My App Defaults
Inspired by Kev Quirk’s post, I decided to share my list of default apps. This idea stemmed from episode #097 of Hemispheric Views, where Andrew Canion hosted a ‘Duel of the Defaults’ with Jason Burk and Martin “Mr. Default” Feld to see who was the most default Mac user. In other words, who used the most default Apple apps and services on their Mac.
Robb Knight has even compiled a list of blog posts with people’s default apps.
I appreciate blogrolls that help discover personal blogs.
📮 Mail Server: Gmail and iCloud
📨 Mail Client: Spark Mail
✅ To-Do: Things
📝 Notes: Apple Notes
🖼️ Photo Management: Apple Photos and Google Photos (with backup to HDD)
📆 Calendar: Cron and Calendar 366 (menu bar access)
☁️ Cloud File Storage: iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox
📰 RSS: NetNewsWire
🤸🏼♂️ Contacts: Apple Contacts (backed by iCloud)
🌐 Browser: Arc and Firefox
💬 Chat: iMessage, FB Messenger (family), Instagram messages (friends) and Signal (few friends)
🔖 Bookmarks: Raindrop
📑 Read It Later: Omnivore (highlights integration to Obsidian is so good)
📃 Word Processing: I’m trying out different apps. But might stick to Obsidian or iA Writer because sync is a must
📈 Spreadsheets: Google Sheets
📊 Presentations: Google Slides and Figma
🛒 Grocery: Apple Notes (shared notes with my partner)
🍱 Meal Planning: Apple Notes (shared notes with my partner) and Notion ( for recipes)
📽️ Movie Tracking: Letterboxd
💰 Personal Finance: WalletApp
📰 News: RSS, YouTube and Podcasts
🎶 Music: Spotify
🎧 Podcast: Overcast
🔐 Password Management: Bitwarden and OTP Auth (one time passwords)
🖥️ Screenshot: Shottr
🤖 Code Editor: VSCode and Sublime
⌨️ Launcher: Raycast
🗄️ Project Management: Notion
🗃️ Personal Knowledge Management: Obsidian
🌤️ Weather: Hello Weather and Windy (Windy is the most reliable weather forecast, especially during typhoons. It helped me “save” my car during Typhoon Odette (Rai). My brother also recommended it.)
🤳🏼 Social Media: Instagram and Mona for Mastodon
🗺️ Maps: Google Maps and Waze for driving directions
🖌️ Photo Editor: Capture One and Adobe Lightroom Classic
📹 NLE: Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve
I’ve included some apps that I use every day. While I attempt to use Apple’s default apps, there are certain third-party apps that offer superior functionality.
Check here to see more detailed information about the apps and software I use.