TLDR AI is the free daily AI newsletter curated by engineers from OpenAI, Adobe, and Google DeepMind. The model releases, research, and tools that matter, in 5 minutes every weekday morning.
THE USEFUL TECH
5️⃣ THE USEFUL FIVE · FRIDAY ROUNDUP · ISSUE #017
👋 HEY, IT'S RAJA
Black Friday is 27 November, but plenty of Mac developers didn't wait. These 5 deals are live right now, each one is for an app a regular Mac user would install, and the codes are below.
A few of them end before the rush starts, so if one has been on your list, this is a good week to grab it.
1️⃣ Apps by Mo, 50% off every paid app
Remember Tuck, the menu bar manager built for macOS 27 from Wednesday's issue? Its developer is running 50% off every paid app until 1 December. That includes Tuck Pro and Mo, a little character that lives on your Mac. You ask it in your own words, typed or spoken, and it tidies files, plans your day and drafts replies, checking with you before it does anything.
Buy direct with code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout. The App Store versions are already half price, no code needed.
2️⃣ PastePal, 50% off a lifetime license
PastePal keeps everything you copy on your Mac, so the link, the address and the paragraph from 20 minutes ago are all still there. You can search your history, pin the snippets you paste every day, and get the same history on your iPhone and iPad through iCloud.
The lifetime license drops from $14.99 to $7.49 with code INDIEGOODIESBF26.
3️⃣ RewriteBar, 50% off
RewriteBar sits in your menu bar and fixes grammar, changes the tone, summarizes or translates whatever text you've selected, in any Mac app. You see the original next to the new version before you apply it, you can build your own actions, and you can run local AI models so your text never leaves your Mac.
The Standard lifetime license is $14.50 instead of $29 with code BF2026, until 3 December.
4️⃣ Compresto, 40% off every plan
Compresto makes videos, images, GIFs and PDFs up to 90% smaller without a visible drop in quality, entirely offline on your Mac. Drop in a whole folder and it works through everything in the background. You can also point it at a folder, like your screen recordings, and every new file gets compressed on its own.
Code BFCM26 takes 40% off, so the Personal lifetime license is $29.40 instead of $49.
5️⃣ Fluent 2, 25% off now and 50% off for 25 people
Fluent is an AI assistant that knows which Mac app you're in. It gives you writing tools, takes actions on your computer, runs shortcuts, and works with local models or the ChatGPT and Claude plans you already pay for.
Code BF2026 takes 25% off lifetime licenses until 1 December, so Basic is $36.75 instead of $49. From 15 November, code BIGBF2026 takes 50% off, but only for the first 25 people who use it.
ALSO WORTH A LOOK
Find the gigabytes old apps left behind with App Cleaner & Uninstaller.
Dragging an app to the Trash deletes only the app. Its caches, logs and support files stay in your Library folder. App Cleaner & Uninstaller from Nektony finds those leftovers, even from apps you deleted years ago, and shows every file with its full path so you can untick anything you want to keep.
The free version scans your Mac and shows what it finds, and a free trial of Pro shows how much space you get back. It's #1 in my post on 4 Mac apps that free up gigabytes even after you empty the Trash.
Nektony, the developer of App Cleaner & Uninstaller, sponsored this mention.
NEW FROM ME
Textlore goes 30% off for Black Friday on 20 November
Textlore is the Mac app I built that pulls every book, show, restaurant, song and app your friends recommended in iMessage and WhatsApp into 1 list, plus the promises you made over text and forgot. From 20 November to 1 December, code BF2026 takes 30% off. You can start the 14-day free trial today and buy with the code when it goes live.
NEW ON THE USEFUL APPS
5 apps their makers sent in this week:
NotchNook (Mac): music with lyrics, your next meetings and a file tray under the MacBook notch. From $15 once.
Pocket Screen (Mac): floats a live view of any window above your work. Free for 10-minute sessions.
Tilemode (Mac): tile windows, open any app with a hotkey and turn websites into apps. $9 once for the first 50 buyers.
ContactMerge (iPhone): finds and merges duplicate contacts. Free to scan.
dinnerrr (iPhone): your household votes on what to have for dinner. Free through 2026.
If you only grab 1, make it PastePal. It's the cheapest of the 5 at $7.49 for life, and it's the one you'll use every single day. Hit reply and tell me which deal you picked up.
These 5 are a small slice. I'm keeping every Mac and iPhone app deal I've confirmed with the developer, 63 so far, in 1 list with the codes and end dates. ShotJar, the menu bar jar that finds any screenshot by the words in it, is $9 instead of $24 there right now. See every deal.
See you Monday.
Keep it useful,
Raja · The Useful Tech
P.S. Know someone who always buys apps at full price? Forward this to them before the codes run out.
Want your app or deal featured here? See sponsor spots