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I’ve found a few great Mac apps this year that have really made a big impact on me. I’m sharing some of my favorites here, but I also wanted to give a shout-out to the Hiro Report, which is probably how I found half the apps here. Okay, lets go.
Yoink is like a little shelf for your files. Rather than copying/pasting files, you can drag them to Yoink’s “shelf” on the side of the screen, then grab them when you are ready. It’s really hard to describe the use case for Yoink, but I really can’t overestimate how useful it’s been for me personally. Along with making it easy to grab files and move them somewhere else, Yoink has also solved a ton of other problems that I never would have expected. For example, I like to upload videos to social media, but if I drag a video file from iPhoto onto a webpage, it often ends up as a static jpeg instead of a video. In the past, I had to drag the video onto my desktop, then drag the desktop file onto the website, and then delete the video from my desktop. Now I can drag the file into Yoink, then drag it back out into a webpage, and I don’t have to worry about filling my desktop with unnecessary videos.
CompressX is a quick and easy way to reduce video and image file sizes. I use this tool a lot when sharing media to Mastodon or my own website. Gotta keep them file sizes small. Similar to Yoink, CompressX has an area near the edge of your screen where you can quickly drop any file and have it compressed. The developer is very active in maintaining this tool and it’s a one time purchase. There’s a Black Friday code for 30% off this weekend. Use code: BF24
If you have multiple social media accounts, Croissant is a smooth way to simultaneously post to Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky. Unfortunately, this tool is only available on iPhone, which is a shame because I’m most often posting from my laptop. Writing posts on my phone stinks, and the price is pretty high (a recurring monthly charge of $2.99), but Croissant is a real lifesaver if you are posting alt-text on multiple images and don’t want to have to repeat the process on different platforms.
Speaking of multiple social networks, OpenVibe is a tool that puts all of your social media into one single feed. It works for Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, and Nostr and is available for Mac, iOS, or Android. I know a lot of folks complain about there being “too many social networks,” but I honestly think “too many” is a better scenario than “one big social network that can be bought and ruined by a stupid fucking billionaire.” I’m on all the social networks for now, and I think a tool like OpenVibe can be useful for creating a centralized feed from uncentralized sources. Since OpenVibe is free and it allows you to create one post and share it across multiple social media platforms, it’s probably a good alternative to Croissant.
Paprika is a recipe app that my friends were raving about, so I picked it up on sale. If you like saving recipes you find online, this is a great tool. If you drop the URL of a recipe into Paprika, it will save that recipe into an easy-to-read and consistent format. I bought the desktop app and the iOS app because I often save recipes from my laptop but then refer to them on my iPhone while I’m cooking. I can’t say I’d pay the full price for the desktop app (normally $30), but I think it’s worth picking up for $15 on sale. Paprika is available on Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android and is currently on sale for about 50% off on all platforms.
I really can’t say enough about this art app for the iPad. The developers have kept the price fair while giving the users what they want and promising to never add any gimicky AI tools to it. I’m really happy to support developers like this and I can’t recommend Procreate highly enough. A bargain at $12.99.
Speaking of developers I support, Affinity are awesome. After years of watching Adobe rip-off their customer base, I finally decided to find alternative tools to all of my Adobe tools. Affinity makes wonderful art apps for Mac and iOS. Plus, they respect their customers! Switching tools isn’t easy, but once you learn how to use Affinity’s tools (Designer, Photo, and Publisher), you’ll be glad you switched. You can use them on your iPad or Mac pretty seamlessly, and there are no recurring fees. They are currently running a 50% sale, so pick them up now and ditch Adobe. I haven’t used Photoshop in over a year now, and I’m never going back.
Non-app (honorable Mentions)
Tourbox is a standalone input device for creatives. It can be used for drawing apps, music tools, photo editing, etc. It’s like a miniature keyboard that was designed specifically for the programs you use most often. I mostly use mine for editing videos in CapCut. Tourbox has an app that you can use to create customized keyboard settings for any program. I’ve set mine up specifically for the way I like to edit videos. It works so well that I can easily edit videos without ever using my actual keyboard. I can scroll through the video, zoom in and out, splice, cut/paste, play/stop, and more all from the Tourbox. If you use one program a lot, you’ll really enjoy having a customized keyboard like this. If you only use apps for short periods, this may not speed up your workflow as much. I own a TourBox Elite, which is the cheapest of their Bluetooth models, but the Neo is a good deal if you don’t mind using a cable. The TourBox Elite Plus is an upcoming unit that can be used with a laptop or iOS, which could be useful in combination with artist tools like Procreate or Affinity Design on your ipad. All TourBox devices are currently on sale at 20% off.
Wrapping up
Those are my favorite apps of the year. Most of them are made by independent developers and I’m really happy to support them. Few of them are even free. If you have suggestions, maybe something I left off, please drop them in the comments below. I’d love to hear them, especially if they’re Mac or iPad, because that’s what I use, but feel free to share the love for anybody who you think deserves it.
And I wanted to mention, nobody asked me to share a link for them, and there’s no affiliate links. These are all genuine recommendations of apps that I love and have been using a lot this year. Not just on Black Friday.
The post my favorite Mac and iOS Apps 2024 appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.
hey look, a 
pun). Check them out below!
the Godot post some gamers are pretending to be mad about
), so they dragged Godot into their bullshit culture war. When you watch these anti-Godot videos on youtube, where they talk about this single tweet for 15 minutes without actually showing it, it’s because they know how stupid this whole thing is. Trying to cancel Godot because of this tweet is as stupid as trying to roll your own game engine from scratch. Good luck with that. 
