2026-08-30 18:02:12
TL;DR: Five free, mostly open-source, no-telemetry Mac utilities from this week's testing: docktor (dock widgets + hover previews), Kompakt (drag-and-drop image/video compression), TetherShot (live iPhone screen capture over USB/Wi-Fi), FolderForge (rule-based folder icon styling), and ImageFuel (import-free folder browsing with RAW support). Each gets a free alternative below if you want to compare before committing.
Removing Irritation
My app testing time this week was spent on free apps, most of them open source and all privacy-respecting. No accounts needed. No telemetry. I've been looking for original, niche apps that do one thing well.
docktor calls itself the dock you deserve. It's free, notarized, requires no account, and comes from a solo dev who regularly responds to users with new features and bug fixes. The app fills the unused side space on either end of the Dock with customizable widgets (music, calendar, weather, system stats) and adds hover previews of a running app's open windows without clicking. If you're a widget person, this gives you a few new options.
Alternative: HyperDock has done Dock hover previews for years and is worth a look if that's the one feature you actually want, though it doesn't fill unused Dock space with widgets the way docktor does -- check current macOS compatibility before buying, since I haven't tested it myself on this release.
Kompakt is a native Mac menu bar app for compressing and converting images and video with a drag-and-drop interface that pops up automatically the moment you drop a file. Images cover PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, and SVG; video is limited to MP4, MOV, and M4V. Free and open source under MIT, distributed as a signed DMG off GitHub Releases. The dev's roadmap includes watched folders, Finder actions, and Shortcuts support. I can see setting up some helpful shortcuts using this.
Alternative: ImageOptim is the longtime free, open-source, drag-and-drop standard for image compression on Mac. It doesn't touch video, so if Kompakt's video side is what sold you, ImageOptim isn't a full swap.
TetherShot is a proper Mac utility, not just a menu bar toy. It captures a live display, not a simulation: your connected iPhone's actual screen over USB or Wi-Fi, saved as a pixel-perfect screenshot. Free and open source, no account, no analytics, no cloud relay. Take all the screenshots you want without syncing or AirDropping anything.
Alternative: QuickTime Player already does this for free and it's built in -- connect your iPhone by cable, pick it as the camera source under File > New Movie Recording, and you can record or grab a frame of the live screen. It's a recording-first workflow rather than a one-tap screenshot, and it needs the cable; TetherShot's Wi-Fi option and one-hotkey capture are the actual time-savers if you do this often.
Apps that customize folder appearance in Finder have been around for a while, and they're fine for the primary folders in your home directory. If you want smart folders and reusable presets that apply by name, contents, or marker files using recursive styling, FolderForge fits the bill -- it applies a visual system across an entire folder tree. Runs locally, no account, no telemetry. MIT-licensed on GitHub; v1.0.8 is signed and notarized by Apple.
Alternative: Rainbow Folder -- Icon changer is a simple App Store option for changing individual folder colors and icons. It's manual, one folder at a time -- it doesn't have FolderForge's rule-based, apply-to-a-whole-tree automation, so it's a fit only if you don't need the bulk styling.
Point the app at any folder, or several, and instantly see every image and video in a clean, scrollable grid. No importing. No library to manage. No waiting. It reads files where they already live, including JPEG, PNG, video, and RAW. It loads quickly and makes browsing photos easy.
Alternative: XnViewMP is the free, cross-platform standard for exactly this job -- instant folder-based browsing with real RAW support, no import step. It's a dated interface next to ImageFuel's cleaner grid, and it doesn't have ImageFuel's crop/metadata/batch-rename tools built into the same window, but it's the closest thing to a direct, feature-for-feature comparison if you want to try before committing to either.
Remove an Irritation
None of this is life-changing software, and none of it asks to be. Every one of these five does one narrow job, does it for free, and stays out of your way otherwise: no accounts, no telemetry, no subscription creeping in later. That's the actual differentiator this week, not any single feature. If you only try one, make it whichever solves a problem you already have -- docktor if you stare at your Dock all day, ImageFuel if you're sick of importing photos just to look at them, TetherShot if you've ever emailed yourself an iPhone screenshot. The rest can wait.
Unless otherwise noted, the alternatives mentioned above are based on research and not individual testing.
2026-08-29 05:30:29
"Desperados Waiting for a Train" by Guy Clark
What's your favorite song about patience?- Desperados Waiting for a Train by Guy Clark
I'll keep going back to the Texas singer-songwriter well forever when the subject is some aspect of the human condition. This is a tune about the patience of an old man waiting and watching as a boy grows up.
2026-08-28 00:34:48
"Something More Than Free" by Jason Isbell
Share a song that captures the feeling of being proud - Something More Than Free by Jason Isbell
It's a working-man's song about quiet pride in honest labor: "I don't think about you, I think about who's gonna do this work / When my back gives out."
2026-08-24 05:21:06
Here are the best apps I tested this weekend. Two will save you time, two are fun ways to waste it on UI tweaks, and one's for a certain psychological profile. I'm sure you can figure out which one.
Holeberry - A native Swift 6 app for macOS 14 and up, built by developer Pedro Vieira, Holeberry puts the Pi-hole controls you actually use right in your menu bar. See real-time blocking status and query stats without keeping a dashboard tab open. You can disable blocking for five minutes, an hour, or indefinitely, giving you the same toggle as Pi-hole's own web UI, just one click closer. The feature that actually earns the download is per-tab unblocking. Holeberry reads the active tab in Safari, Chrome, Chromium, Firefox, or Zen, and when a site is broken because Pi-hole blocked something on the page, it can identify and allowlist that domain without making you dig through the query log yourself. That's a workflow improvement, not a cosmetic shortcut, and it's the reason to care about this app at all. (FOSS)
Dock Party - Dock Party watches Spotify or Apple Music via system audio and turns that into a light bar running along the edge of the Dock. Track name, artist, and album art appear beside it, a progress bar runs along the Dock's edge, and playback controls sit right there without requiring you to switch apps. It also adds Amplitude, Pitch, and Waveform visualizer modes, so the light bar moves with the music instead of just sitting there. ($4.99)
Neon Vision Editor - It's a text and code editor for macOS, iPhone, and iPad aimed at developers, writers, and sysadmins who value speed and a small footprint over a massive plugin ecosystem. Syntax highlighting covers Swift, Python, JS/TS, Go, Rust, SQL, Markdown, and more. There's a recursive project sidebar, Quick Open, Find in Files, a code minimap, and Git tooling for status, history, and diffs. A CSV/TSV table mode and Mac-hosted SSH remote editing round things out, and Vim keybindings are there if you want them. AI code completion exists but is opt-in, limited to minimal cursor-context text, and sent only to a provider you choose yourself. Leave it off, and the app makes no network calls at all. (Free/$4.99)
Mojibar - Mojibar replaces your Dock icon and menu bar icon with any of 3,600-plus emoji. Make sure you use this link to find the app because there's more than one out there with the same name. ($0.99)
Snick - Snick turns your trackpad into a ratchet, complete with sound and haptic feedback. That's it. That's the app. Strangely enough, it got on my radar through enthusiastic reviews. Some people need feedback from their devices. They're the ones leading the mechanical keyboard movement, using Thock for the sound effects, and they're the audience for this app.
2026-08-22 21:58:15
"Faithless Street" by Whiskeytown
What's a song you associate with your biggest mistake? - Faithless Street by Whiskeytown
No, I'm not telling that story on the Internet.
2026-08-22 04:09:22
"New Madrid" by Uncle Tupelo
**What song makes you want to write poetry? - New Madrid by Uncle Tupelo"
I love how this song conveys so much with so few words.
