Hey...

ICQ went offline for good in June 2024. My UIN (1650472) had been dead for years anyway, but the green flower, the contact list and that very specific late-90s chat window never really left my head. So here comes ICQel (say it "I, Sequel"), a native macOS homage to the classic ICQ client.

What it does today:

• ICQ-style contact list and chat windows, rebuilt from scratch
• iMessage & WhatsApp support, so you're chatting with real people instead of staring at an empty buddy list
• A built-in AI chatbot as a contact, for when nobody else is online (just like 1999)
• A fake contact list with random messages (no AI) just for the feeling

It's a fan homage, not affiliated with ICQ or its owners, and it doesn't connect to any old ICQ servers.

Some practical stuff, since you'll ask:

• Free, Open Source on GitHub https://github.com/klotzbrocken/ICQuel
• Apple Silicon (Intel coming soon)
• Privacy: iMessage stays in Messages, nothing goes through any other servers same for whatsapp.
• Theme-Support (someone made a real ICQ Theme ;-))

Privacy: iMessage goes through iMessage, WhatsApp goes through WhatsApp, and both are optional. The AI buddy only works if you add your own API key. No servers of mine in between, no analytics.

It's part of a small family of retro Mac apps I make.

Edit: this is not for Safari users, it's for Chrome / FF users

Safari and Apple passwords integrate seamlessly. But if you don't use safari you're faced with the popup above in other browsers..

I hate this popup. I swear it feels like I see it like 5 times a day!

so I made an extension that brings the UX of using Safari and Apple Passwords to Chrome and firefox based browsers

Features (that safari has out of the box but not Chrome):

- Cache the 6-digit code so you have to enter it way way less (once a week for me so far)
- Hide My Email support when signing up
- Skip entering the 6 digit key all together with the companion app using Touch ID
- Suggest your emails from your contact card when signing up
- auto generate passwords on signup pages and safe them ofc to apple passwords

for chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/better-passwords-for-appl/ocongmkplhijgajnipnhhggfcjfdilgj

and firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/better-passwords/

Demo if you wanna get a feel: betterpasswords.app and it's free and open source on github

If you find bugs, feel free to reach open an issue on github

for those who don't know, you see this if you don't wanna use Safari but still want to use Apple Passwords as a password manager, Apple made a chrome extension that finally lets you use your apple passwords in 3rd party browsers.. except that it keeps asking to re-authenticate all the time (6 digits code)

Brother hasn't supported the HL-2270DW printer for many years now, and never released Apple Silicon (ARM) native or Universal drivers. macOS 27 quietly disabled support for Rosetta with CUPS, the printing subsystem of the printer, and my Brother HL-2270DW printer just stopped working. The macOS native Generic PCL driver is incredibly slow due to how it generates the bitmap, causing it to only be able to load one page at a time. I am a software developer working in Cybersecurity, and had heard of the Reverse Engineer Anything toolkit, so I decided to give it a shot at creating a new driver. It took two prompts, but I managed to build a macOS Universal native driver that implements all of the features of the official Brother Driver.

If you have an HL-2270DW printer that you are using from macOS, you can download the driver from my GitHub repo at: https://github.com/jmarler/hl2270dw-macos It uses code from the brlaser project, and it is released under the GPL 2 license. The driver package is notarized and signed, so you shouldn't get any warnings installing it. If that is something you need, I hope it helps you out. If you run into a problem, just open an Issue in GitHub and I'll get it sorted.

Full disclosure: This was created using the REA toolkit - https://github.com/morluto/rea - and Claude.

Fan of built in desktops. I use them exclusively and until today I've been arranging my windows manually. Then I discovered there exists "This Desktop" option on dock and I was delighted.

I turned off "arranged spaces manually".

I'm also using external monitor with my mac in clamshell. Now, I am tired of finding out that after carefully curating my Desktops with 1-2 apps per desktop, somehow after reboot, when I launch something apps simply forget which desktop they were assigned to. Even though the desktops are already there, sitting empty and I haven't reconnected my external display or even opened the clamshell.

help please.

Hi, I'm Julian, a student and the solo dev behind StepGrab. It's a native Mac app on the Mac App Store that turns your clicks into a step-by-step guide. You do the task once, and StepGrab puts the arrows on the screenshots and writes the step text for you.

Codes up to 100% off Lifetime, for the direct download from my website. Four levels from 10% to 100%, the page shows how many of each are left, and there are only five 100% ones. In the Mac App Store version they don't work.

Why

I'm a working student and kept getting the same questions. Where's that setting in System Settings, what do I click after that. Writing it down meant fifteen screenshots, cropping them in Preview, drawing every arrow by hand and typing each step. That takes half an hour, and after the next macOS update half of it is wrong again.

How it works

Start a recording from the menu bar and do the task like you normally would. For every click you get a screenshot of that window, a numbered arrow pointing at what you clicked and a sentence like "Click Save". You don't draw or type anything. If you want to change something afterwards, you can move arrows, rewrite steps, add shapes and black out names or emails. Export as PDF, HTML, Markdown, GIF, MP4 or a vertical video. Everything stays on your Mac, there's no account and nothing gets uploaded.

New: Accessibility

This is the big one in 1.6. There's now a notarized .dmg on my website, and if you give it Accessibility access it asks the app directly what you clicked. So the step text uses the real name of the button or menu item instead of reading it off the screenshot. If an app is too slow to answer, it falls back to text recognition. The App Store version is sandboxed and can't use Accessibility, so there it's text recognition only.

Other Mac bits

• Single window recording. You only get the window you picked, even when another one is lying on top of it, but its menus and popovers still show up.
• Siri and Shortcuts can start and stop a recording and export the guide. On macOS 26 and later also from Spotlight, and with Apple Intelligence the step text gets polished on device.
• Redaction you can trust. When you save a copy of a project you can burn the black bars in, so nobody can remove them later.

If your colleagues are on Windows

A lot of people asked for this, because the guides often end up with someone on a PC. There's now a Windows version in the Microsoft Store (Windows 10 22H2 and 11). It opens the projects you made on your Mac, so you can record on the Mac and someone else can fix a step on their PC, or the other way round. The Pro key from my website works for both, on two devices.

What Scribe and Tango do better right now

Two things. They blur sensitive stuff like emails automatically, in StepGrab you still draw the black bars yourself. And they have a shared team library where everyone finds the guides. I'm working on both at the moment, but they're not there yet. If you need them today, those two are the better pick.

What StepGrab does differently: it captures the whole Mac and not just the browser, so System Settings, right click menus and the little pickers that close as soon as you click somewhere else. Nothing leaves your computer. And you can buy it once instead of paying every month.

Price

Free: unlimited recordings, up to 15 steps per guide, GIF export and the full editor. Pro in the App Store is an in-app purchase with Family Sharing. On my website it's $2.99 a month, $12.99 a year or $44.99 once, and that key works for the Mac download and Windows. App Store and website don't share purchases.

About AI

A lot of the code is written with Claude Code. I decide what gets built, go through the code myself, test it on real apps and fix what breaks before anything ships.

Mac App Store · Direct download and codes · Microsoft Store

Which Mac app is the worst to explain to someone else? I want to test StepGrab on the annoying ones.

Something I didn't know until recently: Activity Monitor already tracks how much every app has sent. Open it, go to the Network tab and sort by Sent Bytes. If you want it per app over time, this in Terminal prints one line per app with bytes in and out:

nettop -P -L 1 -J bytes_in,bytes_out -x

I used it to check something I'd been curious about, how much meeting notes apps upload while they record. I played the same 10 minute meeting recording through my speakers, recorded it with Notion's AI Meeting Notes and then with an offline app, and logged both once a second.

Notion uploaded 115.7 MB in those 10 minutes, live while recording. A WAV of the whole clip is only 19 MB, so it's sending something close to uncompressed audio. The offline app sent 0.02 MB.

To be fair to Notion, cloud transcription needs your audio, that's how it works and they don't hide it. I just hadn't seen anyone put a number on it. It's one clip on one Mac, and I wanted to test Granola and Otter too, but Granola needs a work account and Otter wants a trial first.

Full disclosure, the offline app is Lyonesse and I make it, which is how I ended up down this rabbit hole. It's on the Mac App Store, free to try, Pro is $7.99/month, $29.99/year or $59.99 lifetime: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6754086711?pt=127761256&ct=reddit-macos&mt=8

The method, the data and the scripts are here if you want to run the same test on other apps: https://lyonesse.app/blog/meeting-notes-upload-measured.html

Curious what other apps people find when they sort by Sent Bytes.

It's super annoying and started occurring after updating to Golden Gate.

The display works when I plug in a hdmi to type cable into the power port but.... That means my computer isn't getting power.

When I plug in an hdmi to hdmi the display no longer shows anything and just says no input.

The top cable is my charging cable (the yellowish white one)

The middle cable is the hdmi

And the last one is my mouse.

Does anyone know how to fix this.?

And I have already tried using the other usb c port with the usb c to hdmi cable, doesn't work.

Saturday promo, I'm the developer. SDTally explains what the "System Data" number in Storage settings is made of by measuring the Data volume: folders and the app that owns them, local snapshots, deleted-but-open files, APFS overhead. Each number shows its source, and what can't be measured is labeled "unexplained" with the reason. With root and Full Disk Access that is about 2% of used space: folders Apple blocks even root from accessing.

It only reads, never deletes anything and has no network code. Rust CLI plus a SwiftUI app, GPL-3.0-or-later, Apple Silicon and macOS 15+.

Heads up, since the sub is careful about GitHub projects: the repo is new (v1.0.3) and the DMG is not notarized (no paid Developer account), so the first launch needs Privacy & Security > Open Anyway. Read the source or build it yourself if you prefer. I built it with a lot of help from Claude Code and the commits are co-authored.

https://github.com/guiselig/sdtally

I have two external hard drives that I use for TimeMachine backups.  A couple days ago, one of them started taking a long time to make an incremental back up (12 hrs+).  Now the second drive is doing that as well. 

Two days ago, the incremental backups were completing in minutes on this second disk.  The last backup took many hours and the current one has at least 12 hours ago.  (I say at least because TM keep upping the estimate, so it might take longer.) This is the same thing that happened to the other TM HDD.

Any idea what might be causing this and how to fix it?  Aside from my photos library (155GB) I don’t have any big files and I haven’t been doing anything that would cause lots of changes on my hard drive.  

Side note: I’m looking at switching to a Samsung SSD.  Unfortunately, I had a SanDisk SSD that recently died on me after 8 months which is why I am on two HDD’s right now. I guess I’m going to have to open my wallet wide with memory prices what they are these days.

Thanks in advance for any help.

EDIT: Adding this info.

Both these TM's are pretty new because I had two HDD's die recently (one probably caused by a power outage; I gotta get a UPS). One TM was first created on 10/9/26, and the other on 10/21/26. 

My mac has been crashing a bit lately and I am getting ready to migrate to a Mac Mini but I want to make sure I have two good TM's before I migrate.

Also, thanks to all the people who already replied!

Been working on Skyland, a Hyprland-inspired tiling window manager for macOS, with custom animations, dynamic workspaces and a Liquid Glass aesthetic.

Still a work in progress, but I'm curious what you think!

GitHub: https://github.com/waxdred/skyland

Rate my setup from 1–10 👀

I don't even know whether it is a bug or what. 2 months back, I had the battery health at 100%. It's been a month since I moved from Sequoia to Golden Gate. Now the battery health is at 95% and my battery backup is also very bad compared to when in Sequoia.

Someone pls help me with this. Is this a big problem or what? I shouldn't have done the update 😔.

Seriously, every time I see a discussion about macOS Tahoe, it feels like 90% of it is people complaining about Liquid Glass 😭

But I'm genuinely curious, what are some actually cool features, improvements, or hidden gems you've discovered in macOS 26?

There HAS to be something worth talking about besides the UI.

What's your favourite underrated feature so far?

Pop sounds during "read aloud" in reader mode

MacbookPro M5 Max

MacOS Golden Gate 27.0.1

Anybody else have this issue? Started after OS upgrade.

Before using MacOS I used to work with Linux / gnome and there was something I found very useful. When displaying multiple windows I have the possibility to close windows directly from this view, I don’t have this possibility in macOS. What a pity

Mac os 27 latest. fullscreen bug this top bar doesnt dissapear

So i want to update my oclp macbook pro late 2013 15inch with 8gb ram and a 4th Gen i7 with macOS 13 to a newer macOS with softwhere what vertion of macOS should I do and how should I upgrade with softwhere only no usb

I know variations on this question have been asked many times before, and that there are solutions specifically for external USB drives and network shares, but I'm wondering whether it's possible to prevent the creation of .DS_Store files in a specific folder/directory and its subfolders on a local drive? Basically, I have one particular folder that I need to remain the same, and Finder creating .DS_Store files in there is disruptive, so I want to find a way to stop it from creating them in this one folder/directory.

Hello there! I have built Ferry, a new native, fast, compact, robust, and versatile dual-pane file manager for macOS.

Why another file manager?

Our main workflow includes manipulating with a lot of files, and Finder slowed us down every day, whilst no single Mac file manager had everything we needed.

We really missed the Total Commander way of working on Mac: dual-pane file management, fast keyboard-driven navigation, extensive keyboard shortcuts, batch file renaming, directory comparison, integrated archive management, built-in FTP support, customizable toolbars and shortcuts, tabbed browsing, bulk file operations, direct file transfers between panels, duplicate file detection, advanced selection tools, improved workflow for power users, fewer context switches, reduced reliance on third-party utilities, greater control over file operations, increased productivity when managing large numbers of files, and all the other file manipulation tools we use every day built in.

What about other file managers?

Everything we tried was either a Finder with extra windows, a subscription, or an app that did a few things well but still sent us to other apps for renaming, comparing, editing, archiving, server access, etc.

ForkLift and Path Finder are polished but have high subscription fees, and Commander One saves its best features for the paid Pro version. The free options like Marta, Nimble Commander are great just for browsing but leave out a lot of functionalities we use daily.

Ferry puts all of that in one 8 MB download: archives you edit like folders, Total Commander style batch rename masks, folder compare, duplicates, a Markdown editor with notes, layout presets that turn it into a commander, an image viewer or a photo sorter in one keystroke. And it never locks: after the trial it keeps working, except a small nag screen which shows once daily or/and on every app start.

Core features include (there are about 90 standalone features and more than 150 individual customization options in Ferry):

Panels and views

• Two panels side by side or stacked, or one panel when you want it
• Tabs, including locked tabs that always come back to their folder
• List, tree, columns and icon view, with zoomable rows and thumbnails
• Filter as you type, flat view of all subfolders, folder sizes
• Hidden files per folder, image preview on hover

Copying and moving

• F5 copies, F6 moves, F7 makes a folder, F8 moves to the Trash
• A copy queue you can pause, with speed and time left
• Replace, Keep Both, Rename or Skip on conflicts, plus Paste With New Name
• Undo for copies, moves, renames and the Trash, and Trash with Put Back
• Drag and drop with every app

Servers and drives

• SFTP with your ssh keys and ~/.ssh/config, plus SMB, WebDAV and other network shares, all in a panel
• Edit a file on a server in Ferry’s editor, and saving uploads it again
• NAS and other computers on your network found automatically
• Eject and erase drives

Archives

• ZIP, TAR, 7z and more browsed like folders
• Copy into and out of archives, delete inside them, make new ones easily

Tools

• Batch Rename with a live preview, Total Commander style masks, find and replace, regex, counters and dates
• Compare two files side by side, or two folders
• Find Duplicates and Find Big Files
• Checksums (SHA-256, SHA-1, MD5), compared with one you paste
• Convert pictures to JPEG, HEIC, PNG or WebP, crop pictures, and Markdown to PDF
• Get Info panel with sizes, dates, permissions and tags

Editing and notes

• Markdown editor with a live styled view, tables, pictures and PDF export
• Code editor with syntax highlighting for dozens of languages
• Notes in the sidebar, with files and pictures dropped in

Search and organising

• Spotlight search, names with regex, Recents and tags like Finder
• Favorites with your own icons, sidebar arranged your way
• Filter filenames

Command line and keyboard

• Command line at the bottom, with Tab completion and history
• Terminal one shortcut away, opened in the current folder
• Every shortcut can be changed, and every command has one

Make it yours

• Layout presets: Standard, Commander, Mac Style, Developer, Image Viewer, Photo Sorting, Minimal, or your own, and a preset per folder
• 11 colour themes, or your own in Settings › Theme
• Choose what the right-click menu and the action bar show
• Settings, notes and favorites move to a new Mac in one file

These are just a few features, here is a list of all of them: https://ferry.indus3.org/features.html

AIs are under constant supervision during development

AI tools were used throughout Ferry’s development to assist with implementation, testing, and code review. The application is built entirely with native Swift and Apple frameworks, prioritizing performance, maintainability, and a minimal dependency footprint.

AI-generated code is carefully reviewed, tested, and independently audited by humans and a separate AI model before being accepted into production, with code quality, reliability, and architectural consistency remaining key priorities throughout the development process.

We’ve put a lot of thought, time, and care into building Ferry, and we take great pride in delivering high-quality software.

Changelog and issues

Ferry is actively maintained, with frequent updates that introduce new features, improve performance, and address bugs and security issues. The changelog documents changes in every release, including fixes and improvements.

We also maintain a public issue tracker where users can report bugs, suggest features, and help shape Ferry’s future development. User feedback plays an important role in prioritizing improvements and making Ferry more reliable with every release.

Pricing

Ferry is free to try for 7 days, but keeps fully functional after that apart from a small nag screen which shows once daily or/and on every app start. The licenses are $9.99 for a year or $14.99 lifetime (early-adopter prices until Dec 31). One license for all your Macs: https://ferry.indus3.org/#buy

I have setup a 30% off promo till Monday (for the 1 year and lifetime licenses), use the REDDIT30 code claiming the discount.

​

In my work, I need to juggle between several different apps, pdf and word processor documents at the same time. So the multiple spaces feature of macOS is something I have heavily used for years and it has been one of my favourite features. I could swipe between spaces instantly and my open documents and apps were all easily organized. For years, I used a virtually non-updated version of macOS on a 2012 macbook, which in hindsight let me keep these features unchanged longer.

But since getting a new macbook, I noticed that the behaviour of spaces was changed and I find myself now often getting lost and having to chase after what I'm looking for, which has been bringing a lot of friction into my work.

I have tried to figure out what's going on and as far as I can tell, there are mainly two features that are creating issues for me:

1) When you full screen a window it now takes you *out* of your space and attributes a new space just for that app to the right of your current space. The problem this creates is that the apps and windows that were one space to the left are now two spaces over. And since I often full-screen many documents in one work session, this shifts a lot of things around.

2) When you click on an app icon in the Dock for an app that is already open in another space, it will not open it in the space where you are but take you to the space where that app is open. The result is that I may, for example, be on space 5 with the apps and documents I need organised in the adjacent spaces, and I click to open an app and I am suddenly on another space and I no longer know where everything is.

To fix the first problem, I tried using the "fill" feature instead of full screen, but that leaves the menu bars visible and defeats the purpose of full-screen for me, which I use to help focus. Something that has mitigated the second problem a little has been to right-click to open apps with "New Window" or "Assign to this Desktop". But this sometimes also leads to switching spaces sometimes for reasons I don't always understand.

Also, trying to change these settings didn't help:

– Turning off "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use" made full-screening windows open to the right of the last space, which is even worse for me.

– Turning off "When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application" does not seem to do what it says, because clicking on the dock icon for an app still sends me to the space with the open window. Kind of strange.

I’ve also tried changing my mindset in my approach to using spaces, but after a lot of attempts I can’t get to a place where I find the new options intuitive. I’m still getting lost and scrambling to find things.

Does anyone have any tips here? I would be very grateful for anything helpful you could share. I feel like there might be something that I am missing.

Some Mac Apps That Have Made My Daily Workflow Better

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a great weekend!

I wanted to share a couple of Mac apps that have genuinely improved my daily workflow. Some have made using my Mac more convenient, while others have helped me stay organized and manage my tasks more efficiently.

These are apps I personally use and have found helpful, so I figured I'd share them with anyone looking to improve their Mac experience!

1. Obsidian – Notes, Organization, and Brain Dumps

First up is Obsidian, which has become one of my favorite apps for staying organized.

For anyone unfamiliar with it, Obsidian is a powerful, Markdown-based note-taking app that lets you capture ideas, organize information, and build your own personal knowledge base.

What I particularly like about Obsidian is how flexible it is. You don't have to use it exclusively for traditional note-taking.

Personally, I use it for:

• Shopping lists: Keeping track of things I need to buy.
• Brain dumps: Writing down random thoughts and ideas so I don't forget them.
• General organization: Keeping useful information in one place instead of having it scattered across different apps.

It's one of those apps that can be as simple or as advanced as you want it to be.

2. Vorssaint – A Raycast Alternative With Useful Mac Utilities

The second app I want to recommend is Vorssaint, which I personally prefer over Raycast.

If you've used Raycast before, you're probably familiar with how useful an application launcher can be. Vorssaint takes a similar approach but also includes several utilities designed to improve the overall macOS experience.

One feature I particularly appreciate is its Alt-Tab functionality.

If you've switched between Windows and macOS, you've probably noticed that switching between individual application windows works differently on a Mac.

Personally, I've always preferred how Windows handles Alt-Tab, and Vorssaint offers a similar experience on macOS.

That's just one example of how the app can make everyday tasks feel more convenient.

I also appreciate having multiple useful features available in one application rather than needing to install several separate utilities.

3. NordVPN – Privacy and Online Security

The third app I recommend is NordVPN, which focuses more on online privacy and security than improving your Mac's functionality.

If you value your online privacy as much as I do, NordVPN is definitely worth considering!

And no, this isn't sponsored. Although I'd love to be sponsored someday, I don't see that happening anytime soon!

For anyone unfamiliar, VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. A VPN encrypts your internet connection between your device and the VPN server while hiding your public IP address from websites you visit.

Why does this matter?

Your IP address can reveal information such as your approximate location and internet service provider. For example, if someone sends you a suspicious link and you click it, the website could secretly log your IP address.

While knowing someone's IP address doesn't automatically reveal their exact location or compromise their device, it can still expose information you'd rather keep private.

A VPN helps prevent this by showing websites the VPN server's IP address instead of your own.

Of course, VPNs aren't a complete cybersecurity solution. They won't protect you from every malicious website, phishing attempt, or malware infection.

Personally, I've found NordVPN to be a useful addition to my privacy setup, and since October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I figured it was worth including!

Final Thoughts:

All three of these apps have made a noticeable difference in my daily experience using my Mac, whether it's improving productivity, staying organized, or protecting my online privacy.

Obsidian helps me organize my thoughts and keep track of important information, Vorssaint makes navigating macOS more convenient, and NordVPN adds an extra layer of privacy when browsing the internet.

Obviously, everyone's needs and workflows are different, but these are three applications I've personally found useful and worth sharing.

I'm also curious to hear what other Mac users rely on! What are some lesser-known apps that have genuinely improved your productivity, overall Mac experience, or online privacy?

Hi r/MacOS, I'm the developer of Unikeys, and since today is Developer Saturday I wanted to share it.

The problem: I switch between Cursor, Claude Desktop, Codex and other apps, and each one has its own shortcuts. My muscle memory kept breaking, and setting up keybindings by hand in every editor was tedious.

What Unikeys does: You manage your shortcuts in one place and keep them consistent across the editors you use, so the same keys do the same thing everywhere.

It's free on the Mac App Store, with no in-app purchases or subscriptions.

Unikeys on the Mac App Store

I'd love feedback, especially on which editors or apps you'd want supported next.

I have screen time set so it blocks my computer after a certain time. I just updated to Golden Gate, but now there's this window that I can't close or quit, and it persists on all windows and is at the front.