AppAddict

TeraCopy for Mac

I'd stayed away from TeraCopy for Mac for a long time because it didn't have good reviews. It was updated for Apple Silicon earlier this year, so I decided to try it out. I have some huge folders with tens of thousands of images and audio files that I need to copy to and from external drives and computers. I easily set up a job on a 2019 MacBook Pro to copy 135GB from an external mechanical hard drive to the internal SSD over a thunderbolt port. It took about 30 minutes and I was able to use the functionality...

April 2nd, 2025 Mac Apps

Syncthing - Free and Open-Source Cross Platform File Sharing

I first heard about the free and open-source file syncing app, Syncthing, when I started using Obsidian and may people were suggesting it as the back end of their DIY vault syncing strategy. I ended up using another method for Obsidian, but lately I have been exploring numerous ways to share files in my home lab setup, which features Macs, iOS devices an Ubuntu Linux box and VMs of all different sorts, including Windows. The aptly named Syncthing Foundation is behind the app that they describe thusly “Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or...

April 1st, 2025 Universal Apps

Can You Help Me Find the Photos App I Need?

I'm going to turn the tables today. Instead of giving YOU information on software, I'm going to ask you to give me some recommendations. Specifically, I am looking for a photos app. Since I am eliminating Google and Amazon from my online life, I won't have access to their photo management tools, which, I will admit are pretty good, considering that both companies will mine every bit of data they can from my images in an attempt to extract money from me for their billionaire owners. Here are the features I'd like to have:1. Facial recognition to be able to...

March 31st, 2025 Mac Apps

Keyboard Centered Apps for Power Users

A global keyboard shortcut is a combination of keys you can press while in any application on your Mac to execute an action belonging to a background process. I typically have a half dozen or more apps running in the background that use global keyboard shortcuts. Some of these include: Keyboard MaestroKeyboard Maestro is an automation app that allows you to initiate or control just about any repetitive process. Don't let the name fool you though. Keyboard Maestro can execute actions based on two dozen triggers, not just keyboard combinations. Some of the actions I launch with the keyboard from...

March 30th, 2025 Mac Apps

rclone - An Easy to Use and Powerful CLI

There are quite a few apps with GUIs available for Macs that let you connect various cloud services to upload, download and move files. Most of them are costly. Today I needed to move files from Google Drive to a kDrive, a cloud storage company in Switzerland, Instead of using one of the expensive apps, I opted for a free command utility, rclone, and in just a few minutes initiated a complete transfer of the data on my drive. If you've dealt with cloud storage, including iCloud over the past few versions of macOS, you might agree with me that...

March 28th, 2025 Mac Apps

Cool Tools for Mastodon

When it comes to the new breed of social media, I prefer the federated and independent nature of Mastodon over everything else. I want nothing to do with Threads or anything else tainted by Meta. I like the atmosphere at Bluesky, but we have to face that it is a company founded by a billionaire, funded with venture capital and it's going to be enshittified one day - breaking the heart of millions. Mastodon, on the other hand was founded in Europe and is out of the control of the American fascist movement. Unlike the reality with Blue Sky, you...

March 27th, 2025 Universal Apps

Browser Extensions Are a Secret Weapon

This is a special edition of AppAddict. Tonight, I'm covering one of the best sources of computing functionality that often goes overlooked in the hunt for productivity enhancements and better work flows. There are many browser extensions that replace or enhance apps you use every day. This is my personal aresenal that I use in my daily workflow. A modern Mac is a miraculous machine. My decidedly middle of the road laptop is an M2 with 16GB od RAM. I bought it in December of 2023 and hope to continue using it for years. The number of programs I have...

March 26th, 2025 Mac Apps

KeyKeeper Checks All the Boxes for Tracking Software Licenses

I've been working on getting all my software licensing information into KeyKeeper, an app by the same team that operates Bundlehunt. I've been buying Mac software since the days of the classic OS. Believe it or not, some apps I purchased as far back as 2004 are still functional, requiring the original license ket when I set up a new system. Shout out to SuperDuper! I've used various methods to track licensing information: a spreadsheet, Evernote, an email tag, Obsidian, the freeware app, Licensed All of them are functional enough, but when I saw the features in KeyKeeper, available for...

March 25th, 2025 Mac Apps

iNet Network Scanner

For anyone with a home lab or who is invested in the Internet of Things, the ability to scan your network is a tool that you want in your management arsenal. Additionally, if you live in an urban environment, being able to monitor the devices on your Wi-Fi network is important if you suspect one of your neighbors might be attempting to access anything they shouldn't. iNet Network Scanner from BananaGlue GmbH is a particularly useful tool for anyone with a home network that's heavy on Apple devices. It's scanner can correctly identify laptops, desktops, iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs and...

March 24th, 2025 Mac Apps

UTM for Virtualization

I recently converted my Windows laptop to Ubuntu. I don't rely on Windows for anything personally any longer so I didn't need a dedicated machine for that OS. However, as the extended family tech support guy, there are occasions when I need to use Windows 10 and Windows 11 to troubleshoot issues for my relatives who have yet to see the light and buy a Mac. I relied on Oracle's free VirtualBox for a long time to build VMs and I've had licensed copies of Parallels through work off and on through the years. It's a good product, but not...

March 23rd, 2025 Mac Apps

Koofr - European Based Cloud Storage Provider with a Generous Free Tier

I am in the process of de-Googling. I already moved my email to Fastmail. I changed my default search engine to Kagi. I am moving my photographs to Ente. Today, I took advantage of an ongoing sale at Stack Social to purchase a lifetime deal on 1 TB of cloud storage with the Slovenian company, Koofr For $120. I've been paying a monthly fee for cloud storage for more than 10 years and I'm delighted that is coming to an end. My de-Googling project is based more on my desire to preserve my privacy and protect myself from the US...

March 22nd, 2025 Universal Apps

Zotero as a Free PDF Library Manager

I recently crowd-sourced ideas for a better way to catalog, annotate and search my collected PDFs, mainly software and hardware user manuals with a few odds and ends thrown in. The top suggestions were: • Zotero - the app I chose • DevonThink - expensive when all I want is PDF searches • Eagle Filer - what I've been using, but I want something that is native to Apple silicon, works on IOS and is lightweight as a way to search PDFs only • Paperless-ngx - Interesting, but requires Docker • Obsidia - not suitable because the plugin required for...

March 21st, 2025 Universal Apps

Permissions Reset 2 - Free Troubleshooting Tool

One of the first steps in troubleshooting a misbehaving Mac for many years has been to repair the disk permissions, currently a feature of Disk First Aid, accessed through Disk Utility or the terminal if you are savvy. That can be a bit of overkill if you are primarily concerned with a single file, folder or app, though. it's time consuming and affects your entire drive. If you have files, folders or apps that cannot be opened or files that refuse to have changes saved to them, there is a free tool that can quickly solve the issue if it...

March 20th, 2025 Mac Apps

Setapp Goodness and Tips

Setapp is an app subscription service ($9.99 a month) owned by the Ukrainian company Macpaw. It has approximately 1 million subscribers, which is a good testament to its usefulness. Here are some of the things I've learned in a year and half of being a customer. Unfortunately, Macpaw is a frequent target of Russian trolls because of the ongoing war between the two countries. Macpaw also makes the utility suite, CleanMyMac, which some people confuse with an older Mac malware program, MacKeeper. The two are not related. If you read the tech press, you'll see good reviews of Setapp. If...

March 19th, 2025 Mac Apps

Apps for Photo Archiving Workflow

I'm in the process of removing my data from most of the big US based tech companies in favor or smaller, more privacy focused companies. I do not want my files to be subject to US government subpoenas or other invasive security threats from which Google, Amazon, Meta or Microsoft can profit. I've downloaded my photo backups from Amazon and Google, made local backups and set up a self hosted photo server. I will also be using Ente, a data storage provider using E2E open-source software. When downloading my stored photos, I am dealing with cell phone photos, scanned images,...