Five Mac Apps Worth Checking Out - July 2020

Apps created for Macs don't typically receive as much coverage as apps designed for iPhones and iPads, so we crated a series here at MacRumors to highlight interesting Mac apps worth checking out. This month's apps focus on productivity and feature great tools for working from home.

  • Twobird (Free) - Twobird is an email app from the makers of Notability that's designed to integrate with Gmail accounts, adding tools for creating notes, setting reminders, and collaborating with others on notes and tasks. Twobird is basically an all-in-one app that merges list making, note taking, email management, and more, and it's worth checking out for those who like multi-function apps.
  • Rectangle (Free) - Rectangle is an app for moving and resizing macOS windows using keyboard shortcuts and snap to align functionality. It's a free, lightweight app that's ideal for managing multiple windows on your Mac.
  • Silicio (Free) - Silicio adds a mini player with album art and a Today Center widget for controlling music that's playing on the Mac. It works with iTunes, the Apple Music app, Spotify, and more, providing customizable themes, sizes, and shortcuts along with Touch Bar integration.
  • Bumpr ($2.99) - Bumpr is a simple Mac app that's designed to choose where to open links when you click them. If, for example, you click on a web link, Bumpr pops up a menu displaying all of your installed browsers so you can choose where to open the link. The same is true for mail apps, which makes this a solid option for those who use multiple mail and browser apps.
  • SideNotes - ($19.99) SideNotes is a note taking app that's hidden at the side of your Mac's display by default, but pops out when you need it for jotting down quick notes. The app keeps notes readily available on your desktop, but hidden away when not needed so there's not another open app taking up space. SideNotes can be accessed with a keyboard shortcut or a swipe gesture, and when opened up, will stay on top of other windows. It supports folders, lists, formatting, and more.

Know of a must-have Mac app or game that we haven't highlighted yet? Let us know in the comments below and we might feature it in a future video. For more of our Mac app picks, check out our essential Mac apps archive.

Popular Stories

2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature Single Camera 1 Redux

'iPhone 17 Air' Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Wednesday January 15, 2025 7:16 am PST by
While the so-called "iPhone 17 Air" is not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the "ultra-thin" device. Overall, the "iPhone 17 Air" is shaping up to be a mixed bag. Due to its thinness, the device is expected to have some limited specifications compared to the iPhone 17 Pro models, including only a single rear camera, only a single speaker, no SIM...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Horizontal Single Feature

iPhone 17 Rumored to Feature Major Thermal Design Upgrade

Friday January 17, 2025 4:33 am PST by
The iPhone 17 lineup will feature a vapor chamber heatsink to improve thermal performance, according to a new report. The news comes from Chinese tech news site MyDrivers, which claims that the entire iPhone 17 lineup, consisting of the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max, will adopt the improved thermal heat spreader. Vapor chamber technology is already used...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple Expected to Launch 20+ Products This Year: Here's the Full List

Friday January 17, 2025 5:30 am PST by
2025 promises to be quite a big year for Apple, with the company rumored to be planning more than 20 product announcements this year. Apple's rumored smart home hub will be its second all-new product to launch in as many years, following the Apple Vision Pro headset last year. And of course, we will get several new iPhone and Apple Watch models, like every year. Beyond that, Apple could...

Top Rated Comments

Apple_Robert Avatar
59 months ago
What makes Side-Notes worth $20? Seems steep.

Bumpr looks like a good app.

Thanks, Dan
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
[AUT] Thomas Avatar
59 months ago
We receive and store any information you knowingly provide to us. For example, through the registration process and/or when new email accounts are added to your Twobird account, we may collect the following personal information to allow us to operate the service: name, email address, and Gmail authentication and refresh tokens (which allow our servers to perform email tasks on your behalf, such as returning Reminded emails to your inbox). Your Gmail account is required to be associated with the Services in order for you to use the Twobird Services.
Looks like another fake client... a client for google services should connect directly to the google servers... At least on a desktop there is absolutely zero reason to go over 3rd party servers...
Has this been tested?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kaostheory777 Avatar
59 months ago
Rectangle is great. It's basically as slick as and identical to Magnet but completely FREE!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
s66 Avatar
59 months ago

Hi there, Les here from Ginger Labs. I'm one of the programmers working on Twobird. We addressed a similar question over in another thread ('https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/app-recap-bluelane-originate-twobird-and-major-app-updates.2243460/?post=28623481#post-28623481'). For most things, the Twobird client connects directly to Gmail. But for a few things like reminders and notifications, these features really can't work in a purely client-side way. We use as little data as possible to make them work as expected. Hope I addressed your concern (let me know if I didn't!), and let us know if you have any other questions or feel free to email us at feedback@twobird.com
It's utterly unacceptable to catch somebody's credentials in a client and use them on your server to connect to 3rd party service directly. The security and privacy implications of doing that are simply insane.



* Twobird ('https://www.twobird.com') (Free) - Twobird is an email app from the makers of Notability that's designed to integrate with Gmail accounts, adding tools for creating notes, setting reminders, and collaborating with others on notes and tasks. Twobird is basically an all-in-one app that merges list making, note taking, email management, and more, and it's worth checking out for those who like multi-function apps.

PLEASE add a big fat WARNING that this app will use a server under the maker's control to connect directly to your gmail account without use of the client and as such poses risks to your security and privacy.

I'd outright remove the suggestion, but I fear that boat has sailed.

Thomas, post: 28674895, member: 1021539"]
Looks like another fake client... a client for google services should connect directly to the google servers... At least on a desktop there is absolutely zero reason to go over 3rd party servers...
Has this been tested?
Good catch, thanks! Hope it gets removed from the article as the implications of such a things are just too ridiculous to even consider.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Forti Avatar
59 months ago
Well... the SideNotes looks kinda good, especially with "stay on top". But to be worth $20 it should at least provide ios/android app with synchronization..

I've tested reactangle and it's just "simple". I was using hammerspoon but it requires some programing skill to configure it.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SpaceGrayAlways Avatar
59 months ago
Just putting it out there, Bumpr is not free. ('https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bumpr/id1166066070?mt=12') It costs $2.99.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)