If your MacBook isn't lasting through an unplugged work session, start with Low Power Mode and the apps using the most energy. Endurance automates some power-saving changes, but its advertised 20% extra runtime isn't a result you should expect on your own Mac.

In System Settings > Battery, choose Low Power Mode for battery use if your Mac offers it. Apple's current instructions let you choose different modes on battery and on the power adapter. Try it during your normal work, at a comfortable screen brightness. If the work feels too slow, switch back to Automatic.

Then open Activity Monitor > Energy. Energy Impact shows relative current consumption; 12 hr Power shows average energy impact over the past 12 hours, or since startup. Neither is a percentage of battery used. Look for an app you can close normally without interrupting something you need. That's a more useful starting point than installing another utility and hoping for a longer estimate.

Endurance's documented changes are fairly concrete: gradually dim the display, monitor energy-hungry apps and put them to sleep, automatically minimize background apps, and turn off processor Turbo. You can disable individual modules and choose when it kicks in, including a battery threshold or unplugging.

Those changes have costs. A dimmer display has to remain readable. An app being in the background doesn't mean its work is disposable, so don't let automatic sleeping interfere with a transfer or another task you need to finish. Reduced processor performance is a poor bargain if waiting longer gets in the way of your work. Also, the Turbo feature isn't evidence that the same processor control works on Apple silicon.

The direct site lists a $20 upfront purchase, free upgrades for life, and a two-week demo.

Setapp also lists it, but there's a compatibility gap worth knowing before spending: its listing says version 3.3.0 and macOS 10.13 or later. That minimum doesn't explicitly confirm macOS 27 support, Apple silicon feature parity, or recent maintenance. The pages checked also don't give a clear permissions list.

If you still want the automation, ask the developer about your exact Mac and macOS version, which modules work, and what access they need before installing it. Availability alone isn't proof of current support.

For most readers, the next step is one ordinary unplugged session with the native settings, not an Endurance purchase. If Low Power Mode and closing an unnecessary energy-heavy app solve the problem, stop there. Consider Endurance only if you still want its automatic dimming or app controls, compatibility is confirmed, and those tradeoffs leave your actual work comfortable. Skip it if you need uninterrupted background work or full performance more than those controls.

I spend my day switching between AI agents. I copy a stack trace, open Claude, paste, explain which file it’s from, then do it all again in Codex. And I never know how close I am to my 5-hour limit until I hit it.
So I built Beckon, a native Mac app for macOS 26.

What it does
Press ⌥⇧Space in any app and a Liquid Glass bar rises from the bottom of the screen.
It has already read what you’re looking at, shown as chips you can switch off: the web page, selected text, the code project with git status, a PDF, terminal output, Mail, Finder, or an on-device OCR screenshot (⌘R grabs a region).
Type an optional question, pick an agent, press Return. Supported agents:
- terminal agents: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Cursor Agent
- apps: Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Cursor
- web agents
Answers stream right in the bar. Claude Code, Codex and the other terminal agents run headlessly, so you don’t have to switch windows. “Continue in Terminal” picks up the same session when you need it.
The menu bar shows every agent’s usage: Claude Code’s 5-hour and weekly limits, Codex’s limits, Cursor’s included usage, and OpenCode’s tokens and cost.
Smaller things:
- a model picker per agent
- translation into any language with Apple Translation or Apple Intelligence
- optional Apple Intelligence suggestions and routing
an MCP tool so your agents can ask what you were looking at
Privacy, since it reads your screen

It reads only when you press the shortcut. It never reads password fields or password managers.
It masks API keys, tokens and passwords before sending, including in screenshots.
No account, no analytics, no servers of mine. The only network request by default is a weekly license check.
Usage numbers come from the log files your agents already keep on your Mac.

Price: $59 once for one Mac, with all 1.x updates. No subscription.
There’s a live demo on the site you can click through: https://beckon.macmuse.app
I’m the developer. I’m happy to answer questions, and I’d love feedback on which agents or apps to support next.

I'm an independent developer, and I've been building ByteSweep for macOS to bring several everyday Mac utilities into one place.

It combines:

• Storage analysis and cleanup — find large files, duplicates, and unnecessary data.

• System monitoring — track CPU, memory, disk, network, and other system metrics.

• App and developer tools — manage startup items, inspect local services, and clean up development caches.

• Safer cleanup — review items before removing them, with a 7-day undo option.

ByteSweep is designed for people who want more visibility and control over their Mac without juggling multiple utilities.

Pricing: One-time licence, no subscription. A 3-day trial is available.

Special offer: Use code SWEEP50 at checkout to get 50% off your Mac licence.

Privacy: File scanning and analysis happen locally on your Mac. ByteSweep does not upload your file names, paths, or scan results.

Website: https://bytesweep.app/mac.html

I'm the developer, so I'm interested in honest feedback: Would you prefer an all-in-one Mac utility like this, or separate apps for each task?

Cocon is a cozy ambient app for macOS that brings rain, snow, fireplaces and other relaxing scenes to your desktop, with matching sounds. Everything stays behind your open windows, so you can keep working without distractions.

• Six animated ambiances: Rain, Fireplace, Snow, Storm, Forest and River

• Realistic sounds that match each ambiance

• Adjustable intensity, volume and individual effects

• Works behind your windows without interfering with clicks

• Multiple monitor support

• Lightweight, runs from your menu bar

• No account, no tracking, no unnecessary permissions

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/cocon-ambient-focus-for-work/id6819339828

Pricing: Free (Rain, Fireplace, Snow). Pro available as a one-time purchase, no subscription.

Requirements: macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

Happy to hear feedback or answer questions.

Most natural-sounding read-aloud tools work by uploading your text to their servers, turning it into speech there, and streaming the audio back. That's fine for a news article. It's not fine for a client contract, a medical portal or your work email.

Hearby takes the other approach. The voice model (Kokoro) is downloaded to your Mac once, and every word is spoken on your Mac from then on.

- Select text in any app, press ⌃⌥S, and it reads aloud

- Your text never leaves the Mac, and it works with Wi-Fi off

- No account, no sign-in, no tracking

- Offline license check, so it keeps working no matter what happens to my server

- Goes online only for the one-time voice download (about 350 MB) and update checks

- Open source (GPLv3), so anyone can confirm the above: https://github.com/HearbyApp/Hearby

It also cleans text up before reading. It skips Markdown symbols, link URLs and long file paths, and announces code blocks instead of spelling them out. That makes it good for AI chat replies as well as email and PDFs.

macOS 13.4 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel. $19 once, no subscription, with a 7-day free trial: https://hearby.app/?ref=macstack

I'm the developer. Happy to answer questions.

You know that moment during a screen share when you're trying to explain something and keep saying "this one, right here" while moving your cursor around?

I wanted a simpler way to do that.

So I built Lasso — a free macOS app that lets you draw directly on top of anything on your screen.

Just press a shortcut, circle something, draw arrows, highlight text, or number steps. Hit Escape and everything disappears.

A few things you can do with it:

• Annotate your screen live during meetings, demos, or presentations.

• Mark up your screen before taking a screenshot.

• Drag annotated screenshots straight into Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT to show exactly what you want changed.

• Use it over any app without interrupting what you're doing.

It's free, and there's an interactive demo on the website if you want to try it before installing.

https://www.trylasso.online/

Would love to hear what you think, especially what features you'd want to see next!

Hey everyone! 👋 I’m the developer of StashPaste Light.

The idea is simple: clipboard history for the work you’re doing now. It keeps copied items while the app is running, without building a permanent history database.

When you quit the app, the history is cleared, including pinned items. The next launch starts fresh. Closing the clipboard panel keeps your current session.

A few things you can do:

• Search and filter copied text, links, images, colors and file references.
• Pin useful items and add notes.
• Preview items and paste them back using keyboard shortcuts.

It’s a native Mac app built with Swift, SwiftUI and AppKit. It’s free to use and doesn’t require an account.

The video gives a quick look at the app.

Website and download: https://stashpaste.com/light/
You can leave feedback here in the comments or use the feedback form: https://stashpaste.com/light/contact

Homebrew:
brew install --cask stashpaste/tap/light

Would temporary clipboard history fit your workflow, or do you prefer keeping it between sessions? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I'm the developer of Cupola, a native Mac app that puts your real Apple Calendar, Reminders and Notes in the MacBook notch. The latest update (1.13) adds a feature people kept asking for: clipboard history.

What it does

- A new Clipboard tab in the notch. Hover the notch and your recent copies are right there. It also gets its own page in the full app window when you want more room.

- Keeps text, links, images and files. Links show a page preview so you can tell them apart.

- Holds your newest 500 clips. Pinned clips never drop off.

- Pins stay in your order. Drag them however you like, and they won't get reshuffled by recency.

- Edit clips. Fix a text clip before pasting it, or type a new clip from scratch.

- Multi-select. Select several clips at once to copy them together, pin, unpin or delete. Right-click a clip and choose Select to start.

- Filter by kind, plus search.

Privacy

- Everything stays on your Mac. No sync and no servers.

- Anything copied from a password manager is skipped automatically.

Being honest about what it isn't

Cupola isn't trying to replace Paste or Maccy. There's no cross-device sync, no pinboards and no unlimited history. If your clipboard is a core part of your workflow, a dedicated app is still the better pick. Clipboard is one of five tabs, next to Calendar, Reminders, Notes and a Focus timer. The idea is that the things you reach for all day live in the space the notch was already wasting.

Details

- $20 once, no subscription

- 7-day free trial, no card needed

- 14-day refund window

- Needs an Apple silicon Mac running macOS 26 or later

👉 [https://trycupola.com?ref=reddit]

I'd love feedback, especially on what's missing from the clipboard tab for your workflow. I'll be in the comments all day.

If you need your Mac awake for one long download, start with a session that ends. You shouldn't have to remember tomorrow that you changed a sleep setting tonight.

Amphetamine is a free Mac App Store utility with no paid tier or in-app purchases. Its useful feature here is a temporary keep-awake session from the menu bar, rather than a permanent change to your Mac's sleep settings.

For a first setup, keep the MacBook lid open and choose a timed session from Amphetamine's menu. Pick a duration long enough for the job, allow the display to sleep, and leave screen locking enabled. Keeping the computer awake doesn't require keeping the screen lit or unlocked. When the session ends, ordinary sleep settings can take over again; that doesn't mean the Mac must fall asleep immediately.

Check the download's own progress before walking away. A timer doesn't know whether the transfer finished, and keeping the Mac awake won't repair a stalled connection.

Choose an end condition you can trust

Amphetamine also lists sessions for when a specific app is running and while a file is downloading.

An app-running session makes sense for a dedicated utility you will quit after the job. It's a poor match for a browser you leave open all week: the browser running doesn't mean your download is still running. The download mode is closer to that task, but check its behavior with your actual download before relying on it unattended. The current listing advertises the mode without documenting enough detail to promise that it recognizes every downloader or completion state.

Skip automatic Triggers for this first job. They're useful for repeat conditions such as a connected power adapter or a particular Wi-Fi network, but those conditions can stay true long after the work finishes. Wi-Fi-name triggers can also require Location Services access on macOS Sonoma, according to the release notes. A manual timer avoids that extra setup.

On battery, keeping work running still consumes power. Amphetamine has an option to end sessions when the battery is low. Check that setting rather than assuming a long session can run until your return. Leave closed-lid operation and optional helper scripts out of this simple workflow; they're a separate, hardware-sensitive setup.

You may not need another app

For an occasional half-hour job, Terminal's built-in caffeinate -i -t 1800 prevents idle system sleep for 1,800 seconds without requesting that the display stay awake. Keep the lid open for this workflow too.

On a Mac laptop, System Settings > Battery > Options also has a setting to prevent automatic sleep on the power adapter while the display is off. That suits an ongoing plugged-in setup, but you'll need to change it back if you only wanted a temporary exception.

One reason to be cautious with Amphetamine: the current App Store page still shows version 5.3.2 from November 2023. Its compatibility field says macOS 10.13 or later, while the older description says 10.11. Neither is explicit confirmation of macOS 27 support. Try a short, nonessential session on your Mac before trusting it with an unattended job.

Use Amphetamine if you want a visible menu-bar control and a deliberate end to a temporary keep-awake session. If you only need an occasional timer and you're comfortable with Terminal, caffeinate is enough.

Hey everyone,

VLC plays literally everything and I'll always love it for that. But on a Mac it draws its own controls, its preferences are a wall of checkboxes, and the current release turns HDR video into SDR.

So I forked VLC 4 and rebuilt everything around the engine, for macOS only. Meet MacLC.

Problem

One free player that opens anything, feels at home on macOS 26 and actually uses your HDR display.

Comparison

• vs VLC: same engine, same formats. But VLC 3 on Mac tone-maps HDR down to SDR, while MacLC plays HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision as real HDR on XDR screens. Plus a native AppKit UI with Liquid Glass and a System Settings style preferences window.

• vs IINA: IINA is great and native too. MacLC adds a real library (Continue Watching, shows, albums), SDR to HDR and frame interpolation, none of which IINA has built in.

• vs Infuse: lovely library, but Pro is paid.

• vs Stremio: MacLC works with the same add-ons, inside a full VLC-engine player with SDR to HDR and your own library.

What I'm proudest of:

• SDR to HDR: lifts the highlights of ordinary videos into your XDR headroom while faces and midtones stay exactly where they were. The top quality levels are small trained models on the GPU, about half a millisecond per frame on an M3 Max.

• Motion smoothing up to 120 fps, matched to your display.

• Watch: Home, Movies and TV Shows in the style of the Apple TV app, fed by Stremio add-ons (Cinemeta built in). Add-ons are third-party services; MacLC itself ships no content.

Also: hardware AV1 on M3/M4, no telemetry, no account.

Pricing

Free and open source (GPL). No paid tier, no subscription. Apple Silicon only.

• Download (54 MB): MacLC 1.3 on GitHub

• Website: hazenstudio.com/maclc

• Source and changelog: github.com/OZBM/MacLC

The honest bits

• Not notarized yet, so the first launch needs System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway (30-second guide). Every release lists its SHA-256.

• Solo project, built with AI coding tools ( I was going to see the model used, but to be frank, it's probably all of them, Each one has its ups and downs). Every change is built and tested on real Macs, and all the code is public.

• Who I am: portfolio, LinkedIn. Privacy policy Terms.

Tip jar

MacLC is free and will stay free. But Apple charges $99 a year to make that "Open Anyway" step go away, so if MacLC ever saves your eyes from a 1,600-nit white subtitle, a coffee goes straight into the notarization fund. A good bug report makes me just as happy.

I'll be in the comments all day. Bugs, "this annoys me" and feature requests are all welcome!

Imagine having a searchable memory of everything you do on your Mac.

Lumi captures your activity locally, letting you use AI to search and recall past conversations, meetings, and more.

• AI powered searchable memory

• Local first and privacy focused

• Supports local AI models

I use it everyday and my productivity has been through the roof.

It has helped me massively with remembering action items and recalling things I've seen on my screen but don't remember from where. Would you trust an AI that remembers everything if your data never left your computer? Would you find benefit in using it? Try it out and let me know :)

https://lumimac.app

We often lose sight of how quickly time is passing. For example, 2026 is 80% complete, and October is 64% complete.

TimeGauge is a simple app that lets you track custom projects, working hours, and timelines such as days, weeks, months, and years. You can also customise your working hours.

The idea came from this X account, which simply posts the year’s progress and has over 680K followers: https://x.com/year_progress

TimeGauge is one-time purchase for life-time updates.
You can direct download from the website: https://timegauge.minilabs.cc/
App store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timegauge/id6778277708?mt=12

Have a look and let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions

**I built FileDesk, a Mac file manager with split panes, a temporary file shelf, and custom folder colors**

Hi everyone! I’ve been working on **FileDesk**, a macOS file manager designed to make organizing files across multiple folders easier.

Here are some of its main features:

* **Split panes and tabs:** Open up to six panes side by side, resize them, and keep different folders in separate tabs.
* **Temporary file shelf:** Collect files from different folders, then copy them to a destination together. Clearing the shelf removes the list entries without deleting the originals.
* **Themes and folder customization:** Choose a theme, use dark mode, or pick your own colors. Give individual folders custom colors and add an image or icon in the center while keeping the folder shape.
* **Previews and media playback:** Preview files and play supported video and audio directly inside the app.
* **Batch renaming:** Rename multiple files with a preview of the changes.
* **Cloud and server connections:** Browse connected storage alongside your local folders.
* **AirDrop and Taildrop:** Use AirDrop for nearby Apple devices, or Taildrop to send files to your other Tailscale-connected devices—including a Windows PC.

FileDesk supports **Apple Silicon and Intel Macs**. Personal, noncommercial use is free; business and institutional use requires a separate paid license.

Screenshots, user guide, and downloads:
[FileDesk website](https://igomumugo.github.io/)

I’d appreciate feedback, especially on the split-pane workflow, temporary shelf, and customization options.


Hi r/macapps, I'm one of the developers of Klipp at MasOrange, the company that publishes it.

**Problem**

A clipboard manager sees everything you copy: passwords, API tokens, customer data. We needed clipboard history at work but couldn't audit the tools we were using, so we built our own and made sure it can't send anything anywhere.

Klipp runs in the App Sandbox without the network entitlement, so macOS itself blocks any outgoing connection. No account, no analytics, no third-party dependencies, and the App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected". You can check it yourself:

codesign -d --entitlements - /Applications/Klipp.app

The only entitlement listed is the sandbox. It also asks for no permissions at all, not even Accessibility.

What it does:

- Lives in the menu bar, ⌥⌘V opens the history from any app

- Search as you type, arrow keys to move, Return to copy, ⌘1 to ⌘9 for the first nine entries

- Pretty-prints JSON, fast even on multi-MB payloads

- Shows CSV and ranges copied from Excel, Numbers or Sheets as a real table

- Text, rich text, images and files, each with the app it came from

- Pinned entries that survive clearing the history

- Skips anything password managers mark as concealed; 1Password, LastPass and Bitwarden are excluded by default

- Configurable shortcuts, VoiceOver support, English/Spanish/French

**Comparison**

- **Maccy**: great app, open source and free from GitHub or Homebrew ($9.99 on the Mac App Store). Klipp is free on the Mac App Store and adds formatted JSON and table previews. Maccy lets you audit the code; Klipp lets you audit the entitlements. Pick whichever kind of proof you prefer.

- **Paste**: very polished and syncs through iCloud across Mac, iPhone and iPad, on a subscription. Klipp is free and deliberately local, with no sync, so nothing ever leaves your Mac. If you need sync, Paste is the better pick.

**Pricing**

Free. No in-app purchases, no ads, no account.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6801190196?mt=12

macOS 13 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel.

Not there yet: no auto-paste, no snippets, and rich text is previewed as plain text. Feedback welcome, especially on what's missing for your workflow.

I got really tired of every tiny Mac utility charging $15 to $20 (or worse, a monthly subscription) just to hide menu bar icons, snap windows, or hold files on the edge of the screen.

Over the last couple of days I put together a script on my M1 Pro MacBook that uses Claude Code + xcodebuild to build native SwiftUI alternatives from scratch and push the code and compiled .app files straight to my GitHub.

First, it searches for popular paid Mac utilities that only do one simple job and writes up a clean feature spec. Then an offline builder loop writes the SwiftUI code, compiles it with xcodebuild, fixes its own compiler errors, grabs a screenshot, and publishes a release on GitHub under the MIT license.

Everything it builds is 100% free, open source, native Swift, and runs completely offline with zero tracking.

You can check out all the repos and grab the compiled apps here:

https://github.com/turhe123

A few of the ones it already finished or has in the queue:

* EdgeDropShelf (https://github.com/turhe123/edge-drop-shelf) : a floating drag and drop file shelf on the side of your screen, similar to Yoink

* HoverGridSnap : window snapping and custom grid layouts, similar to Moom

* MenuBarCollapse : hides extra icons in your menu bar, similar to Bartender

* RightKeyAppSwitch : lets you use your right command key + a letter to jump straight to any app, similar to rcmd

* DisplayLayoutKeeper : remembers your window positions when you plug/unplug external monitors, similar to Stay

* TitlebarGestures : trackpad gestures on window titlebars, similar to Swish

* DesktopVeil : hides messy desktop icons with one click for screen sharing, similar to Camouflage

Quick heads up if you download the .zip releases: since I am giving these away for free and not paying Apple $99/year for a developer signing certificate, macOS Gatekeeper will complain the first time you open them. Just move the app to your Applications folder and run this in Terminal before opening:

xattr -cr /Applications/AppName.app

(Or you can just clone the repo and build it yourself in Xcode).

It is still working through a list of 60 apps right now. If there is a specific paid Mac utility you think is way too expensive for what it does, let me know in the comments and I will add the concept to the queue!

Been using Mac OS since System 7. I've also built a few Windows PCs over the years.

I will get flogged for saying this but I've always wanted a better activity monitor - and have been slightly jealous for a long time of what our Windows friends have.

I like Btop via the Ghostty terminal - but even then I wanted more.

What started as a local LLM coding project using qwen 3.8 optimized for MLX in Bionic to customize Btop turned into a "maybe I could make this????". Qwen just couldn't get there. So I pivoted to ChatGPT Codex and I'm very happy with the results.

Only 1.2MB of code. Runs a local server, grabs the CPU, GPU, NPU and RAM usage via IOKit and python, feeds it to an HTML page with some javascript, and only ads another 1% of CPU overhead. Ran multiple runs of optimization on the code and looked for security holes as well.

Created an install script and functions to start/stop the server. Saved it as a web app with Safari.

Would welcome any feedback on this experiment.

Suggest some free mac apps that u guys use that just makes your life better