Tags

In Show 1597, Lee looked at Brave's Browser and Search Engine and in this Tip video, he looks at two more products in the suite, namely Brave News, that gives you an aggregated news feed, directly in your browser, and Brave VPN which is an optional paid service that gives you a VPN on up to 10 devices. In this video, Lee shows you how to set the VPN up on both macOS and iOS.

If you've ever wondered whether there's a browser that actually looks out for you by default, rather than making you dig through menus and install a stack of extensions just to feel a bit safer online, this show is for you. Lee takes a proper look at Brave, the free browser built around blocking ads and trackers automatically.

In addition to the browser, Lee also looks at how Brave Search works. It can be used in any browser and contains some features that may make you consider switching search engines, even if you choose not to use Brave as your daily browser. You also learn the ins and outs of Leo, the built-in AI assistant that handles far more than a simple chat window.

In this second screencast on Claude, we dive deeper into the more powerful and more customizable features that can really help you level up your productivity. We'll be looking at Claude Skills and show you how to build your own, briefly touch on MCP (model context protocol) to show you how connecting to other tools can give your Claude new abilities, and show you how you can schedule tasks that use these skills and MCP connections to get things done while you're away from your computer. We'll even show you how to use Claude Code to vibe code a complete web app from scratch without knowing any code.

MindSpace is an incredibly powerful mind mapping app that imports maps from Markdown, OPML, TXT, FreeMind, iThoughts, and more. It works across macOS, iOS, and iPadOS and has Family Sharing support.

The interface is intuitive on all platforms and supports many common keyboard shortcuts to add and move nodes around, and even fold and reveal nodes at different levels.

You can define relationships between nodes with arrows of different formats, as well as create summaries of a collection of nodes with curly brackets. You can add images, web links, and comments to nodes, and much more.

MindSpace has all of the other mind mapping capabilities you expect, like the ability to work in outline view, fabulous search tools, and the ability set a focus node to get rid of distractions. At the time of recording, the subscription pricing starts at a minuscule dollar US per month, or you can get a lifetime license for $13!

In Part 2 of our Pages 2026 series, Lee picks up where show 1571 left off and takes you deeper into understanding what Pages can do. You learn how to work with images — inserting, styling, cropping, and removing backgrounds — as well as shapes, text boxes, and lists. Lee covers page setup including margins, columns, and paper size. He then moves on to sections, showing how to control headers, footers, and page numbering independently across different parts of your document. The video also covers building a Table of Contents, adding bookmarks and footnotes, and using the Track Changes and Comments feature for document collaboration.

Whether you're writing reports, collaborating with colleagues, or creating designed documents from scratch, this episode gives you the tools to get the most out of Pages on your Mac.

When Freeform was released in December 2022, it was to little fanfare as it was completely unexpected and seen as a clear example of a first version of an application. Nice foundations, but not what you would call feature-rich.

Since that initial release, Freeform has received some of its most significant updates yet — including Scenes for organising large boards, Snap to Grid for cleaner layouts, and Tables arriving in iOS 26.2. And with iOS 26.4, Freeform has taken its biggest leap forward, gaining access to Apple Creator Studio's advanced AI image generation and a premium Content Hub, Users who dismissed Freeform early are giving it a second look — and those who stuck with it are finding a genuinely capable creative workspace where there was once just a blank canvas.

In this video, Lee walks you through some of the key updates that have landed since that first release.

With the rise in AI tools showing no sign of slowing, it can be easy to find yourself bouncing between tools and services in a typical day. Dia, the new browser from The Browser Company, aims to change that, by letting you chat with your tabs and get the answers you need within one application.

After announcing there would be no further development of their first browser, Arc, Dia has been growing in popularity, especially since it started including some of the features that made Arc popular - such as the vertical sidebar. In this video, Lee walks you through how to make the most of the Dia interface, before diving into how you can use Chat, Skills and Memory to browse the web and make the whole experience more efficient.

These days, so many of us have subscriptions in our life. If you are watching this video, then you probably have one to ScreenCastsONLINE! Before long however, they can build up and that's where Subscription Day comes in. It's an excellent application to help you look at your all of your subscriptions in one place. With both a macOS and iOS version, it lets you add subscriptions both manually and via an import process that's magic-like! This lets you gauge how much is being spent on a monthly and annual basis, so you can make better decisions as to what to keep and to lose.

In this video, Lee walks you, end-to-end, through the process of adding your current subscriptions into the application, then shows you how useful Subscription Day's reports feature is.

OmniOutliner has long been the standard to which other outlining applications aspire and the release of version 6 doesn't change that fact at all. It's as feature-rich as ever with the attention to detail that is expected from the Omni Group. In this video, Lee walks through the basics of outlining from the ground up, so there is no requirement to watch a previous video.

You learn how to use some of the new features that version 6 brings, such as Connected Folders, OmniLinks and using the Apple Foundation Model for leveraging Apple Intelligence.

The Health application can contain a lot of data, however, when it comes to extracting the data into a readable format, it can be found wanting. Activas is an application that attempts to resolve this shortfall by pulling the data from core Health categories and not only presenting them in a manner that's useful, it also uses on-device AI to offer solid recommendations on how you can maintain or improve your stats.

At the time of recording, it's a free application that solves a genuine problem and all information is processed on-device, meaning privacy concerns are maintained as well. So in this video, Lee walks through Activas end-to-end, starting with deciding what information you would like Activas to work with, through to using the AI to help make sense of it all.

Apple have spent a lot of time focusing their recent advertising campaigns on promoting the Sleep Score feature that has been added to Apple Health, however the ability to track your sleep quality with Apple Watch has slipped under the radar for many people.

In this Tip video, Lee looks at how to set up Sleep Tracking on your compatible devices, setup sleep goals, schedules, focus modes and more, to ensure you have the knowledge required to make the most of this important feature.

Have you ever wished a web service had a dedicated Mac app instead of staying in the browser? With Unite, you can create your very own. With 90 pre-built apps from popular websites for social media, shopping, news sites, and more, you may find the one you want right away. But Unite lets you create them from scratch, and you can also make what Allison calls "Super Apps" with multiple web services as tabs in the same Mac app. Join Allison as she shows you the ins and outs of Unite, with lots of useful examples and tips.

Unite runs on macOS 12 (Monterey) or later, and is available as part of your Setapp subscription (as of this video's release).

1Password is probably the premier password management tool available today. As well as ideally suited to individuals, 1Password for Families takes password management to another level. In this episode, Don takes you through the process of signing up and setting up a family of four. You learn about 1Password's flexible vault structure, how to import your existing password, and a lot more.

Don wraps up by taking a look at how you can export your 1Password data to an encrypted USB drive for offsite storage, as well as the new-and-improved recovery code process.

We've looked at CARROT Weather a couple of times in recent years here at ScreenCastsONLINE, however both videos were fleeting in nature as we gave just a broad overview in how to use it. It's developed so much in the last few years and given the fact Lee uses it daily as the only weather application he trusts, he felt it was time to dive deep into the app and show you all fully how it works. It's got so many features, it actually goes beyond being a weather app.

It's now got an AI Chatbot that gives you snarky answers in typical Carrot style and it's now more customisable than ever, meaning if ever you needed a weather application that you could mould into the style you want, this is it.

CARROT Weather runs on iOS or iPadOS 15 and newer, and a Mac with an M1 chip or newer, and macOS 12.5 or newer.

Whilst researching last weeks video on Kagi Search, Lee started playing with their news service - originally called Kagi News to see how it compared with other news products. Kagi News is very different, in that it doesn't periodically update during the day. Instead, you have one digest, at 12pm UTC with no more than 12 stories per category. This helps prevent overwhelm and whilst it may seem like a strange tactic, it works surprisingly well and in this video, Lee shows you how to use it, and tailor it to your own needs.

Following on from Allison's show last week on managing Apple Photo libraries with the help of PowerPhotos, Don's thoughts turned to optimising and organising the actual contents. In this week's show, he grasps the nettle on sorting out his personal Photos library, as years of neglect have resulted in out-of-date and unorganised albums, both personal and shared. You also learn how Apple Intelligence can help in this organisation, giving you solid organization tools, both automated and manual. The version of Photos seen in this video requires macOS Tahoe 26.

PowerPhotos works with the built-in Photos app on your Mac, providing powerful tools to manage your photos and videos. With PowerPhotos, you can split large libraries, as well as merge existing libraries. You can find and delete duplicate images with full control of how duplicates are defined and managed.

You also get a much better metadata editor, which even supports batch editing. Join Allison as she guides you through PowerPhotos' extensive feature set, with real world examples.

Get a 20% discount at checkout by using code SCREENCASTSONLINE (This offer is valid through January 10, 2026.)

PowerPhotos 3 is a one-time purchase of $39.95 USD, and requires macOS Sonoma or newer. If you already own PowerPhotos 1 or 2, you can purchase an upgrade for $19.95 USD.

** SPECIAL DISCOUNT for SCO members: get a 20% discount at checkout by using code SCREENCASTSONLINE **

See more information in Resources below.

In this video, Darcy introduces you to Doneit, a full-featured project management tool, available across every Apple device, including Apple Watch. This app allows you to grow into your own style by only choosing the elements that work best for how you like to capture and organise your tasks. Like other apps in that category, it incorporates tagging, statuses and priorities, but with a degree of customisation that makes them fit neatly into your projects.

Join Darcy as he builds a project and related tasks around going on holiday. You learn about Doneit's interface and its many components along the way, and you see it in action on iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch in this video.

Doneit will run on iOS and iPadOS 17 or newer; macOS 14 or newer; watchOS 10 or newer.

A lifetime Premium license costs $19.99 USD. See all pricing information in the Resources section below.

Downtime is a precious commodity so when you get some time to sit back and consume media, whether it's a movie, series, book, audio book or playing a game, you want to be sure you're making the most of that time.  Sequel is an application that Lee has embedded firmly into his workflow as it allows you to add titles into wishlists from a variety of sources and then, when you get the chance to sit down and relax, it can guide you to ensure you are not wasting time, scrolling for the next thing to watch. You can add items manually, or from an external source and Sequel has a Magic Lookup feature that enables it to read a web page and find media that can be added to your Sequel database. You can set up Release Reminders so when your new show lands, you don't miss it and it's a highly customisable application with great Shortcuts support and Home Screen Widgets.

In his video, Lee walks you through the application end to end.

There are many different apps that track your nutrition and diet, but few do it as effortlessly as FitCounter. Use your camera to scan foods while you shop, showing their nutritional information including calories, protein, fats and carbs. Add them directly to your breakfast, lunch or dinner for that day or save them to your library for later use. And overall picture of what you’re eating throughout the day emerges, advising you to increase or decrease consumption to meet your goals.  Meals can be saved for reuse, and FitCounter even offers a large digital cookbook so you can get ideas for meals, recipes and include them in your tracking.FitCounter is a subscription-based product costing £29.99 for an annual payment at time of recording, or £5.99 per month if paying monthly.