This year will long be remembered as the yr Windows PC Maker fight back . Qualcomm first kicked off the AI PC epoch with theSnapdragon X Elite , and then Intel responded with theLunar Lake chopine .
For the first meter nearly a decade , I ’ve found myself tempted to return to Windows . But there ’s still one problem : the app break .
While Windows now extend many of my preferent apps , there are a few of thebest Mac appsleft that I use every day that keep me from to the full espouse Windows .
PDF Expert
One of my preferred app Divine is Readdle , which do the popular Spark Mailbox desktop app . I formerly used Spark — until I get pay forSuperhuman . But I still apply one Readdle app every day : PDF Expert . As the name suggests , it provides expert dick to manipular PDFs .
It syncs across your iPad , iPhone , and Mac so you may use economise signatures on any machine . This means it ’s easy to add up a signature using the Apple Pencil on an iPad and then employ the same signature on your iPhone or Mac . It ’s also effortless to edit the contents of a PDF , annotate it , or fill out a form .
I fill in and sign a plenty of PDFs , and for the most part , I do these on my iPhone faster than I can on a personal computer . However , there are times that I need a bigger display , and while I can expend Acrobat on a PC , it does n’t salve all my signatures and preferences , or have a cloud program library for me to access later . As far as usefulness goes , it ’s one of the first apps I installed on my Mac , and it ’s the one that I ’ve been miss the most on PCs .
Parcel
nearly follow is Parcel , another Apple - only app — although this one also has a vane user interface . just put , it ’s the good way to traverse any package , anywhere in the world . I ’ve tracked thousands of parcels since buying the app a 10 ago , and it ’s one of the reasonableness I also use an iPhone every twenty-four hour period .
For a PC drug user , the web interface provides many of the same features but misses the primal part . alternatively of needing to sail to a site , the native app for Mac brings all the selective information to you , allow for you to get notifications with updates , and offers desktop widgets . It ’s a very bare app , but it work near - cleanly , construct it the ideal scope resource .
While I understand why some Mac apps are n’t launched asWindows apps , I remember there ’s a strong chance here for the developer to expand its exploiter foundation .
There ’s also automatic trailing of your Amazon deliveries , which like a shot increases its ingathering for century of millions of possible customers . Unlike most apps , it does n’t expect many resource either .
Alfred
One of the other first thing I do on a novel Mac is disable Spotlight in favor ofAlfred . I ’ve been using Alfred for almost a ten , and it ’s an integral part of my workflow . It ’s the idealistic way to perform immediate actions , look up information , spread out an app , or even put my Mac to catch some Z’s , all with a couple of taps on the keyboard .
Alfred can be well described as a feature - rich version of Windows Search on a personal computer or Spotlight on the Mac . It features a dim-witted UI with a ton of options to customize the results or actions , and it take your utilization to secure that the shortcut recommendations it provide are the ace you use most frequently .
Unlike many apps , I know that there ’s no recurring complaint . It costs $ 10 as a one - off fee , and it ’s the best app you could buy . Imagine having cutoff to virtually everything on a Mac , and you have Alfred . This one will likely never fall to Windows , which is a shame .
MindNode
I wish to progress wanderer diagrams to help visualise complex relationships , peculiarly when I ’m evaluating a business and the various paths it can take . I ’ve tested legion different apps , but the one that I always come back to is MindNode .
There are great deal of alternatives for Windows , but given that I also habituate a Mac , an iPhone , and an iPad , I would much rather that MindNode was grouchy - platform . This is particularly true for the iPad and Mac desegregation , as I often ramp up a mind map on the Mac and then edit it on the go on the iPad .
MindNodeisn’t the wanton app to utilize , and there are a lot of alternatives . Many of these may be better in some manner , specially as MindNode has switch to an one-year subscription model . That enounce , it ’s still my platform of choice for building these complex diagram .
Final Cut Pro
I saved the sound for last ; I ’m so indue in the Mac ecosystem that I use Final Cut Pro X for edit out videos . Crucially , while alternatives exist for Windows — like DaVinci Resolve or Adobe Premiere Pro — my Final Cut Pro library contains thousands of motion graphics , guide , and fonts that I would want to rebuy for Windows .
Both of those syllabus are also available on the Mac , but as I ’ve never switched over , Final Cut Pro has me lock into using a Mac , at least for redaction videos while docked at my Mac . The consolidation of iCloud Drive is also beneficial on a Mac — although it is very beneficial on a personal computer — and features like AirDrop make it hard to give up a Mac , at least for part of my usage .
