Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Another year has passed, and it’s time to update my app defaults. A lot has happened in the world since Andrew, Martin, and Jason of Hemispheric Views listed their defaults for the first time. I’ve tried to ditch big‑tech companies and move my data and services to more open platforms, some of them self‑hosted. Indicated are unchanged entries (🔒) and updated entries (✨). I still use the various categories as written by Andrew:
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
PSA: Right now is a good time to buy Indie Software for macOS and iOS. There are lists online with hundreds of discounted apps, e.g. indieappsales.com or github and Lou has a Roundup of his AppAddict Reviews on Sale. But it’s even easier than this. Just buy all the apps you don’t own yet from the Editor’s Choice bundle. You’re welcome ;-)
Monday, November 10, 2025
Run local LLMs like gpt-oss, Qwen3, Gemma3, DeepSeek and many more on your computer, privately and for free. LM Studio is the app I now use for running local LLMs.1 In LM Studio I mainly use gemma‑3‑12b, mostly for alt‑text generation, and the gpt‑oss‑20b model. Both run fine on my Mac equipped with 32 GB of RAM. Screenshot Homepage LM Studio (2025-11-09) lmstudio.ai/ I switched from Ollama because LM Studio is much more versatile, and I don’t get their “sign‑up, log‑in, and run remote LLMs” options for a software that was designed for offline usage.
Saturday, September 20, 2025
Modern file explorer for Obsidian Full keyboard navigation. Dual-pane layout. Mobile optimized. Notebook Navigator is a truly great plugin for one of my favorite apps, Obsidian. Screenshot Homepage Notebook Navigator (2025-09-20) notebooknavigator.com/
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Manage your macOS windows like a pro "Swift Shift lets you move/resize windows with your mouse without searching for tiny arrows or window titles. It's the fastest way to organize your workspace to your liking." - just press and hold (custom) modifier keys and move your windows around. Gone are the days looking for a tiny free spot to grab a title bar 🤩. Screenshot Swift Shift Homepage (2025-06-03) www.
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
The ultimate toolbox for Photos on the Mac If you need to split, combine, merge or somehow manipulate your Apple Photos.app library, PowerPhotos is the way to go. Screenshot PowerPhotos Homepage (08.05.2025) www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/
Monday, May 12, 2025
Create highly customizable countdown timer overlays with ease using Countdown Timer Pro, a completely free macOS app. There are several other apps like Countdown Timer Pro available for macOS, but it is very well executed and free. What more could one wish for? Mac App Store Screenshot Countdown Timer Pro (08.05.2025) Mac App Store Countdown Timer Pro
Friday, May 9, 2025
A wonderful player for your M4B/M4A/MP3 based audiobooks. In addition to an eBook Reader I was looking for a dedicated audiobook player. I think, I've found it. BookPlayer leaves nothing to be desired. If you want, you can view its source code on GitHub, or support the developer with a Pro subscription, which then enables features like iCloud Sync and standalone Playback on the Apple Watch. BTW I use the ancient looking, but still working Audiobook Builder to convert countless separate mp3 files to one combined M4B audiobook.
Thursday, May 8, 2025
An independent reader for book lovers. I was looking for a third party alternative to Apple's Books.app - found it: Yomu EBook Reader. Single purchase if you want pro features, like iCloud sync, or just support its developer. Screenshot Yomu Homepage (07.05.2025) www.yomu-reader.com
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Quick look extension for folders. Nice, little utility app that lets you preview folders and ZIP files by pressing space bar on your Mac. From the same developer as Anybox and Pinning. Screenshot Folder Preview Homepage (07.05.2025) anybox.ltd/folder-preview
Thursday, April 10, 2025
A Surprisingly Useful macOS Shortcuts Launcher. "A macOS menu bar app that surfaces your relevant Shortcuts workflows when you need them. "Tag" workflows to an application, and when that app is in front, BarCuts will show its tagged workflows in a menu, ready for you to access." - nothing to add. One thing done right. Very useful, as Carlo's other apps. (I heavily rely on Actions For Obsidian for my Daily Notes in Obsidian.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Find and Remove Duplicate Files with Confidence I was looking for an app that can easily remove duplicates from my hard drives. There is a fair number of apps available, but lots of them look shady to me. Not this one. The best thing is that it is free to use and has a very friendly and responsive developer. Screenshot Zero Duplicates Homepage (2025-04-09) zeroduplicates.com/
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Rediscover the joy of reading your favorite writers and publications with Unread. Unread is a (not exactly cheap, subscription based) classic RSS client for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS with a strong focus on design and typography and a perfectly harmonised feature set. I am thrilled. Unread Homepage Screenshot (2025-02-20) www.goldenhillsoftware.com
OMG why did nobody tell me that Dataview Publisher (https://github.com/udus122/dataview-publisher) for #Obsidian exists? What a freakin' game changer 🤩.
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
There are those apps that really do nothing productive but just make you smile while using your computer. One I really love is BananaBin a “playful reminder that it’s time to take out the trash”. Today Simon B. Støvring released another one of this kind: Festivitas, which “brings the holiday spirit to your Mac with festive lights for the dock and menu bar 🎄”. You can’t invest your money any better I think.
Monday, December 2, 2024
I use a variety of apps and services across iOS, macOS, and the web. Most operate on subscription models, and although I aim to keep each subscription under € 5 per month, the total monthly cost can quickly become significant. At the end of 2023, I reviewed all the apps and services I was subscribed to and decided to cancel some of them. Now, one year later, it’s time to revisit my list of subscriptions.
Monday, November 25, 2024
It has now been over a year since Andrew, Martin, and Jason of Hemispheric Views listed their app defaults, causing probably the biggest internet movement of 2023, documented with meticulous detail by Robb. Time to update my list. Indicated are unchanged entries (🔒) and updated entries (✨). I still use the various categories as written by Andrew: 🔒 Mail Client: Mail.app 🔒 Mail Server: iCloud with custom domain and posteo.
Monday, November 25, 2024
I purchased Sindre Sorhus' Mac app Supercharge, not because I’ve tested the demo version extensively or think I really need it or will even use it, but because Sindre has released so many different, really great software for free so far. I wanted to take this opportunity to reward him for his wonderful apps. For now though, I’m going to install Supercharge and see what it has to offer. I am sure I’ll enjoy using this one, too.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
I’ve recently started collecting something new again. I don’t mean video games, LEGO minifigures, retro handheld consoles, SAKs, or virtual Pokémon trading cards 1. This time it’s crown caps. I did this already as a kid, and at a certain stage, my own kids started doing so too. But, the collection needs physical space and always looks a little messy. I have never found a nice way to store or display them.
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
As an enthusiastic Obsidian user, over time I’ve built a rather complex system consisting of about 15 different shortcuts that are triggered sequentially by a master shortcut. At the end of each day, these shortcuts collect data from various apps and add them to my daily notes in Obsidian. It was undoubtedly a challenge to develop this system, and without the Actions for Obsidian plugin, it would have been impossible. It’s definitely not elegant, but rather a bit of a hack, though it worked wonderfully for the past six months or so.
PSA: No More macOS 15 Sequoia Monthly Screen Recording Permission Reminders - I haven’t tried it yet because I haven’t updated to macOS Sequoia myself, but I’ll definitely keep that in mind for that day in the future.
Monday, August 12, 2024
In continuation of week 31, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirty-second week of 2024: 🖥️ If you’re tired of always having to find a tiny free spot on an macOS app window to move or resize it, then this app might help: Swift Shift - Manage your macOS windows like a pro. 🖥️ BetterDisplay - Unlock your displays on your Mac - was updated to version 3.
Thursday, August 8, 2024
9TO5Mac reports that Apple is apparently planning to present its Mac operating system users with a copy of Microsoft’s Vista disaster: With macOS Sequoia this fall, using apps that need access to screen recording permissions will become a little bit more tedious. Apple is rolling out a change that will require you to give explicit permission on a weekly basis to these types of apps, and every time you reboot your Mac.
Monday, August 5, 2024
In continuation of week 30, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirty-first week of 2024: 🖼️ I’ve mentioned the image viewers Lyn and PicArrange before, but this week Musebox made the rounds. I will take a closer look at it when I get a chance. 🔄 Speaking of alternatives: Diffraction might be a (currently free) alternative to Acorn. 🔍 And if you only want to find (even the smallest) differences between two images, you can check out ImageDiff.
Sunday, July 28, 2024
In continuation of week 29, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the thirtieth week of 2024: 📝 Might be handy, but not sure if I will actually use it: WeExpire - Create emergency notes that can be read by your trusted contacts only after your death. 🖥️ Apparency for macOS - The App That Opens Apps - received a nice update at the beginning of the month.
Sunday, July 21, 2024
In continuation of week 28, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-ninth week of 2024: 📱 Just in time for its tenth anniversary the rewrite of Overcast was released. I had canceled my subscription months ago, but since it hasn’t expired yet, I downloaded the new version and used it over the past week. It seems significantly more performant than before, but its UI is still confusing.
Sunday, July 14, 2024
In continuation of week 27, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-eighth week of 2024: 🆓 DEVONtechnologies released their free Neo Network Utility app for macOS. 🛠️ Another new app from Sindre: Menu Bar Spacing - Customize the gap between menu bar items. 📄 BeyondPDF - BeyondPDF is your intelligent document companion, here to change the way you search for content in your PDF files.
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Indie App Sales! is running again, this time from July 9th to 10th. The last sale wasn’t that long ago, so the list of apps I checked out or bought this time is significantly shorter than my last one. However, this still means that those who didn’t make a purchase last time might find something they like this time. Authenticator App Widget - thinking about buying it; I should delete my Twilio account and I can still not decide if I should keep my 2FA in iCloud Keychain, hardware token, 1PW or an independent third party app Bookmarks - URL manager - I just have to buy and try every bookmark manager out there Bookmarks+ - c.
Monday, July 8, 2024
In continuation of week 25, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh week of 2024: At the end of the 26th week, I suddenly became ill. It started with a sore throat, followed by headaches, cough, runny nose, and total exhaustion. I am still not completely fit. Covid tests were negative, but I suspect that I caught the summer wave 🤒. Since I spent a lot of time sleeping in bed, I could only evaluate a few things, but I bookmarked a few programs that might be helpful later on.
Sunday, June 23, 2024
In continuation of week 24, here are a few thoughts and things that caught my attention in the twenty-fifth week of 2024: 🌐 The outrage about unethical behavior by big tech companies wanting to make money with AI features continued. See for example: How We’re Trying to Protect MacStories from AI Bots and Web Crawlers – And How You Can, Too or Perplexity Plagiarized Our Story About How Perplexity Is a Bullshit Machine.