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Mail Server

Gmail

★★

I have a feeling that this won’t be on my list for long with the way things are going. I’m sure Google’s going to do something to send me to privately host. But otherwise, it’s perfectly good.

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Mail Client

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Mimestream

★★
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Spark

★★

This is one of those categories in which the right solution is so hard to come by. Apple Mail has never handled snooze the way I expect. Mimestream is perfect on desktop, but I don’t like that it’s exclusive to Gmail and doesn’t have a mobile app. Spark used to be better, but I feel like their focus on AI comes at the expense of features I’d prefer.

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Notes

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Apple Notes

★★★☆

It’s gotten very good! I’m sure that there are features that note-fiends will say are missing, but it hits every note I need.

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To-Do

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Things

★★★

Even when they don’t do something “stock-iOS”, it still feels very “iOS” — minus the settings section. Dock’d a star because you can’t collaborate with others.

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Photo Camera

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Apple Camera

★★★★☆

Strikes the balance I need. I’m impressed with things like Halide, but I am not focused on photography enough to bother.

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Photo Management

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Apple Photos

★★☆☆

Can’t live with it. Can’t live without it. This is one of the more integrated apps on iOS, but is so engrained that competitors don’t exist. Bulk management needs to be rethought. Feels like there’s an opportunity here.

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Calendar

Fantastical

★★★★

Still the king. Amie tries some interesting ideas, but I don’t want to bundle my calendar with to-dos and email. I’m more in the Offspring camp — keep ’em separated.

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Cloud File Storage

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iCloud Drive

☆☆☆☆

Not rated as it’s not something I think about, but I’m sure I should…

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RSS

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Reeder

★★★★

I use the classic version, and I wouldn’t change a thing for how it fits my needs. I can’t think of a single thing that needs improving upon.

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Contacts

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Cardhop

★★★★

On the Mac, I love the menubar app, but my 1 note is that compared to other menubar apps everything feels oversized. Works fantastic, otherwise.

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Browser

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Arc

★★★★
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Safari

★★★☆

I absolutely love the ideas that Arc was regularly bringing and was following their every move. I understand why they’ve chosen to go a different route, but I’m not happy about it. If iOS allowed deeper integration for browsers, I’d likely use that on mobile, too.

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Chat

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Apple Messages

★★★☆

While I use WhatsApp, I can’t stand it and only use it because of people I know outside of the US. I’d much prefer to use Messages exclusively. I like Apple’s focus on it and the yearly updates are solid.

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Bookmarks / Read-it-later

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Arc

★★
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Reeder

★★★★

I don’t understand the need for apps specific to these needs compared to the built in features of the existing apps you are already using. What am I missing that I can’t do in these apps?

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Word Processing

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Pages

★★

I don’t have a strong preference in this space. I mostly spend time in Notes, but if I have to do something meaty, it’ll be in Pages. I’m just happy I’m not using Microsoft products.

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Spreadsheets

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Apple Numbers

★★★☆

I use this because it’s free and does what I need, but I will admit that Excel is the only product from Microsoft Office that deserves praise.

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Presentations

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Apple Keynote

★★

For various roles I’ve held, I’ve done a lot of presentations — Keynote is the best. I’ve gotten great at PowerPoint out of necessity, but I use Keynote if given the opportunity.

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Shopping Lists

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Apple Reminders

★★★☆

I wish tags were something that could be shared in collaborations, but otherwise it’s great.

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Meal Planning

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Crouton

★★

I know that people love Mela, but Crouton is the OG and Devin keeps adding great features. It’s not often I get my wife to actively use an app, but this was an instant hit.

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Budgeting

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One Finance

★★☆☆

I’m still mourning the loss of Simple Bank, but One had promise. Then Walmart bought them. It’s still okay, but I just get too many ads for deals with Walmart.

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News

RSS / Lemmy / Mastodon

☆☆☆☆

This keeps me relatively in the loop — I get news of my choice through RSS, and everything else from what people post. Every now and then I miss stories that travel in right-wing circles, but I catch a lot.

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Music

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Apple Music

★★★☆
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Sleeve

★★

I like Apple Music, but I feel that for a company that makes Mac Apps, it feels too “web” for my tastes. Sleeve is a great companion app that has a ton of customization.

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Podcasts

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Castro

★★★☆

I try other podcast apps, but I keep coming back to Castro. The way they handle the queue is what I need

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Passwords

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Apple Passwords

★★★☆

I was really happy they made this a separate app in the latest round of OS updates. Having it in my menubar is perfect. I choose this over the other password managers because of it’s OS level integration.

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IDE

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Nova

★★

I’m not a programer by trade, but I did this site by hand and ported it to WordPress to be the CMS — so I have a limited take on what an IDE should be. That said, it’s great and I love it.

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Design

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Figma

★★
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Sketch

★★

Figma has become the juggernaut of the UI industry, partly because of the constant innovations they’re bringing to the table, but mostly because it’s cross-platform. Sketch is going to struggle to keep up, but I love the fight in them and that they’re “mac-assed“.

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DAW

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Logic Pro

★★★☆

Naturally, I gravitate towards things that feel natively Mac, so I land here over ProTools and Ableton.

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Music Practice

Capo

★★★☆

I use it frequently when I get a gig with complex parts, but it hasn’t been updated in a long time.

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Social

Icon for Ivory

Ivory

★★
Icon for Voyager

Voyager

★★

Because I’m a sucker for great software, once Twitter and Reddit swore off third-party clients, I jumped ship and won’t do corporate social media again. Ivory is fantastic, and Voyager seems like it’s lost some steam. I’d love to see it handle video much better.

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Weather

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Apple Weather

★★★☆

Since they’ve integrated the Dark Sky features, I’m really impressed with the stock weather app. I enjoy Carrot weather, but not enough to switch.

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Media Reference

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Callsheet

★★★☆

Like IMDB, but without the noise. Lots of great features — and I love the integration with Plex when it runs well (which it often doesn’t).

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Media Management

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Sequel

★★

I have this mapped to Trakt, which maps to my Plex server and Sonarr / Radarr. It’s very well designed and the “share sheet” integration is magic. (needs to be on MacOS)

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Media Player

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Plex

★★
Icon for Iina

Iina

★★

I’ve been a Plex user for about 15 years, and it’s crazy how far it’s come. And I like the moves they’ve been making. Iina really came out of nowhere for me. I was a VLC guy, but the amount of polish in this is impressive.

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Media Management

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Ruddarr

★★★☆

This one just started, and is a well-designed interface to Sonarr / Radarr. They need to rethink the UX on the calendar, though.

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VNC

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Screens

★★

Really well polished software. Great way to tunnel in from my phone (and laptop) and get things done.

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SFTP

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Transmit

★★

Easily the oldest continuous use of a software product that I still actively use (since ’98!). It’s as impressive today as it was then.

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Maps

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Apple Maps

★★★☆

I know it’s almost blasphemy to some that I don’t use Google Maps, but there’s too much noise for me in Google Maps and the results now are just as good. I just wish I could share and collaborate on my guides.

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Shipment Tracking

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Deliveries

★★

I know everyone is using Parcel, but even though they seem so similar in the feature sets, I’ve loved the design of Deliveries.

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Time Wasiter

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Threes

★★

I’ve spent more time on this game than any other, and still play it daily until I at least get a 1536. I haven’t looked in a long time, but I used to be raked #144 in the world and still feel proud of that.