Five Interesting Mac Apps Worth Checking Out - November 2018

Apps created for the Mac often don't receive as much attention as apps made for iOS devices, so we have a bi-monthly series here at MacRumors that's designed to highlight useful and interesting Mac apps that are worth checking out and potentially investing in.

This week's picks include apps focused on Dark Mode, a new feature introduced in September with the launch of macOS Mojave, along with some useful apps for customizing text, keeping your eyes safe while working, and keeping your Mac awake. Many of our highlighted apps this week were chosen by MacRumors forum members.

  • Amphetamine (Free) - Amphetamine is a Mac app keeps your Mac and your Mac display off by adding a simple on-off switch or customizable triggers. With Amphetamine activated from the menu bar, your Mac will be prevented from going into sleep mode. You can choose to keep your Mac awake indefinitely, for a specific amount of time, while a file is downloading, when a specific app is running, and more.
  • Dark Mode for Safari ($1.99) - Dark Mode in macOS Mojave introduces a darker theme across the operating system, but this doesn't extend to individual apps like Safari. Some websites are implementing Dark Mode support, but for those that haven't, the Dark Mode for Safari extension changes them to a darker theme that's easier on the eyes at night time or in low lighting environments. This is not a perfect app and doesn't work well with all websites, but improvements are being introduced on a continual basis and it can be easily toggled on or off.
  • Textlicious ($1.99) - Textlicious is a simple, inexpensive app that's designed to let you insert styled text in places that normally only accept plain text. If, for example, you've wondered how people are getting those custom fonts that you see sometimes on social networks like Twitter, it's quite possible they're using this app. Textlicious lets you highlight any text you're typing in an app, right click, and then select a style from the pop-up menu. There are options like typewriter, strikethrough, small, script, bold, italic, circled, and more. Something to be aware of with Textlicious and similar apps - Unicode symbols like these break the screen readers that vision impaired people use.
  • Breaks For Eyes ($9.99) - Mojave's Dark Mode is meant to cut down on eyestrain, and the same is true of Breaks for Eyes. When looking at an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, taking frequent little breaks is a good idea to prevent dry eyes, eyestrain, and headaches. Breaks for Eyes reminds you to look away from the Mac screen every 20 minutes for 20 seconds, letting your eyes take a rest. There's a three-day trial, and then the full app costs $9.99 to unlock.
  • NightOwl (Free) - [Update: While we originally featured this app for its ability to add a quick Dark Mode toggle to your Mac's menu bar, as of 2023 a number of users are reporting suspicious network activity related to it, so we've removed our link to it out of caution and users who have installed it may want to consider removing it.]

If you have a favorite must-have Mac app that we haven't highlighted yet, let us know in the comments, and we might feature it in a future video. Many of this month's app picks came directly from recommendations from our forum members, and it's these recommendations that have helped make this series useful.

For more of our Mac app picks, make sure to check out our Mac app recommendation archives.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
macbook pro blue green

When Will Apple Release the M5 MacBook Pro?

Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:53 pm PDT by
Apple regularly refreshes the MacBook Pro models, and a new version that uses M5 series chips is in the works. Apple just finished refreshing most of the Mac lineup with M4 chips, and now it's time for the M5. Rumors suggest that we could see the first M5 MacBook Pro models this fall. Design There have been no rumors of a design update for the M5 MacBook Pro models that are coming this...
Apple Lumon Terminal Pro

Apple's Mac Site Features Fictional 'Lumon Terminal Pro'

Wednesday March 26, 2025 12:19 pm PDT by
Apple is going all out with promotions for the popular Severance Apple TV+ show today, and as of right now, you'll find a new "Lumon Terminal Pro" listed on Apple's Mac site. The Lumon Terminal Pro is designed to look similar to the machines that Severance employees like Mark S. and Helly R. use for macrodata refinement. The Terminal features a blue keyboard, a small display with wide...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Generic iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Soon With These New Features for Your iPhone

Tuesday March 25, 2025 6:45 am PDT by
Apple is expected to release iOS 18.4 to the general public as soon as next week, following more than a month of beta testing. Apple's website says some iOS 18.4 features will be released in "early April," so the update should be out as early as Tuesday, April 1. Apple this week seeded the iOS 18.4 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, barring the discovery of any...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Supports 8K Video Recording, Suggests Leaker [Updated]

Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:06 am PDT by
Update 7:25 pm: Based on comments from our forums, it appears the original Weibo post may have been mistranslated and "8K" actually refers to the high price of the device rather than 8K video recording capabilities. The iPhone 16 Pro currently starts at 7,999 yuan in China. Our original article follows below. Apple's forthcoming iPhone 17 Pro models are capable of shooting 8K video, up...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

'iPhone Fold' to Feature Metallic Glass Hinge That Resists Deformation

Thursday March 27, 2025 4:21 am PDT by
Last week, we covered a report claiming that Apple's book-style foldable iPhone (or "iPhone Fold," as we are provisionally calling it here) will use liquid metal hinges to improve durability and help minimize screen creasing. Today, a Chinese leaker provided more details on the properties of this hinge material that help to clarify why Apple chose it for its first foldable device. According...
iOS 18 4 Ambient Music Control Center

How to Use iOS 18.4's New Ambient Music Feature in Control Center

Thursday March 27, 2025 7:45 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 18.4 update for the iPhone adds an Ambient Music feature to Control Center. Below, we take a closer look at how it works. iOS 18.4 is currently in beta, so the Ambient Music feature is not widely available yet. The update will likely be released to the general public next week. To use the feature on iOS 18.4, open Control Center and tap on the plus sign in the top-left...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock

Gurman: Jon Prosser's iOS 19 Mockups 'Aren't Representative' of Redesign

Tuesday March 25, 2025 4:47 pm PDT by
The iOS 19 mockup images that leaker Jon Prosser shared today are not representative of the actual iOS 19 design, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on social media. According to Gurman, the images that are "floating around" are based on "very old builds" or "vague descriptions," and are lacking key features. Gurman says that we can "expect more from Apple in June." Gurman made the same comment ...

Top Rated Comments

kurtster Avatar
84 months ago
$10 for a reminder to look away from the screen every few minutes? Really??
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pantherfalcon2332 Avatar
84 months ago
Can confirm that NightOwl is great and its amazing that this feature is baking into MacOS
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
offshore Avatar
84 months ago
These are basically just system utilities.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
s15119 Avatar
84 months ago
These are among the most useful articles you publish. Thank you!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
qwertme Avatar
23 months ago
Latest update to the NightOwl app was opening a reverse SSH proxy on my computer, nothing about that seemed safe or make sense. Uninstalled
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)