It's ridiculous that Apple still doesn't offer a way to hide menu bar icons in macOS. Windows has had this options since the launch of Windows Vista 17 years ago, but Mac users who don't want to see every icon cluttering up the top of their screen need to either hide the menu bar entirely or install a third party app that can handle the job.
Until recently, the application of choice for menu bar maintenance was Bartender, a $22 paid application that was generally well regarded. But last week, a change of ownership raised questions about the app's privacy. Those concerns are not entirely unwarranted: The handover happened quietly and the application in question requires accessibility access to the operating system in order to function. Only time will tell if the problem is legitimate—but I am grateful that the questions from users have brought Ice some more attention.
Ice is a free and open source alternative to Bartender that works perfectly well at hiding icons—just like Bartender, you can drag icons while holding CMD to hide them. Any icon dragged to the left of the arrow icon will be hidden (most of the time).
Credit: Justin Pot
In a few moments, you can get your menu bar looking much tidier.
Credit: Justin Pot
Ice works really well. There's even a second arrow you can drag icons past, at which point you won't even see them n the expanded view, allowing you to keep that tidy, too. It's great.
Ice also offers a few aesthetic tweaks worth mentioning. You can bring back drop shadows, for example, or add a border to your menu bar. You can also optionally "split" the bar, which I find gimmicky, but it does allow you to see more of your wallpaper.
I'm a longtime Bartender user, but after a week with Ice, I barely notice the difference. Yes, there are a few missing features—you can't choose to show certain icons only under certain conditions, which is an option with Bartender. (I used that feature to only see the Time Machine icon while backups were actively running and only show the battery when I wasn't connected to power—nice options, but not essential. And it's worth noting that a similar feature is listed as a goal for Ice, which is an open-source project, so maybe we'll have it soon.
Overall, Ice is a great little app, especially considering it's free. Check it out if you are seeking a Bartender alternative, or if you've never used Bartender and just want to neaten up your menu bar icons.
Indie apps need ongoing revenue in order to keep operating. People are sick of subscriptions. These statements are in conflict, but they are indisputably both facts, which is a problem if you want applications built by small teams to continue existing.
Setapp points a potential way forward: an indie app bundle for Macs. This service—offered by a company based in Kyiv, Ukraine—offers access to over 240 Mac apps for $9.99 a month. (You can save 10% by paying annually, and there's even an education discount.)
The list of applications offered, which you can browse online, includes many well-regarded indie applications that have previously appeared at the top of the Mac App Store charts. If you buy a lot of Mac apps—and, in particular, if you subscribe to a lot of Mac apps—it's a package well worth checking out. There's even a seven-day trial if you want to get a feel for it.
The application works similarly to an app store, albeit one where you've already paid for everything it offers—you can explore and install as many of the bundled applications as you want. There are a few applications in it that I use every day, some of which I've written about for Lifehacker. There's Session, a combination Pomodoro timer and distraction blocker that I use when I'm having trouble focusing. There's Eter, my favorite radio app, and MarsEdit, the best blogging app for Mac. I also use WifiExplorer every time I need to diagnose a wireless network problem, and I generally appreciate having access to apps like Permute (a media converter), Numi (a prettier calculator app), BetterZip (an archiving tool), and GetBackupPro (a Mac backup app, obviously).
Credit: Justin Pot
I could go on—though the sheer number included might make you expect a lot of shovelware, there are a lot of well-regarded apps in this bundle, all included in your monthly subscription without ads. Whenever I'm searching for an application to accomplish a something, I really like searching Setapp first—it's nice to know I won't have to pay anything extra to get access to a useful new tool. If you too like having purpose-built, native Mac applications for specific tasks, consider this my unqualified endorsement.
The Great Twitter Exodus of 2022 is still happening. It's just a little...fractured. A lot of Twitter power users ended up on Bluesky. A lot of technically inclined individuals are still hanging out on Mastodon (at least, that's where I hang out).
These are two decentralized services, in theory, but users of one service can't really talk to users on the other. It wasn't possible before Bridgy Fed, anyway. This is a beta service that makes it possible for Bluesky and Fediverse-compatible applications, such as Mastodon, to interact. I tested this out with a friend and it works—we now see each other's posts, like each other's posts, and even talk to each other.
Let's back up a little. Mastodon is part of the Fediverse, a collection of services that connect to the same protocol. Threads, another place where a lot of Twitter users ended up, is starting to connect to the Fediverse; WordPress blogs can also connect. This all points to a future where people can use whatever social network they like and follow people who prefer to use a different one, with one problem: Bluesky, despite being decentralized, isn't part of this network.
This is where Bridgy Fed comes in. With this service, individual users of either service can opt in to "bridging" their accounts. I tested this out with my friend and Lifehacker alumni Eric Ravenscraft, who hangs out on Bluesky more than me. It worked well.
Create your bridged account
Setting up the bridge couldn't be easier: you just need to follow an account.
Mastodon and other Fediverse users need to search for and follow the account @bsky.brid.gy (it's easiest to just search for this—note that some Mastodon instances may be blocking the bridge).
Bluesky users need to follow the account @ap.brid.gy.
That's it! Bridgy Fed will create an account for you that users of the other service can follow. You can now find your account on the other service so you can share it with friends.
If you're a Bluesky user, your new Fediverse account will be @[handle]@bsky.brid.gy. For example, Eric's Bluesky account @lordravenscraft.bsky.social can be found at @lordravenscraft.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy.
That's a little more complicated than I'd like—it would be great if the service sent a DM letting you know where you new "bridged" profile is. Still, I was able to find my new Bluesky profile pretty quickly. And I was also able to interact with Eric. Here's how the interaction looks from Mastodon, for me:
Credit: Justin Pot
And here's how it looked from Bluesky, for Eric:
Credit: Justin Pot
Replies showed up in mentions, the way they normally would, as did likes. If all you want is to be able to organically interact with someone who is using the other network, this works well.
There are a few hangups, though. This only works if both people bridge their accounts. This means I can't see any comments from Bluesky users unless they also are bridged, and that works both ways. A few Mastodon users responded to me and Eric's conversation and Eric could not see those replies. This make sense: only comments from bridged users are bridged. This can create asymmetrical conversations, but the opt-in nature of the bridging service makes this inevitable.
And there are other hangups. Bluesky has a 300-character limit for posts, for one thing, while the Fediverse doesn't have a hard cap. The result: some posts are cut short. I could go on—this is far from a perfect solution. You can, and should, read the documentation to learn more. For the moment, though, it's a way for people who aren't on the same decentralized social ecosystem to talk to each other, and I like that. I'll certainly be bugging friends I want to interact with on Bluesky to "bridge" their accounts.
The most exciting internet trend of the past few years is the return of the blog. People are posting again. It's great.
I'm using "blog" a bit more loosely than in the past. The great revival has taken many shapes—email newsletters, for example, remind me a lot of the early days of blogging. But I've also noticed, in our post-Twitter, post-Facebook social media hellscape, more people seem to be starting websites, and publishing their thoughts on websites they own. I've certainly gone back to using my personal blog more often since setting up WordPress' Fediverse integration—I have an active comments section for the first time in over a decade, and I love it.
The problem, as a creator, is that writing, editing, and submitting articles in the web version of WordPress is kind of a drag. I generally prefer using local applications that are actually on my computer whenever possible, which is why I was thrilled to find Marsedit. This is a beautiful Mac application that makes managing a blog a lot easier. It's faster than loading up WordPress, for one thing, and it integrates nicely with my operating system.
Open the application and you'll be asked to add your blog URLs—you can add as many as you like. Do so, and you'll see all of your posts and pages in one place.
Credit: Justin Pot
Marsedit works with most blogging platforms
I've been testing MarsEdit on my WordPress site, but it also works with Micro.blog, Tumblr, TypePad and Movable Type, along with any service blog that supports a standard MetaWeblog or AtomPub interface.
In addition to providing a clean interface to draft posts, adding images is great—the app integrates with both Apple Photos and local folders on your computer. You can set the size and remove metadata in just a few clicks. Again, it's a lot faster than finding an image and uploading it to WordPress, in my experience.
Credit: Justin Pot
More flexible than most blogging platforms
There are a few more features worth pointing out. If you're a Markdown user, you can write your posts using that, which is something most blogging systems don't offer—and Marsedit even supports syntax highlighting (if you know, you know). And you can write and save your posts completely offline, which is obviously something you can't do in a browser.
The application isn't perfect. I haven't found a way to use it to manage comments, which is disappointing—if that was supported, I'd rarely need to open WordPress at all. For writing, posting, and editing, though, it does everything I need it to do.
MarsEdit costs $59.95 as a one-time purchase, or $10/month as part of Setapp, a bundle that includes a bunch more popular apps. Whether this is worth the price or not depends on how often you blog. I'm back at it, and consider the app a bargain.
It doesn't matter whether you're test driving Linux or installing Windows—making a bootable drive is an annoying process. What if you could format a hard drive for booting once and then simply drag ISO files onto it in order to boot from them? That's what Ventoy offers.
Why would anyone want an external hard drive or thumb drive full of bootable operating systems? Well, for one thing, it's a fun way to try out different operating systems without installing them. Most Linux distributions let you try them out in a live environment before installing—with Ventoy trying things out is even faster because you don't have to write the image to the drive every time. But a tool like this also makes it easy to manage a collection of installable operating systems and keep them all on the same device, which is great if you're the kind of person who fixes computers regularly.
After setup, there is a partition you can drop ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD(x), and EFI files on. This should, in theory, work for any bootable image—there's a list of tested ISOs if you want to confirm the one you're thinking of. Note that macOS is not supported and neither is booting from Ventoy on Mac devices.
To get started, download Ventoy for your operating system and start it up. Connect the drive you want to use for booting operating systems. (Note that Ventoy can technically write to internal hard drives but will, by default, only show external drives—this is to prevent you accidentally rewriting your internal drives.)
Credit: Justin Pot
Select the drive you want to write to and click Install. Ventoy will reformat the drive to have two partitions—one that you will boot from and another, much larger partition where you can put your image files. Drag as many images to this partition as you want. You can even sort the images into folders, if you want—Ventoy will look for all compatible files even if they're in sub-folders.
Credit: Justin Pot
I put a few common Linux distributions and a Windows 11 installer on my drive to test. Then I restarted my computer and booted from the drive. I instantly saw all of the ISO files as an option.
Credit: Justin Pot
I tested all of these and can confirm that they booted as though I'd written them to a drive directly. This is going to be my go-to method for testing out Linux live environments and installing operating systems on PCs going forward.
Some companies are easy to quit. If I decide I don't like Coca-Cola anymore I can simply stop drinking Coke. Sure, the company makes more than just Coke, so I would need to do some research to figure out which products they do and don't make, but it's theoretically possible.
Quitting Google isn't like that. It makes many products, many of which you depend on to live your digital life. Leaving a company like that is like a divorce, according to an expert I talked to. "It's not easy, but you feel so much better at the other side," said Janet Vertesi, a sociology professor at Princeton who publishes work on human computer interaction. "Think of a friend who gets a divorce and is so happy to be out. That could be you. That's how it feels to leave Google."
She'd know. Vertesi researches NASA's robotic spacecraft teams and also publishes work on human computer interaction. In March 2012, after Google significantly changed its privacy policies, she decided to stop using Google entirely. Vertesi also runs The Opt Out Project, a website full of recommendations and tutorials for replacing "Big Tech" services with community-driven and DIY alternatives. She is, in other words, someone who has done the work, so I wanted to ask her for some advice about how someone should approach quitting Google.
The first thing Vertesi emphasized to me is not to try to quit Google all at once.
"People fall off before they even try because they think it's too big," she said. "You can't eat the elephant all at once; you've got to do it one bite at a time."
What does that mean in practice? Choosing a single Google product and deciding to use something else instead. You could start by looking into the best Google search alternatives and trying them out for a few weeks. You could start be replacing your browser. The trick is to not overwhelm yourself.
"You can't do it all at the same time," said Vertesi. "You have to choose a service, get off, change your habits, then choose the next service, get off, and change your habit."
I asked where she, personally, would start. "The easiest thing to do first is to migrate from Chrome to Firefox," she told me, stating that she likes that browser's emphasis on privacy and community. So switching from Chrome to another browser is a great first step, and Firefox makes the process easy, though Vertesi emphasized that researching and trying multiple browsers is a good idea—she mentioned that she also uses Brave, the DuckDuckGo browser, and sometimes even Safari.
Chrome is just one Google product that's in your life, though. Quitting Google means making a list of all the applications, operations, and services they make and replacing them, one at a time.
Don't just switch to another company
You might be tempted, while facing the prospect of having to slowly replace every single Google product one at a time, to instead switch wholesale to another company's suite of apps. Vertesi advises against this.
"You don't jump out of the frying pan into someone else's frying pan," she told me. This approach has a few benefits. First, it avoids a situation in which one company has access to all of your information. Second, it keeps you experimenting with new tools.
"The key thing, for me, is to have a lot alternatives," said Vertesi. "When people ask 'what do you use instead of Google' I say 'a lot of things.'"
She recommended a bunch of different tools during our conversation—Proton and Zoho for email, Dropbox and Resilo Sync for file syncing, and CryptPad for online document editing. Combining as many different tools as possible keeps your data in different places while also allowing you to choose the best tools for specific jobs.
Consider replacing your operating systems
If you own an Android phone, that is almost certainly one of the main ways Google learns about you. You don't necessarily have to get a new phone, though—you might be able to install /e/OS instead. This is an open source operating system that's relatively easy to install on Pixel phones and is completely free of any Google applications or influence. Failing that, an iPhone could be an option, though for environmental reasons you might want to wait until you'd replace your phone anyway.
Chromebooks are also impossible to de-Google without replacing the operating system. Vertesi recommends looking into the Linux distributions ElementaryOS, which she says is intuitive to install and use.
Or, if all of that is too hard, Vertesi did concede that Apple products tend to be better for privacy on balance. "Apple's products are the best at being user friendly and also privacy and security focused," she said, adding that she "doesn't think Windows is a viable option anymore" when it comes to privacy.
Need to keep using a few Google apps? Isolate them.
I, personally, use Google Docs to coordinate with most of my editors—it's simply an industry standard. If you're in the same boat, needing to use Google for a couple of things, Vertesi recommends using that Google account in a dedicated browser. This helps from a privacy perspective—Google can't use the account to track your other online activity. But it has other benefits.
"It takes some discipline, but once you've done that it's better for work-life balance," said Vertesi, explaining that keeping work in a dedicated browser helps keep you from working during off hours.
Quitting Google is a process
Google users depend on the company for all kinds of services. Google, meanwhile, depends on its users for the data it needs to sell its advertising services—the most profitable advertising business in the history of the planet. Vertesi calls this an unhealthy codependent relationship.
"Google has brought itself into every facet of our lives," she said. "Getting out of a codependent relationship is good for you but it does suck." But there's a light at the end of the tunnel. A lot of that is replacing corporate tools with more idealistic ones.
"I love finding products and services that are made by foundations, and communities, and companies that have an alternative arrangement—that aren't subject to a board and VCs," she said, mentioning Signal, Mozilla, and Proton alongside various open source projects. The point: we don't have to focus entirely on why Google is bad; we can also look for organizations and tools we admire. That's the good part.
A lot of great software isn't in the Mac App Store, meaning you need to download and install them manually. Applite is a free Mac application that acts as an unofficial app store for all such software.
Power users know that the easiest way to install Mac software and keep it up-to-date is via Homebrew, a text-driven package manager for macOS; Applite is basically a graphical user interface for Homebrew's cask, which is the part of that tool that allows you to download and install applications that aren't command-line driven.
If you don't know what the previous paragraph means, don't worry—you mostly don't need to. Just install Applite and launch the application. You will be told to provide the "Brew Exectuable Path." If you're already a Homebrew user, select the appropriate option; if not, select "Applite's installation."
After this, you will be able to use Applite. If you're already a Homebrew user, you will notice that your applications showed up as installed, which is a nice touch. You can basically use this as you would any other app store, browsing and installing anything that looks interesting or useful.
Credit: Justin Pot
The applications organized into categories are just a small, curated list of the applications offered, so if you can't find something, be sure to use the search bar—it has access to the complete list of applications available in Homebrew's cask, which you can browse here to get an idea of what's available.
Credit: Justin Pot
Applite can also be used to manage the applications you've installed, including updates. You can uninstall applications, if you want, or update your applications. It's a great way to get all the best parts of using Homebrew without having to touch the command line or even really know what Homebrew is, so check it out.
If you spend any time look for Mac software outside the Mac App Store, you'll likely see references to "Homebrew." It's often listed as an alternate way to install applications, sometimes on websites but especially on Github. It's a tool that most Mac power users install right away, and it's really not all that difficult to use.
The problem with installing apps on a Mac is that finding and installing such software can be time consuming. You need to find the app's website, download the DMG, mount it, and drag the icon over to Applications. Some applications make you do this again every time there's an update. Not with Homebrew—if you have that set up, installing software is as easy as typing three words in the Terminal: brew install and the name of the application; for example, brew install firefox. Hit enter and Homebrew will find the latest version of Firefox and install it for you. You can even install several applications at once this way: just add more names for applications at the end of the command.
Anyone with Linux experience is going to recognize this as a "package manager," which basically all Linux-based operating systems use to install and manage software; Homebrew is built from the ground up to be a package manager for Mac.
Setting up and getting started
Installing Homebrew on a new Mac is simple: just head to brew.sh, the Homebrew homepage. You'll find a command there you can copy to the Terminal in order to install Homebrew. (I am intentionally not putting the command here in case it changes—it is far better for you to get the command directly from the source.) The software is good about explaining everything it is up to, every step of the way, so be sure to pay attention.
After that you can use the software. One of the first things I usually install is wget, a command line application for downloading files that Apple inexplicably hasn't included in macOS. To install the application I need only to type brew install wget; Homebrew does the rest: the relevant software is downloaded and installed and I can start using it immediately.
Not sure if a given application is offered by Homebrew? You can look for it using brew search. Just look for what you want and you'll get the name of the package. Failing that, you can search for Homebrew software on the website's directory, which some users might find a little easier.
Credit: Justin Pot
As you get started using Homebrew, here are a few more commands worth knowing: The command brew remove can uninstall anything you've installed using Homebrew. The command brew update can check for updates and brew upgrade will install all updates.
This is all an extremely simple look at Homebrew, of course. This software can do a lot more and I highly recommend digging into the documentation if you're curious. It's one of those applications that you get used to using and wonder how you ever lived without.
Sometimes I want to listen to music and not think about the internet, which is harder than it sounds in 2024. My music is on my phone and if I pick up my phone I will see notifications, which I'm incapable of ignoring. It's a weakness, I'll admit, but I am certain I'm not alone. Because of this, I can't really listen to music in the backyard and read a book—I will inevitably end up distracted.
The Mighty 3 aims to solve this problem. It's a music player than can sync playlists from either Spotify Premium or Amazon Music. It is inevitable, at first glance, to compare this to Apple's iPod Shuffle, and if you liked that device you will probably enjoy the Mighty. It offers a similar screen-free way to listen to music that is updated for the streaming age. It also supports Bluetooth headphones, which is something no (non-Touch) iPod ever offered.
At $125, the Mighty 3 offers streaming music users a way to listen to music without any screens—and aside from a few disappointing design quirks, it delivers.
Left: The Mighty 3. Right: the 4th generation iPod Shuffle. Credit: Justin Pot
Let's start with the listening experience, which is probably the most important thing. This is a very small music player—at least, it's smaller than your phone. The face is a 1.5 inch square and the product is just over half an inch thick—not huge but bigger than the fourth generation iPod Shuffle. The Mighty 3 weighs 0.7 ounces, which was small enough to clip to my clothes and forget about. I could snap it to my shirt, connect my headphones, and hit play.
A dedicated button in the top right allows for jumping between all the playlists I synced over. Navigation is assisted by a computerized voice that announces the current playlist. This all works really well—I was able to browse the 10 or so playlists I synced and find the one I wanted very quickly. The Mighty remembered where I was in each playlist, meaning I could jump between them and pick up right where I left off.
On the Mighty, you'll adjust the volume and change the track using physical buttons, which I didn't realize I longed for until I started testing this device. This is particularly handy while driving—I could switch between playlists without ever looking down, which is extremely not possible while using your phone. I also really enjoyed this during runs and workouts, though the nature of clipping a device to my clothes meant it was occasionally difficult to remember which buttons do what mid-run. I ended up re-starting a track I was trying to quit more than once, though I'm sure I'll get better at this with practice.
Yeah, I dug out my old iPod headphones for this one. Wouldn't you? Credit: Justin Pot
If I have one criticism of using the device it's how the button placement affects my ability to use the clip. It is hard to open the clip without pressing a button, meaning I often ended up accidentally raising the volume or switching the playlist while attempting to clip it to my shirt. It's an unfortunate design flaw, though not a dealbreaker.
Syncing works well, but the reliance on streaming services has some drawbacks
Syncing music over to the Mighty is a bit more convoluted than I'd like but ultimately manageable. A smartphone app is required for managing the device, meaning if you were hoping to sync using a computer, you're out of luck. The application is straightforward and was good about guiding me through setup. After installing the application, I was able to connect to the device and hook it up to my streaming service of choice.
After that, I could select which of the playlists in my library I wanted to sync over. The Mighty must be plugged into a power source to sync with a phone, and it needs to stay connected until the sync is complete. There were occasional glitches, which meant I'd need to restart a sync cycle that only partially completed. I can't help but think this would all be more reliable from a computer, but alas.
There is no dedicated way to sync over podcasts, meaning I needed to either build or find playlists on my streaming service in order to sync over episodes. There's also no way to sync albums, meaning I had to the same thing there, too. I made it a habit to search for discography playlists for the artists I love most—I almost always found one.
I also needed to use my phone to connect Bluetooth headphones and speakers to the Mighty. Connecting for the first time took the standard amount of Bluetooth wrangling but usage was easy after that. I wish the range of the Bluetooth was a little better—putting the Mighty in my pants pocket is apparently just a little too far for audio to work consistently. A shirt pocket, sleeve, or collar are all great, though.
One disappointment: there's no way to sync over my own MP3s. Most songs, at this point, are available on streaming services, but not everything. Not offering an MP3 fallback means there is no possible way to listen to such music, or any audiobooks you might have.
These are all minor points, though. If you want access to your Spotify or Amazon Music playlists without access to your phone, the Mighty 3 is a great device. I loved grabbing this before going for a run or drive—I have a way to listen to music that doesn't chain me to the internet. If that's appealing to you—and you don't mind paying $125—the Mighty works well.
It's not just you: Google search is getting worse. It's more than the annoying new AI box at the top of the results page, which takes a long time to load and tends to spout nonsense. It's also that the overall quality of search results seems to have declined over time, even as promoted results and ads take up more of the user interface.
But despite the search giant's omnipresence, you aren't stuck with Google. There are a number of alternative search engines out there. None are perfect, but each has positives that make them worth considering. Here are five alternatives that will satisfy most people. And remember: You don't need to switch to relying entirely on one of them. In fact, it's probably best to try out a few different options, and even continue use different search engines for different purposes going forward.
DuckDuckGo
Credit: Justin Pot
DuckDuckGo is the longest standing privacy-oriented alternative to Google, and it remains one of the best in terms of features. The service is free, relying on ad revenue, but that ads are based entirely on what you're searching right at this moment—that is, there's no long-term tracking following you between search sessions.
I, a huge nerd, love that you can browse your search results entirely using the keyboard—just type something in the search bar, use the up and down arrow keys to jump to any selection on the results page, and hit "Enter" to open it. Then there are bangs, which allow you to search other sites directly from the DuckDuckGo search bar—for example, typing "!w" at the beginning of a query will launch the search in Wikipedia, bypassing DuckDuckGo entirely. There are over 13,000 of these shortcuts, useful for directly searching everything from Reddit to WolframAlpha.
The service has maintained a good reputation on the privacy front, at least in terms of the search engine itself; there has been some controversy involving the DuckDuckGo browser, which blocks most tracking but specifically not Microsoft's, because of an agreement between the two companies. Some users likewise aren't thrilled about the "Chat" tab, which integrates with OpenAI. Notably, though, AI recommendations don't come through in standard searches on DuckDuckGo.
Kagi
Credit: Justin Pot
Kagi is a paid search engine with no ads whatsover. The subscription model, the theory goes, allows it to offer quality search results without any temptation on the part of the developers to water them down with ads. The engine has earned praise from the likes of Cory Doctorow and 404 Media's Jason Koebler, which isn't too shabby.
One feature people love is the ability to block matches from URLs you don't like from ever showing up in your search results, which is useful if you notice a particular website is consistently trash. There's also a tool for searching podcasts, which I haven't seen anywhere else. The main downside is that you have to pay. Plans start at $5/month, though that only gives you 300 searches. Unlimited search starts at $10/month. You can try the service for yourself and decide whether it's worth paying for—there's a free version, but it's limited to 100 total searches total.
There has been a bit of controversy around the company that's worth noting, mostly related to how the it is run, the around $2 million of investment money it recently took on after bragging about bootstrapping. Also, the CEO is being annoying about any criticism the company receives. That aside, the search engine itself seems to work well, so give it a shot if you're willing to pony up.
Brave
Credit: Justin Pot
Brave Search is the search engine from the team behind the Brave browser, which is famous for coming with built-in ad blocking. It sets itself apart from DuckDuckGo by having its own search index, built from scratch (DuckDuckGo combines its own index with data from Bing and numerous other companies).
Brave also offers a Goggles feature, which allows you to use custom filters that boost or downgrade outlets based on factors like topic and political persuasion. I found some of this overly simplistic—most websites are not uniformly one thing—but you can check the code to see what's being factored into any Goggle, so it's all very transparent at least. There's also a built-in AI engine that's opt-in—just press up after typing your search query to enable the feature for a specific search. The main shortcoming, in my opinion, is that there's no maps feature whatsoever.
Ecosia is a free, ad-supported search engine that donates all of its profits toward climate action. They are very transparent about this—you can read through the financial reports yourself. The search itself is powered by Bing, and works fairly well.
Perplexity.ai
Credit: Justin Pot
Perplexity is completely different beast. Instead of putting AI generated text at the top of results, it pretty much only offers AI generated text, with links serving as citations for all of the points made. You can ask a question and then a followup, which can be useful to refine your results, and clicking the citation gives you a few interesting links. I find that Perplexity seems to be better at spotting and understanding satire and jokes than Google's AI bot, though obviously you should test it out for yourself and see what comes back.
Obviously anyone who is concerned about AI shouldn't use Perplexity, and there are no doubt going to be privacy concerns for this browser in the long term—it has raised $165 million in venture capital, which isn't something that happens unless investors are expecting a massive return, and we all know where that kind of thing generally leads. For now, though, it's an interesting tool that doesn't have any ads, and it can be useful for some queries.
Or, use Google differently
If you don't want to give up on Google's search results but hate what the service has become, there are a few options. Startpage is a privacy-oriented service that uses Google's search index to deliver results without the tracking. There's also UDM14.com, a simple site that re-directs you to Google's web view. Both are URLs worth keeping bookmarking for those times when you still feel compelled to Google.
There are a lot of productivity applications out there, and FocusedOS tries to combine several of them. The application, which is available for all Apple devices, can block distracting apps and websites, dim the entire screen except for the window you're currently looking at, and play ambient sounds. The idea is that you'll be able to turn all of these features on with the press of a button, work, then turn it all off again when you're done.
To get started, simply download the application and decide which features you want to enable. The first tab, "Behavior," lets you dim all windows except the currently active one—this is similar to the application HazeOver ($4.99). You can also limit the number of apps that can show up on the screen and add some custom text to the menu bar. Finally, there's a feature that can hide icons on the menu bar, which is similar to the application Bartender ($22). You can also hide wallpaper or even go so far as to disable the wifi entirely. Note that none of these features are offered on the iPhone or iPad version of the application (mostly because they wouldn't make sense there).
There are also tools for blocking distracting apps and websites. You can choose which apps to block or only allow specific applications to open. Websites are a little simpler: There are pre-built categories you can add, or you can add URLs yourself.
Credit: Justin Pot
Finally, if this isn't enough, you can trigger any Apple Shortcut when you turn the focus mode on or off. You could use this to turn off notifications, start a timer, or anything else you can imagine.
The free version only allows you to create one "environment," meaning you configure everything the way you like it and that's how the application works. The paid version, which costs $20 per year, allows you to make multiple environments, meaning you could configure things differently for different tasks. The paid version also allows you to sync your current environment between your Mac, iPhone, and iPad, unlocks more ambient sounds, and allows you to run a shortcut when starting an environment.
I don't think this combination of tools is going to be right for everyone. If you're constantly toggling a collection of focus-boosting tools every time you need to focus, though, FocusedOS might be exactly what you need. Give the free version a try to find out.
Transcribing isn't fun at all. Good thing it's something AI is actually good at. Aiko is an app for Mac, iPad, and iPhone that users Whisper—open-source technology created by OpenAI—to transcribe audio files. Aiko does not upload the file to the cloud to make the transcription; everything happens on your device. And it works fairly quickly, too: I was able to transcribe a half hour radio drama in just a few minutes.
The application works best on devices with Apple Silicon processors (Intel Macs are technically supported but are extremely slow at transcribing); my 2022 iPhone SE was significantly faster than my 2018 Intel MacBook Pro, which took around three minutes to transcribe 10 seconds of talking. If you have the right hardware, though, this application is just about perfect.
Credit: Justin Pot
To get started, you need to either point the application toward a file or start recording what you want to transcribe. You can add any audio or video file to the application, which will immediately get started on creating a transcription for you. The recording feature is mostly there for quick notes—the software advises you to record things using another application first if at all possible. The mobile version can grab audio from the Voice Memos app, which is a nice touch.
Credit: Justin Pot
The application will show you the text as the transcription happens, meaning you can start reading before the complete transcription is done. The application automatically detects the language being spoken, though you can set a different language in the settings if you prefer. You can even set the application to automatically translate non-English conversation into English, if you want.
It's not a perfect application—there's no way to indicate who is speaking when in the text, for example. It works quickly, though, and is completely free, so it's hard to complain too much. This is going to be a go-to tool for me from now on.
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