Five Mac Apps Worth Checking Out - February 2021

[Postbox]

$40 for PostBox on Mac only seems excessive, in my opinion. That business model creates user fragmentation forcing the user to use another email program for iOS, iPad and watch.

Postbox on the desktop can work in concert with the apps on your mobile device. For more information, please see:

Mobile Email and Postbox

Here at Postbox, we all simply use the default apps on mobile, which we feel is good enough for a consumption device. All of the heavy lifting occurs on the desktop, and that's where we place our focus.

 

[Postbox]

I've been heavily using Postbox for over 6 years. And while overall, I like it, there are some stability issues I live with:

• Sometimes, the number of unread messages next to the inbox doesn't match the tag on the dock icon. Twisting open the inbox triangle and clicking on a specific account inbox syncs them.
• Sometimes, when you delete a message, you see a blank message remaining in the inbox. The deleted message is sort of in limbo. Restarting the app fixes it for a while. I'm not sure if there's a chance the message gets lost. IE, can't be undeleted or recovered.
• Search results often has a banner at the top saying it's showing the top results and to click to view all results. Once in a while, I don't notice this message. I'd prefer it always show full results.
• When upgrading to major new versions of Postbox, they don't keep your email whitelist (for embedded images). So you get to re-whitelist everything you whitelisted before. Obviously, they didn't prioritize this development work during new version programming.

So a good email client, with some stability issues that have been around for years. Would be nice to fix these before adding new features.

For items 1 and 2, you might have a corruption. Try creating a new profile:

• Start Postbox, then go to Preferences > General and select the checkbox for Show Profile Manager at startup.
• Restart Postbox, and it will enter into the Profile Manager. Create a new profile, give it a name, then start Postbox with that profile.
• When you reach the Migration Assistant, select the option to Migrate from Postbox 6 or later, then select your previous profile.

 

[the velour fog]

Would like to see more of these recommendation threads, they’re a good resource. Haven’t got as much time to spend hunting for apps as I used to. Here are my most used non-Apple apps:

Unclutter

Unclutter for Mac

A new space on your desktop to store and organize your Files, Notes and Clipboard data.

unclutterapp.com

Quick file access, clipboard history and notes. It’s a gesture-activated drawer that slides out from the top of the screen, where you can hastily shove stuff you want to be readily accessible, or quickly jot something down. Elegant and nicely executed.


Desktop Curtain

Desktop Curtain

Hides the clutter on your desktop.

manytricks.com

Hides all the files on your messy desktop when you need to share your screen for a presentation, or take screenshots without distracting stuff in the background. Brilliant.


Myki

MYKI: Offline Password Manager and 2FA Authenticator

Own your Digital Identity by securely storing Passwords and 2FA offline, across your devices. Available on Mac, PC, Linux, iOS and Android.

myki.com

Cross-platform offline password manager that can sync locally between devices (using relay servers?). Base product is free but I think I paid a few dollars for some nice-to-have bonus features. Was really pleased to find it after I stopped using 1Password (didn’t want to move to a subscription). Surprised nobody mentioned Myki as an alternative to LastPass when everyone was looking to jump ship last week. Am I missing something? Maybe it’s not as secure as others? The Safari extension was a bit flaky when I first started using it but since I got a Mac with touch ID it’s been rock solid.


TypeIt4Me

TypeIt4Me. The original text expander for Mac. Reborn.

Check out TypeIt4Me, the original text expander for Mac. Buy version 7 from the Mac App Store for an affordable one-time fee. No subscription.

ettoresoftware.store

Cheap(ish) and cheerful text expansion app with no subscription. It would probably suit anyone with relatively simple needs who doesn’t like paying for TextExpander monthly and / or who can’t deal with Typinator’s user interface.


Dark mode for Safari

Dark Mode for Safari

Absolute godsend extension for night time browsing that turns bright webpages black automatically when dark mode is on. It kinds of inverts colours to their opposites, so sometimes pictures are inadvertently rendered like photo negatives, but generally it works really well. My only niggling reservation about it is that when you enable it Safari warns that the extension can view all your web traffic and potentially see passwords / credit card info etc. It hasn’t cleared out my bank account yet, but maybe it’s just biding its time?


BeaTunes

beaTunes

Smart software for library management, music analysis, and playlist creation. For Windows and macOS.

www.beatunes.com

Great for creating music playlists based on key, tempo and mood. Sometimes the analysis is a bit off and suggested pairings can be a little weird, but it’s still very handy for exercise playlists and whatnot. If you have a large library it’s great for surfacing stuff that might otherwise languish in obscurity. Library sync and analysis can be reeeeeally slow, though, so it’s best done overnight.

 

[steve333]

I'd recommend AdGuard. It is customizable and stable. I have set it and forgotten I have it

I downloaded it from that link instead of using the app store, is this OK?
The only option I see now in Safari preferences is to turn on Adguard Assistant, do you have that enabled? safari warns about it being able to read browsing history, passwords, etc.
Thanks

 

[Apple_Robert]

Postbox on the desktop can work in concert with the apps on your mobile device. For more information, please see:

Mobile Email and Postbox

Here at Postbox, we all simply use the default apps on mobile, which we feel is good enough for a consumption device. All of the heavy lifting occurs on the desktop, and that's where we place our focus.

In my opinion, you offered up a very weak reply to a valid point. A lot of people rely on their iPad and iPhone to help run their business. Both devices are more than capable of handling numerous email tasks a day. As such, a business owner shouldn't have to wait until he or she get homes or goes to the office to take care of email with Postbox.

You said Postbox staff use the default apps because they are capable of handling email etc. Using that line of thinking, the same can be said of sticking with the stock app on the Mac.

Your weak reply failed to give a real reason why one should spend $40 on your app and continue using the stock apps on IOS. In fact, your reply is counterproductive to your business model and it essentially told me you are too lazy to offer a valid iOS platform. In the future, you should stop to consider what you are really conveying before hitting the post button. You lost a sale with me and probably many others who read your reply.

 

[Apple_Robert]

The best app by far that I’ve had on all my macs going back more than 10yrs has been Little Snitch. If you value your privacy do take a look. You’ll be surprised how chatty some apps are.

Hope it keeps working with future changes to OSX.

I agree. Little Snitch is an excellent app and I think more people here need to use it.

 

[RockTheGlobe]

N/A

 

[RockTheGlobe]

Here are some tips we think will help:

As I mentioned, I've already taken most of the steps as outlined on your website. Postbox still continues to consume a ton of memory. And most of the steps entail hobbling how I use my email (e.g.: deleting older messages, many of which I need or want to save; unsubscribing from folders even though I use many of them), so I fail to see why I should disable functionality when Apple Mail and other applications seem to handle these tasks just fine without eating all of my available RAM.

 

[jlc1978]

I don't know about the rest of the apps, but Postbox is great. It's a lot like Apple Mail but done right. I much prefer it over Mail. Tried it out many years ago and never looked back.

I'm tryimg Postbox and while it's got some great features I have several issues with it:

1. Smart Mailboxes don't always seem to properly capture incoming mail
2. You can't see the first few lines of an email like in maail; or at leaste I can't figure out how to do that
3. Tech support is $8 a call on top of the license, and the documentation is pretty sparse.

 

[lexvo]

3. Tech support is $8 a call on top of the license, and the documentation is pretty sparse.

I don't think their documentation is sparse. They have a help center, a getting started guide, a knowledge base and video tutorials. As a matter of fact, I found a lot of very useful information on their website including stuff about security and anti-tracking. This wealth of information convinced me to buy a license when I was in my trial period.

As for support, they have a page for reporting bugs (which is a bit hard to find): https://www.postbox-inc.com/product/report-an-issue

 

[star-affinity]

@Postbox

Will there ever be dark contextual menus in Postbox when using a dark theme?

 

[jlc1978]

I don't think their documentation is sparse. They have a help center, a getting started guide, a knowledge base and video tutorials. As a matter of fact, I found a lot of very useful information on their website including stuff about security and anti-tracking. This wealth of information convinced me to buy a license when I was in my trial period.

However, searhing for specifc details ofthe results in help pages unrelated to the question and none taht answer it. For exampe, I've tried to fiind out id smart fiders can be maadee to stay visible all the time in the folder list. Not sure if they can or if that is a missing feature. Nor is there aw ay to reorder folders.

As for support, they have a page for reporting bugs (which is a bit hard to find): https://www.postbox-inc.com/product/report-an-issue

But bugs reports don't answer user questions. if something isn't working, for example one of my smart folders does not recovginze email address to include in teh folder, while other so. Not sure if it is a bug or user error.

I'd like to really love Postbox, but their lack of support makes it not really a good mail program, IMHO.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Jumpdesktop - Excellent remote desktop client that is very fast and easy to use on the Mac, iPad or iPhone, or Windows. The developers are also very responsive. I can remote restart my Macs as well as remote print and watching video with sound that goes to your remote viewing device, amongst many other features.

Strongbox - Excellent password manager that rivals 1Password without subscription, unless you want to support the developer and or get a few extra perks that aren't really necessary for comfortable use of the app.

Downie 4 - Great video downloading app (supports YouTube and a plethora of other sites) with strong developer support.

iMazing - Great backup program (with other bells and whistles) that puts iTunes backups to shame.

News Explorer - Excellent RSS reader with fast syncing across devices.

Alfred - Productivity app for helping you accomplish system tasks (and more) on your Mac. I consider this a must have Mac app for beginners to Mac veterans.

 

[steve333]

Has anyone used CleanMyMacX? I downloaded it and bought it in the hopes it would fix the bookmark menu beachball. It didn't but my Mini feels a little faster overall. It deleted 4 times the amount of crap that Disk Doctor did and also checks for malware