Recommendations you can check.
Designer, product manager, YouTuber and developer who has written about technology at Birchtree since 2010; maker of the Quick Reviews and Quick Notes apps.
17 things
Adobe LightroomSoftware Adobe
Adobe Lightroom is the king of photo editing, but I sync my photo collection with Apple Photos.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
1PasswordSoftware AgileBits
As someone who uses more than just Apple devices, 1Password really delivers here and remains my password manager of choice.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
ArcSoftware The Browser Company
I know it doesn’t click with everyone, but as someone who lives in their browser most of the day, I really need one that’s fast, reliable, and a joy to use, and Arc checks all those boxes for me.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
Final Cut ProSoftware Apple
Professional video editing has never been more accessible than it is today, and Final Cut Pro continues to be my app of choice here.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
Keyboard MaestroSoftware Stairways Software
There are a multitude of ways to automate things on your Mac, but Keyboard Maestro is an S-tier player in this space and I use it for everything I can.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
MacWhisperSoftware Good Snooze
MacWhisper is a little app I just discovered that changed the game for me when it comes to creating high quality subtitles for my videos.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
MimestreamSoftware Neil Jhaveri
Mimestream feels like the Apple Mail app I’ve always wished Apple would make. It’s incredibly fast and fluid, it syncs instantly, and it supports all the keyboard shortcuts that you’d expect in a modern app
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
Readwise ReaderSoftware Readwise
is my favorite way to save things to read later, to actually read them, and to sync my highlights wherever I want.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
CronSoftware Notion
Cron is completely free and only works with Google Calendar, but it’s super fast and reliable.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
FantasticalSoftware Flexibits
While Fantastical is probably the best calendar app for most people using Apple devices
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
HazelSoftware Noodlesoft
Hazel is one of those automation tools that you don’t really know you need until you install it and play around a bit.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
PeteySoftware
The app costs a few dollars up front and then has an optional subscription for unlimited requests, but I would recommend going directly to OpenAI’s developer dashboard, creating your own account, and copy/pasting your own API key into Petey.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
Things 3Software Cultured Code
I use Things 3 for task management.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
RaycastSoftware Raycast
Raycast is my app launcher on the Mac.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
ReederSoftware Silvio Rizzi
Reeder is how I follow all my RSS feeds (via Inoreader on the back end for syncing).
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
PastebotSoftware Tapbots
Pastebot is my clipboard manager.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
Apple MailSoftware Apple
unlike Apple Mail, which seemingly uses shortcuts that made sense in 1995 and refuses to change.
A guest post he wrote for The Sweet Setup, running through the apps he considers essential to his work. Bylined 'by Matt Birchler' and written throughout in the first person.
2023-05-09·thesweetsetup.com ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.