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Five Useful Mac Apps Worth Checking Out - May 2018

Thursday May 31, 2018 3:36 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apps designed for the Mac often don't receive as much attention as apps for iOS devices, so we've launched a monthly series that highlights useful, interesting Mac apps that are worth checking out.

This month's app selection, outlined in the video and the post below, includes apps for managing and backing up your iPhone, transferring music between services, watching Netflix, keeping track of quick notes, and more. Many of the apps we've included this month were chosen by our forum members.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.

  • Stamp (Free) - Stamp is an app that lets you transfer playlists and music tracks from one streaming service to another. So if you're an Apple Music user and want to switch to Spotify, Stamp is the app to use. Stamp is free, but if you want to make unlimited song and playlist transfers, you'll need to shell out $9.99.

  • iMazing ($40) - iMazing is an iTunes alternative that's designed to allow you to manage the content on your iOS device. It lets you transfer files, photos, books, apps, and music to and from your iOS device or a new device, plus you can use it to create backups of all your content, archiving data like messages, contacts, books, and more.

  • Power Menu ($9.99) - Power Menu is a Finder extension that's customizable and able to add various actions to the right click menu and toolbar within Finder. Using Power Menu, you can create shortcuts for moving and copying files, creating new documents, editing with specific apps, sending via email, and more.

  • Thought Train (Free) - Thought Train is a simple free (pay-what-you-want) app that's meant to replace sticky notes. Thought Train lives in your Mac's menu bar and lets you enter quick reminders of things that you need to get done or thoughts you want to keep track of. Your entries can be set to scroll across the menu bar.

  • Friendly for Netflix (Free) - Friendly for Netflix is a free app that's designed to provide you with an alternative to the web browser for watching Netflix TV shows and movies on your Mac. It features trailers so you can preview shows, picture-in-picture functionality for watching a show while using another app, and Rotten Tomatoes ratings for every movie.
Do you have favorite must-have Mac apps that we haven't highlighted yet? Let us know what they are in the comments and we might feature them in a future video. Many of this month's picks came from our forum members.

For more of our Mac app picks, make sure to check out our lists from February, March, and April.

Tag: Essential Mac Apps
[ 49 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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Avatar
ike1707
9 months ago
It's unfortunate that iTunes has enough ongoing UI deficiencies to justify a 40 price tag for an app like iMazing.. but here we are. :rolleyes:
Rating: 12 Votes
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ignatius345
9 months ago

Friendly is nice but not update since 2016
[doublepost=1527804767][/doublepost]
Netflix works nice on AppleTV, you can love its interface or hate but it would not change much using an app which a web view basically is the same as browsing with safari. Anyway it is only for macOS which lacks a native Netflix app.

Yeah, I get that this is a Mac app, thanks.

Netflix works nice(ly) on Apple TV if you like crap starting to automatically play, with sound, whenever it feels like it -- which I personally do not care for.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
ignatius345
9 months ago

It's unfortunate that iTunes has enough ongoing UI deficiencies to justify a 40 price tag for an app like iMazing.. but here we are. :rolleyes:


Eh. People love to crap on iTunes but has a LOT of power user features. The interface is fine considering what it does. Not every piece of software can look #minimal and still, you know, do a lot of stuff.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
redheeler
9 months ago

It's unfortunate that iTunes has enough ongoing UI deficiencies to justify a 40 price tag for an app like iMazing.. but here we are. :rolleyes:

And Apple seems to think the only way to solve it is by removing useful features like app backup and sync, thereby making apps like iMazing even more necessary...
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
ike1707
9 months ago

Eh. People love to crap on iTunes but has a LOT of power user features. The interface is fine considering what it does. Not every piece of software can look #minimal and still, you know, do a lot of stuff.

I actually use iTunes exclusively, and I agree that it’s a good program in many ways, not least of which is the robust file conversion engine it houses. I’m a graphic designer though, and in turn a very visual person- other people gripe about things I can’t care less about, but this -

https://www.macworld.com/article/3140018/software-entertainment/the-artist-photos-in-itunes-are-useless-they-shouldnt-be.html

is inexcusable all these years later. A recurring theme in iTunes, on my phone, on my Apple TV, and in the iTunes Store. For a company with so much focus on aesthetic, it’s an embarrassment. Egg on Apple’s face.

If I simply had control over artist images in my library and on my devices? There is little else about iTunes to complain about.. in my opinion.
Rating: 4 Votes
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El Fez
9 months ago
Thought Train sounded ideal as a replacement for Stickies so I paid a few bucks and downloaded. Unfortunately it has some issues.

The major source of irritation is that the menu icon disappears and I have no idea how to get it back. Re-opening the app does not appear to actually open the app. This is noted on their HELP page but no remedy is given.

Nextly, notes are only viewable in a short, 2-line bubble. My Sticky notes contain many paragraphs of info that I reference daily. This is annoying and makes the app useless for me.

Lastly, the next problem is that I can find no contact information for the developer on their website so asking how to get around this issue.

So I would skip this program until it has some major bugs worked out.
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
L-Viz
9 months ago
Useful Mac App Worth Checking Out - June 2018

Disappointed after WWDC 2018?

We just have the right App for You:

Mac Au Revoir

A special super easy tool to transfer all your Data from your dying Mac Mini to a Windows 10 PC. Just one Click with a Mouse and Your Apple History is History.

Not in the App Store
Rating: 3 Votes
Avatar
jackietreeh0rn
9 months ago
Microsoft's VS Code(available for free) is a pretty neat code editor with support for multiple languages.
Rating: 3 Votes
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DodBasim
9 months ago
iStat Menus is really great for pros.
https://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/
Rating: 3 Votes
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BasicGreatGuy
9 months ago
I have used iMazing for several years. In my opinion, it is well worth the price.
Rating: 2 Votes

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