AppAddict
I'm an incurable software collector and enjoy few things more than downloading and exploring new apps. If you've got the same bug, check here for suggestions.
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Picocrypt - Free and Open-Source File Encryption with Simple but Powerful Features

The threat from bad actors who seek to access and exploit user data increases every year. The list includes for-profit gangs, unscrupulous developers, the world's largest social media companies and repressive governments. The information they could potentially use includes, but isn't limited to, financial records, political or social organizing records, medical records, blackmail material, passwords and personal communications. Those who seek to access your data have increasingly sophisticated methods of bypassing weak security. A small but powerful free and open-source utility, Picocrypt, weighing in at only 3MB provides easy to use encryption that is powerful enough to withstand attacks from...

Inoreader RSS Gets New Features

Inoreader, the RSS app and service provider, got some new features today with the release of a new browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. • Save and organize content: Collect web pages and social media posts and tag them as you send them to Read later. • Annotate while you browse: Mark and annotate texts directly in your browser, then revisit your notes anytime in Inoreader. • Stay on top of your feeds: Monitor account activity, feeds, tags, and Team channels -- all without switching tabs. • Streamline article sharing: Share content to Team channels or set up rules...

How to Get a Word Count for Any Folder in Your Obsidian Vault

A Python script that will count the words in a folder of markdown files. #Obsidian #ObsidianMD #PKM I use Obsidian to write a minimum of three blog posts every day as well as technical documents for my job.  Of course, I also compose and edit notes in it too. At the end of 2024, I was curious to see how many words I'd written on each blog during the year. Unfortunately, I could not find a plugin that could do this, but I suspected that Python probably could. After working on it for a while with the help of Google...

Nominations for Obsidian Gems of the Year for 2024

These are the different categories and the products nominated by the community for the 2024 Obsidian.md Gems of the Year, an annual tradition on Discord. Have fun investigating the favorite new and existing complements to what, I think, is the best app to come along since the invention of the browser.  1. Best content 2. Best template 3. Best tool 4. Best existing plugin 5. Best LLM integration 6. Best third-party integration 7. Best new theme 8. Best new plugin Best content • 🇦 Arabic Obsidian Crash Course — by Khaled Mohamed • 🇧 Bag of Tips YouTube — by...

Apps for Trakt

The extensible tracking service, Trakt, for keeping up with your TV and movie watching habits has been around a while. You can use Trakt in a browser, but It has an API that allows app developers to incorporate the Trakt database into their products. Recently, Trakt got a significant new feature with the introduction of scrobbling, the automatic addition of shows watched to your personal database from five of the largest streaming services: • Netflix • Max • Hulu • Amazon Prime • AppleTV+ It also added scrobbling from several popular media centers and players, like Plex, Kodi and VLC...

Using Obsidian and Drafts Together

When using a Mac for writing, I'm all in on the notes app Obsidian, a plain text/Markdown editor. With it, I use various plugins to create a personalized workspace that provides me with all the tools I want. I use • The editing toolbar • Better word count • Reading lever indicator • Language Tool, a freemium grammar checker • Paste URL into selection On iOS, however, I prefer to write using Drafts, also a plain text tool, but one designed as a temporary holding spot until the text is moved to its final home. Drafts has an online directory...

SnapMotion - High Quality Image Captures from Video, Made Easy

Trying to capture high-quality images from a video can be a frustrating and time-consuming ordeal, requiring the use of multiple apps , the limitations of your screenshot utility, inexact dimensions and extra post-production work. Or you could just use SnapMotion from developer Needed Apps.. SnapMotion can load and play any video format compatible with Apple's QuickTime Player: MPEG-4, HEVC and MPEG-2, MPEG-4, HEVC, H.264, H.263, H.261, Apple Pro Res, DV, Motion JPEG. It can easily handle 4K and 8K videos without bogging down. To use the app, you can load a video from one of three sources: • A file...

Quick Tips for App Installation Using Hazel

In this post, I show you how to automate the installation of Mac apps in the two post popular formats ZIP and DMG, so that all you have to do is download a file from a developer's website and with no further action from you, the app will end up in your Applications folder just like if you'd downloaded it from the App Store. Typically, when you download a Mac app from a developer's website, it will come in one of three formats 1. ZIP Archive 2. DMG Disk Image 3. PKG - Package Installer (requires manual installation) You can...

Facescreen - Useful Add-on for Screencasting and Presentations

I often have to create screen recordings on my job to distribute to the people I support for tutorials. Occasionally I do screen sharing through Microsoft Teams when conducting training. Facescreen, a utility from developer Ram Patra, provides a useful complement to these use cases. It adds a feed from my webcam with a small configurable view of my face to personalize the video. In addition to the image, Facescreen also lets me add text, such as my email or a website related to the subject of the tutorial or training. It's a nice professional touch. Facescreen, like other apps...

Disk Drill Revisited - Recovering 87K Files from a Drive That Finder Could Not Read

I first wrote about Disk Drill several months ago. The review is below. I recently had a chance to put the paid version of the data recovery tools to work in a real-world situation. I was presented with a 2TB NTFS formatted drive that would mount on my Mac, but displayed the message "Drive not available" and showed no files structure in the Finder. The drive belonged to a relative who lost access to her cloud account when switching jobs and ended up with only one copy of her files from a 20-year career - on a bad drive. Disk...

Using Google Photos on iOS Makes Leaving Meta Easier

If you've had enough of corporate owned social media, specifically Facebook and Instagram, and are investigating how to preserve your photographic memories, the quickest and easiest way, if you have space available, is to transfer them to Google Photos. You can do it from your iPhone. 1. Click the plus button at the top of the screen 2. Then click "Import from other places" 3. Select Facebook and when you authenticate, you will be offered the opportunity to import from your Instagram account(s) as well. Other Reasons to use Google Photos for iOS1. Cross-platform support - if you use both...

Recent Additions at MacMenuBar

One of the websites that stay open in my browser at all times is MacMenubar.com. It's a deep resource for new Mac apps in multiple categories. It currently features links and short descriptions to over 1,000 applications. Here's a list of the latest additions and links to all the different types of apps on the site. • Kleanly - Clean your Mac's keyboard, trackpad and display - With just a tap, Kleanly lets you completely disable your keyboard and trackpad, allowing you to clean them without turning your Mac off. • Trace - This menu bar app tracks the active...

FSNotes - A Free and Open-Source Successor to NValt

FSNotes is a plain text note editor with the two-pane interface of Brett Terpstra's classic Nvalt, which ceased development in 2017. FSNotes has an extensive feature set for run-of-the-mill notes and for developers. If you have an existing folder of plain text or Markdown notes, you can access them from FSNotes by moving or copying the files to the default folder or by changing the path to the folder you are already using. There are built-in keyboard shortcuts for searching your notes database, creating a new note from the clipboard contents and for creating new notes. You can choose a...

Unsplash Wallpaper App - Free Unlimited Wallpapers at Your Fingertips

Unsplash is one of the largest providers of royalty-free images in the world. Without an account, you can search for, download and use any one of the millions of photographs on the site. For photography fans or anyone who enjoys aesthetically pleasing wallpapers, Unsplash provides a free app to cycle the wallpaper on your displays at regular intervals: hourly, daily, weekly. You can also manually cycle in a new image. When using the manual settings, the app has a built-in viewer so you can see a reasonably sized thumbnail preview of the available images. The selected image is downloaded to...

Background Music - Per App Volume Control and More

When I am at work, I like to leave my system volume setting in the midrange. I want to be able to hear incoming mail alerts and calls on Microsoft Teams. What I expressly do not want is have anything from YouTube, or any other website suddenly playing through my iMac speakers. At home, I like to have music playing and I appreciate the convenience of having it stop and restart automatically if I decide to watch a video. The free app, Background Music can handle both of these tasks. You can set the volume for any app to a...