Feek's macOS useful tools, utilities and applications thread
- Thread starter Feek
- Start date
I haven't really played with workflows as yet (well other than to open a wiki page about pandas), although I have a lot of shortcuts setup for things like:
Date in ISO8601 ; en 2022-11-08
Project notes date/time ; pn 2022-11-08 16:08:38:
Eject everything except local storage ; all (Edited to add goddammit!)
Common username shortcuts setup @@ and 'a letter' for the common usernames across the couple of main accounts I use
Shortcuts for my different email @@ w for the work, @@ p for personal, @@ h for old hotmail etc.
Date in ISO8601 ; en 2022-11-08
Project notes date/time ; pn 2022-11-08 16:08:38:
Eject everything except local storage ; all (Edited to add goddammit!)
Common username shortcuts setup @@ and 'a letter' for the common usernames across the couple of main accounts I use
Shortcuts for my different email @@ w for the work, @@ p for personal, @@ h for old hotmail etc.
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qas
Quit all apps, empty trash and shut down
qar
Quit all apps, empty trash and reboot
b
Open boot applications (Safari, tweetbot, mail, terminal, RDP, etc etc)
m
Open Messages, messenger and Whatsapp
Quit all apps, empty trash and shut down
qar
Quit all apps, empty trash and reboot
b
Open boot applications (Safari, tweetbot, mail, terminal, RDP, etc etc)
m
Open Messages, messenger and Whatsapp
A request for help for a first world problem. After starting up my Mac, there are four remote VMs I need to load accessed via Microsoft Remote Desktop. I'd like to run a script that will load the four VMs up and place them on my desktop each taking up a quarter of the screen. I've tried to use Shortcuts but MRD doesn't have any hooks to open the individual VMs. Quite happy to use another RDP tool if necessary to achieve my aim. But is it possible in the first place?
I've installed Commander One, which is pretty good but expensive, so I was searching for a decent replacement and came across Midnight Commander, a terminal-based equivalent. I have to say it is excellent and supports things like SFTP right in the app, and best of all, it is free.
I'm still learning it, but I'll stick to it as I prefer terminal-based applications.
I'm still learning it, but I'll stick to it as I prefer terminal-based applications.
Soldato
scrcpy
Screen mirroring and control for folk with those dirty peasant Android devices; installs via Homebrew.
Price - FREE.
https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
Screen mirroring and control for folk with those dirty peasant Android devices; installs via Homebrew.
Price - FREE.
https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
Now apple morons have removed the schedule feature from settings I have found this which can put mac to sleep depending on set countdown timer..
sleeptimerapp.com
Sleep Timer
My most commonly used one is https://github.com/LeEnno/alfred-terminalfinder. Use it a lot every day to be honest. I also use Alfred snippets to do text expansion for things I commonly put in client reports. Saves typing out or copy/pasting.
I've tried just about every note-taking app I can find on the Mac, iPad Pro and iPhone, and I keep returning to Microsoft OneNote. It is easy to use, supports the Apple Pencil 2, works on all platforms I need, comes for free with my business Microsoft 365 account and syncs nicely and quickly.
Soldato
I liked Onenote but lack of real off offline backup put me off. Settled on Notion which is great for me.
Yeah, I can see that could be a problem. I'm always near a WiFi hotspot or have my iPhone to tether.
Soldato
WhatsApp Desktop App (Native Beta)
WhatsApp have released a beta version of the native MacOS desktop app which seems to be a lot less resource hogging than the previous Electron based app and, so far, pretty stable.
No ETA yet on an official release.
Price - FREE.
https://faq.whatsapp.com/451924530376167/?locale=en_US&cms_platform=web
(App Download Link)
WhatsApp have released a beta version of the native MacOS desktop app which seems to be a lot less resource hogging than the previous Electron based app and, so far, pretty stable.
No ETA yet on an official release.
Price - FREE.
https://faq.whatsapp.com/451924530376167/?locale=en_US&cms_platform=web
(App Download Link)
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I installed that a fortnight ago and it really annoyed me. When you resize the window, it doesn't persist when you close the app and re-open it. Also, I found the text very small and although you can resize it, again it doesn't persist.
So I tried to report these using the built in bug reporting. Which seemed to work although after a few days, I had an email telling me my email was undeliverable. The inbuilt bug reporting tool actually sends an email to an email address which doesn't exist.
Of course, I couldn't report this because the bug reporting system was broken.
I'll consider switching over to it when it comes out of beta. I can't be dealing with that rubbish!
Soldato
Text resizing seems persistent (between closing and launching) in the latest version but the app window resizing still defaults when launching the app - it's a pain but, i just have it always open so i don't really experience that bug.
Can't say i've bug reported but that's complete turd if that's the case; shame they don't have a repo to fire bug issues to as that would make life a little easier (wouldn't rely on Apple mail accounts either).
Hopefully an official release will be out soon but i'm finding it a lot better than the Electron app which is horrendous (not much better under Windows) and always forced me to opt for the web app.
I've also wanted to use Telegram, but no one uses it, and they won't try it out because "WhatsApp works fine".
Caporegime
Well I never knew Apple News lets you read complete magazines all for the monthly sub price. I got a three month free trial and it seems way better than I was expecting. I thought it was a just a news collating thing and wondered why anyone would pay!
I should probably use it more. I get it as part of Apple One Premier, which I mainly got so I could share with family.
Caporegime
Does anyone know of any route planning apps for iOS? I'm after something where I could just step out my front door and tell it to plot a 5km walk for me. It goes off, plans a 5km route and gives you directions as you go.