My Mac app gold star list

A list of the apps I immediately install on any Mac I own!

I have a full Google Sheet here, and I've just done an audit for 2024!

My other stuff:

Shortcuts for iOS and watchOS here (free ofc)

My collection of free design references, resources, and more here

🖱️ Workflow

App name	Description	Link
`Raycast`	A much better Spotlight, with lots of 3rd party integrations	External Site - Raycast
`shottr`	Great screenshots and OCR text	External Site - shottr
`Rocket`	Type emojis using a colon (:) anywhere e.g. `:rocket:` = 🚀	External Site - Matthew Palmer
`MeetingBar`	A menubar utility that shows your next meeting, lets you automate auto-joining, and create instant meetings	App Store - MeetingBar
`UTM`	Securely run operating systems on your Mac in virutal machines	External Site - UTM
`VMware Fusion Pro`	Now free for personal use - run virtual machines on your Mac to securely emulate macOS, Windows, and Linux	External Site - VMware Fusion Pro
`Notion Calendar`	A really good, free calendar!	External Site - Notion

App name	Description	Link
`Ice`	A better way to hide menu bar icons (with options for a bar below menu bar!) See alternatives here	GitHub - Ice
`Stats`	View stats about your system including CPU, remaining battery etc in your menu bar (like iStats)	Github - Stats
`The Unarchiver`	The best tool for opening .zip/.rar/.7z files	App Store - The Unarchiver
`Amphetamine`	Keep your Mac awake - even MacBooks with their lids closed!	App Store - Amphetamine
`DockDoor`	Preview your open windows by hovering apps in your dock	Github - DockDoor

App name	Description	Link
`Arc`	The browser I use for all work stuff - Chromium and just innovative in every way	External Site - The Browser Company
`Firefox`	Open source, fast, and privacy focused; you know what this is!	External Site - Mozilla
`Velja`	The only way to juggle Safari and Arc in the best way - choose where links and apps open!	App Store - Velja

App name	Description	Link
`Sublime Text`	A lightweight, really nice text editor	External Site - Sublime Text
`Visual Studio Code`	A good place to code, especially for a newbie like me	External Site - Visual Studio (Microsoft)
`Amazon Q`	Turn off data sharing* Autocomplete for terminal, from AWS (requries a free AWS account)	External Site - Amazon AWS

* In the Amazon Q app, go to Preferences > Advanced and turn off 'Share Amazon Q content with AWS' and 'Telemetry' More info: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/qdeveloper-ug/opt-out-IDE.html

App name	Description	Link
`Lossless Swticher`	Switches your current audio device's sample rate to match the lossless song on your Apple Music app, automatically	Github - Lossless Switcher
`Shazam`	Click the menu bar to find out what song is playing around you, or set it to just identify everything playing around you	App Store - Shazam
`Shazam Scrobbler`	Integrates with Shazam to scrobble everything (works great with auto shazam) that's playing around you	External Site - Shazam Scrobbler
`NepTunes for last.fm`	The last.fm app is really bad on Mac — here’s a better one!	App Store - NepTunes

App name	Description	Link
`VLC`	The go to for playing anything that doesn't play in QuickTime, including conversion	External Site - VideoLAN
`HandBrake`	Convert video to any media (finally out of beta!)	External Site - HandBrake

App name	Description	Link
`Bitwarden`	The best free password manager in my opinion, I use it in conjunction with iCloud Passwords	External Site - Bitwarden

App name	Description	Link
`ImageOptim`	Strip out non-essential data in images and reduce their file sizes, or enable minification to compress them	External Site - ImageOptim

App name	Description	Link
`Notion`	Notes but on a different level - my life is here!	External Site - Notion

App name	Description	Link
`Onyx`	General maintenance tasks for your Mac	External Site - Titanium Software
`AppCleaner`	Fully uninstall apps	External Site - FreeMacSoft
`Grand Perspective`	FView all your files (and what's using that 'Other' space visualised into squares, and manage them	External Site - Sourceforge

App name	Description	Link
`Rewind`	A personalised, locally running AI, with a free plan!	External Site - Rewind