Latest news with #Maccy
Digital Trends
09-06-2025
- Digital Trends
These two macOS 26 features would transform the way I use my Mac
Apple's execution with note-taking on macOS leaves a lot of room for improvement. There are so many areas where it feels like an abandoned project, instead of the future-proof experience that native iOS apps often deliver. In fact, the disparity across its own platforms is troubling. Take, for example, iPadOS and iOS. You can quickly launch a notes page straight from the control, without having to close the existing app and launch the Notes app. On macOS, you don't get any such facility. Recommended Videos If you want to seamlessly save a webpage or its contents as a standalone note, there are a few hurdles. For web-based workflow, you must use the Safari browser, because only in Apple's browser does the Share Sheet offer a quick notes shortcut. Otherwise, trigger the Notes app with a keyboard shortcut. Why won't Apple put a Quick Notes button in the control center, or implement it in the Menu Bar, is simply perplexing. The whole concept of burdening users with another app window, when there is a solution waiting to be activated, also puzzles me. There's plenty of inspiration I've often focused on the missed opportunity that is macOS' Menu Bar. On the other hand, the open-source and indie-developer community has created so many lightweight and deeply practical utilities that live predominantly as a Menu Bar app. Maccy, for example, solves the native clipboard problem on Macs elegantly. Antinote is another stunning app that I use daily. For saving information, I rely on the excellent Sticky Notes for Safari app that tags all my takeaways wherever I want on a webpage. A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon BarNotes. It's a neat app that essentially serves as a scratchpad and lives in the Menu Bar. It has been designed in the same aesthetic format as a native Apple app. As far as functional depth goes, you can adjust the font size, pick between four styles, and change the notepad color. I like the 'transparent' effect, as it sits well with Apple's own glassmorphic design elements that first arrived with macOS Big Sur. It doesn't burden you with too many features that aren't required from a digital scratchpad, and also strips all the stylistic formatting when you paste your content, which is a convenient touch. The best part? BarNotes is free and available on the App Store, which means you don't have to worry about the security aspect, either. Tab Notes Lite is another free app that lives in the Menu Bar and offers a few extra goodies. It lets you click on the screen's edge to take a note, pick up the local storage folder, and offers customizable shortcuts, as well. There are a whole bunch of paid apps, too, but I recommend sticking with the free options if they get the job done. Apple Intelligence The best place for AI is the low-stakes scenario where it can handle the task at hand with minimal scope for correction. Like asking it to compose a quick note in a formal tone, convert the file format, or send it as an email. The kind of tasks Google Gemini can currently handle, and so can Apple Intelligence. The major hurdle, however, is the platform-wide implementation. For example, the AI-powered Writing Tools system doesn't always work reliably, especially within third-party software. For example, when writing a paper in Docs on Chrome, a right-click doesn't show Writing Tools in the context menu. To use it, you must copy-paste the text passage in the Notes app and then repeat the process to perform an AI-driven task, such as proofreading, style conversion, and summarization. If there were a Menu Bar shortcut for Notes, users wouldn't have to do a back-and-forth between two apps in order to get the best of Apple Intelligence. I would love for Apple to put Notes within the Menu Bar and make Writing Tools a crucial part of it. Then there is the situation with integration. Gemini will seamlessly perform tasks across Gmail, Maps, Drive, and Calendar, among other apps, using text and/or voice input. Apple Intelligence, despite its ChatGPT integration, can't do any of that, yet. Make it happen, Apple It was only last week that ChatGPT gained the ability to access files in your Google Drive, among other cloud storage services such as Dropbox, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Box. Moreover, the rumored Gemini integration within Apple Intelligence is nowhere to be seen. I dearly hope WWDC 2025 can offer some clarity on that front. And while at it, Apple should add some quickly accessible voice input features, as well. Narrating a quick idea instead of having to type it out, and then getting a transcribed version (with summaries) would go a long way toward boosting day-to-day productivity. With Notes' arrival in macOS Menu Bar, supercharged by Apple Intelligence and meaningful integration with other services, users won't have to jump between different apps, or even pay money for basic third-party software. Apple must fill these fundamental gaps, and I am dearly hoping that the company pays attention to this aspect at its developers conference.
Digital Trends
06-06-2025
- Digital Trends
I'm using this powerful macOS feature that many ignore, and you should too
MacOS is preferred for its fluidity and seamlessness. Of course, solid hardware and fire-breathing silicon add to its appeal, but the software experience developed by Apple focuses on convenience and security more than anything. In its quest to do so, however, Apple has often ignored glaring functional holes in the OS. The lack of a native clipboard is one such as miss, one that is addressed by excellent third-party apps such as Maccy. The Menu Bar is another similar tale of missed opportunities. Recommended Videos See that line at the top of the screen, filled with icons on the right side and core system control text on the left? Yeah, the Menu Bar. Apple hasn't done much with it in the past few years, despite several third-party utilities doing an excellent job while living as a menu bar tool. I prefer menu bar apps because they are easier to access, don't clutter the screen estate, and are fairly lenient on the system resources. Apple hasn't done a stellar job at optimizing the in-house apps as Menu Bar utilities, but there are plenty of apps out there that get the best out of it. Hide Icons My Mac desktop is a mess. And no matter how frequently I clean it, I end up with a fresh batch of images, screenshots, and file packages on the home screen every single week. I keep some of them intact for quick access to necessary files, but that comes with its own dilemma: Privacy. I often use the screen sharing feature in Google Meet and Zoom video calls. And each time, I've had to scramble with window resizing to cover things up in the desktop background. It's untidy, and there's always a privacy scare attached to the whole exercise. Likewise, for my assignments, I often have to do weird cropping or make post-capture edits, because the screenshots have the desktop items peeking from the sides. My editor recently shamed me after spotting an unhealthy number of files and emails on my home screen. Thankfully, Hide Icons does the job perfectly for screen capture and live video presentations. The app lives in the Menu Bar and hides all the items on the screen with a simple right click. Going the extra mile, you can pick your own wallpaper color instead of showing the one you've set on your Mac's home screen. You can specify this behaviour for only the active screen, or all the screens if you're working across a multi-monitor setup. You can even set a periodic reminder to hide the items on your desktop, which is a thoughtful touch. The best part? It's free, and doesn't pester you with ads, either. Download Hide Icons from the App Store. TimeCraft By far, one of my favorite macOS menu bar, this one is tailor-made for folks who appreciate goal-based workflow. TimeCraft lets you set daily work targets in the form of cards so that you can keep an eye on tasks that need your attention. You can set names, pick a color identifier for each one, and then start a timer as soon as you jump into the task at hand. Once again, this app lives entirely in the menu bar, and all the core controls are just a click away. Once you enable a task and get into work mode, the app shows a neat timer at the top of the screen, revealing the progress you've made on the current activity. The design is neat, and the app respects your light / dark mode UI preferences, as well. Now, you might wonder whether this strategy works? Well, it certainly keeps me disciplined. As far as scientific research goes, a paper published in the PLOS One journal notes that 'time management impacts wellbeing—and in particular life satisfaction—to a greater extent than performance.' Download TimeCraft from Github Hidden Bar Of course, installing a lot of menu bar utilities comes with its own set of hassles. As you can see in the image below (left), my menu bar is brimming with app icons, both native and third-party. And that's not even the full set, as I've got a lot more that were inactive at the moment. Plus, with the wide boat-shaped notch, you get even less screen real estate to accommodate menu bar utilities. In a nutshell, things get crowded as you discover and add more Menu Bar tools that come in handy on a daily basis. Hidden Bar offers some needed respite, and in an extremely convenient fashion. This free app hides all the icons behind a slide-out menu. You can hide or reveal the icons manually, using either a left click, or even assign a keyboard shortcut for it. Additionally, you can set an auto-hide behavior for the menu bar icons at intervals of 5/10/15/30 seconds, and one minute. You can choose to activate it automatically at system log-in, and customize which apps you want to keep in view permanently using a simple drag-and-drop gesture. Download Hidden Bar from the App Store. Shutdown Scheduler Look, Macs are fast, and the near-instant screen-on experience is something you must experience firsthand. It took Windows years of experiments to finally achieve the instant-on laptop experience, riding atop the Windows on Arm platform. That begs the question: If your Mac is blazing fast, why bother with shutting it down? Well, there's a lot of debate about the perceived benefits of shutting down your computing machine every once in a while. It's the frequency, however, that makes a tangible difference. Here's what the experts at CleanMyMac say: 'Restarting your Mac is the number one tip on any troubleshooting list. Shut Down mode can help fix many Mac issues; plus, it will also flush your RAM and allow your device to cool down, protecting it from overheating.' Like me, if you forget to shut down your Mac for prolonged spells, or even put it to sleep mode, there's a neat app that can offer some respite. Shutdown Scheduler is a free utility that lets you set timers for shutdown as well as sleep mode separately. It also shows the countdown behavior, so you can keep an eye on the timing and make adjustments, if necessary. The app also comes with a command log viewer facility, and you can execute it with admin privileges, as well. Download Shutdown Scheduler from GitHub.
