Our Favorite Mac Apps

Here is a basic list of some Mac OS applications that we use and recommend! Leave a comment below if you have a program that you use/love and would like to recommend it! 

Web Browsers

Brave Browser - 3x faster than Chrome. Better protection from Google and Big Tech. Built with your privacy in mind!

Vivaldi - Not sure what browser to use? Vivaldi allows you to use features from various different browsers, including their add-ons! Get unrivaled customization options and built-in browser features for better performance, productivity, and privacy.

Choosy - Choosy can prompt you to select from the browsers on your Mac, or just the ones that are running, so you can decide which browser is right for a particular link.

OpenIn - OpenIn is a native application for Intel and Apple Silicon architecture and allows you to choose what happens when you click on a web link or an email link, and even open specific programs for certain file types! OpenIn can even modify file open requests, and send the application a request to open a parent folder instead of the file. Plus much more!

BitWarden - Secure cloud syncing lets you access your sensitive information from anywhere on any device. Protect your online data using a password manager you can trust. Bitwarden conducts regular third-party security audits and is compliant with GDPR, SOC 2, HIPAA, Privacy Shield, and CCPA standards.

System Utilities

Download and install current, or previous versions, of Mac OSX operating systems: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683

Macs Fan Control - Mac OS application for real-time monitoring of fan speeds and temperatures. With this app, you can monitor your temperatures, and fan speeds, and help you solve overheating problems like those found on a MacBook Pro. Solve fan noise problems such as those caused by HDD replacement in iMacs and fan speed issues after various aftermarket parts replacements. 

Hot - Hot is a macOS menu bar application that displays the CPU speed limit due to thermal issues.

Stats - Mac OS system monitoring software.

Onyx - OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files; run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks; configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some Apple applications; delete caches; remove certain problematic folders and files; rebuild various databases and indexes; and more.

Mac Cleaner Pro - Professional tools for Mac cleanup. Keep your Mac always fast, clean, and organized!

GmsartControl - GSmartControl is a graphical user interface for smartctl (from smartmontools package), which is a tool for querying and controlling SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) data on modern hard disk and solid-state drives. It allows you to inspect the drive's SMART data to determine its health, as well as run various tests on it.

DriveDX - Advanced hard drive health diagnostics, drive health monitoring, and hard drive health testing software.

Disk Inventory X - Disk Inventory X is a disk usage utility for Mac OS X. It shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way called "treemaps".

coconutBattery - With coconutBattery you're always aware of your current battery health. It shows you live information about your battery such as how often it was charged and how is the current maximum capacity in relation to the original capacity your battery had when it left the factory.

Security

Malwarebytes AntiMalware (MBAM) - Say hello to smarter, safer protection for all your family's devices. Specifically designed to catch malware on Mac, MalwareByte's threat intelligence & proven technology let you rest easy, knowing that we’re finding and crushing threats that other antivirus software missed. The best part, we do it all without hogging your system’s resources or spamming you with annoying notifications. Finally, cybersecurity that is smart enough for your Mac.

ClamXAV - Whether you’re a home user, business user, or education user, ClamXAV provides effective malware protection on a single Mac or an entire network. ClamAV is one of the oldest Unix AntiVirus programs around.

Clario - Modern protection from more modern threats! Protect your Apple Computer and digital identity from viruses, unsecured Wi-Fi, ID theft, or hacking; in real time. 100% Detection rate!

General Programs

Caffeine - Caffeine is a tiny program that puts an icon in the right side of your menubar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen, or starting screen savers.

VNC - Securely access and manage any device, from anywhere!

Sublime Text - Text editing, done right!

The Unarchiver - The Unarchiver is the only app you need to open RAR on Mac. It’s times more powerful than the native macOS utility and supports infinitely more archive formats.

Keka - Mac OS file archiver.

PDF Expert - PDF Expert is a uniquely fast, reliable, and easy-to-use PDF software. PDF Expert packs powerful features into a well-designed and intuitive interface. Effortlessly breeze through any type of PDF-related task!

Software Removal Tools

AppCleaner -  AppCleaner is a small application that allows you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps.
Installing an application distributes many files throughout your System using the space of your Hard Drive unnecessarily. AppCleaner finds all these small files and safely deletes them.

TrashMe - Your Mac is full of files that you consider to be junk because they are too old, too big, or useless to you: incomplete downloads, Windows files, old screen captures… In addition, macOS creates many large files like app caches, system updates, log reports or Xcode files. When space is precious, you can use TrashMe to remove all these files and recover many gigabytes!

Jon Pienkowski

Pacific NW Computers

www.linktr.ee/pnwcomputers

*Last Updated ~ August 28th, 2023*

PNW Computers' Favorite Mac Apps

PNW Computers' Favorite FREE Mac Apps

VideoLan ~ VLC for Mac

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

Titanium Software ~ OnyX
OnyX is a multifunction utility for OS X which you can use to verify the start up disk and the structure of its system files, to run miscellaneous tasks of cleaning and system maintenance, to configure some hidden parameters of many of Apple’s applications, and more.

Titanium Software ~ Maintenance
Maintenance is a system maintenance and cleaning utility for OS X which you can use to run miscellaneous tasks of system maintenance: repair permissions, run periodic scripts, rebuild the databases, delete Application, Font and System cache, and more.

Derlien Software ~ Disk Inventory X
Disk Inventory X is a disk usage utility for Mac OS X 10.3 (and later). It shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way called "treemaps".
If you've ever wondered where all your disk space has gone, Disk Inventory X will help you to answer this question.

smcFanControl
smcFanControl is MUST HAVE for keeping your Mac running cool. smcFanControl lets the user set the minimum speed of the built in fans; so you can increase your minimum fan speed to make your Intel Mac run cooler. However in order not to damage your machines smcFanControl doesn't let you set a minimum speed to a value below Apple's defaults.

ClamXav
ClamXav is a free malware scanner for Mac OS X. It uses the very popular ClamAV open source antivirus engine as a back end and has the ability to detect both Windows and Mac threats.
ClamXav can be setup up as passive or active: scan only the files you tell it to or your entire hard drive, whichever you prefer; you can also choose to activate Sentry to monitor your hard drive and scan new files as they arrive.

CCleaner

CCleaner is the number-one tool for cleaning your Mac. It protects your privacy online and makes your computer faster and more secure. Easy to use and a small fast download.

FreeMacSoft ~ AppCleaner
AppCleaner is a small application which allows you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps.
Installing an application distributes many files throughout your System using space of your Hard Drive unnecessarily.
AppCleaner finds all these small files and safely deletes them.
Simply drop an application onto the AppCleaner window. It will find for the related files and you can delete them by clicking the delete button.

CoconutBattery

With coconutBattery you are always aware of your current battery health. It shows you live information about the battery in your Mac and iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) including:

• Age of your Mac, iOS device and battery
• How often the battery was charged
• Your battery health (capacity in relation to the original capacity your battery had when it left the factory) and much more...

gfxCardStatus
gfxCardStatus is an unobtrusive menu bar app for OS X that allows MacBook Pro users to see which apps are affecting their battery life by using the more power-hungry graphics.

Unarchiver

The Unarchiver is a much more capable replacement for "Archive Utility.app", the built-in archive unpacker program on Mac OS X. The Unarchiver is designed to handle many more formats than Archive Utility, and to better fit in with the design of the Finder. It can also handle file names in foreign character sets, created with non-English versions of other operating systems. I personally find it useful for opening Japanese archives, but it should handle many other languages just as well.

Monolingual

Monolingual is a program for removing unnecessary language resources from OS X, in order to reclaim several hundred megabytes of disk space. It requires a 64-bit capable Intel-based Mac and at least OS X 10.10 (Yosemite).

Hanynet ~ NoobProof (or WaterRoof) Firewall Software

NoobProof is a very easy tool. When you start it the first time you have a service list and you can choose to "allow" or "deny" connections to those services. So you have only to decide which service to allow, and then check "Activate NoobProof". You can also add selective "allow" and "deny", and you can delete or add new custom services in service list.

WaterRoof is a very complex and powerful tool, which allows you to configure almost every aspect and option of "ipfw". And more, you can list/manage active connections or network files, do graphics log analysis, configure your mac as a router with bandwidth management with tasteful rules and tons of other options. You need a good knowledge of "what a firewall is", and you should also have at least a basic ipfw knowledge.

TeamViewer - QuickSupport Remote Access Software
*What PNW Computers uses for remote support!

TeamViewer is the All-In-One Software for Remote Support and Online Meetings.
Remote control any computer or Mac over the Internet within seconds or use TeamViewer for online meetings. 

If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to get in touch!

Jon Pienkowski
Pacific NorthWest Computers
www.pnwcomputers.com
360-624-7379

Force Checking for Updates on Android Devices

Normally your phone has a process which checks for pending updates every "X" amount of hours. But what if you want to force the device to check for updates immediately? This is a trick I found a while back and continue to use time and time again.

• Open the standard Android Phone (Dialer) application
• Enter *#*#checkin#*#* on the dialer keypad ( *#*#2432546#*#*)
• On the last entry of the *, your phone will pause while it is checking for updates.
• Once it has completed, you will see a yellow exclamation icon in the notification (or different icon depending on your installed theme) bar letting you know that checkin has been completed and if an update exists you should be notified.
• It also appears that Market updates are also rechecked as part of this process, so any new updated applications will also notify you to upgrade your applications

That's it! Go into your phone's settings through you home menu and check for system updates. If anything the update should already be downloading!

This has been shown to work on 2.1 (Eclair), 2.2 (FroYo), and 2.3 (Gingerbread). However, not all custom phone dialers support the codes, so try to use the stock Android dialer if you have multiple installed. The stock dialer is the one that ships on Google experience devices like the Nexus One, Nexus S, or Droid1.

Find the Cheapest Gas; No Matter Where You Are!

Because the gas prices are so out of control right now ($80 fill ups and all), I am always using my GasBuddy Android app find the cheapest gas; no matter where I am. They offer a website (Gasbuddy.com) and smartphone apps (iPhone, Android & Windows Phone Apps) for people to find and post the cheapest gasoline prices in their neighborhood, or where ever they may be! These apps and their website are something everyone needs to know about!