Out of the box, a brand new Mac can do a lot already without having to download and install tons of apps. It’s the little things that make Macbooks or iMacs a great thing to work with. The new Spotlight search and the multi-touch trackpad are my favorite features that make me love my Macbook Pro so much.
Although OS X offers a lot of features without extra applications, there are tons of apps out there that can improve your Mac experience a lot.
So, if you just got a new Macbook from Santa or you’re looking for new apps to make your life easier, you’re in the right place.
The best apps for your Mac that make your life easier
Apple’s Mac range of computers are, literally, the hot technology of the day with shipments of some 13.5 million portable MacBooks Pro and 4.65 million Mac minis and iMacs in the most recent quarter.Compare this with the longest decline in PC sales history and you can see what I mean. But Mac’s are physically hot, too, sometimes. Best Free Mac Apps 2014 March 11, 2014 / Andy / 2,359 Comments. Best Free Mac Apps of 2014. Click here to check out the updated list for 2016. Guardian Puzzles app The Guardian app Video Podcasts Pictures. Fri 19 Dec 2014 04.45 EST First published on Mon 15 Dec 2014 11.24 EST. Facebook Twitter Pinterest.
Be aware that most of the apps do cost a couple bucks. I’m pretty sure, though, that you won’t regret paying for any of them.
1. Caffeine – FREE
In researching the best free apps for the Mac, I started by using Apple's category list. This makes it easier to cover the wide variety of content available. If an app is on the Mac App Store, it is in one of the 21 categories that Apple has listed.
No apple apps working on mac. Apps built with Mac Catalyst can now be fully controlled using just the keyboard, access more iOS frameworks, and take advantage of the all-new look of macOS Big Sur. Optimize your interface for Mac.Your newly created Mac app runs natively, utilizing the same frameworks, resources, and runtime environment as apps built just for Mac. There’s never been a better time to turn your iPad app into a powerful Mac app. In macOS Big Sur, you can create even more powerful versions of your apps and take advantage of every pixel on the screen by running them at native Mac resolution.
This small app lives in your menu bar and it’s only purpose is to prevent your Mac from going to sleep. So, whenever you have a download or process running that shouldn’t be interrupted, then you can turn on Caffeine to keep it awake for a a few hours or until you manually turn it off again.
>> Download Caffeine here.
![Apps Apps](/uploads/1/3/4/0/134045452/938423297.png)
2. Current for Facebook – $1.99
I wrote about Current a while ago and called it “the best way to use Facebook on a Mac“. Now, after using it a little longer, I must say that this statement is still true but only for people who use Facebook Chat a lot. Current is a native Mac app that lets you access your notifications, chat messages and friend list. Probably the best feature is the chat window that you can use to talk to your Friends. This way, you don’t have to go back to your Facebook browser tab all the time to reply.
>> Download Current here.
3. 1Password – $49.99
1Password is hands down the best password manager tool you can get. The price tag of $49.99 might drive people away but, after trying out other tools like Dashlane or KeePass, I finally decided to give 1Password a try. Trust me, it’s worth the money! It’s extremely convenient to use and offers great features such as Dropbox syncing. Plus, I think the security of your most important online accounts is worth more than 50 bucks. Check out their video to see how it works.
>> Get 1Password here.
4. ClipMenu – FREE
This is a simple app but can be such a great help when you’re writing something or just working with text in general. ClipMenu manages your clipboard history (all the stuff you copy with cmd+c). So, whenever you’re copying a few things but need to use something you copied a while ago, simply open up ClipMenu from your menu bar and select the text you need.
>> Download ClipMenu here.
5. Disk App – $1.99
Free storage or disk space on a mac is something that most people don’t have enough of. Having a huge SSD in a Mac comes with a price, so a lot of people go for 256 GB (or even 128GB) of storage space on their Mac’s SSD. This means that you need to manage your files and downloads well to prevent a full drive which slows down your Mac significantly. Disk App is a great tool to help you do that. It scans your Mac and shows you how much space various file categories thake away. You can take action by deleting entire sections such as your cache or old iOS files. You can also go through your biggest files and select the ones that can be removed. By using this tool regularly, you can make sure that you only have necessary files on your machine.
>> Download Disk App here.
6. Unclutter – $1.99
Unclutter claims that is a “digital wallet” to store your stuff and they’re right. It let’s you quickly write down notes, store files so that you’re desktop stays clean and it saves your clipboard history. You can do all that by moving down the Unclutter interface by moving up your curser to the menu bar and then slide down with two fingers. Of course, there are other apps to take down notes like Keep and you can just use a folder to dump stuff into, but Unclutter takes away a few steps out of this process and is, therefore, a very convenient tool.
Maintenance is an operating system maintenance and cleaning utility for macOS that you can use to perform miscellaneous tasks of computer maintenance: run periodic scripts; rebuild the databases; delete application, font, and system caches; and more. Maintenance is a reliable application which provides a clean interface to many tasks that would otherwise require complex commands to be typed. I use the full Apple suite of products in my personal life (iPhone, iPod & iPad) with numerous in the family on family share, which is the reason I'm keeping the MacBook alive. For normal work activities I use Windows and can stay on top of windows as far as housekeeping and AV is concerned, but as I only use the Apple on a part time basis I'm. To get service for your Mac, you can make a reservation at an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider. Make sure you know your Apple ID and password before your appointment. Or, if you have a Mac notebook, contact us and we'll send you a box you can use to ship it to an Apple Repair Center. We'll return your repaired product to you. Best Mac Optimizer: CleanMyMac X. Most newer Mac machines (especially MacBooks) are now. Mac maintenance might not be as vital to the day-to-day operation of your Mac as it once was, but slow-downs still happen. And when they do, Onyx will clear them up. A general-purpose utility with. Apple mac maintenance app.
>> Download Unclutter here.
7. Fantastical – $19.99
Update: For a limited time only, you can get Fantastical for $14.99.
Fantastical is a great alternative to Apple’s native calendar app. It can be accessed easily from your menu bar and you can create new events or reminders by typing in things like “Conference call with Alex and Theresa tomorrow at 11AM” or “Remind me to call dad tomorrow at 8PM”. The good thing is that Fantastical supports the same reminders as OS X which means that you don’t have to deal with two separate to-do lists.
Since it’s quite a steep price for a calendar app, you can download a trial version through Fantastical’s website to see if it’s worth the money.
>> Download Fantastical here.
8. Flashlight – FREE
Nope, this is not an app that turns your mac screen into a bright white flashlight. It’s much better than that. Flashlight allows you to add plugins to your OS X Yosemite Spotlight search to make it much more powerful than it already is. It offers a huge list with many commands to choose from, which you can then add to Spotlight. Here are a few commands to give you a better idea:
- “Remind me to….tomorrow night.”
- “Weather Chicago”
- “Translate snow to German”
Cool Mac Apps
>> Download Flashlight here.
Open app mac shortcut. The simplest way to launch an app from the keyboard is to use Spotlight.
9. Laplock (beta) – FREE
Cool Mac Apps 2014 Mac
Update: Laplock cannot be downloaded from the official website right now, but you can still get it here.
What’s one of the most annoying things that can happen when you’re working on your Mac in public places like a library or Starbucks? Yes, having a full bladder. Do you have enough trust in humanity to leave your Mac unattended for a few minutes? Hell no! So you either take it with you to the toilet or you wait until you’re done working, go pee and then leave.
Laplock is an alarm tool for exactly those situations. Whenever you have to leave your Mac for a short while, you can turn it on and get an SMS the second someone unplugs your Mac’s power cord. On top of that, Laplock will trigger a loud alarm sound to scare off that bad guy who thinks he can take away your Mac.
>> Get Laplock here.
10. iA Writer – $9.99
If you write a lot on your Mac, then you might get distracted by all the formatting options of Word or Pages or by all the open browser tabs. iA Writer doesn’t care about formatting or a lots of options. The only thing it cares about is letting you write without any distraction. You can use special characters like # and * to transform a line into a headline, make a word bold and so on. This formatting will be saved in the file and can be imported into other programs like Word.
So, if you love to write on your Mac and need a distraction-free text tool, then you should really think about investing a couple bucks in iA Writer.
Available for all iOS devices, Todoist is a note-taking and organization app that can keep. The essential to-do list app for Mac lovers. Recommended by Apple, Any.do’s powerful to-do list combines task management, calendar and reminders all-in-one place for your personal and work life. Download Todoist: To-Do List & Tasks for macOS 10.11 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Ranked as “the best to-do list right now” by The Verge, Todoist is used by 25 million people to organize, plan and collaborate on projects, both big and small. TickTick for Mac. TickTick is one of the recommended to-do list apps which you can install on Mac. Best todo app for mac os. The mobile apps are also perfect. The UI is on par with Things 3 (but I think better). The only two minor gripes I would recommend would be for more app integrations and maybe more theme colors. Nonetheless, hands down best Todo list app out there.
>> Download iA Writer here.
Do you know any other applications that any Mac owner needs to have on his machine? Let us know in the comments!