Eight Useful Mac Apps Worth Checking Out

Mac apps can often go under the radar, with apps for the iPhone and iPad receiving more attention. For that reason, we have a Mac-focused video series that highlights useful Mac apps we’ve come across. Our first picks of the year are largely simple, one-task apps that add utility to your Mac.

• Ice Menu Bar Manager (Free) – Ice is a menu bar management tool that’s an alternative to Bartender. Last year, Bartender was quietly acquired by a less than trustworthy company, and many no longer want to use it. Ice has a rich feature set. You can rearrange menu bar apps, change the look of the menu bar with colors, hide cruft, and more.
• DropOver ($5.99)- DropOver is a simple macOS app that enhances the Mac’s Drag and Drop functionality. You can grab multiple files and move them around without opening side-by-side windows. You activate DropOver with a shake of the cursor, add items to a “shelf” and then you can move to your destination folder and unload them.
• Latest (Free) – Latest is a super simple app that checks to ensure that your apps are up to date. It supports apps that use the Mac App Store and those that use Sparkle for updates, which is a good deal of the Mac apps out there.
• NotchNook ($25) – NotchNook turns your Mac’s notch into a little Mac version of a Dynamic Island. You can click into it and get shortcuts like a media player, the Calendar, quick notes, and more, plus it has drag and drop functionality that makes it easy to move files and send them using AirDrop. It’s $25, or $3 per month.
• Shortwave (Free, but unlocking more features costs $7/month) – Shortwave is yet another email app, but it uses AI in a helpful way. It organizes your inbox to surface what’s most important, it can create to-dos for you, add labels, archive unimportant email threads, search for content, alert you to emails that still need a response, and more. You can also use AI to summarize emails and get writing help, with the AI able to respond in your own voice based on past email correspondence. This is not a bare bones email app, so note that it can take some time to get used to. This is a subscription app and it starts at $7 per month, paid annually.
• Local Send (Free) – If you need to share content between an iOS device or Mac and an Android device or a Windows PC, you can do so with Local Send. This is great if you’re not entirely in the Apple ecosystem, because AirDrop doesn’t work on non-Apple devices.
• Hyperduck ($4) – With Hyperduck, you can share links between your Macs, iPhones, and iPads with more control than AirDrop. You can, for example, save a webpage on your ‌iPhone‌ and have it open up later on your Mac, even if your Mac isn’t turned on when you first save the website.
• Rocket (Free) – Rocket is another simple, one-function app that lets you add emojis in any app. Press on the colon key and then start typing in the emoji that you want. It’s free to use, but a pro version adds options for adding GIFs and images.

Know of a great Mac app that we haven’t highlighted yet? Let us know in the comments below and we might feature it in a future video. For more of our Mac app picks, check out our Mac apps archive.