Posts tagged with "utility"

Awake: A Considered, Effective Alarm for Chronic Snoozers

Waking up on time is a quintessential human problem. Over the years, we’ve come up with all kinds of solutions, from ringing analog clocks to flashing lights to motorized digital clocks that roll away from our bedsides as they chime, forcing us to get up and find them to turn them off. But what if there was a way to use a device you already have – your phone – to help you break the habit of snoozing and actually get out of bed when you’re supposed to?

That’s what unorderly, the team behind the day planner app and App Store Awards 2025 finalist Structured, have set out to do with their new alarm app Awake. Built on the newly introduced AlarmKit API, which gives third-party alarm apps the same level of system access as Apple’s Clock app, Awake takes a comprehensive approach to setting alarms that’s meant not only to wake you up but to help you feel more alert and prepared for the day when you do.

If you’ve ever used Structured before, you’re aware of how deeply the unorderly team considers every element of their work, from the color scheme to the fine details of editing events, to make tools that are both elegant and powerful. I’m happy to report that the same level of care is reflected in Awake, both in its design and in the balance of simplicity and customization it offers.

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Festivitas Brings Fresh Whimsy to Your Mac, iPhone, and iPad for the Holiday Season

Last year, Simon Støvring released Festivitas, a Mac app that lets you string holiday lights from your menu bar and across the top of your Dock. This year, Simon is back with an update to the Mac app and a new version for the iPhone and iPad.

The default set of lights consists of traditional multi-colored bulbs that blink on and off as you use your Mac. That’s the set I use the most, but Festivitas offers many more options. You can control the lights’ opacity, whether they appear along both the menu bar and the Dock or just one of them, and the colors of the lights and the cable from which they hang. You also have more than a dozen light styles to choose from, including round holiday lights, bats, clovers, eggs, stars, hearts, snowflakes, cocktail glasses, beer mugs, “2026,” “WWDC,” and more, covering a wide variety of holidays and festive events. Plus, you can control how the lights blink. It’s a lot, but it’s also just plain fun to tweak everything to suit your tastes.

This year, the Mac app adds a virtual snowstorm that you can start from the app’s settings or menu bar item. It’s a great addition that looks amazing against a dark backdrop like the Obsidian theme I often use to write. A fun touch is that the snowflakes avoid your pointer, and you can adjust the sensitivity of this feature in settings. You can also use your pointer to push around the lights hanging from the menu bar, which is handy for those times when they obscure Safari’s menu bar or other content.

The snow is lovely. I highly recommend pairing it with the Animal Crossing Snowy Day soundtrack on Nintendo Music. It’s an incredibly peaceful and relaxing combination.

Festivitas supports Shortcuts, too. Simon has created some fun example automations that you’ll find in the app’s settings to do things like turning on the snowstorm when snow is forecast and activating your lights when you play music.

Festivitas on iPhone.

Festivitas on iPhone.

New this year is a Festivitas app for the iPhone and iPad. The app lets you build small, medium, and large widgets to place on your Home Screen. You can either frame a photo with twinkling lights or create a transparent-style widget so the lights frame an element of your Home Screen. I love that the lights framing the photos are animated, an effect I know isn’t easy to do with a widget. You can also add text and make other adjustments to each widget.

Festivitas isn’t going to help you get more done. In fact, it might even slow you down a little bit, and maybe that’s the point. Taking a moment to enjoy the app’s lights and be mesmerized by the falling snow is a good reminder to slow down a little and have some fun.

Festivitas for the Mac is available directly from the app’s website for any price you want to name between $3.99 and $9.99. The iPhone and iPad version is a free download on the App Store with a range of in-app purchases from $3.99 to $9.99 to create a similar name-your-price system.

Picmal Streamlines Batch Conversion and Compression on the Mac

One of my favorite aspects of macOS is the endless supply of great utilities for doing anything you can imagine. If there’s something you want to do on your Mac, the chances are that there isn’t just one good utility to accomplish your task; there are several.

My latest discovery is a file conversion and compression app called Picmal. The app has a wonderfully simple, modern interface that sits on top of a lot of complexity, enabling batch conversion and compression with minimal effort.

You can mix and match file types in one conversion or compression operation.

You can mix and match file types in one conversion or compression operation.

Picmal handles images, videos, and audio files in a single-window utility that features a Convert/Compress toggle at the top and a lot of empty space to start. The center of the window invites users to “Drop Your Files Here.” Once you do, the window animates into something a little closer to a Finder window with alternating white and light gray rows that make it simple to track metadata about each file.

Files can be dragged into Picmal from anywhere on your Mac, allowing for batch processing without moving your files to one location first, which I appreciate. Once converted, files are saved as new files in the folder they came from with a prefix or suffix that you can specify in the app’s Settings. You’re not limited by file type either. You can drag any combination of images, videos, and audio files into Picmal’s window, picking and choosing what to convert them into as you go.

For some file types, Picmal includes metadata.

For some file types, Picmal includes metadata.

Next to some file types is a small info button that reports the sort of basic file metadata you find in the Finder’s info panel. That’s followed by a column that lists the file’s starting type, and a column with a dropdown menu for picking the destination file type. The list of supported file types is long, too, with the exact number of options dependent on the type you begin with.

If you want to check the file you’re about to convert before doing so, there’s also an arrow button on the far right of each file’s row that will take you to it in the Finder. The other columns report the output file’s size, any compression savings, and the status of each conversion. Whenever you want, you can add more files for conversion, kicking off a new batch once any ongoing conversions complete.

Most file conversions I tried went well, but I couldn't manage to convert large MP4s to the MOV format.

Most file conversions I tried went well, but I couldn’t manage to convert large MP4s to the MOV format.

In my testing, Picmal performed well overall. I converted images, audio, and videos to and from a variety of common formats such as PNG, JPEG, PDF, MP3, AAC, WAV, MP4, and MOV. However, I did run into trouble trying to convert a 1.55 GB MP4 of an episode of MacStories Unwind from MP4 to MOV. The conversion failed, even though much smaller files worked. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in an upcoming update.

Another smaller issue I ran into is that there’s a checkbox next to each file in the Picmal file conversion interface that appears to be intended as a way to change the conversion file type for multiple files at once. However, the dropdown that appears when selecting multiple files of the same type didn’t give me an option to pick a new conversion type. The developer is aware of this and the large video file issue and is working to resolve both.

The other primary use for Picmal is file compression. The workflow is largely the same as converting files, with the size savings reported in a dedicated window column. By default, compressing files requires you to click on Picmal’s Compress button, but you can change the process so that it happens automatically instead. From Settings, you can also add compression to your file conversions, completing both steps together.

Compressing images.

Compressing images.

Audio and video compression quality are set to 85% by default, while image compression quality is set to ‘balanced.’ However, in each case, you can tweak the compression settings with more fine-grained controls. Another nice touch is that your compression selections and a link to Picmal’s Settings are both accessible from the bottom of the Picmal window, making your compression choices clear and simplifying the process of making any adjustments.

Aside from a couple of hiccups in my testing that the developer will likely have fixed soon, my experience with Picmal has been great. About the only thing I’d love to see added is support for Shortcuts. Otherwise, Picmal is an excellent way to manage file conversion and compression jobs of any size. There are other apps that accomplish something similar, but the simplicity and speed with which you can manage batch conversion and compression with Picmal sets it apart and makes it worth checking out.

Picmal is available directly from its developer for $9.99. That gets you the use of the app on one Mac at a time, which can be expanded to more Macs at an increasing per-Mac discount based on the number of licenses you purchase.

Tot 2.0: A Thoughtful Extension of an Already Elegant Note-Taking App

Late yesterday, The Iconfactory released 2.0 updates to Tot for macOS, Tot Pocket for iOS and iPadOS, and Tot Mini for watchOS. The apps, which The Iconfactory describes as tiny text companions, include a handful of big new features that span all three versions, along with other updates and fixes that are unique to each platform.

What hasn’t changed is Tot’s incredible design and reliable performance across all platforms. The app showcases some of The Iconfactory’s best app design work, which Federico described in his review of version 1.0:

Tot’s colored dots serve the dual purpose of being spatial navigation tool and context indicators. You can navigate across documents in the app with a quick swipe, and in doing so on modern iPhones you’ll feel a delightful haptic tap; alternatively, you can tap the dots to switch documents. As I mentioned above, each dot carries a color, which becomes the background color of the selected document (vibrancy is also used to let the color shine through the software keyboard – a nice touch). The palette chosen by The Iconfactory for Tot’s seven documents is some of the finest selection of colors I’ve seen in a modern iOS app: it looks great in light mode, and it looks amazing in dark mode thanks to its combination of high contrast and translucency.

The combination of that elegant design with reliable sync across multiple OSes and thoughtful Shortcuts integration has understandably made the Tot family of apps integral to a lot of MacStories readers’ workflows. However, if you haven’t tried any of the Tot apps before, it’s worth checking out Federico’s review of version 1.0 for the fundamentals because they haven’t changed, and I’ll be focusing on what’s new.

My favorite 2.0 feature is that Tot now supports automatic indenting. If you indent a line using the Tab key, the next line will begin at the same indentation level when you hit Return. That makes creating hierarchical lists a lot faster than before. My only quibble with the feature is that if you’re making a bulleted list, to indent a line, you can’t indent using just the Tab key if the cursor appears anywhere in your line of text. However, you can use ⌘ + ] and ⌘ + ] to do the same thing. Regardless of how indenting is invoked, it’s an excellent addition to Tot that I was glad to see included in the update.

Tot allows you to define pairs of smart bullets.

Tot allows you to define pairs of smart bullets.

Speaking of bullets, Tot 2.0 also supports customizable smart bullets. From the app’s settings, you can choose from different pairs of symbols and emoji, like empty and filled circles or empty and filled stars. To toggle between the symbols in each pair, all you need to do is click or tap on them. If the eight default pairs aren’t to your taste, there are a bunch of alternatives you can use instead, such as the snowflake and flame emoji. It’s a clever twist on standard checkboxes and radio buttons that I’ve enjoyed because it adds some character and color to the app.

Tot adds eight new text dividers, too. From the classic three dashes used in Markdown to asterisks and more, there’s a nice variety of options. Plus, you can easily insert a divider with the keyboard shortcut Control + Minus.

The Iconfactory has made other platform-specific changes, too:

  • Settings have been redesigned in the Mac version and include new options, such as floating the Tot window over other windows.
  • The iOS and iPadOS versions include a menu button that offers access to the app’s settings along with a couple of bulk operations like saving, sharing, and exporting notes.
  • The watch app’s design has been refreshed with simplified controls and colorful backgrounds.

It’s great to see the Tot apps reach version 2.0. The three tentpole features – automatic indenting, custom smart bullets, and text dividers – are all meaningful improvements that don’t compromise the apps’ simplicity. Those features, along with several quality of life improvements and other bug fixes that you can read about in Tot’s version history, add up to an excellent update that should serve users well for a long time.

Tot is available on the Mac App Store, and Tot Pocket is available on the iOS and iPadOS App Store. Each costs $19.99, though existing users can update to Tot Pocket at no extra cost. Tot Mini, the Apple Watch app, is available as a separate $1.99 purchase.

Shareshot 1.3: Greater Image Flexibility, New Backgrounds, and Extended Shortcuts Support

If you have a screenshot you need to frame, Shareshot is one of your best bets. That’s because it makes it so hard to create an image that looks bad. The app, which is available for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, has a lot of options for tweaking the appearance of your framed screenshot, so your final image won’t have a cookie-cutter look. However, there are also just enough constraints to prevent you from creating something truly awful.

You can check out my original review and coverage on Club MacStories for the details on version 1.0 and subsequent releases, but today’s focus is on version 1.3, which covers three areas:

  • Increased image size flexibility
  • New backgrounds
  • Updated and extended Shortcuts actions
Adjusting sizes.

Adjusting sizes.

With version 1.3, Shareshot now lets you pick any output size you’d like. The app then frames your screenshot and fits it in the image size you specify. If you’re doing design work, getting the exact-size image you want out of the app is a big win because it means you won’t need to make adjustments later that could impair its fidelity.

A related change is the ability to specify a fixed width for the image that Shareshot outputs. That means you can pick the aspect ratio you want, such as square or 16:9, then specify a fixed width, and Shareshot will take care of automatically adjusting the height of the image to preserve the aspect ratio you chose. This feature is perfect if you publish to the web and the tools you use are optimized for a certain image width. Using anything wider just means you’re hosting a file that’s bigger than necessary, potentially slowing down your website and resulting in unnecessary bandwidth costs.

Shareshot is stripey now.

Shareshot is stripey now.

Shareshot has two new categories of backgrounds too: Solidarity and Stripes. Solidarity has two options styled after the Ukrainian and Palestinian flags, and Stripes includes designs based on LGBTQ+ colors and other color combinations in a variety of styles. All of the new categories allow you to adjust several parameters including the angle, color, saturation, brightness, and blur of the stripes.

Examples of angles.

Examples of angles.

Finally, Shareshot has revamped its Shortcuts actions to take advantage of App Intents, giving users control over more parameters of images generated using Shortcuts and preparing the app for Apple’s promised Smart Siri in the future. The changes add:

  • Support for outputting custom-sized images,
  • A scale option for fixed-width and custom-sized images, and
  • New parameters for angling and blurring backgrounds.

The progress Shareshot has made since version 1.0 is impressive. The app has grown substantially to offer a much wider set of backgrounds, options, and flexibility without compromising its excellent design, which garnered it a MacStories Selects Award last year. I’m still eager to see multiple screenshot support added, a feature I know is on the roadmap, but that’s more a wish than a complaint; Shareshot is a fantastic app that just keeps getting better.

Shareshot 1.3 is free to download on the App Store. Some of its features require a $1.99/month or $14.99/year subscription.

AI Adds a New Dimension to DEVONthink 4

DEVONthink is a difficult app to review because its flexibility means it can serve a wide variety of purposes. I’ve been using it for the past few weeks as an archive and research companion that houses thousands of plain text files, but the app is capable of effectively replacing your Mac’s file system, storing and cataloging all sorts of files. With lightning-fast search, tagging, and a plethora of other organization methods, DEVONthink 3 has a well-earned reputation as a premier tool for researchers working with lots of files. However, DEVONthink’s capabilities are so varied that it can also serve as a text editor, an RSS reader, a read-later app, and a lot more.

Today, DEVONtechnologies is releasing a public beta of DEVONthink 4, a big update with a focus on AI, but with other new features and refinements to existing capabilities, too. Which of these features matters most to you will depend in large measure on how you use the app. I’m going to focus on the new AI tools because those are the additions that have had the greatest impact on the way I use DEVONthink, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the app offers many other tools that may suit your needs better.

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Terminology 5: Rebuilt and Better than Ever

It’s been quite a while since I did a full review of Agile Tortoise’s Terminology, an extensible dictionary and reference tool for the iPhone and iPad. It’s hard to believe the app has been around for 15 years now, but with today’s release of version 5.0, Greg Pierce has introduced a thoroughly modern ground-up rewrite of the app that is richer and more extensible than ever, making it one of my favorite research tools.

Let’s take a look at what’s new.

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Scratchpad: The Cross-Device Text Utility That Pairs Perfectly with Your Clipboard Manager

One of the best indicators of how sticky a cross-device utility will be in my setup is how quickly I install it everywhere. For Sindre Sorhus’ Scratchpad, the answer was “very sticky.” The simple text utility works on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro (via iPad compatibility mode), and as soon as I tried it on my desktop Mac, I grabbed all of my other devices and installed it on them, too.

At its core, Scratchpad is a single view for typing or pasting plain text that syncs everywhere. What sets it apart from similar apps is its many small touches that demonstrate a deep understanding of the way people use a scratchpad app.

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