---
title: "Mac apps quietly worth the dock slot"
date: 2026-05-03
tags: [daily-finds, macos-apps, tools]
description: "Six small Mac apps that earn their place — a timezone converter, dock folders, a local-AI writer, a Notepad++ port, a throwaway-VM runner, and pixel-perfect iTunes recreations."
blurb: "Six small Mac apps that earn their place by doing one thing right."
items:
  - fluttertime
  - dockpops
  - refine-grammarly-alternative
  - notepad-plus-plus-mac
  - cilicon-ephemeral-vms
  - companion-apps-for-apple-music
---

> A Mac stays clean only when every app on it is paying rent. These six are. A timezone converter you actually glance at, the Dock folders Apple never shipped, a writing assistant that runs entirely on-device, a Notepad++ port that's a real Universal Binary, throwaway macOS VMs for the next sketchy DMG, and pixel-perfect recreations of iTunes 1 and 4 sitting on top of modern Music.
