Despite challenges of the COVID pandemic and the political elections, 2020 was an awesome year for me in terms of handy and useful Mac applications, as well as a few uncanny products, one of which you might surprise you (see the end of this article.)
So without further ado, here’s my list of favorites for the year.
Biscuit Web Browser
Probably single most application time-saving application for me this year is the 100% free Biscuit web browser.
Biscuit is the hubbub of all my important and frequently used web applications and websites. Biscuit reduces the amount of windows and tabs I have to open and hunt for as I work. The web apps and pages I download and pin in Biscuit remain remain where I left them, and most of the time I don’t have to log back into the websites.
Despite having over three dozen web pages and web applications inside my Biscuit library, the application itself eats up less CPU than Safari and Chrome.
If you work in different web applications, such as WordPress, Canava, Facebook, and YouTube studio, you should be using Biscuit. Taking the time to organize folders and pages will save you lots of headache from switching between webpages and web applications. See my review here.
ClickUp Task Manager
Earlier in 2020, I stumbled upon ClickUp, a fairly new task management application that literally provides all the features I need for managing tasks and completing projects.
I’ve been so satisfied with ClickUp that I no longer consider other options for task management.
ClickUp receives nearly weekly updates, and the developers have included some of the best features of other task management applications, including Trello, Todoist, and Asana. It seems that the framework of ClickUp allows for developers to have almost no limits to what can be added to the application.
ClickUp is not for everyone, but if you’re a task management power user, you should definitely look into this application. Here’s my review.
BetterTouchTool Corner Triggers
BetterTouchTool didn’t receive a major update this year, but one of my favorite features I discovered is Corner Triggers. Just as the name suggest, Corner Triggers allows you to trigger almost any action including keyboard shortcuts, menu items, and predefined actions in BTT by clicking an assigned corder of your desktop. When my hand is on my trackpad, one BTT corner trigger makes it super easy to, for example, trigger the system screenshot shortcut; and another trigger enables me to quickly hide all my opened ScreenFlow floating screenshots. Check out my video for more details about how to use Corner Triggers.
Divi Themes
Divi Themes is not a Mac application, but back in March I decided to switch from Thrive Themes to the Divi Themes page builder. It is the theme and page builder that this site is built off of. Not only does Divi offer a lifetime affordable subscription, it also has well-designed page templates, page builder modules, and thousands of tutorials for learning how to use its web development features. If you’re curious about learning web development, definitely look into Divi Themes.
Slidepad
Another nifty application that I started using this year is Slidepad, a web browser that you quickly access from an assigned edge of your desktop monitor. Slidepad stays tucked away until you need it, and is great for accessing sites, account and social media pages, and pages that you want to quickly review. You can also pin Slidepad open indefinitely until you no longer needed. It would be great to have a similar application for frequently used Finder folders that slide in and out from assigned edges of the desktop. Here’s my review.
Keyboard Maestro OCR
Keyboard Maestro also didn’t receive, I believe, a major update this year; however, it’s OCR (optical character recognition) action came in very handy for some text capturing tasks that I need to regularly do during meetings.
I created an OCR macro that I mapped to a BetterTouchTool trigger, which enables me to take a screenshot of text I want to convert and paste into a document.
The KM action works pretty well, though in the course of writing this article, I have discovered a dedicated Mac application called TextSniper that works faster and is more accurate. I’ll do a video review of it later.
Here’s my review of the Keyboard Maestro’s OCR actions and how to use it.
ColorSlurp Pro
For my web development and graphic design work, ColorSlurp enables me to quickly select and get the color hex code in any item on my desktop screen. What’s even more handy about this application is that it allows for creating custom color collections or pallets for projects I’m working on. You can also export and sync your color collections in iCloud and share them to other Mac computers.
Electra Townie Go Electric Bike
The Electra Townie Go Electric Bike is my top favorite product purchase this year. Talk about fun, and easy riding. I peddle and go without the strain and sweat of riding an analog bike. Because of the small motor in the attached to the chain, I go about four or five times the speed of regular riding. The boost you get from riding up an incline or riding against the wind is nearly effortless.
E-bikes are still relatively expensive, but you can find a good entry-level bike starting around $1200. And if you work close to home, an electric bike is a great alternative to driving a car.
Surprise Favorite Product of the Year
My last and best product of the year is the Tushy Bidet. That’s right, for the last three months I’ve been getting my tushy sprayed with water, instead of using and wasting toilet paper. If you think you could never get used to the spray cleaning, believe me is not that difficult.
After I learned that it takes 32 gallons of water to produce single roll of toilet paper, but less than a pint to wash my butthole, I was convinced to give the bidet a try.
Tushy Bidet sells an affordable bidet that fits nearly any stool, and it only takes about 20 minutes to hook it up. I use some tushy bum towels to pat dry the water, and that’s it. No more toilet paper.
What’s Your Favorites?
I hope you will share your favorite apps and products for the year. Please share your comments below. And if you’re interested in my previous year’s apps, check them out here.
This is hands down the most practical cotdamn list for MAC beginners and powerusers.
Your recommendations will/have saved me hours, though, I must stress that ClickUp is really for powerusers with time to test before migrating. It’s great at what it does but most people don’t need it.
Now, my favs: Atext app. Beats Textexpander w/ one-time purchase of $5. I lean heavy on AText!
Workona for tab management, bookmarking, etc, and Hey for email.
I’m currently trying Maestro to game out COVID-19 vaccine locations.
And I JUST got onto ThriveThemes, but the need for an external support source might be enough to push my team to look into Divi.
Thanks Kwame, for your suggestions too. Workona looks similar to Biscuit. I’ll check it out. Biscuit web organizer is still free, but I’m willing to pay for something similar if it has really better features. I agree about ClickUp, it has a lot to offer, and more than most people will need. It’s really best for Teams. I wanted to also use it for CMR, but I’m already SuiteDash which does a lot that ClickUP can’t do.
Thanks for being a subscriber. I hope we can keep in touch.