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Default apps 2023

After sharing a list of the places I’ve been, time to join in with another popular blogging topic which involves people sharing the default apps they currently use.

As you’ll see, I score pretty highly on my dependence on the ‘default’ default apps, and so the less said about my reliance on Apple’s offerings, the better.

📨 Mail client
macOS Mail.
📮 Mail server
My Mythic Beasts server. In the past I’ve considered going all in on iCloud now that you can use a custom domain name, or using a service like Fastmail or Proton Mail, but transferring my mail archive would be a lot of faff with risk of data loss all for little gain. Never Gmail.
🙍🏻‍♂️ Contacts
macOS Contacts.
🗓️ Calendar
macOS Calendar.
🗒️ Notes
macOS Notes.
✅ To do
macOS Reminders. Having tried many times to avoid keeping to do lists in Notes, this year I’ve finally managed to start using Reminders. Of all the apps bundled with macOS, this is by far the worst. Bloated with features, fiddly to use, and not that nice to look at, either.
💬 Chat
Messages ideally, but in most cases WhatsApp. Not by choice, this being the one reluctant exception to my otherwise successful boycott of Facebook’s Meta’s products.
🌐 Web browsing
Safari… though I’m edging closer to giving Arc a try.
📷 Photo shooting
Fujifilm X-S20 (iPhone 11 Pro through gritted teeth).
🎞️ Photo organisation
macOS Photos. Having been burnt by Adobe enough times over the years and weary of their monopoly over creative apps, I won’t use Lightroom. This means begrudgingly relying on Photos which redeems itself thanks to its iCloud integration. Aperture remains sorely missed.
🌅 Photo editing
Pixelmator Pro which all too often fills the gaps in Photos lacklustre editing tools.
📖 Feeds
NetNewsWire, synced using iCloud.
📑 Read It Later
In theory I have an Instapaper account, but in practice it doesn’t matter. I’ve stopped saving long-form articles to read later and instead leave them unread in my feed reader.
🔖 Bookmarks
Pinboard? Again, I’ve stopped managing bookmarks as I realised that I rarely return to them.
🔐 Password management
macOS Passwords.
📄 Word processing
iA Writer – points awarded for its Micropub support.
📈 Spreadsheets
I enjoy using Google Sheets for work, even more so since experiencing the embarrassing shit show that is Microsoft 365. For personal stuff, its Numbers.
📊 Presentations
Typically Keynote, but I created my presentation for UX London using iA Presenter and it was a revelation.
📰 News
No apps, just visiting websites such as The Guardian, The Verge
🎵 Music
Apple Music.
🎤 Podcasts
Overcast – a rare divergence from Apple’s default.
📐 Design
Sketch and the GOV.UK Prototype Kit. Never Figma.
👨🏼‍💻 Code
Visual Studio Code – though I’d really like to say Nova.
📁 Cloud file storage
iCloud Drive, with Transmit used to access my FTP server.
🐘 Mastodon
The beautifully designed Elk on my desktop, and the equally lovely official Mastodon app on iOS which people unfairly criticise and I have no idea why.
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