Try these 6 great utility and productivity apps for Mac

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Many apps can make using your MacBook or iMac even easier, as well as more productive.
Many apps can make using your MacBook or iMac even easier, as well as more productive.
Photo: Apple

Want more out of your Mac? These six suggestions for solid software are presented by our friends at SaaSGenius.

Though many of us associate the wide world of apps with our iPhones and iPads, they’re crucial for making the most of your MacBook or iMac, too. The best Mac apps can help you expand on your Mac’s capabilities in fun and interesting ways.

Macs are famously easy to use, but great apps make them even easier. And the right apps can jack up your productivity, too. Sometimes the only trouble is finding the best ones.

The list below covers some of our favorite apps to install on a new Mac. Some are free in the App Store (available in your Mac’s Dock or under the Apple menu at top left of your screen). Others you can download from developers’ websites.

Mac utility apps

Alfred 4

Alfred is like a butler. Get it? Alfred 4 is the newest version of the app. It’s a great way to search for files on your Mac and the web at large. But it’s not just a search tool. It can launch apps, look up things like spellings and definitions, and do quick calculations. It helps you make the most of your Mac. And, all the better, it’s free.

Alternatively, you can pay a one-time fee to upgrade to a version with more powerful features. Those include the ability to play music from iTunes, create workflows and hotkeys, customize the app’s look and more.

Price: Free, or $42.50 for the Powerpack

Where to download: Alfred

Meeter

The Meeter app hangs out on your Mac’s menu bar and organizes all your video calls in one place. The calls can be scheduled on FaceTime, Google Meet, BlueJeans, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Zoom or about 30 other videoconferencing platforms. In these lingering pandemic times, that makes Meeter great for hybrid and remote workers, or anyone who jumps on video calls with friends or family.

The free version of Meeter connects to your calendar and automatically pulls in details for your upcoming calls. That way, you can easily see what you have coming up and join with a single click. Gone are the days or searching emails or texts for the meeting link.

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Where to download: App Store

Parallels Toolbox

Parallels Toolbox is an all-in-one utility with more than 30 tools for macOS and Windows 10. The suite of easy-to-use tools streamlines routine computing chores that you might do every day. It makes it easy to execute them with a click or two, boosting your productivity. This suite allows you to do a variety of tasks, from saving space on your hard drive to creating animated GIFs to batch-resizing images.

Price: Seven-day free trial; $19.99 per year

Where to download: Parallels

Mac productivity apps

Bear

Bear is a free note-taking app. As Apple continues to improve its own free Notes app, Bear remains versatile, encrypted and easy to use, outdoing Notes in some ways. And it makes privacy a major priority.

With the free version of Bear, you can write notes and to-dos in portable Markdown, organize notes with nested tags, and pull assets such as images or text from web pages into notes. You can even write notes with a stylus (like Apple Pencil) or dictate or dictate them with a device like Apple Watch. The upgraded Bear Pro version ($14.99 per year) gives you even more, like the ability to encrypt individual notes with a password, sync notes between devices  and lock the app with Face ID or Touch ID.

Price: Free, with a $14.99 pro version

Where to download: App Store

Magnet

Opening lots of windows and tabs on your desktop tends to result in a jumbled mess of a workspace. The Magnet app helps by configuring a neater arrangement. It locks windows to the side of your screen wherever you drag them.

Magnet is a fast, easy method of organizing your view so you can focus on the task at hand. It also includes predefined keyboard shortcuts that help with tasks, such as transferring text and files from one app to another.

Price: $7.99

Where to download: App Store

Spark

There’s nothing wrong with the default Mail app on macOS, but Spark is a tempting alternative nonetheless. It’s a free email client that provides features you won’t find everywhere else.

Those include a suite of tools that make it easy for multiple people to manage an inbox. They can do things like assign emails to each other or compose emails collaboratively (in real time). You also can find solid tools for organizing your inbox, scheduling emails and finding specific emails via a natural-language search engine. And managing email across devices is easy, because Spark offers great apps for iOS and Android, too.

Price: Free

Where to download: Spark 

Try other great software with SaaSGenius:

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