macOS, iPadOS and iOS apps

[SynoMan]

macOS, iPadOS and iOS users!

What apps (for NAS or in general) do you use or recommend for Mac, iPad and iPhone?

If possible I use built-in apps on every device and most of them I like.

Here are some of the other apps I like or use:

macOS apps
Capto	For screen capture, short videos for tutorials etc.
News Explorer	To me the best RSS reader. Synchronizes with iOS app via iCloud
Visual Studio Code	Code editor
ForkLift	Best FTP client to me
Trello	You know Trello. Boards, card, organizing, projects... Useful
Bitwarden	The best ever password manager. Running it on my NAS.
RocketChat	Sometimes you need to chat.
Twitter	For Synoforum.com.
iMazing	It really is amazing. Backups my iPhone directly to NAS.
Synology Drive	...
Synology Note Station	...
MS Office	...
ColorSlurp	Color picker
Firefox, Brave, Chrome browser	For testing only. My main browser is Safari. Ok, sometimes I use Firefox.
Photoshop	You know PS.

iOS
DS Note	...
Moments	...
Bitwarden	Can't live without my password manager
News Explorer	RSS reader
Sygic	Navigation - best for me with traffic
Authy	...
Trello	...
Traffic Monitor	Monitor mobile data

 

[WST16]

Relevant to our NAS use or in general?

 

[SynoMan]

General, or NAS. Any apps.

(I've updated my first post)

 

[WST16]

That would be a long list
I’ll try.

 

[fredbert]

I'll add the Mac apps I use first. Mostly I try to use the built-in apps so as I've found over time that's been the best approach. So I won't list them except if something is so useful.

Most useful apps
Terminal	OK, I said I'd leave built-in apps off but I have this running 95% of the time
Carbon Copy Cloner	I rely on this for backups and clones, and shifting large groups of files around
1Password	Been using for years and you know it works when the whole family actually use it
BBEdit	Along with Terminal I live in this app it's always running. (started this table in it)
Automator	The other built-in app. So useful for knocking up Services
TaskPaper	Simple markup app for managing lists
EasyFind	Go for searching for hidden files when uninstalling apps
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test	Need to know how slow the disk is so I can justify an upgrade
Network apps
Transmit	Classic two-pane file transfer utility, my go to app for this
Cyberduck	Still use it but less so than Transmit now
Cryptomator	Useful for creating cross-platform secure vaults
CloudMounter	My moving away strategy from multiple Cloud sync apps. No used as much as expected since Syno. Drive and ShareSync (with Transmit) can do most of this.
Tunnleblick	OpenVPN client for MacBook
Utility & widgets
WiFi Explorer	Scan WiFi SSID for signal strength plus other info.
PeakHour 4	SNMP bandwidth and connection monitor
iStat Menus	Yeah, yeah, but I like having my CPU being used to monitor it and other metrics
Bartender	Cos I've too many menu bar items and this keeps them organised
Magnet	Snap windows to screen edges and re-sized them
General apps
Acorn	Simple graphics editor
Rapidweaver (v7)	Expensive now but not when v1. Still useful to knock up a website
Audio Hijack	Love this. Grab app audio and record it and/or send it elsewhere
Fission	Love this too. Snip down audio files losslessly. Great fro making audiobooks
MetaZ	For iTunes this was useful for getting tags and adding age-ratings to videos
VLC	Well of course
SoundSource	Grab and route every apps' audio to whichever output device you want
Airfoil Airfoil Satellite	Send any app's audio to a AirPlay receiver Turn a Mac/Win/iOS/Android into an AirPlay receiver
iMazing	Moving away from iTunes to manage iOS myself. Scheduled WiFi backups work!!!
Reeder	Handy companion to iOS version. Better than some web interfaces
Calibre	Useful if you want to manage ebooks

 

[SynoMan]

Great, fredbert. Nice list of apps you got there. I've updated my first post.

 

[fredbert]

I obviously missed off Syno Drive and Note Station client in Mac. And I’ve loads of other apps that fall into ‘use it but I can live without it’. MS Office too because I was told to.

Omnigraffle for diagrams. But we’re getting into a high cost per file now, for me.

Best value app I have is Carbon Copy Cloner. It gets used so much for scheduled file copies not just backup tasks.

 

[jono]

One I'm liking lately on iOS is Secure Shellfish. Seems to work better (quicker, more responsive) for managing files on my Synology in Apple's Files app than enabling Synology Drive.

Others I can't live without on macOS:
Keyboard Maestro
LaunchBar
Fantastical
Cardhop
Paste
1Password
HoudahSpot
Things
Atom
Screens 4
Soulver

 

[WST16]

I’m going to throw everything here (typed on the go). Not as neat as you guys

Mac
LanScan (network utility)
iMazing (iOS devices backup)
Sparkle (website designer/builder)
iStat menus (system info)
Luminar 3 (RAW photo editing)
Movist (media player)
Magnet (windows management)
App Cleaner pro (delete apps)
Gemini 2 (remove duplicate files)
Find Empty Folders (a free and useful utility I found somewhere)
Cyberduck (remote connections)
Squeed (music files metadata editor)

Mac and iOS
Pages, Numbers and Keynote
MoneyWiz 2 (financials)
Mindnode (mind mapping)
Speed Test
VLC (media player)
Firefox (but I use Safari 99.999% of the time)

iPadOS and iOS (some of the below only works on iPadOS)
Goodnotes (note taking with Apple Pencil)
Pixelimator (image editor. Think functions like photoshop)
Pixelimator Photo (RAW photo editing)
Procreate (sketching and drawing)
Fantastical 2 (calendar)
Notebooks (note taking and organizing)
HashPhotos (simple photo editing)
Parcel (package tracking)
Net Analyzer (network tools)
iA Writer (markdown editor)
Proton Mail (secure mail)
Genius scan (document scanner)
Genius sign (fill and sign pdf docs)
I2Reader Cloud (ePub reader)
Downcast (podcasts)
MusicID (identify the music playing)
Codebook (password management). Use Bitwarden on NAS if you’re just starting.
Fenix (a simple twitter app)
DayRate (currency converter)
Documents by Readdle, paid version (best PDF documents reader I’ve found. Although I’m trying to get rid of it to no avail)
Shelly (SSH client)
OpenVPN client
PhotoSync (syncs photos to NAS)
Video2Photo (extract photos from videos)
Chromatica (camera app)
Rego Pro (places bookmark)
TLS Inspector (check site certificate validity and more)
Today is (days counter. Only one I can find that shows years, months and days. Almost all the rest show days only. I wish for categories.)
Altimeter+ (altitude meter)
MinimaList (to do lists)
Konvert (units converter)
Flight Tracker (flight app to manage trips with airport info and more)
Compass X (this was before Apple’s compass but it looks much better, so I still use it)
BBC (news)
CardKeeper (business cards)
TuneIn radio
Digits (calculator)
Calc (calculator. I like their widget)
Counter+ (track many counters)
Ruler (very handy)
ESSE (text transformation)
PhotoLink (I use it to put photos on the widget, useful to keep barcodes and snippets of info handy)
WhatsApp and Skype (unfortunately)
DataMan (cellular data usage monitor app and widget)
First Aid
Horizon Chase (the only game that’s always on the device. Others come and go. Not an avid gamer anyway)

Synology iOS DS apps: File, video, audio, cam, get and finder.
And a few VPN clients and local apps and whatever I forgot

Feel free to ask any questions.

 

[SynoMan]

Wow, quite a list!

Yes, I forgot Traffic Monitor for iOS, adding it now.

 

[WST16]

Here’s one I forgot, but really useful if you’re dealing with different time zones. Klok app and widget. It shows different time zones (up to five) and performs time shifts. And it’s free. You can’t go wrong

 

[BobW]

MacOS
Beside the default apps

• Postbox (for e-mail) best e-mail client IMHO. It’s like a child born out of Thunderbird and Apple’s Mail
• DevonThink Pro Office (for EDMS) I haven’t find a better one yet. (Tried a lot of the Selfhosting solutions but nothing compared to DevonThink
• Tag Editor (for editing my music Tags before adding them to iTunes)
• Authy (TOTP authenticator)
• 1Password (bought once a lifetime license for mac and ios, but unfortunately AgileBits changed their business-model to a subscription and now i’m stuck on with this old version).
• Bitwarden (luckily I came across Bitwarden (Selfhost) to replace the still beloved 1Password)
• MoneyWizz 3 (financial expenses money management app) Also testing FireFlyiii (Selfhost) at the moment
• Browsers (Safari, FireFox, Waterfox)
• VPN (Tunnelblick, NordVPN desktop app and ProtonVPN desktop app)
• ChronoSync (backup software)
• BBEdit
• AppCleaner (FreeMacSoft) works great to delete apps from my mac
• BookMacster (bookmarks sync between safari and firefox)
• Boxcryptor (to encrypt backups to pCloud, iCloud, Sync)
• CrossOver (WinSCP and Notepad++ for my Synology)
• dupeGuru (finding duplicate files)
• Handbrake (converting movie files)
• PlistEdit Pro
• Transmit and / or Cyberduck for FTP/SFTP
• De most default MacOS apps and Pages, numbers,
• Notes and DS Note (still comparing which is better)
• Calendar, Contacts, Reminders (Syncing with Baikal my davserver)
• Synology Cloud Station
• pCloud Drive
• Nextcloud (testing)
• Rocket Chat (testing works great so far)

IOS (phone and ipad)

• 1Password
• Bitwarden
• Authy
• Signal, Wire, Threema and Rocket Chat (for safe and privacy aware messages)
• Telegram (for notifications of my Synology NAS)
• Whatsapp (for all the other non believers in privacy aware messages)
• ProtonMail and Tutanota
• OpenVPN, NordVPN and ProtonVPN apps)
• Synology apps (DS File, DS Photo also for backing up my Photos, DS Note and DS Music)
• The default apps (Reminder, Calendar and Contacts sync with Baikal davserver)
• Pages, numbers
• Safari and Brave
• Boxcryptor
• pCloud and Sync secure cloud storage
• FE File Explorer
• FTPManager Pro
• AdGuard Pro
• Reddit

Synology Docker
So why not mention this also

• baikal (calendar and contacts davsever)
• bitwarden-mysql
• bookstack (testing)
• fireflyiii (testing financial management)
• memcached (for fireflyiii)
• nextcloud (linuxserver.io testing)
• redis (for nextcloud)
• portainer
• rocket Chat (testing)
• mongodb (for rocket chat db)
• syncserver (firefox syncserver)
• mariadb (for baikal, bitwarden, bookstack, fireflyiii, nextcloud, syncserver)
• phpmtadmin (for mariadb)
• DDSM (docker DSM for OpenVPN client to protect my whole LAN Network every device goes through VPN this way and running DNS server with ad-blocker script)

Virtual Machine Manager

Right now I'm migrating everything from DDSM to Virtual Machine Manager because Synology has announced the EOL of DDSM.

Here I also use OpenVPN client for protection of the entire LAN network and have also installed docker. There I run pi-hole for blocking ads and tracking and further I use docker for testing.

 

[fredbert]

Glad I’m not the only one that’s installed tons of apps over the years.

1Password (bought once a lifetime license for mac and ios, but unfortunately AgileBits changed their business-model to a subscription and now i’m stuck on with this old version).

I’ve moved to the annual subscription but it’s the only Mac subscription I have. I went through various standalone version upgrade payments and accrued multiple licences via those multi-app offers (where there was something else I really wanted). Anyway, with them charging for each Mac, Win, iOS, and Android app and wanting the family to use a secure password manager I decided the subscription made sense for us. It’s been good to transfer info to/from kids at university and they had no excuse not to use it as I’m paying for it (story of my life).

However, the recent organisation/ cash injection will need to be watched to be sure it remains a good solution.

 

[jono]

1Password (bought once a lifetime license for mac and ios, but unfortunately AgileBits changed their business-model to a subscription and now i’m stuck on with this old version).

It's not very obvious, but if you download the latest version for macOS (v7) there's an option to buy a regular license (non subscription)

 

[wwwampy]

I'm on dockerized Bitwarden and I love it. It works like a charm with zero problems so far.

I used to have LastPass... Bitwarden has similar functionality.

 

[fredbert]

It's not very obvious, but if you download the latest version for macOS (v7) there's an option to buy a regular license (non subscription)

Yes, I forgot to mention that bit.

I looked at Bitwarden but concluded my $4/month for 1Password with five active users and multiple vaults and 2GB storage each (early bird allowance) is fair value ... because they do use it and would be a major pain [for me] to change [and no-one will thank me].

 

[Rusty]

Yes, I forgot to mention that bit.

I looked at Bitwarden but concluded my $4/month for 1Password with five active users and multiple vaults and 2GB storage each (early bird allowance) is fair value ... because they do use it and would be a major pain [for me] to change [and no-one will thank me].

haha. No one will thank me. Classic.

 

[BobW]

It's not very obvious, but if you download the latest version for macOS (v7) there's an option to buy a regular license (non subscription)

View attachment 727

Thanks for pointing it out, I’m aware of this upgrade. But for me it is a principle question, because when I bought 1Password back in the day they promised people a lifetime license and upgrades. But then suddenly they changed that and you have to buy a new license. So the question is how often does one have to pay for overpriced upgrades. Luckily I’m not the only one who thinks this way, there were a lot of people complaining about their new strategy.

For example I bought a lifetime license for my backup software ChronoSync 20 years ago for about 200 dollars and I still get updates and major upgrades. These guys deliver what they promised and then I don’t mind to pay the fee.

So that’s why I’m changing my strategy in software use and nowadays I prefer to use open source software and I support the developers rather then commercial software.

 

[Shawzborne]

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[Shawzborne]

We need some 2023 updates to this thread