FOSS app. I'm not the developer or affiliated in any way. But it's a great app that is fast and nice to use. UI is also beautiful.

https://writer.computer/

I'm the dev. ApolloShell adds a sidebar with its own dock, a launcher, a dashboard and a control centre to macOS 26. It's not a tiling window manager, it doesn't touch your windows. It just adds panels to the edges of the screen.

Problem: I wanted the look of Linux shells like Caelestia on my Mac without stitching five tools and a pile of config scripts together.

Comparison: SketchyBar works great for the menu bar and is a real way of ricing, and Übersicht or yabai are great for customising your desktop. ApolloShell goes after the rest of the shell: the dock, launcher, dashboard and control centre all follow one CSS theme, so you can rice those too and switch the whole look live.

Themes are a single CSS file (colours, fonts, corners, sizes) and apply the moment you save. The video shows a few of them.

Heads up: not notarised, so click "Open Anyway" in Privacy & Security on first launch. Obviously needs Accessibility permissions, but no need to disable SIP.

Pricing: Free, no subscription, AGPL-3.0 licensed.

Link: https://github.com/Silvertree2010/ApolloShell

AI disclosure: built with help from Claude, details in the README.

I’ve just upgraded to Little Snitch 7 beta to try out the new features.

For anyone unfamiliar with it, Little Snitch lets you monitor network connections from individual apps and create rules to allow or block them.

Here are a few changes worth checking out:

• Live Connection Log: This is my favorite addition. You can watch network activity as it happens, filter by app or server, and see which connections are allowed or blocked. It’s particularly useful when you want to see what an app connects to while you’re using it.

• Redesigned Control Center: You can check recent network activity, apps using your connection, and recently denied connections right from the menu bar. When an app isn’t working as expected, this gives you a quick way to check whether a blocked connection might be the cause.

• Rules at a Glance: Selecting a connection in Network Monitor now shows the rules that apply to it. If you have quite a few rules, this makes it easier to understand why a connection was allowed or blocked. Previously, I would usually open a separate Rules window to check.

• AI Assistant: I’ve tried this feature too. When you encounter an unfamiliar process or hostname, you can ask the AI to explain what the connection might be for, what could happen if you block it, and what it recommends. I imagine some people will have concerns about the AI integration, but it doesn’t run automatically. Connection details are only sent when you explicitly ask and confirm, and you can review what will be sent beforehand. I treat the answer as a reference, with the final decision to allow or block still up to me.

• DNS fallback and statistics: You can configure a secondary DNS resolver to step in when the primary one has problems. The Dashboard and Log also show lookup success rates, response times, and the steps involved in processing individual queries. I like having actual numbers to check when I suspect DNS is slow or failing.

Version 7 is still in beta. These are my first impressions, rather than a verdict on long-term stability. If you’re trying it on your main work machine, back up your rules first. The developers also advise against using the beta on mission-critical machines.

For me, Little Snitch is one of those Mac apps that’s worth paying for. Being able to monitor and control connections helps me understand what’s happening on my machine and gives me the tools to investigate when something goes wrong. That value was enough for me to upgrade my license while version 7 is still in beta.

Alfred is another favorite of mine. I’m happy to pay for useful software like these two apps, both for the value I get from using them and to support the developers who keep maintaining and improving them.

Hey y'all, Im a software engineer with a big gap in my resume, been traveling for fun then taking care of sick relative. So Im trying to push some free open source apps to fill the resume gap. For this one I basically got tired of opening Find My, waiting for the map to load, finding my phone in the list and hitting Play Sound every time. Now it’s one click or one shortcut and the phone starts ringing, even if it's on silent.

Signed + notarized, no account, no analytics, and the code is on github. macOS 14+, Apple silicon or Intel

Apple doesn’t have a public API for Play Sound. Beckon signs in to Find My’s web service with your Apple Account password, the same way icloud.com’s Find Devices does it, which is why you don’t get a 2FA prompt. So to be upfront:

• Apple could change that service whenever and break it, and automating iCloud probably goes against their terms. I’d only use it for your own devices
• your password is stored only in your Mac’s Keychain. Apple checks it before it gets saved, and if Apple ever rejects it Beckon just forgets it instead of retrying
• it only signs in when you ring something or reload the device list. there’s no Beckon server, signing in and ringing only talk to Apple (update checks grab a small file from the Beckon site)
• it keeps device names/models, favorites and your last 200 rings locally. no location or battery or anything like that
• a ring takes about 2-3 sec, and Apple will email you every time (same as when you do it from icloud.com)

Since Im not an established developer the rules say I have to include some info about myself.

• Portfolio + resume: https://danielyakobian.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielyakobian/
• GitHub: https://github.com/danielyaa5
• Email: [support@danielyakobian.com](mailto:support@danielyakobian.com) (comes straight to me)
• Privacy Policy: https://danielyaa5.github.io/beckon/privacy.html
• Terms of Service: https://danielyaa5.github.io/beckon/terms.html