The new touch screen MacBooks are going get a Dynamic Island (according rumors), I think more people will become interested in apps that bring a similar experience to existing Macbooks. I’ve tried several, and here’s my take

BoringNotch
A great free option. It covers the basics well, and for many people, that’s probably all they need

Droppy
I honestly don’t get the hype. To me, it feels overloaded with features I’d rarely use. I want an app that fits into macOS, and this feels like an attempt to squeeze an entire operating system into the notch

I’m also not a fan of how heavily it seems to borrow from other Mac apps. Much of it feels derivative, and the overall presentation gives me an AI generated impression rather than a distinctive identity. That’s my impression, not a claim about how it was actually built

I also have questions about extension security. If Droplets execute Swift code inside the main app’s process and inherit its permissions, what protects users from an untrusted extension accessing sensitive capabilities? I haven’t independently verified the implementation, so I’d like to see clear documentation about isolation and permissions before drawing conclusions

DynamicLake
What I value most is the balance between simplicity and useful features. The plugin marketplace also gives developers and power users room to extend and customize the app around their own workflows

Alcove
A great minimalist option. If you want a focused set of features and a simple experience, it’s worth considering

NotchNook
I noticed it’s receiving updates again and the price has come down. It doesn’t quite fit my workflow, but I can see why others enjoy it

My personal picks:

• Best free option: Boring Notch
• Best overall for my workflow: DynamicLake
• Best minimalist option: Alcove
• An alternative workflow: NotchNook

Those are the ones I’ve tried. If you’ve used others, I’d love to hear your thoughts

Hey!

I'm back with another update. Thanks as always for all your feedback!

macUSB is a free and open-source native Mac app for creating bootable USB installers for macOS, Linux, and Windows. It can also download macOS installers directly from Apple's servers, including older releases.

Some users have called it “Rufus for Mac”. I find that very flattering, and it actually sums up the idea behind macUSB pretty well.

v2.6 is mainly focused on improvements. Among other changes, SD card support has been added, and minimum storage capacity requirements are now calculated based on the actual installer size, instead of always requiring at least 16 GB. Support for creating installers on selected volumes has also been extended to OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks. Additionally, diagnostic logs from previous sessions can now be exported, and all logs have been standardized and are now written in English.

PROBLEM

Creating bootable USB installers on a Mac can still be a pain. On Apple Silicon Macs, creating installation media for Catalina and older macOS releases can fail because of architecture differences and code signing issues.

Windows installers are not much easier to prepare, since macOS does not have a native Rufus equivalent and usually requires additional tools or manual workarounds.

macUSB originally started as a way to create bootable media for older macOS releases on Apple Silicon. It now also supports Windows and Linux media.

COMPARISON

Mist is excellent for downloading macOS installers, while macUSB also focuses on creating bootable installation media, including Catalina and older releases on Apple Silicon.

balenaEtcher is great for writing raw images, especially Linux ones, but it does not create macOS or Windows installers.

Rufus is an excellent tool, but it is only available on Windows. Its approach was one of the inspirations for macUSB, which brings a similar experience to the Mac.

PRICE

macUSB is free and open source.

• Repository
• Download
• Website

Hey r/macapps 👋 I'm Antoniel, I make Ganella and Pasly.

Problem

I was always opening apps just to check something quick. What song is this, when's my next meeting, where's that tab, did the build finish. The Dock sits there all day and only shows icons, so I made one that shows a bit more.

Ganella replaces the Dock. Your apps stay where they always were, and the ones you want can turn into small live widgets.

Widgets:

• Spotify and Music: what's playing, play/pause, skip and seek. Spotify also has volume, shuffle and repeat
• Safari and Chrome: search your open tabs and jump to one. Chrome shows your downloads too
• Calendar: today or the whole week, and you can add or edit events from there
• Xcode: pick the scheme, build, run, stop and see the build progress
• Claude Code and ChatGPT: shows when it's working and when it needs you
• Terminal, iTerm2 and Ghostty: your windows and what's running in each one
• Notes, Reminders and Mail: write a note, a reminder or start an email without opening the app
• System Settings: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and sound
• Clock (has a stopwatch), Calculator, Finder, Outlook and Codex too

If you don't want widgets everywhere, Option-click one and it's a normal icon again. You can keep it as a regular Dock and turn on only the ones you use.

Other things it does:

• Volume on external monitors. macOS won't let you change the volume of HDMI or DisplayPort speakers, Ganella does it over DDC so your volume keys work with them (Apple silicon only)
• Clipboard history with search and pins. Click an item and it pastes in the app you were in. All local and encrypted
• A little popup when you change the volume or connect a Bluetooth device, with the battery %
• Maximized windows don't go under the Dock
• Imports your current Dock the first time you open it
• Any side of the screen, different per monitor, vertical works fine
• 4 styles: Ganella, Tonal, Contrast and macOS (same glass as the real Dock on macOS 26)
• You can hide the macOS Dock or keep both. Quit Ganella and the original is back
• It's light. Idle it uses around 1 to 2% of one core on my M2 and WindowServer barely moves

Comparison

What's different in Ganella: in the others, widgets are mostly separate tiles you add to the Dock (clock, weather, stats). In Ganella the app's own icon becomes the widget and works with that app. You search your Safari or Chrome tabs, build and run in Xcode, see when Claude Code is waiting for you, write a reminder, all from the icon. It also controls the volume of external monitors over DDC, and it's the cheapest of the paid ones.

Pricing

• 7 day free trial, everything unlocked
• $9.99 once (launch price), 2 Macs, free updates, 14 day refund
• Code reddit20 gives 20% off for the first 10 people
• macOS 14+. Signed and notarized, not on the App Store
• https://ganella.app

Transparency

• Antoniel Mariano, https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonielmariano
• My other app, Pasly: https://pasly.app
• contact@ganella.app
• Privacy Policy: https://ganella.app/privacy
• Terms: https://ganella.app/terms
• No account, no ads. The app only talks to my server for the trial and license
• Permissions are all optional and only asked for when a widget needs them (Calendar, Automation for Music/Safari and so on, Accessibility for windows and pasting)

Which apps would you want as widgets? Deezer, Tidal and YouTube Music are already on the list.

Hi r/macapps,

I'm Rohit from ScaleNinja Software, the developer of MacVisor (Mac Virtualization Platform), DeltaSnap (APFS Snapshot Manager), DriveSync (Google Drive Backup/Sync), Noject (Disk Ejection Protector) and DeltaSync (Backup/Folder Sync).

MacVisor 27.2 is our first GA release after a public beta, and we'd love your feedback.

Download and try it free: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/

Docs: https://scaleninja.com/docs/macvisor/

Launch Blog: MacVisor: run your Mac like a virtualization host

Requirement: macOS 27 on Apple Silicon and others documented.

Transparency:

• Company profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scaleninja/
• Support: https://scaleninja.com/support/
• Apple Developer Team ID: VXNWQ9H93X
• Privacy: https://scaleninja.com/privacy/
• Terms: https://scaleninja.com/terms/
• We have been working in open source infrastructure and Apache CloudStack since 2014, and are now focused on niche virtualization and infrastructure software: https://scaleninja.com/about/

# Problem

Running VMs on an Apple Silicon Mac usually means one of two things:

• A subscription for a polished tool
• An afternoon of setup with a free one (finding the right image, clicking through installers, creating accounts, adding SSH keys, installing guest tools and drivers, then wiring up networking).

Do that for every new VM, and again when one breaks, and it adds up.

Then you want a VM to keep running after you close the app, or on a headless Mac mini, or under a script, and most desktop tools stop there.

MacVisor aims to bring the best out of the box seamless setup and integration you've seen on Mac, as already experienced by some of our early adopters: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/#testimonials

What MacVisor does differently: Its Architecture

Built like a hypervisor, not just an app: An always-on background service owns the VMs. Each VM runs in its own isolated process, so VMs keep running when you close the window, and one crashing doesn't take down the others. For more details: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/#architecture

Three operational modes:

• Use the GUI for desktop virtualization
• Use the `mvz` CLI for CI and lab automation
• Use as headless virtualization host for server Mac minis and Mac Studios

... with auto-start at login and high availability per VM. Refer: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/#modes

Guest OS Support: Seamless and automatic guest setup, natively on Apple's own Virtualization framework:

• Linux: Out of the box support for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Rocky, AlmaLinux, Oracle Linux, CentOS Stream, openSUSE and Alpine from the official Linux vendor distro published cloud images. You get your account, your SSH keys and the guest agent, plus Docker, Podman or k3s if you want them. Ready in a couple of minutes, or tick Install Ubuntu Desktop for a GNOME desktop. (and bring your Linux iso)
• macOS: installed and set up with no Setup Assistant to click through for macOS 27. (supported macOS 27, 26, 15, 14, or bring your ipsw)
• Windows 11 on ARM (Tech Preview): installed unattended from Microsoft's ISO in about 10 minutes, with drivers, Remote Desktop and sound. Probably, a world-first to run Windows 11 on ARM natively on Virtualization.framework.
• FreeBSD (experimental) and appliances like pfSense-based, OPNsense or OpenWrt.

Refer more at: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/#guests

Storage: Supports live snapshots (with memory), disk-only snapshots, linked clones, templates and export/import. Also back up a running VM by exporting a snapshot. The VM keeps running. (Based on feedback/asked by macadmins)

Several advancements in storage support, including linked-clones, ASIF disks & layers, seamless and automatic shared folders, multiple storage location, APFS file cloning, USB storage passthrough and warm migration of VMs with disks across storage locations.

Networking: You'd normally need a server for:

• NAT, bridged, and your own custom networks (shared or host-only), with DHCP, DNS and fixed addresses.
• Network segmentation/isolation with VLANs and Port forwards for homelabs, SMBs and Enterprises use-cases.
• Firewall per network: enforced on the host Mac with pf, so you can build an isolated lab or put a router VM in front of others.
• Also supports FreeBSD and appliances to run as virtualized routers, load-balancers and virtual network function (VNF). We also did a PoC by building an ARM64 + FreeBSD & pfSense-based Firewall+Router distro that works on MacVisor: https://github.com/yadvlabs/armsense

Probably, a world-first virtualization platform to bring host firewall, VLANs and network appliances for Macs.

More at: https://scaleninja.com/docs/macvisor/networking/

Seamless guest integration:

• `mvz shell` and `mvz exec` into any VM.
• Clipboard sharing, drag-n-drop file transfers and port tunnels.
• Clean shutdowns and restarts through the guest agent.
• Live guest info: addresses, disks and more.

AI Sandboxes & MCP: disposable AI sandboxes, and letting your AI agent use the VMs you open to it over MCP. You connect and use AI models running locally on host Mac or one on the cloud. Refer more: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/#ai-sandboxes

More at: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/#features and https://scaleninja.com/docs/macvisor/overview/

Privacy: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/#privacy

# Comparison

The following are all good tools for different people and most users:

• Parallels Desktop: very polished, and broader 3D support on Windows. It's subscription-first (Standard $99.99/yr, Pro $119.99/yr, Business $149.99/yr) and one-time is upwards of $199. MacVisor 27 is $59 one-time, and adds per-network firewalls, VLANs and an always-on background service.
• VMware Fusion: free. It doesn't run macOS guests on Apple Silicon, and doesn't set up cloud images for you.
• UTM: free and open source, with QEMU for other CPU architectures, which MacVisor doesn't do. Guests are mostly set up by hand.
• Tart, VirtualBuddy etc.: great for macOS CI and macOS guests. MacVisor covers Linux, Windows and FreeBSD too, with a full GUI and networking.

MacVisor aims to compete more with Parallels Business and Enterprise class products, and attempts to fill the gap of the missing "Proxmox", or "vSphere ESXi", or "KVM" or "Hyper-V" for macOS.

Built for Mac as Infrastructure, MacVisor is targetted for professionals, developers, creators, power users and for server Macs and homelabs, and for SMBs and Enterprises.

More detailed comparisons: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/vs/

# Price

• Free 30-day trial: every feature, no sign-up, no credit-card and no email required.
• Fair after the trial: your existing VMs keep working. A licence is only needed to add new VMs (create, clone, import).
• MacVisor 27 Pro: $59 one-time per Mac, with every 27.x update. Launch promo: $10 off using code "MVZ10". (with 14-day money-back guarantee)

There are also Business ($79/Mac/year) and Enterprise (quote based) options that offer premium and SLA backed support, training, customisation, design & deployment help.

More details: https://scaleninja.com/docs/macvisor/pricing/

Does it pay for itself? Yes, in most cases within days to a few weeks. Setting up one Linux, macOS or Windows VM by hand typically costs 30 to 60 minutes of hands-on time; with MacVisor it's a couple of minutes. There's a small calculator on the site to check with your own numbers: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/#roi

Download and try it free: https://scaleninja.com/macvisor/

Docs: https://scaleninja.com/docs/macvisor/

Requirements: macOS 27 on Apple Silicon. Supported in 11 languages.

I'm around in the comments for questions, feature requests and bug reports. Thanks for reading!

Hey r/macapps, I'm the developer of SteamBlur.

Problem

You blur a face to protect someone. A lot of quick face-blur tools are websites though, so step one is uploading that person's face to a server you know nothing about. Doing it by hand in a video editor works, but it gets slow once there are more than a couple of faces.

SteamBlur does the whole job on your Mac:

- Drop in a photo or a video and the faces are found right away, using Apple's Vision framework (built into macOS, so there's no model to download). Your photos and videos never leave your Mac.

- Hide them with a blur, a pixel mosaic, or one of 32 emoji.

- Leave someone visible. Click their face in a photo, or pick them from the list of people a video scan finds, and everyone else stays masked.

- In video, each mask follows its person and is smoothed, so it doesn't flicker off when someone turns their head. The original audio is kept, and there's no limit on video length.

- Preview before you save. Photos update live; for video you get 20 masked frames from across the clip plus a quick 480p render to scrub through.

Comparison

- deface is free and open source, a command-line tool that blurs faces in photos and video automatically. If you're happy in Terminal, it's a great option. SteamBlur gives you a window instead of a command line, lets you click a person to keep them unblurred, and keeps the audio (deface drops it by default).

Pricing

- $29.99 one-time

- It's also part of the getapps.cafe membership if you want other apps from the site (currently 128 apps included): $3.99/mo for 1 device or $7.99/mo for up to 5 ($1.99/mo or $3.99/mo billed yearly), with a 7-day trial.

Link: https://getapps.cafe/app/steamblur

Privacy

- Contact: [contact@getapps.cafe](mailto:contact@getapps.cafe)

- Privacy Policy: https://getapps.cafe/privacy

- Terms: https://getapps.cafe/terms

Built and notarized by GetApps, LLC · 34 Brier Ave, Wilmington
Company profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/getapps-cafe

I'm the developer of AutoShelf. It's a Mac app that watches your folders and organizes files automatically: you pick the conditions and the actions. Version 2.6 is out on the App Store.

Problem:

Since 2.3, the feedback I kept getting was the same: "moving a file to a folder is great, but my folders still turn into a junk drawer." Invoices piled up in one Invoices folder. ZIPs from clients sat unpacked in Downloads. Rules also fired on half-finished downloads. 2.6 is about the second step: where a file goes inside the destination, and what happens to it after it lands.

👉 NEW: Sort into subfolders

Builds the folder path for you from tokens: %kind%, %source%, dates like %date:yyyy-MM%, and any rename token. Use / to nest folders, and missing folders get created. Examples:

Invoices → Documents/Invoices/2026-10

Screenshots → Screenshots/2026

Downloads by site → Downloads/github.com

👉 NEW actions: Unarchive, Color label, Finder comment, Show notification

They chain with everything else. One rule I actually use: a ZIP lands in Downloads → it's unarchived → filed into this month's folder → gets a purple label → I get a notification saying where it went.

👉 Smarter conditions

Match several extensions or names at once: jpg, png, heic

"Filename matches" with a regular expression

File sizes in KB, MB or GB (500 KB, 1.5 GB)

👉 Subfolders and safe downloads

Rules can now cover every subfolder, or only the subfolders you pick. Files that are still downloading (.crdownload, .part, etc.) or still being copied are left alone until they finish.

👉 Also since 2.3

Multiple watch folders per rule

Pop-out rule editor window

Rule Trash: deleted rules can be restored

Run Shell Script / Run AppleScript actions (your own scripts from the Application Scripts folder; sandbox-safe)

Templates and the Activity log are now free for everyone

👉 MCP / CLI

The MCP server built into the app now covers rules, templates, zones and the rule trash. There's also preview_rule, which is a dry run: it shows which files a rule would match before anything moves. I typed "file my invoices by month" into Claude Code, and it created a sort-into-subfolder rule, previewed it, and that was it. Write access is still behind a toggle that's off by default.

Comparison:

Hazel is the obvious one and still the most powerful. But most people I talk to bought it and never set up a rule. AutoShelf trades some of that depth for simplicity: templates get you running in seconds, there's a live preview of what a rule matches, it's native SwiftUI, and it has MCP + CLI so you can drive it from an AI assistant. Simple sorters like Declutter or Folder Tidy sort by type, but they don't chain actions, don't build subfolder paths, and can't be scripted.

Pricing:

Free: 1 rule, all templates, Activity log, subfolder sorting and the new 2.6 actions.

Pro: $19.99. It unlocks unlimited rules, multi-condition rules, multiple watch folders, content/EXIF conditions, conversions, Photos import, scripts, confirmation and delay, and import/export.

Heads up: Pro goes to $29.99 on November 25. Here's why, so it doesn't come out of nowhere:

The app has grown. $19.99 was set when AutoShelf was mostly "move this file to that folder." Since then, 2.4 through 2.6 added subfolder sorting, unarchiving, multiple watch folders, scripts, the rule trash and full MCP control, and the price never moved.

It's just me building this. The price has to cover ongoing work, like keeping up with new macOS versions, fixing the edge cases you report and shipping updates like this one.

If you already own Pro, nothing changes. Everything you've unlocked stays unlocked. If you've been on the fence, $19.99 holds until November 25.

Website: https://useautoshelf.com/
Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/autoshelf/id6762361021

Happy to answer anything, and feature requests are welcome.

Hi r/macapps, I’m the developer of Peek.

I built it for those quick checks that keep pulling you between apps and browser tabs.

Hold your hotkey to peek. Release to get back to what you were doing.

Your feeds, schedule, stats. All in one place.

Peek focuses on bringing websites and widgets together in a customizable overlay you can show by holding a hotkey, even over full-screen apps.

A few things Peek can do:

- Bring together websites, local HTML & built-in widgets (Calendar, Reminders, Timezone, with more coming)
- Work over full-screen apps
- Hide unwanted page elements
- Auto-refresh pages
- Remember scroll position
- Auto dark mode (experimental)
- Web extensions (experimental)

And more :)

Peek is a one-time purchase, currently free for a limited time ($0). No subscription.

Official website: https://peek.zone
Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/peek-see-what-matters-quick/id6746101534?mt=12

lmk what you’d put into your peek zone :)

Hey I'm Able, I make Bytesweep.

Problem Most Mac cleaners feel like black boxes that delete files blindly, collect telemetry, or trap you in subscriptions. On the other hand, traditional Finder replacements try to reinvent the wheel by forcing custom keybindings and complex split layouts that break your muscle memory.

So I built Bytesweep 3.0. It works like Finder out of the box, shows you exactly what is filling your drive across 23 built-in tools, and lets you manage, clean, and transfer files safely without leaving your workflow.

What it does:

1. Watch and control your computer

• System monitor: Live CPU, memory, disk, network, GPU, battery, and temperature readings in your menu bar or notch with 30 days of history and misbehaving app alerts.
• Fan control (Mac only): View every thermal sensor and app heating up your Mac, with manual fan control that safely reverts to automatic.
• Notch panel: Live drop-down under the notch featuring system readings, now playing controls, a file shelf, clipboard history, calendar, timers, and world clocks.
• Sound and Bluetooth: Set and save per-app volume levels, track microphone usage, and monitor Bluetooth battery levels.
• Battery health & charge limit: Detailed battery condition, cycle count, and Apple silicon charge limits (50% to 95%).
• Sleep and wake (Mac only): Logs night wakes, wake causes, battery drain during sleep, and includes Travel Mode for MacBooks in bags.

2. Get space back

• Storage analyzer: Inspect every folder and file in treemap, sunburst, flame graph, and bubble views down to the file level.
• Junk cleaner: Safely removes caches, logs, temp files, update leftovers, and downloaded cloud copies with safety ratings and a 7-day undo.
• Space Guard: Automatically cleans safe temporary files when free disk space falls below your set limit (with a 1-day undo).
• Disk Check-up: Calculates how long until your disk is full and how many extra days or weeks a cleanup buys you.
• Duplicate finder: Identifies byte-for-byte duplicate files, similar photos, duplicate videos, and duplicate folders.
• Developer tools: Tracks running dev servers (with project path & port), Docker containers, and build caches (node_modules, Xcode DerivedData, pip, Gradle, local AI models).
• Drive catalog & health: Indexes external drives so you can search them while disconnected, with SMART failure warnings.

3. Find and sort your files

• Library & picture search: Search files with plain language (e.g. "pdfs from last month") or image descriptions (e.g. "pink shirt"). Runs 100% locally on-device.
• Organize a folder: Preview an automated plan to organize messy folders (like Downloads) by file kind, date, or location before moving anything. Undo puts everything back.

4. Your phone and other computers

• Send to your devices: Send files, folders, links, or notes across Macs, iPhones, Android phones, Windows, and Linux over local Wi-Fi with end-to-end encryption.
• Phone management on the big screen: Browse, view, and clean duplicate photos and videos on your phone directly from your computer.

5. Keep apps in order

• App uninstaller: Completely removes applications along with their hidden support files, containers, preferences, and caches.
• Startup & login items: Control apps, launch agents, and background services that start at boot.

6. Recover and protect

• 7-day undo for everything (⌘Z): Revert file moves, renames, trashes, or cleanups anytime within 7 days—even after restarting your Mac.
• File shredder: Securely erases sensitive files using multi-pass overwrites so they cannot be recovered.

Comparison

What's different in Bytesweep: Instead of buying and running 5 separate single-purpose apps for cleaning, monitoring, folder organization, file management, and device transfers, Bytesweep puts all 23 tools in one window. It keeps every deletion reversible for 7 days across app restarts, operates completely offline with zero telemetry, and doesn't charge subscriptions.

Pricing

• 3-day free trial, everything unlocked (no credit card)
• $29.99 once per computer (lifetime license), 3-day money-back guarantee
• macOS 11.0+ (Mac and Windows supported). Signed and notarized by Apple
• https://bytesweep.app

Transparency

• Able
• [support@bytesweep.app](mailto:support@bytesweep.app)
• Privacy Policy: https://bytesweep.app/privacy
• No accounts, no ads, no telemetry. Zero bytes of your file names, search queries, or activity ever leave your computer.
• "Send to Devices" transfers stay on your local Wi-Fi network with end-to-end encryption.
• Full Disk Access is optional and only requested if you manage protected system directories.

Which feature or cache cleaner would you use most on your Mac?

Hi r/macapps!

I'm Batuhan, and I made Calyvento. It's a native Mac menu bar app that spreads short exercise and eye breaks across your workday.

The Problem

I have the beginnings of a herniated disc in my neck. The exercises my physiotherapist gave me worked, but only when I did them. When the pain went away, I stopped. Then it came back. Alarms didn't help either. They always went off in the middle of deep focus, so I just dismissed them.

I also thought an evening workout would fix a day of sitting. Then I read the research, and it turns out it doesn't really work that way. Short movement breaks throughout the day are actually better than a single 30-minute walk. In a NIOSH study of 51 workers, those given 20 extra minutes of short breaks a day typed faster and got the same amount done. That research is the backbone of Calyvento. Every number on the site is listed with its source study here: https://calyvento.com/science/

So, working alongside a physiotherapist and a certified trainer, I built Calyvento to help break up long hours of sitting without breaking your focus.

How it Works

• Real breaks count: Get up for a coffee and the timer resets automatically.
• Smart meeting detection: During a meeting, it waits. It checks which app holds the microphone, so a dictation app or a game doesn't count as a meeting.
• Presence aware: Break invitations only show up while you're at your Mac. Walk away, and the invitation goes away too.
• Non-intrusive notifications: When it's time, soft waves rise slowly from the edge of the screen and grow a little more noticeable until you respond. Clicks pass through them, so you can keep working. Ignore them, and nothing turns red.
• Idle time usage: With an AI app in front and no typing for a bit, you're probably waiting for an answer. Calyvento shows your next exercise so you can use that minute productively. You can add your own apps, like Terminal or VS Code, in Settings.

The Exercises

• A physiotherapist designed them for desk work: neck, shoulders, lower back, wrists, legs and eyes.
• You follow along with a video. Voice cues keep time with it, in 14 languages.
• Tell it what bothers you, and it picks exercises that fit. Add a health condition and anything it rules out is hidden.
• Each exercise has its own weekly schedule, so you get a short list for the day.

The day view shows where your time goes. In the morning, breaks I thought were five minutes turned out to be 30 or 40. In the afternoon I'd work for hours without getting up. Seeing that helped me plan my day better. Work areas show how your time splits across jobs or projects.

Privacy & Download Size

• No account required: Your activity and health profile stay strictly on your Mac. It sends anonymous usage counts and crash reports through TelemetryDeck (which you can turn off in Settings › Privacy).
• Heads up: It's a 575 MB download. All videos and audio cues are contained inside the app so nothing streams.

Comparison

• LookAway: A great app. It also waits during meetings and has blink/posture reminders. Its main focus is resting eyes and stepping away. Calyvento provides personalized video & voice exercises for specific trouble spots. LookAway is $4.99/mo, $14.99/yr, or $49.99 lifetime.
• Stretchly: Free and open source (cross-platform). A great pick if you just want a timer with text-based stretch ideas.

Pricing

• Free Version (Forever): Break invitations, eye/breathing breaks, 5 swappable exercises per week, 2 ready-made sets, 1 work area, and 30-day history.
• Calyvento Plus: All 36 exercises, 13 sets, full history, and unlimited work areas. $3.99/month or $29.99/year(with Family Sharing).

🎁 1 Year of Plus Free for r/macapps (First 500 users)

Code: MACAPPS

How to redeem:

1. Click the Calyvento icon in the menu bar and select Calyvento Plus.
2. Click "Redeem code" at the bottom and enter MACAPPS. (You can also redeem via Settings › General › Subscription).

Note: It will not auto-renew. When the year ends, you'll revert to the free version with no charge. (If you are currently in a 7-day free trial, wait for it to end or apply it directly via App Store redeem functionality).

Links:

• 📱 Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6817082384
• 🌐 Website: https://calyvento.com

This is the initial release, and I'm actively working on adding more exercises and trainers. I’d love to hear your feedback on the timing algorithms and how natural the voice/language cues sound on your end. I’ll be hanging out in the comments! 🙌

Hi r/macapps, I'm the developer of Domino Image Viewer. I built it around a workflow I use often: open a folder, compare a few candidates, inspect the details, and choose the keepers.

Watch the original 30-second demo

Problem

When several edits or near-identical shots look good at full size, switching between windows makes it hard to compare the same edge, texture or expression.

In Domino, you can:

• Open local folders directly, without importing images into a catalog.
• Compare two to six images side by side, with synchronized zoom and pan.
• Inspect two versions in Difference View, or check pixels and regional RGB/HSV/luminance statistics.
• View HDR and RAW images, then use star ratings, rating filters and saved review sessions to narrow down the set.

The original 30-second demo shows the browsing, synchronized comparison, HDR display and review workflow. It was recorded for an earlier version; the current App Store release is 1.7.5. Since my September post, I've also added more color tools, Liquify and image compression.

Comparison

Compared with Apple Preview, Domino keeps several candidates together while you inspect details, with synchronized zoom/pan, ratings and review tools in the same workspace.

Compared with Lightroom Classic, Domino works directly with files in folders without requiring a catalog import. Lightroom Classic offers a much broader photo-development and management workflow; Domino focuses on browsing, comparing and selecting local images.

Pricing

Free to download; full access is paid. U.S. options include $19.99 lifetime (one-time purchase) or $6.99 every three months. A monthly subscription is also available in the app. Eligible new quarterly subscribers get a 7-day free trial, then automatic renewal unless canceled. Local prices and offer eligibility are shown by the App Store. Requires macOS 14 or later.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6760245734

Website and demos: https://dominoimg.com/

When you compare similar shots or retouching versions, which detail usually decides your final choice?

Who I am

I’m Leo Enin, the developer of Axiom and founder of Nuare Studio Inc. My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leopardsnow

Axiom website: https://aiaxiom.app

Problem

I went from Spotlight to Alfred to Raycast. I liked that keyboard-first way of using my Mac, but I couldn’t find a product that combined the launcher experience I wanted with my own AI models and a powerful AI agent for work. ChatGPT’s harness is not bad, but solving problems on my computer through it is too much. It’s way too bloated, and Claude is way too strict.

I also build things with AI, so I wanted the most capable builder I could access from the keyboard. Something that could work with files and apps, research, write code, create tools, remember context, and keep working toward a goal. And make it right. If I ask for the news, for example, it should make sure the news is properly researched, with the information presented in the right form and supported by credible sources. It should self-improve and be able to build its own skills, tools, and commands for the launcher.

So I built Axiom, mostly for myself, but I’d love it if you used it too.

What Axiom does

It starts with a launcher: search apps and files, calculate, or run a command. Press Enter or Tab, and what you typed goes to the agent. Press Shift-Enter and it'll search that in the browser.

The agent can work with files, supported apps, your screen and the web. It can write code, build reusable tools, create commands, and run automate tasks. You can connect your own AI providers (BYOK) or use local models on supported Macs (a few ways to do that: ollama, LM Studio or download).

The philosophy is simple: you should be able to ask your launcher to build the feature you need, then use it. There's no point to build different commands when everyone is individual: ask your software to build itself and improve - it should be able to do that. I want as little as possible standing between the idea and the working result.

Here’s an example from building Axiom. I needed to hide everything on my desktop to record a video, so I asked it to build a small app that toggles desktop icons. It did. Then I thought it would be more useful as a command inside Axiom. I asked it to add the toggle, and now I have my own command that does the same thing and can be bound to a keyboard shortcut. That’s the thing I wanted: idea, ask, use it, improve it.

Along the way, I also stopped needing several separate utilities. Keeping my Mac awake, dictation, and the file-shelf workflow I used Dropover for now live inside Axiom. It also includes clipboard history with text search inside images, notes, smart snippets and quicklinks.

Comparison

Raycast and Alfred are the obvious launcher comparisons. Both have great ecosystems of extensions and workflows. My reason for building Axiom: software should be adaptable, not predefined. Otherwise there will be Raycast v3 in a couple of years and so on. And it was also to bring my own models and an agent-driven workflow into that same launcher like experience.

For dictation and the file shelf, Wispr Flow and Dropover are examples of dedicated apps whose everyday functions I wanted in one place. Axiom covers those workflows, though I’m not claiming feature-for-feature parity with either. Caffeinate and other apps are just commands as well as other small apps - you can just describe what it needs to do and you have a new command in your launcher.

OpenClaw and Hermes are closer comparisons for the agent. OpenClaw felt too bloated for what I wanted, and I wanted stronger memory than I found in Hermes for my workflow. I’d rather you judge the results in the walkthrough and the app.

Pricing

- Free: the app, your own AI keys, local models on supported Macs (silicon).

- Optional Axiom Plus, US$15/month: (nothing paywalled and will not be) a hosted AI model for work (every day work, except heavy coding), ~600 minutes of cloud speech recognition, cloud voices, and real-time synchronization with up to 10 GB of encrypted sync.

- Optional AI credits: one-time purchases starting at US$5 plus tax. Purchased credits don’t expire.

Paid options are NOT necessary, effectively you can organize the same, it's a convenience only option.

Full pricing: https://www.aiaxiom.app/pricing

Demo

I recorded an eight-minute intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhC-w6C1Lqk showing both the agent and the launcher, but it's just a very brief surface.

TL;DR

Axiom is a free Mac launcher with a powerful AI agent, support for your own models (BYOK), and the ability to build tools and commands you ask for (a concept of self improving software). I built it for my own workflow and wanted to make it accessible to others.

Roadmaps:

- Mobile apps (coming soon)

- Windows support

(request more here: https://www.aiaxiom.app/ideas)

Try Axiom: https://aiaxiom.app

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Demo

I’m an indie developer, and I built TapCard to make switching between multiple Mac windows easier.

Problem

When working, I often have lots of windows open at the same time. Finding a specific browser window, document, or code editor can be frustrating, especially when windows overlap. Cmd + Tab helps switch between apps, but it isn’t always convenient when I need to find a particular window.

Comparison

AltTab lets you switch between windows using a keyboard shortcut and a window preview interface. Dropover provides a temporary shelf for collecting and moving files between apps.

TapCard takes a different approach, focusing on visual window switching directly along the edge of the Dock.

It turns your open windows into preview cards. Hover over a card to reveal the window, then click to bring it to the front.

When there are only a few windows, the cards stay neatly arranged. When there are many, they overlap like a deck of cards. Hovering dynamically expands the surrounding cards, making it easier to find the window you want.

TapCard also supports minimized windows and multiple displays, automatically following the Dock’s position.

Unlike a file staging shelf like Dropover, TapCard is designed specifically for finding and switching between windows. Compared with AltTab’s keyboard-driven workflow, TapCard offers a more visual, mouse-friendly way to select a specific window.

It’s a lightweight menu bar app with 0% idle CPU usage. Everything runs locally, and no window content or personal data is uploaded or transmitted.

Pricing

Completely free. No subscriptions, no in-app purchases, and no paid features.

[AppStore]

I’d love to hear your feedback, especially on the card animations and the overall window-switching experience.

Hey r/macapps 👋

I build Vehla, a single Mac app that replaces a lot of small utilities: command palette, clipboard history, window management, screenshots and recording, local AI, a dock, a notch, menu bar tidying and more. Version 9.0 just shipped, and I wanted to share what's new.

The thing I'm proudest of: memory

An "everything app" usually means a heavy one, so I spent this release on that. With everything running, Vehla now idles at around 180–300 MB. I've measured 176 MB on an M1 MacBook Air. and another user measured 131.4 MB on an M5 Macbook pro.

New features

- Doki (out of beta): a replacement dock with islands for apps, folders, stacks and widgets, window previews on hover, and every display supported
- Glide (out of beta): slide along a trackpad edge for volume or brightness, three- or four-finger clicks and swipes for actions, or draw a shape to run anything
- Launchpad is back: the classic full-screen app grid macOS 26 removed. Press Left ⌘ twice.
- Smart Reply: press a shortcut in Mail, Messages or Slack and it drafts a reply from the conversation on screen. It never sends anything itself.
- Teleprompter: follows your voice as you read, and is hidden from screen sharing and recordings
- Zoom & Draw: zoom into and annotate your screen while presenting
- Step-by-step guides from screen recordings: one picture and sentence per click, ready to paste into Notes or Word
- Gemma 4 Vision: local AI that can read your screenshots, fully on-device
- iCloud Sync, free for everyone, and Vehla for iPhone is in TestFlight beta
- Background sounds, AirPods battery and charging in the notch, a camera mirror before meetings, and plenty more

Smaller things people asked for

- Collapsible Settings sidebar, with setting descriptions behind an ⓘ to cut clutter
- Custom theme wallpapers now fill the whole window
- Saying "make a list" while dictating now just makes the list
- QuickGlass no longer pops up when you click the menu bar

Comparison

Vehla isn't trying to replace Alfred, Raycast, Magnet, Dropover, Amphetamine, Hidden Bar, or TextSniper individually.

The goal is to replace the collection.

If you're already using several of those utilities together, Vehla aims to bring much of that functionality into one native application with a consistent interface, while also adding built-in AI, notes, canvas, workflows, and local AI support.

Pricing : $29.99 USD lifetime. 7 day trial. Free updates. No subscription.

Privacy: local AI runs entirely on your Mac. iCloud Sync is end-to-end encrypted in your own private iCloud. Nothing is uploaded without you asking.

Happy to answer questions, and I'd love feedback, especially memory readings on your Mac (Settings › Memory shows a live breakdown).

Website: https://vehla.app/
Download: https://vehla.app/download
Docs: https://vehla.app/docs
Refund Policy: https://vehla.app/refunds.html
iOS Testflight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/G8peDyNY

Disclosure: I'm the developer. PastePlop is on the Mac App Store under a paid developer account, so I believe this is Tier 1.

Problem

Clipboard managers are a solved problem. Nothing in PastePlop is a new idea, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Every single feature below already exists in some other app.

My problem was that the features I wanted were scattered across several of them. One had the grid but not the categories. One had OCR but a cramped interface. Another had a menu bar accessory but no way to park a snippet on screen. So I built the one that has all of them with the UI, keyboard control, and details I wanted.

• A resizable grid, not a list. ⌘⇧V zooms a translucent grid over whatever you're in. A slider scales tiles from compact to comfortable.
• Saved categories. Drag a tile into a bucket for snippets, prompts, signatures, brand colors. ⌘1 is History, ⌘2 through ⌘9 are your categories.
• A floating palette (MiniPlop). An always on top tray of the clips you reach for constantly. It can also sit inline in the overlay, or drop down from the menu bar.
• Floating images and text snippets. Right click any tile and Float pops it into its own borderless resizable window. Two finger scroll fades it to 25% so a reference screenshot can sit over your work without blocking it.
• Multi-paste. Select several tiles, ⌘↩ pastes them all in sequence.
• Reverse paste. Same selection, pasted bottom to top. Useful more often than it sounds.
• Paste in whatever order you want. Tiles drag to reorder inside History, inside a category and inside MiniPlop, so you arrange the sequence first and then multi-paste it. You can also join a selection with a comma, comma plus space, or paragraph break instead of pasting them separately.
• OCR search. Screenshots are OCR'd locally with Vision, so searching a phrase you remember seeing finds the screenshot it was in. On device, no network, no key.
• OCR paste. Right click a screenshot and Paste as Text drops the recognized text instead of the image.
• Menu bar accessory. Left click for recent items or a custom list, right click for the standard menu. Or hide the icon entirely and live on the hotkey.
• A free iPhone and iPad companion. Turn sync on and your recent clips and your saved categories mirror through your own private iCloud database to a free companion app. Tap a tile to put it on your phone's clipboard. Search works there too, including the OCR text from screenshots. Off by default, and you pick what travels: text, images, categories, and recognized text in images are four separate switches.

Plus the usual: text, rich text, images, animated GIFs, files, and links with previews, hex colors as swatches, drag out to any app, drop onto Finder to get a real file, Pause Capturing and an ignored apps list for password managers.

Comparison

vs. Paste. Paste is very polished, and it still beats me on sync: it syncs between Macs, it's two way, and its iPhone app can capture what you copy on the phone. Where I think PastePlop wins is the overall feature set and UI and the price model. You get a scalable grid instead of a horizontal shelf, floating snippet windows you can park over your work, OCR search and OCR paste, reverse and joined multi-paste, and a one time price instead of a subscription.

vs. Maccy. Maccy is free, open source, and genuinely good at what it does, which is a fast keyboard list of recent text. If that's your whole need, use Maccy and keep your money. PastePlop is aimed at the case where your clipboard is full of screenshots and files rather than lines of text, and where you want to keep things permanently rather than just scroll back.

Version Differences

The Mac App Store build cannot paste for you. It's sandboxed, so it can't synthesize ⌘V into another app. Picking a tile copies it and you press ⌘V yourself. That also means no multi-paste and no reverse paste in the store build, though it can concatenate multiple items. The direct download and Setapp builds do the real paste, and they ask for Accessibility permission once in order to do it. Everything else (categories, MiniPlop, floats, search, OCR, drag and drop) is identical across all three. If multi-paste is why you're here, buy direct, not from the store.

Pricing & Availability

• Direct download, $10.00: https://bendansby.com/apps/pasteplop.html (notarized DMG, Sparkle auto updates, free trial)
• Setapp: https://setapp.com/apps/pasteplop (one time purchase through the Setapp Marketplace, not part of a Setapp membership)
• Mac App Store, $9.99: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pasteplop-clipboard-grid/id6767925726
• iPhone and iPad companion, free: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6811947598
• Bundles: it's in a $20 Mac App Store bundle and a $40 direct download bundle with 29 other apps: https://bendansby.com/bundles.html

I'm the developer. Analog TV Simulator is on the Mac App Store, and 3.0 is out today.

Problem

Most "retro" filters paint scanlines, blur and noise over a finished picture, so the result looks like a filter rather than an old TV. I wanted the faults to come from the same places they came from on real equipment. I also wanted to simulate as much as possible of the Analog TV era (running magnets across the tube, Pay TV scrambling, messing with the controls of the TV, etc.)

What it does

The app encodes your picture into an analogue signal and decodes it again on your Mac's GPU, through a camera tube, the broadcast standard (NTSC, PAL, SECAM and others), tape, the receiver and a CRT. Colour bleed, dot crawl, tape noise and ghosting come out of that signal path instead of being drawn on. Input can be a camera, a video, a photo or a live capture of part of your screen. Output goes to a file, NDI or Syphon, so it works as a live source in OBS too.

What's new in 3.0

This is the biggest single release ever. It incorporates tons of feedback from earlier posts to this sub and elsewhere. We went out and found even more vintage documentation to make this the highest fidelity signal-domain simulation I'm aware of.

- The picture engine was rebuilt against the published broadcast standards. Every standard is sharper, and PAL no longer shows a fine dot pattern.

- Tape formats each reach their own resolution, and pause and search noise come from a modelled FM tape channel. That's the bar across the paused shot in the video.

- SECAM was rebuilt to the ITU standard.

- Camera tubes are truer: lag now leaves brighter trails behind lights. The night tram in the video is a vidicon.

- Presets sit at the top of the sidebar, and loading one keeps your camera or video playing.

- Fixes: the Screen Capture selection box can be dragged again, a missing Screen Recording permission is now explained, and sound stays in step after pause or fast forward.

Comparison

- ntsc-rs: free, open source and very good. It models the NTSC and VHS chain in the signal domain and runs as a standalone app or a plugin for Premiere, After Effects and Resolve. If you only need NTSC VHS on a video file in your editor, it's a great choice. Analog TV Simulator also covers PAL, SECAM and the other world standards, camera tubes and the CRT itself, and it works live: a camera or part of your screen in, NDI or Syphon out to OBS.

- CRT shaders such as crt-royale: they model the screen (mask, scanlines, glow) on the finished picture. They're fast and great for games, but there's no signal underneath, so nothing changes when you switch standard or tape format.

- Others & Inspiration: The web site acknowledges other related projects that were sources of inspiration. https://analogtv.net/acknowledgements

Pricing

$9.99 one-time for life on the Mac App Store, no subscription, no account, no tracking. All processing performed on your device. Does not need an internet connection at all.

NDI input/output is an optional in-app purchase for $0.00 at the moment. Purchase it to have it with the app forever even if the price changes.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/analog-tv-simulator/id6761325301

The video is my own footage from Vienna, Budapest and Sydney, run through the app. Happy to answer questions about how any of it works.

I’m the developer. Screen OCR & Translate is a free Mac app for reading text you can see but can’t select, including text in videos, screenshots, scanned PDFs, and screen shares.

Problem

Some on-screen text can’t be selected, and it may be in a language I don’t read well. I use the app to:

• Copy text: Press Control-Option-C and drag over it. The text goes to the clipboard, with line breaks preserved.
• Translate text: Press Control-Option-D and drag over text you can’t select, or copy selectable text and press Control-Option-S. The translation appears in a small card beside the text.
• Translate subtitles: Press Control-Option-P and pin the subtitle area. A panel shows each new line in English while the video plays.

Text recognition and translation use Apple’s frameworks on your Mac. There’s no account, and nothing gets uploaded.

Comparison

macOS Live Text can copy or translate text in supported photos and apps. Screen OCR works on a selected area of the screen and can keep translating a pinned area as subtitles change. Apple’s Live Text guide (https://support.apple.com/en-il/guide/photos/pht6bc6bd5f5/mac)

DeepL for Mac offers screen capture translation and shortcuts for selected text. Screen OCR’s distinction is its pinned subtitle panel, which updates as the text changes; it also runs recognition and translation on-device. DeepL for Mac (https://www.deepl.com/en/macos-app)

Pricing

Free: $0, with no in-app purchases. Mac App Store (https://apps.apple.com/app/id6824170528)

Requires macOS 26.4 or later.

Problem

Hey everybody!

I built Copy Haste because clipboard managers keep one long list of copied items and quickly finding what you're looking for becomes a chore.

What it is:

A clipboard manager that sorts everything you copy into Text, Code, Links, Files, Media and Colors columns.

• Code: Code is detected on-device and syntax-highlighted.
• Color: Detects 20+ color formats such as RGB, HSL, LCH, Lab, Oklch, Oklab, CMYK, even UIColor, NSColor and SwiftUI Color(). Pastes back in any format.
• Files: You can copy one file, multiple files or a whole folder and the app keeps the selection as a single item.
• Media: Image, video and audio files are automatically added to the Media column. Paste or drop them wherever you need.
• Pins: Frequently used items can be pinned for quick pasting.
• No adult content or passwords: keeps sensitive items out of your history, including passwords from password managers, adult links and any URLs you exclude.
• Panel size: Column view, Tab view and Compact view make the app fit in every corner.
• Link cleaning: Strips tracking params (fbclid, utm_, gclid…) from copied links.
• List / Grid view: Switches between a compact list and a visual grid layout.

Comparison

• Maccy: free, one searchable list. Copy Haste groups by type.
• Paste: subscription. Copy Haste is a one-time purchase.

Pricing

30-day free trial.

$6.99 one-time. No subscription. No account required.

Up to 3 Macs, all future updates, 14-day refunds. Or, you can keep using a limited free tier.
Requires macOS 26.

https://www.copyhaste.app

Privacy

Privacy: https://www.copyhaste.app/privacy
Terms: https://www.copyhaste.app/terms

About me

Portfolio: https://www.pirosca.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelpi
Contact: [contact@copyhaste.app](mailto:contact@copyhaste.app)

Problem

My 256 GB MacBook Air kept running out of space, and macOS only ever said "System Data". Disk analysers show what's big right now, but I wanted to know what changed. When I checked, I had 10.7 GB free and 31 GB of app caches, mostly Chrome and Spotify. I cleared Spotify's cache and 890 MB of it was back within a week.

DiskFox keeps a history of your storage. Each scan is compared with the last, so instead of one big number you get dated changes with the likely cause:

- What Changed: "Xcode added 9.7 GB on Wednesday", "Steam updated No Man's Sky, +12 GB"

- Storage map: your disk coloured by what grew this week, not just by size. Click any block to break it down

- System Data, explained: backup snapshots, Spotlight, caches, Apple Intelligence and more, each with when it grew

- External drives: each drive gets its own map and history (new in 1.3)

- "Came back" alerts when something you cleaned returns

- Games one by one, Largest Files, real app sizes, exact duplicates, a menu-bar panel

Cleanup is deliberately slow: nothing moves without a review, everything goes to the Trash first, and there's a history with Put Back. No "clean everything" button.

Comparison

- DaisyDisk: the best map of what's big right now. DiskFox's map is coloured by what grew, and it keeps the history, so it can tell you when something changed and warn you when it comes back.

- CleanMyMac: does much more (malware, updates, optimisation) and is a subscription. DiskFox only does storage, has no one-click clean, and is a one-time purchase.

- GrandPerspective / OmniDiskSweeper: free and good for a one-off snapshot. If that's all you need, use them.

Pricing

$10.99 / £8.99 / €9.99 once, for 2 Macs. No subscription. 14-day free trial of every feature, no card needed. 14-day refund.

https://diskfox.app

About me and the app

- Krishan Assi, solo developer in the UK. LinkedIn: [your LinkedIn URL]

- Contact: [support@diskfox.app](mailto:support@diskfox.app)

- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishan-assi-b29420419/

- Privacy Policy: https://diskfox.app/privacy · Terms: https://diskfox.app/terms

- macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel. Signed with my Developer ID and notarised by Apple. Not on the Mac App Store because the sandbox would block most of ~/Library, which is where this storage lives

- Privacy: no account. A few anonymous usage counts (first open, first scan, whether it was used that day), never files or file names, and you can turn them off in Settings › General

- I used AI coding tools for a large share of the code. I designed it, chose every storage rule and what's safe to remove, and test it on my own Macs

I'd really like to hear what it gets wrong or doesn't recognise on your Mac.

Hey r/macapps!

We are excited to announce VirtualProg 2.18, introducing full support for Windows 11 ARM64 virtual machines alongside our existing macOS and Linux guest capabilities.

For those unfamiliar, VirtualProg is a native virtual machine manager for Apple Silicon Macs built directly on Apple’s Virtualization Framework. Version 2.18 brings deep Windows integration, 3D graphics acceleration, and rich guest management across desktop, mobile, and command-line interfaces.

🚀 What's New in VirtualProg 2.18

• Windows 11 ARM64 Support: Run Windows 11 natively alongside macOS with dynamic/fixed disks, automated VirtIO driver installation, and seamless setup.
• DirectX 12 Acceleration: Powered by Apple’s D3DMetal (Game Porting Toolkit) pipeline for 3D graphics performance and DirectX 12 support in Windows guests.
• Auto Resolution & Display: Real-time display resizing and resolution switching matching your Mac monitor.
• Bi-directional Clipboard: Seamless copy and paste of text, images & Files between macOS and Windows via VirtualProg integration.
• Full Virtualization Feature Set: Support for checkpoints, linked clones, live memory ballooning, and USB device passthrough.

Note: The only feature currently not available for Windows (when compared to what is provided in mac/linux) VMs is Serial Ports.

💡 PROBLEM

Traditional virtualization software often restricts VM administration to the host desktop machine while locking multi-device access behind costly annual subscriptions.

VirtualProg resolves this by providing built-in remote management capabilities (via a headless Web Dashboard, iOS app, and Android app) combined with a powerful command-line interface (vpvm (in wen, mac, ios & android). You get full control over your virtual environments whether sitting at your Mac or managing them remotely from a browser or phone.

⚖️ COMPARISON

💰 PRICING & LINKS

• Free Trial: A free trial version can be downloaded directly from the product page at makeprog.com.
• Mac App Store: The full version is available for a one-time purchase of $22.99 USD on the Mac App Store (No subscriptions). Download from AppStore
• Documentation: Check out the VirtualProg Windows Help Guide for detailed setup instructions.

We'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and test results in the comments below!

For context I was on WisprFlow for a long time and liked it a lot, but it's expensive so I eventually cancelled. MacOS Golden Gate supposedly has much better dictation but a) I'm on an M1 so don't get the newer version and b) I don't like how Mac dictation ends when you leave the app you started it in.

Anyway, after trying out a bunch of alternatives I landed on FluidVoice and I'm glad I did. It's free, open source, and works as well and as fast as WisprFlow, which is saying a lot.

Note: Apparently there's a scammer that appears higher in search results than the legit Fluid Voice does. I won't link their URL here, but be sure you're going to https://fluidvoice.com .

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with FluidVoice in any way, I just think more people should be aware of the free alternative.

rcmd is an app switcher built around the Right Command key. It's the first app that brought this idea of ⌘ Right Command+letter for instant app switching in 2021.

Instant app switching ⌘ rcmd + letter

This is the foundation of rcmd: I think of Mail, I press rcmd-M, it's instantly focused. It doesn't matter on what Space it is, if it's fullscreen or not, if it was minimized or hidden. The same key combo launches the app if it's not running.

Fuzzy launching ⌘ rcmd + type to search

If I want to launch Photos, I hold rcmd, type ph and it gets launched immediately. No need to Cmd-Space… wait for search bar… type… select… Enter… No need to pre-assign the key (although that remains a possibility, you can assign any combination of keys so it always launches or focuses the same app)

Fuzzy search inside windows ⌘ Cmd-Tab + type to search

I want to focus that browser window where I was reading about "iPhone Duo" but the window title doesn't have that in the name. I press Cmd-Tab, and while holding ⌘ Command I start typing duo and the text inside the window is matched.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Lenses ⌥ ralt + letters

This is the new thing worth talking about though. People have been asking for ability to search and focus browser tabs for years.

The rcmd Lenses system does that, and takes the idea a bit further by making it extensible.

A lens is a list of those things that rcmd can search and focus inside an app:

• browser tabs in Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Arc
• terminal panes in Terminal, iTerm, Ghostty, kitty, tmux, zellij, herdr
• code projects that open in VS Code, Cursor, Zed, Sublime Text, Nova or Xcode
• System Settings panes, Downloads, GitHub repos, Reminders lists, Obsidian vaults

Everything is 2-3 keys away. I care about this part the most, I launch and focus some things so often that I don't want to pick things from an interface to get to them. Some of mine:

• ralt-sen focuses the Sentry tab with my app error reports, in whatever window or Space it is
• ralt-KD focuses the kitty pane with my dev server
• ralt-pj lists my code projects, pjcl opens Clop in VS Code
• ralt-ssh lists my servers, sshn connects to the NAS

Make a lens for anything with Claude or Codex

Coding agents are common nowadays so rcmd comes with an MCP server that can write a lens from a single one-line prompt. For example:

write an rcmd lens for the hosts in my ~/.ssh/config, with the prefix ssh

The agent reads rcmd's docs on lenses, writes and tests the script, then installs the lens, and it shows up in the switcher right away. It can be anything really:

• cmux panes
• Finder folders in ~/Invoices
• Figma projects
• Obsidian notes from one vault

If agents aren't your thing, you can still do it manually. Each lens is a folder in ~/.config/rcmd/lenses with a lens.yaml and usually a small script that lists the rows.

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Favorites ⌥ ralt - =

Pressing ⌥ ralt - = on the current focused window, or while a row is highlighted in the switcher, will save it as a favorite.

This allows you to use the same ⌥ ralt - letter to instantly open specific web pages, PDFs, folders, projects, terminal tabs with specific commands.

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Comparison with app switchers:

The Right Command idea caught on, and there are a few good apps built around it now. Each one is good at its own thing, it's hard to say one is best because the feature lines are blurier each day:

• Dory: like rcmd, but more mouse and UI centric. rcmd is more keyboard centric and focuses on making the UI unnecessary through use and learning. Very similar otherwise. $9.99 on the App Store
• Sxitch: this one started as an rcmd replacement, but seems to have pivoted into Cmd-Tab focus nowadays with radial UI support and animations. Uses "branching" for resolving same-letter app conflicts and app-window picking, while rcmd uses "fuzzy search". Free, with a $10 Pro that adds window picking
• LaunchPalette: the same Right Command shortcuts, can be nested (rcmd-M-A for Mail, rcmd-M-E for Messages) and can even run scripts. A bit more manual work than rcmd for the assignments, and no search, but solid otherwise.
• Applight: from the same developer, it reorders the apps by guessing the next one from the app you're in (code editor → terminal), so the likely pick is already on top. rcmd goes the other way and keeps each app on the same letter, so it can be deterministic.
• Leader Key: more of a general shortcut tree than an app switcher, a leader shortcut followed by keys that open apps, URLs or run commands, all set up by hand. rcmd doesn't need any setup for apps, but it also doesn't try to do everything else. Free and open source, the predecessor of Tuna

Comparison with generic launchers:

The biggest difference between rcmd and most launchers is that rcmd is laser focused on apps and windows, while launchers can do a lot more generic actions but are clunkier for app switching.

• Raycast: tabs, terminal sessions and projects come from separate extensions, so it's one command per app (Search Tabs, Search Kitty Tabs etc.) and then the search. Aliases can only be set on commands, so you can't give one tab an alias.
• Alfred: same idea through workflows, like sftabs for Safari tabs. Script Filters (Powerpack) are the closest thing to a lens.
• Spotlight on macOS 26 and 27: it has quick keys now, but only for actions and Shortcuts.
• Contexts and LaunchBar: they learn which result an abbreviation should pick, which is great, but Contexts only switches windows, and LaunchBar has tabs only through its Safari Tabs action.
• Tuna: learns aliases and has an agent skill for configuring it, so it's the closest one in spirit.

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Pricing: Free for basic features, €15 for Pro features

App starts with a 14-day trial identical to a Pro licensed version. After 14 days, the app can be used indefinitely in Free mode where Pro features are disabled.

Pro license is a one-time purchase for up to 5 Macs.

• Pro: Lenses, Favorites, the window switcher, fuzzy search, Stages, instant Space switching
• Free: app focusing and launching by letter, app and window cycling, Space switching (with animation)

Link: https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd

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Limitations:

• a lens can only list what the app exposes through AppleScript, a CLI or its files, so some things might not be searchable or focusable
• some apps are very slow to respond when listing their contents, so the lens might need to run less often to keep things responsive
• the Lens UI can be a bit confusing while I gather feedback and adjust it to meet user expectations, this might take a few updates to become intuitive enough out of the box
• ... to be updated based on questions in the comments

I make Mac apps on my own, from Hove. Verso, Skein, Lede and Nought are mine, and so is this one.

The first early build had everything in it. Testers said it was overwhelming. They were right, which was annoying. Most builds since have been me taking things away.

It's a niche app - if you are not planning to write a book, screenplay, short story, you probably won't need it but you might know someone in the niche space that likes to try new things, let them know.

Problem

A book is not one document. It's scenes, chapters, notes on people and places, research, and an editor who only uses Word. That usually lives in four apps and a folder called "book FINAL v2".

Verso Manuscript keeps it in one book. Write in scenes or as one long page, move things around as cards, keep research on a board beside the page. It brings in Scrivener 3 and Word projects without touching the originals, and makes the Word copy, PDF, EPUB and print file at the end.

Native, 68 MB, macOS 14 or later. Each scene is a Markdown file, so your words open without my app. No account, no tracking.

Comparison

Scrivener is very good. If it works for you, keep it. Honestly.

The difference: a new book starts nearly empty and tools turn up when it needs them. Your editor's tracked changes come back against your current text, even if you kept writing (still being checked). Readers without Word get a private link that opens in a browser.

The AI is optional and works like a librarian, not a co-author. Ask where something happens and it shows you the passages. It checks dates, names and ages, and researches with sources you can check. It's off until you connect your own provider or a local model, and you see exactly what gets sent before it goes.

It never writes your prose. There is a deliberately no "Write" button.

Pricing

Writing, Materials and search will stay free. Review and Make Ready will be paid, price not decided yet. For now everything is free during early access

.

Download: versomanuscript.app (notarised)

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/4p7QVaVG

Tell me what's wrong with it. The last lot did, and it got better.

Hey everyone,

I've been building Resurf for almost a year now. My very first users came from this community, and a lot of your feedback has shaped what it is today. Really appreciate all the support!

Resurf started as a small widget for saving references and has grown into a personal library for images, bookmarks, notes, PDFs, videos, and more.

Earlier this year, I rewrote the entire app from Electron to native Swift. Since then, I've been focusing on performance, better ways to organize things, and making everything you collect more useful.

What's new:

• Similar Vibe: Open any capture and discover related things across your library, whether they're images, notes, bookmarks, PDFs, or videos.
• Semantic Search: Find things using natural language, like "that calm blue landing page", without remembering exact titles or keywords. Both features run locally on your Mac using an embedding model.
• AI Actions: Define your own instructions for how AI should process new captures. Extract specific context, generate tags, and automatically organize things into Spaces based on your preferences.
• Other improvements: Faster library scrolling, better peek experience, bulk capture, and lots of smaller UI refinements.

Why I'm building this:

As a design engineer, I've always collected inspiration and interesting things from around the web. But the problem is it's scattered across different apps. I always wanted personal library where i can quickly capture/organize things based on my taste.

I also think personal taste and the references we collect will become even more valuable in a world where AI makes creating things easier.

Resurf supports MCP, so your AI tools can access your library and use your saved references, research, and ideas as context. Instead of starting from scratch, they can work with things you've already collected.

Think of it as a personal library for you and your agents.

Comparison

Apps like Eagle, mymind, Raindrop, and Fabric are all great at different things. Eagle focuses on visual asset management, Raindrop on bookmarks, while mymind and Fabric offer more automated ways to collect and organize information.

I'm taking a slightly different approach with Resurf. It's a native, local-first library for all kinds of references, with private iCloud sync, flexible organization, and local AI features. You own your files, decide how things are organized, and can make your library accessible to other tools through MCP.

A few things about Resurf:

• Native Mac, iPhone, and iPad apps
• Local-first, with private iCloud sync
• Spaces, Areas, and tags for organizing
• Quick capture from anywhere on Mac
• One-time purchase, no subscription

Pricing: One-time purchase for the Mac app. Current plans:

• 2-year update plan: $39.
• Lifetime updates: $79.
• iPhone and iPad: free and unlimited.

Students: Email [support@resurf.so](mailto:support@resurf.so) from your school address for a discount.

Website: https://resurf.so

Changelog: resurf.so/changelogs

There's still a lot to improve. I'm shipping updates regularly and continuing to polish the experience.

Would love to hear what you think about these new features and what you'd like to see next.

Thanks again for all the support!

Hi [r/macapps](r/macapps), I'm Sam, a solo developer and business owner from the Netherlands!

I used CleanShot X for years. And it's a good app, but it never quite fit how I work. Features I kept wishing for weren't there, and on my (5yo) Mac it often felt slow at times. So I started building the screenshot app I actually wanted. I've used it every day since, and now it's ready for other people: Shotbolt.

The problem

My screenshots kept turning into small jobs: blur an email address, fix a typo before sharing, copy a table out of a dashboard, explain a bug in five steps. Every one of those meant a second app or doing it by hand.

What it does that I couldn't find anywhere else

• Retype the text inside a screenshot
• Screenshot or record a single element: hover a button, card or table row and click
• Translate a screenshot into another language
• Hide sensitive information automatically
• Turn your clicks into a step-by-step guide
• Copy a table from a screenshot as real rows and columns
• Search the text in all your screenshots, locally on your Mac
• Auto-captions in recordings, generated on-device

Plus the everyday stuff

Area, window, full screen and scrolling capture, a full annotation editor, text and QR capture, pins, recording and GIFs with an editor, and Shortcuts actions.

Compared to CleanShot X

Shotbolt imports your CleanShot shortcuts, export folder and after-capture actions on first launch, so switching takes a minute. The screenshot side is free, and Pro is a one-time purchase.

Pricing

• Free, forever: area, window and full-screen capture, the annotation editor, text capture (OCR, QR codes), pins and searchable History.
• Pro: $9.99 once (launch price until Dec 31, then $15), or $17.49 for 2 Macs. Adds recording and GIFs, scrolling capture, element capture, automatic redaction, the Apple Intelligence features and Shortcuts actions.
• Every install starts with 7 days of Pro, then drops to Free. Nothing you made is lost.
• 14-day refund, no questions asked. No subscription.

Good to know

• Requires macOS 26 or later
• No analytics, no crash reporting. The only network request is the license check.
• Signed and notarized

Download here: shotbolt.app

50 free years of Pro

Comment with the screenshot app you use now and the one thing that annoys you about it. I'll DM the first 50 people a key for a free year of Pro. After the year it simply becomes Free. All I ask in return is your honest feedback.

ALL 50 PROMO CODES HAVE BEEN DISTRIBUTED. You can still hit me up in DM for a limited time discount.

Contact: [support@shotbolt.app](mailto:support@shotbolt.app) Privacy LinkedIn Terms