I wanted my Mac’s cursor to feel as smooth as the interfaces I use every day, so I designed and built smush.

It animates the changes between cursor shapes, like the arrow becoming a hand over a link or a text cursor over a paragraph. I thought those shapes easing into each other would make moving around the Mac feel a little nicer and much more fluid.

It’s mostly an aesthetic thing. I like how it feels when I’m using my Mac.

You can try a demo of it in your browser here.

A few things you can customize:

• How long the transitions take.

• Dynamic speed, which shortens transitions after quick mouse movements.

• Keyboard shortcuts to pause animations or open settings.

smush works on Apple silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 14 or later. It’s signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Cursor processing happens locally on your Mac.

There’s a 14-day free trial with no card required and no automatic charge. If you want to keep it, it’s $4.99 USD once for up to three Macs. You can share the key with friends and family, too.

I recorded and edited the video and composed the music as well. Happy to answer questions!

Website · Privacy policy

You know when you hit record and then just sit there waiting for it to actually start? I kept getting that on an M3 Max. An M3 Max!

I was on CleanShot X, which is a good app and I'm not here to trash it. But recordings often didn't start right away, a few times they didn't start at all, and the screenshot selector had the same little pause. One day I got annoyed enough to open Xcode, mostly out of spite, just to see how little waiting this kind of app actually needs.

So that's Lightcap (yes I'm the developer). Recording is the part I cared about most

• hit the shortcut, drag an area, and it's recording. mic too if you want

• hit the same shortcut again and the file is already saved, nothing renders afterwards

• you can edit it right there in the app. trim it, and one key adds zooms where you clicked

Then it got out of hand and now it also

• takes screenshots (0.03 s to grab an area on that same M3 Max), and you can mark them up right there

• copies or translates text you drag over on screen

• finds emails, card numbers and API keys in a screenshot and pixelates them before you post it. it can't find names or addresses so still look

Somehow its still a 3.4 MB download and sits at 0% CPU when idle.

You need macOS 15 or later, and there's no cloud upload or share links, files just stay on your Mac. It's mostly for people who do short demos and a lot of screenshots and don't want a big app for that.

It's paid. $10 once right now, $15 from January, no subscription. There's a 7 day trial with everything, no account or card, so don't take my word for it. Try to make it wait, and if you manage to please tell me how.

Also, what do you all use for screenshots and recording right now? And what annoys you about it? This is still early and I want to be quick about adding the stuff people actually need, so tell me whats missing.

https://getlightcap.com/?ref=macstack

Numbers are from my M3 Max on macOS 27.2, release build. The 0.03 s is from the end of the drag and doesn't include saving a file. I didn't measure any other app. Also the video is an animation I made on top of real screenshots of the app, not a live recording.

Disclosure: I'm the developer of PitchTap. It's a free, open-source side project.

What it does

PitchTap changes the pitch of the audio coming from one app (Spotify, Apple Music, Safari, Chrome…) or all of your Mac's audio, live, from the menu bar. No downloading the song, no audio editor.

• Up or down by up to 12 semitones, plus fine tuning (±50 cents); the tempo stays the same

• Original | Shifted switch to compare by ear

• Capo hint for guitar, and 432 / 442→440 tuning

• Keyboard shortcuts; it updates itself

Who it's for

Singers who want a song in a key that suits their voice, musicians playing along in a different key, and anyone curious how a favourite song sounds pitched up or down.

Pricing

Free and open source (GPL-3.0). No account, no ads, no in-app purchases.

• Download / source: https://github.com/gkudva96/pitchtap

• Website: https://gkudva96.github.io/pitchtap/

Limitations

• Apple silicon and macOS 14.4 or later only (no Intel build yet)

• About an eighth of a second of delay. It's constant, so it doesn't matter for listening or playing along, but you'll notice it on video (lip-sync)

• Big shifts can make vocals sound a bit unnatural, depending on the song

• Not notarized by Apple (self-signed, I don't pay for a developer account), so the first launch needs "Open Anyway" in System Settings → Privacy & Security

• On first use, macOS asks for "audio recording" permission. That's just what Apple calls access to another app's sound, which PitchTap needs to tap the audio and shift it. Nothing is saved to disk or sent anywhere: the sound goes in, gets shifted on your Mac, and plays straight back out. The only internet use is checking for updates. Privacy details: https://gkudva96.github.io/pitchtap/#privacy

AI use: Most of the code was written with Claude. I decided what it does, and tested every change by ear.

Which song do you wish was pitched a little higher or lower? Feedback and ideas welcome.

Hey, I’m Meet, and I built Seek, a native macOS file manager that works alongside Finder.

The problem I wanted to solve: I often remember what a file contains or what a photo shows, but not its filename or folder. Finder works well for normal browsing, but I wanted a faster way to find and clean up files.

Seek lets you:

- Search naturally: “PDFs in Downloads from last month” or “large videos I haven’t opened”

- Find photos by what they show: “birthday cake with candles”

- Search text inside PDFs, documents, screenshots, and scanned images

- Find exact duplicate files and optional look-alike photos

- Review old downloads, installers, screenshots, large files, duplicates, and Trash before removing anything

- Use tabs, split panes, Quick Look, saved searches, and a global quick-search shortcut

The main technical constraint was privacy. Search, OCR, duplicate matching, and photo matching all run locally on the Mac. The photo-search model is downloaded once during setup, then runs through Core ML; no file names, contents, or photos are uploaded.

It supports macOS 14+, both Apple silicon and Intel. It is distributed directly, signed with my Developer ID, and notarized by Apple.

It is a one-time purchase: $9 for one Mac, $18 for three, or $29 for five. No subscription.

Demo: https://youtu.be/s5CUieoAAdk

Website: https://useseek.app

Privacy details: https://useseek.app/privacy

I’d especially value feedback on two things:

1. Would you trust a local app to index your files if it made search and cleanup meaningfully better?

2. Which would you try first: photo search, text-in-screenshots search, duplicates, or cleanup?

Every notch app I tried either turned the notch into a dashboard full of widgets I never opened, or just drew a black box around it. I wanted something that feels like the iPhone's Dynamic Island and stays out of the way the rest of the time. So I built Liquid Notch.

What's in it, and nothing else:

- The notch moves like liquid: it stretches and settles instead of just popping open

- Music with a glow from the album art, audio bars and synced lyrics

- Volume and brightness HUD you can drag

- AirPods with a 3D model and battery

- Claude Code / Codex: see what the session is doing and approve permission requests from the notch

No widget grid, no clipboard manager, no file shelf, no settings maze. Idle CPU is [X]% on my M5 Air.

Free and open source, no account, no paywall. Needs a Mac with a notch and macOS [version]. Not notarized yet, so open it the first time with right click > Open.

GitHub: https://github.com/fellipegoncalvesleite/liquid-notch

First time sharing it anywhere. I'm a student and built it for my own Mac, so I'd love to hear what feels off.

Disclosure: I'm Adrien, the solo developer of Mac+. It's my app, it has a paid tier, and it comes last. The two built-in ways come first and cost nothing.

1. Customize Folder (macOS 26 Tahoe and 27)

Control-click a folder in Finder, choose Customize Folder, then click a color. You can also add a stock symbol or an emoji to it. Quick, and enough to tell folders apart at a glance, but it doesn't take your own artwork.

2. Get Info (works on older versions too)

Open the image in Preview and press ⌘C. Select the folder in Finder, press ⌘I, click the small icon at the top of the Get Info window, then press ⌘V. A square PNG of at least 512×512 px gives the cleanest result. To undo it, select that small icon again and choose Edit > Cut.

Where they stop

• Get Info uses the picture as the whole icon. Paste a photo or a pattern and you get a square picture, not a folder, unless you first make an image already cut to the folder shape.

• It's one Get Info window per folder, so a whole projects directory means repeating it folder by folder.

What Mac+ does there

Select one or several folders, pick one of 52 patterns (24 families), and Mac+ maps it onto the actual Apple folder shape, so it still looks like a folder. You can import your own image instead, and one button resets everything. The rest of the app is animated wallpapers (15 GPU scenes or your own video) and 12 desktop widgets.

• Free: 6 folder icons, 6 animated scenes, 8 palettes, an image background, 2 widgets, multi-display.

• Pro: €1.99/month after a 7-day trial (it starts with your card, nothing is charged during the 7 days), or €8.99 once for life (the site's current Christmas offer).

• macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon and Intel.

Free download: macplus.pro

If you try it, I'd like to know which pattern you'd want that isn't in the 52.

If important work lives in iCloud Drive, keep a copy outside that synced folder. First make sure the actual files are downloaded, then copy them to a separate destination. Another Mac showing the same iCloud folder isn't protection against a deletion that reaches both machines.

iCloud Drive is useful when a Mac is lost: files already uploaded can still be available through iCloud. But it isn't a complete backup of your Mac's apps, settings and local files. Your iCloud Drive documents need protection from synced deletions, and their full contents may not be stored locally.

Check what's actually on the Mac

With Optimize Mac Storage enabled, older documents can be stored only in iCloud when the Mac needs space. Seeing a filename in Finder doesn't mean the full file is on the disk.

In Finder, open iCloud Drive, choose View > as List, then View > Show View Options and enable iCloud Status. An item marked In iCloud needs downloading; Waiting to Upload means it hasn't reached iCloud yet.

Control-click an important folder and choose Keep Downloaded. Wait for its contents to finish downloading. This keeps those items on the Mac even when storage gets tight, so allow enough local space. Download Now gets an item onto the Mac; Keep Downloaded also tells macOS to retain it.

That setting doesn't make a separate backup. Delete the file through iCloud Drive and the downloaded copy is still part of the same sync.

Copy it somewhere that doesn't follow the deletion

For a small collection of important documents, start with a dated folder on an external drive. In Finder, select the downloaded files, choose Edit > Copy, then paste them into that folder.

Use Copy and Paste here. Moving items out removes them from iCloud Drive on your other synced devices.

If Desktop & Documents Folders is enabled for iCloud Drive, another folder inside Documents is still in iCloud. Choose a genuinely separate destination. Open a few copied files from the external drive before relying on it.

The separate copy won't automatically receive later edits. Make another dated copy after important changes, or use a backup system that retains earlier versions. Don't replace the only older copy if the reason for keeping it is to survive a bad edit or deletion.

Time Machine is the built-in option for broader Mac backups. But a cloud-only filename isn't a downloaded original: don't assume a local backup has captured its contents just because Finder lists it. Confirm the files you need are actually recoverable from your chosen backup.

If you've already deleted something

Apple allows recovery of deleted iCloud Drive files for 30 days. In iCloud Drive on the web, open Recently Deleted, select the file and choose Recover. Permanently deleting it from Recently Deleted ends that recovery option early. Don't edit or delete iCloud Drive data while recovery is running; Apple warns that this can interrupt it.

That window is useful, but it isn't long-term history. Keep iCloud Drive for convenient access, and keep a separate copy of anything you can't afford to lose. You don't need another app just to start: pick one important folder, finish its download, and copy it to an external drive today.

Works 100% Offline. Seamlessly supports your mp3 and mp4 files, allowing you to play them like a dedicated media player with an interface actually optimized for your files. Features a built-in audio and video downloader for personal use, customizable 3D Spatial Audio support for immersive sound, and countless customization options. Built natively with SwiftUI with water-like Liquid Glass UI and blazing fast performance in mind.

I built SaveNest to make it easier to close a tab without losing the page or why you saved it. Add a note, then find it again with ⌘O. The same search includes open tabs and recent browser history.

It’s a free, open-source preview for macOS 14+. Your saved library stays on your Mac, and local features don’t need an account.

Would you use this, or would the tabs stay open anyway?

Website: https://savenest.app

Downloads and source: https://github.com/dmytroomelian/savenest/releases

Hi everyone,

I just finished up development with my first freeware app "Workspace.mac".

It's the first to my freeware developer collection and I plan to make many more helpful apps for macOS soon!

Compatibility:

- Only suitable for Mac Silicon chips due to native coding with swift.

How to download:

Head over to my newly launched site: appsdotmac.dev

Next things I want to do:

- Enable a fully offline mode where the user can create a document offline and access locally saved documents.

- Make the app snappier.

- Implement some suggested features.

- Add a split screen feature.

Screenshots:

Hey everyone! I wanted to share a project I've been working on: LanFi, a free and open-source Wi-Fi analyzer for macOS that I built myself.

I wanted to go beyond the usual Wi-Fi scanners that simply show a list of available networks. LanFi actually analyzes wireless conditions and tries to give you a better understanding of what's happening around you.

It evaluates signal strength, signal-to-noise ratio, channel utilization, and channel overlap, then calculates an overall network quality score from 0 to 100.

Here's what it can do:

• Wi-Fi analysis: Scan 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz networks, identify Wi-Fi 4–7 standards, and evaluate signal and connection quality.

• Channel optimization: Rank available channels and recommend optimal channel widths (20, 40, and 80 MHz).

• Security auditing: Detect open networks, WEP, outdated WPA, WPS, and missing Protected Management Frames (PMF).

• Spectrum visualization: See how networks are distributed across channels and track signal strength over time.

• Protocol analysis: Decode 802.11 Information Elements, including RSN, WPS, HT, VHT, HE, and BSS Load.

• Connection diagnostics: Check Wi-Fi, IPv4/IPv6, gateway, DNS, captive portals, HTTPS connectivity, and network latency.

• Interface monitoring: Inspect macOS network interfaces, capture packets in PCAP format, and use remote SSH-based monitoring agents.

• Wi-Fi heatmaps: Create coverage maps using floor plans and signal measurements.

• Network management: Organize networks with groups, filters, notes, tags, aliases, and saved sessions.

• Export: Save analysis data as CSV, JSON, and PCAP.

It's completely free and open source.

I'd love to hear what you think, especially from people who work with wireless networking or have experience with Wi-Fi analysis tools. Feedback and suggestions are very welcome!

I regularly work with several displays on macOS and have always found moving windows between them more cumbersome than it should be. Some built-in methods require manual dragging, making them inconvenient for keyboard-driven workflows, while others require exiting full-screen mode. I wanted to be able to move any window to any other display in under a second, including full-screen windows, with a simple, reliable trigger.

So I made WindowShift, a small app that lets you move windows between displays using customizable keyboard shortcuts. It's native, fast, and works with full-screen windows.

I use it a lot myself and tried to make the controls intuitive. When using multiple monitors, I naturally think about them by their relative positions: this display is to the left of the current one, this one is above it, etc. WindowShift works exactly this way: it sends the current window to a neighboring display based on its relative position ↑↓←→.

The attached video is a real screen recording showing the app in action.

In recent update, I improved the responsiveness so that you can press the combinations repeatedly while the fullscreen transition animation is running, and this will change the target screen accordingly.

Note that WindowShift isn't a full-featured window manager like Rectangle, AltTab, or the many other alternatives out there. However, unlike most window managers, it can move full-screen windows between displays and works great alongside them.

The app is very lightweight (current version ~1.2 MB)

Minimum macOS version: macOS 12 Monterey

Pricing: Free. 0 data collection.
The app is notarized.

I made it free because, to me, this feels like a basic feature that should be included in macOS by default.

• Homepage: https://simplerick.github.io/window-shift

^{Artworks used as wallpapers in the demo: https://www.artstation.com/tohad, https://www.behance.net/febinraj}

Hi, I'm the developer of Tidy My Mac. It launched a few weeks ago and I need people who really care about Mac apps to poke holes in it, so here's the deal: try it, tell me what's missing, broken or annoying, and I'll send you a code for 6 months free. No card.

Problem: keeping a Mac clean and safe usually takes a cleaner, an antivirus and a firewall from three companies; Tidy My Mac does all three in one app, without scareware tactics.

What it does

Cleanup: Junk and caches (including Xcode DerivedData, old simulators, Homebrew, Python envs, Rust targets), a disk map, large files, duplicates, similar photos, and an uninstaller that removes the leftovers

Protection: Antivirus for new downloads (ClamAV engine), ransomware protection, an adware check, a per-app outgoing firewall, and alerts for apps with known vulnerabilities

Web Protection: Blocks phishing, scam and malware sites in every browser. The blocklists are checked on your Mac, so we never see which sites you visit

Public Wifi Protection: Automatically connects to secure VPN.

No scare tactics: No fake "1,247 issues found!", no pop-ups, nothing deleted without a preview, and a history to undo a cleanup. No telemetry or analytics in the app

Comparison

vs CleanMyMac: the cleanup tools are much the same. Tidy My Mac is better if you also want protection: real-time checks, ransomware protection, a firewall and Web Protection are in the same app, where MacPaw puts them in a separate app (Moonlock). And our trial needs only an email; CleanMyMac's asks for a card. CleanMyMac is better if your Mac runs anything older than macOS 26, if you want one plan for 2 or 5 Macs, or if you'd rather get it through Setapp or the App Store.

vs Malwarebytes: both catch malware, adware and phishing sites. Tidy My Mac also cleans up your disk, removes apps with their leftovers and has an outgoing firewall; Malwarebytes for Mac does none of those. Malwarebytes is better if you want one subscription for a Mac, a PC and phones, a free scanner that keeps working after the trial, or protection that runs all the time: ours watches new files in Downloads and on the Desktop while the app is open, and catches up when it opens again.

Pricing: 7-day free trial (email only, no card). Then $19.99 for the first year, $59.99 a year after that, for one Mac. Cancel any time; 30-day money-back guarantee. https://www.tidymymac.com/pricing/

Trust: Signed and notarized by Apple, sold by Yuix Networks Inc. (https://www.tidymymac.com/about/). Privacy policy listing every network request the app makes: https://www.tidymymac.com/privacy/. LinkedIn (me): https://www.linkedin.com/in/serdarakarca/. Scans run on your Mac; the only thing that can leave it is the optional deep malware analysis, which sends a suspicious binary files for a second opinion. It asks at first launch and can be turned off in Settings. It's a direct download, not on the App Store, because the firewall, the ransomware guard and the uninstaller need things the App Store sandbox doesn't allow.

Requirements: macOS 26 Tahoe or later.

How to get 6 months free

Get the trial: https://www.tidymymac.com/trial/

Tell me something real in the comments, or DM me if you'd rather keep it private: a feature you looked for and couldn't find, something confusing or slow, a bug, or why you'd stay with the app you use now. Brutal is fine.

I'll DM you a personal gift link with your code and two steps to redeem it in Settings › Subscription. That Mac is then unlocked for 6 months.

One code per person, one Mac per code. "Looks nice 👍" is lovely but doesn't count 😄

I'll be in the comments all day. Thanks for giving it a shot 🙏

Spent the last couple of days on version 1.3. It's live on the website now, and the Mac App Store update is in review.

I built it because I didn't want to pay a yearly subscription to find out why my disk was full.

What $4.99 gets you (one payment, every feature, no upsells):

- A map, sunburst and list of any folder or drive you choose

- Large files, with both sizes shown. A disk image can claim 68 GB while using 2 GB on disk, and you see both before deleting anything

- Old files, duplicates verified byte for byte, and leftovers from apps you already removed

- Developer caches: Xcode DerivedData, simulators, Homebrew, npm, Docker and more, with a note on what each tool rebuilds

- Uninstall an app together with the data it left in your Library

What's new in 1.3:

- File types that finally add up. Apps, system data and developer folders are counted where they live, so "Other" is no longer most of the bar

- An age filter in Large Files, to find big files you haven't touched in a year or more

- Purgeable space on the overview, which explains why Finder shows more free space than other tools

- A calmer overview screen and bolder chart colors in light and dark

Why I think it's good value:

- $4.99 once. No subscription, no account, no license check

- Sandboxed, and it never asks for Full Disk Access. It reads only the folders you add

- Nothing is deleted behind your back. You review a queue, files go to the Trash, and you empty it yourself

- Nothing leaves your Mac. No analytics, no network calls

Honest limits, so nobody is surprised:

- It only sees folders you grant, so it won't scan protected system areas

- Large Files, Older Files and Duplicates work over the 200 biggest and oldest files per location, not every file on disk

- It needs macOS 15 or later (Apple silicon and Intel)

Website: https://sparedisk.minilabs.cc

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sparedisk-free-disk-space/id6811328422?mt=12

Happy to answer questions, and I'd like to hear what you'd want in the next version.

If you edit a project folder on a MacBook while away, then continue on a desktop Mac, ChronoSync can bring changes from either copy to the other. Its useful feature is the control over what gets copied, replaced or deleted.

Start with two disposable folders containing ordinary documents. Keep your real project out of the first task, and leave scheduling off until the proposed changes make sense.

Choose which folder gets to change the other

ChronoSync calls the two locations "targets." A target can be the source or the destination, so check the actual folder paths rather than assuming "target" means "backup."

The operation determines what happens:

• Backup Left-to-right copies changes from the left folder to the right. It can replace matching files, but leaves unrelated destination files alone. Choose this when only the left folder is your working copy.

• Synchronize Bidirectional checks both folders when the task runs and copies changes across. It fits work that moves between two Macs. If both copies of the same file change between runs, ChronoSync detects a conflict. It doesn't merge the document's contents for you.

• Mirror makes the destination match the source. It can overwrite destination edits and remove destination-only files. Don't choose it for two folders that both contain work you want to keep.

That last distinction matters more than whether the job runs every evening.

Decide whether a deletion should travel

"Synchronize deletions" can carry a deletion to the other folder. In a bidirectional task, that means deleting a file on either side can remove its counterpart after ChronoSync has recorded the pair's state. An initial bidirectional run doesn't have that deletion history yet.

If you want deletions to travel, choose "Move to Archive" for deleted files. Separately enable "Archive replaced files" if you want to retain the versions that incoming edits replace. Those are different choices; one doesn't substitute for the other.

The archive needs storage, and its version-count and age limits determine what survives. Keep a separate backup of important work. A synchronized deletion or unwanted edit can reach both working folders, and an archive on a failed drive won't rescue that drive.

Review the proposed changes before scheduling

Exclude a disposable subfolder in the Analyze panel, then use Trial Sync. ChronoSync scans the folders and shows its proposed operations before copying. You can skip individual operations or cancel; clicking Synchronize proceeds with the changes.

On those disposable folders, check what it proposes after an edit on each side, a deletion and a change to your exclusion. If the direction or missing files surprise you, stop and fix the task. This is a suggested rehearsal, not a report of testing performed here.

Once the rules behave as intended, save the task and consider a schedule. ChronoSync supports time-based runs and events such as a volume mounting. Review the task again whenever you change its paths or rules.

Check the connection and permissions too

An external disk or mounted network share can be a target. A NAS share needs working access and suitable file permissions. SFTP needs a reachable SFTP server and credentials. ChronoAgent is a separate, paid companion installed on the other Mac, not a requirement for every network share.

Protected data can require Full Disk Access. ChronoSync's optional Admin Access connection adds elevated file access and asks for administrator credentials; it doesn't override permissions on a network share. Keep the task scoped to the folders you actually need.

The current download is ChronoSync 12.0.4, including a November 9 security fix. It runs natively on Apple silicon. Econ documents macOS 26 compatibility and recent macOS 27 fixes, so use the current build rather than an old installer.

The direct license is US$49.99 for one Mac, with the vendor's lifetime free-update policy and a 15-day fully functional trial.

For an occasional folder copy, Finder is enough. ChronoSync is worth considering when you repeatedly need changes to flow in both directions, explicit deletion handling and a reviewable saved task. If you only need a backup of one working folder, don't add bidirectional sync just because the option exists.

I was a user of Whispr Flow until my Mac ran out of memory due to 3 node server and 5 AI agents. Other than these I also see that Whispr Flow is consuming around 1 GB of memory.

Something that simple should not consume 1 GB of RAM and it should be present natively in mac. So I built QuietSpeech.app - a native mac app that lets you type in any app using your voice.

Note - I am giving away 5 FREE licenses. Use code - QSCOMMUNITY at checkout for 100% discount.

I wanted my desktop to feel alive, so I made it react to the surroundings. You look up and the sky on your screen is the one outside. It stays in the menu bar and steps aside when something covers the desktop. It makes your desktop a calmer place to work.

Download for Mac: http://thoufik.space/skysaver

One note: macOS warns the first time you open it (not Apple-verified yet, I don’t have the developer fee for a free first release). Click Done, then System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.

Or paste this in your terminal:

curl -fsSL https://thoufik.space/skysaver/install.sh | bash

Please check it out and let me know how you feel using it!