AppAddict

Affordable Alternatives to Hazel

Hazel is an automation utility that uses user-defined rules to automatically perform file operations on user-defined folders. It uses a variety of metadata to move, copy, compress, decompress, open, delete, rename, and sort files and folders automatically. My Use Cases• Sorting my documents folder by file type • Renaming my photos by the date taken • Opening DMG files and moving the contents to my Applications folder • Decompressing ZIP and RAR files, and if they contain an app, moving it to the Applications folder • Converting text files to markdown and moving them to the correct folder in Obsidian...

December 15th, 2025 Mac Apps

Parachute Backup - Specially Designed for iCloud and Photos

The difference between a backup service and a syncing service is subtle but important. iCloud keeps the same version of your documents and photos in the cloud and on each of your Mac and iOS devices depending on your settings. That's great until something goes wrong. If you delete a photo on your phone or a file gets corrupted, that change syncs everywhere. The damage spreads instantly because sync’s job is to mirror whatever state your device is in, good or bad. A true backup service works the opposite way. It freezes copies of your data at different points in...

December 14th, 2025 Mac Apps

An Apple Disaster You Can Avoid

I've been on a small crusade for the past year to persuade people who have gone all in on the Apple ecosystem to diversify the back end of their digital lives. Anyone who scoffs at using third-party services for mail, contacts, messages, reminders, cloud storage, music, books, notes, etc. in the name of frugality or out of love for a corporation is putting themselves in a situation that is one step away from a nightmare should they lose access to their Apple ID. Most people think it could never happen to them, but they are wrong. It can happen to...

December 13th, 2025 Universal Apps

How to Get The Most from Raycast

As I enter my third year using Raycast, I'm still impressed with the sheer volume of use cases into which it fits. I’ve been using a keyboard driven application launcher since 2006. For the majority of that time, I was a devout Launchbar fan. installing it on Mac after Mac and dutifully paying for the infrequent upgrades. When I initially heard about Raycast, I wasn’t interested, but the uproar just kept getting louder. Tech bloggers and Reddit sang its praises and kept pointing out new features one after another. I finally relented and downloaded it. Having also tried Quicksilver back...

December 12th, 2025 Mac Apps

PhotoSweeper - Powerful, Adaptable, Affordable One-Time Purchase

In 2025, the world takes more photos in a single day than it used to take in a decade. For most Mac users with an iPhone, this means an ever-increasing Photos library. If you also own a DSLR or use Adobe Lightroom or Capture One and use RAW in your editing process, you can end up with copies all over the place, especially if you make multiple backups. When you eventually get around to bringing order to the chaos, choosing a good duplicate finder is a must. Some popular choices include: • Power Photos - $39.95 for a full suite...

December 11th, 2025 Mac Apps

My Take on Bloom, a Mac File Manager

I've always used a file manager as the center of the way I interact with my computer, much more so than a launcher, dock, or menu-driven UI. I used PathFinder for 17 years before switching to Qspace in 2024. I took advantage of the Black Friday sale on Bloom, a relatively new app, to give it a try. Bloom is a well-designed, affordable app with a lot of promise. It's definitely a tool for advanced users and may be overkill for those who aren't. It's not a Finder clone, so you'll have to reprogram your muscle memory to use it...

December 10th, 2025 Mac Apps

Subscription Update for the Year Ahead

In a move no one could have predicted, I managed to cut my subscription costs this year (by $7). I drastically reduced the number of subscriptions, too. In December of 2024, I had a whopping 55 monthly subscriptions that cost me $193 a month, a number that includes software developers, bloggers I support financially, web hosting companies, network services like my DNS and VPN providers, and pay TV. This year, I managed to pare it down to 43. The Breakdown• Movies and TV: $32.40 a month for Netflix, YouTube Premium, Plex Pass, and Infuse. I don't have cable—I cut that...

December 8th, 2025

A Deep Dive on Eagle Filer

I've built what amounts to a database of my entire digital life stretching back to the early 90s, using the super powers of EagleFiler from C-Command Software and the highly respected, veteran developer, Michael Tsai. EagleFiler is the ultimate everything bucket for my needs. With it I can quickly locate any email, social media post, blog article or work document that I have ever created, plus more. EagleFiler is much faster than Spotlight at finding what I am looking for. It provides a very scalable way to organize, annotate and expand any project. What's in My EagleFiler• Nearly 160K emails...

December 5th, 2025 Mac Apps

AppAddict's Default Tech Stack, Third Edition

This is the third annual edition of my personal tech stack. In 2023, I saw many people talking about their default apps as a result of an episode of the podcast Hemispheric Views.. I learned about a lot of great software that I wasn't familiar with. I wanted to get in on the fun, so I started a blog for that express purpose, and the rest is history. The biggest changes in 2025 happened as a result of cutting ties with Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon. I've tried to move as much of my back end tech stack out of...

December 2nd, 2025 Universal Apps

Update on Options for Updating Apps

With nearly over 500 apps installed on the MacBook I use for testing, keeping everything updated is a daily chore. If I wait a week between scans, I end up with 60-80 available updates to install. Based on my experience, the app updater that catches everything doesn't exist. Historically, the app that does the best job is MacUpdater, but, absent any breaking news, it will become deprecated at the end of December. Today, I ran several updaters on my system to determine how they compared. • Macupdater found 27 available updates. It installed 17 of them automatically and gave me...

December 1st, 2025 Mac Apps

KeyKeeper is The Tool for Tracking Your Software Purchases

If you have been taking advantage of all the Black Friday sales, You've got a bunch of information to track - serial numbers, download links, upgrade policies etc. I keep all my software licensing information in 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 key when I set up a new system. Shout out to SuperDuper! I've used various methods to track licensing information: a spreadsheet,...

November 28th, 2025 Mac Apps

Backup Loupe

Everyone need a backup plan. The more complex your workflow is, the more complex your backup strategy will become. I use a combination of cloud services (Koofr and kDrive) and syncing across multiple devices (two Mac Laptops, two Linux workstations and a self-hosted server/NAS) with FreeFileSync, Syncthing and SmartBackup. But, the base of my plan is the native macOS backup app, Time Machine. An Internet friend recently suggested an addition to my plan, Backup Loupe by Soma-Zone Software, and after evaluating it, I happily paid full price ($33.53) for a license. What It Is, What It DoesBackupLoupe is a “front-end...

November 27th, 2025 Mac Apps

Details on Mega-sale of Daisy Disk, Houdahspot, CleanshotX, Default Folder X, Downie, Marked 2 and more

It's always good to see a sale on popular, well established apps. Today through Friday, you can get a dozen quality Mac user favorites individually for half price or as a total package for $77. I've reviewed a few of these apps before and some of them i use every day. Check the links below to see the reviews. • CleanShotX - $14.50 The go to screen shot app with over 50 features, useful if you are a blogger, need screenshots for work documents or deal with tech support regularly. • Downie - 10 - Downie not only downloads from...

November 26th, 2025

Downie and Permute Both on Sale for Seven Days

Get Them HereDownie If you want to download video from YouTube, there are a variety of ways. There is a Raycast Extension. There is the great free YouTube muti-action app, Freetube. Finally there is Downie from Charlie Monroe. Downie not only downloads from YouTube, Youku, Bilibili and Vimeo it can download from more than 1,000 sites with more being added bi-weekly. You can even write to the developer and request that a site be added and chances are he will act on it. He even offers to help if you run into a problematic video on a site already in...

November 24th, 2025

My Black Friday Wish List

Even before I started writing app reviews, my Applications folder was always bulging because I have a hard time resisting any software that looks interesting or useful. We actually have a Software category in our family's monthly budget. While there is a lot of Mac software, there isn't an infinite supply, and making a wish list for Black Friday sales means there are a lot of apps being discounted that I won't buy because I already own them! So just keep in mind that this list is the most interesting selection from what I don't already have. • CSV Table...

November 23rd, 2025 Mac Apps