It's been roughly a year since Reddit's API changes killed off all the good clients, and the company hasn't backed down yet. The problem: Reddit's mobile app and website can both be pretty annoying to use, thanks to a combination of bugs and intrusive engagement gimmicks.

Third party Reddit clients capable of posting and voting aren't coming back, but if you're more of a lurker, you should still check out RDX. This open source interface, available online or as an iOS app, lets you browse Reddit without having to actually open Reddit. This tool works around the recent API limitations by not actually using the API at all—it scrapes the actual JSON pages that constitute Reddit in order to present you with posts, comments, and media in a super clean format—a streamlined version of Reddit that loads instantly, even if you can't post (or interact with posts) while using it.

Credit: Justin Pot

By default, the service serves up r/all, which is just the most popular posts on the site at the moment. You can browse any subreddit directly—from within the app or using the web version, just tap or click the word "rdx" by the arrow in the top bar of the site and type the name of the community you want to browse. You will see suggestions as you type—pick the community you want or hit "Enter" to open the top match.

Credit: Justin Pot

There is also support for subscribing to subreddits, meaning you can customize the home page to show only posts from communities you care about. The application can even import your existing subscriptions from Reddit—the process takes about 30 seconds. Beyond that, you can choose custom color themes, fonts, and an infinite scroll mode. That's about it in terms of options, but the experience is still better than Reddit's first-party options.

But to reiterate, there's a big downside to RDX, at least for active Reddit users: You can't use the client to post, leave comments, or upvote/downvote. That won't change unless Reddit walks back the changes to its API. But if you're more of a lurker than a poster, RDX is near perfect—a lightweight, speedy alternative to the clutter of the standard Reddit user interface.

Safari, on mobile devices, does not offer a homepage. This isn't a big deal if you like the default new tab page, which shows links to your hand-picked "Favorites," tabs you have open on other devices, and a few more recommend pages. If you'd rather have your favorite search engine or landing page show up instead, though, you need an app called Homepage. This tool is completely free and does one thing: lets you set a homepage in Safari.

Open the application and you can type any URL for your homepage and hit "Save". Simple, right? You're not done: you need to enable the extension in Safari. Open System Settings and head to Safari > Extensions. Here you'll see that "Homepage" is turned off.

Credit: Justin Pot

Tap Homepage and then make sure Allow Extension is turned on. Then tap Open New Tabs and make sure With "Homepage" is selected.

Credit: Justin Pot

Now head to Safari and open a new tab. If everything was configured properly, you should see your chosen URL instead of the default "new tab" page. It's a simple thing, sure, but if you want your favorite webpage every time you open the browser, this is the best way to do it.

We've talked a lot about the "don't break the chain" method of building habits over the years, where you visually mark the completion of a habit every day to help you build it. The classic method is to put an "X" on a paper calendar every day. The longer your streak goes on, the more motivated you are to keep it going—as anyone with Snapchat streak with a friend knows.

Paper is fantastic for this, granted, but some people prefer digital tools. That's why I like Habo, an open-source habit tracking app for Android and iPhone that couldn't be simpler. There are no ads and no upselling—it's just a way to help build habits. Once you've downloaded and opened the app, add as many habits as you like. The idea is that you will check things off as you do them.

Credit: Justin Pot

There's an indicator on the top of each habit that lets you know how many days your streak has lasted. And you can configure the settings to do things no paper calendar can, like reminding you about your habit every day at a particular time. For example: You want to start doing 20 pushups before lunch every day. You can set the application to send you a notification right at 11:55. You can also add specific details about your routine and the reward you'll give yourself after completing it.

What I really appreciate about this app is its simplicity—and the fact that it's completely free. Too many productivity tools become needlessly complicated as they pursue monetization. Habo does what you need it to do and nothing else.

If you have some mix of Apple, Windows, and Android devices it can be a pain to quickly send a file from one to the other. Airdash is an open-source program that solves this problem—just install the app on all your devices and you can send files directly, meaning nothing of yours is ever stored on some server somewhere. Even better: Because there's no server, there are no file size limits, outside what can fit on the receiving device.

To get started, install the application on all of your devices. Next you'll need to pair your devices, which is quick: You'll just need to type four digit codes on both devices. You'll need to repeat this process between any two devices you want to share files between.

Credit: Justin Pot

Then, when it's time to transfer files simply choose the device you want to send the file to and select which file you want to send. Note that the application needs to be open on both devices (the desktop version can optionally run in the system tray, which makes this easier).

AirDash on the iPhone Credit: Justin Pot

Hit send and the file will show up in the "Downloads" folder of the receiving device after the transfer is done.

Credit: Justin Pot

Because there is no server involved, the speed of the transfer is going to depend entirely on the internet speed of the two devices. I tested this locally and found it close to instant; I tested it on devices on two different networks and found it a little slower. The main use case for this, in my mind, is quickly sending large files from one device to another, especially if you're trying to maximize your free file storage—though it could also be handy for the occasional small file.

I listen to a lot of music while working and love to quickly check what's currently playing, which is why I checked out MediaMate. It's an indie app for Mac that costs €7 (roughly $7.50) that shows the current track, either as an extension to the MacBook "notch" or as a semi-transparent pop-up. It can show up every time the track changes, every time you adjust the volume, or when you hover your mouse over the notch.

This is nice for quickly checking what's playing but also for figuring out which media application currently "owns" the media control keys. For example: sometimes I click play on a video online while I'm also listening to music. I'll hit "pause" with the intention of pausing the music only for the video to pause. This is annoying because I don't really understand what's going on, but with MediaMate I can at least see in real time which application I'm pausing and playing.

Credit: Justin Pot

MediaMate also replaces the bulky volume and brightness popups with slimmer ones. Granted, this is a minor cosmetic change, but it's one I appreciate. You can even combine this with the now-playing section in the notch, as seen at the top of this article. Another choice is to have a thin volume display at the bottom of the screen.

Credit: Justin Pot

All of this can be customized a create deal in the settings—you can choose between four different styles for the volume and brightness overlays and configure quite a bit about how they all work. If you're the kind of person who loves tweaking things and isn't quite happy with how macOS handles the volume and brightness overlays, it's worth a download.

It's ridiculous that Apple still doesn't offer a way to hide menu bar icons in macOS. Windows has had this options since the launch of Windows Vista 17 years ago, but Mac users who don't want to see every icon cluttering up the top of their screen need to either hide the menu bar entirely or install a third party app that can handle the job.

Until recently, the application of choice for menu bar maintenance was Bartender, a $22 paid application that was generally well regarded. But last week, a change of ownership raised questions about the app's privacy. Those concerns are not entirely unwarranted: The handover happened quietly and the application in question requires accessibility access to the operating system in order to function. Only time will tell if the problem is legitimate—but I am grateful that the questions from users have brought Ice some more attention.

Ice is a free and open source alternative to Bartender that works perfectly well at hiding icons—just like Bartender, you can drag icons while holding CMD to hide them. Any icon dragged to the left of the arrow icon will be hidden (most of the time).

Credit: Justin Pot

In a few moments, you can get your menu bar looking much tidier.

Credit: Justin Pot

Ice works really well. There's even a second arrow you can drag icons past, at which point you won't even see them n the expanded view, allowing you to keep that tidy, too. It's great.

Ice also offers a few aesthetic tweaks worth mentioning. You can bring back drop shadows, for example, or add a border to your menu bar. You can also optionally "split" the bar, which I find gimmicky, but it does allow you to see more of your wallpaper.

I'm a longtime Bartender user, but after a week with Ice, I barely notice the difference. Yes, there are a few missing features—you can't choose to show certain icons only under certain conditions, which is an option with Bartender. (I used that feature to only see the Time Machine icon while backups were actively running and only show the battery when I wasn't connected to power—nice options, but not essential. And it's worth noting that a similar feature is listed as a goal for Ice, which is an open-source project, so maybe we'll have it soon.

Overall, Ice is a great little app, especially considering it's free. Check it out if you are seeking a Bartender alternative, or if you've never used Bartender and just want to neaten up your menu bar icons.

Indie apps need ongoing revenue in order to keep operating. People are sick of subscriptions. These statements are in conflict, but they are indisputably both facts, which is a problem if you want applications built by small teams to continue existing.

Setapp points a potential way forward: an indie app bundle for Macs. This service—offered by a company based in Kyiv, Ukraine—offers access to over 240 Mac apps for $9.99 a month. (You can save 10% by paying annually, and there's even an education discount.)

The list of applications offered, which you can browse online, includes many well-regarded indie applications that have previously appeared at the top of the Mac App Store charts. If you buy a lot of Mac apps—and, in particular, if you subscribe to a lot of Mac apps—it's a package well worth checking out. There's even a seven-day trial if you want to get a feel for it.

The application works similarly to an app store, albeit one where you've already paid for everything it offers—you can explore and install as many of the bundled applications as you want. There are a few applications in it that I use every day, some of which I've written about for Lifehacker. There's Session, a combination Pomodoro timer and distraction blocker that I use when I'm having trouble focusing. There's Eter, my favorite radio app, and MarsEdit, the best blogging app for Mac. I also use WifiExplorer every time I need to diagnose a wireless network problem, and I generally appreciate having access to apps like Permute (a media converter), Numi (a prettier calculator app), BetterZip (an archiving tool), and GetBackupPro (a Mac backup app, obviously).

Credit: Justin Pot

I could go on—though the sheer number included might make you expect a lot of shovelware, there are a lot of well-regarded apps in this bundle, all included in your monthly subscription without ads. Whenever I'm searching for an application to accomplish a something, I really like searching Setapp first—it's nice to know I won't have to pay anything extra to get access to a useful new tool. If you too like having purpose-built, native Mac applications for specific tasks, consider this my unqualified endorsement.

The Great Twitter Exodus of 2022 is still happening. It's just a little...fractured. A lot of Twitter power users ended up on Bluesky. A lot of technically inclined individuals are still hanging out on Mastodon (at least, that's where I hang out).

These are two decentralized services, in theory, but users of one service can't really talk to users on the other. It wasn't possible before Bridgy Fed, anyway. This is a beta service that makes it possible for Bluesky and Fediverse-compatible applications, such as Mastodon, to interact. I tested this out with a friend and it works—we now see each other's posts, like each other's posts, and even talk to each other.

Let's back up a little. Mastodon is part of the Fediverse, a collection of services that connect to the same protocol. Threads, another place where a lot of Twitter users ended up, is starting to connect to the Fediverse; WordPress blogs can also connect. This all points to a future where people can use whatever social network they like and follow people who prefer to use a different one, with one problem: Bluesky, despite being decentralized, isn't part of this network.

This is where Bridgy Fed comes in. With this service, individual users of either service can opt in to "bridging" their accounts. I tested this out with my friend and Lifehacker alumni Eric Ravenscraft, who hangs out on Bluesky more than me. It worked well.

Create your bridged account

Setting up the bridge couldn't be easier: you just need to follow an account.

• Mastodon and other Fediverse users need to search for and follow the account @bsky.brid.gy (it's easiest to just search for this—note that some Mastodon instances may be blocking the bridge).

• Bluesky users need to follow the account @ap.brid.gy.

That's it! Bridgy Fed will create an account for you that users of the other service can follow. You can now find your account on the other service so you can share it with friends.

• If you're a Fediverse user, your new Bluesky account will be @[user].[instance].ap.brid.gy. For example, my Mastodon account @jhpot@mastodon.social becomes @jhpot.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy on Bluesky.

• If you're a Bluesky user, your new Fediverse account will be @[handle]@bsky.brid.gy. For example, Eric's Bluesky account @lordravenscraft.bsky.social can be found at @lordravenscraft.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy.

That's a little more complicated than I'd like—it would be great if the service sent a DM letting you know where you new "bridged" profile is. Still, I was able to find my new Bluesky profile pretty quickly. And I was also able to interact with Eric. Here's how the interaction looks from Mastodon, for me:

Credit: Justin Pot

And here's how it looked from Bluesky, for Eric:

Credit: Justin Pot

Replies showed up in mentions, the way they normally would, as did likes. If all you want is to be able to organically interact with someone who is using the other network, this works well.

There are a few hangups, though. This only works if both people bridge their accounts. This means I can't see any comments from Bluesky users unless they also are bridged, and that works both ways. A few Mastodon users responded to me and Eric's conversation and Eric could not see those replies. This make sense: only comments from bridged users are bridged. This can create asymmetrical conversations, but the opt-in nature of the bridging service makes this inevitable.

And there are other hangups. Bluesky has a 300-character limit for posts, for one thing, while the Fediverse doesn't have a hard cap. The result: some posts are cut short. I could go on—this is far from a perfect solution. You can, and should, read the documentation to learn more. For the moment, though, it's a way for people who aren't on the same decentralized social ecosystem to talk to each other, and I like that. I'll certainly be bugging friends I want to interact with on Bluesky to "bridge" their accounts.