---
layout: ../../layouts/BlogPost.astro
title: "My Favorite Little Apps"
pubDate: 2022-11-28
---

There are a lot of apps on my Macs that I use every day. There’s the big ones like Nova for coding, Brave for testing and dev tools, Craft for taking notes and keeping track of projects, and many more. But I wanted to pay special attention to the smaller apps that I use that just hang out in the menu bar or the background that make working in MacOS that much more seamless and enjoyable.

### Itsycal

This is a cool little free that puts a calendar in your menubar. It’s a great way to get a quick glance at my day, and join Zoom/Google Meet calls without opening a full calendar app.

[Download Here](https://www.mowglii.com/itsycal/)

### Tot

A note pad that lives in your menu bar! I use it for jotting down notes during meetings, temporarily storing snippets of text and code, making quick lists, storing links for later…you get the idea.

The Mac app is free, but you can also buy an iOS version.

[Download Here](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tot/id1491071483?mt=12)

### Rectangle Pro

Snap, resize, and align windows with keyboard shortcuts, or by dragging then across the screen. It’s highly customizable, and I’m going to be honest I haven’t even scratched the surface of the variety of options the Pro version provides, I just bought it to support development.

There are a lot of apps for Mac that do similar things, but this is, in my opinion, the best available.

[Download/Buy Here](https://rectangleapp.com/)

### Velja

Because I use Safari as my primary browser, but prefer to use Brave for development, this app saves me time and mouse clicks. Basically Velja routes links opened from any app to any browser you have installed. For example, I have it set up to open any ‘localhost’ URLs in Brave.

It offers a variety of built-in filters that will even work with certain apps (like Apple Music, Discord, Zoom, etc).

[Download Here](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/velja/id1607635845?mt=12)

### Contexts

It’s the built-in command + tab app switcher on steroids! Instead of a row of icons, you get a list of every window that you can either tab through or even search by app or window title. It’s another app I feel lost with if I’m using a computer without it installed.

[Buy Here](https://contexts.co/)

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_This post was originally published on my (now defunct) blog on my portfolio site [ghall.dev](https://ghall.dev), and was republished here for archival purposes._
