Mac apps

Tired of renting your software? The 27-App Lifetime Mac Bundle gives you permanent licenses to nearly every type of tool a Mac user could want, from design and productivity to developer tools and file utilities, with no monthly fees attached.

Built by indie developer Yanis Zafiropulos, who has been making Mac software since 2010, the bundle contains 27 native macOS apps that skip the bloat you would get from bigger, subscription-based suites.

Every app comes with free updates through its next major version and two Mac activations per app, so you can run the whole collection on a second machine too. And you can get the entire 27-App Lifetime Mac Bundle for just $29.99 (regularly $390).

PDFs are arguably one of the most-used document formats by professionals, students and casual users alike. However, while they might be the best way to transmit documents, they’re not entirely easy to work with unless you own a capable PDF editor for Mac like PDF Expert.

Fortunately, this app makes handling, organizing, annotating, merging and editing PDFs effortless. And you can get a lifetime license to this award-winning Mac app for just $56 with code JULY30 (regularly $139.99).

The Voibe dictation app for Mac lets you talk instead of typing. It’s fast, efficient and works inside any Mac app. Plus, since it works offline, it’s totally private.

It’s a voice-first way to work across your Mac, without relying on cloud processing or extra apps. And right now, a lifetime subscription to Voibe costs just $49.99 (MSRP $149).

MacMagic is the Swiss Army knife of Mac utilities: It can perform scores of optimization tasks, from clearing gigabytes of storage to batch processing hundreds of files.

A MacMagic lifetime upgrades license is currently on sale for just $22.98 with code MACSAVE.

Tenorshare’s PDNob Pro PDF Editor is faster, smarter PDF software. It combines AI-powered PDF chat tools, optical character recognition, conversion, signing, annotation, cloud storage and traditional PDF editing tools, all for one low price.

Lifetime access to PDNob Pro PDF Editor is currently on sale for just $49.99 (regularly $349.95).

If you want to create the best possible Keynote presentation, you should follow a few simple rules — and ape the style of the keynote GOAT, Steve Jobs.

He was the best in the business of hosting live press events. It’s no surprise that Apple’s Keynote app was literally made for him as the target audience, then later turned into a product for everyone else.

If you want your presentation to look as professional and polished as a Stevenote, here’s what you should do.

Ever been annoyed when someone sends you a PDF instead of a file you can edit? An all-in-one PDF editor like AcePDF Converter & Editor can help, and it doesn’t need to cost a fortune.

Lifetime licenses for the Mac PDF app are on sale for $24 with code PDF20 (regularly $99.99).

Plenty of third-party Mac app switchers try to improve the experience, but rcmd is my favorite because of its keyboard-driven approach. Now, with the recently released rcmd v3, the app evolves from a simple app switcher into a more powerful productivity tool, adding features like fuzzy search, workspace switching and more.

On the latest episode of the Cult of Mac podcast: Apple might go back to the iPhone future, thanks to some metallurgical magic that involves a special titanium alloy.

We discuss the pros, the cons and the possible timeline for such a retro upgrade.

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• Another recent Apple rumor also sounds like a bit of a flashback: The Apple Watch Ultra 4 might get high-blood-pressure alerts. Um, doesn’t it already do that? Yes, but …
• As per tradition, Apple reveals new accessibility features coming in the next version of iOS. And, as always, they sound pretty incredible.
• Special guest Niléane shows off TinyStart, a “tiny launcher for macOS,
fast and focused on the essentials.”

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video version, embedded below.

AI is changing the kind of apps you can run on a Mac. From voice-first writing tools to meeting assistants and smarter file management, these new AI apps can save hours every week.

After months of testing, these are the AI apps that earned a permanent spot in my workflow.

Perplexity’s new Mac app brings its Personal Computer AI agent to a much wider audience, expanding access beyond the group of high-level subscribers who first gained entry to the service in April, the company said Thursday.

You can get Microsoft Office 2024 Home & Business and Windows 11 Pro together for just $104.99, a 76% savings off the $448.99 combined value.

You can convert any bitmap image — think logos, clip art and scanned sketches — into clean, scalable vector graphics with Super Vectorizer Pro. It’s great for rescuing old artwork from the digital trash heap so it can be used for modern pursuits.

A lifetime license to the app, available for Mac and Windows, is on sale now for just $19.99 (MSRP $120).

Whether you’re growing a small business or running an established company, you can benefit from organized, efficient financial management. If you want to track your income, expenses and more with greater ease, consider investing in Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024.

This app makes finance tracking easier on your Mac. And that will make tax time a million times easier when it comes around. With this new price drop, you can save on a lifetime subscription to Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus 2024. Get the Mac version for only $224.97 (regularly $699). Or snag the Windows version for just $194.97.

With MeetScribe, your work doesn’t start when the meeting ends. The AI meeting assistant automatically and accurately generates clean notes, pithy summaries, and action items so you don’t need to do the dirty work.

And right now, you can secure lifetime access to MeetScribe for just $67. That’s an 88% discount off the regular price of $584.

If your Mac feels slower or more cluttered than it used to, the Dr.Buho Mac Utility Lifetime Bundle gives you the tools you need to clean, organize and optimize your computer — without digging into the Settings app.

Cult of Mac Deals usually sells this all-in-one Mac utility bundle for a one-time payment of just $29.99 (MSRP $241.96). But with code MARCH15, you can drop the price to just $25.50. BTW, you can use that same discount code to save an additional 15% on many items in the Cult of Mac Deals store through March 29.

Stuck using an older version of Microsoft Office? This offer gets you a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021 for Mac for just $52.97 with code MARCH15. With a low one-time payment, you can bid farewell to Microsoft 365’s pesky recurring subscription fees. You’ll never need to pay again for Microsoft’s widely used software for work and school.

And if you need Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows, you can secure a lifetime license for even less: just $35.97 using the same code. (Note: You also can use code MARCH15 to save 15% on almost every item in the Cult of Mac Deals store through March 29.)

It’s no longer true that Macs are immune to online threats. Moonlock, a new app from MacPaw, gives Apple users Mac-first cybersecurity — with malware protection, built-in VPN, privacy tools and clear guidance — all for just $29.99 a year.

PDF Agile Premium is an all-in-one PDF editor that lets you edit, convert, annotate and secure PDFs — and a lifetime license costs just $39.99 right now.

I switch between apps on my Mac dozens of times every hour. For years, Command-Tab seemed good enough, but then I started using rcmd, a fantastic alternative app switcher for Mac.

This nifty piece of software completely changed how I move between apps on my Mac. It made the process faster, more precise, and far less disruptive to my workflow.

February 19, 1990: Adobe Systems ships the first commercial version of its soon-to-be-iconic Photoshop photo editing software. The Photoshop launch, exclusively on the Macintosh, gives users powerful new tools for tweaking digital images.

The groundbreaking software debuts for Mac System 6.0.3. Priced at $895, Photoshop will quickly become the standard editing tool for graphics professionals. Whether they work for advertising agencies, news organizations — or, frankly, anywhere else — Photoshop users take advantage of the program’s digital darkroom tools to seamlessly manipulate images.

Photography will never be the same.

The way I type on my Mac hasn’t changed in years. But then, I started using Wispr Flow — an AI-powered voice-to-text app for Mac. It has reshaped how I write on my Mac, making me more efficient and faster.
It’s not just about typing faster. Using your voice for typing also feels more natural in many cases. Here’s how Wispr Flow has changed how I write on my Mac, and why I can’t go back. 

If you’ve used iPhones and digital cameras for years, chances are older images in your photo library don’t quite hold up anymore — but an image upscaler like Aiarty Image Enhancer can help.
Early iPhone shots, low-light photos, scanned prints and older, low-resolution images often look soft, grainy or blurry on today’s large, high-resolution displays. Aiarty Image Enhancer, available for Mac and PC, is designed to solve exactly those problems.
It’s a focused, AI-powered photo enhancement application that prioritizes speed, simplicity and natural-looking results — without subscriptions or complicated editing tools. And for a limited time, you can get a great deal on it.

The Blip file transfer app is a delightful utility that lets you move extremely large files and folders quickly across the internet — directly from your computer to somebody else’s.
With Blip, there’s no middleman uploading to and downloading the file from a cloud, and no pesky web app to sign into. It’s like beaming your files onto someone else’s computer.
It’s the easiest, most straightforward way to send someone large folders of files or complex projects from your Mac, iPhone, PC or Android device. And best of all, it’s totally free and secure. You can get it from blip.net.

If you work on a Mac, these six useful apps can help you get that work done faster. And you don’t need to take time to download them or figure out if they’re worth the price — you already have these apps on your computer.

Stickies can help you stay organized with digital Post-It notes. Digital Color Meter is an essential tool for graphic design. Dictionary is the fastest way to look up words and synonyms. Screen Sharing can remotely control other computers on your network. Grapher is a highly advanced plotting tool. And finally, Screenshot is an easy-to-use interface for taking screenshots and screen recordings.

I’ll walk you through how to use these useful Mac apps that you probably haven’t heard of.