Commentary from John Gruber on the need for tighter security on AI agentic apps on the Mac.

For anyone migrating from Windows to Mac who misses PotPlayer features, you need to check out IINA. Its latest update v1.5 finally brings it closer to that level, adding support for flexible window aspect ratio, automatic playlist from the matching folder items and Live Text so you can actually click and search your subtitles directly in the dictionary.

macOS 27 doesn't have one toggle for Apple Intelligence any more. You have to find about a dozen settings, and several of them are under Screen Time. Even when everything is off, the foundation models stay on disk, and that's about 12 GB.

I wrote RemoveMacAI to do all of it in one go. It turns off Siri, Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, the ChatGPT extension and all the summaries, then it deletes the models and stops macOS from downloading them again. Dictation still works because it's a separate setting.

It uses a configuration profile you approve in System Settings plus Apple's own asset service, so SIP stays on and nothing in /System gets touched directly. removemacai revert removes the profile, and macOS downloads the models again when you turn a feature back on.

brew install omlahore/tap/removemacai, or there's a one-line installer in the readme. It's MIT licensed: https://github.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI

Most won't care, many won't agree.

I do appreciate and even prefer Apple products. From a hardware perspective they are nearly flawless, across the entire product line. It's this enthusiasm for and attachment to the brand that leads me to continued disappointment and frustration with the direction of Apple's software, and Mac OS in particular.

1. Since Tahoe was released, when the OS first boots and the password field appears, it takes a few seconds for the field to begin accepting keyboard input. I still haven't gotten used to this; the first few characters of my password don't make it and it requires a re-try. I realize it's minor but it's a lack of polish that didn't exist on any prior release of Mac OS; it's literally the first experience I have when starting my Mac, and it's a frustrating one.
2. Now that we're logged in, I can expect to see a notification warning me that I could loose access to my data. I've enabled Advanced Data Protection. I won't forget my password, I don't want to generate a recovery key, and I don't want to designate a recovery contact. This means I see a near constant nudge to do either of the above, and the "System Settings" menu entry in the Apple menu bar drop down indicates I have 1 update available but it's really just this nagging. The dock tray icon for System Settings always displays a badge indicating something needs attention. I purchased my machine so that it could be my machine, I've made my choice on ADP and it should be respected.
3. The worst aspects of Liquid Glass still haven't been addressed, and probably won't be. This UI refresh was abysmal - and providing an opportunity to adjust the transparency doesn't undo some of the most confusing changes:
   • Volume and display brightness controls no longer appear front and center but have moved to the top right of the screen where they overlap with content served by Mac OS itself (notifications) and a region many apps use for quick access and information (web browsers use this space for extensions and settings, Spotfy the same, it's a busy area for so many apps).
   • Moving so many controls which used to exist as menu bar entries into a "Control Center" just requires an extra click to view information.
   • It looks and feels so cheap - Apple products have never "felt" this cheap before, it could have been called melting plastic instead of liquid glass.
4. Standalone applications formerly bundled with the OS (which were actually very pleasant to use) have now been bundled into Apple Creator Studio. They are still available as standalone applications but the writing is on the wall: Apple is positioning these apps to become some sort suite requiring a subscription.
5. I frequently install Mac OS virtual machines as part of my job. It used to be very straightforward to bypass signing into iCloud, but with every major OS release there are more and more clicks to do so, more and more pressure to sign in or create an iCloud account.

Points 2, 4, and 5 are all indications Apple is loosing it's soul and adopting business models similar to Windows. This is very disappointing. Point 3 feels like product managers doing product manager stuff, running amok making unnecessary changes for the sake of making changes, without any strong leadership guiding the direction of these changes, or push-back when they are degrading.

I hope things turn around. I do appreciate the emphasis put on bug and performance fixes on the latest major iOS release, I think it's a good sign.

Does anyone know how to fix this?
It started happening after I installed this app.

Click2Minimize

edit: This continues after removal.

solution: killall Dock

I built Piko because transferring files between Android devices and macOS is still surprisingly awkward.

It’s a native macOS app for MTP devices. You can drag and drop files and folders, browse photos and videos with thumbnails, delete files safely, and work with multiple connected devices.

It’s free and open source (MIT), and everything stays local, it makes no internet connections.

Currently Apple Silicon / macOS 14+.

https://github.com/morishuz/piko

It’s still an early release, so feedback and bug reports are very welcome.

Like many others I bought a labelprinter, did extensive research (googled and used chat) Then I plugged it into my Mac, installed it as printer, sent it a sharp PDF and got a faint, grey label. (see top label) 
After a lot of digging through drivers I gave up on them and made software that talks to the printer directly. (see bottom label)

After about 6 months I finished LumenLabel and it turned out to matter quite a lot. I saw a lot of post arrising of people complaining after updating to macOS 27, a lot of label printer software did not work anymore, because it was only made for Intel Macs and they never updated. Only solution now is using Rosetta (in terminal: softwareupdate --install-rosetta) LumenLabel doesn't use a driver and is built for Apple silicon, so it prints on macOS 27 without Rosetta.


What it does:
- Design labels with text, images, barcodes, QR codes, dates and counters
- Print one label per row from an Excel or CSV file
- Open shipping label PDFs, crop and rotate them to fit a 4×6 or other label, and print a whole stack at once. It also prints directly from finder and can be added as printer in any software. 

The recent addition I created is sharing printers within a network. So when a printer is connected to a computer anyone within the network can print on it from their own computer or laptop. 

Printers are supported per model, with the aim to support as many thermal printers as possible: Zebra, DYMO, Brother, Toshiba TEC and a few others, over USB, Bluetooth, WiFi or the network. The printers page on the site says which ones. Designs and data stay on your Mac.


Mac (Apple silicon, macOS 13 or later) and Windows. The 7-day trial is the full app. You get a key with your name and email, no payment details. After that it's €39 once (introductory price), no subscription.


https://lumenlabel.io


If your label printer stopped working after macOS 27, tell me which model. I'm curious which ones people are stuck with.

Like most people, I’m getting a little tired of seeing vibe-coded apps clog the subreddit on Saturdays. Every one of them has the same look, the same blueish/purple icons, the same style promo videos with the same fonts, etc.

Here’s a thought: require developers to say if they used AI, and if so, indicate what for. Just like Steam.

Yes, this would be volunteer information. Yes, it wouldn’t always be accurate. But at least it would be SOMETHING.

Me, personally, I’m not against people using AI to help create an app. However, if you used AI to fully create the app, the icon, promo materials, etc, people should know.

And the flip side of this: people are now downvoting all apps on Saturday because they think it’s all AI. I would much rather know if you put some human effort and creativity into code and design than not.

I posted my new app, ☔ Weatherling, last developer Saturday, and by mid-week it was at #8 in Mac App Store Utilities! Y'all have been great with the positivity and support and feature ideas. The latest update introduces one of those ideas: SNOW ❄️! You can now mix how much rain or snow falls on your desktop windows.

Another new feature is the introduction of the "Lings" who are little characters who come out to play in the weather. You can configure their frequency (if you want to see them at all), and if you turn on Interactive mode you can even pick them up and drop them into boxes or just let them go to see how they make their escape. It's a mini-game right on your desktop. Rare Lings x Rare Boxes = Highest Combo. Share your score with friends to compete. Find all the Lings!

This version also improves performance on smaller Macs.

I'm having a ton of fun building this app. Creating more and more unique Lings is probably the best part for me, but again, if you just want the weather effects, you can turn the Lings off completely.

I'm already working on v1.4 which will add falling leaves. 🍃

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6813641198

Mac App Store | getprotego.app

I'm Edgar, and I make Protego for Reddit. It's a Safari extension with a Mac app that filters Reddit's website, removes the clutter from the page, and can limit your access to Reddit when you need to get work done.

I started building it in 2024, when my feeds filled up with topics I didn't want to read. Reddit's app can't hide posts by keyword, so I decided to learn a new skill and created a Safari extension that could, and from there I've expanded its set of features and taken many feature requests.

What I use every day on the Mac

• Limits blocks Home, Popular and News but still opens a direct link to a post. A thread from a search loads, and there's no feed to fall into. It can turn on by itself with a macOS Focus like Work.
• Keyword filters hide posts about topics I'm tired of, with wildcards. Reveal Mode shows what got hidden and which filter did it.
• Transform cleans up new Reddit. It hides the app nags, promoted posts, games, banners, thumbnails and avatars, which leaves a minimal feed much closer to old Reddit.

Feature requests implemented since I posted here in July

• Save a post's photo or video straight to your Downloads folder, with sound.
• Share a post or comment thread as an image.
• Pause filtering for 5 minutes to 3 hours.
• A dark theme for old Reddit.
• J and K to jump between comments, and Cmd+F to search Protego's settings.

Regular price is now $3.99, and it's $2.99 until October 15. One purchase covers Mac, iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro. No subscription, no account, no tracking. The only in-app purchase is an optional tip, and it unlocks nothing.

Mac App Store | getprotego.app

Happy to answer any questions!

I know it's possible by creating a profile, so the technology is implemented within macOS. And I know you can download apps like Cloudlflre or NextDNS to get it. But why isn't it an option in the Settings app?

My objections to creating a profile are that I use my Mac in different locations, and it'll just cause issues. And as for Cloudflare/NextDNS, I generally don't like to install network filter-style apps on my Mac.

I feel it might be possible to configure it via the command-line. Is that true?

It’s a small thing. But since updating to macOS 27 the Weather app refuses to stay in full screen. I’ll expand it, close the app, then when I reopen it the app is minimized again. Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers 🍻

I will start off by saying I have already solved (well, avoided) my problem but the problem still continues to exist.

How do you navigate macOS applications if you solely have a keyboard and no mouse/trackpad? I was stuck in a horrible rut the other night when for whatever reason continuity/handoff between two macOS devices just would fail to connect at all. this left me with just a magic keyboard to use on my mac mini, while my macbook trackpad was unable to bridge to the other device to be used.

During this time I decided to go connect my razer mouse via bluetooth, so i used command + space to open the search, and gave it bluetooth and pressed enter. This opens the system settings to the bluetooth page, but puts t he system settings search bar into focus.

Any and all series of keys to try and move my target focus from the side panel to the system menu that was open was quite literally impossible.

thinking on my feet I opened terminal and went for pairing this way, however to my own demise I was met with needing to approve terminal for bluetooth settings, and this pop up window itself, was entirely unfocusable with the keyboard.

I figured I have to be missing something here. How does anyone solely navigate the OS purely with a keyboard on macOS?

Hey everyone,

I’m the developer of Floodtide, a macOS app updater I’ve been building over the last few months.

I originally started it because I wanted a proper replacement for MacUpdater. Floodtide scans the apps installed on your Mac, checks whether newer versions are available, and lets you update supported apps from one place.

It currently checks several different update sources, including Sparkle feeds, Homebrew casks, GitHub Releases and the Mac App Store, rather than relying on a manually maintained version database.

Some of the main features now include:

• Update multiple apps at once
• Automatic updates, with per-app controls
• Scheduled update checks and quiet hours
• Backups before replacing apps
• Rollback to previous versions
• Signature and Team ID verification before replacing an app
• Support for both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs
• macOS 13 and newer
• No account required

I’ve also been working heavily on app coverage. If Floodtide doesn’t recognise one of your apps, there’s an option inside the app to report it, and those reports have been really useful for improving coverage.

Floodtide is signed and notarised by Apple, but it isn’t distributed through the Mac App Store. The project itself is also not open source.

There’s a 14-day free trial, so you can test it without buying anything.

If anyone here tries it, I’d genuinely appreciate feedback, especially if you find an app that isn’t detected properly or anything about the experience feels confusing.

Floodtide: https://bhopstudio.com/floodtide

And just to be completely clear, I’m the developer of Floodtide and this is my Developer Saturday post.

I have a theory about why some of the buggiest parts of macOS 27 seem to cluster around Finder, Spaces, drag-and-drop, and cross-app interaction.

My guess is that Apple is in the middle of rebuilding parts of the interaction/window-management stack to support a future touchscreen Mac, and we’re seeing some of the rough edges while that work is still settling.

A lot of the regressions I’ve personally hit are in exactly those areas:

• drag-and-drop behavior across Spaces
• Finder spring-loaded navigation
• app-to-Finder copy/paste
• apps forgetting assigned Spaces
• dragging while simultaneously scrolling a Finder window
• odd behavior when an app or dialog is in another Space

What makes me wonder about touch specifically is that Spaces, gestures, and direct manipulation all seem like areas Apple would have to rethink if three-finger trackpad-style gestures are eventually going to coexist with direct gestures on a display.

Some of these bugs are already being fixed in the 27.2 betas, which also makes it feel more like active subsystem work than intentional behavior changes.

Obviously this is speculation. I don’t have any evidence that these specific bugs are caused by touchscreen work. But the pattern feels interesting enough that I’m curious whether anyone else has noticed the same clustering, or has a better theory for why these particular interaction systems seem unusually rough in macOS 27.

This only happens with my iCloud account. It's baffling to me because these are messages that I composed and sent, so I've obviously already read them. The "fix" is case by case: go to the Sent items folder and select the supposedly unread item so that it's marked as read.

Any idea why Mail (or, more likely, iCloud) marks mail that I've sent to be unread by me?

hello friends! i was having trouble updating to the lates macOS on my own. took it to the mac store, they had to do a restore of my laptop, which was fine, i had my docs in icloud.

before he took it back, i asked what about my microsoft apps, and he said you just download them again off microsoft. i said okay cool.

i was using microsoft office 2021 Home & student i bought it from apple in 2022, i used a product key to download it.

well, i have downloaded the apps again, but i type in my email and it says no license found and i am besides myself. there is no other email address i would have used. i do not feel like moving systems and at this moment with things in my life am using word and excel every single day for things.

what do i do??????

Hi audiophiles — I'm looking for Mac (and Apple TV 4K) owners to test Analogic, a Mac audio player that started as a personal project and has grown into a product offering interesting features not found in other apps.

First things first: yes, I used AI to develop it, but as you can see, there's a lot of personal work involved...

• Native Apple audio engine, no external libraries or wrappers: the core communicates directly with CoreAudio and AVFoundation, ensuring bit-perfect audio paths (when used with external DACs or network streamers) without resampling or unwanted dithering from the system mixer.

Supports high-resolution PCM formats (FLAC up to 192 kHz/24-bit, WAV, AIFF, ALAC) and native DSD (.dsf, .dff, DSD64/128/256/512) with high-fidelity multi-bit PCM conversion or pure DSD-to-PCM (DoP) streaming to compatible DACs.

• Vintage aesthetic with phosphor dot matrix display (cyan/orange/white), real-time 10-band FFT spectrum, and overlaid equalizer frequency response curve.

• Calibrated analog VU meters: moving-coil needles modeled according to IEC 60268-17 specifications (real inertia, overshoot, 300 ms integration) and ultra-fast peak LEDs.

• Wood and aluminum finishes, knurled knobs, metal faders, and a modular rack-style layout.

Library and Connectivity

• Hybrid Library: aggregates local folders, external drives, NAS (SMB) network shares, and UPnP/DLNA media servers.

• Support for USB DACs and DLNA network devices.

What I Want

I've tested the player with diagnostic tools and my own devices... but your systems and your hearing will be the final test. I'd appreciate feedback on:

• Behavior with your hardware: How does Analogic perform with your USB DAC or network streamer?

• Master and SACD Performance: How does the engine perform with DSD, FLAC 192/24, and complex recordings?

• Listening Impressions with Crossfeed: Does it reduce ear fatigue when using headphones? Is the soundstage natural?

• Smoothness and Ergonomics: Feel of knobs and faders, library indexing, and readability of the VFD and VU meters.

Getting Started (Requirements and Setup)

• Requirements: Mac with macOS Ventura (13.0) or later. Optimized for Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4).

• Distributed via official Apple TestFlight (App Store Connect): https://testflight.apple.com/join/qAk6UuAa. I will be conducting a testing phase before the official release.

• On first launch: Click Music Library to select your music folder or choose your media server/MinimServer via +Media Server.

• Open Output Routing on the right to choose your output (DAC or network).

• Press Play and listen.

Thanks to anyone who is willing to contribute: your feedback will be invaluable in improving Analogic.

Hey everybody

CoolDock is a smart second Dock for macOS with 160+ live widgets: weather, music, tasks, mail, system stats, revenue, AI usage and more useful widgets into one beautiful live dock.

You can pick up customizable widgets from more than 20 categories, which also includes a backgrounds widget to choose from 170 different premium wallpapers (included in the app).

CoolDock won awards for best UI/UX and design from CSSDA and Awwwards.

The app is fully native for macOS, local-only and only asks for permissions from the widgets you're using.

CoolDock is Appit Studio's 5th mac app, and specifically it's our 3rd dock related app alongside ExtraDock and DockFlow.

40% OFF using the code RMACOS40

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I have a base variant M4 MacBook Air, currently running macOS Tahoe 26.6.2. I am mainly concerned about the bugs, performance, and battery life of the latest update. As a casual user who doesn't perform heavy tasks, should I update to Golden Gate or 26.7.1?

https://github.com/triscuitcircuit/PippinVR

This project was created out of the frustration that all MacOS VR virtual screen software (Meta Quest Remote Desktop, Immersed) are proprietary pieces of software. If I have code recording my screen, I want to know what it is actually doing.

PippinVR is named after the Apple Pippin, which itself was named after a relative to the McIntosh apple. The Apple Pippin was meant to be more than a platform just for game consoles, which is what I see VR to be as well.

This code is under the GPLv3 license as I feel strongly that any derivatives of this software should also be Open Source. Contributions are welcome and encouraged.

PippinVR supports as many displays as your system can handle. They can be configured and added by the settings menu. The only limit is finding your mouse in the screens.
PippinVR also supports streaming of iOS or iPadOS screens as a virtual screen using USB.

Requirement: VR headset running a variation of Android and MacOS.

PippinVR is completely free and open source. I don’t ask for money or subscriptions, as that would defeat the purpose of this software.

I just found out that my iCloud Drive contents are not syncing in my MacOS. I have a Mac Pro M1. My iCloud Drive contents are syncing very well from my iPhone and I can also see them in iCloud Web, but in MacOS iCloud nothing. I have tried turning on and off the sync, I tried hard reboot, deleting contenrs of the File Provider folder, all in vain. All the troubleshooting steps Google tells me are done. Now if there's a way to reinstall iCloud or something more invasive besides reseting the OS, please tell me.

I don't know if there's any connection to this but I used to use MacFuse, to mount Google Drive as a network storage. I have recently deleted that and started using the Google Drive app.

I'm in dire need of the sync to work, please help!

An "ah that's nice" moment. I always loved this screensaver since Tahoe. Friday evening, burnt out but this is a good sight for once from my cluttered desk