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Apps designed for the Mac often don't receive as much attention as apps made for iOS devices, so we have a series here at MacRumors that's designed to highlight useful and interesting Mac apps that are worth checking out and potentially investing in.

This month's picks include apps for sharing files, organizing web apps, monitoring internet traffic, fixing repeating keys on a broken MacBook keyboard, and quickly pairing your AirPods to your Mac. Many of the apps we're highlighting this month were chosen by our MacRumors forum members.



[*]CloudApp (Free) - CloudApp is a handy app that lets you share files, screenshots, videos, screen recordings, and more, via the cloud. You can drag a file into CloudApp and it'll be uploaded to the cloud and copied to your clipboard so you can paste the file into Slack, email, Messages, or elsewhere. You can annotate screenshots and files, making it a great way to communicate when collaborative editing is needed. CloudApp is free, but premium tiers with additional features are available starting at $10/month or $8/month on an annual plan.
[*]Little Snitch ($45) - Little Snitch monitors all of the traffic on your Mac so you can see what apps are sending data, and where. It basically makes all of your Internet connections visible and gives you control over them, letting you approve or restrict what's being sent from your Mac. There's a world map so you can see where connections are being made, and there are modes for getting instant notifications or letting it run in the background.
[*]Stack (Free) - Stack is a Mac app that's sort of an internet launchpad for web apps, describing itself as an "internet OS." It houses all the websites you might want to keep tabs on like Facebook, Messenger, Gmail, Slack, and more, keeping them in one convenient place. You can organize your different apps into categories, and the app provides unified notifications so you don't miss anything.
[*]Unshaky (Free) - Unshaky is not an Apple-sanctioned app, and that's because it's meant to fix a major Apple problem - the faulty MacBook Pro keyboard. Unshaky is designed for people who have keys where the letters repeat, as it's able to detect the extra presses and eliminate them. We haven't tried this app ourselves because we don't have a keyboard with repeating letters, but it has positive reviews as a temporary fix from those who are having issues. If you have a repeating key you'll need to get a repair from Apple, but this can help while you wait.
[*]AirBuddy ($5) - AirBuddy is a Mac app for the AirPods. It lets you pair your AirPods to your Mac the same way you do on your iPhone - just by opening up the AirPods case next to your Mac and then clicking. It's super simple, but if you use your AirPods with your Mac often, it's invaluable. A Batteries Notification Center widget on Mac displays AirPods battery life, charging case battery life, and the battery life of your Mac. The AirBuddy app works with Macs that support Bluetooth LE, which is all modern machines.

If you have a favorite must-have Mac app that we haven't highlighted yet, let us know in the comments, and we might feature it in a future video. Many of this month's app picks came directly from recommendations from our forum members, and it's these recommendations that have helped make this series useful.

For more of our Mac app picks, make sure to check out our Mac app archives.

Article Link: Five Mac Apps Worth Checking Out - April 2019
 

yurc

macrumors 6502a
Aug 12, 2016
826
997
inside your DSDT
Recently was ditched Little Snitch with Radio Silence.

Not as powerful as Little Snitch but it fulfill my needs to block chrome-google related auto updates.
 

ackmondual

macrumors 68020
Dec 23, 2014
2,244
1,027
U.S.A., Earth
The fact that the Unshaky App is even a THING reflects very badly on Apple. Just... wow.
Sounds like this may end up being similar to that 3rd party utility for iPhone to remove blue colors during night times, prior to sleeping. The company could only release it on jail broken phones, since there was no way to push it through the App Store. Apple ended up taking that idea and putting it into a future model of the iPhone.

Struggling to see the point of Stack
It aggregates all the notifications from those sites, and more? I'm actually also asking, b/c I'm not quite sure either.
 

Pupi

macrumors 6502
Apr 12, 2015
389
721
May I ask how is AirBuddy so invaluable if by default connecting AirPods to the Mac is as simple as clicking the volume button and selecting them? It's 2 clicks. I understand AirBuddy is *one click* but if I understand it right it is also opening the case by the Mac and pressing connect before putting them in your ears, which makes it useless for switching devices on the fly when already have AirPods in your ears. In any case, seems pointless to me.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
32,127
44,318
In the middle of several books.
May I ask how is AirBuddy so invaluable if by default connecting AirPods to the Mac is as simple as clicking the volume button and selecting them? It's 2 clicks. I understand AirBuddy is *one click* but if I understand it right it is also opening the case by the Mac and pressing connect before putting them in your ears, which makes it useless for switching devices on the fly when already have AirPods in your ears. In any case, seems pointless to me.
If we follow that line of reasoning, Apple's default method of syncing for the iPhone would be rather pointless. As noted above, AirBuddy does for the Mac what Apple does with iOS. Nothing magical or life changing. it is an attempt to be subtle and provide seamless integration to the Mac. I think AirBuddy achieves the intended goal.
 
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Populus

macrumors 68040
Aug 24, 2012
3,267
4,412
Spain, Europe
I don't quite see the utility of AirBuddy, when we can use the Bluetooth icon on the menu bar.

I mean, seriously, if I can pair my new H1 chip powered AirPods second gen, with an OLD MacBook Pro from 2010 (with macOS High Sierra) through Bluetooth 2.1, you can pair easily and seamlessly any AirPods with any mac running Mojave. I don't see the need of another app, when the Bluetooth menu already gives us more information about the status and battery of each earbud.
 
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Tech198

macrumors P6
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,151
Australia, Perth
I can't remember if MR already did Little Snitch.. But it's worth mentioning again anyway. Its a good app.

I'd rather trust myself for outbound requests than a program, type model I forced myself into :p

I guess whichever way , it works.
 
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4jasontv

Suspended
Jul 31, 2011
6,272
7,541
If we follow that line of reasoning, Apple's default method of syncing for the iPhone would be rather pointless. As noted above, AirBuddy does for the Mac what Apple does with iOS. Nothing magical or life changing. it is an attempt to be subtle and provide seamless integration to the Mac. I think AirBuddy achieves the intended goal.

I thought the default method for using AirPods was to pair it with one Apple device and it syncs across your iOS and Mac devices. I don’t have to mess with my case when I want to use AirPods on my Mac. This app feels like an extra step in the process.
 

Silmaril

macrumors newbie
Apr 10, 2019
1
0
I prefer TripMode over Little Snitch.
IMHO, Little Snitch is to complicated for regular user. TripMode is easy to use and more than five times cheaper.
 

MEJHarrison

macrumors 68000
Feb 2, 2009
1,522
2,723
I'm getting my first pair of AirPods as soon as they ship them to me. I'll see how burdensome they are with my Mac (can't be worse than my current pair). But I might checkout AirBuddy.
 

GtrDude

macrumors 6502a
Apr 17, 2011
736
930
Is there something wrong with saying that Little Snitch is a firewall program?
I noticed it's never simply described as a firewall.
 
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