AppAddict

Sensei - Do You Need It?

When it comes to Mac utilities, there are things that are helpful to have, but that are not absolutely required. Many of the "nice to have" features can be gained through installing various free, well regarded applications. For people who don't want the hassle of assembling a toolkit piece by piece, there are apps like Sensei by Cindori Software, for optimization and information. Sensei Features vs. Free Alternatives• Hardware monitoring of CPU, GPU, RAM, temps, storage and battery. A free alternative is Stats • Cleaning of old caches, logs, big downloads and leftover installation files. A free alternative is Onyx...

March 16th, 2025 Mac Apps

SiteSucker for Mac - Affordable and Powerful

Today I downloaded and tested an app that's been on my radar for a while, SiteSucker for Mac by developer Rick Cranisky.. You can give this app a top level URL, specify how many layers deep you want to go and it will download an entire web site, complete with supporting files like images and style sheets. It has regex filters for anything you want to exclude. After I ran it the first time, I read the error log and excluded the site that was causing issues and it ran much better after that. SiteSucker has been under continuous development...

March 15th, 2025 Mac Apps

CharmBar - Easy Dock Customization

Like many Mac users, I enjoy customizing the look of my operating system. I particularly like the look of older, vintage icons from Mac history, having spent a lot of memorable and enjoyable times on older machines. There are several apps that let you make changes to program icons, Replacicon is a well known example, but Apple made it hard to alter systems icons, Don't like the Finder face? Tough. Apple wants you to have it. Enter CharmBar, a delightful little app from kepler.cafe, makers of DockDoor, another well thought out app that gives you Window previews when you hover...

March 14th, 2025 Mac Apps

New File Finding App, Cling, Is Not Everything

I recently saw a new Mac file finding app, Cling, announced on Macupdate and Thriftmac. The description of the app said that it brings fuzzy search to a utility with a GUI. Searches with partial or misspelled file names are promised to work. The developer's website states that the app is designed to be similar in function to the legendary Windows file finding utility, Everything, which is indeed, one of the best file finding apps I have ever used. I've installed it for many users who needed to search network drives containing thousands of files. I read the documentation on...

March 13th, 2025 Mac Apps

In Search of the Perfect Quotes App

I have collected quotes for years, using various apps, Obsidian Notes, spreadsheets and Google Docs. I am still in search of the elusive perfect, feature packed app. Here's what I would like the app to be able to do. Features I Want• Import from a spreadsheet containing the quote, author, source, tag(s), date collected • iCloud or other reliable syncing mechanism • Export individual quotes in a format suitable for social media • Universal (Mac and iOS) • Automatic import of author pictures and biographies from Wikipedia or other source • Share sheet in and out • Searchable by tag...

March 12th, 2025 Universal Apps

Swinsian Music App - The Answer to Feature Bloat

Swinsian is an app for playing music that ticks every box in what a Mac based music player for local libraries should be. I can think of no other app that exemplifies bloat like Apple's Music app, a product desgned not for ease of use, but for maximization of revenue. Someone in Cupertino decided that none of us who had massive, carefully tagged collections of music files collected over the years deserved an app to make thge best use of our tunes. They decided we' were just going to stream and that we were going to be happy doing it....

March 11th, 2025 Mac Apps

If You Need to Bake a Cake - Get Mela Recipe Manager

I've got cake on the brain today, for some reason... I've extensively tested four different recipe management apps, all available in the App Store: • Paprika • Anylist • Crouton • Mela All of them are quality apps and they are not mirror images of each other. Anylist, for example has helpful features unrelated to groceries or cooking. It, along with Crouton, is a subscription app. Paprika is a one time purchase of $29.99. Mela, my pick for recipes, is only $9.99. The developer, Silvio Rizzi, is also responsible for the popular RSS app Reeder Classic and the chronological timeline...

March 10th, 2025 Universal Apps

Time Based App Launchers

Every night my Obsidian Vault is synchronized to a folder on Dropbox. I use an app called Sync Folders Pro, in which you can schedule tasks. The only problem is that in order for the task to run, the app must already be launched. There's no way I can remember to launch it when I'm done using my computer for the day, so I had to find a way to have it launched for me prior to the time the task is supposed to run. I chose Keyboard Maestro to do it for me, since Keyboard Maestro can also quit...

March 9th, 2025 Mac Apps

Using Joplin as a Reference Tool

Joplin is a free and open-source notes app. It's available for Macs, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. You can pay for Joplin E2E encrypted synchronization on its servers which are located in France for those looking to avoid US based cloud computing companies who are cooperating with the government. You can also use DIY synchronization on other cloud accounts, like Dropbox or iCloud. My use case for Joplin is single purpose. After using Evernote from 2009-2023, I exported my data into ENEX files and closed my account due to its exorbitant pricing. I wanted a way to access that information...

March 8th, 2025 Universal Apps

My Favorite iOS Time Killers

When you have a lot of time to kill and nothing but your phone, what apps do you turn to as time killers? My wife is running a 10-hour race this weekend. As usual, I'll be there as her crew, filling her water bottles, handing her food and bandaging blisters in short little bursts of time every hour. The rest of the time, I'll be left with just my phone as entertainment. Unfortunately for me, I don't game. Confessions of a Non-Gamer I'm also not one to watch movies on a phone. After a few YouTube videos, I start to...

March 7th, 2025

Local Send - Easy to Set Up and Easy to Use

I am in the early stages of setting up a home network environment consisting of three Macs, a Windows 11 Thinkpad, an Ubuntu 24 Thinkpad, two iPads, an Android tablet and two iPhones. The quickest and easiest way to move files between all these devices has proven to be the free and open-source app, Local Send. As long as all of the devices are on the same wireless network and not logged into a VPN, all I have to do is make sure the app is running on each one to send files. The settings on the Mac app are...

March 6th, 2025 Universal Apps

Cog - Free and Open-Source Local Only Music Player

Cog is a free and open-source music player that can read and display metadata from dozens of formats, including AAC, MP3, ALAC, FLAC, Ogg, and WMA. It features playlists, ratings and a mini player. No data from the app is sent to the Internet. Your listening habits don't become data for some privacy sucking mega-corporation. In the spirit of detaching from big tech as much as possible, I looked for a full-featured music player for my collection of songs and albums in various formats. I needed something robust enough to handle over 30K files without choking. Since the songs in...

March 5th, 2025 Mac Apps

My App Wishlist

I spend a fair amount of time looking for apps to test and review. While, I seem to concentrate heavily on apps for macOS, I am also fascinated by the solutions developers come up with to get tasks done on the iPhone and iPad. I keep running lists of candidates for AppAddict and for my personal use. I'm sharing this today and hoping to hear back from folks who have opinions on the apps on this list or suggestions for alternatives. Let me know, pro or con, what you think about these. • Usage Device Monitor - Usage is a...

March 4th, 2025 iOS Apps

Using Kagi Search Engine on a Mac - Software and Tips

For those not familiar with it, Kagi is a subscription based, no-ads, privacy-focused search engine that provides an extreme level of customization. Unlike DuckDuckGo, which relies on Bing for most of its results, Kagi has its own scraper and while it does make API calls to other search engines, it is not totally reliant on them. Understandably, not everyone needs or wants to pay for privacy, but for people in vulnerable communities or who are politically active in ways that aren't supporting their nation's current government, it is a valuable resource. Privacy PassKagi recently released Privacy Pass, " a privacy...

March 3rd, 2025 Mac Apps

Lots of Updates from Sindre Sorhus

Whether you know who Sindre Sorhus is or not you still may be using one of his many popular and mostly free apps. Sindre is a full-time open-source developer currently based in Thailand who is responsible for more than 1,000 packages at npm, the world's largest software directory. In his spare time (LOL) he creates wonderful macOS and iOS apps. He's recently been on a tear with updates, adding new features and dealing with bugs. A couple of apps that used to be free are now paid because of the support demands, according to Sorhus. Most of his recent updates...

March 2nd, 2025 Mac Apps