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It seems like a long time ago that streaming subscriptions were easy to manage. There was Netflix, a few other new kids on the block and the cost wasn't much. Now, it's like a runaway train and without careful management, the costs can rise. Seasons is a wonderful little app that helps you address this. By adding movies and TV shows to your wishlist, alongside the current subscriptions that you have, Seasons can advise you of the optimum times to start and stop your various streaming subscriptions.

With Version 5, Alfred released its own built-in gallery that allows you to download workflows from a centralised location. Prior to this, workflows needed to be sourced from GitHub repositories and other locations on the Internet. They still can be retrieved that way, however having a one-stop shop for finding tools that make your day-to-day tasks on macOS easier is a great feature.In this short video, Lee guides you through browsing the new Alfred Gallery, and goes through installing useful workflows such as a Thesaurus, and Currency Converter.

• Alfred requires macOS 10.14 or newer

Alfred coverage on ScreenCastsONLINE

Alfred - App Store

Alfred - Product Page

Screen sharing on Mac is nothing new, but like any base feature there's always a developer that will come along and make the experience exceptional. Screens (now at version 5) takes the cake by offering a slew of features and functionality in a simple and approachable way. The app from Edovia allows screen sharing between Macs, and from a Mac to an iPhone, iPad or Vision Pro device.You can easily connect and view Macs on your local network, manually access them using URLs and remote access using your account with Screens. Follow along as Darcy guides you through the app and discover just how functional your Mac can be when you're away from it.

Screens requires:

iPadOS 17.0 or later

iOS 17.0 or later

macOS 14.0 or later

visionOS 1.1 or later

In-App Purchases:

Yearly Subscription $24.99

Monthly Subscription $2.99

Lifetime $99.00

More information:

Configuring macOS for Remote Access

Screens Connect Download

As a quick follow-up to episode 1375, which covered Little Snitch 6, Lee walks you through its lightweight little brother, Little Snitch Mini. This application is ideal for those who don't need to deal with the complexity of creating rules and rule groups. Instead, Little Snitch Mini presents you with a simple interface for blocking applications and processes in real time, as well as implementing Block Lists to filter out specific domains.

Little Snitch Mini requires macOS 12.0 or later.

In-App Purchases (USD)

Yearly Subscription $13.49

Monthly Subscription $1.49

Transloader is a well made and simple app allowing you to initiate downloads on your Mac from your iPhone or iPad. We spend a lot of time on mobile devices, including researching apps or investigating other downloads that are Mac-specific. Instead of using your carrier data, transferring from your device to Mac or using iCloud to sync, Transloader allows you to share the download link with your Mac and have it download at home, ready for your return. Join Darcy as he shows you around the app with some real world examples.

• Transloader requires macOS 10.4 or later; iOS 14 or later.
• The Mac version costs $9.99 USD.
• It is available as part of your Setapp subscription at no additional cost.

Little Snitch from Objective Development has been safeguarding your Mac's exposure to the internet for over 20 years. However firewall software, by its very nature, can be confusing and often requires a knowledge of ports and protocols to achieve the results you need. The latest version of Little Snitch helps solve this problem, with an easy to understand interface and a Network Monitor view that makes it easy to allow and deny individual applications and processes from accessing resources externally.

In this video, Lee walks you through the basics of setting up Rules, Rule Groups, implementing Block Lists, and setting up different Profiles that will apply different rules dependent on your location, work mode, even based on the network you're currently on.

Little Snitch 6 requires macOS Sonoma or newer.

---You get a 10% discount until August 12 2024 when you purchase a Little Snitch license of your choice.

Simply click "You have a discount coupon?" and enter discount code DT-4BA3-D961 on the checkout page.

Following on from the recent UniFi Express screencast, Don takes a look at the iOS companion app, WiFiman. This iOS app allows you to monitor your UniFi network and optimise the placement of access points. It also has a built-in zero configuration VPN service called Teleport, which allows you to access your network easily and securely from anywhere.

Join Don as he takes you through all of the features of WiFiman using his own home network, complete with a walk-through showing you where all his access points are located.

The iPhone is a powerful computer in your pocket, but it can also be a portal to distraction.  By eliminating the badges and icons from your iPhone Home Screen, you can increase the likelihood of being able to follow through on your original intentions when you picked up your phone in the first place. In this tip video, Mike shares how he uses an app called Blank Spaces to protect his focus by crafting a purposefully minimalist iPhone Home Screen.

In this episode Darcy explores the deep scroll, cursor, button and keyboard customisations offered by BetterMouse. Use this simple and affordable utility to fine-tune your scrolling and cursor speed, acceleration and smoothness. Then go on to assign hotkeys to the extra buttons on your mouse and make new ones for your system as a whole. There is a lot more you can do with BetterMouse and Darcy goes through several more useful tips in this video.

Obsidian is great, but lacks deep integration with Apple's Shortcuts application. Actions for Obsidian fixes by adding over 50 actions that turn Obsidian into a first-class Shortcuts citizen.

In this short video, Mike shows you how to set it up and walks you through his daily journaling workflow which makes good use of Actions for Obsidian in Shortcuts.

App Lock takes app security and privacy to a whole new level of control.  Integrating with Screen Time, you can manually block apps from being accessible or hide them entirely.  With scheduling built in you can control when apps are visible, when you can access them, and for how long. Top it all off with switch controls to prevent new app downloads, deleting apps, changing cellular settings or altering your password and you've got the ultimate security app. Darcy takes you on a complete tour of App Lock in this short video.

Find Any File lets you search for files on your disk in ways that Spotlight can’t. It uses the system driver’s fast search operations and lets you search for file properties and inside bundles and packages that are normally hidden. You can think of it as a way to augment Spotlight when searching for files on your system.

In this episode, Allison goes deep on Find Any File and reveals its power with several useful examples.

Soulver is a feature-rich calculator app that allows you to do simple and complex calculations on many objects. Simple arithmetic, percentages, unit and currency conversions, date calculations, and much more. With Soulver Mini, this functionality is brought front and centre via a Spotlight-style panel, which is activated by a menu bar icon or global keystroke.

In this screencast, Don does a quick review of Soulver basics before introducing its little brother, and demonstrating its capabilities. If you have a Setapp subscription, you have access to all versions of Soulver.

If you are looking to get into automating actions on your Apple device, Shortcuts is a wonderful Apple utility. However, many people are deterred by the learning curve that comes with it. That doesn't have to be the case though: the Shortcuts Gallery has a large number of ready-made shortcuts for you to download and use right away.

In this video, Lee briefly runs through the components of a shortcut before entering the Gallery and showing you how to search, download and run some useful, real-world examples. You experience shortcuts that can adjust the volume to specific levels on your Mac, send emails to yourself, organise your app windows, and more.

If you are unsure about Shortcuts and want to know more without being overwhelmed with configuring them, this is the video for you.

There are lots of options for mirroring your iOS devices to your Mac, but few let you connect wirelessly. Reflector not only gives you quality screen mirroring without a cable, but it also lets you mirror multiple devices at once. In this episode, Mike shows you how to set up and use Reflector 4.

The developer of Drafts has released an application that solves one of Lee's challenges: scanning on the go. Whilst there is no shortage of scanning apps in the App Store, they tend to be either too expensive, or strewn with ads making it difficult to just pick up your phone, scan, and move on. Simple Scan is different because it's inexpensive and allows you to lightly configure it make sure you can quickly scan documents and carry on with your day. Lee walks you through the current feature set in this video.

Arc Search for iOS is the latest app from The Browser Company, the developers behind Arc. Arc Search has been developed as a new way of searching the Internet from your mobile device, including the innovative "Browse for Me" feature. Join Don as he explores this fresh take on finding information on the web.

Keeping track of your Apple devices, AirTag items, and even loved ones, is easy with Apple's Find My app. Regardless of the platform you are using, you can keep track of your devices whereabouts, notify friends and family when you are leaving or arriving at a location, mark devices as lost if you fear they won't be returned and much more. In this video, Lee gives you a tour of Find My and its features.

Superkey is a versatile utility on macOS, giving you a bunch of handy tools to help you navigate your Mac more easily without a mouse or trackpad.

In this tutorial, Mike shows how to set up 2 kinds of hyperkeys so you can add additional keyboard shortcuts without running into conflicts. You also learn about Superkey's clever Seek command.

The original version of ScreenFloat has been around for a long time and recently, version 2 was released, bringing along a host of features that cannot be ignored.  As well as focusing on capturing portions of your screen, ScreenFloat 2 is great at helping you organise all of these shots, which is incredibly useful for projects you are working on. In this video, Lee shows you the different capturing methods, how to capture as well as redact text, as well as faces! Closing and hiding active shots is a key part of the app and this is covered in detail, as well as the Shots Browser, which lets you organise your captures using Folders, Smart Folders and Tags. SCO screencast mentioned in this episode: Tip - macOS - ScreenFloat (2017)