Free Utilities for Friends

It’s been quite a while since I first thought to write app / service recommendations for my friends. There’s obviously no need to write about such things as everyone can read LifeWire or watch YouTube videos whatsoever. The thing is my friends aren’t as tech-savvy as I am. Who knows if by writing this I could save them some time in the future?

If you, my friend or whoever may be reading this (perhaps a future friend) would like to save the reading time, scroll down bottom to see links and summaries.

Websites

Convertio

Drag and drop any file and convert it into any format with Convertio. Convertio is a modern file converter. It supports “more than 25600 different conversions between more than 300 different file formats,” including images, documents, audio, videos, and more. Upload files via drag-n-drop or from Dropbox or Google Drive.

Today Convertio is ranked among the 1000 most visited sites in the world

Personally I’ve never used the video feature, but for other formats it did its job well, and fast. The team aim to do all their conversions in under 1-2 minutes.

9xBuddy

Have you ever wanted to download Youtube videos? To me, 9xBuddy is the best designed downloader. It supports downloading audio, video in different definitions, subtitles (including auto-generated), and more. Lots of thanks to 123SUDO. Sadly it doesn’t support bulk download playlist. Maybe ddownr.com supports playlists better, but I’ve never tried it out.

123apps

123Apps offers ad-free video, audio, pdf tools and more with a pleasant interface. It supports Chinese.

(I don’t want to write more, check them out yourself)

Applications

AdGuard Browser Extension

AdGuard is a fast and lightweight ad blocking browser extension that effectively blocks all types of ads and trackers. You can find the corresponding version at your browser’s store or at their website or on Github. While AdGuard offers paid desktop apps supporting advanced ad-blocking, their browser extensions are free, and even better, open sourced (everyone can see their source code), so you don’t have to worry about privacy. AdGuard says it this way:

AdGuard does not collect any information about you, and does not participate in any acceptable ads program. The only source of income we have is selling premium versions of our software, and we intend to keep it that way.

In the beginning I was just giving AdGuard a try, because, why not? It’s free and open source (what kept me away from ad blockers was privacy). Using it wasn’t much of a big change, until one day I for some reason turn it off, and found the internet a whole lot messier. . .Ad blockers are the sort of things you don’t exactly need, but once you had them you are stuck to them, I suppose.

Motrix

In China we have a rather popular downloader app called Xunlei. I used to cope with it, but was soon tired of the unpleasant ads. After a few searches made on Google, I found FreeDownloadManager (FDM), which is what I’m currently using because I like its UI (user interface) better than Motrix. Unfortunately, FDM is closed sourced, and their website doesn’t seem too trustworthy. Motrix would be the better option for people who aren’t pedantic about UI.

Which one do you like better?

Motrix is a full-featured download manager that supports downloading HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, Magnet, etc. In other words, it supports most of the links you would need it to recognize and is as fast as Xunlei.

To me the only downside to this Motrix is its using Electron, which means it uses more memory than it needs. But most users won’t mind this as long as their computers can take it.

Maccy

Maccy is a lightweight clipboard manager for macOS. It keeps the history of what you copy and lets you quickly navigate, search, and use previous clipboard contents. It is…

• Lightweight and fast
• Keyboard-first
• Secure and private
• Native UI
• Open source and free

OwlOCR

OwlOCR grabs any text on your screen and converts images or scans to searchable PDFs. You can access it via Finder Extensions. It’s very easy to use:

1. Copy text: Press Cmd + F1 or your customized keyboard shortcut (I use Shift + Cmd + 2), or select screen capture from the menubar as shown above
2. Select area on screen
3. Paste text Cmd + V

Even better, inputs can be exported to searchable PDFs.

1. Drag and drop the non-searchable files into OwlOCR - or take screenshots / iOS scans.
2. Run text recognition and export.
3. Exported PDF includes invisible text layers that can be searched by most PDF readers.

And there’s also an window interface to it, though I prefer keyboard and have never used it myself.

See OwlOCR in action

Tencent Lemon Cleaner

Tencent Lemon Cleaner is a modern and open source mac cleaner. It helps you…

1. Find and remove large files
2. Find and remove duplicates
3. Find similar photos
4. More thoroughly uninstall applications
5. and more… It’s a nice Tencent app…Frees you lots of space when you find your computer close to full.

Velja

With Velja, you can switch between default browsers. Velja opens links in a specific browser or a matching native app. For example, when you click on Zoom links Velja will automatically direct you to the Zoom app on your desktop, instead opening the link in your browser. Actually that is the only reason I use Velja…But it’s so lightweight and the paw icon looks so nice I don’t I see why I shouldn’t have it.

Plus, I want to support the cool developer behind Velja. I enjoy his System Color Picker most, but I don’t think most people will find the app as useful as I do.

I actually have a rather long list of apps, but these are the ones I can’t live without I found most helpful and easy to pick up.

Complete list of apps

In case someone’s curious about my complete list of apps, here it is (mostly for macOS):

• AS: download from App Store
• OS: Open Source

Links & Summaries

Websites

• Convertio: Convert any file to any format
• 9xBuddy: Enjoy Youtube videos offline
• 123apps: All-in-one PDF, audio, and video toolkit

Applications

• AdGuard Browser Extension: ad-block browser extension for Mac & Windows
• Motrix: Open source downloader for Mac & Windows
• OwlOCR: Recognize and extract text from your Mac’s screen and PDF files
• Tencent Lemon Cleaner: Open source Mac cleaner
• Velja: Mac browser picker that opens links in a specific browser or a matching native app