The best retro ’80s synth, hotspot-sharing and smart playlist mixing apps of the week

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App roundup picture
Check out this week's barrel of excellence.
Photo: Cult of Mac

This week we create smart playlists with Miximum, let anyone use our internet connections with HotSpotMe, put our MacBook’s Dock in the Touch Bar with Pock, and more.

Miximum

Add your criteria in Miximum.
Add your criteria in Miximum.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Miximum is an app for creating smart playlists on iOS. We have a how-to on using it, and it really is a fantastic app. You can combine lots of rules and filters to make the perfect playlist. And, even better, the playlist will update live as you add new tracks or the songs’ parameters change.

You can filter by genre, date, composer, song duration, beats per minute (good for workout mixes), last-skipped date, and a ton more things. Miximum has all of these criteria, and you can combine them with some clever logic. For instance, you could make a list with songs that are over 140BPM and under 160BPM.

If you ever made a smart playlist in iTunes, you will be instantly at home. And Miximum will even sync playlists to the Apple Music app.

Price: Free with in-app purchase

Download: Miximum from the App Store (iOS)

HotSpotMe

HotSpotMe lets you share your Wi-Fi hotspot with anyone.
HotSpotMe lets you share your Wi-Fi hotspot with anyone.
Photo: HotSpotMe

Sponsored: HotSpotMe is an Android app that lets you share your device’s Wi-Fi hotspot with anyone else who has the app. Billing itself as “Uber for Hotspots,” HotSpotMe lets you share your phone’s data connection over Wi-Fi, earning you money for time used.

You also can share the internet connection from any Wi-Fi router you own — your home or office network, for example.

Price: Free

Download: HotSpotMe

Digital D1 synth

Here is the Digital D1 synth inside GarageBand.
Here it is, inside GarageBand.
Photo: AudioKit

AudioKit’s D1 synth is a re-creation of all 1980s pop music in one app. It’s an Audio Unit synthesizer for your iPad, and it can be hosted inside other apps so you can control and record it, or hook it up with other music apps.

The main show, though, is its amazing synth engine, which mimics popular ’80s hardware synths. And like all of AudioKit’s apps, it is polished, powerful, easy to use, and comes with great presets.

Price: $7.99

Download: AudioKit Digital D1 from the App Store (iOS)

Pock

Pock dock and settings
In deep with Pock.
Photo: Pock

Pock is a Mac app that lets you put customizable widgets into your MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar.

One of these puts the Mac’s own Dock into the Touch Bar. Another puts an escape key up there, and there are also widgets for media playback control, volume, brightness and more.

Price: Free

Download: Pock

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