⭐ Download it now: https://writewithminstrel.com/ ⭐

Problem

Writers spend months and years collecting ideas, arranging scenes, and obsessing over every word of a story. The app holding all that work should feel like it was made for the job.

Hi everyone. I’m Sacha, a software engineer with twenty years of industry experience working on everything from startups to big banks, now putting my focus on Minstrel, a Mac writing app built specifically for fiction writers.

I built Minstrel because writers are still often expected to make do with tools handed down from the business world or put together like patchwork: A document editor for the manuscript, another app for notes, and still more tools for revision and publishing. Minstrel brings that work together in one purpose-built package. Project notes, progress tracking, version history, advanced proofreading, manuscript reviews, story insights, an optional assistant, and publishing-ready exports — they're all here, beautifully designed in an interface that is minimal when you want focus and expands when you need more.

Comparison

Google Docs and Word are capable document editors, but fiction is not their centre of gravity. They're cluttered with business tools and try to force you into formatting minutiae that don't actually make much sense in the era of internet publishing and ebooks. A novelist needs to move through chapters, keep story notes close, revise safely, and eventually get it all published. Minstrel is designed around that workflow rather than charts, tables, and page layouts.

Scrivener is the established go-to recommendation for writers, and enormously capable. It's also enormously complex, and looks like it was built in 2007 because it was. Updates are infrequent, and the most common complaint of Scrivener — it takes time to learn and configure when you just want to get writing, with many people just giving up. Minstrel takes a different approach: Approachable on day one, quiet while you write, and with more powerful tools at your fingertips only when they’re useful.

There are also a lot of 'minimal' writing apps out there, but minimal often means choosing simplicity over a complete fiction workflow. Minstrel feels focused without the limitations, and will continue to grow as the community gives feedback and helps shape it.

Minstrel is different. Here's how.

The message is not the medium.

Minstrel keeps semantics separate from formatting, so there's no need to format as you write or even worry about formatting at all. Front-matter like title pages and tables of contents are automatically generated for you on export, and curated font pairings chosen just for writing are applied to your entire document all at once. Adjust your publishing settings with a live preview, then turn your finished manuscript into a packaged DOCX, EPUB, or PDF with everything properly embedded and ready to go. Just write — Minstrel will handle the rest.

No more FINAL (4) REALLY FINAL THIS TIME FINAL FINAL .doc

Minstrel keeps a full history manuscript in-file, so you can experiment without wondering whether you’ve destroyed the better draft. History is compresssed as you go, and changes are summarized as you make them, meaning there's no more "Did I make those Chapter 3 changes on Wednesday or Thursday" situations. We'll tell you.

World-class proofreading that beats the best.

No Grammarly needed. Minstrel’s in-app language engine (incldued in Standard, Plus, and Pro) and beats Scrivener, Word and Pages, flagging everything from spelling, to grammar, phrasing, repetition, and word choice. Corrections are available as-you-type or in a decidicated proofreading view. Tuned specifically for fiction and with the context of your story and writing style, it also hits fewer false-positives than other proofreading engines, avoiding flagging things other apps would try to correct, like sentence fragments in dialogue. Best of all, this all works entirely off-line.

I'm super proud of this one, and I think once you use it you'll be impressed too.

An assistant that actually works.

In Plus and Pro, users get access to Minstrel Assistant, a friend with on-the-fly access to your latest drafts and notes. Discuss plot points, analyze character motives, talk strategy, get help with wording. Minstrel Assistant never steals the pen from you, but is always ready to help.

And more.

A lot more. It would be exhausting listing out the features Minstrel has, so go explore! Trials are free, so I'm excited to hear about what you all think. :)

Pricing

Minstrel comes in four tiers:

• Lite provides a basic set of tools so everyone can use Minstrel, but lacks advanced features of Standard/Plus/Pro like assistance, the proofreading engine, and reviews. It is free ($0) forever for everyone.
• Standard adds the tuned proofreading engine, automatic notes organization. To celebrate the launch, Minstrel Standard is only $20 — one time, no subscription required.
• Plus and Pro both add the complete connected toolkit, including story analytics, enhanced notes, project insights, and Minstrel Assistant. Plus is $10/month or $110/year, and Pro (2x usage) is $20/month or $220/year.

Monthly and annual plans also both unlock a full Standard license after six months, making them the best value if you're interested in assistance. If you're a serious writer, they're truly worth the step up and will only get better as the Plus/Pro features evolve. Every new user can try a limited version of Plus/Pro for 14 days with no card required. Full pricing and downloads are on the Minstrel website.

Privacy and transparency

With Minstrel, your projects stay on your Mac, and we never collect any information without consent. Lite and Standard writing tools are entirely on device, and Minstrel never sells your personal information or uses your writing. If you choose Plus or Pro, Minstrel offloads processing to the cloud as needed, only ever using the bits it needs in the moment — never your entire project.

Minstrel is currently distributed directly from the official website, but Mac App Store distribution is coming soon. You can read the full privacy policy and terms of use before downloading it.

Launch Giveaway

To celebrate the launch, I'm giving away 30 lifetime licenses to Minstrel Standard. If you’d genuinely use Minstrel, comment on features you're excited for or would like to see and send me a DM to receive a single-use code. No strings attached, although feedback and reviews are more than welcome!

What, you're still here?

Download it now! https://writewithminstrel.com/

Note: Minstrel requires Apple Silicon, Intel Macs are not yet supported. Stay tuned. :)

Hi everyone! It’s been four months since Tangrid launched, and we’ve released a ton of updates since then. Our main focus has been improving stability and performance, while also adding Workspace support and enhancing tab groups.

About Tangrid

Tangrid is a window manager that combines tiling window management, window switching, Dock previews, and workspace management in one unified workflow, featuring Liquid Glass design.

The problem

macOS Spaces helps organize windows across multiple desktops, but it’s easy to lose track of where each window is. Over time, your Spaces can become messy and difficult to manage.

That’s where Tangrid Workspaces comes in. It lets you save and restore snapshots of a macOS Space.

Managing existing windows alone isn’t enough. We also need a way to launch app windows with a single click. This is where things get complicated: every app uses different launch commands, and opening a new window often requires a different command from launching the app when it isn’t running.

Workspace templates therefore provide customizable launch commands for different apps, covering both cold starts and opening new windows in apps that are already running.

Comparison

• vs. FlashSpace: Window level management, with custom and preset window launch templates.
• vs. yabai: GUI based settings, tab groups, and a more polished user experience.
• vs. AeroSpace: GUI based settings, tab groups, and full support for native macOS Spaces.
• vs. AltTab: Just as fast and powerful, with customizable Liquid Glass styles.

What makes Tangrid different

• Window tab groups, a feature our users love.
• Built on macOS Spaces with full support for multiple Spaces. No “Tangrid Spaces” and no unnecessary complexity.
• Compatible with in-app tabs, without creating window clutter.

Pricing

• $19.99 for 1 device, $34.99 for 2, $47.99 for 3, $59.99 for 5.
• 7-day free trial.
• One-time purchase with a lifetime license. No subscription.

Website: https://www.tangrid.app/
Discord: https://api.tangrid.app/invite/discord

Transparency: I’m the developer of Tangrid. Previous posts: Launch Beta

I’m looking for an app that shows my trackpad touches visually on screen while I’m using it.

For example, small circles or dots that represent where each finger is touching the trackpad and move in real time as I swipe, tap, pinch, or use gestures on the Mac screen.
Basically, a live visualization of multi-touch input from the MacBook trackpad.
Does anything like this exist for macOS?

Hey, r/macapps!

Problem
I’m a macOS developer and I often need to record videos or do product demos. Sometimes I need to show what exactly my input is from keyboard and mouse. I tried multiple different tools, but they either focused on keystrokes or had limited control over how keyboard and mouse input was presented. I wanted to have native macOS app that could visualize both keyboard and mouse clearly be highly customized for different recording or presentation setups.

Comparison
KeyCastr is probably most known macOS alternative. It’s great app which is lightweight, open source. However, it’s focused mainly on showing keystrokes on screen, mouse visualization and overall customization is pretty limited.

Keyty is focused more on visualizing both keyboard and mouse input clearly. It features four keyboard styles, from grouped Apple-style keycaps to more minimal and classic layouts, plus three mouse visualization modes: a configurable cursor highlight, a mouse icon that shows button presses, and click ripples.

Pricing

Free and open source.

Website: https://keyty.app
GitHub: https://github.com/keytyapp/Keyty

Feedback is welcome, especially from people who already use keystroke visualizers for recording or presenting. If you find Keyty useful, a GitHub star is also appreciated.

Problem

I work as a backend developer and I frequently need to download bundles or inspect packages and sometimes I even want to edit the content. The apps I used had me either extract and re-zip to edit, preview or open. Or it was slow or didn’t support .app or .dmg or containers. So this is one of my apps for my personal trifecta; QuikZip that’ll do all above. Inkline that’ll open the data files for editing and Rune Kubernetes for my kube clusters.

QuikZip is mostly about being able to actually work inside archives instead of extracting everything first. With ZIP files you can browse, preview and edit the content directly. You can also hand over a file to any application you choose, edit it there and bring the changes back into the archive. It supports 75+ archive and container formats, nested archives, DMGs, .app bundles and other containers. There is also Quick Look, search, drag and drop, quick create/extract, split ZIP support, integrity and checksum verification.

One workflow I use a lot is the dual/split view. I can have the archive on one side and the file explorer on the other, so moving files around or comparing contents doesn’t mean jumping between Finder windows all the time. I’ve also made quite a lot of the performance settings customizable. You can decide how large files QuikZip should attempt to preview, tweak the limits depending on your Mac and exclude specific formats from those limits. Someone on a base MacBook Air and someone with 64 GB RAM probably shouldn’t be forced to use exactly the same limits.

I’ve tried to keep it lightweight and fast while still having the more advanced stuff there when I need it. Everything runs locally and it’s written natively in Swift for macOS. Inkline and Rune are the other two parts of the trifecta, but that’s another story. QuikZip handles the archive side and can for example hand a large JSON or log file directly over to Inkline for editing and bring it back afterwards.

Comparison

Keka is great and something I’ve used myself. I see it mostly as a really good tool for creating and extracting archives, while the workflow I’m focusing on with QuikZip is spending more time inside the archive itself.

BetterZip is closer to what I’m doing and also supports working with files inside archives. With QuikZip I’ve focused a lot on the combination of ZIP editing, previews, handover to applications of your choice, nested archives, DMG/.app/container browsing, dual view and being able to tweak performance and preview limits yourself.

I’m not really trying to claim either is worse or that QuikZip replaces them. I had a specific workflow I wanted for my own work and ended up building around that.

Pricing

QuikZip is a $12.99 one-time purchase in the US App Store. No subscription. App Store pricing is localized for other regions.

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/quikzip/id6769693595

Website:
https://viktornyberg.com/quikzip.html

Hey r/macapps,

This is the first time I've properly shared DynamicLand here.

Notch apps aren't a new idea, and that's part of what makes this space interesting. There are already some great interpretations of what the MacBook notch can be.

DynamicLand is my take on it.

I've been building it as a place for the things that move through your day on the Mac: music, clipboard history, files and sharing, timers, recordings, alerts, AI activities, widgets, and more, all living around the notch and staying out of the way when you don't need them.

I just released DynamicLand 2.0: Darkveil, the biggest DynamicLand update so far.

Darkveil introduces an entirely new Home, with customizable widgets and layouts for things like Calendar, Weather, Music, Battery, Photos, Apps & Folders, Timer, Voice Memos, and more.

It also introduces Mini Bubbles, which let multiple activities stay close by at the same time. Music, timers, recordings, file transfers, AI activities, and other live tasks can remain visible without opening the full island.

The music experience has been rebuilt with a new Now Playing view, redesigned synced lyrics with click-to-seek, richer song and album details, smoother animations, and access to Apple Music playlists, charts, For You, Replay, and curated collections.

Clipboard, files and sharing have been refined too, with faster clipboard browsing, previews, improved drag and drop, the Files Tray, and quick ways to move and share files, including AirDrop.

The island itself has also been heavily reworked, with smoother opening, resizing and activity transitions, quick hover previews, better external display and Sidecar support, improved alerts, keyboard shortcuts, and performance improvements throughout the app.

For me, Darkveil isn't about adding one headline feature. It's about making all of these pieces feel like they belong together.

Problem

A lot of the small things I do throughout the day on my Mac are scattered across different places. Checking what's playing, grabbing something I copied earlier, holding a file for a moment, following a timer, or checking whether a background task has finished usually means going somewhere else.

DynamicLand gives those moments one consistent place to live.

Comparison

There are already some great takes on this category, including Alcove and Boring Notch.

Each app approaches the idea from a different angle, with its own design, priorities, features, and implementation. I think that's one of the nice things about this space: the same part of the Mac can lead to very different experiences.

What I think DynamicLand does particularly well is how these different pieces are designed and implemented to work together as one connected experience around the notch: Home, live activities, music, widgets, clipboard, files, sharing, and more.

I'd genuinely recommend trying the different options and sticking with the one that feels best for the way you use your Mac.

Pricing

DynamicLand is free to download from the Mac App Store.

Pro is $3.99/year or $0.99/month.

Mac App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/dynamicland-notch-island/id6785289988

Everything new in Darkveil:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DynamicLand_App/s/nazNxPypUU

One more thing: I'm still pushing the motion and animation system further. Darkveil is a big step forward, but I don't consider that part finished yet. The next update will take the island's transitions, responsiveness, and overall feel much further.

I'll be around in the comments if you have any questions.

I've been using Bartender for a long time, and I just updated my MBA to 27, and even the beta is totally broken. I tried a couple of other menu bar apps that have betas, and none of them work either. I've been reading some posts saying that menu bar apps won't work any more, but apparently if developers are releasing betas then there must be some way for them to do what they did in the past.

I kind of need this, because I create screencasts for a couple of Mac apps, and it's a pain to have to manually hide menu bar icons for the apps I use regularly whenever I want to record.

I posted about Tagboat here in June. It’s a Mac utility for building a consistent file-tagging practice.

Problem:

Finder tags are powerful, but only if you apply them consistently. Miss a file and it's absent from tag-based Finder and Spotlight searches. Tagboat is built to solve this problem:

• Choose folders you want to keep tagged (“Managed Folders”)
• Track tagging progress and jump directly to untagged files
• Configurable tag hotkeys and quick autocomplete make tagging fast and easy
• Tag trees with inheritance accelerate tagging (child tags apply parent tags)
• Optional folder-level inherited tags
• All of this operates on native Finder tags

What’s new since the first post:

• Improved keyboard navigation
• Preview improvements for PDF + [spacebar]-driven QuickLook
• German localization

Comparison:

Unlike media metadata taggers, Tagboat works with native Finder tags. Compared to rule-based tools like Little Tagger, Tagboat emphasizes chosen file areas you want to cultivate (like tending a garden) and gives you visible progress to help you maintain the habit. Tagboat complements Finder rather than replacing it, and focuses on providing a great tagging experience instead of trying to be general file manager.

Pricing:

Free to download, with many of Tagboat's powerful features free forever. "Pro" purchase unlocks these capabilities at Back-to-School pricing through 9/12: buy-it-once for $24.99 (17% off the regular price), first year annual subscription $14.99 (25% off), first 3 months of a monthly subscription $0.99 (50% off):

• Unlimited Managed Folders & tag nesting
• Folder-based inheritance + tag tree import/export

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tagboat-file-tagger/id6749515406?mt=12
Site + User Guide: https://coherencelabs.com/tagboat/

Happy to answer questions, and very interested to hear about ways Tagboat could serve you better! Thanks!

I am part of the dev team behind PrimeTask. We posted here when 1.0 launched in June. 1.0.4 shipped on 20 August. Task Comments is the headline, but PrimeFlow, notes, Compass, the Apple integrations, File Sync and Bring Your Own AI all got a serious round of work as well.

You open a task you have not touched in a month. It is still blocked. You cannot remember why, and neither can the task. So you go digging through chat.

That is what this release fixes. Every task now has a thread of its own.

Problem

A project rarely stays in one app.

Tasks are in one place, planning in another, client information sits in a CRM, files live somewhere else, and visual workflows quickly stop reflecting the actual work.

We built PrimeTask because we were dealing with the same problem. We wanted projects, clients, tasks, planning and execution to stay connected without rebuilding the same context across several apps.

Comparison

PrimeTask combines ideas that are usually split across different types of apps.

Notion is built around flexible cloud-based pages and databases, while PrimeTask gives you a ready-made structure for projects, CRM, tasks, timelines and workflows, with your data stored in files you control.

ClickUp and Asana cover similar operational ground for tasks, projects and timelines, but both are cloud platforms billed per user per month, and their offline support is limited to working with cached content rather than being offline-first. Neither includes an integrated CRM, so client records usually end up in a separate tool. PrimeTask keeps projects, tasks and client records in one app that runs entirely on your Mac.

Daylite is primarily built around CRM and client management and is sold as a per-user subscription. PrimeTask connects client records directly with projects, tasks, project databases, planning, time tracking and reports, and is available as a one-time purchase that remains yours to use.

Task Comments

Comments are written in Markdown, so you can paste in a whole document and it keeps its shape: headings, lists, tables, working tick boxes. Attach files and images, or drop in a video or post link and it plays in the thread. Reply to a comment and jump straight back to the one it answers.

Mark an entry as a decision, a blocker or an update, pin what has to be read first, and react without adding another comment. A comment carries its own status, so a single blocker in a long thread can be marked resolved without touching the task itself.

Mention another task and both tasks show the link, so a decision made in one place is visible from the other. You can mention people, contacts and companies too, which needs Pro. Right click a task anywhere you work to open its thread, and any comment turns up in search.

The description is what the task is, and you rewrite it whenever the plan changes. Comments are what happened, and you add to them. If you find yourself rewriting a description to record a decision, that decision wants to be a comment.

Bring your own AI

PrimeTask does not ship a chatbot or resell AI credits. It runs a local MCP server, so you connect whatever you already use, Claude, Cursor, Codex, or a local model in LM Studio, and it works with your tasks, projects and CRM through more than 100 local tools. You choose the provider, which Spaces it can reach, and whether it has read or write access.

With 1.0.4 that extends to threads. An agent can read a discussion before it starts work and write up what it did when it finishes, so the reasoning ends up on the task rather than in a chat window you will close. Its comments are labelled under a name you choose, and it can only ever change what it wrote. Yours are not its to edit. You can switch the comment tools off entirely if you would rather it stayed out.

Sync is yours to set up

PrimeTask works offline and stores your data on your Mac as plain JSON. If you want it on more than one machine, you pick the provider and you pick the terms: Dropbox, iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Google Drive, Nextcloud, a NAS, an SMB share, or any folder you point it at. Change your mind later and you move a folder.

Sharing a Space with someone works the same way. There is no PrimeTask server in the path, because we do not run one. Everyone works in their own copy, including offline, and changes merge when they reconnect, so nobody has to be online at the same time and no outage anywhere can stop your team working. Password-protect a Space and the files are encrypted before they leave your machine, so your sync provider is holding something it cannot read.

You pick the transport and you hold the key.

Also in 1.0.4

Project notes and task mentions

• Type @ in a note and pick a task. It sits there in its own status colour, so you can tell at a glance whether that work is open or done. Hover for status, priority and due date, click to go straight to it
• The link holds on to the task itself, so renaming it later keeps your notes pointing at the right thing
• Task notes now hold everything a canvas document holds: tables, tick boxes, callouts, and code with a copy button

PrimeFlow, the visual canvas

• Drag files from Finder onto a canvas and choose whether to keep a copy or link to where the file already sits. Linking has no size limit, so a large video can live on a canvas without being duplicated
• Markdown files become editable documents you can expand and read on the canvas itself, tables and tick boxes surviving however they arrive
• Text cards are new: format word by word, resize at any zoom, rotate, lock, and set text and fill colours independently
• Copy, paste and duplicate with the usual shortcuts, and cards land in free space rather than on top of each other
• Drop a connection on empty canvas and it offers to create the connected card for you
• Your connected agent can work on a canvas alongside you

Compass and Reports

• Compass, the daily view that recaps what you got done and ranks what to pick up next, now covers every space you have rather than only the one you are working in, and never switches you across without asking. Each space is read on its own terms, with the statuses and priorities you set up for it
• The Tasks report exports as a short summary that stays about two pages however many tasks are in range. The full report is unchanged for when you need the whole record

CRM and Apple integrations

• Drag contacts from Apple Contacts onto the PrimeTask icon in your Dock, one or twenty, and confirm what is coming in before anything is added. A business card arrives as a company rather than a person, and a contact's employer is created and linked for you
• Drag contact card or spreadsheet files from Finder straight onto your Contacts or Companies page
• Contacts can hold an address now, and clicking it opens Maps. Addresses travel with your contacts on import and export
• A link you added to a reminder in Apple Reminders comes across to the task, so you can read it where the work is
• The app icon follows your Mac's appearance and turns dark along with everything else in your Dock

File Sync

• Deleting an attachment now removes the file everywhere it was shared, instead of only on the computer you deleted it from
• A new Duplicate Files tool finds the spare copies your sync service leaves behind and moves them to the Trash. Nothing is removed outright, so you can look through it before emptying

Bring Your Own AI

• Your agent can see who is on a task, whether that is you, a teammate or someone from your CRM, along with the kind of task it is, how long it should take and which milestone it belongs to
• Descriptions it writes keep their shape. Ask for a long plan and headings stay headings, lists stay lists, paragraphs stay apart
• Subtasks it creates can carry everything a task can: people, tags, a checklist, a start date, an estimated duration and a place in Apple Reminders
• It can work with the files and folders on a canvas. Link a folder yourself and it can look inside, tell you what is there, and bring files onto the canvas properly connected back to where they came from
• It stops claiming to have done things it has not. Asking it to delete something that does not exist now comes back as a clear failure rather than a cheerful confirmation

Full notes: https://www.primetask.app/releases

Task Comments documentation: https://www.primetask.app/docs/tasks/task-comments

Pricing

• Standard: $69 / £59 / €69, one-time purchase
• Pro: $139 / £119 / €139, one-time purchase

Compare the two: https://www.primetask.app/compare

Collaboration and PrimeCRM are Pro features.

14-day trial of the full Pro version, no payment card needed: https://www.primetask.app/download

For r/macapps, code PTMACAPPS10 gives 10% off either edition until 20/09/2026 23:59:59 UTC.

Current limitations

macOS only, Apple Silicon, M1 or later. Windows is in private beta. No mobile app, though two-way Apple Reminders sync means you can capture from iPhone, iPad and Watch.

Transparency

PrimeTask is sold directly from our website and notarised by Apple. It is built by TaskCore Ltd, a UK-registered company.

• Website: https://www.primetask.app
• Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/taskcore-ltd
• Privacy Policy: https://www.primetask.app/privacy
• Terms: https://www.primetask.app/terms
• Documentation: https://www.primetask.app/docs

I will be around in the comments to answer questions.

Press Fn, say what you were thinking, let go of Fn, and your text is already in Slack.

I'm Grisha and I have been building Kazhy on my own for about 8 months. I have run into a pile of problems, and I want to talk about one of them.

Problem

Silence. Most dictation apps run Whisper, and Whisper was trained on subtitled video, so silence is where it falls apart. It fills the quiet with whatever subtitles say there. "Thank you for watching." "See you in the next video." If you dictate into a draft you will clean up anyway, that is not much of a problem. If you dictate into a message box and hit send a second later, it changes everything. Kazhy is built so it does not paste what you did not say.

Press Fn, talk, let go, and the text goes into the focused field of whatever app you are in. If there was nowhere to put it, it is waiting for you in your dictation history. Your clipboard survives: whatever was in it goes back the moment the paste is done. Anything playing on your Mac gets turned down while you speak. Fn already busy with your own shortcuts? Not a problem. In settings you can move recording onto another key, or put a delay in front of Fn so your shortcuts still work.

Comparison

Superwhisper. It runs on Intel Macs, it records meetings, it has modes wired to a long list of cloud models. I do none of that, and if you need any of it, go use them. Their price, from their own docs: $8.49 monthly, $84.99 annual, $249.99 lifetime. They're cheaper than me by the month. I'm cheaper by the year.

VoiceInk: GPL v3, 6.2k stars, free if you build it yourself, $29 once for the notarized build. The difference that matters is where the audio goes. Their cloud only touches the text, so transcription is always a local model. Mine can reach a bigger one when the audio is hard.

Two things I do better than either of them, both of which you can test on me.

Silence. Their own hallucinations page tells you to open Sound settings, switch on "Remove Silence" and trim your vocabulary. In Kazhy there is nothing to find and nothing to switch on. Three checks run on every dictation and all three ask the same question: did you actually say this?

Before any transcription engine is called at all, a voice detector looks at the recording. No voice in it and nothing runs: nothing transcribed, nothing pasted, no history entry.

Whatever comes back is read segment by segment, against the model's own confidence numbers and against 7,422 phrases Whisper is known to invent.

The last check is there to protect your real speech rather than to throw it away. A genuine sentence that happens to contain "thank you" is kept. The transcript is only dropped when one of those known phrases makes up 60% or more of everything that came back, because that is what a hallucination looks like and a real sentence never does.

Hold the key, say nothing, let go. Nothing should appear.

A dead network costs you nothing. You choose whether to use cloud at all. Once it is on you stop thinking about it. If the cloud has not answered in 1.5 seconds, or it fails sooner than that, the local engine starts beside it and the first answer home wins. On a healthy connection the cloud is already back and local never runs, so it costs you nothing to have. History tells you which engine actually typed for you. Turn off Wi-Fi mid sentence and the text still lands.

If a one-time price and source you can read still beat both of those, buy VoiceInk instead. I mean that.

Before you download

macOS 14 and Apple Silicon only. No Intel, no Windows, no iOS.

It needs Accessibility permission to paste into other apps. No way around it, and if that's a dealbreaker for you it's a real one.

No meeting recording, no speaker separation, no system audio.

It is not in the App Store. You download it from my site, macOS checks it with Apple before it will run, and it updates itself from then on.

Pricing

Free forever, and not a trial: local transcription with the Wi-Fi off and no account at all, custom vocabulary, unlimited replacement rules, full history. Capped at 1000 words a day.

Premium: $8.99 a month or $59.99 a year. No word cap, cloud transcription, six built in AI styles plus your own prompts. Your first week of Premium starts when you sign in, not when you install. After it you drop to Free with nothing deleted.

https://kazhy.app

My name, LinkedIn and email: https://kazhy.app/about/

Tell me what would make you quit in the first minute.

Hello! I am the developer of multiple quicklook plugins including FinderPeek and Quick Data Insights, this post is about another plugin: GIS Quick Viewer.

Problem:

This plugins acts as a very lightweight viewer to allow you to get a peek at multiple geo file formats without installing any software to open it. If you typically deal with these files, export strava gpx files, or download routes online, this will come handy to identify, copy, or just quickly share them.

Features includes:

• Map preview using OpenStreetMap tiles, no APIs used.
• All local (except map tiles) and instant preview.
• Metadata preview: Bounding box, Coordinate system, and track points.
• Supported formats: GeoJSON, KML, KMZ, GPX, GPKG, with a limited support for SHP files.

Screenshots below.

Comparison:

I am not familiar of any other app that supports the same files and features as a simple quicklook plugin, there are multiple apps but mostly either only support GPX, or are full apps not a quicklook plugin.

Ex of other apps on appstore:

• GPX viewer/ GPX Viewer 2
• kml viewer and converter

Pricing:

Lifetime $5.99 -> Now $3.99 for 72 hours.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gis-quick-viewer/id6762661962

Appreciate feedback and suggestions!

My job involves talking to clients over the phone or in-person. It's a critical part of my work. Everything discussed and who said what needs to be recorded in a word document. Having a conversation that flows naturally and allows me to think on my feet while typing doesn't come easy for me. I use a Macbook M2 and an iPhone 16 and calls can be made/answered on both.

My mandatory requirements are:

• Diarization / speaker detection to seperate who said what (a popular one I trialled often joined sentences from speaker 1 and speaker 2)
• Local transcription and total privacy. Conversation or text stays with me.
• Hot-key / short cut start and stop
• Inexpensive
• Bluetooth support so that I can take calls on a headset or buds

Optional (nice but no critical):

• It knows my voice
• Integration with Claude
• Real time speech to text

I am aware of the Mac App Comparison table but I am looking for real-life experience and what users consider to be best value for money. Free is good but inexpensive is okay as well.

Thank you for any suggestions that meet my user case.

(Cross-posted this with r/mac )

Hi again! I posted here back in February when Trove File Explorer just launched after the closed beta (original thread). Huge thanks to everyone who has purchased it since or tried the beta via TestFlight. A lot of the feedback that has reached me is now shipped in v1.3.0.

Problem: Many people who switch over from Windows to MacOS find Apple's Finder confusing, unintuitive and incompatible with the workflows for which they have muscle memory. Trove File Explorer is a native SwiftUI file manager for macOS built specifically for people who miss the UI and shortcuts of Windows Explorer, such as Cmd+X/Cmd+V cut-and-paste, F2 rename, a proper sidebar folder tree, editable address bar, three view modes (grid, list and gallery) and Windows-style undo/redo, while also including poweruser features like multipanel-view allowing for up to 4 panels per tab or window, and a built-in search functionality which supports scanning file contents.

I tried to give a concise overview of the look and feel in the video attached to this post. I have been daily driving Trove ever since it became stable enough, after the beta, and I am very proud of where it stands today.

Some notable features in v1.3.0:

• "New" menu to create file templates Right-click → New to create empty documents, e.g. for these formats: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, CSV, JSON, XML, HTML, and ZIP archives.
• Copy as Path and Open in terminal via right-click menu You can hold shift and right-click to easily copy an item's or folder's path, or enable the menu entry permanently in settings. Use right click and Open with → <your terminal app> to open and change directory into a folder.
• Native archive support Built-in extraction now handles 7-Zip, TAR, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, TAR.XZ, GZ, BZ2, and ZIP. Detected by file signature, so a renamed archive still works. Compression allows ZIP, TAR.GZ and TAR archive creation with one click with no external dependencies.
• Connect to server dialog Supports SMB/AFP/FTP/SFTP/NFS/WebDAV and a LAN discovery to mount network drives.

Comparison: The closest competitor is probably Folders / Folders Pro, and by extension Bloom. While these are great apps, in my opinion, Trove comes closest in emulating the Windows Explorer experience, offering the least friction for switchers: simply replace CTRL with CMD in the shortcuts you already know, and you're good to go. The UI will immediately feel familiar to you.

What it is not: I am not trying to compete with classic dual-panel (Norton/Total-Commander style) file managers, nor should Trove become a poweruser-only tool. If you need either of those, you should probably look into alternatives like Commander One, Path Finder or Forklift.

Pricing: Still a $3.99 one-time purchase, no subscription, and absolutely no telemetry. Buy here: App Store

Find more information, screenshots and videos on my website: trove-explorer.app

The other two never did this to me. The first was an Adobe plugin years ago, and if it broke nobody's day got worse. The second, a battery app, is fairly simple in design and was more for fun.

My upcoming one will require a real commitment from me, so its build has been far more involved than the previous. And so all this is making me a bit more nervous.

What did all of you do the night before to calm your nerves? I'll take anything.

Hello.

Recently I bought my first Apple Silicon Mac, powered by an M5 and 32GB of RAM. And I'm eager to start using the power of local AI models.

One of the tasks I've always wanted to do on my old Intel Mac was accurate voice transcription. And now, thanks to Apple Silicon and LLMs, this is possible. So here are my requests for the app:

• No subscription based. I want to pay once.
• Local transcription, on device, for privacy.
• No heavily AI coded apps. I understand nowadays all software are AI assisted to some extent, but no vibe coded apps please.
• Different languages aside from just English.

Optional:

• Better if I can choose among different models, such as Apple's own on-device transcription engine, or Nvidia Parakeet, aside from the typical Whisper engine.

• Diarization. It would be wonderful if it had it but I know not many apps have it.

I know of MacWhisper, from Jordi Bruin, as that's the best known of all, but with it, I have always the same doubt: Mac App Store version or web version... Mac App Store is great for payment and convenience, and overall I prefer it, but the dev says the website version usually has more features...

Aside from MacWhisper, if you know of any other interesting transcription app that may meet the requirements stated above, just let me know! I want the best transcription software to date!

Hi guys,

I'd like to introduce CommuteBar, a small menu bar indicator that shows live commute times for your destinations, powered by Apple Maps. It also features routes, multiple saved destinations, optional scheduled commute windows, and leave alerts.

Problem

Its hard to know exactly when to head out with changing traffic conditions. One way to check is to open a maps app, but that can get redundant and distracting. Or you'd need to make a new calendar event just to check traffic for someplace you go regularly, like the office or gym. Typically, what happens is you'd make a best guess on when to leave, break focus, or leave late. There’s no live commute ETA that you can glance at while working on your Mac.

To fix this problem, CommuteBar puts an easy to read indicator right next to the clock on your Mac and shows you the most relevant status depending on the current situation:

1. Duration of the commute (no delay) "🚗 15min",
2. Show extra delay time (when traffic) "⏰ +5min",
3. Urgency when to go soon (scheduled destination) "🚨 15min"

With CommuteBar, you can get ahead of traffic and check conveniently from the menu bar without getting too distracted from having to take extra steps, open other apps or checking your phone.

Comparison

The native Calendar's Time to Leave feature works for events, but it shows up as a notification rather than a small persistent indicator from the menu bar. Apple/Google Maps are good for routes, but you still need to open an app. CommuteBar is oriented towards destinations and maintains a live ETA next to the clock calculated from your current location. Its optimally oriented around destinations rather than events, and has optional leave/traffic alert notifications.

Features:

Menu Bar Indicator

CommuteBar shows a live commute time for a destination from a simple menu bar indicator. You can customize the icon from a variety of emojis or stick to the default one based on the category of the chosen destination/point of interest. It can be configured to show either the extra delay when there's traffic or the total commute time depending on your preference.

Map popover

Clicking the menu bar indicator opens a map popover of the current route taken for your destination with expanded details and quick settings. You can quickly switch your active destination, see leave by information for the current active route, switch to an alternate route..ect. all from the popover.

Multiple Destinations

Save multiple destinations such as home, office, school, gym, ect... You can name them differently and switch destinations quickly from the popover. You can also have CommuteBar automatically switch to an upcoming destination.

Travel Modes

CommuteBar supports Car, Bike, or Walk travel modes for destinations and routes, as well as ability to toggle Highway/Tolls, and shows up to 3 routes to choose from to monitor per destination.

Notifications

You can optionally turn on notifications to get pinged when traffic changes, a better route showed up, time to leave soon, when its time to leave, and more. You can also customize quiet hours or specific days of the week so it doesn't distract you during focus times or interrupt your sleep. Notifications are off until you decide to turn them on.

Scheduled Commutes

You can add commute windows for your recurring destinations by choosing when you need to arrive, how early, and when monitoring should start throughout the week. The menu bar indicator, popover, and notifications show leave soon/now. Set it to auto so it can automatically switch destinations to the next upcoming commute.

Privacy-first

I made this app with privacy in mind. Routing is done exclusively through Apple Maps, no Google Location is for directions only. It stays in Apple’s maps on your Mac. Location is never uploaded to any servers. Your destinations and schedules are all stored locally on your Mac.

Pricing

Lifetime license, no subscription.

- $9.99 launch price (first 60 days), then $14.99

- Site/Direct purchase: https://www.commute.bar

- Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/commutebar/id6803743918

Disclosure: I'm the developer, looking forward to hearing your feedback!

PasteQuick: A lightweight, privacy‑focused clipboard manager. All clipboard history is stored locally, supporting text, links, images and code.

Invoke search window with ⌘+⇧+C, paste window with ⌘+⇧+V, with mini‑window and image preview support.

Problem: We constantly copy and reuse text, links, images, code, files, and other temporary content in our daily workflow. However, the system clipboard only keeps the latest copied item, with no history or quick way to search and retrieve previous content. Once overwritten, previously copied content can be difficult to find and reuse. PasteQuick solves this problem with a simple, lightweight design and a strong focus on privacy, making clipboard content easy to find and reuse while keeping your data secure.

Comparison: Compared with popular clipboard managers like Paste, Maccy, Raycast, and Alfred, PasteQuick focuses on fast keyboard workflows, rich clipboard content, and AI integration. Separate search and paste windows make it easy to find and paste content with dedicated shortcuts, while support for text, images, files, and folders makes your clipboard more versatile. Image thumbnails provide quick visual previews, with MCP support coming soon to let AI access your clipboard history.

Pricing: Lifetime full‑feature access: $29.99, now on sale for $19.99. Annual subscription available at $9.99, or monthly subscription at $2.99 for one‑month trial. The app works without payment — no hard feature limits.

Changelog(v2.3): Improved the file and folder quick-paste experience, with better copy management, list styling, and file/folder icon rendering.

📥 Download Link

Second time's a charms! (Here's my first time ;)

I just found that TG Pro is on a 50% discount, for 8,75€ (17,50€). It's a quite popular app, that controls the fan speed and temperature of your Mac with great control and ease.

Their sale applies to all their apps as well! Maybe you find it useful 😉

Edit: Things 3 for Mac is also on a 30% discount

Edit 2: I’m not the developer of TG Pro, but just a happy(/new) customer 😄

I made this. I sit at a MacBook most of the day and I am genuinely bad at noticing my body. I'll code for a few hours, skip water, eat lunch at 3, and only clock it when my neck feels like a brick.

Break apps never stuck for me because they interrupt the thing I am actually trying to do. Full screen overlay, I dismiss it. Notification, I swipe it. So I put the reminders in the notch. Tiny 8-bit animations for water, posture, eyes, stand up, and one lunch nudge a day. Hover and a small home panel drops down. That's the whole app.

I use it myself. I still ignore it sometimes. I ignore this less than a "take a break" overlay, which is the only reason I kept it.

Problem:

I needed health reminders that stay in the corner of my vision instead of covering the document. Water I can log without opening another window. A lunch nudge that is not a calendar event I will skip. Data that stays on the Mac.

Comparison:

LookAway and Time Out are the honest alternatives if you want the computer to stop you. Time Out is free and dims the screen. LookAway is better if you want overlay breaks, Smart Pause in meetings, that kind of enforcement. If a blocked screen is what actually makes you stand up, use those. I bounced off that model, so this does the opposite: it sits in the notch and waits.

Alcove is the other comparison people make because it also uses the notch. Alcove is a Dynamic Island: now playing, widgets, notifications. It does not remind you to drink water. Two notch apps on one MacBook can fight over hover, so I would pick one job for that strip.

Developer:

I'm Madat Bayramov, Software Engineer with 7+ years of experience in numerous projects and domains

Pricing:

$11.99 one-time right now (goes to $19.99 later). No subscription, no account, no analytics in the app. License key from Polar after checkout.

Website: https://healthynotch.com

macOS 14+. Notch is the point of it, but it falls back to a centered pill on a Studio or Mini. Accessibility permission is only so hover near the notch can expand it. Health data never leaves the machine.

Privacy: https://healthynotch.com/privacy

Contact me at [hello@healthynotch.com](mailto:hello@healthynotch.com) if something's broken.

If you try it, tell me what you ignore. That's the useful feedback

Hi guys,

Problem

MacOS STILL doesn't have a volume mixer or per-app volume control by default, yet.

Comparison

There are many out there, two of the biggest that are as good:

SoundSource - https://rogueamoeba.com/soundsource/ > PAID

FineTune - https://github.com/ronitsingh10/FineTune > FREE

Barry does it all with the same main features. With a simpler, more minimal view. I used it for the last 5 months and tried the 2 others. I keep implementing features from requests. The plan is to bring more features over time from user needs. I plan to launch a plugin surface with marketplace (free plugins or by donation only) for power users, example are streamers, creators, ... that might need extra things that the general public doesn't need, keeping the app itself small by default.

Barry comes with a Quick Mixer, that opens from the right side of your screen by hitting the edge or via a keyboard shortcut, useful when you're watching a movie, playing audio in background of a fullscreen app, or gaming while listening to music / podcast / video as it makes it easy to lower or increase the sound of any app directly in a super minimal view.

Pricing

It's $19 USD once or 29$ for a duo license, with a 14-day free trial that needs no account or card. License key is manageable and secured by Keylight, uses Stripe for checkout. Includes all future versions, your license will always work even if some day the app will get a full rework, unlike SoundSource that makes new versions a new license.

Trust/Transparency

I'm Nico, a solopreneur and developer. I'm the founder of keylight.dev and also maintaining UsagePal, a fork of OpenUsage kept on the Rust side

The app runs locally, I have an Apple Developer membership, so the app is notarized etc, only a few MB in size and is built 100% in Swift.

The app can be found here getbarry.app

Hi everyone

I'm searching for the best update app since MacUpdaters' recent departure. I've been using CleanMyMac (I find it too bloated and better in other ways) and Updatest (simple menu bar setup), but I'd enjoy hearing your opinions on other, perhaps better, software to get updates.

No subscription apps please. One-time purchase only, and fetching accurate, reliable updates from Homebrew, Sparkle, the App Store, and system updates

Hi r/MacApps, I’m the developer of Pocket Screen.

Problem

At my desk, a second monitor solves a lot of problems. But when I’m traveling, working from a hotel, or just using my MacBook by itself, I often end up working in one app while needing to keep an eye on something in another.

A PDF while writing. A browser page, dashboard, chat, tutorial, or a terminal running something in the background.

Switching back and forth works. It’s a small thing, but it gets surprisingly annoying. That’s why I made Pocket Screen. It lets me keep another Mac window visible as a small live reference while I continue working somewhere else.

Recently I’ve been using it a lot for long-running AI jobs. I keep the terminal or progress window in a corner and just glance at it while doing other work.

You know that meeting look where someone is basically talking to their second monitor the whole time? I catch myself doing it too. With Pocket Screen, I can keep a reference closer to the camera and still face the people I’m talking to.

There’s also an option to keep the Pocket Screen view out of supported screenshots, screen recordings, and screen sharing. That’s useful when the reference is only for me.

You can keep up to two views visible, resize them, adjust opacity, freeze the current frame, use Click Through, and quickly switch what you’re referencing with a keyboard shortcut.

Comparison

macOS PiP is great for supported video. Pocket Screen works with general app windows and is designed for quick reference use, so I can bring something into view with a shortcut, switch the reference quickly, and close it when I’m done.

BetterTouchTool is more flexible if you want to actively interact with a floating window. Pocket Screen is more focused on the simpler case where you mostly need to see something while working elsewhere.

Pricing

Pocket Screen is free to try for up to 10 minutes at a time. Unlimited Access is $9.99 one-time, with no subscription.

Mac App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pocket-screen-always-on-top/id6788211562?mt=12

I also made a 30% off code for r/MacApps: MACAPPS30, valid through November 30, 2026.

Redeem:
https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6788211562&code=MACAPPS30

Captured pixels are processed locally on the Mac, and Pocket Screen does not collect user data.

I’m curious what people here would keep visible this way. It started with documents for me, but AI jobs and meeting references have become two of the uses I rely on most.

Problem: There's no well-maintained, standalone native macOS Usenet client left. SABnzbd and NZBGet are great for a full stack, but they run in a browser tab and need config wrangling. NZBVortex is dead and Intel-only. I just wanted to drop in an NZB, search my indexer in-app, and download — without Rosetta, without a web server, without a config file.

Comparison: Saber is better than SABnzbd/NZBGet for ad-hoc downloads because it's a real native Mac app, not a web UI — native menus, keyboard shortcuts, sandboxing, proper notifications. And it fixes a real bug I hit with other tools: it reconciles archive volume names with par2 sets so verification actually works, instead of failing on every release.

Other features:

• Inbuilt indexer search
• Speed and Inspector panels
• par2 repair built in
• Automatic unpacking + smart renaming

Pricing: US$7.99 Lifetime
Link: macOS App Store
Link: Saber Website

Changelog: Saber Changelog

AI Disclaimer: Hand coded and AI Assist (hell, who wants to do the grunt work if you don't have to!)