Top 10 BEST Mac Apps For Productivity: M1 & M2
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 พ.ค. 2024
- Maximize productivity on your Macbook with the TOP 10 BEST M1 & M2 apps that you will ACTUALLY use.
This list of the top 10 best apps for mac took years of trial & error to narrow down. Boost your productivity and save hours of time and effort using these apps!
Best deals on new Macs on Amazon ⬇️
Best 14" MacBook Pro to buy in 2023 ➡ geni.us/Gltxlc
Best 16" Macbook Pro to buy in 2023 ➡ geni.us/2mcOjE
All Applications in the video ⬇️
Alfred - geni.us/KGrfz
HandMirror - geni.us/chMuD9N
Rectangle - geni.us/y8I3aG
HiddenMe - geni.us/lDuPhC
Bartender 4 - geni.us/1q4jBx
TempBox - geni.us/BA6e7Wt
Dropzone 4 - geni.us/LBWB7
CheatSheet - geni.us/qXA2OAU
MonitorControl - geni.us/TPRa6J
AppCleaner - geni.us/oA3TV
MY FAVORITE TECH & GEAR
» Everyday Carry Tech (EDC) - geni.us/EverydayCarryTech
» Desk Setup - geni.us/kITyMuj
» TH-cam Studio - geni.us/sRih1Y
BEST HEALTH TECH & GEAR
» Workout gear (Save 15%, code: CTOMSHACKTT15) - geni.us/TenThousandCC
» Whoop (Free Whoop 4.0 & One Month Free) - join.whoop.com/ChrisTomshack
BEST APPS TO SUPERCHARGE PRODUCTIVITY (non-sponsored):
» Superhuman Email (one FREE month) - geni.us/SuperHuman
» SigmaOS - geni.us/SigmaOS
FREE WALLPAPER PACKS
» Phone/Tablet/Desktop Wallpapers - christomshack.gumroad.com/
MY OTHER SOCIALS
» Instagram - / christomshack_
» Twitter - / christomshack_
» Linkedin - / christomshack
Timestamps ⬇️
Intro - 00:00
App 1 - 00:54
App 2 - 01:54
App 3 - 02:52
App 4 - 04:00
App 5 - 04:50
GIVEAWAY - 05:25
App 6 - 06:00
App 7 - 07:54
App 8 - 08:35
App 9 - 09:20
App 10 - 10:16
Conclusion - 10:45
*Giveaway has ended*
Giveaway rules - christomshack.notion.site/You...
Music generated by Mubert mubert.com/render
___
Disclaimer: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through them. However, rest assured that these are all products I have personally tested, own, and recommend.
#Macbook #Apps #Productivity #BestApps #bestMacApps #MacbookAir #MacbookPro #M1Mac #M2Mac
Alfred is my favorite one. game changer!
Hey Suli, You won the giveaway! Send me an email to Chris@firstphase.dev and let's get you the gift card!
@@sulaimanahmadii sending it via email to the address you emailed me from. Really appreciate the compliment and hope to see you stick around for future content!
@@Christomshack I look forward to receiving it soon. I really appreciate your prompt response and attention to detail. It's great to see someone who takes pride in their work and is dedicated to providing excellent service. Looking forward to staying in touch and seeing what else you have in store. Have a great day!
@@sulaimanahmadii Sent 🤝
@@Christomshack I use Alfred custom workflow to split the screen. No need for extra apps. Thanks for the cool video!
Rectangle is definitely my favorite. I just got my first MacBook Air(M1 base model) and on my (linux) desktop i use a tiling window manager so it felt very natural moving over.
You didn't mention it but one of my favorites is Scroll Reverser. If you use both a trackpad and mouse this allows you to control the scrolling direction for each independently.
Definitely going to check it out. Thanks for the recc 🤝
is it free?
@@rakshityadav840 yes, it's free. by Pilot Moon.
I got my first MacBook a month ago and couldn't believe this crap! Wtf? Lol. How did apple never get feedback that people don't want to use the mouse and the track pad with the same scroll direction?
Rectangle. Very much underrated
Man, this is by far the most useful Mac recommendation apps video I've ever come across on TH-cam. I'm a minimalist and I can't tell you the number of times I have to always clear up my desktop. Hidden Me will come in very handy. Thanks a lot!
How about opening a new desktop space. It does the same, if the zoom meeting is over, you can go back to work.
Just a tip on app cleaner: there's an option called smart delete under settings that kicks in the clean up process automatically when you delete an app without you having to open the app + drag and drop
You are 100% correct on how many times you install an app based on a review and then deleting it after a few days of never ever using it. The apps that I find I can't live without are Wipr, Darkreader for Safari, AltTab and Rectangle.
I love rectangle and bartender! I often find myself needing to split screen or resize windows and it just makes it so much easier to do that. Also, bartender is pretty much essential for the m2 macbooks because of the notch hiding all the other icons.
Totally agree. I feel the same way about MacBooks that have the notch
Every time a new version of MacOS drops I ask “did Apple finally figure out window management?” Nope. Too hard for them, I guess. Oh well, at least there are third-party apps.
@@stillmattwestif I am not mistaken there are patent reasons why Mac OS isn’t as good at windows management compared to windows.
@@otwer22 why do you say that? Doesn’t seem to affect any of the Linux orgs like Canonical or System 76.
@@stillmattwest Apple has a ton of money so Microsoft is much more willing to litigate with them. With Linux distros there is no money to be had so why bother. I don’t have definitive evidence of this, compared to I have read that there are patent issues.
This was really insightful and helpful information. Thank you for taking the time to research and present the material in such a handy way. Can't wait to try these out!
Raycast is another good one - it is an Alfred alternative that also has built-in window management.
Rectangle is one of my favorite app for Mac. Simple yet effective, makes my workflow much easier. And thanks for the recommendations, loved your video!
Glad you like it and thanks!
are you using another monitor ? would you recommend it using an ultrawide monitor?
@@jajasaria Yep - Both monitors are linked here: 💻 Desk setup & accessories - geni.us/kITyMuj
@@Christomshack thanks for the quick reply.
Hey Chris, I would pick Monitor Control, it's extremely useful with a second display, and in case you didn't know, it works also if you are connected to a tv at work in meeting rooms
Great to know, thanks for sharing!
Love you Chris, your videos have helped me a lot. I can finally get rid of the annoying search and plit screen functions on my Mac😊
Rectangle is hands down a necessity but I’ll definitely be downloading hand mirror. Never heard of it before now but will be super helpful in eliminating distractions during screen sharing
coming from linux, definitely something that will boost my productivity.
kudos!
The "Hiden Me" app was exactly what I was looking for. I love your channel and am excited for more of your videos!
Glad to hear, thanks! More videos to come
I've been a pc guy all my life. Picked up my first mac 3 days ago, so this was super helpful! thanks for making this!!
Same here. Picked up a mac 3 days ago. PC guy.
I really appreciate AppCleaner, because I always get overwhelmed on what to erase when deleting a app from my Mac. Great video Chris, just found out about your channel today and already loving it! Regards from Protugal!
I love betterDisplay for my M1 Pro. I can use it (pro version with one Time payment) to make use of the higher nits of the internal display and can also change the brightness and contrast settings of the external display very easily. Which is great since changing it on the monitor itself is quite the hassle!
Trying get it to work with my dell ultra sharp so I can adjust volume of desk speakers connected the dell hub. Any suggestions?
@@robertf863 sorry, Never had to make it work with audio
Finally, a Mac tutorial that is actually useful and doesn't make me feel stupid. Thank you, and greetings from the UK.
Glad to hear! Thanks for the comment. Cheers
Appreciate your videos, they have helped me with setting up my laptop as a first time mac user. Love the Alfred app, but the most useful app for me is probably going to be the Cheatsheet app to learn all necessary shortcuts. Your channel is a hidden gem, great videos!
Many thanks Leonardo. Happy to hear my videos have been helpful! Cheers
Thanks for making an amazing video on very useful apps. Bartender is my favorite among the list. Now I like my mac even more.
I absolutely love Rectangle. A fantastic app. Not only short cut keys, but you can drag the windows to the corners of the monitor for resizing and placement
How do you remove the icon on the desktop though?
"Rectangle" is the best app according to me because I am student and I often have to do multitasking but in apple one two windows can be opened so if I use rectangle for that purpose it will be easier for me to multitask and switch between windows while coding in VS Code and designing new using Xcode and also to check the webpage designed. Thank you for posting this video this is really helpful for me or students like me.
Happy to hear the video was helpful. Good luck on your software engineering journey!
Raycast replaces Alfred, Rectangle and others, trust me.
I still use Alfred because I bought the lifetime license but Raycast is becoming way more powerful.
My favorite from your list is Bartender 4, love it!
Raycast setup videos needed.
I was coming in the comment to write exactly that 😂 Raycast has been a life changer for my productivity and eliminating so many little apps with it. It’s truly Alfred on steroids and way more powerful and customizable until your heart’s content 😀
@@yashashgaurav There's basically no setup to Raycast. You install it and it starts teaching you how to use it. Then, it's just a matter of going into the app's Settings and Store to discover commands and features that are useful to you.
Alfred has some deep stuff around automation that I'm not sure Raycast is able to do, but for 99% of people, Raycast has every useful Alfred feature, for free, and with a much nicer user experience.
Raycast is brilliant. For me Craft and Raycast are the big game changer apps which truly turned me over to MacOS
Damn dude, so much value in your videos I love it. Got my first Mac and they are so helpful. Also, 4 months ago 155 subs!? You're on 26k now and deserve way more, you're killing it! Had to let you know, thanks for the quality vids
Wow, never knew Alfred could make things so much easier. Thanks for the tip.
Great set of tools. Rectangle is super nice. On a note, Elephas AI is one of the cool AI tools for Mac that you may want to include. There are other AI tools like MacGPT, but Elephas supports customizing AI with users' data.
my favorite is Alfred OMG I can't go back to normal now
Why what makes it unique?
I've seen hundreds of videos like this, but you've brought up some apps I've never heard of that are extremely useful. Thanks!
For some reason I tried Alfred at the beginning, I don’t recall if I was beta testing or just an early adopter, but for some reason it didn’t thrill me at the time. Seeing your video, I’m definitely going to get the latest version and install it asap. I was surprised that your channel doesn’t have a great deal of subscribers, I watched one of your videos last week and subscribed at once. Great work! Keep it up Chris!
It's incredible how a little more than a month you jumped from 155 to 8,36 K subscribers. Impressive - Keep doing great videos!
Much appreciated, Juan! Cheers
Thank you for providing this! every mac user should know this since it makes your experience convenient
My pleasure. Glad you liked it!
Chris thanks for these great apps. I'm a fairly new Mac guy and the split screen always drove me nuts. Cannot wait to start using Rectangle. Awesome stuff man. Thank you!
Hands down Alfred is the most important! But I also LOVE Bartender, Magnet (rectangle version), Yoink (dropzone), and Appcleaner. Needless to say that I totally agree to all of these Apps to be essential. Thanks for the remaining few I never heard of!
Nahhhh raycast
So great to see someone make massive jumps in their channel! Keeps me super motivated to keep going! That cheatsheet app is an absolute blessing!
Thanks Mario, we both need to keep going!
Man, what a great video and list. So input for you / others:
- I love HiddenMe, use it for the exact reason you mentioned. Although it has been a bit buggy for me; I find I have to relaunch it pretty often.
- Hidden Bar: which seems pretty similar to Bar Tender; pretty sure it's free.
- Moom: another window organizer, super powerful.
- Ejectify: I use a MacBook on a docking stating with an external drive attached - this helps automatically eject the drive when I put the machine to sleep, thus cutting down on those irritating "didn't eject drive before disconnecting" notifications.
- Amphetamine: another good task bar utility that keeps the machine awake, just in case you're running a task that you want to be sure doesn't get interrupted. I don't use it often, but it's great when you need it.
One last thought: I don't understand Alfred!! Seems kind of unnecessary to me. Maybe I need to give it another try?
Greatly appreciate the reccs! I will check out those apps this week.
Alfred settings are unnecessarily complex, soI’m with you. If you’re interested, checkout my latest video on Alfred! It goes over Alfred setup, several extremely powerful features, and I’m even giving away 5 PowerPack licenses for the app in the video.
I guarantee it will help smoothen the learning curve and you’ll be using Alfred more often 🤝🏼
I love Bartender 4. I’m so glad you included it in this top listing
My favourite macOS app is Keyboard Maestro. And lately I've acquired the Stream Deck app which runs on both macOS and iOS which means I can turn my iPhone into a Stream Deck simulator. By the way, these two apps are designed to work together, so I can use KM to control the SD app icons.
I am downloading Rectangle as you speak, this will save me so much time!! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
I love temp box as it keeps junk away from my actual email addresses. I have attached that to my raycast shortcut to enhance my productivity. Monitor control is another best in my list as I have multiple monitors hooked up to my Mac.
why use TempBox when mail app has this feature built-in with icloud?
Great Video and thanks for the sharing this with everyone, i was looking for shortcut on my mac......thanks to you i'll be enjoying them
I have shared this video with a few friends who may be able to use it in their daily workflow. I found this video to be concise. Having the links next to the applications saved a lot of time. I decided to give Rectangle, CheatSheets, and Drop Zone 4 a try.
I love the recommendations. I’ve downloaded Alfred before but I found it a little confusing with all the settings and I didn’t feel it did anything more than spotlight does. I’m probably using it wrong. But I’ll give it another shot.
It’s definitely confusing at first with all the features/settings it has. I’m actually almost finished with a video walkthrough of the best Alfred workflows and shortcuts for productivity to help everyone get the most out of it. As soon as I get over this gnarly case of Covid it will get finished and uploaded.
Also giving away 5 PowerPack plans in the video 🤝
Rectangle is really a game changer for Mac OS! Coming from windows this program is a necessity
This is to acknowledge that the list is really really useful. You have done a great job man and you have earned a subscriber for sure.
Much appreciated! Thanks for subbing and taking the time to leave a comment 🤝🏼
Love Alfred. I haven’t subscribed for the PowerPacks, though. Am I missing much? Great vid!
The power pack features take Alfred to the next level. Highly worth it IMO!
I think the app swish is doing a better job at window managment, than rectangle especially when you don't use a mouse and just the trackpad. You can manage your windows through swipe gestures and I just love this app.
Thanks for sharing, I will check out swish this weekend 🤝
I agree I’ve tried them all, and I landed on swish. It has cool gesture capabilities, but the keyboard shortcuts are what I like.
This list took years of trial & error to narrow down to the top 10 that I believe you will actually use!
Timestamps ⬇
Intro - 00:00
App 1 - 00:54
App 2 - 01:54
App 3 - 02:52
App 4 - 04:00
App 5 - 04:50
GIVEAWAY - 05:25
App 6 - 06:00
App 7 - 07:54
App 8 - 08:35
App 9 - 09:20
App 10 - 10:16
Conclusion - 10:45
Alfred is very similar to Krunner in Linux!
Thank you!
Tempbox ❤! Killer list and video! Thx . Good luck with your channel! You’re unique in your style of content!😊
Hey Chris, just wanted to say that this video is absolutely awesome! The content is top-notch and I really appreciate the professional approach you took. Keep up the great work! #Impressed
Great list, i'd like to add these apps as well:
1. Clipy - free
2. Shottr - free
3. ALDente -paid
4. NightFall - free
5. DarkNight -free
6. App Tamer -paid
7. NearDrop - still in early phase, but has potential
If I may, this list could be tasty indeed, were you to include a brief description of what each app does. I could be wrong, but I suspect I'm not alone in feeling reluctant to go hunting each one not knowing if it's applicable to my needs and habits. Thanks for your consideration!
NearDrop is good, thanks for sharing.
App 3: You don't have to hold the full screen button in macOS to do splitscreen just hover over it. Also the native multi-desktop is kind of useful when you understand how it works. But Rectangle seems really cool. Thank you for the video.
Am I missing something? This doesn’t work for me..
I just got my Mac today. Everything you showed me, Alfred, rectangle, and Bartender. All all are great.
Excelent and helpfull video. Thank you!
For me Alfred is a must have app
WAS a long time Alfred user. Tried the latest Raycast, and it's in a whole different and better world. The Pro version with built-in AI (ChatGPT) is great. Many, many more extensions and it's getting rapid release features. Alfred by comparison is old, barely any new features, and the UI IMHO looks terrible. I tried Raycast when it first launched a couple of years ago and went back to Alfred. But last month I tried Raycast again, loved it so much, I immediately bought Pro and dumped Alfred in the trashcan. Haven't missed it since.
I'm still learning my way around Mac after being a lifetime Windows user, so this video is a true asset. Rectangle is a must-have, especially for ultra-wides!
Wow! Thank you Ill be adding 9-10 of these, my fav are Alfred, Triangle, TempBox.
in addition, I'd like to highly recommend 2 of my favorites:
1) CleanShot X - it's an app for making and instant editing screenshots, screen video recordings, and GIFs - PAID, but it is worth it!
2) DeepL - it's an ML-powered app for translations. You select some text and press Cmd+C+C (like a copy but press C 2 times) and it will immediately open a window with the selected text, translated to any pre-selected language. - FREE
Thanks for the reccs!
I bought CleanshotX too and use it ALL the time - Big fan!
Looking forward to checking out DeepL🤝🏼
@@Christomshack I'm sure you'll love it🖤
@@Christomshack btw, there is one more - CopyClip - it stores some amount (it's configurable) of your recently copied text - pretty useful if you need to copy one by one, e.g., 3 text lines from one app into another. For not to switch between apps 3 times you could just copy that lines one by one, then switch to another app and paste them from the app's tray icon
Hi Chris, great video and glad I saw this as I'm in the market for a new Macbook Pro. Now I know what apps to consider installing on it. Thanks.
I liked the HandMirror App.
Thank you for the excellent recommendations you shared.
Agree with so many others here: Rectangle everytime.
I've been using Rectangle for more than 5 years, but recently I found a better alternative: Raycast with Window Management extension (one of built-in extensions). Also Raycast itself is a much better alternative to Alfred
I have been using Magnet for a few years already. Something like that is a must
Trueeee
Since apple released Stagemanager I just don’t use it that often anymore.
Rectangle lacks of ability to change focus between windows and trust me if u have lot of them its bullshit
he makes the best content on TH-cam without click bait thumbnails
This was definitely an extremely helpful video! The Alfred program is a great find and I am very grateful for your work and help. I look forward to new videos 🙌✨
Chris - seems an interesting selection of Apps - never heard of any of these, so going to have to do some testing. Like the format of your videos so have subscribed and will checkout some more videos over the coming weeks
magnet does the same job as rectangle
I am not commenting to win the gift card (if I do manage to win pick someone else xd), I am commenting to tell you I am impressed with your video quality. It's nice, non-distracting, webcam elements add personal touch that feels "welcoming" and you show how to install each app for people that may not be tech savvy. I am impressed and I hope you keep it up in the future and that the algorithm will be nice to you because you made a video better than 99% of videos out there. Huge props!
Your comment means a lot, thanks a ton. Doing my best to put out quality content over quantity and its comments like yours that keep the motivation up! Cheers
Morning! Oddly enough, you mentioned that you didn't comment to win the gift card... And you won the drawing! Send an email to Chris@firstphase.dev (also shown in the About section of my Channel page for verification) so I can send you the gift card. If you would like to forego winning, let me know and I will draw another winner!
@@Christomshack feel free to give it to someone else - wasn't lying about the "not wanting to win the gift card" part :) I just think you have a lot of talent and wanted to motivate you - no financial incentive! Also cool thing of you that you kept your word! Definitely keep going :)
You just gained a new subscriber 💥.
Need more this type vids 💨
Have been using Macbook for more than a year. Got to know about a lot of new apps. Thank you Chris!
These are all new apps to me. I'm really excited to try them out. Preliminarily, I suspect that the Alfred, Rectangle, and AppCleaner will be some of my go-to's! Thanks so much for your top notch tutorials. Seriously good stuff!!
As I have just bought my first Mac after using Windows since early 1986 , I found your clip very interesting . Thank you. I will start with Alfred and see from there.
Thank you, so much! The most organized/no BS video I’ve watched on this topic 👍🏻
This helped me a lot! Thank you for sharing!
Glad it helped!
I recently bought a new Mac and hasn't been using a Mac for a couple of years. Now when I'm back :) I ended up using most of the apps you recommended. So thank you for that. This review was very informative and explained well. Thank you.
Thanks a lot for the Monitor Control!
I got a new MacMini and a good monitor but controlling its brightness was a must.
✅✅✅✅✅
Great very informative, you are always on point... Alfred is my favorite.
Rectangle is the one I' ve been looking for since I switch from windows to mac bc in windows the there are built-in shortcut for that. And I love that when Rectangle is open, it doesn't show on your dock or menu bar.
I've never downloaded so many apps from these kinds of lists... I also appreciated how you explained how to download them unlike most!
Idk why it took me so long to download Alfred by the way... I've seen it in every list lol... and I use(d) spotlight every 30 mins.
Pumped to hear that Sean 🙌🏼
If interested, check out my latest video for a complete walkthrough of Alfred’s best features and a chance to win one of 5 Alfred PowerPack licenses 🤝🏼
Cheers
Lifesaver! I love the Rectangle app and Alfred! Been looking for these apps for a while now.
Thanks for the tips, really like that Alfred App...
Totally agree! Uploading an Alfred walkthrough video for maximizing productivity & giving away 5 PowerPack licenses too 🤝
Just bought my first macbook today, coming from windows, I think Alfred and bartender are very helpful. I still have a hard time figuring out some stuff.
Thank you for great video. Alfred will be the most useful for me along with app cleaner.
Thank you, this was very helpful :)
I like #1, #6 and #10 in your presentation since I’m retired and found them useful for day computing. Thank you for sharing with the public, Ken
Fantastic, Alfred and rectangular are my favs!
Alfred for definite awesome recommendations thanks😊
Great job since I just bought my first Mac Pro and am so excited! I’m absolutely looking forward to getting Alfred. I’m anxious to download and explore thanks to you. Keep up the very clear excellent job. PS I would have subscribed and given you a thumbs up regardless, however it’s iffy that I would comment. 10:14
Thanks for taking the time to subscribe and comment! Enjoy your new Mac Pro 🙌🏼
If interested, my latest upload is a walkthrough of Alfred’s most powerful features for productivity with a chance to win one of 5 Alfred PowerPack licenses!
I downloaded 6 of your 10 best Mac apps. Thanks, they have been useful 💪🏻
I reckon I will install them all but Alfred for the best use one. Thanks for a fantastic video ❤
Hi Chris, Helpful vid. Just started using a Mac this week. Quick question if you dont mind. Are you using all the free versions of the apps mentioned in the video? Thanks.
At the time of recording, I had been using the free versions of the apps for several years. I recently upgraded upgraded to the full version of Alfred and CleanshotX (not mentioned in this vid)
This video was insanely helpful. THANK YOU!
impressive work Chris. Keep it up!
Great video. Thanks so much ❤
Love your videos man, you have earned a sub 👍🏻
I was in shock when you said that you only had 155 subs when you made this. This video is so professional and informational.
Alfred was indeed a game changer.
Any recommended apps for M3 Mac?
You know I went through 8 different videos but your video was the best. I am for sure going to leave a like
Hi Chris, great video! Hand Mirror I will use all the time. Thanks again, Nick
Thanks Chris some of these I have seen before others I haven't and will use.
You bet! Happy to help
Alfred! Thanks for the video!
You bet!
If you’re interested, checkout my latest video on Alfred! It goes over some extremely powerful Alfred features and I’m giving away 5 PowerPack licenses for the app 🤝🏼
I am watching your vid an do the installing at the same time. So nice help it’s amazing
Great to hear!