The Apple App Review Site

    Apps with Mac only versions

  • arq

    Video Conversion

    Movavi VC 23

    Full Review

    Convert movies, music or photos to any format for any device; compress videos, cut and trim footage, find and add subtitles and more.

    £51.95 (lifetime)

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    MacOS Maintenance

    CleanMyMac X

    Full Review

    Clean up/remove all your (Mac) junk; detect/remove threats (malware etc); full app uninstall

    $39.95 pa

  • arq

    Backup

    Arq

    Screens

    Available as a service (with cloud storage included) or a stand alone app*. The latter version enables you to use any spare cloud storage from Box, Dropbox, OneDrive etc.

    $*49.99

  • arq

    Code Editor

    Nova

    Screens

    The perfect code editor and obviously designed by a group of experienced coders! Has everything built-in for easy and consistent coding..

    $99.00

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    File Transfer

    Transmit

    Screens

    The go-to FTP and file transfer app for me. Connects to local resources and all the major cloud services as well as your FTP and web sites.

    $45.00

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    Media Conversion

    Wondershare Uniconverter

    Screens

    Converts between different video and different audio formats (over 1,000 in total). Includes video editing and compression utilities. Big discount on purchase for students

    $69.95

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    Comparison

    Kaleidoscope

    Screens

    This review is for version 3; a review of version 5 will be published shortly.

    $149.99

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  • Copyright © Jeff Maynard - All Rights Reserved

About


This site was created by Jeff Maynard to review the best-in-class of a variety of apps for Apple devices (Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod, TV, Watch).

In each category I have reviewed a number of apps (anything from two to ten) and selected the one I think is best - this is the one reviewed.

My process is simple (but comprehensive): use each app for weeks in 'normal' working and doing every day stuff. In this way I can better understand the nuances of use and don't rely on the PR stuff from the app developer.

I do not review apps I am not planning to keep...
Help


This Apple app review site does not really need a Help section. From the Home page choose the category of app you are interested in (Mac, iPadOS, iOS - iPadOS, iOS only - Mac only) and read the details of the app in which you are interested.

You can click on the link following to see screenshots or click on the brief description to see more details.

See the About tab for details of how the apps are chosen and reviewed.
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Transmit - File Transfer - more info


This is a seriously flexible app but, at the same time, very easy to use.

Connect with one tap to your own FTP sites or to your account on Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, MS One Drive or any site using FTP, SFTP, WebDAV or S3 (so Amazon...).

Recent updates to version 5 have focused on a combination of added functionality and ease-of-use with the option of 2FA for added security.

Transmit can connect to any device on your local network including RAID and other computers - this flexibility was behind the developers decision to call Transmit a File Transfer app rather than a simple FTP client.

Transmit can also be used to sync between local and remote, remote and remote, or local and local - a very flexible tool for managing paired storage. Transmit integrates well with Mac Finder allowing you to drag and drop between a Finder window and a Transmit window.

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See all your Apple Music playlists and their content

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Select the track or tracks for conversion

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Completed conversions are listed and can be found by clicking

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Easy access to Settings and Options

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TuneFab - more info
TuneFab - more info


Apple Music

When you subscribe to Apple Music you can stream or download some or all of your selected tracks as long as your subscription is valid and provided you use an Apple device or Apple authenticated software.

Protection built-in

However, the DRM (Digital Rights Management) built in to each track prevents it being played on a non-Apple device or using non-authorised software; DRM also prevents you playing any track if you stop paying your Apple Music subscription..

TuneFab Apple Music converter removes the DRM from as many Apple Music tracks as you wish - this enables you to continue to enjoy them after your Apple Music subscription finishes.

Where is my Apple Music?

Launching TuneFab will automatically find all your Apple Music tracks and the playlists into which you have organised them (see screenshot of Library).

Output format

TuneFab is a very flexible converter taking in not just music tracks but audiobooks and podcasts as well and letting you select from many output formats (MP3, AC3, M4A, WAV, M4R, FLAC, MKA, AU, AC3 and more) and any and all ID3 tags and other metadata is preserved in the DRM-free converted file (this includes any cover art associated with each track).

Music Metadata

To add to this flexibility, TuneFab includes options to change selected metadata - the 'Library' screenshot shows some of the options including your choice of output format.

Choice of conversion speed

TuneFab users with good performing Macs can elect to run conversions at 5x processing speed rather than the default 1x; this enables much more rapid conversion of a very large music collections.

What is DRM?

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is the use of technology to control and manage access to copyrighted material; DRM also means taking control of digital content away from the person who possesses it and handing it to a computer program.

Why bother?

With a music library containing over 75 million songs in lossless quality, Apple Music is increasingly popular. But, not all devices can support the Apple Music app or recognise the format used by Apple Music (.m4p). To make your Apple Music songs playable across all your music devices and take full advantage of Apple Music subscription, you need TrueFab. Using TuneFab to convert your Apple Music tracks makes them playable on any device using any audio playing software.

Not an Apple user?

TuneFab also offers software to remove DRM from Spotify, Audible and Amazon Music alongside a converter to remove DRM from Apple M4V video files.

Pricing Options

The price quoted on the introduction page ($14.99 plus local tax) is for a single month of use; TuneFab also offer a yearly and a lifetime plan.
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Movavi Video Convertor - more info


Movavi video converter supports all popular video and audio formats, including, inter alia, MOV, MP4, MKV, AVI, WMV, GIF, VOB, DVD, RAW, MP3 for the latest devices from top manufacturers including Apple (iPad, iPhone, MacBook, MacBook Pro, etc.), Samsung, Sony, Xiaomi, Huawei, and more.

Conversion speed tests prove this is one of the fastest Mac converters on the market (with the SuperSpeed mode activated). Impressive speed compared with other convertors.

The wide range of features includes: convert video to audio; convert images to your chosen format; upscale home made videos for greater resolution; compress videos for use on smaller devices; select and extract subtitles.

An excellent choice for all your media conversion requirements.
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Arq Backup - more info


You can subscribe to Arq backup as a service with included cloud storage. This is, without doubt, the simplest and easiest version to set up for the non-technical.

However, the service option does involve an ongoing (monthly or annual) cost. But, it is important to ensure that at least one copy of your backup data is held off-line (no matter how many local copies you have).

A great way of achieving this is to use Arq to backup to the likes of Box or Dropbox particularly if you are using the free space offered (all of the cloud guys seem to offer anything from 2 Gb up without charge).
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Nova code editor - more info


From the makers of well-know Coda, Nova takes coding to a whole new level.

The starting point is a first class text editor (with built-in support for CoffeeScript, CSS, Diff, ERB, Haml, HTML, INI, JavaScript, JSON, JSX, Less, Lua, Markdown, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Sass, SCSS, Smarty, SQL, TSX, TypeScript, XML, and YAML).

Multiple options enable you to set the interface in any way you want then add workflow extensions to make your project building easy and quick.

Nova's sidebar is packed with power. A local file browser, remote file browser, Find (and Replace) across your project's files, a symbol navigator, text clips. Git. Task reports. Issues. And file tracking and publishing...

The sidebar can be split to show multiple tools at once, on the left and/or right side of your editor. You can drag your favourite tools into the sidebar dock at the top for one-click access as you develop your project.

Best advice for those trying Nov: browse and read the Nova Library for a truly awesome lsit of options, tools and coding aids.
Keyboard Maestro - more info


The perfect tool for power users.

Keyboard Maestro can help you fill in web forms, visit commonly read pages, download reports or bank statements, format web pages, and generally make browsing the web more efficient..

With so many possible actions that you can combine together, including flow control, conditions and looping actions, you can automate almost any task, from the trivial to very complex multi-application reporting systems..
Wondershare media convertor - more info


The perfect media convertor for any Apple environment.

Downloaded .MKV files are readily converted to Apple-compatible versions with 'Apple TV' as one of the (many) target output formats.

Similarly for .FLAC audio files which can be converted to any of the popular audio formats (including MP4 for Apple devices).

Batch conversion is available for any pair of formats.

Video conversions can include compression when storage space on a device is at a premium; subtitles can be removed during any conversion.

As an added bonus this app will record your full screen activity for games or selected screen areas for the likes of presentations.
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Kaleidoscope comparator - more info


Keeping two folders in sync, for whatever reason, can be tedious and often results in simply copying one to the other - but this can be time consuming.

Keeping two documents or sections of two documents in sync can be equally difficult; and if the reason is just to understand the differences, copying and overwriting is the wrong solution.

This is where Kaleidoscope saves the day; drag two folders into the twin parts of teh Kaleidoscope interface and any differences (in both directions) are immediately shown. With just two clicks (choose the direction and start) the folders are brought to an equal state. Pairs of documents can be compared in much the same way and all or selected parts simply and quickly made equal.
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Yate Music tagger - more info


Yate is great for simple tagging tasks: using a standard naming convention (such as 'artist - title') and selecting the genres you want each track to appear in (tracks can have multiple genres such as 'easy listening, jazz, soul')

But Yate includes an amazing list of other features enabling just about any media tag to be set or updated; you can also add your own custom fields.

You can sync your settings and preferences between multiple Macs.

The full list of features runs to more than 100 items and is best viewed on the Yate support site.