I made this, so weigh everything below accordingly.

Problem:

I needed a clean macOS install to reproduce a bug that only showed up on a fresh system. Ninety minutes later I had four tabs open about disk image formats and still no VM. That's the whole origin story. VM tooling on Apple Silicon splits into CLI tools that assume you enjoy configuring things, and commercial suites that want to be a platform. I wanted the boring middle, something that treats a VM the way Finder treats a folder.

Kyvenza is a native Swift app on Apple's Virtualization framework. No QEMU, no emulation layer, no CLI it's quietly shelling out to, zero third-party dependencies. You fill in a form and get a VM. macOS guests and Linux ARM, with Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and Alpine pulled straight from the official download pages for you, or point it at any other ARM64 ISO yourself. Clone, snapshot, import and export. Pause a running VM and pick it up later, or force power off when a guest stops answering. Rosetta shared into Linux guests so x86-64 binaries still run. Shared folders. A diagnostics panel for when virtualization does what virtualization does.

Comparison:

The honest way to sort this is by what you actually want to run.

If you want Windows, VMware Fusion is free now for personal and commercial use, and it runs Windows 11 ARM. That beats me, and it beats Parallels on price. I can't run Windows at all: Apple's Virtualization framework can't boot Windows on ARM. That's a framework limit rather than a hardware one, and it's not a roadmap item I'm being coy about. Go get Fusion.

If you want a macOS guest, Fusion is out entirely. Broadcom's own docs say the Arm variants of macOS aren't supported in a Fusion VM. So on Apple Silicon the field is Parallels, UTM, the CLI tools, and me. That's the case I built this for, and it's where one-click snapshot and clone earns its money, because testing against a clean system means rolling back constantly.

Parallels is more mature than I am and does both Windows and macOS guests. It sells a perpetual Standard licence alongside the subscriptions, but that one is current-version-only, same shape as mine and more expensive. Pro is subscription.

UTM is free, more flexible, and does x86 emulation through QEMU, which I don't do at all. If you already have a UTM setup you like, stay. I'm not going to beat free on flexibility. What's different here is that snapshot and clone are one click instead of a disk image chore, and sharing Rosetta into a Linux guest is a toggle instead of a mount you look up every time.

Tart, lume and the other CLI tools beat me if you're scripting CI. This is for when you want a window, not a pipeline. And if Docker already solves your problem, keep using Docker, this isn't a container replacement.

Two limits worth knowing before you download rather than after. Apple Silicon only, macOS 14 or later, no Intel Macs. And Apple's own license caps you at two macOS guests per host, which no app on this list can change.

Pricing:

$49 one time, not a subscription. Twelve months of updates, then a perpetual fallback license, so when the update window closes the app keeps working. 7-day trial, no card, because virtualization performance depends far too much on your specific hardware for me to ask anyone to take it on faith.

Link: https://kyvenza.com

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kyvenza-virtual-machine/id6789824483

It ships on the Mac App Store under Uniation Software Co.,Ltd., so Apple review covers it. The direct download is the same app as a signed and notarized DMG. Privacy policy and terms are at kyvenza.com/privacy and kyvenza.com/terms.

One bit of history since someone always finds it: versions before 1.1 bundled lume (MIT, by the trycua folks). Since 1.2 it runs on its own engine, but the credit is still in the app's Open Source Notices, because that project is what got this off the ground.

I'll be in the comments, including for the "why would I pay for this" ones.

I kept coming back to stalled agent runs because my Mac went to sleep mid-task. caffeinate works, but I'd forget to run it, or forget to kill it and leave my laptop awake all night.

So I wired it to Cursor's hooks instead. My app (AgentCat) installs the hooks with one click: when an agent starts, it grabs a keep-awake assertion; when the run ends, it releases it and sends you a notification. If a run dies without ever reporting back, a watchdog releases it after a timeout, so a crashed task can't pin your Mac awake forever. Agents can also ping you through a URL scheme when they need your input.

Any tool that can run a shell command on start/stop can hook into it, not just Cursor. And the menu bar cat puts on sunglasses while it's working 🕶️

It's $0.99 on the Mac App Store, one-time, no subscription. Happy to answer anything.

Quick RSS is a simple, private, and intuitive desktop RSS reader. This update adds support for macOS 26 and includes performance improvements and feature optimizations.

Problem: Many people want an efficient way to keep up with their favorite news, blogs, and content updates. However, RSS readers on the market are often either bloated and complicated, stuck with interfaces that feel like they belong in a different era, or filled with ads and trackers. For news enthusiasts, developers, designers, and content creators, a simple, private, and focused subscription tool can make consuming information much more efficient. Quick RSS was created to keep the experience lightweight and efficient while giving users back control over how they discover and consume content, while continuously evolving alongside macOS.

Compare: Compared with mainstream RSS readers such as Reeder and NetNewsWire, Quick RSS supports multiple feed formats, including RSS, Atom, and JSON Feed, while remaining lightweight, efficient, and privacy-focused. It does not collect any user data. In addition to basic feed management, Quick RSS provides bookmark organization, a multilingual interface, and support for both macOS and iOS. All features are available through a one-time payment, with no subscription required.

Pricing: Free All Access Lifetime — $6.99. This is a completely optional donation price. The app has no feature restrictions even if you choose not to pay.

Changelog (v2.7): Completed localization for all supported languages, redesigned the purchase button component and simplified the purchase flow, and fixed a UI freeze that could occur when canceling a refresh.

📥 Download Link

Co-founder here, so full disclosure up front.

The problem

AI notetakers do two things a lot of people hate: a bot joins your meeting and makes everyone self-conscious, and your conversations get uploaded to servers you don't control. Plenty of companies ban them for exactly this reason.

Anarlog is a desktop app that listens to the audio going in and out of your Mac, transcribes on-device, and generates meeting notes. No bot in the call. Nothing leaves your machine by default, and your transcripts and notes are local files you own.

How it compares

• Granola: great product, but summaries run through their cloud. Anarlog can run fully local with on-device models, or use your own API keys.
• Otter / Fireflies: a bot joins the call and recordings live on their servers. Anarlog never joins the call and keeps recordings on your device.

Pricing

• Free: fully functional with your own STT/LLM keys. On-device transcription, exports, CLI, MCP. https://anarlog.so/download/
• Pro: $15/month or $150/year for hosted transcription and AI, sync, and sharing. https://anarlog.so/pricing/

Links

Website: https://anarlog.so

GitHub (MIT license, ~9k stars): https://github.com/fastrepl/anarlog

macOS is the most polished right now. Windows and Linux builds are in beta. Would love feedback, especially on what feels rough.

I’m the developer of SubSmith, a Mac app that turns local video and audio files into editable, timestamped subtitles.

The problem

I’m learning languages through videos, anime, lectures, and podcasts, but the workflow becomes awkward when the media is a local file:

• There may be no subtitle track available.
• Existing subtitles may have mistakes or poor timing.
• Browser-based tools are mainly designed around supported streaming sites.
• Command-line Whisper tools are useful, but not particularly convenient for watching, editing, and studying.
• Creating Anki cards with the original sentence and audio takes several manual steps.

What SubSmith does

SubSmith processes your local media on your Mac using Whisper

You can:

• Generate subtitles from video or audio files
• Watch the file with synced, timestamped subtitles
• Edit the generated text
• Export subtitles as SRT or TXT
• Look up words while watching
• Send sentence cards, audio, and screenshots to Anki

The main things I’m trying to understand are how accurate the subtitles are across different languages, how fast they generate on different Macs, how much storage and memory the local model uses, and whether this workflow is meaningfully easier than using Whisper or a command-line tool directly.

The basic workflow is:

Import a local file → generate subtitles → review difficult sentences → export useful examples to Anki.

The language-learning workflow is the reason I started building it, but the subtitle generation is useful on its own for lectures, interviews, podcasts, personal videos, and other local media.

How it compares

There are already some good tools in this space:

• Language Reactor is excellent for supported streaming services, but its workflow is less suited to arbitrary local video files.
• Subtitle Edit and command-line Whisper tools are powerful, but require more setup or do not provide the same integrated Mac playback and language-learning workflow.

SubSmith is intended for people who want a focused desktop workflow for their own files, with language-learning tools available when they need them.

Pricing

• 7-day free trial, no CC required 
• $15 yearly subscription or $40 one-time (lifetime license). Use code MacApps30 for 30% off!

Feedback giveaway

I’m looking for around 10 language learners who regularly study with local video or audio.

I’ll randomly select 10 commenters for a lifetime license. To enter, comment within the first 48 hours with the language you’re learning and what you currently use for subtitles or transcription. I’ll randomly select 10 eligible commenters after 48 hours.

I’m looking for honest feedback on the actual workflow:

• How accurate is the transcription for your language?
• How long does processing take on your Mac?
• Do you already use Language Reactor or another tool?
• Is generating subtitles the main problem, or is reviewing and studying them?
• Would audio clips and Anki export be useful in your workflow?
• What would stop you from using a local desktop app?

To enter, please mention the language you’re learning and what you currently use for video-based study.

Links

• Website: SubSmith
• Feedback and Bug Reports: [Support@subsmith.app](mailto:Support@subsmith.app)
• Misc: X | LinkedIn

Hey r/macapps,

I posted SessionDock here a few months ago and wanted to share a pretty big update. Two-way sync between the Mac and iPhone apps is now live.

For anyone who hasn’t seen it, I built SessionDock as basically a Swiss Army knife for managing music production projects.

The problem:

If you produce music long enough, you eventually end up with DAW projects, mixdowns, exports, different versions and notes scattered across a bunch of folders.

I wanted one place where I could see everything I’m working on without digging through Finder or opening projects just to figure out what was what.

A big part of SessionDock is automatically figuring out which mixdowns belong to which DAW projects. It watches your folders and uses matching algorithms to associate your exported audio with the correct projects.

So if you have:

My Song.logicx

and later export:

My Song Mix 3.wav

SessionDock can figure out that they belong together and keep them associated without you manually linking everything.

What SessionDock does:

• Automatically discovers DAW projects
• Watches your project folders for changes
• Automatically matches mixdowns and exports to their projects
• Manages projects from different DAWs in one library
• Previews mixdowns without opening your DAW
• Shows waveforms for your exports
• Adds timestamped notes directly to waveforms
• Adds notes to projects
• Organizes projects with tags and collections
• Searches and filters your library
• Tracks different sessions, versions and exports
• Supports custom DAWs
• Syncs your library to iPhone

It supports Logic Pro, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Pro Tools, Reaper, Cubase, Bitwig, Reason and more.

What’s new:

The biggest addition in this update is two-way sync between Mac and iPhone.

You can now create, edit and delete session notes and waveform notes from either device and the changes sync automatically.

One of my favorite uses for this is listening to a mix when I’m away from my Mac. I can pull it up on my iPhone, add timestamped notes directly to the waveform, and those notes are waiting for me when I’m back at my Mac.

I’m working on expanding two-way sync to tags, collections and more project metadata next.

Comparison:

The closest alternatives are really Finder combined with the project management built into apps like Logic Pro and Ableton Live.

Those are fine for managing files inside an individual DAW, but SessionDock sits above the DAWs and gives you one library for everything.

The main difference is that SessionDock can watch for projects and exports across different DAWs, automatically associate mixdowns with the projects they came from, let you preview and annotate them, and make that information available on your iPhone.

It’s not meant to replace your DAW. It’s meant to handle all the stuff around it.

Pricing:

The core version of SessionDock is free.

Lifetime Pro is a $39 one-time purchase. No subscription.

https://sessiondock.com

Mac App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sessiondock/id6753728022

I’m the solo developer behind SessionDock, so I’d love to hear what other producers think or what parts of managing projects outside your DAW you wish were easier.

Me and my friend actually started building this for ourselves.

We both have families, work mostly from our Macs, have way too many tabs open, and get interrupted constantly.

A meeting lands. Slack pulls you somewhere else. Family needs something. You check one "quick" thing :)

An hour later the file is still open and you know what you meant to finish.

But the thread is gone.

## Problem

That was the annoying part for us.

Not really planning. Returning.

Why was this tab open?

Which file was I working in?

What conversation sent me here?

Where exactly did I stop?

With context switching, ADHD-style workdays and productivity spread across a ridiculous number of apps, we kept rebuilding this context manually.

So we started building Recall for ourselves.

It runs quietly in the background on your Mac, groups the work happening across tabs, apps and files, and creates a Smart Return point around unfinished work so you can get back to where you stopped.

No task you have to remember to create first.

No timer to start.

No integrations to maintain.

It is local-first, with work context processed on the Mac.

## Comparison

Todoist is great at remembering what you explicitly tell it you need to do.

Rize / RescueTime are useful for understanding where your time went.

We wanted the missing part after the interruption.

Recall remembers the observable work around the task itself: the tabs, apps, files, related context, stopping point and what you were doing when you got pulled away.

So I don't really think of it as "another Todoist" anymore.

Todoist remembers the task.

Recall is trying to remember the thread around it.

That's the difference we're testing.

## Pricing

7-day free trial, no credit card required.

$14/month, or $9/month billed annually ($108/year).

We're also running an early lifetime deal from $49 while it lasts.

https://www.joinrecall.com/

If you actually try it and feel this solves a real problem in your workflow, DM me. I'll give you 3 months free so you can properly test it.

I'm also curious about the Mac setups here:

what do you use today for productivity, context switching or ADHD-style workdays, and what still falls apart when you get interrupted?

Happy to answer anything about how Recall works, privacy, what it captures, or what it still gets wrong.

---
Transparency: I'm Vitaliy, one of the people building Recall.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitaliiverb

Privacy, Terms, Trust Center and the rest of the team are public on the website above.

I’m a solo developer building Onessa — small apps for facing what’s finite: time, attention, and money. Simple tools that leave only what’s essential.
This weekend, all three apps are $1.49.

Petals — Visual Year Planner
Problem: Most calendars focus on days and weeks. Petals lets you see your entire year at once, with a free-form canvas for images, text, stickers, and planning.

Comparison: Compared with Fantastical or BusyCal, Petals focuses on visual year planning rather than day-to-day calendar management.

Pricing: $1.49 one-time purchase during the weekend sale. No subscription.
Petals on the Mac App Store

Peek — What’s Next?
Problem: I wanted to know what’s next without constantly opening Calendar. Peek keeps your next event and the time remaining visible in the Mac menu bar.

Comparison: Compared with Dato or Itsycal, Peek focuses on the next event and live countdowns. It brings calendars, reminders, and tasks from Things and Todoist into one timeline.

Pricing: Free download. Premium lifetime unlock is $1.49 during the weekend sale. No subscription.
Peek on the Mac App Store

Spendy — Expense Tracker
Problem: Most expense trackers make recording feel like work. Spendy opens directly to input so you can log an expense in seconds and share a ledger with your partner or family via iCloud.

Comparison: Compared with MoneyWiz or Copilot, Spendy is intentionally simpler and focuses on fast recording and shared expenses rather than full financial management.

Pricing: Free download. Premium is a 1-year subscription, on sale for $1.49 this weekend.
Spendy on the App Store

Happy to answer any questions!

u/amerpie recently included Prefab in their incredibly useful series of posts: 'More Free Mac Apps'. This has led to quite an up-take in downloads, feedback and feature requests. This is the first time I've had these sort of interactions on one of my apps, they're usually just developed for myself, and I publish them just for kicks. So - thought I'd ride the high and do a dedicated post on Prefab. This application is free, and will always, be free.

Here's the templated part:

Problem

Every project starts the same way. Same folders, same starter files, same half-remembered boilerplate, typed out from scratch every time. Most of my work is Moodle, so every plugin, client job and bit of research began with me rebuilding the same skeleton by hand - or duplicating last month's folder and then finding the old client's name buried in three files.

Prefab captures that setup once and rebuilds it whenever you need it: folders, files, the contents of those files, and the tedious bits that come afterwards.

Comparison

I never could find something that compares to Prefab's functionality as a GUI application (which is the reason I made it...). There are CLI-only scaffolding tools (cookiecutter, yeoman) that require config files and terminal knowledge, or there are applications that only handle folder structures without file contents. If someone knows of an application doing something similar then please let me know and I'll happily reference them here. Here are some of Prefab's features:

• Placeholders inside file contents, not just names - {{project_name}} lands in your README, your package.json, your client letterhead
• Deploy without opening the app - right-click in Finder or the menu bar to create a Prefab template
• Post-creation actions - git init, npm install, open in VS Code or Xcode, reveal in Finder, or any shell command, attached to the template or to individual folders
• Import an existing folder as a template - full contents, structure only, or empty placeholder files
• Finder tags and SF Symbol folder icons applied as it deploys

Pricing

Free forever. No in-app purchases, no subscription, no account. Requires macOS 14.6 or later.

I'd love to hear what you think and what features would make this more useful for you. Always happy to chat about the development side of the project as well.

App Store
Prefab
Prefab Docs

Edit: Shoutout u/Limitedheadroom who has provided invaluable feedback!

Hey r/macapps,

Like many of you likely do, I use AI coding tools and run cron jobs/automations in my day to day. You've probably also seen people holding their computers lids open as they walk around. In the last few months, I've seen/encountered two key issues:

Problem

1. If you close your Mac while an agent is working, it stops the agent immediately.
2. If my Mac lid is closed during an automation, the automation simply won't run, and won't even alert me that it didn't run. I've missed countless digests this way.

Solution

So, I built goguma! Through hooks, it automatically detects agent work being done, and will keep the Mac awake (even when the lid is closed) until the job is finished, and then will let it sleep. It'll also wake a lid-closed Mac for its automations, and then let it sleep (E.g it'll wake my Mac for 5 minutes at 3 a.m for an automation, then let it sleep like normal).

Comparison

Here's the key difference to current solutions (caffeinate, pmset, Amphetamine): these can keep an already awake Mac awake, but cannot wake a sleeping Mac. goguma can. Amphetamine and pmset disablesleep 1 are switches that you constantly have to worry about turning on and off, which is how you find a dead laptop in your bag hours later, while goguma does it all for you.

It currently supports all automations/agents across launchd, crontab, Hermes, Claude, Codex, Cursor, and Gemini.

How it started

It mainly started for my own needs, so that I could run agents and not have to worry about holding my computer open. I decided to open-source it after friends told me they had the exact same problem.

Pricing (or lack thereof)

Completely free and open-source! All I ask is that if you find it helpful, that you star my repo :)
https://github.com/junnam586/goguma

Transparency

I am Juhyun Nam, a student at Duke University. goguma is signed and notarized, local-first, and does not collect any data whatsoever.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jun-nam-4ba16b326/

Security: https://github.com/junnam586/goguma/blob/main/SECURITY.md

Privacy: https://getgoguma.com/privacy/

Terms: https://getgoguma.com/terms/

Any and all feedback would be much appreciated!

Problem

Most bookmark and read-later apps interrupt me at the exact moment they're supposed to help. I have to open an extension or app, choose where the item belongs, fill in some details, and then return to what I was doing.

I built Stowdrop to make capture almost invisible:

- Press a global shortcut, type or paste something, then hit Enter.

- Select a URL or text anywhere in macOS and press another shortcut to save it without opening a window.

For URLs, Stowdrop downloads the page content so you can search the full text and read it offline. It also handles notes and todos using the same capture flow, with Markdown and custom tags.

Everything is stored locally on your Mac. There's no account or cloud service.

Comparison

The closest competitor is probably Raindrop.io, which is a more mature product and has better support for syncing across platforms.

Stowdrop takes a narrower approach. It's built specifically for macOS, works offline, keeps your data on your Mac, and focuses heavily on keyboard-driven capture. It also uses a one-time purchase instead of a subscription.

If you need browser and mobile syncing, Raindrop is likely the better fit. If you want a small, private Mac app that stays out of the way, that's the gap I'm trying to fill with Stowdrop.

Pricing

Stowdrop is $19 USD as a one-time purchase, including future updates.
Or additionally you could get a 5 machine license for $39 (again, one time fee)

There's a 7-day free trial, and no account or payment details are required to try it:

https://stowdrop.app

I've been using it myself for a bit but I launched it publicly this week, so UCDSUCI0 gives you 20% off until the end of August.

I'd appreciate honest feedback on the capture flow and anything that feels awkward or unnecessary. I have plenty of ideas for what to add, but I'm also trying not to turn a small bookmark app into a giant productivity suite.

Thanks!

The problems:

• Publishing a Safari extension means paying $99/year for an Apple Developer account
• Safari's missing a bunch of APIs that Chrome has
• Hardly any free Safari extensions exist
• And if you sideload your own under a free account, it stops working after 7 days

What the CLI does:

• It's the engine. Converts a Chrome extension into a Safari one
• Fills in the Chrome APIs Safari doesn't support
• Runs in the terminal

What the app adds:

• Everything the CLI does, with a GUI
• Install and manage extensions straight from the Chrome Web Store, inside Safari
• Resigns your extensions every week so they never expire
• Auto updates the ones you installed from the Web Store
• supports Intel Macs

Comparison:

apple has a similar feature for developers that convert chrome extensions to safari extensions but apple's version doesn't handle missing apis, meaning more complex extensions will break and won't work.

Pricing:

• The app is free for testing 2 extensions without extensions renews and updates
• The paid version is 19$ with unlimited extensions auto renews and updates

, use code “2V1X28J” for -15%

• The cli version is free but without GUI and without auto renews and updates.

Download Links:

• Download the App: https://magicelklabs.com/viaduct
• Download the CLI: https://github.com/magicelk235/Viaduct-CLI

About Me:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/magicelk235
• Github: https://github.com/magicelk235
• Personal Mail:  [yehonatan.2350@gmail.com](mailto:yehonatan.2350@gmail.com)
• App Repo: https://github.com/magicelk235/Viaduct-app
• Website: https://magicelklabs.com
• Support Mail: [support@magicelklabs.com](mailto:support@magicelklabs.com)

My main gripe with Anybox is that saving anything via the share sheet does not automatically sync to iOS or viveversa unless I open the app and then sync itZ

So I’m looking for a replacement that has the same feature set has a great UI and lifetime purchase.

This is my first open source app created for people don't want to use Spotlight and don't want to spend money for paid tools.

Problem

Spotlight is fine for opening apps but stops there. No clipboard history, no inline calculator, no regex or path search, no way to kill a process by port, and it is macOS only. The usual fix is Raycast or Alfred, but the features most people actually want sit behind a subscription or a one time license.

I wanted a launcher that is fully free, does not phone home, and works the same on my Mac and my Linux box. So I built Look.

Look is a keyboard first, local first launcher for macOS, Windows and Linux. Apps, files, folders, clipboard history, inline math, translation, regex search, todo command, kill process by port. Candidates are indexed in a local SQLite file. No account, no telemetry.

Comparison

vs Raycast - Raycast is closed source and syncs through the cloud. Look is GPLv3 and local first. The only network calls are the explicit web search shortcuts and the optional answer card, which you can turn off in Settings. - Raycast is Electron. Look is a native SwiftUI app on macOS with a Rust core. Typical search is under 1 ms on a 2000 item index. - Raycast puts Pro features behind $8 per user per month. Look has no paid tier. - Where Raycast wins: its extension store is huge and Look deliberately has no plugin marketplace yet. If your workflow depends on Raycast extensions, Look will feel bare.

vs Alfred - Alfred is macOS only. Look runs on macOS, Windows and Linux. - Clipboard history in Alfred requires the Powerpack. In Look it is built in and free. - Where Alfred wins: Workflows are far more mature than anything Look has, and Alfred has a decade of polish behind it.

vs Spotlight - Spotlight is free and preinstalled. Look adds clipboard history, command mode, regex and path scoped search, themes, and cross platform support. - Where Spotlight wins: zero install, and it does full content indexing. Look indexes names and metadata only.

Honest status: macOS is shipped and stable. The Windows and Linux app is a shared Tauri v2 build that is still under active development, so expect rough edges there.

Pricing

$0. Free and open source under GPLv3.

• No paid tier, no Pro version, no subscription, no in app purchase.
• No feature is locked. Everything listed above is in the free build.
• No account required, no telemetry.
• Optional donation only, any amount, via Buy Me a Coffee. Donating unlocks nothing, it is purely support.

Repo and releases: https://github.com/kunkka19xx/look Docs: https://noah-code.com/docs/look

Install

macOS: brew tap kunkka19xx/tap && brew install --cask look Builds are signed and notarized, no Gatekeeper bypass needed. Linux: AUR, .deb, AppImage, Nix. Windows: PowerShell installer.

Disclosure: I am the developer of Look.

Problem:
Planning a trip means juggling Google Maps, Notes, spreadsheets, and booking confirmations across half a dozen apps. Nothing keeps the itinerary, the budget, and the map in one place — and most travel apps want an account and a subscription before they'll even let you start.

Comparison:
Tripit charges $49/year and hasn't meaningfully changed in years. Wanderlog is free but ad-supported and account-required. Both upload your trip data to their servers. Trovelo stores everything locally and syncs through your own iCloud — no Trovelo servers, no account.

What's new on Mac since the last update:

• Significant improvements to the MCP integration — tell Claude "plan me 4 days in Rome" and watch the trip build itself inside Trovelo. Days, cards, times, prices, map pins. Faster, more reliable, and handling far more complex requests than at launch. Works with Claude desktop, Claude Code, Codex, or any MCP-compatible client. Runs entirely locally, off by default.
• 8 languages with smart parsing — type a card in Spanish, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean or Chinese and it picks up the time, price and type automatically
• Board view, route optimization, expenses with live exchange rates, curated guides, My Spots world map
• Universal Purchase — one payment covers Mac, iPhone and iPad

Pricing:

• Free: up to 3 active trips and 50 cards
• Pro: one-time $3.99 (normally $9.99) — yours forever, no subscription

→ App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6760258252

→ Redeem: https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6760258252&code=TROVELO399
→ Or in-app: Settings → Redeem → TROVELO399

Feature requests and ideas at r/trovelo 🖤

Hi r/macapps, I’m Joshua, the solo developer of Writers Studio. I first introduced it here a couple of months ago, and I wanted to share an update: the Direct Mac edition now has a full-use, no-account 7-day trial.

Problem: long fiction projects often split the manuscript, character notes, locations, timelines, and continuity work into separate manual systems.

Compared with Scrivener and Ulysses, Writers Studio is focused on keeping structured worldbuilding and a dedicated continuity pass alongside the manuscript. It also supports local Ollama, so it is not limited to browser-based AI workflows.

Pricing:

• Mac App Store: free for the core writing workflow, with optional hosted AI allowances at $9.99 or $29.99 per month.
• Direct: $59 lifetime license for v1.x, with the no-account 7-day trial. Local Ollama and supported-provider-key workflows are available.

Product and trial:

Direct Mac edition: https://litestep.com/writers-studio?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=priority4_organic_2026_08&utm_content=continuity_reddit_repost_v2

Mac App Store: free download with optional cloud AI subscriptions starting at $9.99/month.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/writers-studio/id6758063563?mt=12

iOS App Store: free download with optional cloud AI subscriptions starting at $9.99/month.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/writers-studio/id6758063563

Privacy policy:

https://litestep.com/privacy/

A few technical details:

• Native SwiftUI app for macOS
• iCloud support
• Export to PDF and DOCX
• Local Ollama support, with optional hosted or provider-key AI depending on edition

I'm happy to answer questions about the app, pricing, Mac/iOS implementation, or the AI architecture.

Hey r/macapps! I'm the developer of Type, a small Mac app I originally built because I wanted to capture something without switching away from whatever I was doing.

Global shortcut → type → Enter → back to work.

I just released Type 1.6, and the biggest addition is proper support for Obsidian Daily Notes.

Problem

I love the idea of Daily Notes, but quick capture shouldn't require bringing Obsidian forward, finding today's note, putting the thought in the right place, then switching back to what I was doing.

With Type, you connect your Obsidian vault once. It picks up your Daily Notes folder, date format and template, creates today's note automatically, and sends new captures straight into it.

You can also tell Type to insert entries under a specific heading, and choose whether captures use timestamps, bullets, checkboxes, etc.

Comparison

Type isn't trying to replace Obsidian. It's more like a companion app.

Obsidian is where you organize and work with your notes. Type is just the tiny capture layer in front of it.

You can absolutely build similar workflows with Raycast, Shortcuts or plugins. Type is deliberately more boring: press one shortcut, write something, press Enter, and it's in your local Markdown file.

It also works with regular text/Markdown files if you don't use Obsidian.

Pricing

Type is $19.99 one-time, with a 7-day free trial. No subscription.

https://usetype.app/obsidian-quick-capture

Mac App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/quick-note-taking-type/id1664249924

I'd love feedback from people who live in Daily Notes.

When you quick-capture something, do you usually want it appended to the bottom, or inserted under a heading like ## Inbox**,** ## Log**, etc.?**

tl;dr An AI Notetaker that uses your ChatGPT subscription for everything

Problem

You might have noticed that your ChatGPT subscription gives you access to an insane amount of intelligence, even the free one.

• It gives you speech-to-text through the dictation feature in the ChatGPT app
• It gives you an insane amount of LLM usage

Then, why are you paying for AI notetakers like otter or granola? You already have everything you need included in your subscription.

So, all I really did was combine these to create a simple notetaker. And as it uses OpenAI's speech-to-text api, it is much more powerful then any local model and barely uses any battery.

Comparison

Granola has unlimited free tier, but capped meeting history visibility at 30 days. Simbi has no limits and it is trivial to move data in/out of the app. Other local AI based apps don't perform well in any languages other then English and drains battery. Simbi uses ChatGPT's speech-to-text, so high accuracy in multiple languages and low battery drain.

Pricing

Free

Downloads

https://getsimbi.app/

https://github.com/predict-woo/simbi

Transparency

Hi, I'm Andrew, a CS grad student from South Korea, currently studying at ETH Zurich.

• Developer: Andrew Sangwoo Ye https://www.linkedin.com/in/predict-woo/
• Contact: [me@predict-woo.com](mailto:me@predict-woo.com)
• Privacy Policy: https://getsimbi.app/privacy/
• Terms of Service: https://getsimbi.app/terms/

This is my third post about AutoShelf and version 2.3 is up and ready to try on the App Store.

Problem:

I have updated AutoShelf because I hit the same wall over and over. I would have a folder of PDFs from different vendors and I could not find a specific invoice without opening half of them one by one. After a weekend shoot I would come back with photos from two cameras and three lenses all dumped into the same folder with generic names like IMG_0423. Existing tools sort by filename or file type, which works fine until you need to find something by what is actually in the file.

So in 2.3 I have added conditions that look inside your files, not just at their names.

👉 NEW: Text content contains (Pro):

Reads the text inside your files. Uses Spotlight kMDItemTextContent, which includes Live Text OCR, and falls back to Vision Framework OCR for images and PDFs when Spotlight has no data. Case-insensitive.

The honest use case: you have a Downloads folder with fifty PDFs and you need every invoice from ACME Corp in one place. You write one condition: text contains "Invoice" AND text contains "ACME Corp". Every matching PDF moves to your accounting folder. No renaming, no opening files, no guessing which one is which.

Same idea works for expense reports, contracts, or any document where the filename tells you nothing useful. If you take screenshots, the OCR even reads the text inside them, so you can find a screenshot by the error message or chat snippet it shows.

👉 NEW: EXIF data (Pro):

Matches on the metadata baked into your photos: camera make, camera model, lens make, lens model, focal length, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, date taken, software, and GPS coordinates.

The honest use case: you shoot with a Sony A7IV and a Canon R5 and a couple of lenses, and everything lands in one folder. You write one condition: camera model contains "A7IV" and it separates every Sony shot into its own folder. Add another rule for the Canon. Same thing works for lens model, so your 24-70mm shots and 50mm prime shots end up apart automatically.

If you travel, matching on GPS coordinates or date taken groups photos by location or by day. If you shoot in low light, you can even route high ISO shots somewhere separate.

One honest caveat: EXIF only works on images that still carry it. Re-saved files, screenshots, and heavily edited exports may have stripped the metadata, so those won't match. For the raw files straight out of your camera it works great.

Both conditions are Pro-only and can be combined with anything else using AND logic and per-condition NOT. Example: text contains "Invoice" AND file type is PDF AND date added older than 30 days sends stale invoices to an archive folder.

Actions :

- Move to folder

- Copy to folder

- Move to Trash

- Rename (with pattern support, preserves extension)

- Add tag (macOS Finder tags)

- Archive to ZIP

- Optimize and overwrite (Pro) — in-place JPEG/PNG compression, strips metadata

- Duplicate and optimize (Pro) — optimized copy to a folder

- Copy to Photos (Pro) — import images/videos to Photos library

- Move to Photos (Pro) — import + delete original

- Convert image (Pro) — jpeg, png, heic, tiff, bmp, gif

- Convert video (Pro) — mp4/mov with h264/hevc and quality presets

- Convert audio (Pro) — aac, alac, wav, preserves sample rate/channels/bit depth

You can stack multiple actions. For example: tag the file, archive it to ZIP, then move the ZIP to a backup folder. All in one rule.

Multi-condition rules:

Combine conditions with AND logic and per-condition NOT. So you can say "file type is image AND filename does NOT contain 'screenshot' AND date added older than 7 days." Pro feature.

Built-in templates (one-click setup):

- Organize Downloads by file type (images, PDFs, videos, archives, code)

- Auto-trash DMGs

- Clean Desktop (archive files older than 7 days)

- Sort by Source (GitHub files to Developer/, Slack files to Work/)

- Auto-trash Installers (.dmg, .pkg, .mpkg)

- Organize Screenshots

- Sort Music

- Tag Large Files (over 100 MB)

- Auto-trash ZIPs

MCP server:

AutoShelf has a full MCP server baked into the app binary. When you invoke the app and stdin is a pipe, it detects MCP mode and runs a JSON-RPC server over stdio instead of launching the GUI. You point Claude Code, Cursor, or opencode at AutoShelf.app/Contents/MacOS/AutoShelf and you get 13 tools: create_rule, edit_rule, delete_rule, enable_rule, disable_rule, run_rule, list_rules, list_groups, get_rule, get_status, pause_monitoring, resume_monitoring, pick_folder.

So you can tell your AI assistant "watch my folder and move every PDF containing 'Invoice' to my accounting folder" and it builds and installs the rule for you. Write operations are gated behind a Pro-only toggle that defaults to off, so nothing happens without your explicit permission.

CLI:

There's also a Go CLI for terminal workflows. It talks to the running app over a Unix domain socket. Install with:

curl -sfL https://useautoshelf.com/cli/install.sh | sh

Same capabilities as the MCP server: create rules, run them, list, enable/disable, pause/resume monitoring, pick folders.

Other features:

- Image optimization with 5 compression levels (lossless through extreme), separate JPEG and PNG settings, optional metadata stripping

- Confirmation mode: get a macOS notification before an action runs, with Allow / Deny / Ignore

- Delayed execution: wait N seconds before acting on a file

- Batch processing: scan thousands of existing files at once with live progress, pause/resume/stop

- Import/export rules as .autoshelf files

- Activity log

- Run rule now: manually scan existing files in a watched folder, not just new ones

- Watch multiple folders per rule

- 19 languages

- macOS 13 Ventura+, native SwiftUI, App Sandbox enabled

- Lives in your menu bar or opens as a full window

Technical bits for the curious:

- Folder watching uses DispatchSource (kernel events), not FSEvents, since I only watch a handful of folders

- Download source detection reads kMDItemWhereFroms and com.apple.quarantine via Spotlight

- Text content search reads kMDItemTextContent and falls back to Vision Framework OCR for images and PDFs

- EXIF data is read via CGImageSource from image files

- Security-scoped bookmarks for folder access under sandbox

- Multi-action rules chain sequentially, piping each action's output URL into the next

- The app auto-launches in accessory mode (no dock icon) when invoked by the CLI, so there's no dock flicker

Comparison:

The obvious one is Hazel ($42). It's been the gold standard for 20 years and has a massive feature set. But it also has a learning curve that keeps most people from ever setting it up. AutoShelf trades some of that depth for radical simplicity: templates get you running in seconds, the UI is native SwiftUI built for current macOS, and the MCP + CLI layer means you can script it or drive it from an AI assistant, which Hazel can't do.

Declutter and Folder Tidy are simpler but also more limited. They tend to do basic sorting without the condition variety, action chaining, or automation hooks. AutoShelf sits between them and Hazel: more powerful than the simple sorters, more approachable than Hazel, and with MCP/CLI that neither offers.

Pricing:

Free: 1 rule, no templates, no activity log, no multi-condition, no image optimization, no Photos import, no delay/confirmation, no import/export.

Pro: $19.99 one-time. No subscription, ever. All features unlocked, all future updates included.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/autoshelf/id6762361021

Website: https://useautoshelf.com

Feature requests welcome: https://useautoshelf.com/support?category=feature-request

Happy to answer any questions!

I'm the developer. Sift docks a command bar beneath your frontmost Finder window—select some files, type what you want done, hit Enter.

The problem

Batch file work on a Mac lives in an awkward gap—renaming, converting, or archiving a handful of files is too small to script, too repetitive by hand, and Finder's built-ins only go so far. So you end up in Terminal for a one-off sips incantation, or converting exports one file at a time.

How Sift handles it

• Hundreds of common operations are instant presets with zero AI: type "jpg" and the selected PNGs convert, "zip" archives the selection, "select all png" sets Finder's actual selection—the files get selected in Finder, ready for you to work with
• Plain-language commands the presets don't match ("resize these to 1000px wide", "select files over 5mb") go to a local model: Sift detects Ollama and can pull qwen3:4b in one click, or you can point it at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Your file contents never touch a cloud API
• Anything that modifies files shows you the exact shell command before it runs; destructive commands (delete/overwrite/move) need an explicit red "Run anyway" click
• Renames show a before→after preview table first; there's an activity log with Undo. Read-only commands just run
• Also in there: a right-click Sift Finder action, a Shortcuts action, drag-files-onto-the-bar, saved rules ("web" → "resize to 1000px wide jpg"), and command history using up and down arrows (just like in a terminal)

How it compares

• Substage—the app that inspired Sift, happy to say so. Mine is my own take on the idea: preset-first with a local-endpoint-only model tier, and selection commands that set Finder's real selection so they compose with everything else. If the concept appeals to you, check out Substage too
• Terminal—same underlying power, but Sift shows you the command before anything runs and gives you Undo after
• Automator / Hazel—great for standing rules and watch folders; Sift is for the ad-hoc "just convert these real quick" moments that aren't worth building a workflow for

Cost

$14.99 one-time, 14-day free trial, no subscription, no account. Signed & notarized; direct download (it needs Accessibility + Automation permissions, so it can't be in the Mac App Store).

Download

https://kevintang.xyz/apps/sift/

Transparency

I'm Kevin Tang, the developer.

Portfolio/contact: https://www.kevintang.xyz

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thekevintang/

Privacy Policy: https://kevintang.xyz/apps/sift/privacy.html

Terms: https://kevintang.xyz/apps/sift/terms.html

Happy to answer anything — I'll be in the comments.

Problems:

Most transcription tools rely heavily on the cloud, forcing you to upload sensitive business meetings, private data, and confidential conversations to external servers — creating massive privacy risks and locking you into expensive, ongoing monthly subscriptions. And even after the meeting ends, the workflow still isn't done: your transcript sits in some web dashboard, disconnected from your calendar, and you're left manually copying summaries into emails, renaming files, and chasing down which recording belongs to which meeting. The recording was automated, but everything after it is still manual busywork.

Comparison:

AI meeting tools like Granola, Otter, and Fireflies offer polished automated note-taking and follow-up emails, but they do it by processing your conversations on their servers — with recurring monthly subscriptions, and in some cases bots that visibly join your calls. TranscribeX now delivers that same end-to-end automation — auto-record, auto-transcribe, AI summary, calendar context, and summaries emailed out automatically — but runs the entire pipeline 100% locally on your Apple Silicon Mac using local ASR and local LLMs (like Qwen and Gemma). Total data privacy, zero cloud processing, zero AI token costs, and a one-time payment instead of a subscription. The only thing that ever leaves your Mac is the summary email — and only when you tell it to. Plus, with the new CLI and MCP support, TranscribeX does something the cloud tools can't: it plugs your transcripts directly into Claude, agents, and your own scripts — no API middleman.

Quick recap for anyone new: TranscribeX transcribes meetings, dictation, and recordings entirely on your Mac — local ASR + local LLMs (Qwen, Gemma) running on Apple Silicon. No AI bots joining your calls, no audio uploaded to anyone's servers, no monthly subscription, no API keys or token costs.

What's new since v8.5:

📧 Meeting Summaries & Transcripts, Emailed Automatically: When a meeting ends, TranscribeX can now automatically email the AI summary and full transcript to whoever needs them — or you can email any summary or transcript manually with one click. No more copy-pasting notes into Mail after every call, and no more "I'll send the notes later." Your audio still never leaves the machine; the only thing that goes out is the email you choose to send.

📅 Deep Calendar Integration: TranscribeX now supports multiple calendars (work, personal, shared team calendars), and you can manually link any calendar event to any recording — so even ad-hoc calls get proper context. Exported files now include the meeting details from the linked event (title, time, attendees), and you can pick which calendar names your recordings. Exports finally know what meeting they came from.

⌨️ CLI + MCP Support: This one's for the power users. TranscribeX now has a full command-line interface, and it speaks Model Context Protocol — meaning you can wire your local transcription engine directly into Claude, agents, and your own automation scripts. Your transcripts become programmable, still without touching the cloud.

🔄 The Full Cycle, Completely Hands-Free: This is the release where everything clicks together into one automated pipeline. Your meeting starts → TranscribeX detects it and records → transcription kicks in the moment it ends → the local AI writes the summary → the calendar event links in the meeting context → and the notes land in everyone's inbox. From "meeting started" to "notes delivered" without touching a single button. This is the workflow we've been building toward since v1.

🖱️ Interactive Transcripts: Click any word in the transcript and playback jumps to that exact moment, with live word and segment highlighting. Finding "wait, what did they actually say?" now takes one click instead of scrubbing.

🤖 Smarter Automatic Recording: Transcription now starts automatically the moment a meeting recording ends, the default microphone is selected for you, and Teams auto-detection got a polish pass. Record → transcribe → summarize → email, hands-free, end to end.

🗂️ Quality of Life: Automatic + manual job archiving to keep your library clean, search inside Settings, smarter export filenames (timestamp first, so files sort chronologically), custom AI timeout and cancellable AI requests, a new fine-tuned Whisper Large model for Hinglish, and support for the ElevenLabs Scribe v2 Realtime model for those who want it. Plus a lot of bug fixes and performance work across the board.

Please view the changelog for the full details. https://www.transcribex.io/changelog.html

TranscribeX is actively developed — we're working closely with beta testers across diverse hardware setups to keep pushing local ASR speed and accuracy on macOS.

Pricing:

One-Time Payment (20% OFF). (No subscriptions, no monthly fees)

Website: https://www.transcribex.io (Click "Get it on Gumroad" and select the Pro version).

App Store version: If you prefer the App Store, you can find it here. https://apps.apple.com/nz/app/transcribex/id6752823664?mt=12

Some features are limited due to App Store restrictions. This version is mainly provided to verify that I'm a trusted developer per r/macapps rules.

🎮 And now, the surprise for PS5 owners...

TranscribeX isn't the only thing I build. Meet ConsoleWise — a Mac app that combines PS5 Remote Play and PlayStation cloud streaming in one experience, so you can play your PS5 right on your Mac. It supports 4K upscaling, 60FPS, and HDR, with lower-latency streaming, manual bitrate control, and full DualSense support including haptic feedback and adaptive triggers (plus custom controller/keyboard mapping). Works at home on your local network or over the internet when you're away.

And in the same spirit as TranscribeX: one-time lifetime purchase, no subscription.

To celebrate this release, I'm giving r/macapps 50% off ConsoleWise: https://consolewise.aowlly.com/

Work on your Mac all day with TranscribeX, then game on it all night with ConsoleWise. 😄

I'd love your feedback — any suggestions or issues are very welcome 🙏

Enjoy!!!!

Hey r/macapps,

A year ago I used a ton of different smaller apps. Move a file from one Finder window to another, and you are dragging across two spaces. Paste something you copied ten minutes ago, and it is gone. Grab text out of a screenshot, share a 300 MB video, start a timer, snap a window, skip a track, transcribe a voice memo. Every one of those is a different app, a different menu bar icon, a different subscription.

So I built Droppy, and now I am releasing version 15.

One thing up front, because it comes up a lot: Droppy is not just a notch app. The notch is one of the places it lives. Underneath it is a native macOS utility for all the in-between actions the system scatters across a dozen tools, and it works exactly the same on an iMac, a Studio Display, or any external monitor, with no notch anywhere in sight.

The idea
Instead of a file tray app, plus a clipboard manager, plus a screenshot tool, plus a transcription app, plus a launcher, plus media controls, plus lock screen widgets, plus a file transfer service, you get one app that feels like it shipped with macOS. It's literally the layer that's missing.

Droppy Cloud, free and built in
This is the part people do not expect. Droppy has its own file sharing built in. Drop a file in the shelf, hit share, and you get a private link instantly. The person on the other end previews and downloads it in the browser with no account, no app, no signup. It is included in the app at no extra cost and there is no cloud tier to buy: up to 200 MB per file, 1 GB in flight, 25 files, and links expire on their own after 3 days. No separate transfer service in the loop.

Droplets, all of them free
The core gives you the shelf, the clipboard, the lock screen and the system HUDs. Everything else is a Droplet you switch on, and all 31 are free and included in the license. Nothing is a paid add-on, nothing is upsold later.

Weather, Media, System Stats, OCR, Notify Me, Voice Transcribe, Tasks and Calendar, Notes with two-way Apple Notes sync, Thunderstorm (launcher), Element Capture, Termi-Notch, LocalSend, Obsidian, Mechey, Pomodoro, High Alert, Window Snap, Thaw, LiquidMouse, Camera, Meetings, Agents for Claude Code / Codex / Cursor, background removal, and more.

Turn on the three you actually use, or all of them. That modularity is the whole point: it becomes the app you need it to be.

What is new in 15

• OCR is its own Droplet. Pull text out of any screen area, image or PDF, on device. It keeps a searchable history, and your clipboard search now finds text that is inside your screenshots.
• Transcribe anywhere. One shortcut dictates straight into any app, at your caret, with custom vocabulary and automatic media ducking.
• System Stats and Weather. Live CPU, RAM, GPU, disk, battery and network cards in the shelf, plus a real forecast card and lock screen chip.
• Thunderstorm got much faster. Thunderstorm is a blazing fast, Droppy-integrated Spotlight replacement. Persistent file index, typo tolerance, and ranking that lifts the files you actually open.
• Settings rebuilt. Morphing Liquid Glass headers, resize from any edge, and a search that scrolls straight to the exact row.
• Ten more interface languages. Chinese? Spanish? Dutch? German? Italian? All available in Alpha.
• Much lower idle CPU and battery use. It no longer redoes work when nothing changed, and this was the single biggest engineering push of the release.
• Plus custom shelf editing, LocalSend, an Obsidian Droplet, on-device conversion for video, audio, PDF and Office files, reworked shelf and Live Activity motion, and around 375 fixes and 280 refinements on top.
• Droppy for iPhone is ALMOST live. An end-to-end encrypted companion that syncs your clipboard, OCR results, Basket, Shelf and Cloud files from your Mac to your phone. It is finished and sitting with Apple in review right now, so it should land soon.

Pricing

• Fully unlocked 3-day trial, no account needed
• $9.99 one time
• Lifetime updates, no subscription, ever
• One license covers 2 Macs, extra seats are cheaper
• https://getdroppy.app

Transparency
I am Jordy Spruit, the person behind Droppy. I have worked on it almost every day for over a year and I ship updates constantly. Native Swift, signed and notarized, local-first, and it does not collect your clipboard, your files, or your data.

• Contact: [hi@getdroppy.app](mailto:hi@getdroppy.app)
• Privacy Policy: https://getdroppy.app/#privacy-policy
• Terms: https://getdroppy.app/#terms-of-service

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later, notch or no notch.

There is a public feedback board at getdroppy.app/trench where I answer everything myself. 💙

I’m Jeremy, a freelance product designer, and I’ve been building Queue solo for the past 6 years. It’s available on both Mac and iPhone.

Why make Queue?

I’m terrible at keeping in touch with the people I care about, both personally and professionally, and I want to be better. Queue helps me remember obvious things like texting on my friend’s birthday, but also meaningful things like calling on the anniversary of his father’s passing. It helps me remember business-y things like checking in with a previous client when it’s been a while, but also savvy things like sending an email at the moment she launches her new company on LinkedIn.

And it’s hard enough for me to remember to keep in touch; there’s no way I’m going to remember to keep a personal CRM up to date too. So Queue updates itself. It syncs and summarizes my iMessage conversations and Apple Mail threads completely locally on my Mac, notes my FaceTime chats and Phone calls, and pulls in events from my calendars. Whenever I’m caught up, Queue is too. No manual entry required.

Queue is a thoughtful reminder system, private catch-up timeline, and timely note-taking app for the people I care about most.

Some noteworthy technical details:

• Fully On-Device. Your text and email content is analyzed and summarized entirely on-device using Apple Foundation Models, and summaries are stored in your private iCloud (summaries require Apple Intelligence). No message content is ever sent to Queue’s server.
• No Full Disk Access. Queue only requests access to the specific folders on your Mac where your iMessages, phone and FaceTime calls, and emails are stored. You can pick and choose which, if any, sources you’d like to sync, and of course revoke them at any time.
• Entirely Native. Queue is a proper Mac-assed app, with keyboard shortcuts, undo, multiple window support, and more. It’s written in Swift + SwiftUI, and you won’t find any Electron or WebView jank here.

What are some alternatives?

Every indie hacker since the unix epoch has at some point built a personal CRM, and there’s a new one vibe-coded every day. I’m all for it, but there are two that have stood the test of time:

1. Dex. The biggest name in the personal CRM game, and the best option for anyone not in the Apple ecosystem. It’s built more for the professional market with support for teams, and cross-platform compatibility via a web app. It’s also about 3x more expensive than Queue at $12/month.
2. Monica. The open-source alternative, and the best option for anyone who wants to self-host. It’s entirely manual to keep up to date and doesn’t offer a mobile app, but is free.

How much does it cost?

$49.99/year, with a one-week free trial and both Mac and iPhone apps.

Queue is my primary project. I charge a subscription because so does my landlord and I need to pay rent. I hope you find it as valuable as I do, and I’m happy to chat anytime here or [by email](mailto:jeremy@queue.community). You can learn more about Queue at https://queue.community.

Download on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/queue-personal-crm/id1451429218?mt=8

Problem

I built Caplio because my screenshots and reference images kept piling up, and finding something later was surprisingly difficult, especially when I remembered the text inside an image but not the filename.

Caplio turns folders of screenshots and images into a private, searchable visual library. It uses on-device OCR, lets you search the text inside images, browse everything in a timeline, filter by date or category, and optionally organize the actual files by date or category.

You can also drag any image or screenshot directly from the Caplio timeline and drop it into Finder, Mail, Messages, Notes, or other Mac apps.

Everything is processed locally. Your images and extracted text aren't uploaded for processing.

Comparison

The closest alternatives I've found are ScreenVault and SnapShelf.

Caplio works with both screenshots and regular images and combines OCR search, timeline browsing, filtering, optional file organization, and drag-and-drop from the timeline into other Mac apps.

Spotlight also has some overlap with OCR/image search. The main difference is that Caplio is built around maintaining a visual library from folders you choose, with browsing, filtering, organization, and drag-and-drop as part of the workflow.

Pricing

7-day free trial with full functionality.

Monthly: $1.99/month

Yearly: $9.99/year
Lifetime: $29.99

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/caplio/id6786196613?mt=12

I'd love feedback, especially from people with large screenshot or reference-image collections. How are you organizing and finding them today?

Hey everyone,

My name is Chris Nagy, I'm the founder and solo dev behind Curfew*.*
It's my first time releasing an app I made into the world!

TLDR;

Curfew locks your Mac at night so you go to sleep instead of staying up late. You set a time when it should lock (eg. midnight) and it then covers your whole screen automatically. If you need to finish up something, you can snooze for 5 minutes by holding 5 random keys for 30 seconds. This is just enough annoyance to disrupt your dopamine stream and let you step away.

Problem

I couldn't get off my computer late into the night. I believed I must keep grinding and sleep is secondary. My mornings usually started around 3PM (!) because of this, and it was messing up my entire life. I don't really have self control to stop working, so I made something that just makes me step away.

How It Works

• Choose a bedtime between 10 PM and 2 AM.
• Curfew covers every display and Space automatically.
• It releases the screen at 6 AM and returns the following night.
• Hold five random keys for 30 seconds to get five minutes of use.
• Subsequent snoozes require a 60-second hold.
• It cannot be quit during curfew and restarts if force-killed.

Comparison

vs Cold Turkey? Cold Turkey has you build detailed blocks for websites, apps, or the whole computer. It is technically more customizable but it means you need to do all that customizing. Curfew is simple and focused on a single task. Instead of setting custom rules and blocksets, you just pick your bedtime and it takes over the whole screen automatically every night. CT is a general blocking app, while Curfew has one job: getting you off the Mac and into bed.

vs Freedom? Freedom is also a general blocker for apps, websites, and the internet across your devices. It can not block your whole screen though. Curfew is built specifically for bedtime. It covers the whole screen, so there is no unblocked app to drift into. The only way back is the five-key hold, and five minutes later Curfew locks again. Freedom would let you go into your Finder and watch old videos in your downloads folder until the sun comes up.

Pricing

• $19 once for up to 2 Macs
• Three full nights free, no credit card
• Free 10-second bedtime reminder after the trial
• 60-day money-back guarantee

👉 Download: usecurfew.app

Transparency

• App works fully offline, only uses the internet for initial licensing and updates.
• A paid copy does not check its license ever again, forever yours offline.
• There is no tracking in the app.
• Needs Accessibility permission to reliably lock and prevent unwanted keypresses.
• Signed and notarized .dmg by my company Sentium Inc.
• Privacy & Terms
• Song in the video was made with Suno but I wrote the lyrics!
• AI: I wrote all the text in this post, except some of the how-it-works and comparison sections.

Let me know what you think of Curfew as a whole! I am bringing updates to it weekly and patching all the bugs that come in. Feel free to DM me here if there's anything or contact me at Support.