Using a computer means working with PDFs, one of the most common document formats around. But just because they’re common doesn’t mean they’re easy to work with, especially when it comes to editing. With this PDF editor, that changes.
For my job at Cult of Mac, I test a lot of apps. But of course, I also use a lot of apps, for work, for recreation, and for making music. I thought I’d make a short list of my most-used apps this year. Few, if any, of these apps are new this year, although some of them received major updates in 2019. But all of them are excellent, well-made apps, well worth checking out.
So, let’s get started.
This week we boss a metronome around with only our voices, let a music app write our songs for us, and create beats and tunes like little children might. Yes, the only good new apps I’ve seen this week have all been music apps, so try to enjoy it.
Making your Mac more productive can be as easy as getting the right app. So we’ve rounded up four of the best deals on some great software, from a useful screen capture tool to a speed reading helper, an intuitive data syncing tool and a powerful PDF editor. Each one is already discounted, but you can save an extra 15% off when you use the promo code MERRYSAVE15 at checkout.
Pixelmator Pro, an increasingly popular macOS photo-editing program, has a new tool its creators say will let you blow up an image and maintain detail and sharpness “like they do in all those cheesy police dramas.”
ML Super Resolution lets users increase the resolution up to three times without the muddy, pixelated mess normally associated with upscaled images.
Compared to an iPad, even the new 16-inch MacBook Pro runs pretty hot. In my first impressions post about the latest Apple laptop, I noted that the fans went crazy pretty much any time I switched it on. That has stopped now, thanks to two things: One is that my photo library is fully indexed, and the other is that I have disabled Turbo Boost.
But how?
macOS 10.15 Catalina is ruthless about launching unknown apps. Unless your app comes direct from the App Store, or the app’s developer got the app notarized by Apple, it won’t launch. Double click on it, and you’ll see a warning — and nothing else. There’s no option to say you trust the app and launch it despite Catalina’s warnings.
But you can still launch those apps. It’s just that Apple hides the controls in the hope that you’ll give up. It’s petty, and it shows a lack of respect for you, the user. However, it’s also dead easy to fix this problem. Let’s see how to launch any app on macOS Catalina.
Your Mac is only as good as the apps on it. So if you’re looking to boost the utility, productivity, and fun you get out of your Mac, this bundle of 13 top Mac apps is an easy and affordable way to do it.
This week we import photos from SD cards straight into Lightroom for iPad, make loops with L7 Looper, find the next bus or subway ride with Transit for Apple Watch, and more.
How time flies. In the blink of an eye, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone. If you’re still looking to scoop up some great deals on gear and gadgets, we’ve got four of the best from Cyber Week for you to review.
Mac owners won’t want to miss the awesome bundle of heavily discounted apps, and everyone should get a charge out of the other deals.
This Mac utility post is presented by CoreCode, maker of MacUpdater.
Keeping all your installed apps up to date can be time-consuming and annoying, unless you’re that one person who manages to never use any apps, or that other person who exclusively downloads them from the Mac App Store. But if you’re a typical user, MacUpdater is the easiest way to keep your Mac apps up to date effortlessly, no matter how many you have or, to some extent, where you got them.
This Mac productivity apps post is presented by Dashlane.
Productivity apps for Mac are ubiquitous. There are so many of them, you can burn up a lot of productivity while you spend hours searching for the best ones. That’s why articles like this one prove so useful. They help you quickly identify a few key apps worth considering.
The best way to get the most out of your Mac is to put the right apps on it. From productivity to creativity, maintenance and beyond, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better collection of apps than in this massive bundle. It features Parallels Desktop, which lets you run your Mac and Windows apps on the same machine. The bundle is also massively discounted, so you can upgrade your Mac without downgrading your bank account.
Pixelmator decided to get a jump start on Black Friday. It’s offering Mac users who need a capable image editor a 25% discount on Pixelmator Pro, but that’s just the start: iPad fans can get Pixelmator Photo completely free.
This week we control our AirPods from our Macs, listen to podcasts on our Apple Watches, and listen to our inner selves with our iPhones.
There are a handful of webpages I keep referring back to, often reading the same parts over and over. They may be part of an instruction manual, or other reference material1. And sometimes, while researching an article, I want to highlight sections and phrases to find them more easily. Just like using a highlighter marker on a sheet of paper.
Until now, I’ve never found good way to do it. Apps required me to sign up for an account, or store my highlights on their servers, or pay a subscription. Or the app was just plain clunky. Then I found Highlighter for Safari.
This week we get healthy with Apple’s Research app, build ridiculously-powerful shortcuts with Toolbox Pro, listen to internet radio with Triode, and scare ourselves silly with Layers of Fear. Shiver.
I stopped reading white text on a black background the moment I left school, and I’ve never liked it since. Especially on a screen, where the black expanse becomes a dark mirror that reflects everything in its sight. But even I prefer Dark Mode late at night, when I want to read without disturbing other people.
The trouble is, many websites don’t support Dark Mode. Everything else in Safari is rendered in tasteful black, but the page itself is still rendered in glaring white. Happily, on the Mac at least, there’s a way to fix it. Here’s how to force any website to support Safari Dark Mode on Mac.
This week we get editing with Photoshop for iPad, transfer huge files with Dropbox, get private with DuckDuckGo for Safari, and dictate a letter, offline, in privacy.
If you need to work on virtually any graphics project, Adobe Illustrator can likely handle your task. Of course, to finish that task, you may need a post-graduate degree. Because for all of its capabilities, actually deciphering Illustrator’s quagmire of filters, layers, effects and hundreds of additional bells and whistles is…well, not easy.
This week we spend all our time on the Mac. Content blocker 1Blocker has a whole new look — and a new subscription model. BlackHole replaces the venerable SoundFlower on newer Macs, and ToothFairy puts your AirPods Pro in the Mac’s menu bar.
Every once in a while, you’ve got to let a doctor take a look at you and maybe even hit you with a flu shot or some extra vitamins before deeming you a-OK. Well, your Mac is just like you. So consider The Ultimate Q4 Mac Freebie Bundle a trip to the doc for your Mac.
Practically every year, Apple comes out with Macs that both look good and pack enough power to blaze through even the most intense tasks. However, you can’t get the most out of your Mac without third-party developers creating software for just about everything.
Check out these five great Mac apps — all on sale at steep discounts — that you’ll probably use on an everyday basis.
If you don’t already protect your Mac’s hard drive, you’d better start. Some of your most important data undoubtedly lives on your computer. With this set of hard disc tools, you can safely recover your data — even after an accident.
See if you can guess what the new Batteries Widget for Mac app does. That’s right. It adds an iOS-style battery widget to the Mac’s Today panel, in the Notification Center. Anytime your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch is on the same Wi-Fi network as your Mac, its battery level will show up in the widget.
You will get low-battery notifications when your devices start to run out of juice. Plus, the app shows battery levels for trackpads, AirPods and so on.