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Five Mac Apps Worth Checking Out - July 2020

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Apps created for Macs don't typically receive as much coverage as apps designed for iPhones and iPads, so we crated a series here at MacRumors to highlight interesting Mac apps worth checking out. This month's apps focus on productivity and feature great tools for working from home.

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  • Twobird (Free) - Twobird is an email app from the makers of Notability that's designed to integrate with Gmail accounts, adding tools for creating notes, setting reminders, and collaborating with others on notes and tasks. Twobird is basically an all-in-one app that merges list making, note taking, email management, and more, and it's worth checking out for those who like multi-function apps.
  • Rectangle (Free) - Rectangle is an app for moving and resizing macOS windows using keyboard shortcuts and snap to align functionality. It's a free, lightweight app that's ideal for managing multiple windows on your Mac.
  • Silicio (Free) - Silicio adds a mini player with album art and a Today Center widget for controlling music that's playing on the Mac. It works with iTunes, the Apple Music app, Spotify, and more, providing customizable themes, sizes, and shortcuts along with Touch Bar integration.
  • Bumpr ($2.99) - Bumpr is a simple Mac app that's designed to choose where to open links when you click them. If, for example, you click on a web link, Bumpr pops up a menu displaying all of your installed browsers so you can choose where to open the link. The same is true for mail apps, which makes this a solid option for those who use multiple mail and browser apps.
  • SideNotes - ($19.99) SideNotes is a note taking app that's hidden at the side of your Mac's display by default, but pops out when you need it for jotting down quick notes. The app keeps notes readily available on your desktop, but hidden away when not needed so there's not another open app taking up space. SideNotes can be accessed with a keyboard shortcut or a swipe gesture, and when opened up, will stay on top of other windows. It supports folders, lists, formatting, and more.

Know of a must-have Mac app or game that we haven't highlighted yet? Let us know in the comments below and we might feature it in a future video. For more of our Mac app picks, check out our essential Mac apps archive.

Tag: Essential Mac Apps

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Top Rated Comments

Apple_Robert Avatar
Apple_Robert
74 months ago
What makes Side-Notes worth $20? Seems steep.

Bumpr looks like a good app.

Thanks, Dan
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
A
[AUT] Thomas
74 months ago
We receive and store any information you knowingly provide to us. For example, through the registration process and/or when new email accounts are added to your Twobird account, we may collect the following personal information to allow us to operate the service: name, email address, and Gmail authentication and refresh tokens (which allow our servers to perform email tasks on your behalf, such as returning Reminded emails to your inbox). Your Gmail account is required to be associated with the Services in order for you to use the Twobird Services.
Looks like another fake client... a client for google services should connect directly to the google servers... At least on a desktop there is absolutely zero reason to go over 3rd party servers...
Has this been tested?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kaostheory777 Avatar
kaostheory777
74 months ago
Rectangle is great. It's basically as slick as and identical to Magnet but completely FREE!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
s66
74 months ago

Hi there, Les here from Ginger Labs. I'm one of the programmers working on Twobird. We addressed a similar question over in another thread ('https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/app-recap-bluelane-originate-twobird-and-major-app-updates.2243460/?post=28623481#post-28623481'). For most things, the Twobird client connects directly to Gmail. But for a few things like reminders and notifications, these features really can't work in a purely client-side way. We use as little data as possible to make them work as expected. Hope I addressed your concern (let me know if I didn't!), and let us know if you have any other questions or feel free to email us at feedback@twobird.com
It's utterly unacceptable to catch somebody's credentials in a client and use them on your server to connect to 3rd party service directly. The security and privacy implications of doing that are simply insane.



* Twobird ('https://www.twobird.com') (Free) - Twobird is an email app from the makers of Notability that's designed to integrate with Gmail accounts, adding tools for creating notes, setting reminders, and collaborating with others on notes and tasks. Twobird is basically an all-in-one app that merges list making, note taking, email management, and more, and it's worth checking out for those who like multi-function apps.

PLEASE add a big fat WARNING that this app will use a server under the maker's control to connect directly to your gmail account without use of the client and as such poses risks to your security and privacy.

I'd outright remove the suggestion, but I fear that boat has sailed.

Thomas, post: 28674895, member: 1021539"]
Looks like another fake client... a client for google services should connect directly to the google servers... At least on a desktop there is absolutely zero reason to go over 3rd party servers...
Has this been tested?
Good catch, thanks! Hope it gets removed from the article as the implications of such a things are just too ridiculous to even consider.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Forti Avatar
Forti
74 months ago
Well... the SideNotes looks kinda good, especially with "stay on top". But to be worth $20 it should at least provide ios/android app with synchronization..

I've tested reactangle and it's just "simple". I was using hammerspoon but it requires some programing skill to configure it.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
SpaceGrayAlways
74 months ago
Just putting it out there, Bumpr is not free. ('https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bumpr/id1166066070?mt=12') It costs $2.99.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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