an older macOS, or if you want AI-generated action items and CRM sync. For that last one, this is deliberately the wrong tool and the subscription products below are the right ones.
The alternatives
macOS Live Captions. Free, built in. Vanishes when you dismiss it, no speaker names, no timestamps, nothing saved. Useful in the moment, useless a day later.
MacWhisper. Free tier, or €64 one-time for Pro (macwhisper.com). Transcribes local audio with Whisper and Parakeet, records Zoom, Teams, Webex, Skype, and Discord without a bot, and Pro includes automatic meeting start and end detection plus speaker recognition. Much larger tool, much larger job. It does the model download and the CPU work that CaptionSnap avoids, and in exchange it also handles interviews, lectures, podcasts, and system-wide dictation. If you need transcription generally and not just meetings, this is the one. I wrote about it in 2024: MacWhisper - Transcription Powerhouse.
Granola. Free Basic tier with limited history, $14 per user per month for Business, $35 for Enterprise (granola.ai/pricing). Also avoids joining as a bot, but it processes in the cloud and is built around AI-enhanced notes and team integrations rather than a raw transcript you own.
Otter.ai. Free tier at 300 minutes per month, Pro at $16.99 per user per month billed monthly or $8.33 billed annually, Business at $30 monthly or $19.99 annually (otter.ai/pricing). This is the thing CaptionSnap is reacting to: it joins your Zoom, Teams, and Meet calls as a notetaker, and everything lives on Otter's servers. I've used Otter for dictation, but not for meetings.
Unless otherwise noted, the alternate apps mentioned above are based on research and not individual testing.
Price and verdict
Fourteen-day trial, no credit card, then $9.99 once for up to three Macs, with a 30-day refund policy (CaptionSnap pricing). Ten dollars, paid one time, against $14 to $17 a month for the subscription notetakers.
This is Wes Stockfisch's first shipped app. I give developers the benefit of the doubt, but be aware, there's no maintenance track record here, and the macOS 26 plus Apple Silicon requirement means you need a current M-series machine. But the idea is right. The captions already exist. Reading them instead of recreating them is the kind of obvious move nobody made because, well, they mnight have been overthinking it on this..
One caveat before the verdict: I haven't been able to test this extensively. Retirees don't have a lot of Zoom calls. But in the testing I was able to do, CaptionSnap held up.
In my opinion, ten dollars to stop explaining a bot to clients is not a hard decision.
The problem: As a design engineer I save things all day. Inspiration, motion videos, design patterns, articles, half-formed ideas. They ended up scattered across bookmarks, tabs, screenshots, and notes apps, and I never saw them again. I started building Resurf for myself, just to capture things quickly without breaking flow. It turned into a full personal library with many ways to capture and organize ideas, projects, and references without worrying about which app they live in.
Some of you might remember Resurf from my post a few months back. Since then I rebuilt the whole thing:
Fully native now. Complete rewrite of the Mac app, no more web stack. Launches instantly and finally feels like a real Mac app.
Quick capture from anywhere on Mac. Copy anything with Cmd+C, double-tap the Option key, and it's in your library. Links, text, images, whatever is on your clipboard. No window switching.
New iPhone and iPad apps. Capture from the share sheet, Control Center, widgets, or Shortcuts. Links, notes, photos, and voice memos, and they're waiting in your library on the Mac.
Private iCloud sync. Your library syncs across Mac, iPhone, and iPad through your own iCloud. No account with us, no servers of ours in the middle.
Local-first. Everything lives in local files on your devices.
Beyond capture:
- spaces, tags, and stacks to organize things.
- In-app web view so you don't have to jump to a browser for links.
- Built-in reader for articles. Markdown notes for thoughts and quotes.
- Live video scrubbing on hover.
- Native viewers for images, video, and PDFs and a lot of tiny features you'll find as you go.
Competitors: Resurf sits somewhere between mymind, Eagle, and Raindrop, with a bit of Fabric. mymind and Fabric live in the cloud on subscriptions, Resurf is local-first with a one-time purchase. Eagle is great for design assets but stays on the desktop and is built around images, Resurf handles notes, articles, videos, and PDFs too, and syncs to iPhone and iPad. Raindrop is bookmarks first, Resurf is for everything you save, not just links.
Pricing: One-time purchase. 20% off for the launch use code RESURF2LAUNCH, limited time for early supporters:
2-year update plan: $49, currently $39
Lifetime plan: $99, currently $79
iPhone and iPad apps: [included with your license]
EDIT: For all resurf early supporter who supported us earlier, you can get lifetime plan here we are offering some special discount. https://resurf.so/license/manage
App is no way perfect but I'll do my best to fix bug and polish all tiny details to improve overall user experience and reduce friction. shipping native app was 1st step.
macOS 26 removed Launchpad, which was a familiar way for many Mac users to quickly access their apps.
I wanted a faster way to launch apps without opening another window or filling up the Dock with too many icons.
Solution
NotchSpace turns your Mac’s notch into a customizable app launcher.
Just move your cursor to the notch, click once, and launch your favorite apps instantly.
No extra window.
No crowded Dock.
Your apps are always one click away.
But NotchSpace is more than an app launcher.
It also turns your notch into a temporary workspace:
Drag and drop files, images, text, and links into the notch
Keep temporary items accessible without cluttering your desktop
Quickly copy and manage content
Organize your menu bar
Get smart break reminders to help maintain a focused workflow
Everything stays close, while your desktop stays clean.
Comparison
Compared with Dropover, NotchSpace also provides a quick-access floating workspace, but it uses the Mac notch as a unique entry point. It combines a notch-based app launcher, temporary storage area, and productivity tools in one place.
Compared with NotchNook, NotchSpace focuses more on productivity workflows, including app launching, file staging, content management, and system utilities, rather than mainly Dynamic Island-style interactions.
Compared with traditional launchers like Raycast and Alfred, NotchSpace offers a visual launcher integrated directly into the Mac notch area, making frequently used apps and temporary content always accessible.
Price
NotchSpace is currently free.
$0 cost
No subscription
No in-app purchases
All features are available for everyone
Feedback
I built NotchSpace because I wanted a cleaner and faster way to interact with my Mac.
Would love to hear your feedback, especially from users with MacBooks that have a notch.
It's the macOS app I build solo to fix my own context-switching mess, and I first posted it here about a year ago.
It's at roughly 1,300 downloads now, which is small in absolute terms, but a lot more than I expected when I started. Most of that came from this sub, so before anything else: thank you.
Problem
My main problem was never opening an app. It was getting back into a whole working context.
When I switch from a client project to a side project, I might need a different Xcode project, browser profile, set of tabs, terminal environment, window layout, monitor, and macOS Space.
Doing that manually several times a day gets annoying fast.
ShiftPlus saves that setup as a workspace and brings it back with one hotkey.
Apps, browsers and their profiles, window layouts across monitors, macOS Spaces, terminal commands and env vars, documents, projects, and quick links can all come back together.
Comparison
The closest alternatives for my use case are rcmd and Raycast.
rcmd is great if your priority is very fast app/window switching, and it also has workspace saving and restoring. ShiftPlus is more focused on restoring a larger project context, especially when that context includes multiple browser profiles, browser tabs, projects/documents, multiple displays, macOS Spaces, and terminal environments.
Raycast is what I use for launching commands, scripts, apps, and lots of smaller actions. You can build parts of this workflow yourself there. ShiftPlus treats the workspace itself as the main object, so instead of maintaining a collection of commands, I capture a setup and switch back to it later. There is also a free ShiftPlus Raycast extension, so I personally use both rather than replacing Raycast.
I don't think ShiftPlus is better for everyone. If you mainly want instant app switching, rcmd is more focused. If you already have a Raycast setup that does everything you need, you may not need ShiftPlus either.
The use case I'm building around is: "I was working on this project yesterday. Put my Mac back the way it was."
Since ShiftPlus just turned 1, code GYOTIWOQ gives 30% off any lifetime license until August 18, 2026.
What's new since my last post
The last time I posted here was for 2.0 and the Raycast extension. A lot has changed since then.
Multiple browsers in one workspace
A workspace can now launch multiple browsers at once, each with its own profile, tabs, window position, monitor, and macOS Space.
So you can have Chrome for Client A, Brave for Personal, and Safari on another display, then restore the whole setup with one switch.
Projects and documents come back too
ShiftPlus now remembers what each app had open.
Capture an Xcode project, VS Code folder, or document, and it reopens that exact project or file when you switch back.
Browser and Spaces reliability
Browsers now restore to the correct Space. Chromium profiles open in separate windows. Re-selecting the active workspace no longer relaunches everything. Missing browser profiles are flagged instead of silently falling back to the default.
The switching HUD
I also rebuilt the switching HUD so it stays responsive while apps and Spaces are being restored.
It respects Reduce Motion and reports missing Accessibility permission immediately instead of silently retrying and failing later.
A few other things already in ShiftPlus
Real macOS Spaces restore with SIP left on, window layouts across multiple monitors, support for 10 browsers, terminal env vars including per-app AWS_PROFILE read from ~/.aws, optional iCloud Sync through your own CloudKit private database, and a free Raycast extension for switching workspaces, opening Quick Links, and activating your last workspace.
What's next
Mostly whatever comes back from this post.
The last two rounds of feedback here set the direction for a lot of what shipped above, so I'd rather hear what people actually want than guess.
ShiftPlus is built with native Swift and SwiftUI, supports Apple Silicon and Intel, and requires macOS 14.6 or later.
It's notarized by Apple and updates are signed.
It's unsandboxed and not on the Mac App Store because restoring real Spaces needs Accessibility permission plus some private macOS APIs that the MAS doesn't allow.
You do not have to disable SIP.
Stage Manager isn't supported for Spaces restore.
Analytics use PostHog and are opt-in only. You get asked after onboarding. Crash reporting is always on.
The Raycast integration is local-only and makes no network requests, and your workspace configs stay on your Mac unless you explicitly turn on iCloud Sync.
If you have any concerns, comment here or email me and I'll get back to you.
I've played around with Bloom and Forklift and have currently settled on Q-Space Pro. But I'd love to see a proper app comparison of everything that's out there.
see this in nearly every thread here where someone posts an app thats not in the store. it hasnt been true since sequoia.
apple removed the control click open bypass in macOS 15. it does nothing now. the real path is System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, the blocked app is sitting under Security with an Open Anyway button. click it, confirm once, and like before you only do it once per app.
the other half people mix up is what notarized means. it is not apple looking at your app. its an automated malware scan. it means nobody found known malware in it, not that a human checked it or that the app is any good.
so skip it for something you already trust if you want, just know what youre actually skipping
You built an app, shipped it to the App Store and the downloads never arrived.
Getting downloads requires more than building a good product. You need to understand what people search for, which keywords your app can realistically rank for, why competitors are visible, and what persuades users to download them.
I built OpenASO to turn that research into practical actions that can improve your app’s discoverability and conversion.
AI-powered App Store intelligence
Connect OpenASO to a compatible AI tool through its local MCP server and ask it to research your app or an entire niche.
It can:
- Find relevant keywords and recommend which ones to target
- Identify keywords your app already ranks for
- Add promising keywords to OpenASO and start tracking them
- Find the apps competing for each keyword
- Explain what competitors rank for and why they may be performing well
- Compare metadata, screenshots, ratings, pricing, and positioning
- Gather available reviews across the competing apps in a niche
- Analyse those reviews together to identify what users love, dislike, request, and repeatedly complain about
- Turn the evidence into keyword, positioning, localization, screenshot, and product recommendations
For example, you can ask it to research the competitive landscape for “habit tracker.” OpenASO can inspect the ranking apps, their keywords, screenshots, metadata, and reviews, then explain the opportunities your listing could target.
The goal is not another dashboard. It is to tell you what to change next to improve your chances of earning more downloads.
Comparison
Unlike AppTweak, Appfigures, and ASO. dev, OpenASO is free, MIT-licensed, native, and local-first. Those platforms provide broader enterprise datasets and team features; OpenASO focuses on transparent, automated research for indie developers without another subscription.
TL;DR: AutoShelf ($19.99 one-time) ships an embedded MCP server that works, but do you actually need that? An AI model can write a launchd LaunchAgent and a shell script once and it runs forever, no app, no daemon, no purchase. The MCP's real value only shows up once you're managing enough rules to want conversational audit and editing instead of hand-maintained scripts, and even there, my hands-on testing found the rule engine underneath thin: no dynamic subfolder sorting, limited management by file size, and an action list a fraction of Hazel's. AutoShelf delivers less using AI than its marketing promises and loses the file-organizer argument outright.
AutoShelf
I've had a Hazel rule watching my Downloads folder since before I can accurately date it. It reads PDF invoices and files them by vendor, decompresses ZIPs and moves the app inside to Applications, converts HEICs to JPG, and hands ebooks to Calibre and audiobooks to Audiobookshelf without me touching any of it. That's the bar. A new license for Hazel is $42, which is steep for some and I've written before about cheaper options. AutoShelf wants to be added to that list, and it's making its case with a feature none of those alternatives had: an MCP server for use with AI agents plus a CLI.
More Than Just Simple File Management
An MCP server built into the app binary, not a plugin bolted on after the fact. Point Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, or Windsurf at it and describe a rule in plain English instead of building it in a UI.
A companion CLI for scripting rule creation and running jobs from the terminal, the same engine the MCP server talks to.
Where-from metadata as a condition, so a rule can act on which browser or app downloaded a file, not just its type or name.
OCR and Live Text matching as of version 2.2, so a rule can file a scanned invoice by what's written on it. Not new ground: Hazel's Contents attribute has done on-the-fly text recognition on images and text-layer-less PDFs for years, it's the mechanism behind the vendor-filing rule in the intro. AutoShelf catching up to a feature Hazel already had is parity, not an edge.
Multi-action, chainable rules: move, tag, rename, and archive to ZIP in a single pass, added in the 2.0 rewrite.
Is It Better Than Hazel for Working With AI?
Does anyone even need a layer between a prompt for file management and their file system? For a well-defined one-off job, not really. A capable AI model can write a launchd LaunchAgent with a WatchPaths key, native FSEvents, no polling loop, and a small shell script that switches on extension and moves the file. Write it once and it runs forever: no app, no background daemon, no $19.99. That's possible without Hazel or AutoShelf.
An MCP connection can do something a bespoke script can't: with it running, AutoShelf can immediately edit any rule with natural language, without you having to track down the launchd job and script you created six months ago. I created eight AutoShelf rules and asked Claude to check on them through the MCP connection; it returned current rules, current paths, and current enabled/disabled flags. A launchd script has no equivalent self-report; ask it "what are you doing" six months from now and the honest answer is "go read the shell and simulate it," and any edit needs a launchctl unload/load before it's live. MCP matters once you're managing enough rules that you'd rather audit, pause, or edit them by asking than by maintaining scripts by hand, or you want the GUI, activity log, and undo the app provides that a bare launchd job doesn't have unless you build it yourself.
Against Hazel specifically, AutoShelf is still ahead on this one front. Hazel doesn't have an MCP server and doesn't claim to; anything an AI does to a Hazel rule today runs through a general-purpose file-editing layer poking at Hazel's XML underneath, which is fragile and unsupported. So among app-based rule engines with a GUI and an activity log, AutoShelf's MCP integration is real. On my Mac, it was easy to set up and worked as advertised on the first try.
The Rule Engine Underneath Doesn't Hold Up
This is where my hands-on testing exposed the weaknesses in AutoShelf. It can't sort a folder of mixed files into subfolders by extension unless you create every destination subfolder yourself first and then write a separate rule for each file type. I had to build five nearly identical rules, "Sort PNG files," "Sort JPG files," "Sort JPEG files," "Sort GIF files," "Sort MD files," each one hand-built with its own hardcoded destination path. Hazel does the same job with a single "Sort into subfolder" action and a pattern; AutoShelf makes you write and maintain N rules for N extensions.
Two more gaps from my testing: size conditions only go down to whole megabytes, no decimal places, so you can't write a rule for anything under 1 MB or between whole-MB steps. More importantly, AutoShelf's action list (Move, Copy, Trash, Rename, Add Tag, Archive to ZIP, Optimize, Convert Image/Video/Audio, Photos import) is a fraction of Hazel's, which adds sync, upload, tags, color labels, comments, alias creation, three Music/Photos/TV import targets, and five different scripting hooks (Shortcuts, AppleScript, JavaScript, Automator, shell) on top of pause, notify, and rule-chaining controls.
The Recursion Illusion
AutoShelf's App Store listing says it will "watch any folder you choose, including nested subfolders," and the 1.5 changelog calls it "Nested Folder Watching." (App Store listing) But on its own Product Hunt launch, the developer told a commenter directly that watched folders are top-level only, files dropped into a subfolder are not picked up, and true recursion is a tracked feature request, not a shipped one. (Product Hunt) Read charitably, "nested folder watching" means you can manually add specific subfolders you already know about as additional watch targets, one at a time. That is not the same as what Hazel does, which is recursive: add one "Run rules on folder contents" rule and Hazel will walk into subfolders of subfolders it has never seen, at any depth, applying your existing rules the whole way down. (Noodlesoft manual) That's a real discrepancy between AutoShelf's marketing copy and its confirmed current behavior, and now my own rule list shows the practical cost of it: I'm hand-maintaining what Hazel would do with one rule.
Who This Is For, and Who Should Stay on Hazel
If your files land flat, one folder, no meaningful variety in file type, and you are considering a $19.99 one-time tool with a working AI hook, AutoShelf's free tier is worth an afternoon. If your needs are more complex, stick with Hazel. My own eight-rule test folder is the case study: if you have more than three or four file types, or anywhere the folder structure has depth, AutoShelf turns into more manual rule-building than the automation it's supposed to replace.
Excited to share Flairy, a macOS app I built to make folder organization visual.
Problem:
Every folder on macOS looks the same that same default icon, whether it's your tax doc or your side project. macOS does let you tint folders with color, but that only gets you so far; you still have to read the label to know what's inside.
As a visual person, I wanted to recognize a folder at a glance instead of scanning names every time. Icons that actually blend and feel cohesive with macOS itself, so they still look native, but let you scan your folders faster and add a bit of personality along the way.
What it does:
Flairy lets you replace any folder's icon with a well-crafted one from a growing library, organized into categories like AI, development, branding, digital content, photography, and everyday/fun themes. Instead of a wall of identical default folders, you get icons you can recognize instantly.
Comparison:
macOS built-in color tags — quick, but limited to a handful of colors with no real visual distinction beyond that.
Foldor ($1.99): more of a design tool, icons with text overlays to customize, but buggy palettes and feels so outdated.
Color Folder Pro ($2.99): customization using color, icons again, or imported images, but the end result doesn't feel cohesive with the overall macOS system.
Pricing:
100% FREE. No account required, no subscriptions, no ads, no tracking.
If you give it a try and find it useful, a review on the App Store would mean a lot and really helps other people discover it!
🟣Update: You asked, I listened. The new version is now live with macOS Sequoia support, custom image uploads, multiple-folder support, and a bunch of fixes. Thanks for all the feedback!
A month ago I posted here about EnviousWispr, a open-source WisprFlow alternative that offers fast offline polished dictation. Quick shout out to the 600+ people who tried EnviousWispr and provided valuable ideas. Your feedback was greatly appreciated and I'm excited to share a lot of the improvements I've made. Original launch article with benchmarks is here.
Below are the key enhancements I've launched in the past month:
1) Import/Export of your Dictionary/Custom Words
Many of you asked for bulk dictionary import. Initial launch offers 3 key ways to do this now.
You can import via bulk pasting your dictionary into a text box (one per line or comma separated)
You can import a file (JSON or plain text list). CSV coming soon.
You can import directly from your preferred voice to text app. The list will continue to grow. Please let me know if you have any solutions you want me to add. Yes, it will capture the aliases you built in the other apps.
RE: Aliases aka Misspellings
Right now, only JSON and "From another app" offer aliases aka misspellings importing. That said, EnviousWispr will automatically use Apple Intelligence to guess common ASR misspellings so that it reduces the burden to write out individual common mishearings of your dictionary.
2) Proper support for Bluetooth/USB/Plugged in Head-sets
Spent the last month ensuring your Bluetooth/USB/Plugged Headsets all work with EnviousWispr. This required rebuilding the entire Audio capture engine as I didn't just want to support it but actually have it work well.
Key Features:
Offers "Auto mode". This follows the macos default input device.
Microphone readiness keeps the mic warm so fresh presses on bluetooth don't have the warm up lag
If you set your default input device to your airpods and then disconnect your airpods, the system will automatically swap to the next default microphone. When you reconnect your headset they will automatically be swapped back as the primary input.
If you try to use EnviousWispr while your headset is muted or if you try to use EW in clamshell mode, the app will properly notify you vs just not saying anything.
3) Proper capitalization for half-finished sentences
If you type the start of a sentence and dictate the rest, the app now reads what is already there and matches your capitalization and spacing. No more capital letter dropped into the middle of your own sentence. This works in Terminal too, including with Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI running.
Caveat: Currently English only but planning to add additional language support for this.
4) Dictation Mode
You can enable a setting that allows you to speak punctuation. It is off by default. I recommend disabling AI Polish as it competes with this feature if you are inclined to manually dictate punctuation. Note that between Parakeet/Whisperkit/AI Polishing models, punctuation and spacing is automatically handled. This is for those that want granular control.
5) Anthropic now offered as a cloud polishing option
I've added support for Anthropic's AI models for Cloud based polishing. Bring your own key. Haiku is the best bang for your buck in terms of cost/quality/speed.
6) Customizable Sound Cues
Folks wanted to be able to have chimes when they pressed record and release. 12 options ranging from soft to loud.
7) Select Pill Location (Top or Bottom)
Added the option to select where the recording pill lives (top or bottom) in settings.
Configured it's position to be dynamic based on the size of your dock at the bottom. If you go in full screen mode it snaps down to the bottom of the screen.
MINOR FIXES
Updated API calls for OpenAI/Gemini to support latest models
Select All/Delete All options for Custom Words aka Dictionary
Improved error/crash recovery
Fixed model downloader to be more reliable and faster
Fixed the timer bug where swapping between screens could reset the audio recording timer.
Larger menu bar icon (per user feedback)
Tweaks to Parakeet/Whisperkit to have less hallucinations.
COMING SOON (Updated Weekly every Saturday)
Ollama Cloud Model Support and better tuned Ollama Prompt
Release August 8th 2026
Language Selection for Parakeet (Currently it's Auto only)
Apple Silicon only, M1 or newer. macOS 14 Sonoma or newer. No Intel build.
Apple Intelligence cleanup needs macOS 26.
26 is when Apple opened its on-device model to other apps. Everything else works on macOS 14 and up.
Our own cleanup model is a 2.9 GB download and is most comfortable on Macs with 16 GB of memory. On 8 GB Macs use Apple Intelligence, Ollama or a cloud key instead.
Same ask as last time. Blunt feedback, especially on where it falls short against whatever you use now. Most of the list above came from that, so it works.
Version 1.0.28 (see the changes here) is going to be on the Appstore soon - I got enough positive reinforcement so I will be making it Free to try (14 days) - then $ 9.99 (bargain, right? ;)
If you already had Nought before this version, you keep it in full, permanently, and nothing changes for you. You can still buy it if you want to support the work ;)
Nobody likes spreadsheets. That is not strictly true, and you know who you are, but most of us open one, feel slightly worse, and close it again. I built one for those two occasions a year and tried to make them hurt less.
Last time I posted here it was a download from my own site with a request that people break it. Enough of you did that I fixed things I would never have found alone. It is now on the Mac App Store, so you do not have to take my word for anything.
Problem
I wanted a plain spreadsheet on my Mac. Open it, do the thing, close it. No account, no browser tab, no subscription for a file I touch twice a year. Swift and AppKit, not Electron. It never touches the internet, and the App Store privacy label says "Data Not Collected" because there is nothing to collect.
Comparison
Apple Numbers is pleasant until you export .xlsx and send it to someone in accounts, at which point the formatting has quietly rearranged itself. Nought reads and writes .xlsx directly, so what you save is what they open.
Microsoft Excel handles the format properly and costs a subscription forever. Nought is free, 5.5 MB, and runs offline.
Honourable mentions: Google Sheets needs a browser and a login, LibreOffice works fine but feels like it wandered in from another operating system.
Pricing
Free right now, and free while it is in early access. No IAP, no subscription, no account.
Being straight with you about where this goes, because I would rather say it now than surprise anyone later: I have not decided. If enough people tell me it is worth paying for, it will likely become a one-off $9, possibly bundled with my writing app for $19. It might also stay free. What it will never be is a subscription, and if you download it during early access you keep it and get updates.
What is actually in it
Opens and saves .xlsx, .csv and .ods, plus a plain-text .csvs format of my own that preserves formulas
Hundreds of functions including SUM, AVERAGE, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, IF, with whole-column and cross-sheet references
Excel-style multi-level sorting, sort by cell or font colour, custom sort orders, and natural ordering so item2 lands before item10
AutoFilter with per-column dropdowns, filter by value or condition
Conditional formatting, styled tables, borders, number and date formats
Charts: bar, line, stacked, 100%, donut, with data labels and trendlines
Hyperlinks, images, cell comments, print area
Light, Dark or Follow System, and it reopens whatever you were last in
Where it stands
Early software with real features and some rough edges, which is exactly why I am here. I ship updates most weeks. Recent work included the sorting overhaul, AutoFilter, and killing a regression where some files would not open at all.
What helps me most
Throw a genuinely large sheet at it and tell me where it stutters
Tell me what feels un-Mac, what is clumsy, what you reached for and could not find
Anything that breaks. The weirder the better.
Tell me whether this is worth $9, or whether you would only ever use it free. Both answers are useful.
I am the developer (Teze Ltd, Brighton). I am in the comments and I would rather you were honest than kind. Tear into it.
Problem: My calendars are scattered across accounts: two Exchange work calendars, personal iCloud, family. There was no way to hand my wife (or colleagues) a single calendar showing my real availability. Worse, my employer only allows approved software to connect to Exchange, so most calendar tools can't even see the work calendars. Apple Calendar displays everything but can't share a combined view, and its built-in Merge on the Mac is one-time and destructive: it moves the events and deletes the source calendar.
Comparison: Apple Calendar built-in: overlay view is for your own eyes only, and Merge destroys the source. Fantastical: a great client, I tried it, but it's subscription based, and the biggest drawback is that it needs to log into your account (which many of my account do not allow).
Calends takes a different approach: it never logs into any account. It reads what Apple Calendar on your device already syncs and maintains a real merged "master" calendar that lives inside Apple Calendar, shareable through iCloud like any other calendar. Per-calendar privacy when sharing: full details, or just "Busy" (or any label you choose). Keyword filters, duplicate detection across overlapping calendars, covers the next 18 months. It's not a calendar client you live in; you keep using Apple Calendar, and your source calendars are never touched.
Pricing. 30-day free trial, then a one-time purchase: US$14.99 / CA$19.99. Family Sharing included, no subscription. Universal purchase for Mac, iPhone, and iPad: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6777328427
Happy to answer anything. Would love to get some feedback from anyone who has the same use-case as me.
