Mac OS MacOS recommended tools, apps

Entirely personal preference, but hiding the dock gives soo much screen real estate. You can use a Terminal command line to make the dock appear much quicker than their animations.

Use Rectangle to get windows-like program window snapping, can't use a mac without it.

And just like Windows, if you are connected to power, put macbook to sleep and disconnect the power, it will have network activity in the background. Always remove power cable before putting the laptop to sleep.
 
I use Raycast, it is an alternative of the default command panel (not sure what it is called) for mac.

It has clipboard by default and a good windows management, placing system out of the box. I really like using it and don't think I can live without this on a mac where I need to keep copy pasting or use some other tool. This one feels like a perfect solution :)
 
smnrock said:
BetterSnapTool gives more customization option i guess and its cheaper as well. At least in my case, i wanted something similar to windows PowerToy's fancyzone feature. This allows me to customize the window size(s) based on my preference.
Click to expand...
Isn't this a paid application?
imageOptim - one of the best image compression and bulk resize tools. Helps a lot with mass upload for my blog.
Inoreader - works great on iPhone but is very buggy on Apple Silicon Macs (stick to Feedly).
Focus - pomodoro tool. Great for productivity.
Bear - the best Markdown syntax note taking application (wish they release this on Windows/Android as well).
Fantastical - Amazing calendar.
 
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AlDente - Charge Limiter, the pro version is better because it offers sailing mode.

It keeps your battery at certain % when plugged in, very essential for battery health in the long run. I recommend 40% to 60% in sailing mode, which means when plugged in, it will charge up to 60% and let it deplete to 40% and start charging again. Keeps it in that range.

There is nothing like this on windows laptop, sad. :(
 
Heisen said:
AlDente - Charge Limiter, the pro version is better because it offers sailing mode.

It keeps your battery at certain % when plugged in, very essential for battery health in the long run. I recommend 40% to 60% in sailing mode, which means when plugged in, it will charge up to 60% and let it deplete to 40% and start charging again. Keeps it in that range.

There is nothing like this on windows laptop, sad. :(
Click to expand...
I remember ThinkPads having this feature where you can set max limit and lower limit when you can start charging. Don't know if their battery management application still has such feature.
Btw, how many of you installed Sonoma Developer Beta?
 
kvn95ss said:
Entirely personal preference, but hiding the dock gives soo much screen real estate. You can use a Terminal command line to make the dock appear much quicker than their animations.

Use Rectangle to get windows-like program window snapping, can't use a mac without it.

And just like Windows, if you are connected to power, put macbook to sleep and disconnect the power, it will have network activity in the background. Always remove power cable before putting the laptop to sleep.
Click to expand...
Move the dock to the right or the left side of the screen instead. Other than excel, there is hardly any app where you need all the horizontal pixels.

Also, in several years of Mac OS usage, I have never has laptop is burning up the bag issue regardless of what order the lid was shut (Using Mac OS for personal PC since 2007) .

A couple of other pointers that are very diff from windows that may be common knowledge to existing users but may be handy for new switchers -

1) Do not shut down your laptop , there is no need to . Just close the lid when done. Also, it lets your laptop run its maintenance cron jobs to keep things clear & clean. Unlike windows, it won't cut update without your permission :tearsofjoy:
2) Get used to cmd+space. Its the most useful tool/widget in Mac OS
3) Get used to quick look (space bar when a file is selected in finder ) - its the easiest way to preview
4) Start using cmd tab (same as windows) in conjunction with cmd ~ (Not in windows) to optimise your app switching (the latter flips between open windows of same app)
5) Three finger swipe up and 3 finger swipe down (for something similar to the above)
6) To repeat, Use 2 above for everything - whether it's to quickly convert currency or temperature, open an app or to find a file
7) force press the trackpad for a quick word definition lookup for whatever word your cursor is on
8) Get used to the terminal for advanced mods- if you are used to linux, you will love it
9) use cmd K in finder to quickly connect to a windows network drive or to vnc to a linux system or to mount a nfs drive
10) If you have an iPad, start using sidecar - Its brilliant
10) Some must have utilities:
  • Macs Fan control - for CPU/ board/ ssd temps etc
  • Coconut Battery - For real time battery drain stats, health etc
  • Rectangle or Magnet - For auto snapping windows ... a long press on the green button also helps - the latter also lets you auto connect and move windows to a nearby iPad
 
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Heisen said:
AlDente - Charge Limiter, the pro version is better because it offers sailing mode.

It keeps your battery at certain % when plugged in, very essential for battery health in the long run. I recommend 40% to 60% in sailing mode, which means when plugged in, it will charge up to 60% and let it deplete to 40% and start charging again. Keeps it in that range.

There is nothing like this on windows laptop, sad. :(
Click to expand...
Make of note of this very important message from AIDente developers GitHub page:

IMPORTANT: Keeping your battery at a lower percentage, such as under 80%, over weeks without doing full cycles (100%-0%) can result in a disturbed battery calibration. When this happens, your Macbook might turn off with 40-50% left or your battery capacity will drop significantly. However, this is only due to a disturbed battery calibration and not because of a faulty or degraded battery. To avoid this issue, we recommend doing at least one full cycle (0%-100%) every two weeks. Even if your battery calibration gets disturbed, doing 4+ full cycles will recalibrate your battery and the capacity will go up again.

If we use this tool, we have to do a full cycle once very two weeks. I am sticking to fill it up and forget till battery indicator turns yellow for now. Have a 3 year Apple Care+ and would get the battery replaced before end of the warranty.
 
superczar said:
Move the dock to the right or the left side of the screen instead. Other than excel, there is hardly any app where you need all the horizontal pixels.

Also, in several years of Mac OS usage, I have never has laptop is burning up the bag issue regardless of what order the lid was shut (Using Mac OS for personal PC since 2007) .

A couple of other pointers that are very diff from windows that may be common knowledge to existing users but may be handy for new switchers -

1) Do not shut down your laptop , there is no need to . Just close the lid when done. Also, it lets your laptop run its maintenance cron jobs to keep things clear & clean. Unlike windows, it won't cut update without your permission :tearsofjoy:
2) Get used to cmd+space. Its the most useful tool/widget in Mac OS
3) Get used to quick look (space bar when a file is selected in finder ) - its the easiest way to preview
4) Start using cmd tab (same as windows) in conjunction with cmd ~ (Not in windows) to optimise your app switching (the latter flips between open windows of same app)
5) Three finger swipe up and 3 finger swipe down (for something similar to the above)
6) To repeat, Use 2 above for everything - whether it's to quickly convert currency or temperature, open an app or to find a file
7) force press the trackpad for a quick word definition lookup for whatever word your cursor is on
8) Get used to the terminal for advanced mods- if you are used to linux, you will love it
9) use cmd K in finder to quickly connect to a windows network drive or to vnc to a linux system or to mount a nfs drive
10) If you have an iPad, start using sidecar - Its brilliant
10) Some must have utilities:
  • Macs Fan control - for CPU/ board/ ssd temps etc
  • Coconut Battery - For real time battery drain stats, health etc
  • Rectangle or Magnet - For auto snapping windows ... a long press on the green button also helps - the latter also lets you auto connect and move windows to a nearby iPad
Click to expand...
I use iStat Menus, it can control fans as well, not to forget the brilliant system hardware monitoring it does right on the status bar. I do want to give sidecar a try, but waiting for OLED iPad hopefully.

booo said:
If you use terminal a lot… OhMyZsh
Click to expand...
vishalrao said:
Homebrew anyone else? For linux-like experience among other command line tools and UI apps, website is brew.sh

There's this command line tool called asitop for apple silicon to show perf and power usage for P and E cores, GPU and ANE neural engine in textual UI.
Click to expand...
Oh my zsh along fish like autosuggestion plugin, Dracula theme for terminal, home-brew all are must haves for me.

desiibond said:
Make of note of this very important message from AIDente developers GitHub page:

IMPORTANT: Keeping your battery at a lower percentage, such as under 80%, over weeks without doing full cycles (100%-0%) can result in a disturbed battery calibration. When this happens, your Macbook might turn off with 40-50% left or your battery capacity will drop significantly. However, this is only due to a disturbed battery calibration and not because of a faulty or degraded battery. To avoid this issue, we recommend doing at least one full cycle (0%-100%) every two weeks. Even if your battery calibration gets disturbed, doing 4+ full cycles will recalibrate your battery and the capacity will go up again.

If we use this tool, we have to do a full cycle once very two weeks. I am sticking to fill it up and forget till battery indicator turns yellow for now. Have a 3 year Apple Care+ and would get the battery replaced before end of the warranty.
Click to expand...
Isn't this done by default on MacOS these days, my 16" MBP remains plugged in almost 24x7 and it holds the charge on 80% only.
 

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desiibond said:
Have a 3 year Apple Care+ and would get the battery replaced before end of the warranty.
Click to expand...
The method they use to check for battery replacement, is they measure the charge cycles on the battery from some command, I forgot that. If charge cycles are more than 600 then you are eligible for battery change. I saw this 5-6 years ago, I suppose it's still the same today.
 
Heisen said:
The method they use to check for battery replacement, is they measure the charge cycles on the battery from some command, I forgot that. If charge cycles are more than 600 then you are eligible for battery change. I saw this 5-6 years ago, I suppose it's still the same today.
Click to expand...
No. If charge that it holds is less than 80%, they will change at no cost if it is in warranty.
Damn. Did not see earlier that if you use Animoji for lock screen profile icon, if you use wrong fingerprint to scan on touchID, Animoji shakes head or rolls eyes saying that the auth is wrong. :D
 
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