6 new Mac apps from October that fix what macOS still gets wrong
A menu bar fix for macOS 27, a real Mac camera app, battery drain in watts and 3 more.
👋 HEY, IT'S RAJA
October was a busy month for Mac apps. macOS 27 broke some old favorites, and indie developers shipped replacements within weeks. Others went after problems Apple has ignored for years, like every window piling onto 1 screen after your Mac wakes up.
All 6 below launched in October, each one fixes something the Mac still gets wrong, and most are free to try.
1️⃣ Tuck, for the menu bar macOS 27 broke
macOS 27 changed how the menu bar works, and several menu bar managers stopped working with it. Tuck was built for the new menu bar. It keeps the icons you use and tucks the rest away, across 3 bars you arrange by dragging: Menu bar, Hidden and Always hidden. You can find any icon by name, and your order survives restarts and updates.
Apple's own icons, like Wi-Fi and battery, hide like any other app's. Rules bring icons back when you're on battery, when a certain app is in front, or when an external display is plugged in. When macOS refuses to show an app's icon, Tuck tells you which app it is and how to fix it. It's free, with a one-time Pro upgrade.
2️⃣ MacCam, for the camera app Apple never made
The Mac has never had a real Apple camera app, only Photo Booth. MacCam is a free native one. It works with your MacBook's camera, your iPhone through Continuity Camera, a Studio Display or any USB webcam, and switches between them with 1 click. Every photo and video saves straight into Apple Photos, so it's on your iPhone through iCloud a moment later.
Photographic Styles let you set tone, warmth and color on a pad with a live preview, and there are Portrait and Studio Light modes plus silly effects like Thermal and X-Ray. The Pro tier adds a teleprompter, and Pro is free for life for the first 100,000 people who claim it with an email.
3️⃣ WattMate, for battery drain in real watts
Activity Monitor's Energy Impact is a score with no units. WattMate shows what each app on your Mac draws in real watts, and how many minutes of battery you'd get back by quitting it. In the developer's own example, Safari is drawing 7 W of the 31 W the Mac uses, and quitting it adds 24 minutes.
The clever part comes 2 minutes after you quit: WattMate measures again and shows what you actually got back. It also reads the Mac's power log to name whatever woke your MacBook overnight with the lid closed. It needs an Apple silicon Mac on macOS 14 or later, the trial is 10 days with no card, and the free version keeps app watts and battery health forever.
4️⃣ Many Displays, for windows that pile onto 1 screen after sleep
If you plug your Mac into external monitors, you know the morning routine: wake it up, and every window lands on the laptop screen, or your 2 identical monitors swap sides. Many Displays sits in the menu bar, learns where every window lives while you work, and puts each one back on its display, at its position and size, after sleep, unlock, login or replugging.
There are no layouts to save and nothing to click. It even tells identical monitors apart by the port they're plugged into, and it makes no network connections at all. There's a 14-day free trial, then a one-time license that covers up to 3 Macs.
5️⃣ FeelMyMac, for a trackpad you can actually feel
Your trackpad's haptic engine only does something when you click. FeelMyMac uses that same hardware while you move and scroll, so the glass starts to feel like a surface, with textures like felt, bouclé and grit. It can add matching sound to scrolling, taps and typing, and you switch on only the parts you want.
It's the least necessary app here and the one I'd show a friend first. It works with MacBook trackpads and the Magic Trackpad, not a mouse, everything is processed on your Mac, and it's a one-time purchase.
6️⃣ CoolDock, for a Dock that shows you things
CoolDock adds a second Dock beside Apple's, so nothing about your current setup changes. It holds more than 160 live widgets across 20 categories: music, to-dos, calendar events, weather, system stats, clipboard history, screenshots and AirDrop, next to the apps, folders and files you pin.
It only asks for permissions like Calendar or Reminders when you add a widget that needs them, and you can put it on any connected display. It's a one-time purchase with no subscription.
If you plug into a monitor every day, install Many Displays first. It's the one you'll notice every single morning. Hit reply and tell me which of the 6 you tried.
On Friday, I'm sending 5 Mac app Black Friday deals that have already started, so you don't have to wait for 27 November.
Keep it useful,
Raja · The Useful Tech
P.S. Know someone whose windows end up on the wrong screen every morning? Forward this to them.
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