Apps designed for the Mac often don’t receive as much attention as apps made for iOS devices, so we have a series here at MacRumors that’s designed to highlight useful and interesting Mac apps that are worth checking out and potentially investing in.
This month’s picks include apps for sharing files, organizing web apps, monitoring internet traffic, fixing repeating keys on a broken MacBook keyboard, and quickly pairing your AirPods to your Mac. Many of the apps we’re highlighting this month were chosen by our MacRumors forum members.
- CloudApp (Free) – CloudApp is a handy app that lets you share files, screenshots, videos, screen recordings, and more, via the cloud. You can drag a file into CloudApp and it’ll be uploaded to the cloud and copied to your clipboard so you can paste the file into Slack, email, Messages, or elsewhere. You can annotate screenshots and files, making it a great way to communicate when collaborative editing is needed. CloudApp is free, but premium tiers with additional features are available starting at $10/month or $8/month on an annual plan.
- Little Snitch ($45) – Little Snitch monitors all of the traffic on your Mac so you can see what apps are sending data, and where. It basically makes all of your Internet connections visible and gives you control over them, letting you approve or restrict what’s being sent from your Mac. There’s a world map so you can see where connections are being made, and there are modes for getting instant notifications or letting it run in the background.
- Stack (Free) – Stack is a Mac app that’s sort of an internet launchpad for web apps, describing itself as an "internet OS." It houses all the websites you might want to keep tabs on like Facebook, Messenger, Gmail, Slack, and more, keeping them in one convenient place. You can organize your different apps into categories, and the app provides unified notifications so you don’t miss anything.
- Unshaky (Free) – Unshaky is not an Apple-sanctioned app, and that’s because it’s meant to fix a major Apple problem – the faulty MacBook Pro keyboard. Unshaky is designed for people who have keys where the letters repeat, as it’s able to detect the extra presses and eliminate them. We haven’t tried this app ourselves because we don’t have a keyboard with repeating letters, but it has positive reviews as a temporary fix from those who are having issues. If you have a repeating key you’ll need to get a repair from Apple, but this can help while you wait.
- AirBuddy ($5) – AirBuddy is a Mac app for the AirPods. It lets you pair your AirPods to your Mac the same way you do on your iPhone – just by opening up the AirPods case next to your Mac and then clicking. It’s super simple, but if you use your AirPods with your Mac often, it’s invaluable. A Batteries Notification Center widget on Mac displays AirPods battery life, charging case battery life, and the battery life of your Mac. The AirBuddy app works with Macs that support Bluetooth LE, which is all modern machines.
If you have a favorite must-have Mac app that we haven’t highlighted yet, let us know in the comments, and we might feature it in a future video. Many of this month’s app picks came directly from recommendations from our forum members, and it’s these recommendations that have helped make this series useful.
For more of our Mac app picks, make sure to check out our Mac app archives.
This article, "Five Mac Apps Worth Checking Out – April 2019" first appeared on MacRumors.com
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