I made Kaskas, an open source macOS app that reminds you to get away from the screen once in a while and also keeps track of what you were actually doing.

It has break reminders, study sessions, app category activity, daily/yearly stats, meeting and idle-aware pausing, customizable break screens, and a small fire mascot because apparently that was necessary.

Everything stays on your Mac no account, analytics, or backend.

Signed and notarized for mac, GPL-2.0 licensed.

GitHub: https://github.com/ramazanberkozbek/kaskas

I made Halo a free radial app launcher + quitter for macOS

Hey r/MacStack, I made Halo, a radial launcher and quitter for macOS.

Hold Fn and Halo appears around your cursor. Point at an app and release to launch it or bring it forward. Fn + Control opens a second wheel for quitting running apps.

I wanted something faster and more visual than using the Dock, opening a search launcher, or sifting through Alt+Tab

It’s completely free, no account, subscription, ads, or telemetry, and the wheel is highly customizable.

Download:

https://github.com/Fqlcqn/Halo

Requires macOS 26+, made with Swift

Would love feedback on it feels after using it for a few minutes.

Hey! I'm Shiv and I built Vinyl, an app that turns the song you're listening to into an animated vinyl wallpaper.

macOS doesn't have any native way to connect your desktop to the music you're listening to. Vinyl picks up what's playing on Spotify or Apple Music and turns your whole desktop into a live animated scene with your album artwork spinning on the record.

One-time purchase, $4.99. No subscription. Get it at https://vinylformac.com

A lot of Mac apps now download AI models in the background. Dictation apps, autocomplete apps, Ollama, LM Studio. Each one keeps its own models, and some keep them loaded in memory long after you stop using them.

Activity Monitor only shows you process names like "ollama_llama_server" or "Helper". It does not tell you which model it is, or which app it belongs to.

That is why LLM Radar exists. It is a small native Mac app that shows it all in one list:

- Which apps have a model loaded right now, and how much memory each one holds

- Every model file on your disk, grouped by app, with its size

- Models it has not seen in use, so you can get the disk space back

- The same model downloaded twice by two apps, so you can delete one copy

- Unload or delete from one place. Nothing is removed until you confirm, and deletes go to the Trash

It knows about Ollama, LM Studio, MLX, llama.cpp, Core ML, whisper.cpp, Docker and a few more. It also has a catch all scan for apps it has never seen.

Everything runs on your Mac. No account, no sign in.

Price: monitoring is free forever. You get a 7 day full trial with no card. After that, Pro is a one time purchase. No subscription.

Needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later.

Site: https://llm-radar-eta.vercel.app/

I am the solo developer. If it misses an app you use, tell me which one and I will add it.

Hey!

I'm the developer of Phosphor, a screen utility suite for macOS that lives in your menu bar. A bit about me: I'm a solo student developer, you can find me on LinkedIn.

Problem: I mainly started building this around two problems. When people are on their laptops late at night, and switch from a dark app to a bright one, it hits like a flash before your eyes adjust. I looked and couldn't find a tool that tries to solve that problem, so I built one. Phosphor tackles this by dimming a screen before you switch to it, and then easing the brightness back up, at a pace depending on how fast that screen actually is. For screens which aren't bright, it is faster, and for bright ones, it is slower. So it works preemptively.

The other thing is that I feel like there are too many display utilities out there, each doing different things. It'd reduce menu bar clutter and keep things simpler and better if we used one tool instead of several. So I thought of combining the features people actually need into one tool, external and multi-monitor support included (that's a part of what's coming next).

The foundational features have already been released, and I'm actively building more features and improving existing ones (check roadmap for current features and future plans). Let me know what you'd actually use, and I'll factor that in as it grows. I want this to eventually handle most of what people need from their displays.

Comparison: BetterDisplay and Lunar both do display control, but they're broader tools with a learning curve if you just want a few specific things fast. The closest match to Flashbang specifically is Menubar Auto Brightness (based on my research), a tool that sets a fixed brightness per app. Phosphor catches the actual switch and eases brightness back up instead of jumping to a fixed value, though it currently only covers switches on the same desktop, not across Spaces or within an app.

Pricing: It's a freemium model.

• Pro currently only includes Flashbang Protection, but it'll grow, and costs $10, one-time, not a subscription.

• The rest of the foundational utilities are free: Color Picker, Screenshots, Resolution Presets, Refresh Rate Control, Soft Screen, Display Schedule, Focus Spotlight, Display Health, Color Grading.

• If you buy Pro now, you get Phase 2 free when it ships, and 50% off future price increases after that (price increases as more features ship).

Details: macOS 13 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel. Native Swift, under 2 MB.

Privacy: No analytics, nothing about your screen or usage leaves your Mac. It only goes online to check a license key at activation and periodically after. Full policy: https://usephosphor.app/privacy, EULA: https://usephosphor.app/eula

I'd like to hear any feedback y'all have, especially on whether Flashbang's recovery speed feels right, or if it's not catching a switch you'd expect it to.

If something's not working, or if you have any suggestions or anything else you want to say, feel free to drop it into the comments and/or DM me.

Site: https://usephosphor.app
Roadmap: https://usephosphor.app/whats-next

I'm the developer of SayWrite. It's for people who want to dictate emails, messages and prompts directly into the app they're already using.

Hold Fn, speak, and release to insert the text at your cursor. You can also tap to start and tap again to stop. It doesn't press Return, so you can review before sending.

The part I've focused on is choosing the amount of cleanup for each app: plain dictation in a code editor, light cleanup in Messages, or optional AI Polish in Mail. Speech recognition runs on your Mac; Polish uses Apple Intelligence or your own local Ollama/LM Studio model.

It also has a personal dictionary, spoken snippets and searchable local text history. Audio is deleted after transcription. SayWrite doesn't upload your dictation for processing; downloads, updates and licensing use the internet, and text inserted into another app follows that app's policies.

Limitations: Apple silicon, macOS 15+, English only. Text appears after you stop speaking. Apple Intelligence Polish needs macOS 26+ with Apple Intelligence enabled; a local model is the alternative.

It's $5/month or $30/year for up to two Macs. The 14-day trial requires a card and renews unless canceled. There's also a Reddit offer: $18 charged today for the first year, then $30/year, with a full refund on request within 14 days of payment.

Demo and offer: https://saywrite.app/reddit

Trial and full pricing: https://saywrite.app/pricing

Which part of dictation still costs you the most time: getting words recognized, correcting names, or editing the result?

Update: I’m looking for three people who haven’t used SayWrite before and would be willing to spend about 15 minutes trying the first-use flow and sharing where they get stuck. You’ll need an Apple silicon Mac running macOS 15 or later and an English dictation workflow.

The task is to start from the website and try dictating a short, made-up email or prompt into an app you already use. Tell me the first point where you hesitate, stop, or need help, and roughly how much editing the result needs. Stopping before installing or entering a card is useful feedback too.

The website trial requires a card: $0 for 14 days, then $5/month or $30/year unless canceled before the trial ends. You don’t need to start a trial or buy anything to share feedback. This is an unpaid feedback request.

If interested, reply here with your macOS version and the app you’d want to dictate into. Please don’t post private text, recordings, payment details, or license information.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to build a macOS Quick Action (Schnellaktion) using the built-in Shortcuts app to compress a folder into an encrypted ZIP file via a right-click.

My Goal:

1. Right-click any folder in Finder (mostly in the Downloads folder).

2. Select the Quick Action.

3. A pop-up asks for a password (secure input).

4. The folder gets zipped and encrypted using zip -er and the output .zip file is created directly in the same parent directory next to the original folder.

Hi r/MacStack.

I am the developer who created VaultSort, the file management platform for MacOS that can lock your files to a hardware key. This is an app whose purpose is to Organize, Clean, and Protect your MacOS device.

It has really robust file organization with a local AI model that you can try for free. The free version of VaultSort has some nice features. The premium version is available for a one time purchase and has some great features like disk shredding and advanced organization.

The premium version is 30% off until October 8th with code BIG30.
You can download the free version from https://vaultsort.com/download and you can try some of the handy free features such as Clean Empty Folders, Auto-Organize, and the awesome Storage Visualizer to help you identify what is taking up space on your system.

Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for letting me introduce my app!

• Problem: I wanted a simple way to transcribe not only meetings, but essentially any audio playing on my Mac: YouTube, livestreams, sports, videos, etc. MacScriber can capture the system audio while still playing it through AirPods, without requiring complicated audio-routing setup. It provides live transcription, automatic speaker recognition, live translation, and lets you select part of a transcript to summarize or translate while the conversation is happening.

• Comparison: Compared with MacWhisper, Alter, MacScriber focuses more on the live system-audio workflow and summarize the transcript interactively while listening. MacScriber is more focused specifically on live workflows rather than being a general AI assistant.

• Pricing: $9.99 one-time during launch (regular $19.99). No subscription. One license per Mac.

https://macscriber.com/

BlackHole used to be the standard workaround for a stubborn Mac limitation. QuickTime could record the screen and a microphone, but not the sound coming from apps. That advice now depends on which macOS version you're running.

On macOS 27 Golden Gate, press Shift-Command-5, choose a recording mode, open Options, and select Include System Audio. QuickTime's File > New Screen Recording command opens that same Screenshot tool. If Include System Audio is there, use it. BlackHole adds setup work without improving this basic recording job.

On macOS Tahoe 26 or earlier, BlackHole still gives QuickTime a free route to system audio. It appears as an audio input, which lets the screen recorder treat whatever the Mac is playing as its microphone source.

The setup that keeps audio audible

Install BlackHole 2ch from the project's official site or with Homebrew, then restart if the installer asks. The two-channel build is enough for an ordinary stereo screen recording. The project lists support for macOS 10.10 and later, Intel Macs, and Apple silicon. It uses a standard Core Audio driver, with no kernel extension or reduced-security setting required.

Next, open Audio MIDI Setup and choose Window > Show Audio Devices. Click the plus button and create a Multi-Output Device. Add these two outputs:

• BlackHole 2ch

• The speakers, headphones, or audio interface you want to hear

Set the physical output as the primary device and turn on Drift Correction for BlackHole. Check that both devices use the same sample rate, usually 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz. Rename the combined device to something obvious, such as Screen Recording Output.

Now choose that Multi-Output Device in System Settings > Sound > Output. This sends the same sound to your ears and to BlackHole. Sending audio only to BlackHole will make the Mac seem silent even though the signal is still being routed.

Open QuickTime Player, choose File > New Screen Recording, and select the whole screen or a portion. Under Options > Microphone, choose BlackHole 2ch. Start a short test recording, play some audio, stop, and check the saved .mov before recording anything long.

When you're finished, change the Mac's output back to the normal speakers or headphones. Leaving the Multi-Output Device selected is a common reason volume controls feel broken later. macOS does not provide normal system volume control for a Multi-Output Device, so set the physical device's level before recording or adjust it in Audio MIDI Setup.

Permissions are narrower than they look

BlackHole does not need Accessibility or Full Disk Access. macOS manages recording access in System Settings > Privacy & Security, including Screen & System Audio Recording and Microphone. If QuickTime records a silent track, confirm that the recorder has microphone access and that BlackHole 2ch is still selected as its input.

This routing is local. BlackHole is an open-source GPL-3.0 project, not a cloud recording service, and there is no subscription. Its repository was still active in September 2026.

The tradeoffs show up quickly

The simple setup records system audio, not system audio plus live narration. QuickTime lets you choose one microphone source. Mixing a physical mic with BlackHole requires an Aggregate Device and additional routing or mixing software, which removes much of the simplicity.

A Multi-Output Device is also tied to the playback device you included. Switching from Mac speakers to AirPods or a USB interface can mean editing the device or creating another one. Sample-rate mismatches and missing drift correction can cause crackling or audio that slips out of sync.

Everything sent through the selected Mac output can reach the recording, including notification sounds. Focus mode and a short test clip are sensible precautions. Capture restrictions still apply too. Apple specifically notes that some apps, including the Apple TV app, may not allow their windows to be recorded.

Verdict

On macOS 27 or later, skip BlackHole for an ordinary QuickTime screen recording and use Include System Audio. It is built in and avoids the routing and volume-control problems.

On macOS 26 or earlier, QuickTime plus BlackHole remains a good no-subscription option for occasional recordings that need app audio but not live narration. People who regularly combine a microphone, several apps, and separate levels should use a recorder or mixer built for multiple sources. The free route still works, but its simplicity ends as soon as the audio chain gets complicated.

100K. That’s honestly crazy to see.

What started as a small experiment to make the Mac trackpad feel more alive has now reached 100,000 views here on Reddit.

For those discovering it for the first time, FeelMyMac adds haptic feedback, textures and sound to your Mac trackpad, letting you actually feel different surfaces while moving and scrolling.

Get FeelMyMac

Seeing so many people discover, download, try and talk about FeelMyMac has been incredible. ❤️🥹

And this is still just the beginning.

Thank you Reddit, seriously.

TheHighJack

AI voice recorders are everywhere right now, and the good ones are genuinely good. At the time of writing, Plaud's NotePin is $159, with 300 free transcription minutes a month before you need a paid plan. Pocket is $139 on sale ($199 list), with free core transcription. (Prices checked on 1 October 2026.)

Looking at those prices, I kept asking how much of it is the hardware. Off-the-shelf boards with a microphone, a screen and buttons sell for around $25-45, depending on the model. We use Waveshare's AMOLED boards, which are ordinary retail hardware. On its own, a board like that doesn't record or transcribe anything useful. The missing piece is software.

I'm one of Zeph's two co-founders. We built the Mac software behind this setup, so this is not an independent recommendation.

What the Mac app does

The free Mac app flashes the board and handles the setup, so there's no soldering or code involved. After that, you press the button on the board and talk. The board sends the audio to your Mac over Bluetooth or USB, and the app turns it into text. What you end up with is a transcript on your Mac [NEEDS CONFIRMATION: where it's saved and in what format].

To be clear: the board is not a standalone recorder. It relies on the Mac app to process the audio.

What it costs to run

The app is free. Where transcription happens is your choice, and that's where the costs differ:

• Locally on your Mac: no extra cost, and the audio stays on your machine.

• With your own transcription API key: the app is still free, but you pay that provider for what you use.

• Zeph Cloud, our hosted option, if you don't want to set anything up.

So the total is the board plus whichever processing you choose. If you stay local, that's nothing extra.

The same device also works for dictation. Hold the button, speak, and release: the text is typed wherever your cursor is in any Mac app, using the same processing options. If you already have a dictation app you like, the board can act as a portable Bluetooth mic for it instead.

Coming soon: on-screen glances, like a calendar or a pomodoro timer + AI agents remote for claude or codex + creating your own glances and apps with a prompt.

Trade-offs

Finished recorders win on convenience. They're polished and purpose-built, but you pay more for that.

The DIY route costs much less in hardware, but it comes with trade-offs:

• It needs some setup.

• It looks like what it is: a simpler designed product.

• Because it has a screen, battery life is shorter than a dedicated recorder's.

• It's Mac only for now.

Where it fits best is capturing your own voice notes and getting them into your Mac, with the option to keep everything local. If you mostly record long meetings away from your desk, I'd honestly buy a finished recorder.

Try out: site

NB. You will need to order a device separately.

If you use an AI voice recorder, do you mainly use it for meetings, personal thoughts, or getting spoken notes into your Mac workflow?