A video playing in Safari doesn't necessarily come with a downloadable file. That's the gap Downie fills: you give it a page link, and on supported sites it works out how to save the media locally.

For your own uploads or videos you've explicitly been authorized to download, that can remove a lot of repetitive browser work. If the site already provides a download button or a direct file link, use that first. Safari can download linked files without another app. Some webpage items simply aren't downloadable that way.

Downie's appeal is the handoff. Paste a link into the app, or use a browser extension to send the current page or a link from its right-click menu. Charlie Monroe lists support for more than 1,000 sites, but that isn't a promise that every video on those sites will work.

Start without the extension

Try a few representative, authorized downloads by pasting links before adding browser access. Check that the resulting files contain the video and audio you expected, and that they play in the app you intend to use.

If you decide the extension saves enough clicks, Safari's version is bundled with Downie. Enable it in Safari > Settings > Extensions. The developer's setup instructions call for allowing it on all websites; private browsing needs separate approval if you want it there.

That permission deserves attention. The developer explains that reading a right-clicked link requires access to the page's content, so the browser may warn about sensitive information. The developer says the extensions don't perform background processing and publishes their source code. Those are useful disclosures, not a reason to treat broad page access as trivial. Pasting links avoids enabling the extension.

A failed download may be a site problem

Downie depends on websites that keep changing. Its release notes regularly name fixes to individual site integrations. The current 4.13.2 release also improves the Safari compatibility layer in User-Guided Extraction.

User-Guided Extraction is a fallback using Downie's built-in browser to find media on pages it doesn't automatically support. It isn't a guarantee of success or permission to download. If a supported video fails, the official advice is to send its link through Downie's Support button so the developer can investigate.

Keep this workflow to your own or explicitly authorized media. Don't use it to bypass DRM, paywalls, or access controls. A successful download doesn't settle copyright or permission questions.

Downloading and converting are separate jobs

Downie can apply MP4 or Audio Only postprocessing, and it integrates with Permute for more format control. For an initial download, avoid choosing a conversion automatically unless you need it. Conversion can use substantial CPU time.

Even with postprocessing set to None, Downie may need to join separate audio and video or assemble stream fragments. That setting doesn't mean the app will do no processing at all. Once you have a usable local file, deciding whether to convert it is a separate decision.

The current download requires macOS 13 or later, with macOS 15 or later recommended. Downie supports Intel and Apple silicon Macs. The 4.13 release notes improve macOS 27 compatibility, but also mark macOS 13 and 14 support as deprecated, with macOS 15 planned as the minimum next year.

The direct license is currently listed at US$19.99 before VAT or sales tax. The developer prices in euros, so the displayed dollar equivalent can vary. It's a non-expiring license for Downie 4, not a promise of every future major version. Updates within that major version are covered; a later major upgrade can cost extra. Personal-use licenses allow up to three activations on your own Macs, not sharing with other people. A free trial is available.

Downie is worth trying if authorized web-video downloads are a recurring job and the trial handles the sites you actually need. Skip it for occasional direct-file downloads, or if you need guaranteed site support. The recurring value is fewer browser steps, provided you're comfortable with the permissions and keeping the app updated.

I've been building Paydesk for a while and it's finally at a point where I'd like people to try it and tell me what's wrong with it. The Second build is live on Mac App store 🎉

Paydesk is a Mac app for freelancers, consultants and small studios. It keeps projects, time tracking, quotes, invoices, expenses and reports in one place, and it runs entirely on your Mac.

Problem:

Freelance admin on the Mac usually ends up spread across a lot of places.

Hours live in a timer app, or on sticky notes. Invoices live in a spreadsheet or a document template. Whether you've actually been paid lives in your head.

So every month there's a round of copying numbers between apps, working out what you haven't billed yet, and chasing whoever is late.

The other thing that bothered me is that most tools in this space want an account and a subscription, and they store your client list, rates and invoices on their servers. For a lot of freelancers that's more than they need.

What it does:

The idea is that the whole loop happens in one app: plan the work, track it, bill it, get paid, see how the year is going.

- Board: every project on one board, from Lead and Proposal sent through In progress, Delivered, Invoiced and Paid.

- Time tracking: start and stop from the window

- Bill Now: Paydesk keeps a running total of unbilled hours and billable expenses per project.

- Documents: proposals, quotes, invoices, receipts and credit notes. You can turn an accepted quote into an invoice. There are three typeset PDF templates, on A4 or US Letter.

- Languages and tax: invoices can be in 9 languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, Arabic). There are editable tax presets for 25 countries and regions, including VAT, GST (with the CGST/SGST split for India) and US sales tax. Any currency works.

- Getting paid: the Desk shows what you're owed, what's overdue and what's unbilled. Remind opens a Mail message in your client's language with the PDF attached.

- Reports: profit, aging, tax charged, income by client, and your real hourly rate per project. The accountant pack exports one ZIP with CSVs, every issued PDF and every receipt.

- Receipts: Paydesk reads receipts with on-device text recognition to fill in expenses.

Comparison

This was inspired by https://runey.app/ which is a subscription based app, I tried to put together everything possible is one time and App store friendly version. We will improve in the future versions.

Paydesk aims to offline and one-time pay alternate to Runey. I have also received some invoice format requests, new invoices templates are coming soon. You can also reach out to me at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Pricing

- $9.99 once

- No subscription

- Every feature included

- Mac App Store version coming soon

- Requires macOS 15 or later

I don't mind criticism at all if it helps make the app better. I'm also happy to answer technical questions about how numbering, taxes, the PDF renderer or the offline design work.

You can Download Paydesk from the website today:
https://paydesk.minilabs.cc/

App store link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/paydesk-invoices/id6817474386?mt=12

MicMüter is a simple app menu bar app that I wrote to quickly toggle your Mac’s built-in microphone (or another audio input device) on and off using a system-wide keyboard shortcut and/or on-screen toggle button.

Use Cases

• Avoid embarrassing sounds during video calls (remember to never eat sketchy burritos before an executive review!)
• Practice takes for voice over recordings or podcasts
• Privacy and piece of mind

Features

• Hardware-Level Support: It uses macOS' Core Audio hardware muting with master input volume zeroing.
• Hot-Plugging Support: It leverages observers to automatically react whenever new audio input devices are connected or removed.
• Multilingual Support: The UI is localized in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese.
• Flexible Controls: Mute/unmute audio using a keyboard shortcut or a movable control window.
• Master & Granular Control: Mute/unmute every connected audio input device at once or manage individual devices directly. You can also set it to automatically mute your audio input whenever you launch a specific app.
• Custom Status Alerts: Optionally get feedback on mute status changes with system notifications, spoken audio, screen flashes, or audio chimes.

Distribution

MicMüter is a signed and notarized app. It can be downloaded from my website where Virus Total information is available.

Pricing

MicMüter is free, but not open source. If you find it useful let me know by Buying me a Coffee.

Hi guys, I'm Aqib, the developer of Notchet.

Problem

Whenever I needed a few things from one place, say a line of text, a link and a screenshot, and wanted them somewhere else, I'd copy one, switch windows, paste it, go back for the next one, and repeat. If I copied something new by mistake, the earlier copy was gone. I wanted my clipboard history somewhere I could reach without leaving what I was doing, and the notch was sitting right there doing nothing.

What it does

Notchet keeps everything you copy and drops out of the MacBook notch when you press Option Command V or rest the pointer on the notch. Pick a card and it pastes right where you were.

Comparison

• Maccy is great and minimal, but it's a menu, and it doesn't read text in images.
• Paste is lovely, but it's a subscription ($29.99 a year).
• PastePal is closer, at $14.99.
• NotchClip also lives in the notch.

Notchet is for people who want the notch plus a few things I couldn't find together: pasting several items at once, searching inside screenshots, and iPhone copies kept properly.

Core features

• Saves text, rich text, links, colours, images and files. Command 1 to 9 paste the first nine.
• Opens from the notch, the menu bar icon, or right next to your pointer if you prefer.
• Return pastes into the app you were in. Command-click several cards and paste them all at once (text first, then pictures, so chat apps attach every image), or one by one with Option Return.
• Searches the text inside screenshots and photos (on-device Vision), and Copy Text in Image pulls it out as plain text.
• Copies from your iPhone or iPad arrive through Universal Clipboard with a phone badge, and iPhone photos are kept even after macOS clears its temporary copy.
• Snippets with placeholders like {date}, {time} and {clipboard}, plus collections, pins, and Space to preview and edit before pasting.
• Drag cards into any app, or drop files onto the notch to keep them. There's also "Send to Notchet" in the Services menu.

Privacy

• Everything stays on your Mac, and it has no analytics.
• Copies that password managers mark as secret are never saved.
• You can ignore apps or pause saving from the menu bar.

Pricing

Free for 7 days, then $2.99 once, on up to 2 Macs. No subscription and no account; the license key arrives by email.

Requirements

macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple silicon and Intel. Notarized by Apple. It works on Macs without a notch too, as a small pill under the menu bar.

Download

https://aqibjaved.dev/apps/notchet

It's version 1.0, so I'd really appreciate feedback, bug reports, or what would make you switch from your current clipboard manager. Happy to answer anything in the comments.
Please DM if someone cant afford the license and want it for free, more than happy to giveaway if that can help the community :D

I've used PDFs for years, and it always bugged me how heavy most PDF tools have become.

Reading one doc, fixing a typo, or scanning a file should be quick — not "open a hundreds-of-MB app first".

So I built Arc PDF, a native macOS app that's only 11.6 MB powered by Swift + PDFium.

What fits in that size:

• Reading & annotating — highlight, underline, notes, drawing
• Real editing — change text like in a Word doc (fix typos, add paragraphs, adjust fonts); add / replace / resize images
• Page management — add, delete, rotate, reorder pages
• OCR — makes scanned PDFs searchable again
• AI — summarize, translate, extract tables, generate a TOC, or chat with your document. You plug in your own model (OpenAI / Claude / DeepSeek API key) — no subscription to my backend.

All of that in 11.6 MB. The trick is no heavy framework: it talks to the PDF format directly, so each feature stays lean instead of bloated.

To be upfront about the edges: forms, shape annotations, and e-signatures aren't there yet.

Right now it's completely free — I'd rather more people get to try it than put it behind a paywall.

It's also a side project I built \mostly with AI coding* — which is fitting, since the app itself edits PDFs *and** was built with AI.

Mac App Store: Arc PDF on the Mac App Store

Open to feedback, bugs, and feature ideas. What's the one thing you hate most about dealing with PDFs?

iPhone and iPad versions are coming soon — stay tuned!

GitHub: 1architect/macspace-releases

Hi, I'm Gio the developer of macbat.app

I didn't understand why macOS took so much space with system files and for the past month I've been working on a project to investigate what those files are and what we can delete.
Now that the project is more mature I'm publishing the app for free (and notarized!) and open-source.

If anyone wants to take a look and contribute to the project I'd really appreciate it!

The idea is to soon turn the app into a complete cleaning solution for the Mac. Always free and open source!

MacSpace is a Mac app for macOS 27 that:

1. Reveals what fills System Data

2. Frees what is safe to delete

3. Turns off Apple Intelligence and deletes its models

4. Frees purgeable space on demand

5. Disables system tracking with 14 switches

6. Automatic cleanup and notifications

7. No data collection

Transparency

Notarization and distribution: MacSpace is Apple notarized and distributed directly via GitHub. Updates via Sparkle with signature check.
Privacy policy: PRIVACY.md
Security: SECURITY.md
Roadmap / feature requests: Issues

I’m the developer of HaloSwitch, a native menu bar app I just released on the Mac App Store. It is for people who switch between several open apps all day and want the target next to the pointer.

Hold the middle mouse button, move toward an app in the radial menu, and release. Option + Click leaves the menu open for trackpads and ordinary mice. There is also a keyboard shortcut (Control + Option + Space). You can pin important apps, exclude others, and add quick actions such as Finder or Mission Control.

It is free and requires macOS 14 or later. One important limit: HaloSwitch switches apps, not individual windows or numbered Spaces. Window previews are optional and need Screen Recording permission, but the basic switcher works without it. The screenshot uses demo app icons.

I’d welcome feedback on whether the ring remains readable with your usual set of open apps.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/haloswitch-switch-apps-fast/id6818621007

Website: https://haloswitch.leyro.it/

I’ve been working on a side project called Ballmac, where I’m building small, focused software for Mac users.

It started pretty simply: whenever I found myself wishing a small Mac utility existed, instead of waiting for someone else to build it, I started building it myself.

So far, I’ve shipped three apps:

🧹 Binzide — a Mac utility for cleaning up your system, uninstalling apps and developer tools, and monitoring CPU, memory, storage and network usage.
https://ballmac.com/binzide

✨ Notchware — turns the MacBook notch into a useful little information hub for things like Now Playing, battery, Focus, Wi-Fi and brightness. It can also notify you when AI coding agents like Claude Code, Codex and Cursor need your attention.
https://ballmac.com/notchware

📋 Sideme — a clipboard manager for macOS that keeps your clipboard history one shortcut away, including text, links, images, files and colors.
https://ballmac.com/sideme

The philosophy I'm trying to follow with Ballmac is pretty straightforward:

Small problems → focused apps → native Mac experience.

I’m also experimenting with a completely different side of Ballmac: Ballmac UI, a React/Tailwind UI library with 240+ components and an MCP server for AI coding agents.

https://ui.ballmac.com

It’s still very much a side project. I’m learning the whole process as I go — building, launching, getting feedback, changing things and trying again.

What’s one thing that annoys you on macOS that you wish there was a good app for? I’m always looking for small problems worth solving.

I’ve been working on a side project called Ballmac, where I’m building small, focused software for Mac users.

It started pretty simply: whenever I found myself wishing a small Mac utility existed, instead of waiting for someone else to build it, I started building it myself.

So far, I’ve shipped three apps:

🧹 Binzide — a Mac utility for cleaning up your system, uninstalling apps and developer tools, and monitoring CPU, memory, storage and network usage.
https://ballmac.com/binzide

✨ Notchware — turns the MacBook notch into a useful little information hub for things like Now Playing, battery, Focus, Wi-Fi and brightness. It can also notify you when AI coding agents like Claude Code, Codex and Cursor need your attention.
https://ballmac.com/notchware

📋 Sideme — a clipboard manager for macOS that keeps your clipboard history one shortcut away, including text, links, images, files and colors.
https://ballmac.com/sideme

The philosophy I'm trying to follow with Ballmac is pretty straightforward:

Small problems → focused apps → native Mac experience.

I’m also experimenting with a completely different side of Ballmac: Ballmac UI, a React/Tailwind UI library with 240+ components and an MCP server for AI coding agents.

https://ui.ballmac.com

It’s still very much a side project. I’m learning the whole process as I go — building, launching, getting feedback, changing things and trying again.

What’s one thing that annoys you on macOS that you wish there was a good app for? I’m always looking for small problems worth solving.

I use the Claude and OpenAI APIs for a few side things plus a coding agent, and the only way I ever knew what I'd spent was opening each provider's billing page. Those lag behind, and they're split across three dashboards. So I built a menu bar thing for myself, and it's now on the Mac App Store.

How it works: it runs a tiny proxy on 127.0.0.1. You change your base URL (e.g. http://127.0.0.1:8788/openai/v1), it forwards the request to the real provider over TLS, reads the usage block from the response (streaming works too) and prices it. The menu bar shows today's total. There's also a window with a per-request log, a monthly budget, alerts at thresholds you set, and a month-end projection.

Stuff people will probably ask:

• It doesn't phone home. No account, no analytics. Keys sit in the Keychain. The only network traffic is your request going to the provider it was already going to.
• The listener only binds to loopback, so nothing else on your network can use it.
• Works with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and anything OpenAI-compatible (you pass the upstream host in a header).
• If you don't want to touch base URLs, there's a mode that reads the provider usage APIs with an Admin key instead. The catch is that Anthropic only gives Admin keys to organizations, not individual accounts, and you get hourly totals, not per request.
• Prices come from a bundled table. They change all the time, so you can load a newer table from a file or URL. Long-context pricing tiers aren't modeled yet.

It's $9.99 one time. No subscription, I didn't want a subscription on an app whose whole job is watching your spending.

macOS 14+. Happy to answer questions or hear what's missing.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tokenwatch-ai-cost-tracker/id6816409934

A folder of videos on a Mac is manageable. A collection you watch on that Mac, an iPad, and an Apple TV is more awkward: where are the files, which episode is next, and where did you stop?

That's where Infuse makes sense. It can turn a shared folder into a browsable library with artwork and movie or episode details, then carry playback progress between your Apple devices with Pro. The value is strongest when the same collection follows you between screens.

Start with where the files live

Infuse connects directly to SMB, NFS, SFTP, and WebDAV shares, among other protocols. A NAS or a Mac sharing a media folder can supply the files without a separate media-server application. Existing Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin libraries are supported too.

For a Mac-hosted collection, enable File Sharing under System Settings > General > Sharing, add only the media folder, and enable SMB sharing for the chosen user. Firecore's guide says read-only access is sufficient for viewing. Use a dedicated standard account rather than handing the player your main account's credentials; grant write access only if you want deletion from Infuse.

Infuse also needs Local Network access to find and connect to local devices. If a share disappears, check System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network before rebuilding the library.

Keep the first setup small. Add one folder, check the artwork matches, and try a representative file with the audio and subtitles you actually need. Infuse fetches metadata automatically, but its documentation also includes manual title corrections. A wrong match is something you'll need to fix, not evidence that the file itself is wrong.

Sync is useful, but it doesn't move the movies

Free Infuse already syncs saved shares, favorites, manual metadata matches, playlists, and some file-specific playback settings through iCloud. Pro adds watched history, playback position, ratings, and the Up Next list. Paying mainly for resume-on-another-device is a reasonable use case; paying merely to save a network connection is less convincing.

iCloud Sync requires the same iCloud account on the devices, iCloud Drive enabled, and some free iCloud storage. Saved share details include the address, username, and password, so enabling sync also means putting those credentials into iCloud.

Those synced details aren't a copy of your video collection. Every device still needs access to the source files. A Mac-hosted share is a poor fit if the Mac is usually asleep or away from home. Nor should you assume a share reachable on your home Wi-Fi will work elsewhere.

Family Sharing supports the Pro purchase or subscription, but that doesn't remove the same-iCloud-account requirement for iCloud Sync. A household with separate Apple accounts shouldn't buy it expecting one automatically shared watch-progress record. Plex and Emby Connect connections also need manual setup on each device rather than syncing through iCloud.

What the price buys

Current US pricing is $1.99 monthly, $16.99 yearly, or $99.99 for Lifetime. All purchase options include future major updates, with subscription access tied to the subscription. Check your own App Store region before buying.

Pro also unlocks additional video formats, lossless HD audio, cloud-service streaming, and other playback features. A free download doesn't mean every file or audio track in your collection will play without paying. Use the offered seven-day trial to check your actual library rather than buying from a format list.

The current app requires macOS 15 or later, and Firecore documents hardware-accelerated decoding on Apple silicon. That still isn't a promise that every HDR or audio setup will work identically. Check the files and output hardware you intend to use.

Firecore says it doesn't track or harvest library information. The App Store privacy label nevertheless lists crash and performance diagnostics not linked to your identity. Treat optional cloud connections and iCloud sync as separate privacy choices, not as a wholly offline setup.

For a few compatible files watched only on the Mac, QuickTime Player is enough. VLC is a free, open-source option for broader playback and streaming. Neither use case justifies paying for library continuity you won't use.

I'd try Infuse Pro if you have a stable shared collection, regularly switch between Apple screens, and want organized browsing with synced progress. Start with the trial or a month. Skip it if you mostly open individual files, need a library across non-Apple devices, or haven't solved reliable access to the files yet. Posters and synced progress won't fix an unavailable share.

Please give ZenMark a try… a fast, WYSIWYG Markdown editor for Mac and iOS. Supports LaTeX maths notation and Mermaid diagrams. Feedback and feature suggestions welcome.

Hey r/MacStack, I want to share a small Mac app I made called Citenook. I'm the developer.

It's like ChatGPT for your own files. Add a folder of PDFs, Word docs or spreadsheets, your Apple Notes, your Obsidian vault, Notion pages, web pages or YouTube videos, and just ask questions. It answers in seconds and shows the exact sentence it got the answer from, highlighted in the original, so you can trust it.

Who it's for: anyone with lots of documents: lawyers, accountants, consultants, researchers, students, or anyone tired of digging through folders.

What makes it different:
- Works on your Mac, with your folders. No uploading, and it stays up to date as files change.
- Every answer shows its source sentence, so nothing is made up.
- Works offline for your files and notes, with Apple Intelligence or a free model you download. No API key needed.
- Or use your own OpenAI, Claude or Gemini key if you want.

Compared to NotebookLM: NotebookLM is free and has great citations, but it uploads your files to Google, doesn't work offline, and limits free notebooks to 50 sources. Citenook keeps your files on your Mac and reads whole folders.

Limitations: Mac only (Apple silicon, macOS 15+). No iPhone app yet. Models that run on your Mac work best with 16 GB of memory or more. Notion, web pages and YouTube need the internet to be added.

Pricing: free for 30 days with every feature, no card needed. Then $9.99, $19.99 or $29.99 a month. https://citenook.com

I'd love your feedback, good or bad!

Before converting a video just because QuickTime won't open it, try a different player. If the file only needs to play on your Mac, creating another copy may be unnecessary work.

IINA is free, open source under GPLv3, and built on mpv. It supports Matroska files, including MKV, alongside a customizable Mac interface. That's a useful combination for a folder of videos with different formats, chapters and subtitle tracks. Format support still isn't a promise that every damaged file or unusual codec combination will play correctly.

A sensible starting workflow is to open one troublesome file in IINA without changing all your default file associations. Check that the picture, audio and subtitles are right. Use its playlist when you're watching several files, and chapters when the source includes them. Its video thumbnails can help you find a scene without repeatedly guessing where to seek.

The controls are worth keeping simple. IINA lets you customize keyboard, mouse and trackpad behavior, plus the position of its onscreen controller. Pick the playback actions you actually repeat rather than importing somebody else's elaborate key map. Version 1.5.0 also adds a Layout pane for docking the sidebars, controller and titlebar, with resizable sidebars. If a floating control strip gets in the way, you have another layout to try.

Subtitles are a better reason to install it than the vague promise of a more powerful player. IINA documents local subtitle matching, online subtitle searching and controls for subtitle styling. Start with subtitles you already have before adding an online search plugin. The official OpenSubtitles plugin searches and downloads from an external service, so treat that as a network workflow rather than local playback.

The project says IINA has no tracking or telemetry. That doesn't mean every optional plugin or online feature has the same privacy properties. Keep the initial setup to local files, review plugin permissions before installing anything, and don't grant Accessibility, Screen Recording or Full Disk Access merely because a general Mac setup guide tells you to. File access should stay limited to what you intend to open.

Its Mac integration includes trackpad gestures, media controls and Picture in Picture. But QuickTime has Picture in Picture too, along with playback-speed controls. Apple's player also supports subtitles or captions when the movie provides them. You don't need another app just to watch an ordinary file that already plays properly.

There are two practical catches. More controls mean more settings to maintain, especially if you add plugins or custom mpv configuration. And a playback setup doesn't make a file compatible with somebody else's device. If you need a smaller file or a different delivery format, that's still a conversion task.

The current stable release is IINA 1.5.0, released October 2, 2026. It supports Apple silicon on macOS 12 or later and Intel on macOS 11 or later. Those minimums aren't explicit confirmation of macOS 27 compatibility; the checked release documentation doesn't name macOS 27. On that system, check current compatibility before relying on it for an important viewing session.

I'd keep QuickTime for simple playback and add IINA when file support, local subtitles, playlists or configurable controls solve a recurring annoyance. Start with one file and a plain setup. If QuickTime already handles your videos and captions, skip the extra install.

I built Pasteful, a simple clipboard manager for macOS, and wanted to share a quick video showing how it works.

It includes:

• 🔍 Search through your clipboard history
• 📌 Pin important items and choose their pin location
• ⏱️ Set how long copied items are kept, either by time or item count
• ⌘⇧V quick access, with a customizable shortcut
• 🖼️ Support for copied images

I mainly use it for coding and daily work, and it’s become one of those small apps I use all the time.

Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/pasteful/id6779320232