These Are the Best Apps For Your New iMac or MacBook (Part 3)

The last part of our list, outlining the best macOS apps, will provide you with ways to make your life easier.  Whether it’s just a simplified way to copy and paste.  Or a better way to organize your calendar or contacts.  We (and Apple) have all the apps that you need.  As you’re nearing the end of these lists, be sure to let us know which of these you’ve tried and which ones you find work best.  Also, let us know if there are additional apps that we didn’t mention that you find helpful and what they do to help make your life easier.

XCode

This one’s about writing code rather than words. If you’re not overly thrilled with the apps you’re using, make one of your own. Xcode includes everything developers need to create great applications for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. Xcode provides developers a unified workflow for user interface design, coding, testing, and debugging. The Xcode IDE combined with the Swift programming language make developing apps easier and more fun than ever before.  This app is completely free and available for download in the App Store.

Soulver

Yes, we’ve added a calculator to this list, but bear with us, because Soulver is brilliant and more like writing with numbers. You jot down sums, with numbers in context, and they’re totaled up. Answers can be re-used as live tokens, leaving you with a live, reusable calculation. Geeky? A bit. Essential and hugely useful? Definitely.  As someone who isn’t great with numbers on a good day, this app definitely makes my life a bit easier.  Download the app from the App Store for $11.99.

Airmail 3

Yes, macOS does come with a built-in Mail client, but Airmail offers you something completely different. You can compose email in Markdown or HTML, and incoming messages can be marked as to-dos or snoozed until later if you don’t fancy dealing with them right away. It’ll also happily integrate with other apps, for example, to link emails to events in the likes of Fantastical – which is the next item on this list. Airmail is available in the App Store for $9.99.

Fantastical 2

Again, yes, macOS does come with a calendar app, but Fantastical is so much better than Apple’s.  The main window twins the calendar view with a scrolling list of events, and you can quickly see what’s coming up via a status menu.  Best of all, Fantastical uses natural language for new events, building them before your eyes as you enter new details.  Fantastical 2 is available for both macOS and iOS.  In the App Store, it will cost you $39.99. This will run you $2.99 if you want the iOS version.

Cardhop

No, I’m not knocking Apple, but again, there’s something to be said about the app Cardhop.  Cardhop takes the data and it puts it into a contacts app that you’ll actually want to use.  It actually sits in the menu bar, which makes it easy to search and add new contacts.  It provides handy action buttons when you want to give someone a call or send them a random emoji. Cardhop will cost you $14.99 in the App Store.

Pastebot

Pastebot brings the concept of (wait for it) copying and pasting out of the 90s and into the present day.  You get multiple clipboards, iCloud sync, custom pasteboard clippings and powerful filters.  It’s ideal for anyone who spends a lot of time doing any kind of HTML. I’m not convinced that this one is worth the $9.99, but you can find it in the App Store.

Typeeto

This one is kind of weird. Typeeto turns your Mac keyboard into a Bluetooth keyboard for any of your nearby iOS devices. So now you don’t need to buy that expensive iPad keyboard. Well, assuming you mostly type on your iPad when it’s near your Mac. (Still: this one is handy for cutting down on home office clutter, and typing on an iPhone without pecking at its tiny virtual keys.) If you are in need of an extra keyboard but don’t want to pay for one, you can get Typeeto for $9.99 in the App Store.

Moom

Although macOS will let you arrange windows in full-screen and Split View, that’s your lot when it comes to managing the things. Enter: Moom. With this utility installed, you can arrange windows using keyboard shortcuts, by dragging them to a display edge, or even by drawing a box on the screen to say where you want the current one to move.  This one also seems a bit pricey.  Moom is available for $13.99 in the App Store.