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Category: Productivity

Adam Engst 73 comments

Pages, Keynote, and Numbers 15 Go Freemium

Apple has folded Pages, Keynote, and Numbers into its Creator Studio subscription bundle, but the upgrade process has been confusing and the App Store ratings have cratered. Here’s what happened, what’s actually behind the paywall, and what you should do.

Adam Engst 75 comments

Apple Bundles Pro Apps into New Creator Studio Subscription

The new Apple Creator Studio subscription bundles Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, and more for $129 per year, but one-time purchases remain available for the Mac versions, so it’s worth doing the math before subscribing.

Adam Engst 33 comments

MacUpdater Shuts Down, Leaving Users Searching for Alternatives

CoreCode has stopped maintaining MacUpdater, the popular utility that tracked updates for over 100,000 Mac apps. If you relied on it to manage updates to all the apps on your Mac, here are some alternatives that might fill the gap.

Adam Engst 28 comments

Why I Use Multiple Screenshot Utilities on the Mac

For documentation work, one size doesn’t fit all. Adam Engst finds that ScreenFloat’s floating windows, export options with borders, and Shot Browser address editing and reuse challenges, while CleanShot X excels at combining screenshots. And he still falls back on macOS’s built-in screenshot utility for capturing menus with shadows.

Adam Engst 13 comments

ChatGPT Atlas Digitized Book Tables That Stymied Other OCR Tools

What started as a simple need—digitizing training pace tables for a workout app—became a test of OCR tools. ChatGPT Atlas won where others failed, autonomously processing five photos into perfect CSV data despite page curl and dense columns.

Adam Engst 21 comments

Does Deleting Voicemail Free Up iPhone Storage?

Voicemail messages are stored on your iPhone, but deleting them might not reduce the amount of space the Phone app uses. But investigating may reveal voicemails you want to preserve.

Joe Kissell 108 comments

Nisus Writer: Schrödinger’s Word Processor

The powerful word processor hasn’t seen an update in nearly a year, it has disappeared from the Mac App Store, and support responses have been slow or nonexistent for some time. There is writing on the wall, and it’s not looking good.

Adam Engst 30 comments

Support for FireWire Removed from macOS 26 Tahoe

macOS 26 Tahoe marks the end of an era as Apple removes support for FireWire, the high-speed connection technology that preceded today’s USB and Thunderbolt standards. Those who still rely on legacy FireWire devices through adapters will need to delay upgrades and make alternative plans.

Adam Engst 8 comments

Overlooked Details of the iPhone Air

While Apple’s iPhone Air announcement focused on its svelte design, several significant details flew under the radar. Adam Engst looks into the features and compromises that weren’t center stage during the announcement.

Adam Engst 11 comments

Atlassian Acquires The Browser Company for $610 Million

In an all-cash deal, Atlassian adds The Browser Company’s Arc and Dia to its suite of workplace tools. Hopefully, Atlassian will recognize the value in connecting Arc’s productivity features with Dia’s AI capabilities.

Adam Engst 62 comments

Do You Use It? The Apple Ecosystem

After a question arose in TidBITS Talk, we wondered just how invested TidBITS readers are in the Apple ecosystem. Does everyone use Apple devices whenever available, or do many of us mix our Apple devices with those from other manufacturers?

Adam Engst 32 comments

TickTick Provides a Focused Daily Task List and More

The cross-platform app TickTick does an excellent job of combining tasks and events into a single view, making it easy to see what you have on tap for the day. But it goes far beyond the basics, with a plethora of advanced features that answer most people’s “can it do this?” questions.

Adam Engst 12 comments

Dropbox Passwords Shutting Down; Migrate Soon

Dropbox Passwords users (if there are any) must export their credentials before 28 October 2025, when the service shuts down permanently. 1Password offers the easiest migration option, but moving elsewhere is also possible.

Adam Engst 9 comments

How to Keep the User Library Folder Visible in macOS

Apple hides the user’s Library folder by default, but an obscure method to show it permanently lets you avoid pressing Option to access it in the Finder’s Go menu.

Adam Engst 32 comments

Do You Use It? Revisiting Websites with Windows, Bookmarks, Tabs, and Pinned Tabs

Our recent tab management poll revealed that many readers don’t fully understand pinned tabs and thus aren’t taking advantage of them. Adam Engst takes a deep look at the history and goals of Web navigation to explain where pinned tabs came from, why many people don’t use them, and how usage varies by browser.