2025-12-23 03:40:16
Why do some apps not cooperate with updater apps that use Sparkle or Homebrew? Does it cost extra money, or is it more difficult to implement than I am aware of? I've heard that you can't use Homebrew unless your app has a GitHub page with more than 50 stars. Is that true? Why do so many apps that have an option within their built-in updaters to "Automatically update in the future" still insist on asking me if I want to update them? For me, the holy grail is an app that can be set to stay up to date and never require anything else from me. Most browsers can do it.
Staying on top of app updates is a constant struggle for me. I know that I am an edge case with upwards of 600 installed apps, but when testing and reviewing software is your hobby, that's what happens. There isn't a single updater that catches every available app on my box, so I run them all on a rotating schedule: Latest, Updatest, Homebrew, MacUpdater (for 10 more days), and even the one built into CleanMyMac (DO NOT COME AT ME). Even with all of those available, there are still a few apps in my stack that don't cooperate with updater apps.
Lest I sound like an ungrateful twat, I want to add that, by and large, most of the developers I've contacted, either as a customer or a blogger, have bent over backwards to be helpful. It can be almost surreal to receive help from people I've read about or listened to on podcasts. I'm extremely appreciative of the people who make the apps that help me get work done. Y'all rock.
2025-12-22 03:55:25
I've recently been on a mission to reassess some of the software I use to ensure I'm employing it in instances where it can accomplish tasks more quickly than the manual methods I sometimes revert to. I've been using text expansion tools (snippets) for quite some time, yet I often feel that I could leverage them more effectively.
Regarding text expansion, the applications I regularly use offer me a variety of options.
This isn't a viable option for me, as it lacks support for variables like date and time. Additionally, Mac text replacement is not available in all apps. For instance, it is unsupported in Microsoft Word, Outlook, or Firefox, and it also doesn't offer any formatting.
I'm a frequent user of Raycast, and it is always active on my Mac. The main thing preventing me from utilizing its highly-rated snippets feature is the difficulty in importing my existing snippet collection from the app I currently use. Raycast snippets are searchable and suitable for boilerplate text and code. Raycast supports variables, which it labels "Dynamic Placeholders." If you have a Raycast Pro account with syncing enabled, you can access the same snippet library on both your phone and Mac. Alfred, a competing application similar to Raycast, also offers text expansion for those who purchase the Powerpack, which has a one-time fee of £59 ($78). Alfred lacks iOS snippet support.
There’s very little that Keyboard Maestro ($36) cannot automate, including text replacement/expansion. A notable feature of Keyboard Maestro is the ability to add a microdelay so that in applications like VSCode, where replacement can be inconsistent due to rapid triggering, you can slow down the process while still achieving the desired functionality. You can also simultaneously trigger other macros with your text expansion snippet. High-speed expansion is possible with Keyboard Maestro’s "prompt for user input" feature. No iOS support.
The reality is that I don't use any of these methods because I have been relying on Text Expander for over a decade. I have several hundred snippets, and the process of exporting and importing them into Raycast seemed too tedious for my liking. Additionally, at one point, I qualified for a lifetime discount on my subscription, so it remains quite economical (the regular price is $3.33 per month, billed annually). In terms of functionality, it meets all my needs for an app of its kind. My subscription works on both Windows and macOS. If you don’t mind adding another subscription, it’s a solid option. There are even libraries of snippets available for download covering areas such as customer support, coding, and Markdown. An iOS version is also available, which operates through a custom keyboard currently in Test Flight.
2025-12-21 02:04:43
In a recent thread on the effectiveness of available macOS app updaters, several people lamented that the FOSS command line tool Topgrade requires too much user intervention to be run with cron or launchd. In its default state, it can repeatedly prompt for the admin password, and in the event of an error with one of your services, it throws Quit or Retry queries that are showstoppers for unattended usage.
Topgrade checks all of your Homebrew and Mac App Store apps for updates, and if there are any available, it installs them. It also checks for updates for a long list of command line tools including Python, Node, Bun, and others. Now that it is possible to convert your existing apps to Homebrew-upgradable apps, you can conceivably handle the majority of your updates with a single free tool, which is important since MacUpdater will cease to function in less than two weeks.
After spending some time buried in the Topgrade documentation and doing some experimenting, I'm happy to share that it is possible to get it to work without password prompts or interruptions caused by service failures. Once you set it up, you can use cron, Keyboard Maestro, Shortcuts, or some other automation tool to run Topgrade on a schedule and keep your stack up to date with very little friction.
Note: This is safe to do if your Mac is a single-user device that you own. Don't do it on enterprise machines, and don't do it if you have others in your house who aren't trusted admins using your Mac.
You can edit the Topgrade config file with nano or with a real IDE. Don't use Text Edit. The path is usually at the root of your home folder at
~/.config/topgrade.toml
Near the top of the file is a [misc] section. You need to enter these lines in that section and save the file: assume_yes = true no_retry = true cleanup = true
Once you've completed those steps, you can run topgrade --dry-run to test things out. If you don't encounter any issues, you're ready to use a suitable automation tool to schedule your upgrades in the future.
Note: If Topgrade updates services you don't really use or that you prefer to update separately, you can disable them. In my case, I don't use Bun, and I prefer to update my Docker containers myself. To disable a service, add another line under the same [misc] section where you entered the other information, and use this format for the services you want to turn off: disable = ["containers", "bun"]
2025-12-20 04:20:42
I love it when I find an app that solves a problem I didn't know I had. I am always reluctant to get rid of any Apple hardware that still has any life left in it. Sometimes finding a practical use for an aging iPad or Intel Mac can be challenging. But now that I've discovered what I think is the best in its class app for displaying digital photography, I think Aura Photo Frames are great gadgets, but they are expensive and have limitations. Macs and iPads generally have better displays. They have network connectivity built in, and using one of them with the right software gives you a huge variety of photo sources. You can even use the app on an Apple TV to do things you can't do natively with the built-in app.
When I have company coming over, I make slide shows featuring my guests and set them to play. Anyone who needs a display for a trade show or presentation can use this app a lot more easily than setting up a rotating PowerPoint or Keynote presentation. I also like to make slideshows of trips I go on to keep the memories alive after I return home.
I use Digital Photo Frame and Slideshow, a universal app that works on the last six versions of macOS (Catalina-Sequoia) and iOS/iPadOS (iOS12-iOS26). The app has over 1K App Store reviews and a 4.8 rating. It's been featured by Apple in "Apps We Love." You can read plenty of testimonials and get support at the developer's website.. I contacted him while working on this review. Based on my interaction and his reputation among users, you should have no problem getting help should you need it or getting a response if you have a feature request. I asked about adding support for WebDAV cloud services and he let me know he's working on adding that support (and for other services available through the Files app). Digital Photo Frame is updated frequently.
Digital Photo Frame and Slideshow includes timers to start and stop slideshows automatically. The Apple Photos slideshow feature lacks audio continuity and detailed timing controls.
If you've used the app in the past and moved on to other options, you should take a look at some of the recent developments. Version 6 introduced:
There's a lifetime purchase option and a subscription option. You can try out the app on all your compatible devices for as little as $2.99 for a month. A yearly subscription is currently $29.99, although, according to AppRaven, there have been sales for as low as $12.99 a year. If you just want to buy the app outright, knowing that you should be able to use it for years to come on multiple devices, it's $69.99.
If you have hardware that's so old you can't run a compatible version of a Mac operating system on it, try Digikam, a FOSS photo management app. I use it on two 2009 iMacs. One runs Debian and the other Xubuntu, but you can run older versions of Digikam on vintage Mac operating systems.
2025-12-18 17:17:50
I updated my /now page - what I’m reading, what I’m watching. what I wrote, what I bought, what I found on the Internet and who I’m making fun of on Mastodon.
2025-12-18 10:14:34
Most experienced users know that you can copy the URL from a paywalled story from The New York Times, Washington Post, or other paywalled sites and paste it into Archive.today to read the article. There are browser extensions that will automate that in various browsers if you click on them in the toolbar. But you can remove even that bit of friction if you are a Safari user by installing Redirect Web. Take some time to set that up, and anytime you click on a paywalled article from a frequently visited site, it will open, ready to read at the Internet Archive. If you are not a Safari user, look in the browser extensions available for whatever you use for something similar.
Apple decided that your login items should launch in alphabetical order, and it doesn't let you change that. It also doesn't let you introduce pauses between apps launching. There is not a native way to do that. The only thing you can do is hold down the shift key when logging in to cancel all your login items, launch agents tied to login, and any apps set to resume at login. With the free app, Startup Manager Pro, you get all the control back. You choose the order in which your apps start. You can introduce pauses if you want to. You can even cancel your login items without holding down the shift key. Finally, you can have different sets of login items for different workflows if you so desire.
I am almost totally de-Googled these days. I don't use it for search, email, cloud storage, or to create documents. But I have to confess, I still get some value out of YouTube. I can do it without sacrificing my privacy, though. I use FreeTube, which scrapes YouTube content through a variety of methods. It can be a fluid landscape because Google really wants info on you, and they want you to watch ads unless you pay for YouTube Premium. In short, FreeTube isn't always going to work flawlessly, but for the most part, you'll be OK.
It never ceases to aggravate me that the Q and the W are right beside each other on the keyboard. I used to quit my browser all the time when I was just trying to close a tab. Then I discovered a sweet little AppleScript that I can tie to ⌘+Q with BetterTouchTool ($14), which gives me a confirmation popup, "Do you really want to quit this app?" Then, super-dev, Sindre Sorhus, introduced the same feature in Supercharge, his $18 multi-function must-have menu bar utility.
There are multiple ways to do this. I currently use another Sindre Sorhus app, Scratchpad, ($8) because it has a bunch of other useful features. I can also vouch for Scrap Paper ($4.99), which I used for a long time, and there's also the free version of Drafts that offers this functionality. While you're at it, you should also get a syncing clipboard app. I can recommend PastePal, a $14.99 one-time purchase. If you also have a PC in the mix and you want to sync your PC clipboard with your phone clipboard, check out Clipboard Fusion. If you have a SetApp subscription, there is also Paste, but at $29.99 a year in the App Store, I just can't justify it.
