Reading up on macos
100 deep · digging since nov 25, 25
- The Dock on Mac, From OS 10 to macOS 27 - Jim Nielsen’s Blog
The post shares a compiled visual timeline of macOS Dock icons from OS X Cheetah through macOS Golden Gate across successive releases.
- Apple and a Hacker’s Future – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Ben Thompson describes how his Mac Mini was hacked via a screen‑sharing flaw, how his Claude agent uncovered the miner, and why Apple’s TCC and update labeling hinder agent use.
- Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?
An Ask HN post asks whether macOS 27 has made it impossible to disable Siri, questioning Apple's decision to keep the assistant always on.
- Atlas — Every coding agent, one workspace, your whole team
Atlas is a native macOS app that lets teams run multiple coding agents in one workspace, capturing sessions, commits, and knowledge as local-first artifacts.
- Compositor – The Photoshop alternative for Mac
Compositor is a free, open-source Mac image editor built as an alternative to Photoshop, focusing on compositing and post-processing workflows.
- I said no and Apple said yes – David Bushell – Web Dev (UK)
David Bushell reports that macOS 27 removed the toggle to disable Apple Intelligence, re-enabling data collection despite his prior opt‑out, highlighting ongoing consent violations in AI features.
- Divan Visagie
Using FreeBSD as a primary OS for a summer revealed BSD’s diverse family, ZFS’s replaceable‑drive OS installs, focused‑OS benefits, and OpenBSD’s pledge security model.
- Homebrew: 7.0.0
Homebrew 7.0.0 launches with faster installs, stronger sandboxing, a native macOS app, built‑in vulnerability checks, and drops macOS 10.15 support while moving Intel Macs to Tier 3.
- Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one
The author complains that macOS Finder has been consistently frustrating since its launch, citing persistent usability issues and a lack of meaningful improvements over the years.
- Using Blender with coding agents on macOS
Frontier models like GPT-6 Astra can generate and render Blender scenes on macOS by directing the coding agent to the installed Blender app.
- Ricky Mondello » Switching Password Managers in 2026
The iPhone's system-level credential export/import now makes switching password managers easier and more secure than desktop, enabled by the passkey-derived Credential Exchange Format.
- How Zoom Detects Google Meet Without Microphone Access :: Xusheng Li
Zoom detects when apps like Google Meet use the microphone by reading macOS Control Center logs and Windows registry microphone-usage records, without needing microphone permission.
- My local model setup on an M4 Pro Mac mini
Kevin Lewis details his local LLM server on an M4 Pro Mac mini with 48 GB RAM, using Qwen and Gemma models via oMLX and Tailscale for private, cost‑predictable AI.
- Hold My Notes — Sticky notes docked to the edge of your Mac
Hold My Notes provides a macOS sticky‑note deck that lives at the screen edge, expands on pointer approach, stores notes locally with optional iCloud sync, and uses end‑to‑end encryption.
- Show HN: A terminal glued to the macOS dock
A Show HN post demonstrates a macOS terminal that stays pinned to the Dock, allowing quick access without overlapping windows.
- Saggar: know which terminal needs you
Saggar is a macOS-native terminal that tracks session states and brings forward the ones needing your attention, letting you manage multiple agents without losing focus.
- GitHub - iannuttall/clockwork: Run recurring commands on your Mac without learning launchd.
Clockwork is a macOS menu‑bar app that lets users schedule recurring shell commands via native launchd jobs without needing to learn launchd syntax.
- GitHub - iannuttall/natter: Fast, local-first dictation for macOS
Natter is a macOS menu bar app that performs local, offline dictation with cleanup for technical terms and voice-taught corrections.
- GitHub - iannuttall/caffeine: Keep your Mac awake while you work, then let it sleep when your coding agent waits for you.
Caffeine is a macOS menu bar app that keeps your Mac awake during work and integrates with coding agents like Claude Code and Codex to automatically sleep when they wait for input.
- GitHub - Samin100/codex-ios-assistant: Control and inspect an iPhone from Codex through iMessage and Shortcuts
Codex iOS Assistant enables a Mac-based Codex to control an iPhone via iMessage and Shortcuts, allowing actions like reading text, managing alarms, and opening apps through a CLI interface.
- Instant Space Switching for macOS
Space Rabbit is a minimal native macOS app that disables Spaces transition animations for instant, zero-configuration workspace switching.
- Decker, a platform that builds on the legacy of Hypercard and classic macOS
Decker revives Hypercard's spirit by offering a modern, scriptable platform for creating interactive multimedia apps on macOS and beyond today.
- Chrome may get faster updates with no restart required - Ars Technica
Google is testing a macOS‑only zero‑window‑restart update method and dynamic patching to let Chrome install patches without requiring a full browser restart.
- Show HN: Davit, a Apple Containers UI
Davit is a new graphical interface for managing Apple Containers, simplifying deployment and monitoring of containerized workloads on macOS for developers.
- Davit - a native macOS UI for Apple containers
Davit is a native macOS UI for Apple's container platform enabling Linux containers on Apple silicon without Docker Desktop for developers.
- The ChatGPT "Super App" Sort of Super Sucks
The new ChatGPT Mac app merges Codex and chat into a confusing Electron-based super app with poor UI, burying chat under work modes.
- ADA Q&A: Inside the world of Cyberpunk 2077 - Discover - Apple Developer
CD PROJEKT RED discusses balancing visual fidelity and identity with performance scaling to bring Cyberpunk 2077 natively to Mac using Metal, MetalFX, and the Game Porting Toolkit.
- Putback: the Mac window manager that remembers your layout (via @petersindex)
Putback is a $19 Mac app that automatically restores window positions and sizes when displays change and allows one-hotkey scene switching.
- cmux — The terminal built for multitasking, organization, and programmability
cmux is a free, open-source macOS terminal built for AI coding agents, offering programmability, session restore, and an integrated browser.
- Activepad - Rails scratchpad for macOS
Activepad is a native macOS scratchpad that lets Rails developers run Ruby code against real app models and database with autocomplete and remote SSH support.
- A native macOS terminal app for AI agents.
Unpeel is a native macOS terminal app that orchestrates multiple AI agent CLIs side by side with built-in MCP servers, persistent sessions, and remote access.
- Show HN: Homebrew 6.0.0
Homebrew 6.0.0 introduces `brew trust` and other improvements, with the community praising the project's longevity and Mike's maintainership.
- macOS Container Machines
Apple's open-source Container package runs each container in a lightweight VM on macOS, providing VM-level isolation with near-container performance and boot times.
- Lettera — Markdown editor for macOS
Lettera is a native macOS Markdown editor that supports both single-file editing and folder-based workspaces, with live rendering, document statistics, and multiple export formats.
- Ports — see every dev server on localhost
Ports is a free macOS menu-bar app that lists all localhost dev servers with resource usage and one-click process management.
- How to setup a local coding agent on macOS
A developer details setting up a local coding agent on macOS using llama.cpp, Gemma 4, and Pi for real-time terminal-based AI assistance.
- Homebrew: 6.0.0
Homebrew 6.0.0 ships tap-trust security, default internal JSON API, Linux sandboxing, bundle parallel installs, and deprecates Intel macOS for 2027.
- Craft — Productivity App for Notes, Tasks, and Docs
Craft is an Apple-exclusive note-taking and productivity app offering docs, tasks, calendars, and whiteboards with a polished, block-based editor.
- WWDC26 — The Small Things - Oneberri Blog
A blog post lists dozens of minor but thoughtful improvements across Apple's platforms, emphasizing the company's attention to detail in user experience.
- GitHub - apple/container: A tool for creating and running Linux containers using lightweight virtual machines on a Mac. It is written in Swift, and optimized for Apple silicon.
Apple released an open-source tool, `container`, that creates and runs OCI-compatible Linux containers as lightweight VMs on macOS 26+ Apple Silicon Macs.
- Core AI | Apple Developer Documentation
Core AI is a new beta framework from Apple that lets developers run AI models on-device using Apple silicon, with a Swift API and debugging tools.
- Apple Events - Apple
Apple announced a new Siri AI powered by Apple Intelligence, expanded child safety features, and performance improvements across iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS Golden Gate, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27.
- Bringing Gemma 4 12B to your Laptop: Unlocking Local, Agentic Workflows with Google AI Edge - Google Developers Blog
Google DeepMind's Gemma 4 12B model runs locally on laptops with 16GB RAM, enabling agentic workflows via Google AI Edge tools like Gallery, Eloquent, and LiteRT-LM.
- Road to WWDC 2026: What’s a developer? – Six Colors
AI coding assistants allow non-programmers to build Mac apps, redefining developers as visionaries or product managers, while Apple's Xcode remains a barrier.
- Ask HN: Is anyone working at least 4 hours daily on an Apple Vision Pro?
Hacker News commenters report mixed experiences with daily Vision Pro use, with some using it extensively for coding but most citing weight, app support, and integration issues.
- Show HN: I reverse engineered Apple's video wallpapers
Phosphene allows users to play custom video files as macOS desktop and lock-screen wallpapers by reverse engineering Apple's private WallpaperExtensionKit framework.
- Native all the way, until you need text
A veteran macOS developer finds that native Apple frameworks fail to support rich Markdown chat UIs, making Electron and WebKit more practical despite developer criticism.
- Anthropic’s Mythos Found Bugs in Apple’s MacOS - WSJ
Security researchers at Calif used techniques from testing Anthropic's Mythos AI to find a privilege escalation exploit in Apple's macOS, bypassing its advanced security.
- Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables
WhatCable is a macOS menu bar app that reads USB-C cable e-Marker data via IOKit to display charging speed, protocol capabilities and port faults in plain English.
- {{IW4QaZoc2}}
Perplexity launches Personal Computer for Mac, enabling local AI agents that work across files, apps, and the web with continuous autonomous operation.
- Filing the corners off my MacBooks
A developer files down the sharp aluminum edges on his MacBook to improve wrist comfort, arguing that customizing tools is valid despite aesthetic criticism.
- Anthropic adds routines to redesigned Claude Code, here's how it works - 9to5Mac
Anthropic added a routines feature to Claude Code that lets developers schedule and repeat automations via web infrastructure, even offline.
- Cherri – programming language that compiles to an Apple Shortuct
Cherri is a programming language that compiles directly to Apple Shortcuts, enabling developers to create and maintain large shortcut projects using a text-based workflow.
- Hammerspoon | Hacker News
Hammerspoon users share Lua scripts for window management, app hotkeys, and macOS automation, praising it as a powerful, customizable alternative to dedicated tools.
Takes
Oh my god. Gonna kill parallels.
@vysecurity
I¹ ported my Mini web browser to Rust & Swift. It's faster, more secure, and shockingly, nicer to iterate on than Electron + Bun. I always wanted Safari-like UX but… Chrome 😁. Thanks to the 𝚌𝚎𝚏 crate, I can bundle up-to-date Chromium. 𝚏𝚡 𝚊𝚌𝚙 lets me embed an agent without bloating the app. It talks to my local fx CLI over ACP. fx can then manage the browser via an MCP server². By ditching Electron, I was able to get Liquid Glass, faster boots, and a more Mac-native feeling. Little things like fine-grained focus and input control, which are nightmare fuel in JS, just work®. Native is the future, both on the desktop and in the cloud. I suspect the entire software world will "nativify" faster than people realize, as DHH hinted at Rails World. Excited that Vercel's bet on Fluid will help support this, whether you choose to go Rust, Go, Zig, scriptc… ¹ Built on
@rauchg
Claude just built me a mac app which listens live to my zooms, transcribes, tells me what to ask, and does live 'fact check' on my zoom calls against my whole CRM / knoweldge base + web ... (this is demo)... pipes it all into my claude 2nd brain. Sick.
@lessin
#update Bear 3.0 is here... No, you didn’t miss anything. We just had to bump the version number because of a macOS 27 issue that breaks the UI once a version number climbs past .9 🫠 On the bright side, you can now tell people you use Bear 3 and sound extremely cool. 🤘😎
@BearNotesApp
Installed macOS 27 on a MacBook and I'm not sure if this is some kind of twisted joke or just incompetence. The contrast of window controls (for both active and inactive windows) is so bad that even a sugar-jolted 25-year old can tell.
@rsms
Reading List's sidebar in macOS looks so much better 👏
@marckohlbrugge
On macOS and wanna see something interesting? Ask your agent: "look at ~/Library/Application Support/Knowledge/knowledgeC.db and tell me some interesting facts" I had no idea this stuff was all getting logged and it can infer a lot about your activity.
@cooperx86
I moved from Raycast since they made it non-native and bad. Tinycast is a great native replacement: https://github.com/abue-ammar/tinycast
@sindresorhus
Omarchy plugins to help my cmd tab addiction. Reimplemented the Mac OS app and space switcher.
@wesbos
Someone built a FaceID for Mac. https://github.com/jonnyoo/glance
@nullbytes00
This is my 5th successful buy. Celebrating the acquisition offer, so grab this https://diskbuddy.com macOS app for just $5
@mddanishyusuf
Flip is live Its a note taking app on the backside of your window. Free. https://flip.pylondev.com
@SaifunShan
Finally. Omarchy on M1 Mac. Stable. On a second partition. For close to a year I've been trying to emulate the beautiful flow on osx. Nothing beats the real deal. Thanks 🙏 @dhh and the community. Espacially @OmarchyMac
@crabcore
We are moving very, very fast towards a fully streamlined Omarchy installer for Apple M machines. You just download our Omarchy M app, try it first, then pick how much space you dedicate, and we do the rest. Incredible team effort. Full announcement later today! 🚀🍏
@dhh
Okay, I'm conflicted. I love CleanShot X. I think it's one of the greatest macOS apps of all time. You know that. I've been waiting for this. BUT I also have Screen Studio, which is pretty much exactly this, AND Screen Studio recently added caption generation, which works really well. So now CleanShot X is basically Screen Studio for me, except that one feature that really impressed me in the last few weeks.
@thorstenball
The best Mac app on planet earth.
@ideabrowser
installed omarchy today! first (raw!) impressions: - installation process itself was easy, but getting my PC to read the .ISO on my external SSD required some research. a USB thumbdrive might have been simpler - the OS is really fast. even on cheap mini PC - love the automatic window tiling - keyboard-first navigation is great (something I already did on macOS, but on Omarchy it's even faster) - years of macOS keyboard shortcut muscle memory no longer working is VERY frustrating (and ironic, considering Omarchy is all about the shortcuts) - mouse movement feels a bit off even after trying to tweak the settings (macOS' is just REALLY good I think) - UI is pragmatic and gets out of the way. but still think macOS is nicer looking (sorry!) especially with the Liquid Glass fixes coming in the next release - installing my most used apps and logging into everything is a lot easier than I expected! - got a few weird errors and app crashes already, but I'm on the cutting edge release. I like that I can 1-click (or probably using some keyboard shortcut) debug the error in claude - all settings being config files is great, because easy to backup and claude can update it easily overall it's both fun, frustrating, and a great neuroflex. it reminds me of when I first started using vim after decades of textmate/sublime looking forward to see where @dhh and community will take this!
@marckohlbrugge
This is crazy! Still needs a bit of polish to get to full Omarchy Quattro parity, but what an incredible option to get a taste of Omarchy on the Mac without actually running the real thing.
@dhh
On macOS I used the screenshot tool all the time to measure things. It was the one thing I missed in omasnap (great CleanShot X replacement by @tobi), so I made a PR that adds it.
@jankeesvw
Setup a new Mac. Gone full Apple Container instead of Docker. This app makes it so much nicer https://orchard.andon.dev 🍏
@notrab
I have never tried Omarchy so far but there are a few reasons why I think what DHH is trying to do with Linux on the Desktop could be significant. There is the right mix of AI help with many boring and costly tasks (drivers for instance), MacOS dropping in quality, and the fact the only reason why Linux never succeeded in the Desktop is that UX requires an opinionated development path from some entity able to also fuel it, not the distributions setup Linux historically had. For all this reasons, a few starts aligned, so this could be the right time. Also ROCm / Vulkan / CUDA GPU hardware options are evolving, and could end creating a compelling alternative to Apple hardware for local inference: but this is also the major risk, if Apple wins the local inference hardware battle, MacOS could become a forced choice for many.
@antirez
Something I routinely am in awe about is the compute amplification every commit has today vs. 20 years ago, at least personally. Back then, my personal computer was only non-idle when I was working locally. I ran tests locally. When I pushed, there was no CI. The tests themselves were minimal maturity (simple unit tests, some e2e). Today when I push, CI exists. It fans out to 200+ jobs across macOS, Linux, and Windows that take ~20 minutes to complete in totality. A successful CI triggers ~8 beefy machines for tip releases. Tip releases trigger Apple notarization machines. Simultaneously, I have dedicated machines running 24/7 doing fuzz testing at basically 100% CPU constantly. Locally, my computer is using CPU much more of the day due to background agents. My average CPU utilization on my M4 Max overnight the last 7 days was over 20%. "Low" but before my average would've been 0% (deep sleep)! Plus, those agents are commanding a ton of GPU utilization elsewhere. I'm not making any judgement here of whether this is good or bad, because I think there are both good elements and bad elements. Simply that its quite astonishing how much compute my daily work amplifies in 2026 vs. 2006.
@mitchellh
Omarchy on Mac! Omarchy Quattro, running inside a native macOS app. Powered by Apple Container + Rosetta, with the real Quickshell UI streamed directly into Capsule.
@athasdev
I added a light mode version called Monterey Daylight and also created an auto light/dark mode HEIC version using the excellent Equinox app for the Mac. https://github.com/codejake/Jake-Wallpapers
@codejake
I love open source. I was mid Zoom customer pitch when my agent took over my entire Mac to run UI tests on a Mac app I'm building. Told it: never again. Find an open source project or build something. It found a 3-day-old zero-star repo by @clairernovotny. I recognized her from her contributions to @slashlast30days. I became star #1. It clones a Tart VM, runs the suite headless, drops the xcresult, deletes the VM. Desktop free. Mac not hijacked since. I've been using it every day. Now 13 stars. Please go star it:
@mvanhorn
I'm using macOS for more than 14 years now, in a single laptop screen setup with lots of windows open, and I'm using macOS spaces everyday to organize my windows. Switching between spaces is easy: I hit CTRL+arrow left/right, it takes no time. What takes time however, is this macOS-native transition animation that takes a bit less than 1 second, for every single space switch. I've checked everywhere in macOS settings, asked friends with the same problem, and there's just no setting to disable this effect (even with Reduced Motion ON in Accessibility settings). This UX choice from Apple alone costs me days of my time every year, as I'm working non-stop on my SaaS business for 10h a day 5-6 days a week (Crisp for those who know about it!). I calculated that with my daily use of macOS spaces, in 6 months I'd perform 100,000 switches, which costs me the same in seconds waiting for the transition to complete. This represents almost 28 hours waiting. In 1 year, I'd have lost 2.4 days just... waiting! The Hack Fortunately, some other open-source projects discovered a hack not so long ago, which allows disabling the transition when switching spaces: it involves sending to the system a "fake" trackpad left/right swipe gesture that's faster than what's expected (faster than what a human can input via the Macbook's trackpad). Above some threshold, macOS just perform the space switch with absolutely no transition. A friend of mine, @yaeeelglx, made a quick prototype in Objective-C, and it magically worked! The Solution So, I asked my friend if we could make it a proper macOS app together, in a beautiful minimalist package, and he said yes! So, we launched Space Rabbit, a tiny 2MB fully native macOS app, that allows you to optimize macOS spaces for productivity! Space Rabbit is a full rewrite of the initial prototype in modern Swift, with a tray menu bar to configure the app, and a settings window, in a macOS app packaging. Space Rabbit can be downloaded right here:
@valeriansaliou
shipped some updates to Reading List macOS app if you use "Add to Reading List" in Safari but never check on those bookmarks, this app is for you https://marc.io/readinglist
@marckohlbrugge
Headroom -- a lightweight native Mac OS menu bar app for tracking your usage. Shipping tonight/tomorrow so that you can keep eyes on your Fable-filled week ahead. Works for both your subscriptions and API spends. Codex and Claude for now. Free dollars. Fully signed install package will be downloadable from my website. Stay tuned
@kylezantos
Show Codex a workflow once. Reuse it as a skill. Record & Replay lets you show Codex a recurring task, like filing an expense report or submitting a time-off request. Codex turns that demo into an inspectable, editable skill. You control when recording starts and stops.
@OpenAIDevs
🎉 Mole for Mac 1.7 is live. Apple Silicon fan control, camera/mic privacy alerts, stay awake for AI coding, lock input to wipe your screen, VoiceOver, built-in app updates, Blue Marble earth, fast treemap. Ready for macOS 27. Early bird $9 till Jun 15. http://mole.fit
@HiTw93
Today, I’m proud to announce Homebrew 6.0.0. Since 5.1.0: secure tap trusting, faster JSON API, Linux sandboxing, better defaults, brew bundle improvements, improved performance, initial macOS Golden Gate support. https://brew.sh/2026/06/11/homebrew-6.0.0/
@MikeMcQuaid
Get tailored help for what's on your screen using the Gemini app for macOS. 💻 Simply press both Command ⌘ keys at the same time to seamlessly attach your active window to the chat, without needing to take manual screenshots or switch tabs.
@GeminiApp
Apple has sherlocked bartender macOS 27 allows you to see more menu bar icons on the left side of the notch by pressing the see more button
@aaronp613
One of my personal favorite features announced at WWDC will I suspect be a sleeper hit: container machines, allowing your Mac to run a lightweight, persistent Linux environment with your home directory and repos automatically mounted: https://github.com/apple/container/blob/main/docs/container-machine.md
@timsneath
New Mac, what indie apps should I install? 👀
@nicol3a
it's wild -- i spent the last 2 decades of my career putting everything in the cloud and now i'm figuring out how to give colleagues remote access to a mac mini sitting in my downstairs home office
@clairevo
My new macOS app just launched 🎉🥳 Here’s your new favorite macOS app: http://Supaste.com Clipboard history + manager app 👇 For sure: local, private, offline, no subscription.
@soltwagner
The worst part of doing dev work on a Mac: .DS_STORE
@theo
You should build your dream macOS app right now! The "Build macOS App" plugin in Codex is wild. Used voice dictation to build an app I wanted for a while in <7 min (+6 min of tweaking). Couldn't believe how quickly it was done. Prompt is in the video and in the tweet below.
@dkundel
This week’s Useful Thing: customize your iPhone’s charging sound. I went with the Mac startup chime. What you going with?
@JoannaStern
i use handy on linux and this on mac https://hex.kitlangton.com/
@thdxr
this is fff searches every single file on my computer (in home dir) macos M4 max, 993GB home directory, 2M files
@neogoose_btw
I was paying $229 for Screen Studio. Then I found this repo and uninstalled it the same night. Recordly is a free, MIT licensed screen recorder and editor that ships every feature I was paying for auto-zoom animations, cursor smoothing, motion blur, native macOS capture, and a full timeline editor. → Apple-style zoom animations with automatic suggestions from cursor activity → Native ScreenCaptureKit recording on macOS 12.3+ → Cursor smoothing, motion blur, click bounce, macOS-style cursor assets → Smooth pan transitions between zoom regions → Timeline trim, speed ramps, annotations, manual zoom spans → Wallpapers, gradients, padding, rounded corners, blur, drop shadows → MP4 and GIF export at any aspect ratio → .recordly project files so you can reopen edits later macOS, Windows, Linux. Scene composition runs on PixiJS. Native Swift helpers handle macOS cursor telemetry. 8.3k stars. MIT License. 100% Opensource
@ihtesham2005
if you're on mac use this to get going https://hex.kitlangton.com/
@thdxr
Today we're releasing Personal Computer. Personal Computer integrates with the Perplexity Mac App for secure orchestration across your local files, native apps, and browser. We’re rolling this out to all Perplexity Max subscribers and everyone on the waitlist starting today.
@perplexity_ai
INTRODUCING: Sparkle v4 from @every Is your desktop a disaster? We built an agent for that. → sparkle’s agent examines your filesystem and helps you create an organization structure that’s right for how YOU work → it starts with a deep clean. old installers, duplicates, forgotten screenshots, system junk—gone, with your permission. → it runs quietly in the background, keeping everything in order. set a schedule, and your mac stays organized over time instead of drifting back into chaos Declutter your Mac with 0 effort:
@danshipper