2026-05-15 03:41:36
Airspace, an app I downloaded today, has a lot going for it. It removes a classic Apple friction point by letting you name your virtual desktops, customize their appearance, and assign keyboard shortcuts to jump between them. It also helps me illustrate a point.
Making a decision about the right price for an app has to be one of the hardest parts of releasing something new.
Some of the most versatile and useful apps in the Mac ecosystem are priced absurdly low. I am looking at you, BetterTouchTool. On the other hand, we have all seen apps with plenty of competitors that still carry what I consider an absurdly high price. My favorite example is the clipboard manager, Paste.
In reality, every software purchase comes down to what we value. Some people have strict requirements around aesthetics and would rather pay for polish than use something more functional. I think the ebook manager Calibre fits that description perfectly. I love it and use it every day for its incredible versatility, but it certainly is not easy on the eyes.
Two of my favorite notch apps show how wide the pricing spread can be. Droppy, which is not just a notch app but a full suite of utilities, costs 10 euro. Dynamic Lake, another app I like in this space, costs 40% more, still a fair price. It is well thought out and nicely designed, but it is much more narrowly focused on the notch.
There are personal factors, too. I live in the United States. I am retired. I have disposable income that I dedicate to buying software. I compensate by driving a 2005 Toyota and not playing golf like some of my contemporaries. But there are plenty of tech enthusiasts in less prosperous countries, students on tight budgets, and people for whom software pricing is a much more serious decision point than it is for me.
Now, more about Airspace.
Custom Naming
Instead of Desktop 1, Desktop 2, and so on, you can have Writing, Development, Social, or whatever names fit the way you actually work.
Visual Personalization
You can choose custom colors for the menu bar indicator and switcher menu, making different Spaces easier to recognize at a glance.
User-Defined Shortcuts
You can assign your own shortcuts to switch between Spaces. If your writing tools live on Desktop 3, make Cmd+Option+3 the shortcut that takes you there.
Multi-Monitor Support
If you use a Mac mini or a laptop with an external display, you will appreciate that Airspace works across displays. It also handles selected full-screen apps, with one important exception noted below.
HUD Overlay
The current release supports a heads-up display switcher that shows your custom Space names and colors.
You can achieve some of what Airspace does with a Hammerspoon script or a Keyboard Maestro macro. There are also direct competitors like Spaceman and Contexts.
Aerospace, a tiling window manager beloved by people who like to fiddle, offers virtual workspace emulation that is similar in spirit, but it is not a true Spaces replacement.
Airspace is not trying to reinvent window management on the Mac. It's not a window manager at all.It is trying to make Apple's existing Spaces feature more usable, more readable, and faster to navigate. That is a narrow job, but it is a real one.
At $9.99, the price feels fair to me, especially if you already rely on Spaces as part of your daily workflow. If you only use one or two desktops, this probably will not change your life. But if you live across several named work contexts, Airspace turns a vague row of numbered desktops into something much closer to an actual workspace system.
2026-05-14 23:05:57
"Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" by Bob Dylan
Share a song you call something other than its official title. What do you call it? - Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 by Bob Dylan
I just call it by the chorus - Everybody must get stoned, which really isn't the drug reference all the squares think it is, but a reference to the Book of Acts in the Bible and that old religious practice of killing folks who don't act they way they are told to.
2026-05-14 00:45:57
When the free app DockDoor was released in 2024, it was the first time I had seen a developer add window previews to the Mac Dock in much the same way that other operating system from Redmond handles them. For kicks, it also included a Windows-style application switcher, also free.
I have been updating some older reviews, so I went back to check on DockDoor. Not only does the original free version still exist, but the developer has also added a paid Pro version with a much larger feature set.
The splash page for DockDoor Pro puts its claim front and center:
DockDoor Pro - The Dock macOS Deserves
The official native Mac dock replacement with profiles, live window previews, media controls, a file tray, magnification, and everything Apple left out.
That is bold, but defensible.
The real question with any Dock utility is whether it replaces the native Dock or merely augments it. DockDoor Pro can do either. I hid the native Dock completely and did not run into any problems.
The other killer feature, and one Apple will probably never give us for fear of waking the ghost of Steve Jobs, is the ability to exclude a running app from the Dock. You no longer have to stare at every app just because it happens to be open.
Dock Profiles - I work in multiple contexts. Some of my time is spent testing software and writing reviews. For that, I need quick access to a file manager, an uninstaller, Activity Monitor, Drafts, Obsidian, my Downloads folder, the folder where I keep rough drafts, the folder where I keep archives, and Reddit.
DockDoor Pro profiles can include:
When I switch to media management, I need a different setup: Calibre, Swinsian, Yate, digiKam, & ToyViewer.
When it is time to do research or just relax, I want Inoreader, FreeTube, Plex, Radarr, Sonarr, and websites like Mac Menu Bar and AlternativeTo.
DockDoor Pro gives you two ways to switch profiles. The easiest is to associate a specific app with a profile. When you open an app tied to another workflow, the Dock profile changes automatically. If you work with multiple monitors, you can also assign different Docks on a per-display basis.
One welcome feature is the ability to export Dock profiles as JSON. That makes it easy to move a setup to another Mac or keep a restorable backup in case an experiment goes sideways.
Control Panel - Each Dock contains a tiny icon that opens a control panel when long-clicked. It consolidates an app launcher, profile switcher, volume slider, audio device picker, and power controls. It is a well-designed bit of UI rather than a pile of bolted-on buttons.
File Tray - If you keep your Dock at the bottom of the display, scrolling on it reveals a file tray. You can drop files there temporarily, drag them back out when you need them, or send them via AirDrop directly from the tray.
Widgets - DockDoor Pro also includes small widgets that add live tiles directly to the Dock, including weather and system stats. They stay compact at rest and expand with more detail on hover. They also adapt to the Dock's design, so they do not look like afterthoughts.
The music widget is almost an app within the app. You get album art, a seek bar, and synchronized lyrics with a karaoke-style anticipation offset. Whether that is useful or just fun depends on how you work. I do not need lyrics in my Dock, but I understand the appeal.
This is the least opinionated Dock app I have used. If you are not inclined to fiddle, it looks fine out of the box. If you like to experiment, you can control almost every visible part of the UI, including:
DockDoor Pro is still in beta, and there is a warning not to use it on a mission-critical machine, so do not install it on your boss's MacBook and blame me if something gets weird. That said, I have not encountered any instability after two weeks of constant use.
This is an app best suited for power users, especially those with multi-monitor setups or workflows that shift throughout the day. If you use the same five apps all the time and do not care about customizing your workspace, you can probably skip it. But if you have ever wanted the Dock to be more useful, more contextual, and less stubbornly Apple-like, DockDoor Pro is worth a look.
DockDoor Pro Website - DockDoor Pro - Official macOS Dock Replacement
Privacy Policy - DockDoor Pro | Privacy Policy & EULA
Price - $20
2026-05-13 18:10:33
"Play a Train Song" by Robert Earl Keen
Share a song you discovered via another artist's song (cover, sample, featured artist, etc) - Pay a Train Song by Robert Earl Keen
I love Robert Earl Keen and the late Todd Snider equally. I don't know whose version of this sing-along classic I like the best.
2026-05-12 23:02:00
For the past few weeks, I’ve been beta testing a new release of Bartender; an app with an interesting, and at times slightly controversial, history. Despite that, it’s a utility I’ve relied on for years. I recently did a deep dive into the problems macOS changes have created for menu bar managers and what those changes mean going forward. Even with a few lingering issues in the category, I still came away viewing Bartender as the best overall option for serious Mac users.
The new release, called Bartender Pro, expands beyond traditional menu bar management with a feature called Top Shelf. The idea is simple: turn the MacBook notch into something genuinely useful instead of leaving it as dead space. The developers are entering an increasingly crowded area occupied by apps like Droppy and DynamicLake Pro, both of which are also trying to claim that piece of Mac interface real estate.
Top Shelf supports temporary file storage, clipboard history, AirDrop access, widgets, media controls, live weather, calendar views, and what Bartender calls “live activities.” One particularly interesting addition is support for displaying the status of running Claude Code or Codex sessions directly from the notch area. That puts Bartender Pro in direct competition with Droppy for AI-focused workflow integration.
I’m fortunate to have a small home lab with several Macs available for testing. I’ve been running Bartender Pro on my M2 MacBook Air with the latest version of macOS, and overall the implementation feels thoughtful and mature. The developers have integrated the new functionality cleanly into Bartender’s existing settings architecture rather than bolting on a second interface.
The Top Shelf interface itself is polished and visually cohesive with macOS. More importantly, it offers enough customization that power users should be able to shape it around their workflow instead of adapting to someone else’s idea of how the notch should work. Enabling or disabling features is straightforward, and the configuration process never feels overly complicated.
One feature Bartender Pro offers that I have not seen handled as well elsewhere is its dynamic interaction with the Bartender Bar itself. The app intelligently avoids hiding menu bar items behind the notch interface, which sounds minor until you actually start using multiple notch utilities and discover how messy that problem can become.
Importantly, none of this replaces the traditional Bartender experience. The new functionality is strictly additive. Bartender 6 is still available as a standard one-time purchase for $20, and the company has been explicit that core menu bar management is not being moved behind a subscription wall.
For users interested in Top Shelf and the broader Pro feature set, Bartender Pro is available as a $15/year subscription. That includes Bartender 6 along with all upgrades released during the subscription period.
The Bartender team has clearly invested serious effort into getting this release right. During the beta period, updates arrived constantly, feedback was actively incorporated, and bug reports received prompt attention. That responsiveness matters, especially for utility software operating this deeply inside the macOS interface.
If you are evaluating notch utilities or trying to build a cleaner AI-oriented Mac workflow, Bartender Pro deserves a serious look.
2026-05-12 19:57:58
"A Day In the Life" by The Beatles
Share a song from an album you think has great cover art. - A Day in the Life by The Beatles
