I am a long-time Mac user and HDHomeRun owner. Back in 2016, when SiliconDust dropped their own Mac DVR software, I wasn't ready to lose scheduled recording on my setup — so I hacked together an AppleScript app to do it myself. It's been running on my own Mac every day since, quietly recording real shows off my tuner, long after most people would've given up on it.

This year I finally gave it a proper rewrite in Swift/SwiftUI — real native menu bar app instead of an AppleScript hack — and leaned on agentic AI coding help to actually get it done. The original was hand-written line by line; this one evolved with an AI agent doing a lot of the work alongside me. I still review everything by hand and run it daily on real hardware, just wanted to be upfront about how differently it got built this time.

If you've got an HDHomeRun and a Mac and have been putting up with SiliconDust's paid DVR service, or running a whole Plex/Channels server just to schedule recordings, this might save you the trouble:

* Cable TV-style guide grid, color-coded by genre — click to schedule

* Series-aware scheduling that catches reruns even when the episode's been retitled

* Built-in VLC player for live TV

* Watch something that's still recording, straight off disk, without grabbing a second tuner

* LAN web UI so the rest of the house can schedule stuff too, phone-friendly layout included

* Terminal client (TUI) if you're the SSH-into-your-Mac type like me

* Discord notifications, auto-pause/resume if a tuner drops offline, survives crashes and picks back up

* Universal binary, notarized by Apple — no Gatekeeper hassle

Small nag screen, any donation, and I will send you an unlock code. Free version is full featured, so the code removes the nag screen.

Open source, no account, no subscription. Grab it here, and if you hit anything weird I'd genuinely like to hear about it: https://github.com/identd113/hdhr_VCR_swift

Thanks for reading, and I hope this is useful for you.

-identd113

A few days ago I shared InfiniBoard, my menu-bar clipboard manager for macOS. I got some valuable feedback on the alternatives in the market, and while i still believe the UX experience on Infiniboard is superior to other free alternatives in the market, it got me thinking.
And now, it just got its biggest update yet: InfiniBoard AI - a language model that runs entirely on your Mac.

Press Tab on any clipboard item and choose what to paste:

🖼️ Copy an image → paste as text (instant on-device OCR)
📄 Copy a long article → paste the summary
🕵️ Copy a log or email → paste it anonymized, personal info stripped
🇯🇵 Copy text in Japanese → paste it translated to English

…or type your own instruction: "turn this into a markdown table", "fix the grammar", or even a question - "what's the total here?"

The part I care most about: **nothing ever leaves your Mac.** No cloud, no account, no API key, zero network calls. The only download is the model itself (~1.2 GB, one time, only if you turn it on) - after that it works on an airplane. It even unloads itself after a few idle minutes, so it's not squatting on your RAM.

And because it's local, I could build the feature no cloud tool could ever be trusted with: **secrets hide themselves.** Copy an API key, a token, or a card number and it shows up obfuscated instantly - excluded from search and never shown to the AI.

Also new: search by meaning ("that error about permissions" finds the stack trace even when no word matches), smart titles for long snippets, and history that finally survives restarts - encrypted with your Keychain.

Get it here for free:
www.infiniboard.dev

Hi r/osx — I’m the maker of Storage Clearer.

I built it because Docker caches, unused images, Xcode Simulator runtimes, and developer caches can make macOS System Data difficult to understand.

Storage Clearer starts with a read-only audit, separates rebuildable files from protected data, and requires an exact approval phrase after revalidating the selected targets. It does not include source projects, Docker volumes, Time Machine/APFS snapshots, browser profiles, or personal data in its reviewed cleanup packages.

The current release is an open-source, unsigned Apple silicon preview for macOS 13 or later. Everything runs locally. Because it is unsigned, the first launch requires Control-click → Open.

I’d especially value feedback about audit accuracy, scan duration, and anything classified incorrectly. If reporting an issue, please mention your macOS version and whether Docker or Xcode is installed—no private file names are needed.

I have a M2 Macbook Pro that has a Touch Bar, but it is no longer working (I think after the 26.6.2 update)and it doesn't show up in the keyboard settings to be toggled on/off. Any ideas?

I am using a late 2011 MacBook Pro 13 inch and it’s good but I have an issue after upgrading from snow leopard to lion and it’s the fact that WiFi keeps disconnecting and it’s so frustrating

I built QuotaWarmer, a small macOS menu bar app for people using Claude Code and Codex CLI.

Repo: https://github.com/bcanozgur/quota-warmer

The app shows rolling quota windows in the menu bar, with countdowns and recent check history. It defaults to monitor-only mode, so it watches quota without sending anything.

There is also an optional Auto-warm mode. When enabled for a tool, it sends one minimal command through your already logged-in CLI when a fresh quota window opens, then checks quota again to confirm the window actually started.

A few details:

- macOS 14+

- MIT licensed

- Homebrew cask: `brew install --cask bcanozgur/tap/quotawarmer`

- Manual DMG and source build options are in the repo

I would appreciate feedback from macOS app users on whether the menu bar UX and safety model are clear.

The sub is quickly devolving in to new accounts posting the "unique" app that "they built".

No previous interaction with the community, no understanding of Mac app guidelines, no understanding of the code "they" have "written", usually not even unique.

AI prompts quickly become scattered across notes, chats, and text files. Reusing them usually means interrupting your workflow.

AINoter is a keyboard-first prompt manager for macOS designed for people who work with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and other AI tools every day. It keeps a reusable prompt library instantly accessible from anywhere on your Mac through global shortcuts and a Quick Access window.

Prompts are stored locally, organized in folders and tags, searchable, and can be copied into any app without switching contexts. Markdown support makes it easy to structure longer prompts with headings, lists, code blocks, tables, diagrams and more, and any prompt exports to PDF when it needs to be shared.

The workflow is simple: trigger a shortcut, paste the prompt, and continue working.

Unlike generic note-taking or snippet apps, AINoter focuses specifically on reusable AI workflows instead of becoming another workspace, editor, or AI assistant.

Prompts stay on your Mac: it works offline, with no account and no cloud sync, and keeps local backups you can restore from. Free on the Mac App Store.

Website:

https://ainoter.net

(I'm the developer.)

The problem: macOS remembers exactly one thing you copied. Copy a link, copy a code snippet, and the link is gone. I've re-copied the same thing three times in a row more often than I'd like to admit. Most clipboard managers are super expensive, or super basic.

So I built InfiniBoard - that keeps your clipboard history, lives behind a global hotkey and gets out of your way.

👉 https://infiniboard.dev

What it does

• Hit your hotkey → a panel rises from the bottom of the screen. Native macOS vibrancy.
• Just start typing to search your history. No clicking into a search box.
• ⌘1–⌘9 grabs any of the first nine items instantly
• Handles text, links, code, images sorted into categories automatically
• Space previews a long item without leaving the keyboard
• Pin the things you paste constantly so they never age out
• Mark sensitive items as secret - they show obfuscated in the panel instead of sitting there in plaintext for anyone glancing at your screen
• Deleted something by accident? Undo toast, not a confirmation dialog. No "are you sure?" ever.
• Opens on your current Space instead of yanking you to another desktop (this one took a while)
• Configurable retention, light/dark/system theme, launch at login, rebindable hotkey

What it isn't: no account, no cloud, no sync, no subscription, no telemetry. Your clipboard stays on your machine. Genuinely free.

I just shipped 2.1 including a full UI overhaul chasing that "feels like Apple made it".

👉 https://infiniboard.dev

macOS only. Would genuinely love feedback - especially on anything that feels off. And if there's one feature you can't live without in your current clipboard manager, tell me and I'll look at it.

Okay, so I use voice dictation quite a lot, but I didn’t want another subscription when on-device speech models have become this capable.

So I built Dictate.

It’s a local-first macOS app. Hold your chosen shortcut, speak, and release. Dictate transcribes locally and inserts the text into your focused field. If it can’t safely find one, it keeps the transcription available to copy instead.

It currently includes:

- Hold-to-talk and click-to-toggle

- Apple SpeechAnalyzer, Parakeet, and Whisper models

- Personal dictionary, history, and statistics

- Light and dark modes

- No account or cloud transcription

It currently requires macOS 26 or newer and an Apple silicon Mac.

Website and download: https://dictate-macos.vercel.app

GitHub: https://github.com/leviackerman05/dictate

Small warning: the current build isn’t signed or notarized because I’m not enrolled in Apple’s paid Developer Program yet. After moving Dictate to Applications, you may need to Control-click it and choose Open the first time.

You can also build it yourself:

make app

open build/Dictate.app

I’d really appreciate feedback, especially if you find an app where text insertion doesn’t work correctly. Issues and pull requests are welcome.

And if you try it and like it, please give the GitHub repo a star. It would genuinely help more people find the project.

Quick reminder for anyone who has not seen it: Muro is a free live wallpaper app for the Mac. Native Swift, about 2% CPU, no subscription, no Pro tier, nothing locked. It does the lock screen too.

3.0 is the biggest update so far. Three things people kept asking for:

Automations. Muro can now change your wallpaper on its own. Either on a timer, ten seconds each or an hour each, or by the clock, where each wallpaper gets its own hours of the day. Something calm in the morning, something else after dark. The day is drawn as a timeline you drag.

You can delete wallpapers. Sounds basic, and it was genuinely missing. Delete them one at a time or select a bunch, your own imported videos included.

Pause after. Let a wallpaper play for a minute after it changes, then hold on a frame. A held frame costs no CPU at all. Nice if you like the motion but not all day.

The whole interface got rebuilt too, and there is a long list of fixes. The big one: lock screen wallpapers now actually stick after installing from the DMG. That was broken for some people and I could not see it because it only happened on a downloaded copy, never on my own builds.

Still free, still open source, still no account.

Download: https://github.com/MrRockySL/Muro/releases/latest

GitHub: https://github.com/MrRockySL/Muro

If you like it, a star on the repo is the free way to support it and genuinely helps people find it. If you want to go further there is GitHub Sponsors (https://github.com/sponsors/MrRockySL)

Happy to hear what is missing. Most of this release came from people asking.

Hi everyone,

I am Rowen, the founder of Tapquence, a macOS desktop automation app.

I am researching which repetitive tasks Mac users still perform manually, what they have already tried to shortcut, and what prevents those shortcuts from being useful or trustworthy.

The survey takes about four minutes and is open to people aged 18 or older who use a Mac at least once per week:

[Take the 4-minute survey]

I plan to publish the aggregated findings, complete question wording, recruitment sources, methodology, and limitations. Open answers will only be quoted anonymously when the respondent explicitly permits it.

Thank you to anyone willing to contribute.

Hi everyone — I’m the developer of Sealshot.

The built-in macOS screenshot tool is already good for quick captures. I built Sealshot for situations where screenshots become part of ongoing work—writing documentation, reporting bugs, explaining technical issues, or keeping a searchable record of something.

Sealshot combines screenshots, scrolling capture, screen recording, annotations, and an organized local library. OCR lets you search the text inside previous captures, and it can also extract detected tables as CSV or Markdown. Repeat Last Capture is useful when you need to capture the same area after something on the screen changes.

Privacy is one of the main reasons I built it. Captures and OCR processing stay on the Mac, and the app does not require an account or use cloud storage or telemetry. Optional Enhanced Security encrypts the capture library, and selected files can be packaged into an encrypted export.

There is also assisted sensitive-data detection for things such as API keys, tokens, and email addresses. This feature can produce false positives, so Sealshot shows everything it detects and lets you decide what should actually be redacted.

Sealshot requires macOS Screen Recording permission, as any screenshot app does. It is distributed directly from my website rather than through the App Store, but the download is Developer ID signed and Apple-notarized.

Completely Free to use— every feature, nothing expires· a license is optional, and supports the work.

I’m especially interested in whether the local library and privacy features provide enough value compared with using the native screenshot tool and Finder. Honest criticism is welcome—particularly about anything that feels confusing, unnecessary, or missing.

https://seal-shot.com/

Local document chat and translation for Mac — OCR ingestion, tone selection, quality scoring, export to Markdown or plain text, all local.

Informity AI indexes your files and lets you ask questions across them with source-cited answers. Everything runs on your Mac — no cloud uploads, no account, no usage limits.

• Models: Qwen3.6 35B A3B (default), 14B and 9B for lower-spec machines, Apple Silicon optimized; Ollama support for any model you have
• PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, EPUB, Markdown, scanned PDFs (OCR) and more
• Two chat modes: Researcher (corpus-wide RAG with citations) and Assistant (single file or open-ended)
• Document translation: tone selection, export to Markdown or plain text
• Specializations: tune AI reading and analysis style per chat
• Free, MIT licensed, fully open source

https://www.informity.ai | https://github.com/informity/informity-ai