About The Useful Apps

How this site is made

The Useful Tech is the #1 Apple publication on Medium, run by Raja, who has written about Apple apps for close to 10 years. Raja set the rules for what gets listed and how listings are written. An AI research agent does the work under those rules.

1. Step 1

   Research

   The agent reads the developer's site, the App Store listing, release notes and pricing pages, then drafts each listing.

2. Step 2

   Fact check

   A second AI pass checks every price and plan against those pages before a listing goes live. In our first check it fixed about 40 errors across 216 listings.

3. Step 3

   Daily refresh

   A script refreshes App Store prices, versions and update dates every day, and Mac app versions from Homebrew. Prices on developers' own sites were checked when each listing was written, and that date sits next to them. Apps that go 18 months without an update are dropped from the directory.

4. Step 4

   No fake testing

   We don't run long-term tests. Verdicts come from research, not from months of daily use, and we never say "tested" unless someone did.

If you spot a mistake, use the "Tell us" link at the bottom of any app page. Every report is read.

What gets an app listed

• It does something the built-in Apple app doesn't, or does it clearly better.
• It is still maintained, with an update in the last 18 months.
• Mac apps sold outside the App Store are first in line, because they are the hardest to find. 182 of our apps are sold by the developer directly.
• No app pays to be listed, and no app pays for a higher place on any list.