Framous: The Ultimate Screenshot Framing App for Apple Devices

Charlie Chapman, the developer behind Dark Noise — the white noise generator I use constantly — is back with a another Mac application that feels custom-tailored for me. It’s called Framous, and it allows you to take screenshots on your Apple devices and elegantly frame them inside an appropriate Apple device bezel.

As someone who frequently frames screenshots, Framous is a game-changer. The app offers granular control over how your screenshots appear. You can select specific devices, such as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and choose from various finishes, like the natural titanium finish. The attached screenshot showcases my recent home screen with the Framous treatment. (More on that home screen in a future post.)

Framous operates on a freemium model: limited access is available at no cost. You can also choose a Framous Pro license for $10, and unlock all 2025 device frames for $20. Given how integral this functionality is to my workflow, I immediately opted for the $20 option. It’s a fantastic app, and supporting Charlie’s work feels great.

You can download Framous directly from the Mac App Store.

Breathable Is Free

Breathable, my Air Quality app of choice is now free. There is no interface for the app, it’s just a front for a pleasant-looking widget. Today, it’s telling me to stay inside as the smoke from the LA fires is lingering about.

Related, I’ve had several emails from folks asking how I’m doing with these terrible fires. Luckily I live on the opposite side of Los Angeles and we’re not at risk.

iA Writer Improvements

For reasons unknown, I took about a year off from using iA Writer and recently rediscovered it.

They’ve made a lot of improvements. For example, you can import text into your document, and iA Writer will track that as imported text. This works well if you use a large language model (LLM) to help with your writing.

The ability to highlight structure and grammar is better than ever, and the library features are much improved. Historically, I felt that was the weakest point of this application. Another feature that caught me flat-footed was inter-document navigation. Just surround the document name with two square brackets and command-click to jump between them. Everything links these days.

I’ve always felt the iA Writer team has respected the application’s primary purpose: to give you a focused writing environment. However, the evolution of the application, with a few additional features, dramatically improves its utility without losing sight of that.

Widgetsmith 7

I finally got around to trying Widgetsmith 7 for iOS 18, which is a significant improvement from the previous version. Widgetsmith, the leader in the customizable Home Screen app genre, expands its feature set with support for Control Center, Lock Screen, and Home Screen customization. The new version of the application takes full advantage of these new features and brings a bunch of customization that I expect Apple would never include.

3 iPhone devices side by side showing different screens from the widgetsmith app, version.

In many ways, this reminds me of the old days when we would all customize our Mac computers with apps like this. You can choose from Widgetsmith’s Icon Pack or import your own to customize your iPhone’s look and feel.

If you’d like to take your Home Screen customization to a new level, check out Widgetsmith 7.