Cool Stuff Made for an Audience of One

Mac Geek Gab 1164 is all about Cool Stuff Made, the apps you built and sent in, starting with Tap2Click, which finally gives your Magic Mouse a quiet tap-to-click. You’ll hear why rough-draft coding with AI is changing who gets to build Mac software, and how Dave’s own Ottograph fixed per-alias signatures in Apple Mail in a single evening. Then Pilot Pete, Adam Christianson, and Dave Hamilton show you BAM for auto-quitting idle Mac apps and scheduling shutdowns, HEVCut for shrinking iPhone videos to reclaim storage, and WatchBlocks, a full sandbox survival game that runs on your Apple Watch.
Next, Apple’s Welcome Home lineup gets the once-over: the new HomeView smart display with Siri AI and multi-user support, the HomePod mini 2, the new Apple TV 4K with far-field mics and AV1 decoding, and the Apple Home Collection built with LG and Schneider. You’ll find out who should upgrade and who should stay put.
Then the listener-built apps keep coming. Sundrop turns your photo library into a time-lapse of your kids growing up, Odie logs your mileage automatically for tax time, and MailRules sorts your inbox with rules you write in plain English. Discrity shows you which apps are using your Mac’s camera and microphone, NotchPop turns your MacBook notch into a dashboard, and Faro helps you pick tonight’s movie. You’ll also get MailKeys for Gmail shortcuts in Apple Mail, Driftlog for a self-building travel map, LidKeeper for finishing jobs after you close the lid, Floodtide as a Mac Updater replacement before that database goes dark, and ThreadSaver for backing up your Messages. Press play to find your next favorite indie app, and whatever you do, Don’t Get Caught!
00:00:00 Mac Geek Gab 1164 for Monday, October 19th, 2026
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Cool Stuff Made
00:00:01 Tap2Click adds tap-to-click to the Magic Mouse (Michael)
00:03:37 Ottograph adds per-alias signatures to Apple Mail
00:04:37 Rough-draft coding has taken on new life
00:12:08 BAM closes the Mac apps you’re not using (JT)
00:15:04 HEVCut shrinks videos and photos on iPhone (Alejandro)
00:17:31 WatchBlocks, a sandbox game for Apple Watch
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Welcome Home, Apple!
00:23:45 Apple’s Welcome Home smart home lineup
00:28:09 New Apple HomeView Smart Speaker with Screen and Siri AI
00:38:31 Apple HomePod mini 2 with Siri AI, better Sound
00:43:49 New Apple TV 4K with Siri AI
00:57:23 Apple Home Collection with LG and Schneider
More Cool Stuff Made
00:59:36 Sundrop turns your photos into a time-lapse of your kids growing up (Ben)
01:01:30 Odie, an automatic iPhone car mileage tracker (@n-Taylor)
01:03:00 MailRules sorts your inbox with plain-English rules (Tilak)
01:04:45 Discrity shows which apps are using your Mac’s camera and microphone (Jiaming)
01:06:08 NotchPop turns your MacBook’s notch into a dashboard (Tejas)
01:07:50 Faro helps you decide what movie to watch (Phil)
01:09:10 MailKeys adds Gmail shortcuts to Apple Mail (Jason)
01:10:23 Driftlog, a self-populating travel map for your iPhone (Aki)
01:12:28 LidKeeper lets your Mac finish its jobs after you close the lid (Saif)
01:14:22 Floodtide updates your Mac’s apps (Raffi)
01:17:23 ThreadSaver backs up your Messages (Donald)
01:19:22 MGG 1164 Outro
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The Debut Film Podcast – Adam’s new podcast!
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