I’m pleased to welcome back PowerPhotos as a MacSparky sponsor. If you’ve used Apple Photos for any length of time, you know the app is missing serious power-user tools. PowerPhotos fills those gaps beautifully.

The app has long been the go-to utility for managing Apple Photos libraries. Need to merge multiple libraries into one while keeping your albums, edits, and metadata intact? PowerPhotos does that. Want to split an oversized library into smaller, more manageable ones? Done. Looking to hunt down and eliminate duplicate photos clogging up your drive and iCloud storage? PowerPhotos has a powerful duplicate finder that handles it.

What’s New in Version 3.0

The newly-released PowerPhotos 3.0 is a significant update with some useful new features:

• Batch metadata editing — Edit photo titles, captions, and keywords directly in PowerPhotos, with keyboard-focused editing that makes tagging and organizing photos fast
• Advanced search engine — A new indexing system with nested predicates lets you search by criteria Photos doesn’t support, like file size, dimensions, and video duration. You can save your smart searches too.
• Enhanced photo browser — The browser is now faster with live updating as your library changes, plus new export options including XMP support and whole library export

PowerPhotos 3.0 is a paid upgrade. If you’re an existing user of PowerPhotos 2 or earlier (or even the old iPhoto Library Manager from way back), you can enter your old license key for 50% off. Everyone can use the coupon code MACSPARKY26 for 20% off both regular and upgrade orders.

If you want to go deeper, Brian Webster (the developer behind PowerPhotos) joined Stephen and me on Mac Power Users episode #810 to talk about the app and its features.

Check out PowerPhotos today.

The new year is almost here, bringing fresh projects, ambitious goals, and creative work that matters to you. Whether you’re outlining your next novel, organizing years of research, planning a product launch, or capturing ideas before they slip away, the right tools make all the difference.

That’s why I’m excited to have WinterFest 2025 as this week’s sponsor.

This year’s theme is artisanal intelligence—carefully crafted tools that help you think better and create more effectively. In a world where “AI” has become  shorthand for automation and hands-off convenience, WinterFest celebrates a different kind of intelligence: software built by small teams who deeply understand their craft and their customers.

These aren’t apps churned out by algorithm or designed by committee. They’re tools honed over years by developers who use them themselves and answer your support emails personally. There are no subscription traps and no bloated feature lists. It’s just great software at a terrific discount for a limited time.

Here’s this year’s roster. I use a shocking number of them:

Many of these apps have been featured on MacSparky and Mac Power Users over the years.

A few personal favorites: DEVONthink remains my everything bucket for documents and research. Cotypist is a new addition to my toolset but already feels like it should be build into macOS. And BBEdit is simply THE power tool for text.

If you’re a writer, Scrivener is the gold standard for long-form projects, and Scapple from the same team is great for capturing and connecting ideas visually.

Head over to the WinterFest website to see the full lineup and grab what you need at 25% off before the sale ends.