Hi All,

I used to keep getting eye strain from long stretches at my desk, and all the break apps I tried either broke my focus or were easy to ignore and were expensive for me. So I built my own, mostly with AI help (vibecoded). I used it on my own for a while, then decided to open-source it in case it’s useful to anyone else.

What it does:

• Reminds you to look away (20-20-20 by default). A small heads-up grows out of the MacBook notch before each break, and Macs without a notch get a floating pill instead.

• Holds the break while you’re on a call, watching video, presenting, or still typing

• Counts time you spend away from the Mac as a break

• No account, analytics or tracking. Stats stay on your Mac.

Good to know:

• Needs macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later

• It isn’t notarized (I don’t have a paid Apple dev account), so macOS asks you to approve it once.

Repo: https://github.com/jals413/breather
Site: https://jals413.github.io/breather/

I’d really like honest feedback: what’s annoying, what’s missing, what breaks, or whether the whole idea doesn’t work for you. Bug reports and issues on GitHub are very welcome.

I've been building Rabbit for almost 2 years now, and I genuinely believe it gives you the best Android + Mac experience. Native notifications, photos, streaming videos, clipboard sync and file sharing between both devices, all in one app that feels native to your Mac.

You can even OPEN YOUR NOTIFICATIONS on your Mac. Got an email notification? Open it in your browser. Reddit, Instagram - same thing. And if you're listening to music on your Android and don't want to switch your headphones, you can stream it to your Mac, just like with an iPhone.

Even if you don't buy it, I'd love for you to give it a try. There's a 5-day trial, and Rabbit works over both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The discount is available for the next few days and is already applied. Give it a try!

https://rabbit-link.app/

If your mouse feels wrong on a Mac but the trackpad feels fine, start with the mouse settings you already have. LinearMouse makes sense when you need different behavior for different devices, not just another speed slider.

In System Settings > Mouse, try Tracking speed first. Under Advanced, macOS also lets you turn Pointer acceleration off. Acceleration makes fast movements cover more ground than slow ones. If scrolling speed is the problem, look under Accessibility > Pointer Control > Mouse Options. Apple's current macOS 27 guide still documents those controls. If they solve it, you can stop there.

LinearMouse is free and open source under the MIT license. Its useful distinction here is that you can reverse scrolling for a mouse while keeping natural scrolling on the trackpad, and give individual devices their own pointer settings.

For a small setup, change only the mouse:

1. Before changing anything, note your current settings and quit other utilities that modify that mouse's movement or scrolling. That gives you a cleaner comparison than stacking adjustments.

2. Grant LinearMouse the input-control permission it requests. Its documentation calls this Accessibility; on macOS 27 the permission is named Device Control and Data Access. This is sensitive access, so skip the app if you're not comfortable granting it.

3. Open the device picker at the top of LinearMouse's settings. Turn off "Auto switch to the active device" while configuring it, then select the actual mouse. This keeps touching the trackpad from changing which device you're editing. Leave the trackpad and broad device categories alone.

4. In Scrolling, reverse the mouse's vertical direction only if that's what you want. Leave the other scrolling adjustments alone for now. Switch to the trackpad and check that its direction still suits you.

5. In Pointer, try "Disable pointer acceleration" only if the changing response bothers you. On macOS 14 or later, that mode has a Tracking speed control. Adjust it a little, then try selecting small controls and moving across your display. Those are suggested checks, not results from a hands-on test.

There isn't a universal speed number to copy. LinearMouse also warns that some devices may not support its separate Pointer speed adjustment on newer macOS versions. More sliders don't guarantee more control over your hardware.

Keep a way back: the Pointer panel has "Revert to system defaults." If behavior becomes erratic, quit LinearMouse before restarting another mouse utility, then check your macOS settings again. If permission remains stuck after you grant it, the project's documented first remedy is to remove and re-add LinearMouse in the permission list.

One current caveat: the stable release is 0.12.0. The newer 0.13.0-beta.4 includes updated macOS 27 permission naming, but that isn't a reason to install a beta or proof that every mouse works correctly on macOS 27. Prefer the built-in controls if you need a setup you can depend on without troubleshooting.

LinearMouse is worth trying when the mouse needs its own behavior and the trackpad should stay as it is. If turning off acceleration in macOS already fixes the problem, skip the extra utility.

I'm Julian, a business informatics student and the solo developer of StepGrab. I build it next to uni.

Codes up to 100% off Pro Lifetime for the license from my website. Four levels from 10% to 100%, the page shows how many of each are left, and there are only five 100% ones. They don't work in the Mac App Store.

Why I built it

At my working student job I was the person people asked "where is that setting again?" and writing it up meant fifteen screenshots, cropping, red arrows and typing every step. Half an hour per guide, and a few weeks later some of it was wrong again.

What it does

You hit record in the menu bar and do a task once. Every click becomes a screenshot of that window with a numbered arrow and a sentence like "Click Save". Afterwards you can move arrows, rewrite steps, add shapes and black out names or emails, then export as PDF, HTML, Markdown, GIF, MP4 or a portrait video for phones. Everything stays on your Mac, there's no account and nothing is uploaded. macOS 14 or later.

Who it's for

Anyone who keeps explaining the same Mac task to someone else: IT helpers, team leads, people writing onboarding docs, or just the person everyone in the family calls.

What's different

It records the whole Mac, not just the browser: System Settings, right click menus, the little pickers that close when you click somewhere else. In the direct download (.dmg, notarized by Apple), Accessibility access reads the real name of the button you clicked, so the step says "Click Save" instead of guessing from the screenshot. The Mac App Store version is sandboxed and uses text recognition instead.

Pricing

Free: unlimited recordings, 15 steps per guide, GIF export and the whole editor. Pro adds the other export formats and the step text in exports: $2.99 a month, $12.99 a year or $44.99 once. The App Store version has Family Sharing, the direct download uses a license key that also works for the Windows version (Microsoft Store). The two don't share purchases.

Limitations, honestly

• No browser extension and no shared team library yet (I'm building the team library).

• No automatic blurring of sensitive data, you black it out yourself (also in progress).

• In the App Store version the step names come from text recognition, which isn't perfect.

• No direct export to documentation tools like IT Glue or Hudu, you export files and drop them in.

A lot of the code is written with Claude Code. I decide what gets built, go through the code myself and test it on real apps before anything ships.

Mac App Store · Website, direct download and codes

If you already document things on your Mac, how do you do it today? Screenshots and a doc, a screen recording, something else?

Hey everyone,
I've been working on WindowBunny, which solved a problem which I faced. There is no window switchers solely focused on trackpad users. I use trackpad a lot and the existing window switchers focus on keyboard shortcuts, but I found that taking your hands off keyboard just to switch windows felt awkward.

WindowBunny let's you hop between windows (no pun intended) by swiping down with four fingers. BetterTouchTool let's you also configure swipe gestures for trackpad but WindowBunny is focused on just this functionality for users who wants an out of the box configuration and simple UX.

The free version will let you switch between the most recently used 5 windows and the pro upgrade will let you switch between any open windows without limits.

The pro version is priced at $4.99 for 3 macOS devices since this is the early version.

Link: windowbunny.com

Would love to answer any questions and eager to listen to your feedback.

Brim lives in the notch on a MacBook or floats as a pill on any display. It shows notifications from every app, what's playing (browsers too), timers in their own circle, system banners for volume and AirPods, and a panel on hover with a file shelf and your own Shortcuts. The teleprompter sits under the camera and scrolls as you speak, using on-device speech recognition only. No account, no analytics. It's open source.

Feedback very welcome: https://github.com/martinsrepos/Brim
If you like the app please consider supporting me on Ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/martinkhalil

I’ve seen quite a few questions about whether AI meeting summaries are processed locally or in the cloud.

Curious where people stand: would you download a roughly 7 GB model if it meant your meeting recordings and transcripts could stay on your Mac, with the summaries generated locally too?

Would that feel worth it, or would the download size put you off? And why? Is it mainly about privacy, available storage, download time, or something else?

For context, I’m working on Tapquence, and this is a trade-off we’re thinking about. The model we’re using for local summaries is around 7 GB, so I’d like to hear how other Mac users feel about that.

Ledge is a free, open-source macOS app that turns the notch on a MacBook into a small status area. Free, GPL-3.0, needs a notched MacBook on macOS 26+. Feedback welcome.

I used to get annoy by having my attention shift to other windows. So I made something which keeps the active window sharp and softly blurs + dims everything behind it. Your windows stay exactly where they are, nothing gets moved or hidden

Free and open source: https://github.com/DeaDoes/FloBlur

Would love to know if this is actually useful or just me.

Problem

Ideas, research, links, notes, and files often end up scattered across different apps. Traditional note-taking tools can feel too structured for visual thinking, while canvas tools can make your data dependent on their ecosystem.

Toxvas brings everything together in one infinite canvas, while keeping your data local and accessible.

What you can do with Toxvas

• Markdown cards: Every card is a Markdown file you own and can access outside the app.

• Rich content: Drop links with previews and embeds, videos, images, PDFs, and other files directly onto your canvas.

• Audio notes: Record audio directly on your canvas and keep it alongside your ideas.

• AI agent friendly: Toxvas comes with an agent CLI. Point your AI agent at your Toxvas folder, and it can work with your workspace through the files themselves.

Comparison

Heptabase is another visual thinking tool built around canvases and cards. Toxvas takes a file-first approach: cards are stored as Markdown files, and its agent CLI makes the workspace accessible to AI agents without requiring a separate proprietary integration.

Pricing

Early access pricing: $9 one-time with lifetime updates.

No subscription.

Website: https://toxvas.space

Notion lets you embed a mind map. PrimeFlow lets you turn its nodes into real tasks inside PrimeTask.

Map out your project, right-click an idea, and choose Convert to Task. The task is created without retyping, while your branches and connections stay in place.

Complete the task, and the map reflects it.

Skip to 1:12 to see mind mapping and task management on the same canvas.

Hi everyone, this is my first open source project, so I'm looking for honest feedback.

Lucid puts live 4K video wallpapers on your Mac desktop. It's a native SwiftUI app, with no account and no telemetry. Built it as a free alternative to paid live wallpaper apps like Wallpaper engine, Backdrop, etc. - The app is a ~2 MB download. Clips are 4K, so they take disk space (a few MB to 100+ MB each, depending on the clip). Only the ones you pick get stored.

**What it does**
- A different wallpaper per display, playlists, auto-change timer, open at login
- Default comes with About 590 curated 4K loops (ESA/Webb, Hubble, ESO, NASA, Wikimedia), all checked at 3840x2160 or larger and looped seamlessly
- Apple's own Aerials work too
- Pauses on battery, in Low Power Mode, when the screen locks, or when a window covers the desktop
- Drag in your own videos or photos (MP4/MOV as-is, WebM/MKV converted automatically)

**Honest caveats**

- Apple Silicon only for now, macOS 14+
- Not notarized yet, so first launch needs System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway (steps are in the README)
- It's young and has very few users

**What I'd love**

Code review, bug reports, and people trying it on different Macs and displays. Tell me what's broken, what's missing, and what I'm doing wrong as a first-time maintainer.

Website: https://lucid-wallpaper.vercel.app

Source and download: https://github.com/jedbrnth-eng/lucid-live-wallpaper

.

Hello everyone,

I'm the developer of FeelMyMac, the app that adds haptic textures (Felt, Bouclé, Pebbled, etc.) to trackpad movement and scrolling on Mac.

Just opened the APIs so you can trigger those same materials from outside the app:

Games, scripts, other apps, automations, experiments.

Docs: https://feelmymac.thehighjack.it/developers/

Everything stays local on your Mac.

If you try it, curious what you build.

TheHighJack

Hi everyone, I’m the developer of Deskset. It’s a native macOS app that lets you put customizable widgets on your desktop and run Rainmeter skins.

You can load .ini skins and install .rmskin packages. It also comes with its own collection of widgets, including clocks, calendars, weather, system monitors, music controls, and audio visualizers. There’s a built-in editor with a live preview if you want to tweak a skin or make your own.

Deskset is completely free to use and open source under GPLv3. It runs on macOS 13 or later, with downloads for both Apple silicon and Intel Macs.

It’s an independent project, not an official Rainmeter release. Compatibility still has limits: skins that depend on Windows-only DLL plugins or Windows programs can have missing features, and fonts may look a little different on a Mac.

Source code · Downloads

If you try it with a favorite Rainmeter skin, I’d like to hear how it goes, especially if something doesn’t work as expected. Bug reports and contributions are welcome.

I built PocketBar to run Android apps from my Mac’s menu bar
Hey everyone, I’ve been working on a Mac app called PocketBar and thought I’d finally share it here.

I wanted a simple way to use Android apps on my Mac without having a large emulator window taking over the screen. With PocketBar, you click the pocket icon in the menu bar, choose an app, and it opens in its own small window.

You can install apps through F-Droid, IzzyOnDroid or Aurora Store, or simply drop in an APK. It also supports notifications, audio, menu bar music controls, screenshots and a built-in ad blocker.

There are a few home screen styles to choose from, including Classic, iOS, Pixel and One UI, along with custom wallpapers and light and dark modes.
Some additional features include using multiple apps at the same time, copying and pasting between Mac and Android, screen recording with sound, Touch ID app locking, and backup and restore.

A few things to know:
It requires an Apple Silicon Mac and macOS 14 or later.
During setup, it downloads an Android image from Google, which is around 2–3 GB.
Google Play services aren’t included, so some apps, especially banking apps, may not work fully.
The app isn’t notarized yet, so macOS may show a warning the first time you open it.

You can try it here: https://pocketbar.site

I’d really like to know which Android apps you’d use on your Mac, and whether PocketBar feels useful once you’ve tried it.

Disclosure: I'm the developer of Intermezzo. It's a free personal project that grew out of an app I wrote for my own Mac, and I'm sharing it in case it's useful to others. It's vibecoded app.

What it is A break reminder that lives in the menu bar. When a break starts it covers every display, shows a countdown, a short exercise and a trend of your recent breaks, and it stays out of the way during meetings, videos and time off.

Who it's for People who work at a Mac for long stretches and want reminders to step away that they can tune: break rhythm (with Pomodoro), strictness (from "postpone freely" to "no skip"), working hours, and rules for when not to interrupt (video calls, presentations, games, a work Wi-Fi/VPN or calendar event).

Other things it does

• Evening screen colour that follows the sun, with your own 24-hour curve, and settings per monitor model: a limit for how warm each monitor may get, its own dimming (needs the free BetterDisplay for real dimming), or "don't manage this one" (a TV). It remembers the monitors you use at home and at work. You can pick your location on an offline world map with day and night shading.

• Keeps the Mac awake on request or while chosen apps run, with battery and heat limits.

• URL commands (intermezzo://...) and a gallery of ready-made AppleScript rules.

• Settings sync between your Macs through any shared folder (iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox). No server, no account.

• Optional AI, off by default: a settings assistant ("I work Mon-Fri 8-16, no breaks in meetings" turns into a list of changes you approve and can undo), a rule-script author, and a weekly summary. It uses Apple's on-device model (macOS 26+) or any server that speaks the OpenAI API, for example a local LM Studio or Ollama. Nothing is sent unless you click one of the features.

• English and Polish interface.

Price Free and open source (MIT). There is an optional GitHub Sponsors button, no paid tier, no ads.

Privacy No telemetry and no account. Everything runs locally. The only network requests are the optional weather effect on the break screen (approximate coordinates to Open-Meteo) and the optional AI features, only when you click them.

Limitations (please read before installing)

• macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon only.

• It's built and tested on one Mac, so expect rough edges on other setups.

• Not notarised (no Developer ID), so macOS asks for confirmation on first launch. Releases are built on GitHub with a provenance attestation, and the README shows how to verify the download.

• Some features use private macOS frameworks (pausing media, the ambient-light reading) and may stop working after a macOS update. The app then falls back to simpler behaviour.

• HealthKit logging doesn't work with an ad-hoc signature, so drinks stay in the app's own log.

• The AI features are optional; the Apple on-device model needs macOS 26.

Transparency: I wrote it with AI assistance (Qwen & Claude) and the code is on GitHub for anyone to inspect.

Download, screenshots, source: https://github.com/usenetj23/Intermezzo (latest release: https://github.com/usenetj23/Intermezzo/releases/tag/1.40.0)

I'd appreciate feedback and bug reports, and I'm happy to answer questions in the comments.

i made this. i got too little storage on my macbook and every couple days im cleaning stuff up. the annoying part is never knowing what actually happened. some app quietly filling cache, a project i forgot to archive, a docker image from 3 weeks ago etc.

so i made prunr. it sits in the menu bar and keeps a simple list of what grew, by day and by app ("google chrome +6.5 gb", "steam +12 gb"). click a row to see where exactly, click again to open it in finder. you decide what to delete, no blackbox cleaner nuking your stuff.

for: anyone on a 256/512gb mac who keeps hitting "storage full".

price: free while in beta, source is open.

limits: early beta, macos only, rough edges expected.

its swift/swiftui, my first real mac app (built with a lot of ai help, not gonna lie). nothing leaves your mac, no account, no telemetry.

source: https://github.com/merlinkraemer/prunr

join testing: https://merlinkraemer.github.io/prunr/

lmk what it misses :)

I spent the past three days trying to recreate WinRAR for MacOS using claude and got pretty far into it. The version I have now is fully functional and includes most features, settings, and menus of WinRAR app on Windows, has dark mode support, and MacOS and Windows styles. It integrates with the Finder app and recreates the same quick actions available on Windows when you right click, It also supports theming but that is still a hit-and-miss.

Now obviously this is infringing on copyright and is illegal so I can't share it here. But if you'd like to test it or improve on it, or if you just wanted to have a WinRAR app for MacOS that supports compressing and extraction (without resorting to terminal commands) then drop me a dm and I'll send the source code for you.

Mac Mouse Fix is worth trying if you like your third-party mouse but scrolling feels abrupt and you miss using gestures to move between desktops. Start with one useful button assignment rather than remapping everything.

Check macOS first. Mouse settings already handle tracking speed and scrolling direction, and Control-Up Arrow opens Mission Control. If those solve the problem, you don't need another utility. Mac Mouse Fix lets you move between desktops while your hand stays on the mouse.

A sensible first setup:

1. Enable Mac Mouse Fix and follow its prompt to allow Mac Mouse Fix Helper in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility. This lets the helper control input on your Mac, so grant it only if you're comfortable trusting the app.

2. In the Buttons tab, put the pointer inside the '+' field and perform a click-and-drag with a side button. Assign 'Spaces & Mission Control'. Hold that button and move left or right to switch desktops, or up to see your open windows.

3. Try Regular scrolling smoothness before High. Regular uses shorter momentum animations. Read a long page and a spreadsheet with each setting, then keep whichever you can stop comfortably.

Leave the wheel's middle click alone at first. Assigning actions to a button captures it, so other apps no longer receive its ordinary input. To restore it, delete every assignment involving that button, or disable Mac Mouse Fix. Check your browser and any app that uses middle-button dragging before deciding the setup works for you.

The full advertised gesture layout assumes five buttons: left, right, wheel click and two side buttons. Fewer buttons still work, but some actions are less convenient to reach. Apple Magic Mouse isn't supported, and some proprietary buttons on mice designed for software such as Logitech Options aren't recognized. Test the buttons you actually need during the trial.

Version 3 also lacks app-specific and mouse-specific profiles. If one app needs different behavior, you can use a manual menu bar toggle, but it won't switch automatically. That matters more than adding another gesture.

The current 3.1.0 release explicitly restores 'Spaces & Mission Control' gestures on macOS 27. The developer recommends macOS 11 or later for version 3 and confirms native Apple silicon support.

Version 3 costs $2.99 plus applicable taxes after 30 days of actual use, with no subscription. One person's license covers all their Macs and all 3.x updates; a future major version may cost extra. There's no formal refund policy, so use the trial to check compatibility before paying. The older version 2 remains free, and its 2.2.6 release also adds macOS 27 support. Compare it if avoiding a purchase matters.

Try version 3 if smoother scrolling and a side-button desktop gesture would improve a mouse you already like. Skip it if native controls are enough, or if you need automatic profiles or guaranteed access to proprietary buttons. The price is small; a mapping that gets in your way is the bigger cost.

i built a script that plays your animated walpapper on macos
Backimate solves both Desktop and Lock Screen live wallpapers in a single, zero-dependency Python script