What softwares do I actually use on my Mac as a software enthusiast? • Mimansa Jaiswal

Table of Contents

Productivity Software Creative Work Works in Background Chrome Extensions

tl;dr

With several years of using a Mac, it took me time to settle down on a set of apps and softwares that I can heartily recommend. I try almost 30 a month, but end up using around 20 in total for everything!

Spark Email 2, Texts, Multi, Todoist, Warp, Numi, Dato, Day Progress, Timer RH, MacWhisper, Tactiq, Otter, Notion, Google Workspace, Goodnotes, ar5iv or Paper To HTML, Muse, Reader from Readwise, Whimsical, flowchart.fun, Shottr, Clop, CleanshotX, screen.studio or screenrun, draw.io, Procreate, Raycast, Camera Preview, Bartender, Loop, Better Touch Tool, WeatherX, Command+X, BetterZip, QLMarkdown, Syntax Highlight, Bolt AI and MacGPT.

Updates

Jan 26, 2024: Added Multi and Clop. Removed Rewind.ai.

Memory: Rewind.ai has been a life-saver for me, it records everything on screen, and records laptop audio and mic if you choose to. It has two main things: search rewind and ask rewind. Search rewind is a simple keyword search over everything that has been stored. Ask rewind sends everything in those clips to OpenAI (possibly GPT3.5 16k) to create a summary and adds “screenshot” references.

Apr 9, 2024: Added a list of Chrome Extensions and moved from Aiko to MacWhisper

Apr 22, 2024: Added Loop as my window manager of choice.

May 6, 2024: Added Schej and No Time Zone

May 9, 2024: Added uBlacklist for domain blocking in search and included excalidraw and tldraw for diagrams and whiteboarding .

Productivity Software

Communication: Spark Email 2 is my email client of choice rather than using the general Apple mail client. Why? Because it has the ability to remove Updates/Promotions/Forums from my main inbox that Apple mail does not. It also does basic Newsletters and Pins options for each email account, that Apple mail does not. To have all the DMs in one place, I use Texts. If you do not have multiple accounts per app, you can also use Beeper. I have recently been using Multi as my collaboration software. Sure, it builds off zoom, but it has really nice upscaling that actually lets you see the code someone has written at normal zoom.
Tasks: I use Todoist. I have used 100 other apps, but I keep coming back to Todoist. With their quick capture being all bang based, nothing is easier for me to quick capture, schedule, rescheduled, completed. It syncs with Google Calendar. It works in collaboration mode. This is the only task tracker that has worked for me.
Terminal: Warp as terminal. I do not work with vim, so take my advice with a grain of salt. But I really like block based terminals. It also has a bang based AI mode. You can type # to ask it to provide the command that converts all images in this folder and sub-folders to .webp and delete the original versions and it will provide you with the command with templated tab-able arguments.
Sticky Notes: Numi is the app I use for pasting on always on top notes. It is also great for calculations inside notes. It is extremely expensive, so probably get it on sale rather than anytime else, would be my recommendation.
Calendar and Timers: Dato is for calendar and meetings. It shows the meeting time and current time across timezones, shows a monthly calendar, has an option to join a meeting from the menu bar. The reason I use it over itsycal is for its full screen notifications because I otherwise forget the meeting time or join a minute or two late. If you do not need that or timezones, itsycal is free and does everything else. I also use Day Progress because I am time-blind, but most people would not need it. I use Timer RH for always on top timers for timed tasks. It connects with the calendar as well, is pretty easy to set rather than using a Siri command (just drag the menu bar icon down to however long you need the timer to be).
Calendar and Meetings: I use schej for scheduling because it shows overlays google calendar right on top of the timeslots, and notime.zone for sending event links that show users timezone in the link.
Note taking: I use MacWhisper (shifted from Aiko Apr 8, 2024) at the moment for transcription of my blabberings because it comes with a global key (MacWhisper is expensive, but has a 50% discount, and I bought it when it was cheap), Tactiq for remote meetings, and Otter for in person meetings. For long form note taking, I use Notion at the moment, but it is not necessarily my tool of choice, given its poor AI integration that would allow me to go from unstructured to structured content. It also lacks a calendar integration and spatial system, so I am always on a lookout for something different. Some other softwares I am exploring are Tana (better AI and API integration), Capacities (no collaboration), Heptabase (no collaboration) and Google Workspace (no block based editing but has newly added chips, task management, linking previews etc). I use Goodnotes or Apple Notes for handwritten note taking.
Reference management: I used to use Paperpile but I shifted to using Notion for this purpose because I could not make use of the highlighted information. I use either ar5iv or Paper To HTML to snip papers into notion.
Whiteboarding: I use Guga (new app, chinese support) or Muse (expensive but works really well, has a teams version). I tried Freeform and did not like it much. Guga also does not have desktop support which kinda hampers its usage on my end. If I need to do collaborative web based whiteboarding, my go-to option is tldraw any day.
I am still looking for the perfect whiteboarding app that is aimed at paper reading. I am looking for the ability to (a) add multiple documents to the board, (b) excerpt areas from pdfs that are linked to original source, (c) works well with Apple pencil on ipad, (d) optionally, be publishable online — and I am at a loss.
Reading: I use Reader from Readwise, they allow you to annotate pdfs, videos webpages, add highlights, add notes to highlights etc. It is cheap for students; syncs highlights from everywhere to Notion and works reliably. The two other options are Omnivore (open source and free) and Matter (better and more intuitive design but does not work with pdfs or videos). For podcasts, because apparently the information now also comes from podcasts, I use Snipd, which has headphone button based sniping, AI snip boundaries and snip summaries, and also syncs to Readwise or separately to Notion.

Creative Work

I divide creative work into 2 parts, sometimes overlapping, creative work as an hobby, creative work for my research.

Flowcharts and Diagrams: Whimsical and flowchart.fun. Whimsical is great for making beautiful handmade flowcharts or making flowcharts easily using AI. Flowchart.fun provides a simple language to create flowcharts by just writing text. I have been trying Eraser’s AI offering for diagrams too, but I haven’t gelled with it yet. I use excalidraw often to create quick diagrams that look sketched, if I want a different style than tldraw.
Screenshots: Shottr allows to create annotated screenshots, blur parts of image on device. It also allows for rolling screenshots where if you capture an area it will auto scroll the webpage or any other document for you. Shottr is free and is extremely cheap for pro version (which is only needed for not getting pinged for updating after 30 days). I use pika for pretty backgrounds around screenshots. I use Clop to quickly optimize the screenshots on my clipboard.
Screen recordings: Explaining a coding process or a step-by-step guide on about how to do something, we often end up with full screen videos with tiny text. I use screen.studio or screenrun for automatic zoom ins into where I am clicking or typing. Screenrun can also do a short video from a screenshot if you want to say, oh, click here and then here and then here. I use CleanshotX for recording videos with my face in it.
Paper diagrams: draw.io for making neural network diagrams. There is unfortunately nothing that comes close. I cannot do TikZ, but if you can, more power to you!
Drawing: I use Procreate or Concepts. Procreate allows for really intuitive drawing interface whereas concepts is vector based, and still allows for all the flair with layers, brushes, objects etc.

Works in Background

Memory: I used to suggest Rewind.ai here, but the battery consumption is too huge, the AI is still not good and the search is meh, so I no longer use it.
Shortcuts: Raycast allows for doing so many things that I do not know how to describe it. It is local first and is free. It also has a pro subscription if you need its AI chat options (which comes with a student discount). The best way I have seen it described is Spotlight++ but I never used spotlight. You can use ⌘+Space to do calculations, timezone conversions, unit conversions, quick word lookup, file search, screenshot search etc.
You can also remove the amphetamine software you have and use the menu bar coffee app that Raycast provides. It comes with many extensions, such as, hypersonic that can connect to any notion database of yours to show tasks, schedule them etc, all from ⌘+Space or from your menu bar.
Another menu bar app that I use from Raycast is Text Shortcuts which allows you to select any task, and convert case, URL encode and decode, convert to markdown, find text statistics (word counter, character counter) etc.
Camera: This is a small software, but I have cats, and I have messy hair. I use Camera Preview a ton both for checking on myself and using the return key to click photos. Hand mirror (cannot click photos) or the new Open Camera command in RaycastShow information for the linked content are the alternate options.
Utilities: I use Bartender for arranging my menu bar, especially with that notch on Macbook pro. I use Better Touch Tool to assign taps to clicks (for example three finger tap to open in a new tab). I also use it to assign hyperkey. Hyperkey is when you press all meta keys together on the keyboard. For example, Hyperkey+A is my shortcut for quick task in Todoist. I use WeatherX to have weather of 4 cities be readily accessible in the menu bar. I use Command+X to have a cut option in MacOS. I really like Quick Look in Mac, but it does not support all kinds of files. So, I use some extensions: BetterZip for zip files, QLMarkdown and Syntax Highlight. I have tried multiple apps for window management (Swish, Better Touch Tool and the inbuilt option in Raycast) but I have eventually ended up on Loop, something about the circle, size cycling and visible area snaps helps me in a way that other apps don’t.
AI Chat Interfaces: I use Bolt AI at the moment to organize my conversations, especially those that need to go through API for non-training purposes. There are 100 such apps, this is the one I found the earliest. If I do end up paying for Raycast Pro, then I would not need this app. I use Bolt because, it does not show up in dock, allows to select models per chat, allows to set shortcut to bring it up. I use MacGPT (quick question - synonym for X) too.

Chrome Extensions

Organization: Polychrome in sidebar for horizontal tabs. Tabius for tab grouping on right click open. Copy All Urls to copy all URLs in a window and paste a list of URLs to open as tabs. SideviewPlus to easily arrange multiple Chrome windows side by side (split view). Session Buddy for keeping Chrome history handy. Export Chrome History allows me to track stuff on my own. Peek History to see tabs I have opened on mobile Chrome. CRX Extractor/Downloader because I often save extensions that I like, lest, they be inundated with malicious code or removed from app store.
Blocking: superagent to auto-accept/decline cookie popups. Bitwarden as a password manager. SponsorBlock for Youtube to skip over in video sponsorships. uBlock Origin for ad blocking. Trimbox (Gmail Unsubscribe) for adding unsubscription filters to Gmail. Private Notes for adding quick locked notes to my local database. DeArrow for replacing Youtube thumbnails and title with something more representative of content. Twitch Ad Muter, because, I do want creators to get money, but, I do not want my background video to be ads. I use uBlacklist to blacklist domains from google search results.
App Extensions: Todoist for Chrome and Gmail, because that is my main task manager. Readwise Highlighter and Exporter to use with Reader. Raindrop to save and use bookmarks across profiles and devices. Notion Web Clipper which I barely ever use because it is absolutely not useful. Prolific Assistant just to do studies for fun and figure out what people are working on in HCI/crowdsourcing space. Google Scholar Button and Google Scholar PDF Reader for quicker BibTex generation and improved experience of reading research papers.
Shopping and Travel: Booking helper because I prefer google reviews. vsHotel to show me direct hotel prices on booking(.)com. Keepa shows a semi-accurate graph of Amazon prices.
UI/UX: Control Panel for Twitter for a way cleaner timeline. Minimal Theme for LinkedIn for cleaning up the whole LinkedIn layout. Papier for giving me a markdown new tab for copy pasting/manipulating text. I used to use Popup, but shifted to MaxFocus Apr 8, 2024, for showing link popups on hover similar to Arc’s link previews.

Minimal LinkedIn Extension Zip

Minimal_LinkedIn_Extension.zip Download
Media: Video Screenshot so that I can share cute moments on Netflix with people. Teleparty to watch Netflix/Disney with people synced together. Picture in Picture for watching videos as a popup on screen.
AI Extensions: Tactiq which creates a meeting summary for transcription on Google Meet, Zoom, and MS Teams.