With the year coming to a close, I had an idea on sharing the apps that I use to be creative and have helped me craft new things this year. I hope you find an app or two on this list that can help you love your Mac!
Got apps in your dock that you think should be on mine for next year? Drop me a line on Twitter @64bitjoe.
Authy
Free by: Twillo
This app is probably the most important on my list. It’s my two-factor authentication manager of choice. It syncs its data via the cloud. The only drawback as I see it is the lack of an Apple Watch complication for the watch face. I may in the new year look to migrate to a new app but for now, it is my old faithful.
Home App
Free By: Apple
Homekit support runs deep in my apartment. From the Nanoleaf Shapes, to my smart and Apple TV’s, to my HomePods and security cameras. Apple Brought the Home app to the Mac in macOS Mojave using Catalyst. Yeah, it has its problems... But is so convenient to use.
Magnet
Paid ($2.99USD/One Time) By: CrowdCafe
A great little background App to help organize open screens on your desktop, adding a aero snap feature circa Windows Vista to mac. That is the one feature that I love from Windows..
Sketch
Paid ($99USD/Annual) By: Sketch
This is one of my favorite apps of all time. I will frequently do much of my design work in Sketch, Most of the time I will even include my sketch files in my Git repos, for easy tracking and continuity. Sketch is a fantastic Image manipulation and editor. It has so many awesome features like prototyping flow of your projects various art boards.
Xcode
Free By: Apple
So much to say about Xcode, as many of you know, it’s the app that is used in developing for Apple platforms. Love it or hate it is something that is chock full of major surprises and convenient tools to make being an Apple developer easier!
A 2021 New Year Resolution is to learn how to use SwiftUI. Should be a fun adventure with the help of Paul from Hacking With Swift.
SF Symbols
Free By: Apple
This allows you to View/ Manipulate a list of curated first party glyphs that adhere to the Human Interface Guidelines.
Feedback assistant
Free By: Apple
This is a fantastic tool for filing feedback /bug reports for apple software developers. I am frequently reporting unexpected behavior I find in various beta OS builds. Sometimes if I'm feeling really brave I will "live on" the beta build for my daily use iPhone. It definitely can cause some issues. But it brings me joy to know that I am helping to support the great software from Apple. Keep calm and file a Radar!
Atom
Free By: GitHub - Open Source
This app is super important to my endeavors in web development! It is my go-to HTML, Markdown, and JSON editor. It is so useful in so many aspects of development and efficient file editing, it's almost like a Swiss army knife.
Transmit
Paid ($45USD One time payment.) By: Panic!
This is my FTP client of choice to manage server-side data and has some really tools built-in, with batch renaming, item inspector, easy SSH key management. Transmit is also performance focused and has great support for multiple server styles such as Amazon S3, Google Drive, and Microsoft Azure.
Slack
Free By: Slack
Slack is a super powerful messaging application that is focused on work productivity. Personally, I use it for managing notifications from my local server and an Indie-dev community.
Setapp
Paid ($9.99USD/Monthly) By: MacPaw
The Netflix of apps! One reasonably monthly fee provides users access to tons of premium apps, and they are adding more all the time! Here is just a sample of some that I use:
Bartender
Paid (Included in Setapp) By: Surtees Studios
This is the best way to clean up the apps that like to pile up in the menu bar. You can additionally set rules on when items hide from view, like if you get an important update from Adobe Cloud but don’t want to look at the icon all the time. Hide it after 10 seconds.
iStat menus
Paid (Included in Setapp) By: Bjango
iStat menus allows me to keep all of the major performance metrics of my computer available at a glance, such as CPU and RAM usage, along with battery charge levels and so many other useful bits to help diagnose slowness.
Screens
Paid (Included in Setapp) By: Edovia
This is a fantastic app that allows you to remote into other computers over a network. I use it to manage my Home Server Mac. This makes it possible to run a server without forcing me to interact with the physical hardware. Think smarter, not harder I guess. 🤷🏻♂️
OpenEmu
Free By: OpenEmu - Open Source
Fabulous emulation goodness! This app allows you to emulate a massive amount of ROMs with phenomenal quality. It provides a fun way to emulate a series of games, such as SuperMario64 with fantastic Bluetooth controller support! Thank you for the great App OpenEmu Team!
Disclaimer
These are apps that I use daily or almost daily. Your mileage may vary. None of these applications have been provided by these companies for review or promotion. Just some awesome apps that I want to share and give some love to 🙂! Additionally, screenshots were taken by me for the demonstration. Each app icon, and the App Store menu, is the property of either Apple or the individual app developers.
