PoRaBar, my menubar podcast and radio player, now with an iPhone app plus YouTube and Audiobookshelf
https://redd.it/1vdd8h3
@macappsbackup

Simple Video Editor for Mac?

Is there a video editing app out there that will allow me to cut out middle parts of a video, add clips together and with minimalistic sound / visual adjustments (exposure, pitch, cropping).

Don't get me wrong, im an avid Davinci Resolve user and I love its complexity. Im just on the lookout for a simpler editing solution that is quick and won't break the bank (no subscriptions, one time purchase)

Thanks

https://redd.it/1vdeprt
@macappsbackup

[Giveaway] I'm back! Askmeety Roadmap Update (Private Meeting Notetaker)

https://redd.it/1vdiap8
@macappsbackup

Lumn: Ambient Lighting + Music Sync for your Mac

https://redd.it/1vdmwrf
@macappsbackup

I built WDM, a macOS download manager with browser capture, media downloads, and image saving

https://redd.it/1vdqwww
@macappsbackup

Sortio now sorts by document contents, so files named IMG_7819.pdf still land in the right folder

I posted here about Sortio a while back when it was mostly a rules engine. What I have been working on since is making it sort by what is actually inside a document rather than by its name.

The demo I recorded uses a folder where every filename is deliberately useless: scanner output, camera dumps, Untitled-22.pdf, attachment-58324.pdf. Sortio reads the documents, works out which client each one belongs to and what kind of document it is, and files them into a client and document-type structure. It runs about two and a half minutes: https://youtu.be/ehFr11IfuOc

How it works in practice: point it at a folder, describe the structure you want in plain English, and it shows you a full preview with a reason for every single file before it moves anything. Undo lives in History if you change your mind.

Being straight about the tradeoffs: cloud AI is the default, so file names and extracted text go to the provider. Local-only through Ollama and bring-your-own-key are both supported if that matters to you. It also sets aside files it cannot read rather than guessing at them, which you can see happen in the demo.

Free to try at https://www.getsortio.com. Genuinely useful feedback welcome, including the negative kind.

https://redd.it/1vdtjod
@macappsbackup

PurrPad, I taught my MacBook trackpad to purr. It has since started ignoring me

Rest your hand on the trackpad and it purrs. Not audio through the speakers, the actual haptic engine, so you feel it under your palm. The first time it worked I sat there grinning at a laptop like an idiot.

Then I gave it a personality and now I live with it.

Problem

Every "cat purr" thing I could find is a sound file. You put on headphones and listen to a recording of a cat, which is fine, except it occupies your ears, it loops, and after about ninety seconds your brain notices the loop and the spell breaks. Meanwhile the thing people actually like about a cat on their desk is the weight and the vibration, not the audio.

PurrPad puts the purr in the MacBook trackpad instead, so it is something you feel while you work, with your ears free.

It doesn't always purr. Sometimes you rest your hand and it just... considers you, and declines. Then it sulks. If you click on it during the sulk, it sulks harder, and the app quietly tells you the sulk is now personal. At maximum annoyance it scratches you, which is to say the little paw icon draws its claws and the copy says "Claws were optional. Were."

Full Cat personality 😻

Comparison

Purrli (purrli.com) is the best-known purr generator and it is genuinely good, but it is audio: it uses your speakers or headphones, and it is a continuous sound rather than something you touch. PurrPad is haptic, so it costs you no audio channel and works in a quiet office with headphones off.

Mine has moods. It sometimes declines to purr and then sulks, it gets the zoomies about once a fortnight, it brings me a dead mouse now and again, and it goes silent the instant your mic or camera turns on so it has never purred through a meeting.

Pricing

Free: one cat and all the behaviour, forever. No trial, no timer.
$4.99 one time unlocks the other five cats, the tuning controls, and recording your own cat so the trackpad purrs like her specifically. No subscription.
https://purrpad.app

About me

About me

I am Francesco, an independent developer in Italy. Who I am, how the app is funded, and how to reach me: https://purrpad.app/about (full name, LinkedIn, contact, and links to the privacy policy, terms and refund policy).

Contact is hello@purrpad.app and I answer it myself.

Linked it https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesco-pavanetto/

The app is signed and notarised, so no Gatekeeper warnings. It cannot go on the Mac App Store because driving the haptic engine needs a private framework, which is why I am posting here rather than linking an App Store page.

There is no demo video and there cannot be one, since a video of this app is a hand resting on a trackpad for thirty seconds. The site draws the actual pulse train instead and you can press and hold it to hear roughly what your palm gets.

Genuinely want to know: does it feel like a cat, or like a phone on a table? That has been the open question since day one and I still cannot answer it about my own app.

https://redd.it/1vdjz4d
@macappsbackup

I built something to replace two of my favorite apps for PKM

https://redd.it/1vdw757
@macappsbackup

What actually happens when you redeem an App Store promo code, from the side that issues them

This sub sees a lot of launch posts with promo codes attached. I issue those codes for a small Mac app I work on, and a few things about how they actually work are not obvious from the buyer's side. One of them costs people money.

A code usually puts you into a subscription, not a purchase. App Store offer codes attach to a subscription offer. When you redeem one for "$1.99 for a year" or "3 months free", you are subscribed at that promotional price, and unless you cancel it renews at the normal price when the promo period ends. If you only wanted the cheap year, turn off auto-renew right after redeeming. It stays valid for the period you already got.

Redemption is tied to your Apple ID, not your Mac. One redemption per account per offer. Signing in on a second machine does not give you a second use, and reinstalling does not free it up.

Codes are per-storefront. A code issued for the US store will not redeem on another country's store. This is the most common reason a code that "works for everyone else" fails for you, and it is not something the developer can override for your account.

If one fails, the things worth checking are whether that Apple ID already redeemed it, whether it expired, whether the redemption limit was reached, and the storefront mismatch above.

One thing from the developer side that explains slow answers. Redemptions do not reach us in real time. They arrive in App Store Connect's subscription event report on a delay, which for me has been running about four days. So when someone posts a code and you ask whether it worked, the honest answer is often that we cannot see it yet either. That is reporting lag, not evasion.

No links here on purpose. All of this lives in the App Store's own redeem flow.

https://redd.it/1ve5ja8
@macappsbackup

[OS] Photo Batch Importer - import photos from SD card with file naming rules
https://redd.it/1ve5yq5
@macappsbackup

Big Data-Fetchupdate: The Widgets for App Store Connect we never got.But always wanted, so hard.

https://redd.it/1ve7brq
@macappsbackup

[OS] macUSB - The all-in-one bootable USB creator for Mac
https://redd.it/1veckjt
@macappsbackup

Made a squat coach for desk workers. It lives in your Mac's notch and counts your reps via webcam, all on-device.

https://redd.it/1veev2z
@macappsbackup

[OS] OpenDisk: a free, open source DaisyDisk alternative for macOS

https://redd.it/1vef3k2
@macappsbackup

OS MagSleep — a native macOS utility to automatically disable the MagSafe LED when your macbook sleeps

https://preview.redd.it/q9984gzdr6hh1.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a0f8718f1843ea223ff3ef8c435ae9d5ed56682

I made a tiny macOS app to automatically turn off the MagSafe LED while my MacBook is sleeping

Those MagSafe LEDs are nice, but they're also surprisingly bright.

I prefer sleeping in a completely dark room, so the LED always bothered me a bit. I know there are already ways to deal with it, like using AlDente Pro (which is mostly unnecessary since macOS 26.4) or setting up SleepWatcher with a few shell scripts, but I just wanted a simple app that did one thing well.

So I made one.

MagSleep is a tiny, lightweight menu bar app that turns off the MagSafe LED when your Mac goes to sleep, then immediately hands control back to macOS when it wakes up.

Features

Turns off the MagSafe LED during sleep
Restores normal macOS behavior on wake
Runs as a lightweight menu bar app with a LaunchDaemon
Optional launch at login
Clean uninstall (removes the helper and restores control)

Technical details (for the curious)

Uses the undocumented ACLC SMC key to control the LED
A small privileged helper is required because writing to the SMC requires root privileges
On eventskIOMessageSystemWillSleep / kIOMessageCanSystemSleep: write ACLC = 1
On `kIOMessageSystemHasPoweredOn`: write `ACLC = 0`
Apple Silicon only (MagSafe 3)
macOS 14+
Written in native Swift

Completely free and open source.

GitHub:
https://github.com/realAbitbol/MagSleep

Feedback is welcome! I'm also curious whether anyone knows of a better-supported Apple API for controlling the MagSafe LED.



https://redd.it/1vejelg
@macappsbackup

My Mac Apps Story, Part 4 - More Apps That Made macOS Work My Way

[Part 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1v2bhqk/my_mac_apps_story_part_3_apps_that_shaped_my/) ended with four apps that shaped how I worked on my 2014 13-inch MacBook Pro. I was still far from finished with that MacBook or with finding apps that made macOS work the way I wanted.

The apps in this part helped me make better use of its Retina display, work with text faster, get more from a simple mouse selection, and protect some of my privacy on public Wi-Fi.

In interviews exclusive to [Reverse Everything](https://reverseeverything.com/?utm_source=reddit), the people behind Display Menu, PopClip, and WiFiSpoof share how their apps began and what it takes to keep a focused Mac utility alive for more than ten years.

**Series** · [**Part 1**](https://www.reddit.com/r/macbook/comments/1uk4a1x/my_mac_story_part_1_my_first_macbook_and_the_app/) | [**Part 2**](https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1uygea0/my_mac_apps_story_part_2_coming_back_to_mac_and/) | [**Part 3**](https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1v2bhqk/my_mac_apps_story_part_3_apps_that_shaped_my/) | [**Part 4**](https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1vek409/my_mac_apps_story_part_4_more_apps_that_made/) | more parts coming

# Display Menu - Using Every Pixel of the Retina Display

The [MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014)](https://support.apple.com/en-us/111942) has a native resolution of 2560 by 1600 at 227 pixels per inch. The display looked fantastic, but macOS normally presented it with a scaled interface.

At that time, I traveled often and could not carry the multiple displays I used with my Windows PC. I wanted the small MacBook screen to hold as much as possible, so I used [Display Menu](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/display-menu/id549083868?mt=12) to switch it to the full native 2560 by 1600 mode.

https://preview.redd.it/h7xesgmc37hh1.jpg?width=626&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=046853ae3be1051317ed7ea3e378ad6bf11afd4b

Everything became very small. Instead of making the whole interface larger, I changed the fonts inside the apps I used most. Text remained comfortable to read while more windows and interface elements fit on the screen.

It was an unusual way to use a 13-inch MacBook, but it worked for me. This remained my preferred setup until roughly 2018, when I finally returned to a standard scaled mode.

I still think direct access to the native resolution is useful. It gives a small display a surprising amount of working space and can also help when testing how an app behaves at an unusually high resolution.

# An Interview with Thorsten Karrer

**Ighor July**

What motivates you to continue developing and supporting Display Menu after so many years?

**Thorsten Karrer**

>I still use DisplayMenu myself, and I still observe people (in my current line of work) struggling to quickly set up external displays or presentation screens correctly. So for me it still looks like there is a need for this utility.

**Ighor July**

What advice would you give to independent developers who hope to maintain and support their apps for ten years or longer?

**Thorsten Karrer**

>At some point you need to have figured out for yourself, which role such a project should play in your life. This sounds maybe a bit full of it, but I mean it. We started out with tons of time on our hands and it was a really fun project (a hobby really), and at some point we needed to make a decision: Go all-in, write another \~10 tools of that (small) caliber, switch to subscription pricing, and make this our primary focus. Or step back from it completely and then be fair and pull it from the Store. Or keep it working and providing some value, but accept that you will run this as a side gig and probably even lose some money on it.
>
>For us it turned out to be the third option, partially because we are privileged enough to have day jobs that pay the bills and that allows us to keep DisplayMenu alive.

Read the [complete Display Menu