DEV Community

Nikita Sobolev
Nikita Sobolev

Posted on

6 mac apps that fit everyone

Originally published in my blog: https://sobolevn.me/2019/07/6-best-mac-apps

You often can see lists of awesome apps that you are not going to use or ones that just do not fit you.

This one is different. This list contains simple, yet very powerful productivity boosters that totally fits everyone.

TLDR: Here's the list of all mac apps I am using, they can be found in my dotfiles with the rest of my setup.

Previous on-topic articles:

  1. Command line productivity
  2. Using better CLIs

Dato

That's a new project from @sindresorhus. It is simple, yet amazing.
For some reason, traditional mac clocks do not show dates and calendar.
So, when someone asks you what date is it today you have to open a calendar app. Seriously?

This app solves it. It is just an improved clock with calendar and timezones.

This is a new app, it was just announced:

You might also want to hide the original clock from your status bar. That's how it can be done.

HazeOver

The next app allows highlighting the currently focused window. It sounds not like much, but the feel from this app is amazing. It works great for both light and dark background. Watch this:

Looks awesome, doesn't it?

OpenInTerminal-Lite

When traveling around your files in Finder you might need to open the current folder inside your Terminal. You can drag-and-drop it to the terminal (which many users do not like) or you can use OpenInTerminal-Lite.

It adds new icons to your Finder to open anything inside your Terminal or Editor with a single click:

OpenInTerminal-Lite

Spectacle

Spectacle allows using keyboard shortcuts to reorganize windows on your desktop.

It is a life-saver for people who have a lot of opened windows and complex workflows. Do you want to have an IDE opened next to your browser? Two key presses. Do you want your terminals sorted? Two key presses.

As simple as that.

Previews

That's a whole set of different Quick Preview plugins in this wonderful repo.

They do amazing things to your Quick Preview, like:

  • Highlights your code code highlight
  • Allows to view image sizes Image size preview
  • Highlights, pretty-prints, and transforms json json highlight

Flux

Should I really mention Flux? Because everyone should already have one installed.

Flux turns your monitor colors to be warm at night. This allows your eyes and brain to rest. Use it!

And you can try the demo look-and-feel online.

What apps do you use? What problems do they solve?
Provide like to your favorite apps and your dotfiles in the comments!

Top comments (20)

Collapse
 
hjnowakowski profile image
Henryk Nowakowski

Thanks Nikita,

From my side, I really like:

Collapse
 
orels1 profile image
orels1

Alfred one love. And Alfred + Dash is even better. That's basically the only way i look for documentation these days. Fast and offline too, which is the best kind!

Collapse
 
jmplourde profile image
Jean-Michel Plourde

Alfred is something I wish linux have. There is Albert, but it's not as nice.

Collapse
 
sobolevn profile image
Nikita Sobolev

Awesome! I have tried Alfred several times, but did not find a good use for it.

And I have never heard about MTMR and Gyazo, will totally check it out. Thanks!

Collapse
 
kyleboe profile image
Kyle Boe

I'll definitely have to check out HazeOver. It seems super rad.

I mentioned a few other tools that I think you'd be a fan of in a similar post I made. Let me know what you think!

Collapse
 
moopet profile image
Ben Sinclair

I use spectacle simply to get "maximize" as a window option, because according to Apple it's simply beyond current technology to allow such an advanced feature.

As for f.lux, MacOS has nightmode (or nightshift? I forget) built in now. I mean, the UX is a bit mysterious and it goes out of its way to hide things in the most outlandish ways, but it does actually work.

Collapse
 
sobolevn profile image
Nikita Sobolev

Apple is known for the best UX possible! Thanks!

Collapse
 
yoanmalie profile image
Yoan Maliรฉ

Thanks! I've just added OpenInTerminal and some preview plugins.โœŒ๏ธ

Since you're on macOS and you maybe use iTerm, did you see my post Get the best out of the Macbook Touchbar with iTerm2. ?

Collapse
 
gab profile image
Gabriel Magalhรฃes dos Santos

Thanks, i love the RazorOver app. The only thing i HATE in Macs is navigation through opened windows. Linux and Windows do a great job with alt+tab command. I've been looking for an app who do the same alt+tab command on Mac, but it's hard to find

Collapse
 
rootfsext2gz profile image
rootfs.ext2.gz

I've been having this same problem, and this morning I found an app that seems to solve this issue: bahoom.com/hyperswitch.

I have installed it this morning and it seems pretty promising, but I'm going to give it a test drive and see if it is any good in the long term.

Collapse
 
daveyjake profile image
Davey Jacobson

Spectacle looks good but I prefer the original, one that's been around much longer and is my absolute go-to for window resizing and management: ShiftIt.

Link: github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt

Collapse
 
dhanushkadev profile image
Dhanushka madushan

So far I did other-way around since I didn't knew OpenInTerminal app. I used terminal to move across folder and open . command to open Finder. I need to try that out.

Collapse
 
mladenm profile image
Mladen Mihajlovic

Yeah I second that. Plus it can show two months at a time which is really useful.

Collapse
 
tmpou1 profile image
Thomas P

I love Dato ! Thanks

Collapse
 
ozzyogkush profile image
Derek Rosenzweig

I've been looking for a good calendar replacement for a while. Thanks!