Mac Gems

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Mac Gems

System Lens review: View app CPU usage with a click

This utility makes it easy to see what apps are taking using up your processor resources.

By Roman Loyola 10 years ago

Mac Gems

LaunchBar 6 review: Do-everything utility gets (and looks) even better

Objective Development's keyboard-based app launcher, file finder, and do-everything utility gets a new look and lots of new features, making it better than ever.

By Shawn Blanc 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Reeder 2 for Mac review: Consume RSS with speed, style

For those who don't need advanced features, Reeder 2 lets you quickly and easily read your RSS feeds. Gesture control and support for plenty of sharing services give the app polish.

By Dan Moren 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Write for Mac review: Solid note-taking app doubles as a Markdown editor

Write for Mac straddles the line between a good note-taking app and a solid Markdown text editor.

By Kirk McElhearn 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Mountain review: Unmount drives and volumes with a click

It's a small but vexing problem: Every time you move your laptop, you need to unmount any external drives it's attached to. Mountain makes it easier in a simple, but thoroughly customizable, way.

By Dan Miller 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Deckset review: Mac app excels at presentation minimalism

Though it trades more in plain text than flashy transitions, Deckset is an excellent tool for making beautifully minimal presentations.

By Serenity Caldwell 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Battery Diag review: Monitor your MacBook’s battery health with a click

Battery Diag sits in your menu bar and provides easy, one-click access to battery information.

By Roman Loyola 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Beamer 2 review: Drag and drop to stream any video to an Apple TV

Beamer makes it easy to stream any video from your Mac to your Apple TV, even if you've got an older Mac or a video format iTunes can't handle.

By Dan Frakes 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Collective review: Attractive, lightweight clipboard utility gets the details right

If you're looking for a clipboard utility that's affordable, attractive, and powerful, no reason to compromise: Check out Collective.

By Dan Moren 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Name Mangler review: The file renamer for Mac power users

You'll find many OS X utilities that can rename a bunch of files at once, but Name Mangler is the most powerful we've tried, and version 3 offers some nice improvements.

By Dan Miller 11 years ago

Mac Gems

AirPlay Recorder review: A solid tool for capturing iTunes streams, ethics aside

There's no getting around the idea that AirPlay Recorder was designed for the purpose of capturing music you don't own. If you're okay with that, it works as advertised.

By Christopher Breen 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Hider 2 review: Create a secure digital hidey-hole on your Mac

Hider 2 isn't a perfect solution for securing your data, but it will likely suit the needs of the average non-spy.

By Serenity Caldwell 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Day-O review: Me say day on the Mac’s menu bar

Does OS X's lack of an easy-access menu-bar calendar drive you bananas? You can get one for free with Day-O.

By Roman Loyola 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Patterns review: Utility makes quick work of regular expressions

If you work with text, you owe it to yourself to learn regular expressions, and Patterns can help you do that–as well as figure out exactly what your search patterns are capturing.

By Jason Snell 11 years ago

Mac Gems

DeskConnect review: Share files, URLs, and more between OS X and iOS

Seven years since iOS arrived, sharing files, URLs, and other data between it and OS X is still a hassle. DeskConnect makes the task easier.

By Dan Miller 11 years ago

Mac Gems

CloudyTabs review: Liberate iCloud Tabs from Safari on your Mac

If you like the idea behind iCloud Tabs, but you don't use Safari on your Mac, CloudyTabs is just what you're looking for.

By Dan Moren 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Unclutter review: Utility provides simple solutions to everyday tasks

Unclutter is an inexpensive Mac utility that provides you with a simple clipboard viewer, file storage area, and notepad. It's not terribly feature rich, but it gets easy jobs done.

By Christopher Breen 11 years ago

Mac Gems

PicFrame review: Easy app makes quick photo collages

PicFrame for Mac may not have the bells and whistles of fancier photo-collage apps, but its tools are perfect if you just want a quick collection for an email message, Facebook post, or tweet.

By Serenity Caldwell 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Blinky review: Real geeks write on curved CRT monitors

Nowadays, the world is flat when working on your Mac. Blinky is a writing app that brings you back to the days when real computers had curves.

By Roman Loyola 11 years ago

Updated

MyPhotostream review: All your Photo Stream, none of the bloat

If you don't want all the extra bells and whistles of iPhoto and Aperture, MyPhotostream will let you just view the photos in your Photo Stream.

By Dan Moren 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Pixelmator 3.1 Marble review: New tools, expanded capabilities nudge photo-editing app into pro arena

Pixelmator 3.1 Marble accelerates performance and adds marquee features such as print-on-demand services and the ability to edit 16-bit images.

By Jackie Dove 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Simplenote review: Basic note-taker for Mac bests OS X’s Notes

The Mac version of Simplenote is very much like the iOS version, with a streamlined interface that doesnu2019t fill the screen with lots of icons or buttons.

By Roman Loyola 11 years ago

Mac Gems

A Better Finder Rename review: Easily rename batches of files

There are plenty of Mac utilities that'll help you rename a bunch of files and folders all at once. A Better Finder Rename stands out for its combination of usability and power.

By Dan Miller 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Duplicate Detective review: Make short work of finding duplicate files

If you'd like a simple and inexpensive tool for weeding out duplicates files on your drives, Duplicate Detective is for you.

By Christopher Breen 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Vellum review: App offers a sleeker way to build ebooks

Since the early days of the .epub and .mobi formats, writers and publishers have been trying to find a better way to make ebooks. 180g's new app, Vellum, offers the first glimpse of an easier approach, even if it's not all the way there yet.

By Serenity Caldwell 11 years ago

Mac Gems

WiFi Explorer review: Find problems with and optimize your wireless network

WiFi explorer is a nifty Mac utility that lets you gather an impressive amount of data about the Wi-Fi networks within range of your Mac.

By Steve Scipioni 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Mac Gems of the Year: 2013

Our Mac Gems department aims to uncover the best in great, inexpensive software. Of the nearly 120 Mac Gems we reviewed in 2013, here are our favorites.

By Dan Frakes 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Dragshare for Dropbox review: Menu-bar item makes sharing links less painful

If you share Dropbox links on a regular basis, or you're looking for an easy way to share files with others, Dragshare can save you time and headaches.

By Jon Seff 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Focus 2 review: Specialized photo app makes lens and focus effects easy

MacPhun's Focus 2 makes it quick and easy to apply tilt-shift and depth-of-field effects to your photos.

By Jackie Dove 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Hosts review: Simple System Preferences pane makes network tweaks easy

Most of us don't need to edit our Mac's hosts file very often, but when we do, the free Hosts preference pane makes it a snap to do so.

By Dan Moren 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Liquid review: Utility simplifies many text-related tasks

If you ever search for, copy, share, or otherwise fiddle with bits of text (and who doesn't), Liquid will make your life a lot easier.

By Dan Miller 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Muse review: Mac app makes Pandora even easier

Muse is a terrific utility for those who love Pandora, and it may help improve the relationship with those who have yet to fall in love with the service.

By Christopher Breen 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Coffitivity review: Simple utility brings the feel of a coffee shop to your home office

Hate working in silence? Coffitivity brings the ambiance of your favorite coffee shop to your office to help you be more productive.

By Serenity Caldwell 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Comic Life 3 review: New tools help make you a better storyteller

Comic Life has always been fun to use. With version 3, it's become a better tool for comic book storytelling.

By Roman Loyola 11 years ago

Mac Gems

New ProductiveMacs bundle offers Mac Gems on the cheap

Looking for some great software? Don't want to spend a lot? The latest ProductiveMacs bundle includes a nice bunch of Mac Gems, along with a couple other quality apps, for just $30.

By Dan Frakes 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Playlist Assist review: Drag and drop to create playlists, like iTunes of yore

If you miss being able to open playlists in their own windows, as you could in older versions of iTunes, Playlist Assist is worth a look.

By Jon Seff 11 years ago

Mac Gems

EasyRes review: Resolution switcher’s animated previews set it apart

EasyRes is a nifty menu-bar utility for switching screen resolutions. Unlike other similar utilities, EasyRes shows you how a resolution change will affect your screen…before you actually make the change.

By Roman Loyola 11 years ago

Mac Gems

Yojimbo 4 review: Stellar information manager adds better sync (for a fee)

Yojimbo 4 adds a revamped sync feature, as well as full-screen and Retina-display support, to the venerable data manager, though if you don't need sync, Yojimbo 3 will still do fine.

By Jackie Dove 11 years ago

Mac Gems

CargoLifter review: Automatically send email attachments via the cloud

CargoLifter slims down your email messages by automatically uploading attachments to your favorite cloud-storage service.

By Dan Frakes 11 years ago

Mac Gems

PhotoReviewer review: Quick and easy image triage

PhotoReviewer makes quick and easy work of reviewing and sorting your photosu2014before you import them into iPhoto, Aperture, or your image-library app of choice.

By Dan Frakes 11 years ago

Mac Gems