TextSniper: The Ultimate Mac Text Capture Tool (Sponsor)

This week MacSparky is sponsored by a killer Mac utility, TextSniper. TextSniper is a Mac OCR app that can extract text anywhere on your Mac’s screen and automatically save it to your clipboard, so you can paste it anywhere you need it. It can even read the text to you. The whole thing works a lot like the built-in screen capture on the Mac, just way more powerful. You know those websites that won’t let you copy text? With TextSniper, you can. Do you know the pain of getting a phone number out of a document? It’s easy with Text Sniper.

That’s not all. With TextSniper, you can:

  • Quickly get text from PDFs, Zoom calls, Presentations, and Videos. 
  • Read QR codes and barcodes.
  • Get text out of just about any image format, including JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and BMP.

I use this app often. It’s made by a developer who spends much time making it the best capture utility on the Mac. You can even use your iPhone or iPad camera to take a photo for TextSniper to perform its magic.

Moreover, in an era where so much software is more about data mining than giving you a service, TextSniper doesn’t collect your data. The text recognition is processed on your Mac and does not require an internet connection. 

TextSniper works with macOS Catalina and later and also works with Parallels Desktop

Get TextSniper now and enjoy the fastest way to copy uncopyable text, wherever you find it. Use promo code TSMS2023 to get an additional 25% off.

More App Store Troubles

Apple’s App Stores need a lot of work. There was a news piece yesterday about how scam developers made scam authenticator apps in response to Twitter now charging for two-factor authentication. One charged users $40 per year. The trouble is not Twitter (though charging for two-factor authentication is ridiculous), but Apple for letting these obvious scam apps in.

Apple will get around to banning them once they’re made aware of the problem, but the fact that these apps were ever available is a fail. And that’s not the only place the App Stores fall short. Search has never been good, and there are all sorts of competitive tricks that make it hard for small developers to get any traction.

I like that Apple takes a hand in the app approval process. I think they have the right idea of acting as gatekeepers to protect their users. My problem is that as things stand, the barbarians are getting through the gates.

Mac Power Users 680: Workflows with Marco Arment

Developer and podcaster Marco Arment joins Stephen and me on this episode of Mac Power Users to talk about his desktop-laptop setup, the current state of development on Apple’s platforms, and what the company may do in 2023.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

  • SaneBox: Stop drowning in email!
  • Rocket Money: Cancel unwanted subscriptions and manage your expenses.
  • Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

Tidy Your Inbox with SaneBox (Sponsor)

Let’s say you get 50–100 emails a day. Are all of them important? Of course not. So are you spending or wasting your precious time filtering through your emails to get to the important ones? SaneBox, this week’s MacSparky sponsor, will save you time. 

Those newsletters and other unimportant emails you receive that you don’t need to read right away? You can stop them from interrupting your flow. With your training, SaneBox’s A.I. will analyze your email history. After learning what’s important to you, it makes sure that only important email stays in your inbox. Those pesky emails that don’t require your immediate attention? You can get a daily digest from SaneBox at the time of your choosing and deal with them later.

Tidy up your inbox and let SaneBox deal with the clutter by sending them to your Sane folders. If you’re not quite sold, you can try it out for for yourself. For MacSparky friends, SaneBox has a special offer. You can sign up for a free trial, and you’ll get a $10 credit you can use towards a SaneBox subscription. Welcome to email sanity, it’s that simple.