The iPhone and iPad have made computers accessible to people all over the world, both young and old. They’ve done away with the mouse and made interacting with apps much more natural, using touch. The result has been an explosion in apps, including some excellent productivity apps for the iPad in particular.

Apple is now trying to take some of that magic and bring it back to the trusty ol’ Mac.

The latest iteration of the Mac operating system, macOS Catalina, rolled out earlier this week alongside several apps making their debut on the Mac. Apple had previously released a new framework to developers called Catalyst, which makes it much easier for developers to take their existing iPad apps and move them to the Mac. The framework, announced in 2018, was met with some early skepticism after the first couple of Catalyst apps, like Apple News and Stocks, didn’t look great on the Mac. In fact, some were concerned that bringing apps designed for a touch interface to a keyboard-and-mouse old school computer might be an awkward fit, making the Mac less streamlined and consistent.

It’s still probably too early to call Catalyst a success, but early returns are looking positive.

As a guy whose life revolves around RSS feeds, seeing Fiery Feeds in the Mac App Store probably got me far more excited than I should be. Someday I will do a deep dive into the combination of Inoreader and Fiery Feeds, which does an excellent job of filtering and tagging important articles. Reeder has traditionally been the standard-bearer for RSS apps on the Mac, with version 4 coming out in April, but the addition of Fiery Feeds and Lire will certainly shake things up. I use Fiery Feeds multiple times a day on my iPad and iPhone, so having everything sync via iCloud and being able to check new articles while on the Mac is huge.

Mac Fiery Feeds

Another app with a big, dedicated user base is TripIt. I began subscribing to TripIt Pro a couple of years ago to help manage travel, and it has generally made keeping flight and hotel information as well as confirmation numbers easily accessible and in one place. I think the app’s UI is a bit dated, but functionally it’s been successful at what it sets out to do.

TripIt’s new Mac app doesn’t bring any surprises, and that’s probably a good thing. It provides all of the same information as the iOS app, but from the desktop.

I have only been testing out Catalyst apps for a few days, and there are still some rough edges that need to be smoothed out. Right clicking is common on the Mac but not on an iPad, obviously, so right clicking sometimes does nothing. I’ve also had each Catalyst app crash on me at least once, so there’s that, too.

Mac TripIt

Another thing to consider is the price — some of these apps probably cost more than you would expect. I think it’s high time that developers are compensated fairly for their work, so I have no particular issue with paying higher prices — but it will impact sales, regardless. Cocoacake, the maker of Fiery Feeds, is charging US$34.99 for the Mac app, justifying the price on the company’s blog by saying it’s a one-time cost that will cover the next three to five years of app updates. Lire is listed at $19.99.

I suspect performance issues to be worked out over time as more developers use Catalyst and Apple continues making improvements. Even today, in the early days, it’s encouraging to see so many developers embrace Catalyst and have apps ready on day one. If you want to see if your favorite iPad app is ready for the Mac, you can check this handy list put together by 9to5Mac.

If the launch of these early apps is any indication, it looks like a safe bet that Catalyst will breathe some new life and a bit of excitement into the Mac app ecosystem.

Update: Indeed, this speculation proved to be correct. The launch of a completely overhauled DEVONthink 3 looks incredible. You can read the launch announcement on DEVONtechnologies’ blog.

One of my all-time favourite macOS applications is DEVONthink — a comprehensive, AI-powered database that can save and organize nearly anything. I use it as my primary digital “filing cabinet” because in addition to saving and organizing documents, it also displays files and permits annotation on a huge variety of file types (PDFs, Pages, Word, PowerPoint, Keynote, Excel, Numbers, Markdown, Websites, JPG, and PNG, just to name a few). Users also have the option of importing files into DEVONthink to manage or leaving them where they are and having DEVONthink index them in place. If you aren’t familiar with DEVONthink and consider yourself organized and efficient, it behooves you to check out the links in the “Resources and Related Reading” section at the end of this post.

While DEVONthink is an all-star, vital workhorse, it is looking a little long-in-the-tooth these days. It’s nothing too serious, but as macOS and iOS evolve, third-party software can look dated quite quickly. In this case, DEVONthink hasn’t had a substantial look-and-feel update since 2013 (I think — this info is hard to find) which is an eternity in app years. Not only that, but long ago we moved into the realm of web automation with services like Zapier or IFTTT, which are incompatible with DEVONthink. In fact, I can’t even forward an email to DEVONthink to archive, something Evernote has had for a decade.

I emailed the founder of DEVONthink early in 2017 to inquire about a potential release, and he was non-committal. I learned soon after that I wasn’t the only one asking questions: it’s been a regular topic on a number of forums and in social media channels, with even the smallest tidbit of information completely out of reach. DEVONthink is one of those apps that sits at the very core of many people’s workflows, so its continued existence is crucial for those who rely on it. The developers have kept any future plans under wraps, though, and the years have been passing by without a peep — not even a vague, ballpark timeline for an update. One wonders what the team has been up to in its Coeur d’Alene offices!

Now we might finally have a clue. The first sign of something cooking was an overhaul of DEVONtechnologies’ forums to Discourse, which happened in March. A couple of weeks later, and even more surprisingly, DT unveiled an entirely new website — complete with new logo. That was enough to kickstart the whispers of a new version.

Then on April 4, DEVONtechnologies posted this to its blog alongside a maintenance update:

While we’re still preparing some things behind the curtain we’ve released a maintenance update for DEVONthink today.

The “…things behind the curtain” phrase stood out, as did the list of enhancements in this otherwise small update: enhanced Markdown and MultiMarkdown support including CriticMarkup (which I didn’t know anything about until I read this), access to an account page from within DEVONthink (a precursor to a subscription cloud service?), and other improvements to mail archiving and bookmark handling.

Maybe I’m so desperate for a UI overhaul that I’m looking for clues and convincing myself I’m finding them — which wouldn’t be the first time! But I do believe it’s more than that; any one of these updates wouldn’t be enough to drive speculation alone, but when all three are considered in context it looks like something may finally be up. Fingers crossed.

For real.

Resources and Related Reading

Many moons ago, in the early days of the iPad, there was a nifty little app called Status Board by indie software house Panic. It was a customizable platform that presented multiple widgets of data to the user, all on a single screen — everything from Twitter followers to website analytics to the weather. Unfortunately, people didn’t want to pay for it, so Panic shut it down to focus on Transmit and other core apps. (You can see the user angst in the comment section of this announcement!)

I remember searching for a replacement back then, even trying out Numerics to see what it could do. Just like the panic that set in among RSS fans when Google Reader shut down, people were left scrambling for a suitable Status Board replacement. A number of apps popped up here and there, but none were ever good enough.

I’m happy to say that’s no longer the case! I recently decided to give Numerics another shot, and it was immediately clear that the app had grown-up is now ready for prime time. I downloaded it with the intention of using it to display important metrics at work, but it could be helpful to anyone who wants to glance at important data — even on the Apple Watch.

Numerics runs on iOS, including the Apple TV and aforementioned watch, presenting users with detailed and customizable data contained within widgets. When you open the app on an iPad, you’re given a chance to begin connecting various apps and services. I set this up with my own data to test it, so added Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Analytics and Adsense, WordPress, Instagram, and Facebook. But the list of possible integrations is long, including custom JSON and CSV files. There’s a particular focus on business tools like Salesforce, the Amazon API Gateway, ChartMogul, Basecamp, Chargify, and Stripe.

Once connected, you’ll be given multiple choices about the kind of data you want to see and how you want it presented. There are pie charts, graphs, line maps, bar charts, and heat maps, as well as several color and a couple of sizing options. If you like to tinker, be careful: this can easily swallow an evening…

The app is also right up to date, offering integration with Siri Shortcuts.

The end result looks great, with key information presented in a beautiful, easy-to-read and simple way. If I have one quibble, it would be about the length of time it takes to set up each account and widget; maybe the process is already as fast as it gets, but it seemed a bit finicky with some information requested multiple times and occasional broken connections.

That issue isn’t a show-stopper, though, and was worth enduring to get to the finished product. Once all of your services are connected, it’s just a matter of looking through the data options and selecting exactly what you’d like to see.

The Apple TV app is a welcome addition, with sync working flawlessly over iCloud. I haven’t had a chance to fiddle with the Apple Watch app yet, but I suspect adding complications to the watch face could be quite useful to businesses tracking conversions or marketing campaigns.

The free version of Numerics includes one dashboard, three widgets, and just a handful of integrations. The pro version makes everything unlimited, and I’ve already set up a couple of status boards for different purposes. The pro plan is $9.99 a month, or with a steep discount of $49.99 per year if purchased through the App Store, which I did.

For an app that isn’t absolutely necessary, a $9.99 per month charge – or even $49.99 per year – is a bit steep. Subscriptions are everywhere these days, and costs can add up fast. That makes it even tougher for Cynapse, the makers of Numerics, to earn a share of people’s wallets.

Having loved Panic’s Status Board and then suddenly losing it, I’ve decided I don’t want that to happen again. I’ve signed up for the year, hoping the developers can find a sustainable model that keeps the app up-to-date and around for a long time.