The best note-taking, grammar-checking and newsletter-making apps this week

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app roundup
Look at all that text!
Photo: Cult of Mac

This week we check our grammar with Antidote, turn tweets into email newsletters with Mailbrew and much more.

Mailbrew

Mailbrew generates email newsletters.
Mailbrew generates email newsletters.
Photo: Mailbrew

Mailbrew lets you create email newsletters from Reddit, RSS feeds, YouTube channels, Hacker News and Twitter. You can create individual newsletters for these, or put them together into “brews.” Newsletters can come daily, weekly or monthly, and you can fully customize how they look.

Price: Free and paid plans

Download: Mailbrew

Shortcutify

Shortcutify is for Shortcuts fans.
Shortcutify is for Shortcuts fans.
Photo: Shortcutify

Shortcutify takes complex web APIs from services like Spotify, Google Maps and Todoist, and turns them into easy-to-use iOS Shortcuts actions. You just input your login details in the app, and then start putting together cool shortcuts — like mood lighting based on the color of your currently playing album’s cover art.

Price: Free

Download: Shortcutify from the App Store (iOS)

Antidote and Ulysses

antidote grammar

My favorite and most-used writing app, Ulysses, now integrates with spelling- and grammar-checker Antidote. It’s not cheap — a Mac license will run you $129. But it looks to be one of the best writing tools around, with spelling, grammar and style guides. And you can send your current Ulysses document right into Antidote with a click. I just wish I could find a trial version.

Price: $129

Download: Antidote (macOS)

Noto

Noto

Noto is a kind of offline alternative to Notion. This writing app lets you clip anything, and you can even put videos into tables (!). You can add sketches, any kind of text, images, links and so on. But the best part is the interface, which is beautiful. Noto even implements its own custom copy/paste pop-overs, which are much nicer than the built-in ones. They don’t let you share a word, though, which is pretty bad.

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Download: Noto from the App Store (iOS)

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