Tools

Some daily drivers, others for occasional utility

I like to think these are the best picks given price + value + competition

I’ve spent a lot of time (much better spent elsewhere) on my picks here

Pieced together from running myself + reddit + this

Check out this to see what I pay for

Workflow #

• Helium (browser)
  • Optimized for  + extensions
  • tried Orion (WebKit-based but buggy ext support)
  • and before that: Zen (Gecko-based but mem heavy)
• Shortwave (smart email, just on iOS)
• Fantastical (calendar)
• Todoist (todo list, syncs with ^)
• Obsidian (.md based editor)
  • look at my .obsidian (similar to dotfiles)
• Buffer (clipboard manager)
• WARP (privacy for public wifi)
• Anarlog (meeting notes; Granola alt)
• Scira (deep web search agent)

Dev #

• Orca (ADE)
  • used cmux before (more of a terminal multiplexer GUI)
  • and good old terminal or VSCode extensions for CC/Codex
• OrbStack (quick VMs/docker)
• Zed (plain IDE; granular edits ig)
• Tower (git history GUI; looks cool let me larp)
• WakaTime (time tracking; me)

Lifestyle #

• Apple Music (🫩)
• Origin (finances dash)
• Health
  • Hevy (lifting tracker)
  • Strava (cardio tracker)
  • SuppCo (supplement recs)
  • Yuka (food/cosmetics ratings)
  • Countoura (measurements)
  • data from above → claude → insights
• Transport
  • Transit (public transit ETAs)
  • GasBuddy (gas prices)
  • SpotAngels (street parking finder)
  • SpotHero (big city cheap parking)
  • Empower (cheap uber/lyft)
  • seats.aero (cheap flights; use as mcp)

Miscellaneous #

unnecessary; *super worth imo

• *Swish (window tiling)
• *Hand Mirror (webcam peek)
• *CleanShot X (screenshot tool)
• *Emoogle (emoji picker)
• Keka (archive/compression)
• Numi (NLP calculator)
• ColorSlurp (color picker)
• Phoenix Slides (SD card viewer)
• Amphetamine (caffeinate GUI)
• CleanMyKeyboard (disable keyboard)
• Mos (mouse configurator)
• Pearcleaner (filesys janitor)
• Remote Mouse (control mouse from phone)

Digital Subs #

I freemaxx except these:

Recurring:

• Apple Music ($7/m; use edu email)
• Origin ($1/y; use limited promo & insta-cancel)
• Scira Pro ($5/m; use SCIRASTUD discount)
• Claude Pro ($20/m)
• x.com ($8/m)

Once:

• Swish ($10/life; email for student promo)
• CleanShot X ($20/life; use edu email)

Tower free through GitHub Student