App defaults 2024

It's that time of the year again. There weren't many changes to my list this year, but the things that did change significantly impacted my workflow. Old items have been crossed out, and changes (mostly) marked with a ✨ emoji (thanks, Chris!).

• Mail client: Apple Mail
• Mail provider: iCloud
• Notes: Apple Notes
• To-Do, shopping lists: Apple Reminders
• Photo management: Apple Photos
• Calendar: Apple Calendar
• Cloud storage: iCloud
• RSS: Reeder (with Feedbin) Reeder Classic (with FreshRSS) ✨
• Contacts: Apple Contacts
• Browser: Safari (desktop) Firefox (desktop) ✨, Safari (mobile)
• Chat: iMessage, Discord
• Bookmarks / Read later: Safari, Instapaper Raindrop.io ✨
• Word processing: iA Writer Obsidian ✨
• Subscription tracking: Outgoings
• Music: Apple Music Spotify ✨
• Podcasts: Apple Podcasts
• Password management: 1Password Apple Passwords ✨
• Design: Figma
• Code editor: Nova

Changes

After years of Feedbin, I moved my feeds in-house and self-hosted with FreshRSS. I also kicked the tires for a few months on the new Reeder but switched back to the Reeder Classic because it supports syncing with FreshRSS.

I bounced around browsers quite a bit this year. I started with Safari, moved to Arc, and then ended up on Firefox with many of their features disabled within about:config. So far, I've enjoyed having access to more plugins than Safari while staying away from Google.

I switched my publishing workflow around on my personal site, which meant switching up a few services in one shot. I moved from Instapaper and Safari Bookmarks to Raindrop.io to take advantage of their collections with RSS feeds.

I've officially dived into Obsidian from iA Writer because it's easy to make templates for new posts and keep everything synced up for more straightforward publishing with 11ty.

The family and I gave Apple Music an honest shot with a family plan but ended up begrudgingly moving back to Spotify. That said, I've been listening to more of my music on vinyl and will be looking for a possible self-hosted streaming solution this year. Morally, I can't get behind Spotify as a company.

Lastly, after years of performance issues with 1Password, I jumped on Apple's new Password app, and so far, it's been solid.

That's it! I keep a more detailed, updated list available all year long if you're into that sort of thing and, let's be honest, you probably are.