Five Mac Apps Worth Checking Out - July 2019

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

This month's picks include apps for making your Touch Bar more functional, adding quick switches to the Menu bar, creating to-do lists, replacing the dashboard that's now defunct in macOS Catalina, and easily accessing Spotify and iTunes controls.


- Pock
(Free) - Pock is a simple little Mac app that's designed to make your Touch Bar more useful by adding your dock to your Touch Bar so you can quickly access your apps and even files within folders. The Pock options are customizable, so you can choose what you need most, adding options like a now playing widget for controlling music, a status widget for getting info like WiFi connection of battery level, and more.

- One Switch ($4.99) - One Switch is a nifty Mac menu bar app that adds various switches to the Mac's menu bar. You can add toggles that will do things like hide desktop options, activate dark mode, keep the Mac awake, connect to headphones, toggle on Do Not Disturb, activate Night Shift, bring up the Screen Saver, and more. Options are customizable so you can make your One Switch menu do just want you need.

- Microsoft To-Do (Free) - Microsoft earlier this month brought its popular Microsoft To-Do app to the Mac, making it more functional than ever because it's now available across all of your devices. Mac users no longer have to rely on the web app, and can access features like task syncing between devices, file attachments, list sharing, color coding, and reminders for due dates, among other options.

- Flotato (Free) - Flotato is designed to create web apps from your favorite website, so you can get quick access to the web services that you use most often. Flotato web apps can be dragged right into the dock, so you can set up quick access for things like Google Docs, Facebook Messenger, Netflix on the web, favorite news sites, and more.

- Spotmenu (Free) - Spotmenu is another Mac app that's super simple but super useful, especially for Spotify and iTunes users. Spotmenu lets you access Spotify and iTunes content from your menu bar, allowing you to see what song is playing, pause music, play music, and skip tracks.

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

Popular Stories

iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Next Week With These New Features for Your iPhone

Friday February 14, 2025 6:18 am PST by
The first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner, and the update is expected to include many new features and changes. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman expects the iOS 18.4 beta to be released by next week. Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far. Apple Intelligence for Siri Siri is expected to get several enhancements powered by Apple Intelligence on iOS...
iPhone 17 Roundup Feature 2

iPhone Design to Change 'Significantly' This Year

Monday February 17, 2025 7:09 am PST by
Apple is set to "significantly change" the iPhone's design language later this year, according to a Weibo leaker. In a new post, the user known "Digital Chat Station" said that the iPhone's design is "starting to change significantly" this year. The "iPhone 17 Air" reportedly features a "horizontal, bar-shaped" design on the rear, likely referring to an elongated camera bump. On the other...
apple launch feb 2025 alt

What to Expect From the 'Apple Launch' Next Week

Thursday February 13, 2025 11:48 am PST by
Apple has yet to announce any new devices this year, but that could change starting next week. Apple CEO Tim Cook today said to "get ready" for a "launch" on Wednesday, February 19. "Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," said Cook, in a social media post. The post includes an #AppleLaunch hashtag, along with a short video featuring an animated Apple logo inside of a circle....
Apple Maps 2024

Apple Maps Might Start Showing Ads

Sunday February 16, 2025 7:22 am PST by
Apple is "exploring" the idea of showing search ads in the Apple Maps app, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Back in 2022, Gurman said software engineering was "already underway" to display ads in the Apple Maps app, but Apple did not move forward with the idea at the time. Today, he said Apple is "giving this notion more thought" again. This time around, he said Apple has yet to...
Tim Cook Apple Park

10+ Announcements Apple Could Have Rolled Into a February Event

Saturday February 15, 2025 8:00 am PST by
Apple appears to have enough upcoming product announcements to justify a full event this month, yet all signs indicate these reveals will be handled through a series of press releases instead. There are a multitude of rumors from reliable sources about specific announcements in the coming weeks, so here's everything that Apple could have feasibly included in a hypothetical February event: ...
iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

iPhone 17 Pro With All-New Camera Bar Design Allegedly Revealed

Thursday February 13, 2025 5:49 pm PST by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro will feature three rear cameras arranged in a familiar triangular layout, but the cameras will be housed in an all-new rectangular camera bar with rounded corners, according to YouTube channel Front Page Tech. iPhone 17 Pro camera design render created by Asher for Front Page Tech In a video uploaded today, Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser said the camera ...
m2 pro mac mini

Apple is Now Selling a Refurbished Mac Mini for Just $319 (!)

Saturday February 15, 2025 9:58 am PST by
A few days ago, we reported that Apple's refurbished Mac mini pricing had a problem, and it appears that Apple has taken note. Apple was offering a refurbished Mac mini with the M2 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage for $559, which was $50 more than a refurbished Mac mini with the M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. All other key specifications were equal. That's no longer...
maxresdefault

The MacRumors Show: Apple Teases Its Next Major Product Launch

Friday February 14, 2025 9:38 am PST by
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss the imminent Apple product "launch" that is widely expected to be the fourth-generation iPhone SE. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos In a social media post on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook teased an upcoming "launch" of some kind scheduled for Wednesday, February 19. "Get ready to meet the newest member of...

Top Rated Comments

Plutonius Avatar
74 months ago
At least they aren't recommending MacKeeper :(.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BWhaler Avatar
74 months ago
“Make your Touch Bar more useful”

Classic. Someone at Macrumors had a great sense of humor.

Separately, I love these types of articles. Let’s see more attention brought to software developers. Too much hardware fetish in the Apple world, and it’s thw software that makes or breaks the platform.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
oneMadRssn Avatar
74 months ago
I love these articles. Though none of these apps interest me, please keep them coming. Always good to learn about useful Mac apps.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mrboult Avatar
74 months ago
Better touch tool !

This app makes multi touch on the Mac track pad soooo much more useful! You can set almost any gesture you like to do almost anything.. Either app specific, or across the entire system. I LOVE IT!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SecuritySteve Avatar
74 months ago
But seriously, where can we find that coffee mug in the still of the video?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rlhamil Avatar
74 months ago
BetterTouchTool, in addition to mapping additional touchpad gestures (and keystrokes, Magic Mouse, etc) can now put the Dock on the Touch Bar too; it has for some time now been able to do other things with the Touch Bar, while coexisting with system or application specific uses thereof.

Formerly free, still quite cheap.
[doublepost=1562114369][/doublepost]
I wish someone would revive Temps, the menu bar weather app.
I use CARROT for that; choose the "boring" rather than "snarky" personality setting if you wish. :) I think its data is mostly from Dark Sky, which is about the best for local weather. Here in Maryland, if you don't like the weather, wait an hour or drive a few miles, and it'll change; so good location awareness counts for a lot.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)