Mac Format - UK (2019-12)

Software STORE GUIDE

BEST BUYS... Curated picks of third-party apps

DECEMBER 2019 | MACFORMAT | 103

Apple’s Reminders app

has always been a tad

lacklustre, but GoodTask

is the polar opposite. It

blends simplicity with

sophistication, giving you a huge amount

of control over your reminders without

swamping you with options. Firing off

reminders is quick and easy, and its smart

snippets and extensive customisation

make it powerful. There’s so much on

offer, we’d recommend it to everyone.

PHOTO EDITOR (MAC)

Affinity Photo

£48.99 serif.com

VIDEO EDITOR (MAC)

Final Cut Pro X 10.3

£299.99 apple.com/uk

WRITING APP (MAC/iOS)

Ulysses

£35.99/yr (Mac/iOS) ulysses.app

REMINDERS APP (MAC/iOS)

GoodTask

£19.99 (Mac), £9.99 (iOS) bit.ly/mfgtapp

UTILITY (MAC)

Carbon Copy Cloner 5

£31.10 bombich.com

SYSTEM ENHANCEMENT (MAC)

Bartender 3

£11.10 macbartender.com

OUTLINING APP (iOS)

OmniOutliner 3

£9.99 for Essentials, £38.99 for Premium

omnigroup.com

PRODUCTIVITY APP (MAC/iOS)

Fantastical 2

£38.99 (Mac), £2.99 (iPhone)

flexibits.com

EMAIL MANAGER (MAC/iOS)

Spark

Free sparkmailapp.com

It’s hard not to love

Affinity Photo. Whether

you fancy yourself as

a seasoned pro or a

photo novice, you’ll

find this image editor powerful and easy

to use. Its interface offers the perfect

blend of ease of use and quick access to

powerful features, and its useful batch

processing is a great addition. An app

that packs both power and practicality

for less than £50? We’re in!

Apple’s Final Cut Pro

has always been a good

option for video editors,

and the latest version

makes it even better.

It introduces ‘roles’, which can be

colour-coded to make your timeline’s

components easier to navigate, something

that’s further boosted by the streamlined

interface. This version also supports the

Touch Bar and wide colour gamut display

on recent models of MacBook Pro.

Whether you’re making

notes, jotting down ideas

or writing long-form

documents, Ulysses

is your go-to app.

As a writing tool, it’s fast, flexible and

easy to get to grip with. Plus it’s packed

with handy options for saving and sharing

your work across all kinds of platforms,

and it supports Markdown and iCloud

sync, too. The £36 annual subscription

unlocks both the Mac and iOS versions.

When disaster strikes

and your hard drive fails,

having a backup can be

a lifesaver. This app

makes creating and

restoring from backups an absolute

breeze. It comes with a helpful guided

restore feature, plus a Cloning Coach that

monitors what you do and looks out for

potential problems. If you’re looking to

clone or back up your hard drive, this is

the app you need.

Some apps are so

simple and effective

that you don’t know

how you lived without

them. Bartender is

one: it lets you choose what appears in

the menu bar, and when things appear

too. You can set triggers, such as an app

only appearing when it’s updating, and

rearrange items. Bartender’s settings are

clear and concise. It sounds simple, but

it’ll change the way you use your Mac.

Feeling inbox anxiety?

The solution could be

Spark, our favourite

iPhone email app after

winning MF #340’s

group test. Its ‘smart inbox’ prioritises

emails based on perceived importance –

no more vital messages getting lost in

a sea of spam. You can snooze messages

to be reminded about them later, and

search your mailboxes using natural

language. And to top it all off, it’s free.

If your calendar and

reminders are getting

out of control, Fantastical

can sort things out. It

has support for natural

language entry, so you can enter events

and reminders as you would say them. It’s

got a nifty menu bar shortcut, plus a great

interface, clever calendar management

and a powerful iOS app. It won MF #338’s

group test, underscoring its prowess.

Sometimes you just

need to get your ideas

down quickly. For times

like that, you need to

get OmniOutliner 3.

It’s extremely easy to get started, and

enables you to quickly search and

reorganise your notes. The Pro version

adds encryption, automation, custom

templates and much more. It’s the best

way to jot down and organise your ideas.

Image credits (left to right, top to bottom): Serif, Apple, Ulysses, Haha Interactive,

Bombich Software, Surtees Studios, The Omni Group, Flexibits, Readdle