This month, John re-evaluates his plain text workflows and shares some tips for finding people to follow on Mastodon....
WinterFest 2022: The Winter Festival Of Artisanal Software [Sponsor]
WinterFest 2022: The Festival of Artisanal Software is back with a fantastic collection of carefully-crafted software for writing, research, thinking, and more at tremendous prices. As in past years, software artisans from around the globe come together to offer discounts direct to you on 19 carefully-crafted apps and a book collection to assist you with everyday knowledge work:
- Aeon Timeline: The timeline tool for creative thinking
- BBEdit: The leading text and code editor for the Mac
- Bookends: The reference manager you’ve been looking for
- DEVONagent Pro: Your smart research assistant
- DEVONthink: Your powerful information and knowledge manager
- Easy Data Transform: Merge, clean, reformat data without coding
- Hookmark: Supplies the missing links
- HoudahGeo: Photo geotagging for Mac
- HoudahSpot: Powerful file search
- HyperPlan: Flexible visual planner
- ImageFramer Pro: Add creative borders and frames to photos
- Panorama X: Collect, organize, and understand your data
- Scapple: Quickly capture and connect ideas
- Scrivener: Your complete writing studio
- SmallCubed Mail Suite: Manage mail like a maven
- Take Control Books: eBooks from top authors that help you navigate the latest Apple tech and apps
- Tinderbox: Visualize and organize your notes, plans, and ideas
- Trickster: Your recently used files, at your fingertips
- Yojimbo: The Mac app that empowers users to effortlessly and securely manage the onslaught of information
There are no gimmicks, no bundles, no gotchas – just saving of hundreds of dollars on great software from thoughtful developers.
Visit the WinterFest website now for links to these amazing deals or use the coupon code Winterfest2022 at checkout.
Also, in mid-January, the WinterFest folks are organizing an online symposium about the art and craft of software. There will be interviews and panel discussions with leading designers and thinkers, tackling the big issues in software design, including:
- Interlinked systems
- Tiny methods, tiny objects
- Software ecologies
- AI, agents, and self-organizing documents
- Test-driven development and Improvisatory architecture
- Community and synergy
- Digital humanities
Stay tuned for more information soon.
Our thanks to WinterFest 2022 for its support of MacStories this week.
Marvis Pro Setup
By: Mike Gilbert, Club MacStories+ member. My relationship with music has changed over the years, and it’s followed the trends of how music is consumed - my dad’s vinyl, the brief period of owning some cassette tapes, then my own CDs, now streaming (via a self-indulgent period of building my own vinyl collection). One thing...
Holiday Break Reminder
This is the last issue of MacStories Weekly for 2022. We’ll be back with a new issue on January 13th. In the meantime, be on the lookout for the December Monthly Log, which we’ll publish before the end of the year. Also, AppStories and MacStories Unwind are both taking a short break. AppStories+ will be...
Up Next on MacStories’ Podcasts
On the January 9th episode AppStories, Federico and John continue their series of gone but not forgotten apps. Unwind is on holiday break and will be back January 13th....
In This Issue
Sleeve 2, an update to our Todoist Obsidian plugin, getting out of a workflow rut, Club member Mike Gilbert’s Marvis Pro setup, plus the usual Links, App Debuts, a recap of MacStories articles, and a preview of upcoming MacStories podcast episodes....
Previously, On MacStories
Stories Belkin’s MagSafe Mount for Desktops and Displays, Hand Mirror, and the Logitech Crayon MacStories Selects 2022: Recognizing the Best Apps of the Year The MacStories Selects 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award Last Week, on Club MacStories: AV Club Returns to Club MacStories+, the Club Is on Mastodon, and a Fun Experiment That Almost Went Too...
MacStories Selects 2022: Recognizing the Best Apps of the Year
Introduction
John: It’s time for the MacStories Selects awards, our annual celebration of the apps we love and the people who make them. Every year since 2018, we’ve paused at the end of a busy year to reflect on the hundreds of apps we’ve tried and recognize the best.
It’s been another big year for apps, driven by the ingenuity and creativity of the developers who make them combined with new technologies introduced by Apple. Note-taking apps were big again, and just as we get ready to put 2022 in the rear-view mirror, the read-later app space has begun heating up like it’s 2010 all over again.
Last year, we kicked off the MacStories Selects Awards with a new Lifetime Achievement Award, which we gave to PCalc by James Thomson whose app will celebrate its 30th anniversary in a couple of days. This year, we’ve got another app that has stood the test of time and had an outsized impact on the world of apps, which you can read about in a special story written by our Alex Guyot, whose history with the winning app makes him the perfect choice to present the award.
It’s also time to pause and honor the best apps of the year in the following seven categories:
- Best New App
- Best App Update
- Best New Feature
- Best Watch App
- Best Mac App
- Best Design
- App of the Year
which were picked by the MacStories team, plus the winner of the Readers’ Choice Award, which was picked by Club MacStories members, for a total of nine awards, plus six runners-up, all of which are covered below.
We also recorded a special episode of AppStories covering all the winners and runners-up. It’s a terrific way to learn more about this year’s apps and includes an interview with our Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
You can listen to the episode below.
So, without further ado, it’s my pleasure to introduce the 2022 MacStories Selects Awards to the MacStories community.
Kolide: Endpoint Security Shouldn’t Mean Compromising Employee Privacy [Sponsor]
“If you build a dystopian and cynical security program born out of fear, mistrust, and suspicion, then you will inevitably make your fellow employees your enemies.”
That’s a quote from Honest Security, Kolide’s mission statement, and North Star. It was written by its CEO, Jason Meller, who spent his career in cybersecurity before founding Kolide.
He was troubled by the widely-accepted idea among cybersecurity professionals that end users should be treated, first and foremost, as threats. This way of thinking informs the traditional approach to device management, which relies on MDMs that take control of devices and come with surveillance capabilities that most companies don’t need or even really want.
Kolide works by notifying your employees of security issues via Slack, educating them on why they’re important, and giving them step-by-step instructions to resolve them themselves.
Kolide’s open-source agent collects data across 43 categories on Mac, Windows, and Linux devices. It can answer questions like:
- Do any of my developers have unsecured SSH keys floating around?
- Does everyone have disk encryption, screen lock, and password managers set up?
- Are there any Macs in my fleet in need of a new battery?
And while Kolide can provide insights that MDMs can’t, its commitment to transparency really sets it apart. Employees can visit the User Privacy Center for an explanation of precisely what data is being collected, by whom, and for what purpose.
Want to see how it works for you? Click here for a free trial, no credit card required, and let us show you what we’re all about.
Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.