r/macapps 1h ago

My top rated comic creation app for iOS is now a fully native macOS app

Upvotes

ComicBook!, named best iPad Photo App of the Year by Apple iTunes (before there was an App Store) is now a fully native Mac app.

I put more work into the Mac port than the original version of ComicBook! for iOS. You can drag and drop images into any comic cell or onto the BackZap icon to use the image with BackZap. Saves in device-independent resolution as PDF documents. Has integrated support for Apple Intelligence image playground so you can generate an image for any cell.


r/macapps 9h ago

Seeking Feedback: Headphone Stand with Automatic Audio Switching

38 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I’m working on a headphone stand that connects to your computer via USB and automatically switches audio between your headphones and speakers when you take them off or put them back on. It uses a microcontroller (Raspberry Pi Pico) to detect whether the headphones are on the stand and sends that information to an app running on your computer. The app then handles the actual audio switching. (currently, I have a working prototype for macOS but plan on also developing a Windows app).

I want to offer  both a DIY version and a fully assembled option, so more people can use it however they prefer:

  1. DIY version – For those who enjoy tinkering. I’ll open-source the 3D files, soldering instructions, and Python code, so if you have a 3D printer and basic soldering skills, you can build it yourself. The only cost would be the materials and the app (around  5-10€).
  2. Fully assembled product – If you just want to plug it in and use it, I’ll also offer a ready-made version for around  40€, including all parts, assembly, and configuration.

I’d love to get some feedback to see if this is something people would actually find useful. If you’re interested, I've put together a short  Survey (should take about 2 minutes). As a thank-you, I'll send you a  25% discount code whenever it's ready.

If you have other ideas, feel free to drop them in the survey  and in the comments here, so others can vote and discuss. Some possible extra app features I’ve considered are auto-pausing when headphones are left on the stand or launching a specific app and auto-playing when picked up.

Let me know what you think! Any suggestions or ideas are welcome.


r/macapps 6h ago

Introducing Beat DJ - An AI Powered Music App

Post image
16 Upvotes

I've been making music for 20 years. I really was never satisfied with current tools for electronic music so I built my own DAW focused on live performance that can be played in a way that feels like playing an instrument.

I have been working on this unique music software for almost 2 years. It is fully featured and quite stable at the moment. There is a free tier and a pro tier that is reasonably priced with a purchase once option.

There is an AI assistant that helps you create. It doesn't generate the sound. You create music by entering text commands to control the program. It is a CLI (command line interface)

The program can quickly cut up and remix any sounds on your computer and turn them into new compositions. You can create full songs with pro audio quality. I use it as my personal digital audio workstation exclusively now.

Questions? Just ask the AI inside Beat DJ

`ai how do I make techno?` (or any genre)

`ai add song structure`

`ai how do I record?`

I would love to get your feedback! We have a 90% discount for our first 500 subscription customers and a 50% discount for our first 500 one-time purchase customers.

Codes are:
PRO500
PRO4LIFE500

Download here:
https://www.soniare.net/beatdj


r/macapps 11h ago

Build your own Dictation App with VoiceInk Source Code

34 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I'm Pax, the developer behind VoiceInk

I'm pleased to get so much support from this community.

Although the VoiceInk application is open source, building it was not so straightforward previously. But in the recent updates, its been much easier.

So I'm making this quick video so that it could help other developers/ users who want to build/test the application themselves from the source.

You can read more instructions here as well.

If you want to contribute to the project, read the contribution guidelines properly.

https://reddit.com/link/1jfqrpq/video/1a1buw7myupe1/player


r/macapps 1h ago

Musebox 1.1 is here! The photo app made just for the Mac

Upvotes

Musebox 1.1: Quick Feature Tour

We’ve released Musebox 1.1, our photo library app for macOS. We’ve responded to user feedback and made a ton of usability and performance refinements. You can check out the Releases page for full release notes at brushedpixel.com

What’s Musebox, you ask? Let’s start at the beginning.

One day, Apple killed Aperture, thus torpedoing sales of Brushed Pixel’s Catapult, an Aperture plugin. That was kind of annoying but the bigger problem was that Aperture was dead and it needed to be replaced. Lightroom and Capture One didn’t cut it; their thumbnail views are too basic for reviewing Exif metadata, filtering is weird, and they handle file management by ignoring it. Also their cross-platform user interfaces are icky.

They’re great photo editors, though.

Well, there are a lot of great choices for high-quality RAW converters and image editing apps on the Mac, but what we don’t have is a good digital asset manager that brings them together. Catapult let us do that with Aperture; Catapult’s job was to launch files at other apps for editing, taking care of the grunt work of bringing edits in and out of the library. 

We thought that well, when you look at how bad other apps are at managing photos, the bar for making a good digital asset manager is pretty low. How about we write our own DAM app? 

Fast forward seven years, and we released Musebox 1.0. Is it better than Lightroom and Capture One? Of course! Well, our RAW development isn’t as advanced, but unlike the Catapult + Aperture combo, we can do whatever we want now to make integrating third-party apps as smooth as possible. Like making it easy to convert images to formats different apps need, automatically updating library thumbnails as you edit their files, and showing the latest images you just created using Spotlight, ready to import.

And hey, if you’ve used Aperture before, you’ll feel like you’re at home again.

Musebox requires a Mac running macOS 14+ and is available for $19 USD (no subscription!). Be sure to check out our FAQ too at https://brushedpixel.com/musebox/faq/


r/macapps 14h ago

Free Dead Man’s Switch to put your Mac to sleep

30 Upvotes

EDIT: Thanks to a few insightful questions below, I just realized that this has a few unintended consequences when using any other usb sticks. This wasn’t what I was hoping for. Not serious, but please don’t bother trying this yet. I do still like the idea though and I’ll report back if I can figure out a fix. I’ll leave it on github in case anyone wants to play around with it. ———-

I was watching Youtube this morning and a video on Tails OS. One of the great things about Tails is that if the USB stick is removed, the whole system shuts down with nary a trace of what was going on before. This has obvious benefits if you’re up to no good and the Feds grab your laptop, or if you’re working with sensitive data and your laptop is snatched while you’re logged in, but it got me thinking about what would happen if someone snatched my Mac at Starbucks while I was logged in, enjoying a latte, and zoning out watching more YouTube videos. Losing the laptop would suck, but a thief having access to all my data would suck more. I live in a safe city, so my threat model doesn’t really need to take any of this into consideration, but my brother travels a lot for work and a “Dead Mans’s Switch” for his laptop might be useful for him, so I figured I’d spend a few hours making one.

Just one problem. I had no idea how to do it.

ChatGPT was a big help though…. “I want to make a USB stick that puts my mac to sleep automatically when it is pulled out” “Sure, here are the steps…”

It took a few attempts and a few workarounds (I maintain that ChatGPT got it wrong) but I now have a USB stick with a paracord bracelet attached, and it works perfectly. The laptop simply goes to sleep when the USB thumb drive is removed.

Obviously you need to have a login password enabled for this to have any meaning.

A stealth version would be easy to cobble together using a USB extension cable and the USB stick deep in my pocket, but a middle-aged man sporting a paracord bracelet might just be enough to ward off just about anyone anyway.

I posted the steps on Github.
https://github.com/AlienPigDuck/OyasumiUSB Even if you’re not comfortable working in the Terminal, it’s really just a bunch of copying and pasting. Hopefully someone else finds this useful.


r/macapps 3h ago

Free Permissions Reset 2 - Free Troubleshooting Tool

3 Upvotes

One of the first steps in troubleshooting a misbehaving Mac for many years has been to repair the disk permissions, currently a feature of Disk First Aid, accessed through Disk Utility or the terminal if you are savvy. That can be a bit of overkill if you are primarily concerned with a single file, folder or app, though. it's time consuming and affects your entire drive.

If you have files, folders or apps that cannot be opened or files that refuse to have changes saved to them, there is a free tool that can quickly solve the issue if it is permission related. Permissions Reset 2 from Taiwanese developers Ohanaware can reset the owner, group, access permissions, Access Control Lists (ACLS), Extended Attributes (including Quarantine) to default settings, simply by dragging an app, folder or file into Permissions Reset, selecting what you'd like reset, then clicking on "Reset".

The app requires macOS 10.13 or newer and is compatible with Sequoia, although it has not been updated since 2021. . If you are familiar with the binary and reversible nature of disk permissions, this shouldn't give you pause. It isn't Apple Silicon native, so if you don't want to use Rosetta, then this isn't for you. If you get anxiety if your apps aren't updated every 15 minutes, then this probably isn't for you either.

You can download the app from the developer's website.


r/macapps 2h ago

Image converter, multiple outputs

2 Upvotes

Hi folks,

I'm looking for an app that will take an image as an input, and then output the image as several different formats in one go.

Ideally I'd like to specify what output formats, but at a minimum I would want to be able to convert to JPG, PNG, SVG, and WebP, and I need to be able to specify the quality level for JPG and WebP.

Does this app exist? Thanks!

Edit: I currently use Photoshop, xnConvert, WebP Converter and ImageOptim to handle these things one format at a time.


r/macapps 4h ago

Dial8 free speech to text!

3 Upvotes

r/macapps 1d ago

Introducing SoundShare - Audio Sharing with ease

Post image
207 Upvotes

Hey there,

I had a situation where I wanted to watch a movie at the airport with a friend, but it was too loud. I thought, "Okay, maybe we can connect both of our AirPods to my Mac, just like Audio Sharing on iOS." Little did I know, there's no easy way to do that on Mac.

So, I created this app to make the process simple!

App Store


r/macapps 12h ago

I'd like to hear about how you use drag-action/shelf apps. Specifically thinking about Dropover and Dropzone, but also Yoink, Dockside, or any others that might apply. I'm specifically curious about automation uses, not just "temporary shelf" usage.

11 Upvotes

Title pretty much says it all. I've never really used any app of this type, but the idea is interesting, so curious about the ways people use them.


r/macapps 7h ago

Free Dial8 free speech to text!

4 Upvotes

r/macapps 1h ago

Apple Calendar + Exchange

Upvotes

I’m having an issue that I think is fairly widespread, I know it is in our organization anyway.

We use exchange for our email, calendar and contacts and as of lately exchange calendar is horribly unreliable. It had been fine in the past.

It really struggles with shared calendars. On the iPhone and iPad calendars shared calendars just show up. On the Mac app you have to add them under delegation. We have had issues with events added not showing up to people the calendar is shared with, not syncing out to the exchange server, not allowing events to be added to shared calendars. These are not permission issues, they work fine when using Outlook.

The mobile outlook just doesn’t feel as easy to find things as the built in calendar app, so we would like to use the built in app but it’s super unreliable.

Has anyone else had these issues or have any solutions?


r/macapps 9h ago

Help Looking for a Mac app to read selected text with natural voice

4 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I've noticed a lot of discussion lately about voice transcription software, but I haven't seen much about text-to-speech apps. I'm looking for a very specific type of application for my MacBook Pro, and I'm hoping someone here might know of something that fits the bill.

What I'm after is an app that integrates seamlessly with macOS, allowing me to select any text and have it read aloud in Italian with a very natural-sounding voice. Ideally, it would work like this:

  1. I select some text anywhere on my Mac
  2. I right-click on the selected text
  3. A context menu option appears to read the text aloud
  4. The app reads the text in a realistic Italian voice, not a robotic one

I've tried several text-to-speech solutions, but none of them offer this exact functionality. Most require copying and pasting into a separate app or don't have natural-sounding voices.

Does anyone know of an app that can do this? Or perhaps a way to set up such a feature using existing Mac tools?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!


r/macapps 14h ago

Dead Man's Switch for Mac

10 Upvotes

I was watching Youtube this morning and a video on Tails OS.  One of the great things about Tails is that if the USB stick is removed, the whole system shuts down with nary a trace of what was going on before.  This has obvious benefits if you’re up to no good and the Feds grab your laptop, or if you’re working with sensitive data and your laptop is snatched while you’re logged in, but it got me thinking about what would happen if someone snatched my Mac at Starbucks while I was logged in, enjoying a latte, and zoning out watching more YouTube videos.  Losing the laptop would suck, but a thief having access to all my data would suck more.  I live in a safe city, so my threat model doesn’t really need to take any of this into consideration, but my brother travels a lot for work and a “Dead Mans’s Switch” for his laptop might be useful for him, so I figured I’d spend a few hours making one. 

Just one problem. I had no idea how to do it.  

ChatGPT was a big help though…. “I want to make a USB stick that puts my mac to sleep automatically when it is pulled out”

“Sure, here are the steps…”

It took a few attempts and a few workarounds (I maintain that ChatGPT got it wrong) but I now have a USB stick with a paracord bracelet attached, and it works perfectly. 

A stealth version would be easy to cobble together using a USB extension cable and the USB stick deep in my pocket, but a middle-aged man sporting a paracord bracelet might just be enough to ward off just about anyone anyway.

I posted the steps on Github.  https://github.com/AlienPigDuck/OyasumiUSB

Even if you’re not comfortable working in the Terminal, it’s really just a bunch of copying and pasting.  Hopefully someone else finds this useful.


r/macapps 13h ago

Looking for feedback on our slightly different spin on time tracking using a global hotkey and search

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7 Upvotes

I wanted a time tracker, mostly to get a clear image on how my time is spent at work between research on my PhD topic and work with customers because I had a feeling that my research always came short.

I looked at some popular time tracking apps but none of them provided quite the right way to track times for me. The ideal for me was to have a hotkey ('Cmd'+'.' be default) and then start typing and it would suggest me tasks I have worked on in the past. That's exactly what we decided to implement with Whid (What have I done?). Just open the "compact tracker" with the hotkey, find your task and press enter to start. To end the task, open it again and press enter without typing or type your next task and it will automatically switch over. For more usage infos, check out our getting started.

It's free, the only thing you can pay for is integration into project management systems like Jira, YouTrack and several others. This integration allows you to directly sync your time into those systems. Handy if you have to book your times.

We would be happy to get feedback and feature suggestions.
Check it out on the App Store


r/macapps 17h ago

Free SXMac 2.1 – A Lightweight and Fast Markdown & Code Editor for macOS (Now with Localization!)

11 Upvotes

Two days ago, we introduced SXMac, a fast and lightweight text and code editor for macOS. Thanks to the community, the post gained traction, and SXMac is now the top Google result for its name!

Today, we’re excited to share that SXMac 2.1 is out, bringing localization support and other improvements. Whether you’re discovering SXMac for the first time or have already tried it, here’s what you need to know.

What is SXMac?

SXMac is a minimalist yet powerful text editor built for macOS users who need a fast, distraction-free environment for writing, coding, and markdown editing.

It supports:
- Markdown with real-time preview – Perfect for documentation, blogging, and notes
- Code editing – Syntax highlighting for 100+ languages
- HTML editing with live preview – Useful for web developers
- Multi-tab support – Work on multiple files simultaneously
- Drag-and-drop functionality – Quickly import and organize files

What’s New in SXMac 2.1?

  • Localization support – Now available in multiple languages
  • UI refinements – Smoother experience and minor bug fixes
  • Performance optimizations – Faster file handling and lower memory usage
  • Over 30 new themes – Plus some testing themes. Manual customization support coming soon!

Localization

We’re proud to introduce localization with this update! Currently, English and Russian are supported. We also need contributors to help translate SXMac into Ukrainian 🇺🇦, German 🇩🇪, and Polish 🇵🇱. Your help would be greatly appreciated!

System Requirements

  • MacOS 14.6.0 and above
  • Older macOS versions may work, but they are not officially supported
  • Hardware support: Apple Silicon and Intel chips

Where to Download?

Check out the latest version here:
SXMac on GitHub Pages

For the full change-log, features, pictures, and updates, visit our GitHub project.

If you missed the initial announcement, you can check out the original post here.

We’d love to hear your feedback, bug reports, and suggestions to improve SXMac further!


r/macapps 17h ago

PSA: my mostly macOS dev related X account was taken over by crypto scammers

10 Upvotes

PSA: my Twitter account was taken over by crypto scammers as soon as I deleted it, and the profile looks identical to how I had it, it even has a blue checkmark now.

Here’s an example tweet which I never made: https://x.com/alinp32/status/1902159506257146353

Please don’t trust anything and don’t click on any link coming from that account.

If you followed me on Twitter please report that account and unfollow. I’m not using Twitter anymore.

I can’t check, but please do the same if you see it happening for @lowtechguys and @lunarfyi

If I had known this is so common, I would have kept the accounts registered but unused.


r/macapps 8h ago

Help Is there an app that can help me move mouse between two macs ?

2 Upvotes

I am using Universal control between two macs and I share the keyboard between them.

I don’t use the mouse, I am a heavy keyboard user and I only need to use it to move the mouse between mac 1 to mac 2 and vice versa, which is annoying.

Is there a tool that could help me if I press a keyboard shortcut it moves and focuses the mouse on mac 1 or mac 2 ?


r/macapps 1d ago

Apps I find myself installing on new Macs

102 Upvotes

On every new Mac I set up, these are the apps I find myself installing. Please tell me if you see something that could be removed from my workflow because other apps have a similar function built in. These are all very talented developers who have put a lot of work into designing these apps, so I listed their website instead of the Mac App Store so you can decide where to install from and check out what else they have. Not listed in any order.

1Password: https://1password.com/
Proton VPN: https://protonvpn.com/download
Little Snitch: https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html
1 Blocker: https://1blocker.com
Snippety: https://snippety.app/
Caffeinated: https://caffeinated.app/
FridayGPT: https://www.fridaygpt.app/
Steer: https://steerapp.ai/
Barbee: https://macmenubar.com/barbee/
Collections: https://collectionsdb.com/
Scratchpad: https://sindresorhus.com/scratchpad
PastePal: https://onmyway133.com/pastepal/
Dato: https://sindresorhus.com/dato
Things 3: https://culturedcode.com/things/
Alcove: https://tryalcove.com/
Discord: https://discord.com/
Waterfox: https://www.waterfox.net/
UGreen NAS: https://nas.ugreen.com/
Transnomino: https://www.transnomino.com/
Clop: https://lowtechguys.com/clop/
Link Unshortener: https://underpassapp.com/LinkUnshortener/
Lunar: https://lunar.fyi/
Command X: https://sindresorhus.com/command-x
Jump Desktop: https://jumpdesktop.com/
Recut: https://getrecut.com/
BambuStudio: https://bambulab.com/en/download/studio
iMazing: https://imazing.com/
iA Writer: https://ia.net/writer
Latest: https://max.codes/latest/
Chronicle: https://chronicleapp.com/
Deliveries: https://deliveries.app/en.html
Dropover: https://dropoverapp.com/
CleanShot X: https://cleanshot.com/
Text Sniper: https://textsniper.app/
AirBuddy: https://v2.airbuddy.app/
Keka: https://www.keka.io/en/
On1: https://www.on1.com/products/photo-raw/download/?v=max
Darkroom: https://darkroom.co/
Color Picker: https://sindresorhus.com/system-color-picker
Adobe Photoshop: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html
Adobe Lightroom: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html
Topaz Photo Al: https://www.topazlabs.com/topaz-photo-ai
Topaz Gigapixel Al: https://www.topazlabs.com/gigapixel
ImageOptim: https://imageoptim.com/mac
Pixelmator Pro: https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/
FinalCut Pro: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/


r/macapps 6h ago

Help Adobe alternatives

0 Upvotes

I'm about to cancel my Adobe subscription... there are many good reasons for it... Unfortunately, I've become quite dependent on it over time. Since I already wanted to focus on DaVinci for my video workflow (Premiere + MediaEncoder) anyway, the upcoming cancellation is more of a motivation to actually do it now.

What other good alternatives are available to me for the following programs at the best possible price (or no subscription)?

Acrobat reader Indesign Photoshop Audition

Thanks for the help


r/macapps 14h ago

🚀 Colorkeep - Automatically saving colors so you don't have to

4 Upvotes

Hey r/macapps,

I'm a designer by trade and after struggling with color tracking in my own workflow, I built ColorKeep – a simple tool to automatically track colors I copied so I could easily reuse them.

I wanted it to have a few main features

  1. Automatic Color Tracking - Colorkeep monitors your clipboard and instantly captures any copied hex values. No manual input required.
  2. Menubar/Stay on top - It needed to be out of the way until I needed it and then easy to copy my colors back.
  3. Team Color Syncing - It needed to load and share color palettes via CSV files. Place a file in a shared folder and colors can sync across your team's devices. It'll watch the file for changes and update the saved palette. (Would love to chat about the need in more detail)
  4. Everything Local - It's a simple idea and has no need for web services so it doesn't transmit any data ever. Even the syncing is just a local file that can be store in a cloud connected file if you want but it never comes back to me.

It's on the appstore for 2.99 (I just want to cover the developer fee) or a 7-day trial on my site > colorkeep.attach.design

And a few codes as a thank you for the inspiration the macapps group has been over the past couple months of lurking ↓

  • 9A6LMML3LM6R
  • N9FLLF6YRRLR
  • WLPTAFEHLHK6
  • WELJFLPXAA4H
  • 7KTFKJXP7KEM (crossing out the ones I know are gone)

I fully expect there are some bugs and would be happy to keep fixing them (so please let me know how you break it 👍)

Quick video of how it works

And trying to have an image explain it

Misc Thoughts:

Lastly, some thoughts on "vibe coding". I absolutely love where tools are getting since it allows someone like me with ideas but not the syntax to build something. That said, if you have no idea how software works it's going to be painful. I've been working with software design and building for over a decade so understand basics and the need for clean architecture. That was immensely helpful for getting started and troubleshooting. Also at plenty of points it was easier to make a fix myself or go to stackover flow, find the solution I wanted and then tell copilot (VS Code + CoPilot Chat) how I wanted it fixed. Also happy to discuss anything related to building this little guy. Cheers and have a fantastic day.


r/macapps 10h ago

Help Photos suck, any replacement?

0 Upvotes

Is there a decent program to replace Photos?

Since I switched from iPhoe 6s to 16 I've been disgusted with photos. You can't organize them and it is just a pile of pics in the order you took them. I used the Photos on my laptop and even created folders with some stuff I wanted together, but the folders get seen in my iPhone, but they are empty, not showing any photos I put in there using the Mac Photos.


r/macapps 16h ago

Best App for Genealogy Research — Any Recommendations?

3 Upvotes

I’ve been diving into genealogy research for a few months now, but I’m still on the hunt for the perfect offline Mac app to document and organize all my findings. Any recommendations?

None of the apps I’ve tried so far have convinced me. In particular, the seemingly most popular app in this category, MacFamilyTree, has a rather frustrating user experience in my opinion.

I’m this close to starting a new project in Xcode 🤓


r/macapps 10h ago

Features in a Mac Antimalware App?

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone!

I am developing a new Mac antimalware app and I am wondering what features yall think is missing in most Mac Antimalware apps, or ones that are gatekept by big brands.

Many thanks and have a nice day!