App Store Reviews

Audio Trimmer App Store Review

Friday, January 3, 2025

Long-Awaited, Elegantly-Executed Somehow, this 1.4 MB, virtually inconfigurable, single-use application manages to be one of the most powerful audio manipulation tools on iOS. Those who remember maintaining a GarageBand install just because they occasionally needed to trim audio files will celebrate. One of very few apps I’ve come across that I absolutely wouldn’t change at all but would pay much more for. Extraordinarily accurate (especially compared to any of its “competition”) and astonishingly robust.

Continue reading →

Shareshot App Store Review

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

THE solution for those who actually frame As his co-editor notes in MacStories' review of Version 1.0, Federico Viticci’s Apple Frames Shortcut does indeed overlap in functionality with Shareshot, technically, but - more importantly, from my perspective - the two stand together high above any other mockup creation solution (for any platform). At first, I was disappointed when I tried to use Shareshot’s initial release version. Boy, this could sure use some keyboard shortcuts, I thought, along with there’s no way this system of ‘choosing’ (not choosing) frame sizes isn’t irritating every single user of this app.

Continue reading →

Working Copy App Store Review

Thursday, May 9, 2024

My absolute favorite Git client… on ANY platform. I had the relatively unique experience of coming to Git, mobile-first, via this very application on my iPhone 8 Plus, almost exactly 4 years ago. Thanks to GitHub’s Education program, I’ve had access to unlimited repository creation since that first day, and it’s honestly quite a testament to the power of Working Copy just how much of a mess I made in those initial few months.

Continue reading →

Keka for iOS/iPadOS App Store Review

Thursday, April 18, 2024

The best compression/extraction utility on the platform. By far the most delightful compression/extraction utility for macOS (imo) is somewhat diminished in delightfulness in its mobile form, though not in its pure functionality. From the perspective of a year one iOS user with plenty of experience exploring what alternatives have been offered since the introduction of the File Provider API in iOS11, Keka for iOS/iPadOS' shear speed is distinct enough from its few platform competitors to warrant the title of Best such utility on the platform.

Continue reading →

Terminology Dictionary App Store Review

Friday, April 21, 2023

Very possibly the best dictionary app on the platform. Depending on your purpose for a dictionary app, this is the best one on iOS. I use mine to both look up established words and store words I’ve “created.” A lot of the words I want to store come from @HaggardHawks on Twitter, and most of them are both 1.) actual words, often from history and 2.) not in any established dictionaries.

Continue reading →

Secure Shellfish App Store Review

Monday, March 13, 2023

Magical, irreplaceable. As developer Anders Borum originated professional-grade git integration on iOS with Working Copy, which remains unmatched, Secure Shellfish remains the reference standard for remote filesystem access across the board on this platform, despite how many competitors have arisen since its introduction. I must admit: I overlooked Secure Shellfish for years and I’m not entirely sure why. I’m glad that ended last year, though, as I’ve actually since acquired a fair amount of remote file management in my day-to-day working life.

Continue reading →

a-Shell App Store Review

Thursday, January 19, 2023

The notable boundary-pusher in the iPadOS/iOS local command line. There are now quite a few terminal emulator-esque apps on the App Store, but I’ve been using a-Shell since it was joined only by Blink (from which it was forked) and iSH. As it was then, a-Shell remains the only one of these with which one can actually accomplish command line tasks locally beyond screwing around. I am ultimately not a command line native, and I don’t have the basic theory beneath my use of Python scripts, yet I’ve been able to accomplish startlingly powerful things within this app, thanks in large part to gracious and immediately-available support via the project’s Discord server.

Continue reading →

Jayson App Store Review

Monday, December 12, 2022

I Am No Longer Afraid of JSON All of Simon’s apps are genius and wholly unique, but Jayson will always have a special place in mine own heart as the single application which finally killed my phobia of JSON, in general. It is by far the most elegant and intelligent means of manipulating JSON dictionaries I’ve ever seen on any platform. I’ve worked with both the iOS and macOS apps, now, and both are - dare I say it - a genuine joy to use.

Continue reading →

TextExpander App Store Review

Thursday, September 22, 2022

I know a lot of the reviews here express discontentment with TextExpander’s support on iOS. I hear that, but - as a Bear and Drafts user - I rarely encounter this as a limitation. I also use an external keyboard with my iPhone, though, which makes calling the TextExpander keyboard anywhere else somewhat inconvenient. (Keyboard switching is done with the function key, if you were wondering.) From what I understand, though, TextExpander’s SDK is quite easy to implement, so it’s also a question of other developers acknowledging that it’s a worthwhile and desired addition to their applications.

Continue reading →

Textcraft App Store Review

Sunday, January 3, 2021

Elegant, diverse, instant text transformations I’m a fan of Shihab Meboob’s, you might say - Aviary and Mast are the most innovative social clients I’ve ever seen. I’m also a bit of a collector of text manipulation applications like Texcraft, of which there are just a few that are truly comparable on iOS. On macOS, there really aren’t any equivalents at all. For someone like me - who uses Textcraft’s transformations both recreationally/socially and has used them in development-ish tasks - its $4.

Continue reading →