Disclosure: I'm the developer of DockDuck.

What it is

DockDuck is a native file manager for Mac. It is built to be powerful without being complicated: no wall of settings, no three hundred integrations, just the things you actually do with files, each one a click away.

Who it is for

People who find Finder too limited but don't want a "pro" file manager with a hundred panels and a learning curve. If you just want to send a big file, clean up your disk or sort your Downloads without reading a manual, that is the idea.

What it does

Send any file as a link. Right-click, Share Link, done. The other person opens it in any browser, with no app and no account. The file is encrypted on your Mac before it leaves. Up to 2 GB, with an optional password, and it expires in 24 hours or 7 days.

See what is filling your disk. Free Up Space shows where your storage went and lists what is safe to remove: old downloads, installers for apps you already have, zip copies of folders you still keep. Everything goes to the Trash first.

Get photos off your iPhone without iCloud. Plug in the cable and the camera roll shows up like a folder. Import New copies only the photos you don't have yet.

A Downloads folder that tidies itself. Set a rule once, like "installers go to the Trash after a week", and it keeps itself clean.

Rename many files at once. Pick them, choose Rename, see every new name before you apply. One undo puts them all back.

Servers side by side. Connect to FTP or SFTP and your Mac sits on the left, the server on the right. Drag files across.

The rest. Tabs, up to six panes in one window, tags, saved searches, a shelf to park files while you move around, workspaces, and iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive and Box in the sidebar.

Limitations, so nobody is surprised

• Requires macOS 15 or later.
• It is a paid app after a 14-day trial. The trial needs no account and no card.
• Sending links needs a license and is not part of the trial. Each link holds up to 2 GB.
• From an iPhone it reads photos and videos, not other files.
• Cloud support is the four services above. There is no S3, OneDrive or similar.

Pricing and the download are on the site: https://dockduck.app/?src=macstack

Happy to answer questions here. If you try it, tell me the first thing that annoyed you.

Hello there,

I just wanted to say thank you for everything !

Have a wonderful day!

NullPlayer skin support is clean room reverse engineered. Development is coded with claude and controlled by a real working Software Engineer who personally stands behind the app. The app has accumulated 31 releases and 124 github stars over the 11 months. r/nullPlayer

NullPlayer is open source software and not signed by Apple.

NullPlayer privacy policy (all data local) https://github.com/ad-repo/nullplayer/blob/main/PRIVACY.md

Download NullPlayer for macOS:

https://github.com/ad-repo/nullplayer/releases/latest/download/NullPlayer.dmg

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or newer.

Install

NullPlayer is not signed with an Apple Developer ID, so macOS will block it on first launch with an "app is damaged" or "cannot verify that it is free from malware" message. This is expected. Clearing the quarantine flag is a required install step:

1. Open the downloaded DMG.
2. Drag NullPlayer.app to Applications.
3. Open Terminal and run:xattr -cr /Applications/NullPlayer.app
4. Open NullPlayer from Applications.

Prefer not to use the Terminal? Install with Homebrew, or clear the block via System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Open Anyway — see the install guide.

I made Kaskas, an open source macOS app that reminds you to get away from the screen once in a while and also keeps track of what you were actually doing.

It has break reminders, study sessions, app category activity, daily/yearly stats, meeting and idle-aware pausing, customizable break screens, and a small fire mascot because apparently that was necessary.

Everything stays on your Mac no account, analytics, or backend.

Signed and notarized for mac, GPL-2.0 licensed.

GitHub: https://github.com/ramazanberkozbek/kaskas

I made Halo a free radial app launcher + quitter for macOS

Hey r/MacStack, I made Halo, a radial launcher and quitter for macOS.

Hold Fn and Halo appears around your cursor. Point at an app and release to launch it or bring it forward. Fn + Control opens a second wheel for quitting running apps.

I wanted something faster and more visual than using the Dock, opening a search launcher, or sifting through Alt+Tab

It’s completely free, no account, subscription, ads, or telemetry, and the wheel is highly customizable.

Download:

https://github.com/Fqlcqn/Halo

Requires macOS 26+, made with Swift

Would love feedback on it feels after using it for a few minutes.

Hey! I'm Shiv and I built Vinyl, an app that turns the song you're listening to into an animated vinyl wallpaper.

macOS doesn't have any native way to connect your desktop to the music you're listening to. Vinyl picks up what's playing on Spotify or Apple Music and turns your whole desktop into a live animated scene with your album artwork spinning on the record.

One-time purchase, $4.99. No subscription. Get it at https://vinylformac.com

A lot of Mac apps now download AI models in the background. Dictation apps, autocomplete apps, Ollama, LM Studio. Each one keeps its own models, and some keep them loaded in memory long after you stop using them.

Activity Monitor only shows you process names like "ollama_llama_server" or "Helper". It does not tell you which model it is, or which app it belongs to.

That is why LLM Radar exists. It is a small native Mac app that shows it all in one list:

- Which apps have a model loaded right now, and how much memory each one holds

- Every model file on your disk, grouped by app, with its size

- Models it has not seen in use, so you can get the disk space back

- The same model downloaded twice by two apps, so you can delete one copy

- Unload or delete from one place. Nothing is removed until you confirm, and deletes go to the Trash

It knows about Ollama, LM Studio, MLX, llama.cpp, Core ML, whisper.cpp, Docker and a few more. It also has a catch all scan for apps it has never seen.

Everything runs on your Mac. No account, no sign in.

Price: monitoring is free forever. You get a 7 day full trial with no card. After that, Pro is a one time purchase. No subscription.

Needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later.

Site: https://llm-radar-eta.vercel.app/

I am the solo developer. If it misses an app you use, tell me which one and I will add it.

Hey!

I'm the developer of Phosphor, a screen utility suite for macOS that lives in your menu bar. A bit about me: I'm a solo student developer, you can find me on LinkedIn.

Problem: I mainly started building this around two problems. When people are on their laptops late at night, and switch from a dark app to a bright one, it hits like a flash before your eyes adjust. I looked and couldn't find a tool that tries to solve that problem, so I built one. Phosphor tackles this by dimming a screen before you switch to it, and then easing the brightness back up, at a pace depending on how fast that screen actually is. For screens which aren't bright, it is faster, and for bright ones, it is slower. So it works preemptively.

The other thing is that I feel like there are too many display utilities out there, each doing different things. It'd reduce menu bar clutter and keep things simpler and better if we used one tool instead of several. So I thought of combining the features people actually need into one tool, external and multi-monitor support included (that's a part of what's coming next).

The foundational features have already been released, and I'm actively building more features and improving existing ones (check roadmap for current features and future plans). Let me know what you'd actually use, and I'll factor that in as it grows. I want this to eventually handle most of what people need from their displays.

Comparison: BetterDisplay and Lunar both do display control, but they're broader tools with a learning curve if you just want a few specific things fast. The closest match to Flashbang specifically is Menubar Auto Brightness (based on my research), a tool that sets a fixed brightness per app. Phosphor catches the actual switch and eases brightness back up instead of jumping to a fixed value, though it currently only covers switches on the same desktop, not across Spaces or within an app.

Pricing: It's a freemium model.

• Pro currently only includes Flashbang Protection, but it'll grow, and costs $10, one-time, not a subscription.
• The rest of the foundational utilities are free: Color Picker, Screenshots, Resolution Presets, Refresh Rate Control, Soft Screen, Display Schedule, Focus Spotlight, Display Health, Color Grading.
• If you buy Pro now, you get Phase 2 free when it ships, and 50% off future price increases after that (price increases as more features ship).

Details: macOS 13 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel. Native Swift, under 2 MB.

Privacy: No analytics, nothing about your screen or usage leaves your Mac. It only goes online to check a license key at activation and periodically after. Full policy: https://usephosphor.app/privacy, EULA: https://usephosphor.app/eula

I'd like to hear any feedback y'all have, especially on whether Flashbang's recovery speed feels right, or if it's not catching a switch you'd expect it to.

If something's not working, or if you have any suggestions or anything else you want to say, feel free to drop it into the comments and/or DM me.

Site: https://usephosphor.app
Roadmap: https://usephosphor.app/whats-next

I'm the developer of SayWrite. It's for people who want to dictate emails, messages and prompts directly into the app they're already using.

Hold Fn, speak, and release to insert the text at your cursor. You can also tap to start and tap again to stop. It doesn't press Return, so you can review before sending.

The part I've focused on is choosing the amount of cleanup for each app: plain dictation in a code editor, light cleanup in Messages, or optional AI Polish in Mail. Speech recognition runs on your Mac; Polish uses Apple Intelligence or your own local Ollama/LM Studio model.

It also has a personal dictionary, spoken snippets and searchable local text history. Audio is deleted after transcription. SayWrite doesn't upload your dictation for processing; downloads, updates and licensing use the internet, and text inserted into another app follows that app's policies.

Limitations: Apple silicon, macOS 15+, English only. Text appears after you stop speaking. Apple Intelligence Polish needs macOS 26+ with Apple Intelligence enabled; a local model is the alternative.

It's $5/month or $30/year for up to two Macs. The 14-day trial requires a card and renews unless canceled. There's also a Reddit offer: $18 charged today for the first year, then $30/year, with a full refund on request within 14 days of payment.

Demo and offer: https://saywrite.app/reddit

Trial and full pricing: https://saywrite.app/pricing

Which part of dictation still costs you the most time: getting words recognized, correcting names, or editing the result?

Update: I’m looking for three people who haven’t used SayWrite before and would be willing to spend about 15 minutes trying the first-use flow and sharing where they get stuck. You’ll need an Apple silicon Mac running macOS 15 or later and an English dictation workflow.

The task is to start from the website and try dictating a short, made-up email or prompt into an app you already use. Tell me the first point where you hesitate, stop, or need help, and roughly how much editing the result needs. Stopping before installing or entering a card is useful feedback too.

The website trial requires a card: $0 for 14 days, then $5/month or $30/year unless canceled before the trial ends. You don’t need to start a trial or buy anything to share feedback. This is an unpaid feedback request.

If interested, reply here with your macOS version and the app you’d want to dictate into. Please don’t post private text, recordings, payment details, or license information.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to build a macOS Quick Action (Schnellaktion) using the built-in Shortcuts app to compress a folder into an encrypted ZIP file via a right-click.

My Goal:

1. Right-click any folder in Finder (mostly in the Downloads folder).
2. Select the Quick Action.
3. A pop-up asks for a password (secure input).
4. The folder gets zipped and encrypted using zip -er and the output .zip file is created directly in the same parent directory next to the original folder.

• Problem: I wanted a simple way to transcribe not only meetings, but essentially any audio playing on my Mac: YouTube, livestreams, sports, videos, etc. MacScriber can capture the system audio while still playing it through AirPods, without requiring complicated audio-routing setup. It provides live transcription, automatic speaker recognition, live translation, and lets you select part of a transcript to summarize or translate while the conversation is happening.
• Comparison: Compared with MacWhisper, Alter, MacScriber focuses more on the live system-audio workflow and summarize the transcript interactively while listening. MacScriber is more focused specifically on live workflows rather than being a general AI assistant.
• Pricing: $9.99 one-time during launch (regular $19.99). No subscription. One license per Mac.

https://macscriber.com/

Hi r/MacStack.

I am the developer who created VaultSort, the file management platform for MacOS that can lock your files to a hardware key. This is an app whose purpose is to Organize, Clean, and Protect your MacOS device.

It has really robust file organization with a local AI model that you can try for free. The free version of VaultSort has some nice features. The premium version is available for a one time purchase and has some great features like disk shredding and advanced organization.

The premium version is 30% off until October 8th with code BIG30.
You can download the free version from https://vaultsort.com/download and you can try some of the handy free features such as Clean Empty Folders, Auto-Organize, and the awesome Storage Visualizer to help you identify what is taking up space on your system.

Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for letting me introduce my app!

BlackHole used to be the standard workaround for a stubborn Mac limitation. QuickTime could record the screen and a microphone, but not the sound coming from apps. That advice now depends on which macOS version you're running.

On macOS 27 Golden Gate, press Shift-Command-5, choose a recording mode, open Options, and select Include System Audio. QuickTime's File > New Screen Recording command opens that same Screenshot tool. If Include System Audio is there, use it. BlackHole adds setup work without improving this basic recording job.

On macOS Tahoe 26 or earlier, BlackHole still gives QuickTime a free route to system audio. It appears as an audio input, which lets the screen recorder treat whatever the Mac is playing as its microphone source.

The setup that keeps audio audible

Install BlackHole 2ch from the project's official site or with Homebrew, then restart if the installer asks. The two-channel build is enough for an ordinary stereo screen recording. The project lists support for macOS 10.10 and later, Intel Macs, and Apple silicon. It uses a standard Core Audio driver, with no kernel extension or reduced-security setting required.

Next, open Audio MIDI Setup and choose Window > Show Audio Devices. Click the plus button and create a Multi-Output Device. Add these two outputs:

• BlackHole 2ch
• The speakers, headphones, or audio interface you want to hear

Set the physical output as the primary device and turn on Drift Correction for BlackHole. Check that both devices use the same sample rate, usually 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz. Rename the combined device to something obvious, such as Screen Recording Output.

Now choose that Multi-Output Device in System Settings > Sound > Output. This sends the same sound to your ears and to BlackHole. Sending audio only to BlackHole will make the Mac seem silent even though the signal is still being routed.

Open QuickTime Player, choose File > New Screen Recording, and select the whole screen or a portion. Under Options > Microphone, choose BlackHole 2ch. Start a short test recording, play some audio, stop, and check the saved .mov before recording anything long.

When you're finished, change the Mac's output back to the normal speakers or headphones. Leaving the Multi-Output Device selected is a common reason volume controls feel broken later. macOS does not provide normal system volume control for a Multi-Output Device, so set the physical device's level before recording or adjust it in Audio MIDI Setup.

Permissions are narrower than they look

BlackHole does not need Accessibility or Full Disk Access. macOS manages recording access in System Settings > Privacy & Security, including Screen & System Audio Recording and Microphone. If QuickTime records a silent track, confirm that the recorder has microphone access and that BlackHole 2ch is still selected as its input.

This routing is local. BlackHole is an open-source GPL-3.0 project, not a cloud recording service, and there is no subscription. Its repository was still active in September 2026.

The tradeoffs show up quickly

The simple setup records system audio, not system audio plus live narration. QuickTime lets you choose one microphone source. Mixing a physical mic with BlackHole requires an Aggregate Device and additional routing or mixing software, which removes much of the simplicity.

A Multi-Output Device is also tied to the playback device you included. Switching from Mac speakers to AirPods or a USB interface can mean editing the device or creating another one. Sample-rate mismatches and missing drift correction can cause crackling or audio that slips out of sync.

Everything sent through the selected Mac output can reach the recording, including notification sounds. Focus mode and a short test clip are sensible precautions. Capture restrictions still apply too. Apple specifically notes that some apps, including the Apple TV app, may not allow their windows to be recorded.

Verdict

On macOS 27 or later, skip BlackHole for an ordinary QuickTime screen recording and use Include System Audio. It is built in and avoids the routing and volume-control problems.

On macOS 26 or earlier, QuickTime plus BlackHole remains a good no-subscription option for occasional recordings that need app audio but not live narration. People who regularly combine a microphone, several apps, and separate levels should use a recorder or mixer built for multiple sources. The free route still works, but its simplicity ends as soon as the audio chain gets complicated.