10 of the Best macOS and iOS Apps of 2019

[Baletin]

Dear friends, I was quite happy, but LittleSnitch can cause real frustration: I found that VIBER app cannot be terminated simply because it is invisible to Activity Monitor. Little Snitch shows 17 out-connections by Viber, while there is no even 1 process for Viber in Activity Monitor. It looks very suspicious: why the friendly app will hide itself so deeply from the user - I could find its connections only via LittleSnitch.
Could you share any thoughts about that? I consider erasing Viber forever.
UPD it looks like LittleSnitch shows historical connections as well current, causing confusion... False alarm I think;

 

[adrianlondon]

TextExpander was fine until a) the developer made it into subscription-ware, and b) Apple added text expansion to OSX and iOS.

As is typical for Apple stuff (e.g. keychain) it only works on certain apps. Apple's text expansion not only doesn't sync well between devices (this has never worked well - way before iOS13 and Catalina) but doesn't work in Firefox, as an example.

 

[macintoshmac]

Little Snitch, a must have, I totally agree.

Carbon Copy Cloner is still a must have IMHO if you ever expect to rely on your backups. You can have a fully bootable backup drive so if your stuff gets destroyed you are up and going right away. Power users might want to look at Clonezilla for getting your Mac install image cloned to other machines (across an office, for example).

Cyberduck is a great FTP / SFTP transfer app (free).

Then the others: VLC for movies, KeePassX or MacPass for password storage, Brave Browser for better browsing, "Better Blocker" browser extension for Safari.

If you have an Android device then Handshaker is pretty easy to use for transferring data to and fro. Not sure if Handshaker phones home(!)

I am currently looking for something better for Android file transfer, which is probably the good ol' Android File Transfer.

If you are handling/importing your old DVD library or CD's before they die of scratches, XLD and Handbrake are really good. Thanks to them I have rescued some old and rare recordings.

The UnArchiver is really good for opening compressed files from other OS's.

Currently I think Parallels marginally beats VMware Fusion for Windows emulation, but VMware has more relaxed licensing so it's hard to decide right now. Each iteration costs money, and you tend to need to fork out a new license fee when MacOS updates, so don't buy these unless you need them.

SoundFlower lets you redirect your audio output to a file which can be quite handy at times, Audacity is the best free editing tool for audio recordings. More advanced sound re-routing requires something like LoopBack.

I recommend IINA for media playback, especially on Macs with P3 displays. IINA is display-aware. Regarding file transfer, not sure of your precise requirements, but AirDroid is something I use for my sporadic requirements. It is free and works over your WiFi connection.

 

[yurc]

if you are looking for a free and open source alternatives for Little Snitch, you can use LuLu and MenuMeter

edit: Lulu will stop apps calling home and MenuMeter will provide a network stat (and more if you want), so as a combo it's a great alternative to Little Snitch. both are up to date and maintained.

Thanks for pointing out LuLu. Seems interesting. Before I discover LuLu I am still using Radio Silence until now, 9 bucks.

Completely opposite with Little Snitch it was utterly simple, lightweight and no horrendous asking popup. Lulu looks pretty detailed like Little Snitch when displaying network traffic information, pretty interest with this one.

 

[Baletin]

Do not install Little Snitch - it is annoying app which is very difficult to uninstall. The is no option to QUIT the app at all, you cannot remove it from the memory in any way.
Stay away.

 

[omniasoft]

Better Touch Tool and Bartender are my two go to apps on Mac.

Yes yes yes. ?
[automerge]1577900996[/automerge]

I forgot to mention that the Hindsight time tracker I mentioned is free until the New Year.

‎Hindsight - Time Tracker

‎Hindsight: Time, Tracked and Visualized Rediscover the past and optimize your future with Hindsight. This intuitive app keeps you informed about the time that has elapsed since life's events. Whether they're daily routines or once-in-a-lifetime milestones, Hindsight puts the answers to "How...

apps.apple.com

Love love love Hindsight. Allows me to easily track medications and anything really. The ONLY thing I wish they did was release a macOS version of the app (possibly a Catalyst version?) so that we can access our recordings while on a Mac and not just on an iOS device.

 

[omniasoft]

Over time I've come up with a list of apps I commonly rely on that help in both macOS and iOS. I'll share here for others.

macOS Apps

1. Bartender - https://www.macbartender.com/
   An absolute must (should be core macOS functionality IMO) for organizing menu bar. Already mentioned by someone else.
   
   
2. BetterTouchTool - https://folivora.ai/
   Another absolute must. I originally bought so that when I toggled mission control it would auto-show the thumbs of my various desktops at the top, but have used it for so much more.
   
   
3. Deliveries - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/deliveries/id924726344?mt=12
   The best delivery tracking app hands down. macOS and iOS versions work seamlessly between all your Apple devices.
   
   
4. Copied - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/copied/id1026349850?mt=12
   Clipboard software that works across Apple devices. The current macOS version is a little buggy on the newest macOS, but hoping they update it. Best clipboard app I've used, though.
   
   
5. Sip - https://sipapp.io/
   Nice color picker app.
   
   
6. System Monitor - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/system-monitor/id423368786?mt=12
   Add various system stats to menu bar.
   
   
7. LittleIpsum - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/littleipsum/id405772121?mt=12
   Adds a menu bar item for auto-generating quick snippets of lorem ipsum and saving to the clipboard. Not useful for everyone, but those who need these types of things quick it's clutch.
   
   
8. AirDisplay - https://avatron.com/applications/air-display/
   If you don't have an iPad that supports Sidecar then this is your best friend. Other option would be Duet.
   
   
9. mSecure - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/msecure-password-manager/id1157750250?mt=12
   Password vault across devices. I have used 1Password and LastPass and like this the best since you pay once (like 1Password used to be) and now recurring subscriptions. Lacks only a Chrome extension which their tech support says is coming in the future.
   
   
10. New File Menu - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/new-file-menu/id1064959555?mt=12
    Right click in a folder to see a context menu that allows you to quickly and easily create new types of files. I wanted to create new .txt files easily within a folder and this handles the job very well with other bells/whistles too.
    
    
11. New Terminal Here - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/new-terminal-here/id1067646949?mt=12
    Easily fire open a Terminal window from any folder. So so so so so useful!

iOS Apps

1. mSecure - See above.
   
   
2. Copied - See above.
   
   
3. Deliveries - See above.
   
   
4. AirDisplay - See above.
   
   
5. Opener - https://www.opener.link/
   Until iOS supports designated default apps to open things there's this app which allows me to easily fire up webpages from links in Chrome (as opposed to Safari) on my iPhone and iPad.
   
   
6. WSH LST - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wsh-lst/id1323785754
   Since Apple in its infinite wisdom nixed the ability to add apps to a wishlist within the app store this is the next best thing.
   
   
7. Annotable - https://moke.com/annotable/
   An absolute must for any iOS device. It is what Apple's Markup should be. If you need to highlight, redact, signal, point, edit photos it is for you.
   
   
8. Prompt 2 - https://panic.com/prompt/
   SSH client for iOS devices. Super handy.
   
   
9. Coda (now called Code Editor) - https://panic.com/code-editor/
   Great on-the-go coding interface that also has file transfer capabilities.

 

[MisterSavage]

Love love love Hindsight. Allows me to easily track medications and anything really.

I had a medical emergency and the nurse was so impressed that I could tell her exactly when I had taken what medications. Like you I use it for other tracking as well.

 

[prometheus12]

Screentray is missing one rather basic feature though. The ability to print the captured screenshot. I hope they add it soon.

 

[prometheus12]

Over time I've come up with a list of apps I commonly rely on that help in both macOS and iOS. I'll share here for others.


Opener - https://www.opener.link/
Until iOS supports designated default apps to open things there's this app which allows me to easily fire up webpages from links in Chrome (as opposed to Safari) on my iPhone and iPad.

Love this app, thanks!