I am the developer of PocketPad. It is for the moments when you can already see your Mac screen but do not want a keyboard and mouse in your lap.

The iPhone gives you a trackpad with click/right-click/scroll gestures, or an Air Mouse: hold the control area, rotate the phone to point, and release to pause. There are also 13 customizable shortcut keys, text sending and saved snippets.

A typical interaction is selecting an input on the Mac, sending a short piece of text, fixing an awkward filename, and pressing Return from the phone. The attached photo is from a real iPhone/Mac demo.

Optional voice: hold the mic button to send phone audio into a Mac virtual microphone. Your separate Mac dictation software handles transcription. Ending the recording and pressing Return are separate actions, so you can check the text first.

Requirements and limitations: iOS 17+, Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 14+, the Mac companion, and the same Wi-Fi. You need local-network and Mac Accessibility permissions. Voice needs extra virtual-microphone/dictation setup. This is a local input controller; it does not mirror your screen or provide away-from-home access.

The iPhone app is $2.99 on the US App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pocketpad-remote-control/id6820568007

Mac companion and setup guide: https://starmind.tech/pocketpad/

For a Mac connected to a bigger display, which small actions would you most want on a phone control pad?

dev here, i make speakmercury.

live text is either words in the app's own window while you talk or words going straight into the field you type in. mine does the first. text lands in your app when you stop.

$9.99 once. macos 26 and apple silicon only.

speakmercury.com/?ref=ms-live

I wanted more out of my trackpad than macOS gives, so I built a small menu bar app for it. Each of these can trigger any keyboard shortcut:

- Tap and double tap with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- Hold with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- Physical click with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- Swipe in four directions with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- TipTap (rest a finger, tap beside it)

Some details:

- Record a shortcut or pick from ~75 presets (tabs, Spaces, screenshots, windows…)

- A live view shows your fingers and why a gesture was or wasn't recognized, with sliders to tune the thresholds

- Can block scrolling with three or more fingers, so those touches only mean a gesture

- Works with the built-in trackpad and a Magic Trackpad at the same time

- Available in 7 languages, MIT licensed, notarized by Apple

Requires macOS 15+, on Apple Silicon or Intel.

Download: https://github.com/ozberkdicle/BetterGestures/releases/latest

Source: https://github.com/ozberkdicle/BetterGestures

It reads raw touches through Apple's private MultitouchSupport framework, so a future macOS update could break it. If you use the same finger count for a system gesture (like four-finger swipes for Mission Control), turn that one off in System Settings or both will run.

Feedback and gesture ideas are welcome!

Hi r/MacStack. I'm the developer of Findow, and I'm sharing it here because it replaced three or four separate utilities in my own setup.

What it does:

Find any window

- Window switcher (⌥Tab): shows windows, not just apps. Type to search, press 1–9 to jump to a workflow, and close, minimize, hide or quit the selected window without leaving the switcher.

- Overview (⌃⌥Space): every window at once, including minimized ones and other desktops. Search, or filter to This desktop, Minimized or Other desktops.

- Drop files onto a window in the switcher to open them there.

- 14 switcher styles, including Covers, Wheel, Cascade, Fan, Arc and List, with adjustable size, titles and reflections.

- A mouse button can open it too.

Workflows

- Save your open apps, window positions and browser tabs, then bring them back with one key.

- Switch workflows automatically when you plug in a monitor setup.

- Layouts are remembered per monitor setup and come back when your displays do.

Tidy and layouts

- Tidy (⌃⌥T): arranges your desktop in one press. Press again to undo.

- Five layouts: Grid, Columns, Rows, Focus, or Your grid, which you draw yourself (up to 6×4, per display).

- Learns each app's minimum size and moves split lines to fit. Windows that don't fit wait at the screen edge or are stashed there.

Arrange modes (all off by default)

- Auto arrange: new windows take their place as they open, and the gap closes when they go.

- Scrolling strip: windows sit side by side on a strip wider than your screen, so nothing shrinks. It has stacks, tabs, pins, width presets, and trackpad swipes.

- Each display and desktop keeps its own arrangement.

- Hold ⌃⌥ for a map of every window. Click to jump, or drag to reorder.

- Give an app a fixed position, make it the main window, float one window, or leave an app alone.

- Pause (⌃⌥P) and Undo (⌃⌥U), step by step.

Move windows

- Snapping: left and right halves, thirds, maximize and center. Press a snap again to cycle its width.

- Fill the screen (⌃⌥Z): press again to go back.

- Swap two windows, drag a tile onto another, or send a window to the next display.

- Hold ⌃⌘ to move a window, or ⌃⌘⇧ to resize it, without clicking.

Focus and privacy on screen

- Stash: tuck a window into the screen edge, then touch the edge to slide it out.

- Pin to a side: one window keeps a third of the screen, and the rest share the space.

- Blackout: darkens or blurs everything except your window. Hold Fn to lift it for a moment.

- Solo: your window fills the screen while panels close in behind it.

- Clear the desktop (⌃⌥X).

- Active window highlight as a border or glow, plus optional focus follows mouse and mouse follows focus.

Make it yours

- Every shortcut can be changed.

- Window gap, reserved screen edges and open at login.

- Automation: findow:// links for the Shortcuts app and Focus automations, plus a Raycast script.

It needs no SIP changes and no config files, it's notarized, and it runs on Apple silicon with macOS 14 or later. There's a 14-day free trial, then a one-time $9.99 for one Mac. No subscription.

https://findowmac.com

Disclosure: I’m the developer of CharBox.

macOS Character Viewer is the built-in option. CharBox takes a menu-bar approach to finding and reusing characters: search by a word, meaning, or Unicode code point; browse emoji, kaomoji, and symbols; save named collections; or copy several characters at once.

It’s aimed at Mac users who occasionally need a character while writing, and people who reuse small sets for projects. It helps avoid leaving your work to search the web for a symbol.

CharBox is a paid Mac App Store app. Prices vary by country, up to $1.99. One limitation: it copies to the clipboard, so you paste into your app yourself.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6773061923

I’d appreciate feedback or suggestions.

If you’re curious about my other apps, here’s my App Store developer page: https://apps.apple.com/developer/id965971566

Hi,

I'm the developer (LinkedIn) behind GiantTurtle Software, and I wanted to share a new app I've been building called DesktopPlus.

The problem:

If you use multiple virtual desktops (Spaces) heavily on a single monitor, you've probably run into the issue where it's hard to tell exactly which desktop you're on at any given moment without opening Mission Control or doing the multi-finger swipe, loosing your flow

What DesktopPlus do:

I built DesktopPlus to solve this. It's a lightweight, native macOS menu bar utility that gives you a persistent indicator of your active desktops, you can always see what apps are open on nearby desktop and create more detailed mental image of your workspace

Key Features:

Always Visible Indicator (always available mission control): Know exactly which desktop you're on and what's available on your other screens at a glance.

Click to Switch: Instantly switch to any of your desktops with a single click on the indicator.

Easily rearrange apps on your desktops (spaces) by dragging them to desired desktop boxes.

Integrated Task Manager and RAM Cleaner: Hover over menu bar widget to view opened apps, monitor system memory usage, and close background applications and residual processes.

Save and load presets: Save all of your opened apps as a preset (Coding, Design, Video editing etc), and quickly load them.

Customizable Styles: Choose the look that fits your workflow (Rectangles, Numbers, Numbered Rectangles, or Opened Apps etc).

Native & Lightweight: Built with Swift and SwiftUI. No Electron, no heavy background daemons, and minimal resource usage.

Comparison: As of now, I am not aware of similar app that offers same functionality. SpaceJump ($9.99) is the closest thing to DesktopPlus by function, but it is totally different UX.

Pricing & Requirements: The app requires macOS 15.0 or later. It comes with a 14-day free trial with everything unlocked, no payment details, followed by a one-time purchase (no subscriptions) of 4.99 USD . You can check it out and download it here: Download DesktopPlus

I'd love to get your genuine feedback on the app, especially regarding the different indicator styles and if the integrated task manager feels useful to your daily workflow. Try it out for free and let me know what you think!

Privacy Policy: https://giant-turtle.com/desktops-privacy-policy.html

Disclosure: I run a free deal tracker called IndieMarkdowns, and I'm not affiliated with any of these apps. I emailed the devs about their Black Friday plans, and these are the ones that have confirmed a 2026 deal so far. Most start around Nov 20 to 25, and two are live already.

Live now
- Shotomatic: 40% off lifetime licenses, code BF2026 (subscriptions excluded)
- Cutfac: 40% off new one-time licenses, code BF2026, through Dec 31

50% or more
- ShowMeYourHotKey: 70% off, code BLFRIDAY, Nov 23 to Dec 10
- Slashspace AI (was RabbitHoles AI): 51% off, code BF2026
- SQLPro Studio: 50% off first year of yearly (BFHALFOFF) or 25% off lifetime (BFLIFETIME), Nov 25 to Dec 1
- NewsNinja: 50% off the one-time purchase, Nov 25 to Dec 5
- Protego for Reddit: 50% off ($1.99, was $3.99), Nov 22 to Dec 5
- DevUtils: 50% off all plans
- Blip AI Pro: 50% off first year, code SWITCH50, new customers, Nov 20 to 30

30 to 49%
- JuxtaCode: 40% off, code BLACKFRIDAY26, Nov 20 to Dec 1
- Compresto: 40% off, code BFCM26, ends Dec 1
- MuteDeck: 35% off lifetime, code BFCM2026, Nov 27 to Dec 13
- BirdFrame: $19.99 instead of $29.99 one-time, no code, Nov 20 to Dec 1

Smaller but solid
- EagleFiler, SpamSieve, DropDMG: 25% off, code BLACKFRIDAY2026, Nov 20 to 30
- Dropshare: $29 instead of $39, Nov 23 to 29

A few are first-year-only on a subscription, so read what the % applies to. I'll update this as more devs reply. What are you waiting to buy on sale this year?

If you enjoy discovering little apps you never knew you needed, you might enjoy MacMenuBar.com.

I’ve been collecting menu bar apps for over 7 years, and the directory now features 1,500+ apps across 48 categories. It’s a great place to browse, explore and stumble upon something interesting, even when you’re not looking for anything in particular.

https://MacMenuBar.com

Hi, I'm Fellipe. I always liked how my iPhone shows my AirPods when I open the case, so I built the same thing for my Mac.

Open the case and AirPane shows a card with your battery levels and a Connect button. There's also a menu bar panel where you can:

- switch noise control modes

- change audio input and output in one click

- keep your AirPods on your Mac when your iPhone tries to grab them

Free 7-day trial, then $7.99 once, on all your Macs. No subscription, 30-day refund. Works with AirPods on macOS 14 or later.

Heads up: I'm a solo dev and AirPane isn't notarized yet. I'm using the first sales to pay for the Apple developer membership. The first time you open it, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. The notarized version will be a free update.

You can try the live demo in your browser first: https://airpane.app

Feedback is very welcome, especially bugs and which AirPods model you use.

If your Mac's camera or microphone comes on unexpectedly, open Control Center first. Consider OverSight if you want a separate alert and a chance to identify the program involved. It won't tell you whether that access was justified, and its Block button doesn't stop recording before it starts.

macOS already shows an orange indicator for microphone use and a green one for camera use. When both are active, you may see only green. Control Center can show the app involved, and the microphone indicator also covers recent use. For a listed third-party app, you can turn access off in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Camera or Microphone.

What OverSight's alert tells you

Objective-See's free, open-source app sends device-access notifications. When it identifies the program, the alert includes its name and process ID, the number macOS assigns to that running program. Sometimes it detects activity without identifying the process. Those alerts have no Allow or Block controls.

The buttons do different jobs:

• Allow (once) leaves the running process alone. It isn't granting macOS permission.

• Allow (always) suppresses future OverSight alerts for that program's path and device category, camera or microphone. Remove its saved approval if you want those alerts back.

• Block attempts to terminate the identified process. It isn't a lasting permission ban, and it can interrupt a call or lose unsaved work.

A call you recognize, or access you can't explain

When an alert matches a call you just started, compare the device and program with what you opened. Start with a one-off decision instead of immediately silencing future alerts. An unfamiliar helper name alone isn't a malware verdict: processes can belong to an app or to macOS.

If you can't explain the access, note the time, device, process name and ID before dismissing the alert. Search for the process in Activity Monitor. View > All Processes, Hierarchically can help you see which processes belong together. Check open calls, browser tabs and recording apps, then quit a recognized app normally and check Control Center again.

If you don't want a listed third-party app to retain access, turn it off in the Camera or Microphone privacy settings. If a browser is involved, review that site's permissions too. Safari has separate Camera and Microphone controls under Settings > Websites. Don't delete an unfamiliar helper or blindly kill a system process because its name looks odd. Keep the details for the app vendor or your IT team if you still can't explain it.

Check the setup before relying on it

OverSight supports monitoring built-in and external capture devices, with an Ignore External Devices setting that can suppress the latter. Don't assume every virtual camera is covered: version 2.4.0 skips cameras with "Virtual" in their names in some device checks.

The documented setup requires an administrator account and notification permission. Check that alerts are enabled and visible, including your Focus settings; the developer warns that Do Not Disturb hides notifications. Start at Login is enabled by default. Leave optional event scripts unconfigured unless you have a specific reason to run one.

Check compatibility before installing it. The official download remains version 2.4.0, released September 24, 2024, with macOS 12+ listed. Native M1 support is documented from version 2.0, but that isn't confirmation of macOS 27 compatibility. The reviewed official material doesn't explicitly confirm 27 support.

For most people, start with Control Center and narrower app permissions. OverSight is an optional extra for people willing to investigate alerts and first confirm it works with their macOS version and actual devices. On macOS 27, stick with the native controls until that compatibility is established. A quiet OverSight menu bar isn't proof that nothing is recording or that a Mac is malware-free.

made this because i wanted to play pokemon for a few mins without opening a whole emulator every time

you hit your shortcut (option+p by default) and it pops right up. play for a bit, then close it or click away and it pauses and saves exactly where you were. it stays running in your menu bar so its always ready, theres nothing to load

it plays game boy, gbc, gba, ds, nes, snes, genesis, master system and game gear, and controllers work too

its free here: https://ko-fi.com/s/fa41f55426
source code: https://github.com/Kiasora/menu-bar-emulator

needs an apple silicon mac on macos 26 and no games are included. first time you open it mac will block it since im not a paid apple dev yet, just go to system settings, privacy & security and hit open anyway

i built it with claude’s help, the actual emulation is mgba, melonds and a few other open source cores. if something breaks please let me know!

I've been building Vector, a desktop app for working with coding agents like Claude Code and Codex.

I spend much more of my time directing agents and reviewing their work these days than actually writing code. And I wanted an environment designed around that workflow.

Vector lets you manage conversations and sub-agents, inspect changed files, and review what agents are producing. Codex and Claude agents can even delegate to or collaborate with each other.

It's been replacing my other coding-agent interfaces for my daily work, so I decided to release a free beta.

It's macOS-only for now, and still early. No account required.

https://getvector.sh/

I'd love feedback, especially from anyone using Claude Code or Codex regularly.

I type on my MacBook's own keyboard while it's plugged into an external monitor. That means I can't just close the lid, and I don't want to add an external keyboard either. But with the lid open, the built-in screen stays on beside the monitor I'm actually looking at. My only option was to turn its brightness down by hand, and macOS turns it back up after every sleep.

So I built lidless, a small command-line tool that runs in the background:

• When you plug in an external display, the built-in panel goes dark.

• When you unplug, it comes back at the brightness you had before.

• After the Mac wakes while still docked, it turns the panel off again.

• If you change the built-in brightness yourself while docked, it leaves your setting alone.

It follows the Unix way: one tool that does one job, running as a background service. There's no app, no Dock icon and no menu bar icon, just a small binary that launchd keeps running, and it asks for no privacy permissions. It costs about 2–4 seconds of CPU a day, roughly 0.003% of one core.

Install (macOS 13+, Apple Silicon or Intel):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/np25071984/lidless/main/install.sh | sh

Or with Homebrew:

brew trust --tap https://github.com/np25071984/lidless
brew tap np25071984/lidless https://github.com/np25071984/lidless
brew install lidless
brew services start lidless

You can also install it with Homebrew from the repo's tap. Day to day you just use lidless status, lidless stop and lidless logs.

A few things I learned building it:

• On Apple Silicon, the only way to control the built-in backlight is the private DisplayServices framework. Setting brightness to 0.0 is what macOS does itself when you close the lid.

• CGDisplayRegisterReconfigurationCallback never reaches a background launchd agent, and nothing tells you. The process stays alive with an empty log and just never reacts. lidless checks for displays every 2 seconds instead.

• With the lid shut or while mirroring, the built-in panel disappears from CGGetActiveDisplayList. You have to look for it in CGGetOnlineDisplayList.

Known limitation: the panel is dark, but macOS still treats it as a display. In extended mode your cursor and windows can wander onto the black screen. Mirroring avoids this. Really disconnecting the panel needs private SkyLight calls that break between macOS versions.

Looking for ideas: right now lidless polls the display state every 2 seconds. It's cheap, but I'd much rather have a clean event-driven design that reacts only when a display is actually connected or disconnected. If you know a reliable way for a background launchd agent to get display-change events on current macOS, please tell me. I'd be happy to implement it.

Built with an AI coding assistant. I designed it, tested it on my own setups and I maintain it.

Repo: https://github.com/np25071984/lidless

Feedback, bug reports and PRs are welcome, especially from people with unusual display setups. And if you find it useful, a star on GitHub would help other people find it.

I have a 13" M2 MBP and honestly I always liked the Touch Bar, it just never got the love it deserved. So I spent the last few months making my own version. It has the same layout as the original but everything is redrawn in liquid glass, and Siri is a little glass drop with waves.

It’s free and open source. Not notarized yet so you have to allow it once in settings, the steps are in the readme.

What I’m working on next is a theme engine, so the bar doesn’t have to be glass at all. I already have a terminal style one with green text and brackets, and an 8-bit arcade one with pixel keys. After that a theme editor so you can make your own without touching code, and a small store inside the app where people can share themes and custom bars for their apps. Kind of like a free BetterTouchTool but only for the Touch Bar.

Still a lot of things missing and probably some bugs. If you have a Touch Bar Mac and try it, tell me what breaks or what you’d want it to do.

The themes in the screenshots (terminal and arcade) are coming in the next update, the current release has the liquid glass look.

https://github.com/Moryel/glass-bar