It’s one of a very small number of vital apps that feel like extensions of my virtual hands. I can’t use a Mac without Peter Lewis’s macro utility, which we’ve covered for years. I needed somewhere to record this list of apps, so Agenda got the nod-and an early download. But I’ve never liked Apple’s Notes, whereas Agenda’s outline-friendly approach works well for me (see “ Agenda Offers a New Take on Note-Taking and Task Management,” ). I’ve tried innumerable snippet keepers and note-taking apps over the years, and I’ve been burned a few times, such as by the late lamented Circus Ponies Notebook (see “ Circus Ponies Closes Its Doors,” 7 January 2016). Nonetheless, I still use Dropbox for various tasks, including syncing Keyboard Maestro macros between Macs. Dropbox’s constant need to go beyond its core storage function muddied the waters for me, and the restriction of free accounts to only three devices has pushed me toward other services (see “ Dropbox Limits Free Accounts to Three Devices,” 14 March 2019). Dropboxīefore Google Drive and iCloud Drive, I relied on Dropbox for all shared cloud storage. Installing Drive for Desktop lets me access those files in the Finder and enjoy them being automatically synced across all my devices (for more on the general topic, see “Apple’s File Provider Forces Mac Cloud Storage Changes,” 10 March 2023). Google Drive for DesktopĪlthough much of my work in Google Drive is best done in a browser-because I’m opening files in the Web-based Google Docs-I also store a wide variety of other essential and frequently used standalone files in Google Drive. I’m quite enjoying the opportunity to clean up my stored credentials as part of the switch-it’s a lot of work, but I’m a bit of a neat freak when it comes to data. Now that I’ve switched from LastPass to 1Password (see “ LastPass Publishes More Details about Its Data Breaches,” 3 March 2023), I needed access to my passwords, so a near-immediate installation of 1Password was in order. For our initial coverage, see “ Mimestream Brings Gmail Features to a Mac Email App” (25 September 2020). Best of all, he fixes my bugs and takes my interface suggestions seriously. (It’s not really much like Eudora, but the spirit behind it evokes the same sort of response.) Mimestream is the focused vision of a single programmer, Neil Jhaveri, who has lived and breathed email for years, including over 7 years leading engineering teams that worked on Apple’s Mail and Notes. While it currently supports only Gmail, I consider Mimestream the best email client I’ve used since Eudora. MimestreamĮmail is life, and when the Gmail Web interface began to wear on me, Mimestream had just become available for beta testing. Which makes it all the more ironic that my very first app install is one I’m no longer using because its replacement is the most transformative app I’ve used in years. As you’ll see, I keep a handful of Web browsers installed, but I tend to switch my default browser infrequently. I also like its efforts to eliminate cookie dialogs and its integration of Brave Search (see “ Brave Search Public Beta Offers Alternative to Google,” 8 July 2021). I’ve been a fan of Brave’s privacy protections for some time, and, as a Chromium-based browser, it supports the handful of Chrome extensions I need. The first app I reinstalled-using Apple’s bundled Safari, of course-is the privacy-focused Web browser Brave. If I were working under a typical budget, I would be somewhat more circumspect, particularly with multiple apps in the same category. Note that while I do recommend all of these apps individually, that’s partly because I pay for hardly any of them. ![]() Here then, are the 46 apps I rely on (so far!), with a few words of explanation for each. The start of this list is less indicative than the latter part: I installed many of the early apps more or less simultaneously and then added back other apps when the task for which I use them cropped up. It was tedious but fascinating because I learned precisely which apps I really use and the order I needed them. What I glossed over was the remaining step of reinstalling third-party apps. ![]() When I wrote “ Level 2 Clean Install of Ventura Solves Deep-Rooted Problems” (10 April 2023), I stopped at the point of declaring-and I am not being smug about this, universe!-seeming victory over several previously intractable problems. #1667: OS Rapid Security Responses, 1Password and 2FA, using Siri to request music.#1668: Updated Rapid Security Responses, OS public betas, screen saver bug fixed, “Red Team Blues” book review.#1669: OS security updates, ambiguity of emoji, small business payments with Melio, Twitter now X. ![]() #1670: Arc Web browser hits 1.0 release, “Do You Use It?” polls about Apple features.#1671: Apple Q3 2023 earnings, new Beats headphones and earbuds, Stage Manager adoption rate, do you use Spotlight?.
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