After seeing this on Chris Coyier's blog and subsequently listening to episode 097 of "Hemispheric Views" I figured I'd chime in.
- 📨 Mail:
Mail.app
. - 📮 Mail Server: iCloud with custom domain through iCloud+.
- 📝 Notes: Obsidian.
- ✅ To-Do: Things 3.
- 📱 iPhone Camera app: the default camera.
- 📸 Photo Shooting: Sony A7iv and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
- 🎨 Photo Management & Editing: Adobe Lightroom Classic, Synology Photos, and
Photos.app
. - 📆 Calendar:
Calendar.app
synced via iCloud. - 📁 Cloud File Storage: iCloud Drive and Synology DS File.
- 📖 RSS: Readwise Reader. Or use my referral link for 2 free months.
- 🙍🏻♂️ Contacts:
Contacts.app
synced via iCloud. - 🙋♂️ Browser: Safari and Arc.
- 💬 Chat: WhatsApp, Discord, Slack.
- 🔖 Bookmarks: Obsidian notes.
- 📑 Read It Later: Readwise Reader.
- 📜 Word Processing: Obsidian, occasionally Google Docs.
- 📈 Spreadsheets: Google Sheets, very rarely need this.
- 📊 Presentations: n/a.
- 🛒 Shopping List: n/a.
- 🍴 Meal Planning: n/a.
- 💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance: YNAB. Or use my referral link for a free month.
- 📰 News: RSS, Mastodon feed.
- 🎵 Music: Apple Music, vinyl records, and Jellyfin for lossless files stored on my NAS.
- 🎙️ Podcasts: Pocket Casts, grandfathered into the lifetime plan.
- 🔐 Password Management: 1Password.
- 🧭 Navigation: Apple Maps on mobile, Google Maps on desktop.
Some bonus apps I use that don't fit into the above categories:
- Raycast as a launcher, snippet repository, and clipboard manager.
- Rectangle for window management.
- Smooze to make scrolling on macOS not annoying.
- Toggl Track for time tracking.
- Endel to help me stay focussed during long stretches of work.
- Apple's
Health.app
andFitness.app
in combination with my Apple Watch to keep me healthy and somewhat sane.
Robb has created a massive list of links to other people's default apps, if you want to go see their setups. I might do one every year; would be interesting to see how this list evolves over time.