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THE USEFUL TECH
5️⃣ THE USEFUL FIVE · FRIDAY ROUNDUP · ISSUE #014
👋 HEY, IT'S RAJA
Your Mac picks which browser opens every link. Messages picks which texts become suggestions. Find My shares your location until you remember to stop it.
These 5 hand those decisions back to you. 2 are free apps, 1 is a setting you already have, and 1 arrives with iOS 27.2.
1️⃣ OpenIn 4, for choosing which app opens every link
OpenIn sits between you and your default browser. Click a link and it sends it where your rules say: work sites in Chrome, everything else in Safari, meeting links straight into Zoom. A rule can depend on the website, the app you clicked in, your Focus mode or a key you hold down.
It also strips tracking junk from links and lets you check where a link goes before it opens. Files get the same treatment, so you decide which app opens them too.
It's a one-time $11.99 and needs macOS 13 or later. It's #1 in my new roundup of Mac apps that put you back in control of links and defaults, which OpenIn sponsored.
2️⃣ Suggested Actions in Messages, for choosing which suggestions you get
In iOS 27.2, Messages gets a switch for every kind of suggestion it makes. Go to Settings > Apps > Messages > Suggested Actions and you can keep Add to Calendar while turning off Add to Notes, or keep Flights and Packages and drop Show in Maps.
It's in the iOS 27.2 betas now. Apple hasn't announced a release date, and MacRumors expects 27.2 by the end of October, so this is one to check the day the update lands.
3️⃣ Takes for Mac, for talking-head videos Claude Code edits for you
Takes is a teleprompter that listens. It scrolls your script as you speak and records your camera and your screen at the same time.
When you're done, Claude Code cuts the edit on your own Claude plan, makes vertical versions and drafts the posts for LinkedIn, X and YouTube. Leave a note on any frame and it becomes a style rule for every edit after that.
It's free and open source, needs an Apple silicon Mac on macOS 15 or later, and keeps every project as a plain folder in your Movies folder.
Add the graphics with Useful Studio
Takes cuts your talking head. Useful Studio, the motion design studio I built for Claude Code, adds the motion graphics on top. Type /studio-broll and it lays animated graphics over your video, timed to what you say and in your own brand, then renders a finished MP4 on your Mac.
4️⃣ Stow, for knowing a memory card is really backed up
Stow copies a camera's memory card to 2 drives at once. Then it reads back every file on both drives, checks each one against the card, and only then tells you the card is safe to wipe.
macOS doesn't check copied files for you, which is how a corrupt clip goes unnoticed until the card has been formatted. Stow was built by Luke Lv, who runs the video studio Lumira, after his team got tired of paying per user for offload software.
It's free for Mac and Windows, with no account and no in-app purchases.
5️⃣ Hide My Location, for pausing location sharing quietly
In iOS 27, you can stop sending your location to someone without them being told. Open the chat, tap their picture to open the Info pane and choose Hide My Location, or do the same in Find My. They only see that your location is unavailable if they go looking. Resume from the same place.
Sharing got more control too. In a chat, tap +, choose Location, tap Share, then Custom, and pick any duration from 15 minutes to 30 days.
NEW FROM ME
Messages decides when your old photos get offloaded. Textlore keeps a copy anyway.
Textlore is my Mac app for your whole Messages history. It saves every message and photo as it arrives, so your copy stays even after Messages moves attachments to iCloud.
Search any word across every year in under a second, and export any chat to PDF, HTML or Markdown. It starts archiving the day you install it, so the sooner it's on your Mac, the more it keeps.
Try it free for 14 days.
Start with whichever one annoys you most often. That's the one you'll still be using next month.
See you Monday.
Keep it useful,
Raja · The Useful Tech
P.S. Enjoyed this? Forward it to a friend who loves their Apple gear a little too much.