As much as you can like to work on the iPad, there are edge cases where the iPad falls short. Since I got an Apple Silicon powered Mac, and thanks to many nifty Mac utilities, I rediscovered what it really means to be productive and efficient on a computer platform. This blog post by Matt Birchler is an example of an edge case being better served by a traditional yet powerful computer.

On the subject of small and focused Mac productivity utilities, The list of application purchases I made since moving to this Mac mini is pretty long. Here it goes, in no particular order.

  • HazeOver
  • Unclutter
  • Keysmith
  • Bartender 4
  • DefaultFolder
  • Hush
  • StopTheMaddness
  • Alfred
  • Hazel
  • CheatSheet
  • PopClip
  • Downie
  • Permute
  • SafariMarkdownLinker

There is something those utilities have in common: in one way or another, they augment the macOS experience. Such things are not quite possible, yet, on the iPad.