best buys… Curated picks of third-party apps
Affinity Photo
It’s hard not to love Affinity Photo. Whether you’re fancy yourself a seasoned pro or a photo novice, you will find it powerful and easy to use. Its interface has 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!
Scrivener
It’s not often that a sequel is even better than its predecessor, but Scrivener 3 is a great example. Version 2 was already good, winning MF319’s group test, but version 3 adds so much. Its revamped interface is hugely customisable, its templates are fantastic, managing footnotes is a breeze, and the whole app is light and speedy. If you write, Scrivener is absolutely essential.
Spotify
Despite strong competition from the likes of Tidal, Apple Music and Amazon, Spotify is our top musicstreaming choice. It hits all the right notes, from its fair price to its curated playlists. Its library is one of the largest on the market, and its interface is simple and straightforward to use. And, unlike Apple Music and Tidal, it has a free tier as well.
Final Cut Pro X 10.3
Apple’s Final Cut Pro has always been a good option for video editors, but 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. It supports the Touch Bar, too, plus wide colour on the new MacBook Pro.
Carbon Copy Cloner 5
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.
Fantastical 2
If you find your calendar and reminders are getting out of control, Fantastical is the app for you. It supports natural language entry, so that you can enter events and reminders as you would speak and Fantastical will get to work. It’s got a nifty menu bar window, plus a great interface, clever calendar management and a powerful iOS app to boot.
RapidWeaver 7
Ever since Apple stopped updating iWeb, Mac users have been searching for the ideal replacement. Well, look no further – it’s RapidWeaver. Don’t know code? No worries, RapidWeaver lets you design visually if you want to. You can build any type of page and publish to any type of platform, and extend its functions with thousands of add-ons.
Machine learning has made its way into the latest version of djay Pro, enabling you to automatically mix, fade and filter tracks on the go. There are lots of other new features, from a new media library and Smart Playlists to PhotoBeat, which syncs pictures to the sound of the beat. All that makes djay Pro 2 a joy to use, and one of the best music apps available for Mac.
Spark djay Pro 2
Feeling inbox anxiety? The solution could be Spark, a free email app for Mac and iOS. It’s centred on a ‘smart inbox’, which prioritises your emails based on importance – no more losing that vital work email among a sea of spam. You can snooze emails and be reminded of them later, and search via natural language too. And to top it all off, it’s free.