Cold on the heels of the 2023 and 2024 editions, the emoji list of apps I used regularly in the past year:

📨 Mail Client: Mail.app, MailMate + SpamSieve + GPG Suite
📮 Mail Server: MXroute, CraneMail
📝 Notes: Obsidian, Tot
✅ To-Do: Obsidian
📷 Photo Shooting: iPhone, Lumix GH5, Fuji X100VI
🎨 Photo Editing: Photomator, Pixelmator Pro, Acorn
📆 Calendar: Apple Calendar
📁 Cloud File Storage: iCloud, Syncthing, MinIO
📖 RSS: Reeder
🙍🏻‍♂️ Contacts: Apple Contacts
🌐 Browser: Safari
💬 Chat: Apple Messages, Discord, Slack
🔖 Bookmarks: Raindrop
📑 Read It Later: Obsidian
📜 Word Processing: Apple Pages
📈 Spreadsheets: Apple Numbers
📊 Presentations: Apple Keynote
🛒 Shopping Lists: Apple Reminders
🍴 Meal Planning: Mela
💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance: Soulver + Actual
📰 News: Mastodon + a jillion blogs + 404 Media
🎵 Music: Apple Music
🎤 Podcasts: Apple Podcasts
🔐 Password Management: 1Password
🧑‍💻 Code Editor: VS Code, PhpStorm, Sublime Text
✈️ VPN: NordVPN

Bonus Items

Important enough to include here, ordered roughly by how often I rely on each.

🚀 Launcher: Alfred
🐚 Terminal: iTerm 2
☂️ Backup: Arq + Hostbrr Storagebox, Zerobyte
🚫 Ad Blocking: Vinegar, Wipr 2, StopTheMadness
🔎 Search Engine: Kagi
📓 Journaling: Day One
🗂️ Version Control: Fork
🖼️ Screenshots: CleanShot X
🐘 Mastodon Client: Ivory
👨‍💻 Local Development: DDEV
🗄️ Code Repositories: GitHub
💽 Database Manager: TablePlus
📖 Reading: Kobo, Apple Books
✍️ Writing: Obsidian, VS Code, iA Writer, Beat, MarkEdit
🧾 Invoicing and Time Tracking: Harvest
👨‍🎨 Design: Figma
🕹️ Games: BattleBit Remastered, Hell Let Loose, Star Citizen, Battlefield 6
📊 Web Analytics: Umami
🗓️ Schedule Booking: Cal.com
🤖 Server Provisioning: Coolify, Ansible
🩺 App + Server Monitoring: HetrixTools, Sentry, GlitchTip, Checkmate
📦 Package Tracking: Parcel
🧠 Brainstorming: Obsidian + reMarkable + an actual whiteboard
☎️ Video Calls: Cal.com, Zoom
📋 Snippet Sharing: HedgeDoc
🎛️ 3D Modeling and Slicing: Autodesk Fusion, PrusaSlicer
🗺️ Maps + Driving Directions: Apple Maps + CarPlay
🔥 Wildfire + Air Quality Tracking: Watch Duty
🎬 Filmography Reference: Callsheet
📽️ Video Editing: DaVinci Resolve
🐎 Motion Graphics: Apple Motion
🎹 DAW: GarageBand
👀 Editor Analytics: WakaTime

Bonus Commentary

My trend toward smaller apps and services and self-hosting continues. I didn’t change a whole lot, which is probably good!

I changed my Git client from Tower to Fork after a long trial, introduced Acorn for fast image editing from a developer I’m happy to buy a license from, and leapt into another lifetime email account (😅) I’ve been happy with.

I tried and failed to find something on par with Kaleidoscope for resolving merge conflicts. It feels too expensive for how infrequently I use it, but I can’t beat that editable three-column view with wonderfully-granular smart merging. It really does help me find my way through comparisons and merge conflicts confidently. Which is saying a lot, because I usually have to take a deep breath before reviewing any merge conflict.

I also got excited about Everlog as an alternative to Day One. I ran into trouble importing my Day One journals and the developer was friendly and diligent about fixing the admittedly mysterious issue I was having. I couldn’t even scroll my list of imported entries without the view locking up, however, and I didn’t want to keep being a pain with support requests. I’ll probably try again, because I’d rather get away from Automattic and support an indie developer.

I caved and splurged on an AAA title and enjoyed some long sessions with Battlefield 6, then pivoted sharply and put my gaming PC up for sale. I have too many things I’d like to do and gaming just eats time.

I did some of my first screenwriting with Beat, and inspired by Nicolas Magand’s praise I found that I have a pleasant time writing with MarkEdit.

My Coolify spree continues, with Actual and Checkmate being new self-hosted apps that have stuck around. Zerobyte was a late addition thanks to Ethan Sholly’s article, and it quickly replaced the Duplicati instances that were clunkier to manage. Despite UI issues and a frustrating name change, useSend has been flawless for managing transactional email on top of SES.

My big physical changes have been a Fuji X100VI camera I’m having fun getting to know, and a whiteboard that now adorns my office wall where I can always see it. The whiteboard is my habit tracker, idea scribbler, and a fantastic place for tracking personal and social goals that don’t need to be on my daily Obsidian todo list.

So my killer app this year is a whiteboard I got from Home Depot. Nice contrast, infinite runtime without recharging, no subscription, no AI features, no software updates, no firmware updates, no ads, no data mining, no parent company acquisition and business model shift. This says a lot about my relationship to technology in 2025. Yes, I’m fun at parties.