VidCrop v1.12 is out! A Simple Tool for Video Cropping, Speed Adjustment and Watermarking

https://redd.it/1veopna
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Mac Apps Roundup: My Picks from July

Heya,

I thought of sharing some apps that I found last month, which are super interesting or useful for me since then. So I decided to share it with you all here.


FOSS - free & open-source software\
OTP - one-time purchase

Fluent (OTP)
- Context-aware AI companion app that integrates well with other apps in use
- I personally find their quick actions like Paraphrase, Summarize as super useful


2Do (OTP)
- 2DO is a nice, good-looking Task manager app with new design, interface with options for images, locations and actions
- I've Things 3 (on iPad, iOS except on Mac) and looked for alternate options to Mac version of Things 3.
- My personal evaluation:
- I struggle a bit to come out of my Things-setup
- 2DO doesn't currently have iOS/iPadOS version since it is being actively developed
- It has some bugs that troubled me but dev (u/2doapp) is actively releasing updates with bug fixes



Projectholic (OTP)
- Beautiful kanban-style project/goal tracker
- has built-in stats dashboard, focus timer and more...
- It has a generous free-tier with 10 projects, 50 tasks per month, and also lifetime purchase option too!

Droppy (OTP)
- I guess it doesn't need any explanation as it is quite popular, well-appreciated apps in this subreddit
- shoutout to u/iordv ❤️

If you want a free alternative, try TheBoringNotch

Aerial (FOSS)
- Wallpaper/Screensaver app
- You can check my post here

Assignee (OTP)
- App switcher using hotkeys
- $2.99 One-time purchase


Just10
- menu bar to-do app to list ONLY 10 tasks
- To add more, you must finish the current tasks
- This helped me to limit myself to prevent overplanning


AutoDockDrive (FOSS)
- shows/hides external drives in Dock when connected/disconnected
- simple but useful utility tool

Taack (FOSS)
- Attach postit to folders and apps (windows)

Consul (OTP)
- Automatic file converter that automatically converts when you rename it to your desired output
- you can even set rules for conversion types
- Though it is bit steep in price, it does its job flawlessly and elegantly

Atheria (OTP)
- I came across it very recently, and immediately loved it
- It has over 55 styles, but only ONE free-to-use style 😠
- $6.99 launch price, until Aug 4


FoldNotes (OTP)
- Obsidian-alternate but in AppKit and UIKit
- I haven't tried this one yet but found it interesting so bookmarked it


vvmac - Blog
- I found many of the apps shared here, from this blog website.
- It covers tutorials, workflows, customizations of Mac

Docky (FOSS)
- It's a dock-replacement app that allows you to customize dock to your flavors with (live) widgets, create groups, smart stacks
- I was kind of surprised to see that it's actually a free app 🫶 while other 147 clipboard managers are charging $9/month 😅

Okay, that's it. These are the apps that I used/found last month and wanted to share with others to spread the word about it.

What apps did you try/add to your arsenal? Please share them with your use case, link, dev if possible

https://redd.it/1veq9pu
@macappsbackup

Hoy for Mac (pre-release): a "walkie-talkie" for your Mac's menu bar. Drop messages, files, voice, screen recordings. No sign-up, no third-party, just your iCloud (Free + Pro)

https://redd.it/1venqhi
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When You Need a Mac, But All You Have is a Phone - The Verdict on Four Free Alternatives to Leaving Work Undone

https://preview.redd.it/0z85mxvfw8hh1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=379e485aa13f62f0f3d5cccfd855d0f63dd9f327

TL;DR: Four free iPhone apps that handle jobs you would normally do on your Mac: API Bot for testing endpoints, View Source Vibe for inspecting a suspicious link, Fiper for algorithm-free RSS, and Owl VIP for sender-level email notifications. Two earn a place on your phone. Fiper loses to NetNewsWire for anyone reading this blog, and Owl VIP charges a subscription for something iOS Focus Modes mostly do free. None has a native Mac app.

Every so often, something breaks and you are nowhere near your computer.

An endpoint starts returning 500 errors while you are sitting in a parking lot. Someone texts you a link and you want to see what trackers it loads before you trust it. You are waiting on one critical email, but your phone keeps buzzing about newsletters.

These are Mac jobs. Your Mac is at home.

The obvious move is to reach for your phone. The obvious problem is that most "mobile versions of desktop tools" are just cramped, feature-starved versions of software you already own. The phone only wins when it does something your Mac cannot: being in your hand when you are away from your desk.

That is the filter I applied to these four apps. Two pass it cleanly. Two do not.

One technical note up front: none of these four has a native Mac app. Some will launch on an Apple silicon Mac, since iOS apps show up there by default unless the developer opts out, but what you get is a fixed, phone-shaped window that will not resize. Treat these as phone tools, full stop.

***API Bot***

If you write or maintain APIs, Postman, Insomnia, and Bruno are likely glued to your workflow. They also assume you have a full keyboard and a large monitor. API Bot takes the opposite approach.

It is Postman built specifically for an iPhone screen. You can construct HTTP requests, set headers and query parameters, inspect JSON responses, and save requests as collections.

The use case is narrow, but real: you are away from your desk, an endpoint is behaving oddly, and you want to fire off a quick GET request to staging. It is not a replacement for Bruno on your desktop. It is the difference between diagnosing an outage immediately and waiting three hours until you get home.

It is free, and runs on iOS and iPadOS 13.0 or later. Confirm the permissions in the App Store yourself before installing, as there is little independent track record yet. As a focused utility for an away-from-the-desk problem, it earns its spot.

A competitior, HTTPBot: API & HTTP Client does what API Bot does and ships on iOS, iPad, *and* macOS.

***View Source Vibe***

Viewing page source on a phone sounds like a gimmick. View Source Vibe turns it into a pocket web inspector.

Beyond raw HTML, it includes a Timeline view, OpenGraph social previews, a Cookie Privacy Lens, a Tracker Radar, Header Intelligence, and a Security Score Card. If someone sends you a link that feels off, this lets you inspect headers and tracking scripts on the spot before handing over your attention.

Also free, and it carries a "Data Not Collected" privacy label.

Here is the catch: the developer explicitly notes the app was "Built with Vibes (and Flutter)," indicating heavy use of AI-assisted coding. I have no issue with vibe-coding, but software that grades other sites on security while being built via LLM prompts demands healthy skepticism. Use its site analysis to satisfy your curiosity; do not rely on its Security Score Card as a formal audit.

***Fiper***

Fiper is an RSS reader designed to look like an Instagram feed rather than a list of text headlines.

It shows a chronological timeline without algorithmic sorting,

auto-detects feeds simply by pasting a URL, and pulls in Bluesky, Mastodon, and Pixelfed accounts alongside traditional blogs. That is a thoughtful design position for people who find classic RSS intimidating.

It also has the weakest case for readers of this blog.

If you are reading a Mac utility site, you have almost certainly solved RSS already. NetNewsWire is free, open source, and native on Mac and iOS. Reeder is beautiful. Feedly and Inoreader have a decade of infrastructure behind them.

Fiper is a pleasant, free app. Recommend it to family members who want off algorithmic feeds but will never set up NetNewsWire. For power users, there is no reason to switch.

***Owl VIP Email Alerts***

Owl VIP attempts to fix phone notifications at the sender level.

It hooks into Gmail to give you global notification toggles (VIP-only, All, or None), custom quiet hours, and per-sender audio alerts from a library of 80+ sounds. Being able to triage who emailed you by ear without picking up your phone is a clever idea.

The problem is the business model and the built-in alternatives.

The app is free to download, but requires a paid subscription to connect a Gmail account. Nearly everything it does can be built for free using Gmail's native filters combined with iOS Focus Modes. Paying a recurring subscription strictly for custom notification sounds is a hard sell.

It also only works with Gmail. Spend twenty minutes configuring Focus Modes first.

# My Take

[API Bot](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/api-bot/id1667144207) is an easy download if you deal with APIs and ever need to test an endpoint on the go.
*View Source Vibe* answers a specific question when inspecting suspicious links, provided you treat its security scores as informational.
[Fiper](https://www.fiper.net/en/) is a great recommendation for non-technical friends, but skip it if you already run NetNewsWire or Reeder.
*Owl VIP Email Alerts* has a clever audio trick, but iOS Focus Modes cover most of its feature set without a subscription.

Three of these four apps have virtually no independent review track record. That is normal for early indie software, but it means you are the test case.

Unless otherwise noted, the alternate apps mentioned above are based on research and not individual testing.

https://redd.it/1vetq2w
@macappsbackup

Seeking AltTab alternatives

I updated AltTab via homebrew the other day and my fav feature (using alt-` to switch between open windows of the current app *across all Spaces*) was moved behind a paywall. I wouldn’t have updated if I’d known.

Usually when devs add a paid version, it includes new premium features while the free version remains the same. But this case, they just yanked the previously free feature without warning. After seeing them do this, I’m *never* going to buy their paid version.

Please suggest alternatives!


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

[OS] Blackout: Hide your touch bar natively
https://redd.it/1vezt3n
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Side Calendar 2.4.0 - now free to download, undo for every change, drag-to-reschedule day view

https://preview.redd.it/3e3ykdfpsbhh1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=16d817e7a7be9147041db78e6da2efa38d1148b3


Undo, ⌘Z, 20 steps

I deleted the wrong event once and that was that. It was gone, and I got to reconstruct it from memory and an email thread. That's the whole reason this release exists, and it's been the most requested feature by a distance.

Now delete, duplicate, move, drag and tick-off are all reversible, 20 steps back. Every change shows a small banner telling you what it did with an Undo button attached, so duplicating an event or shifting it to another calendar no longer happens silently.

Two details:

Undo checks before it acts. If the event changed on your iPhone or in Calendar.app since you made the edit, it stops and tells you instead of quietly stomping the newer version.

It can't undo deleting a single occurrence of a repeating event. EventKit gives no way to put one back. The app tells you that up front rather than pretending it worked.

The app is free now

The most common request I got, by a distance, was for a trial. Second most common was some version of "I'm a student, $4.99 is a real decision for an app I can't try first." Fair. But a trial on a fully local app is a bad deal for everyone. It's a timer that resets when you reinstall, and it means the app you like turns itself off in two weeks.

So instead of a trial, the free tier is permanent. Viewing your calendar is free forever. Paying once unlocks changing it.

Day view you can drag on

Hit the shortcut and a panel slides out of the side of the screen with your day laid out by time, not as a list. You can see where the gaps are. Drag on empty space to create an event, drag an event to move it, drag its edge to resize. Right-click for edit, duplicate, duration, hide or delete. Move your pointer away and it slides back, or pin it to keep it open.

Reminders are first-class here too: tick them off from anywhere, or drag one onto the timeline to give it a time. It stays a reminder and syncs straight back to Apple Reminders.

A serious fix worth calling out

Editing a single occurrence of a repeating event, just this Tuesday's stand-up, could rewrite the whole series. A weekly event could turn daily, lose its end date, and stop appearing on the days it should. That's fixed. If you're already on 2.3 and you use repeating events, that's the real reason to update.

Comparison:

Menu bar calendars are a crowded shelf and most of these are good. What's notably different about Side Calendar:

Itsycal: the free open source standard, and excellent at what it does. It gives you a month grid and a list of what's coming up. What it doesn't give you is a time grid, so you can't see the shape of your day or drag something to 4pm.
Dato: closest in spirit, a genuinely well-made menu bar calendar with time zones and meeting join buttons. Same difference though: month view plus event list, rather than a day you can drag on.
MeetingBar: free and focused on one job, getting you into your next call. If that's all you need, use it. Side Calendar is trying to be the place you also make changes.
Fantastical: a more powerful application than mine and I won't pretend otherwise. Natural language parsing, proper week view, cross-platform sync. It's also a subscription and a full window you switch to. If you want a calendar app, buy Fantastical. Side Calendar is for when you don't want to open a calendar app.
Calendar 366: much broader feature set, more configuration, more surface. Side Calendar is deliberately smaller and does less.

Pricing: Free to download, $4.99 one-time for Pro

Free features:

Agenda and day views, week numbers, month picker with busy-day dots
Calendar colours, panel tint, auto-hide, pin
Keyboard shortcuts, arrow key navigation
Attendee lists and RSVP status, Join buttons for Zoom, Teams, Meet and Webex
Ticking reminders off. That one's a write, and I left it free anyway,

because an app that won't let you check a box feels stingy
Opening the editor to see how it works

Pro features:

Creating events and reminders
Saving edits to titles, times, notes and links
Dragging to move, reschedule and resize
Duplicating and deleting
Undo

One-time purchase, no subscription, no renewal, no account. The app is entirely local, EventKit on your Mac and nothing else, so there's no server of mine for a subscription to fund.

Link: App Store Link

Note: Side Calendar used to be a paid app. If you bought it before today, you have Pro for life, including everything I add from here, with nothing more to pay. It should just work when you open the app. If it somehow asks you to buy, hit Restore Purchases, and if that still doesn't sort it, comment here and I'll fix it personally.

https://redd.it/1vf586s
@macappsbackup

Riffle 1.3 - a native diff and merge app for macOS. PR review, 3-way merge, folder compare, and agent friendly

https://redd.it/1vf72ct
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Folders Pro - an even more capable file manager for Windows switchers

https://redd.it/1vf7cpy
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Paperman 3: A cozy paper texture for Mac, now over full-screen apps

https://redd.it/1vf94gm
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