Mac productivity

These are the cheapest tools on this site and the ones used the most times a day, which is why they are here next to software costing a hundred times more. The test for this category is not features, it is frequency multiplied by friction removed. Dictation qualifies because speaking is roughly three times faster than typing, and the reason nobody dictated for twenty years was proper nouns: a tool that transcribes perfectly and mangles your product name produces text you correct word by word. The ones that learn your vocabulary crossed that line, and they are worth a subscription for anyone who writes long messages. Clipboard history qualifies for a blunter reason: the default clipboard holds exactly one thing, which is a design accident that survived forty years, and it costs you a few seconds and a broken train of thought every time you hit it. Neither is a productivity hack. Both repair a defect. The thing to decide before installing either is what lands in the archive: a clipboard manager will happily remember a password, and a dictation tool hears whatever is said near it. Exclude the applications that handle secrets, once, on the day you install, and never afterwards.