Five Interesting Mac Apps Worth Checking Out - November 2018

Apps created for the Mac often don't receive as much attention as apps made for iOS devices, so we have a bi-monthly series here at MacRumors that's designed to highlight useful and interesting Mac apps that are worth checking out and potentially investing in.

This week's picks include apps focused on Dark Mode, a new feature introduced in September with the launch of macOS Mojave, along with some useful apps for customizing text, keeping your eyes safe while working, and keeping your Mac awake. Many of our highlighted apps this week were chosen by MacRumors forum members.

  • Amphetamine (Free) - Amphetamine is a Mac app keeps your Mac and your Mac display off by adding a simple on-off switch or customizable triggers. With Amphetamine activated from the menu bar, your Mac will be prevented from going into sleep mode. You can choose to keep your Mac awake indefinitely, for a specific amount of time, while a file is downloading, when a specific app is running, and more.
  • Dark Mode for Safari ($1.99) - Dark Mode in macOS Mojave introduces a darker theme across the operating system, but this doesn't extend to individual apps like Safari. Some websites are implementing Dark Mode support, but for those that haven't, the Dark Mode for Safari extension changes them to a darker theme that's easier on the eyes at night time or in low lighting environments. This is not a perfect app and doesn't work well with all websites, but improvements are being introduced on a continual basis and it can be easily toggled on or off.
  • Textlicious ($1.99) - Textlicious is a simple, inexpensive app that's designed to let you insert styled text in places that normally only accept plain text. If, for example, you've wondered how people are getting those custom fonts that you see sometimes on social networks like Twitter, it's quite possible they're using this app. Textlicious lets you highlight any text you're typing in an app, right click, and then select a style from the pop-up menu. There are options like typewriter, strikethrough, small, script, bold, italic, circled, and more. Something to be aware of with Textlicious and similar apps - Unicode symbols like these break the screen readers that vision impaired people use.
  • Breaks For Eyes ($9.99) - Mojave's Dark Mode is meant to cut down on eyestrain, and the same is true of Breaks for Eyes. When looking at an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, taking frequent little breaks is a good idea to prevent dry eyes, eyestrain, and headaches. Breaks for Eyes reminds you to look away from the Mac screen every 20 minutes for 20 seconds, letting your eyes take a rest. There's a three-day trial, and then the full app costs $9.99 to unlock.
  • NightOwl (Free) - [Update: While we originally featured this app for its ability to add a quick Dark Mode toggle to your Mac's menu bar, as of 2023 a number of users are reporting suspicious network activity related to it, so we've removed our link to it out of caution and users who have installed it may want to consider removing it.]

If you have a favorite must-have Mac app that we haven't highlighted yet, let us know in the comments, and we might feature it in a future video. Many of this month's app picks came directly from recommendations from our forum members, and it's these recommendations that have helped make this series useful.

For more of our Mac app picks, make sure to check out our Mac app recommendation archives.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
terminal macos tahoe

Apple's Terminal App Gets Colorful Redesign in macOS Tahoe

Monday June 16, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's Terminal app is getting a visual refresh in macOS Tahoe, and it's the first notable design update since the command-line tool debuted. The updated Terminal will support 24-bit color and Powerline fonts, according to Apple's Platforms State of the Union presentation at WWDC 2025. The app will also adopt the new Liquid Glass aesthetic with redesigned themes that align with macOS 26's...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Apple Says iOS 26 Won't Be Available on These iPhone Models

Tuesday June 10, 2025 6:58 am PDT by
Apple this week revealed that iOS 26 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer. That means that iOS 18 is the end of the road for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, which were all released in 2018. However, those devices will continue to receive security updates for at least a few more years. iOS 26 is compatible with the following iPhone models: iPhone 16e iPhone...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Wednesday June 18, 2025 10:24 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a few days after Apple provided the betas to developers. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. When the...
new iphone lockscreen ios 26

iOS 26: Five Changes Coming to Your iPhone Lock Screen

Tuesday June 17, 2025 8:46 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has made some additions to the iPhone Lock Screen that aim to make it more customizable than ever. Of course, things can always change before the software makes its way to the general iPhone-owning public, but here are five new things iOS 26 can do on the Lock Screen as of the current developer beta. Widgets Top or Bottom In iOS 18, the row of widgets on your Lock...

Top Rated Comments

kurtster Avatar
87 months ago
$10 for a reminder to look away from the screen every few minutes? Really??
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pantherfalcon2332 Avatar
87 months ago
Can confirm that NightOwl is great and its amazing that this feature is baking into MacOS
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
offshore Avatar
87 months ago
These are basically just system utilities.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
s15119 Avatar
87 months ago
These are among the most useful articles you publish. Thank you!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
qwertme Avatar
26 months ago
Latest update to the NightOwl app was opening a reverse SSH proxy on my computer, nothing about that seemed safe or make sense. Uninstalled
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)