Eight Useful Mac Apps Worth Checking Out

Mac apps can often go under the radar, with apps for the iPhone and iPad receiving more attention. For that reason, we have a Mac-focused video series that highlights useful Mac apps we've come across. Our first picks of the year are largely simple, one-task apps that add utility to your Mac.

  • Ice Menu Bar Manager (Free) - Ice is a menu bar management tool that's an alternative to Bartender. Last year, Bartender was quietly acquired by a less than trustworthy company, and many no longer want to use it. Ice has a rich feature set. You can rearrange menu bar apps, change the look of the menu bar with colors, hide cruft, and more.
  • DropOver ($5.99)- DropOver is a simple macOS app that enhances the Mac's Drag and Drop functionality. You can grab multiple files and move them around without opening side-by-side windows. You activate DropOver with a shake of the cursor, add items to a "shelf" and then you can move to your destination folder and unload them.
  • Latest (Free) - Latest is a super simple app that checks to ensure that your apps are up to date. It supports apps that use the Mac App Store and those that use Sparkle for updates, which is a good deal of the Mac apps out there.
  • NotchNook ($25) - NotchNook turns your Mac's notch into a little Mac version of a Dynamic Island. You can click into it and get shortcuts like a media player, the Calendar, quick notes, and more, plus it has drag and drop functionality that makes it easy to move files and send them using AirDrop. It's $25, or $3 per month.
  • Shortwave (Free, but unlocking more features costs $7/month) - Shortwave is yet another email app, but it uses AI in a helpful way. It organizes your inbox to surface what's most important, it can create to-dos for you, add labels, archive unimportant email threads, search for content, alert you to emails that still need a response, and more. You can also use AI to summarize emails and get writing help, with the AI able to respond in your own voice based on past email correspondence. This is not a bare bones email app, so note that it can take some time to get used to. This is a subscription app and it starts at $7 per month, paid annually.
  • Local Send (Free) - If you need to share content between an iOS device or Mac and an Android device or a Windows PC, you can do so with Local Send. This is great if you're not entirely in the Apple ecosystem, because AirDrop doesn't work on non-Apple devices.
  • Hyperduck ($4) - With Hyperduck, you can share links between your Macs, iPhones, and iPads with more control than AirDrop. You can, for example, save a webpage on your ‌iPhone‌ and have it open up later on your Mac, even if your Mac isn't turned on when you first save the website.
  • Rocket (Free) - Rocket is another simple, one-function app that lets you add emojis in any app. Press on the colon key and then start typing in the emoji that you want. It's free to use, but a pro version adds options for adding GIFs and images.

Know of a great Mac app 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 Mac apps archive.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Colors

Apple Announces iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max With New Design, Larger Battery, and More

Tuesday September 9, 2025 10:59 am PDT by
Apple today introduced the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Both devices feature a new aluminum unibody design, with the Ceramic Shield now protecting both the front and back sides. Apple says the front side is now Ceramic Shield 2, which offers 3x better scratch resistance, while the rear Ceramic Shield is advertised as 4x more resistant to cracks compared to the back glass on previous...
iPhone 17 Pro Colors

iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro Models Are eSIM-Only in These Countries

Tuesday September 9, 2025 12:23 pm PDT by
Apple continues to phase out the physical SIM card tray on iPhones, with the latest models relying solely on eSIM technology in more countries. The new iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max support eSIMs only in these countries and regions, according to Apple: Bahrain Canada Guam Japan Kuwait Mexico Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates Un...
airpods translate

AirPods Live Translation Blocked for EU Users With EU Apple Accounts

Thursday September 11, 2025 4:01 am PDT by
Apple's new Live Translation feature for AirPods will be off-limits to millions of European users when it arrives next week, with strict EU regulations likely holding back its rollout. Apple says on its feature availability webpage that "Apple Intelligence: Live Translation with AirPods" won't be available if both the user is physically in the EU and their Apple Account region is in the EU....
iPhone 17 Pro Colors

iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro: Release Date and Pre-Orders

Wednesday September 10, 2025 12:30 am PDT by
Apple held its annual iPhone event on Tuesday, September 9, to unveil the iPhone 17, ultra-thin iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. All of the new iPhone models will be available to pre-order starting Friday, September 12 at 5 a.m. Pacific Time / 8 a.m. Eastern Time in the U.S. and dozens of other countries, according to Apple. The release date for the devices is one week...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

Skipping the iPhone 17 Pro? Here's What's Rumored for iPhone 18 Pro

Wednesday September 10, 2025 8:33 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are still a year away, there are already a few rumors about the devices that offer an early look ahead. If you are skipping the iPhone 17 Pro and want to know about what to expect from the iPhone 18 Pro models, we have recapped a few of the key rumors below. Under-Screen Face ID In April 2023, display industry analyst Ross Young shared a...
better iphone 17 lineup

Apple Lists iPhone 17, iPhone Air, and iPhone 17 Pro Battery Capacities

Tuesday September 9, 2025 1:25 pm PDT by
Apple has confirmed the battery capacities for the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max models that were announced earlier today. Apple is required to publish energy labels on its iPhone product pages in the EU, and they reveal the official mAh battery capacities for the devices. Here are the battery capacities for each model, according to Apple: iPhone 17:...
iPhone 17 Pro Colors

Didn't Pre-Order a New iPhone Yet? Here's How Long the Wait is Now

Friday September 12, 2025 6:11 am PDT by
iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air pre-orders began at 5 a.m. Pacific Time in the U.S. and many other countries today. If you have yet to place a pre-order, you might face a longer wait now, depending on your desired configuration. As of shortly after 6 a.m. Pacific Time today, nearly all iPhone 17 Pro Max configurations on Apple's online store in the U.S. are facing ...

Top Rated Comments

jz0309 Avatar
8 months ago
Thanks for this, I like to read about these and the story title "worth to check out" is fine. The video title ".. YOU NEED" is simply not appropriate ...
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mike Boreham Avatar
8 months ago

MacRumors posted ('https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/psa-bartender-mac-app-under-new-ownership-but-lack-of-transparency-raises-concerns.2428159/') about the change in ownership last June, linking to a reddit thread ('https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1d7zjv8/bartender_5_not_safe_anymore_warning_from/'). It began with a post about a warning from MacUpdater, but unfortunately this post is now archived.

As this article mentions, Bartender faced an undisclosed acquisition. The app updated with new certificates, twice. More telemetry frameworks were implemented, which included location data. And finally, the new owners were radio silent until social media users made a fuss about it, pretty opaque.

Edit: the telemetry framework Amplitude analytics was removed after public outcry, I didn't mean to mislead with this omission. Ben Surtees, the original developer of Bartender, didn't view the framework as malicious, but pragmatic ('https://arc.net/l/quote/owvztfqg').
After the initial rumpus about change of ownership I tried all the alternatives but all had something not quite right and I went back to Bartender, like many others I think...reassured by Ben Surtees post. Although the transition was not handled well, in the end I think it was much ado about nothing.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vulkan Avatar
8 months ago
Dan, you broke https://icemenubar.app/ the site doesn't load. Can't download. RIP.

Seriously though, the link in the article is broken because their certificate expired. Maybe @Juli Clover can update the link to their github: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice or you can download the app safely from their releases: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice/releases/latest
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
poematik13 Avatar
8 months ago
lol subscriptions
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Corefile Avatar
8 months ago
One I came across recently is Nimble Commander.

https://magnumbytes.com
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cosmo811 Avatar
8 months ago
Some great picks.

To recommend a few more:
Dato, a menubar calendar/tasks/clocks app
https://sindresorhus.com/dato

Tot, a simple note-taker app for when you just want to scratch something down quickly
https://tot.rocks/

CleanShot X, a much more powerful screenshotting/screen recording utility
https://cleanshot.com/
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)