Here’s a list of products or services that we use and recommend.
Backup
Time Machine – Apple’s solution for backing up a Mac. It’s free and bundled with the Mac operating system (macOS). We typically recommend that you use Time Machine as the primary way to backup your Mac.
Backblaze – A great way to create an off-site backup of your Mac, outside your home or office. We typically recommend using Backblaze as a secondary way to backup your Mac.
Security
Malwarebytes – An easy tool for detecting and removing malware from your Mac. It’s available in both free and paid versions. If you’re an on-going Sound Support customer you only need the free version.
Sophos Home – A free tool for detecting and removing viruses from your Mac. Mac viruses are very rare, but Mac users can send documents infected with PC-only viruses. Sophos Home will help you identify any such virus-infected files.
1Password – An app that stores passwords and other secure information. Our recommended password manager for business customers or others for whom Apple’s own password management app is insufficient.
NordVPN – Our recommended personal VPN product. VPNs can help in two primary situations. First, if you need to assign your Mac an IP address from another country so you can access a web site that is only available to computers in a given country or region. Second, if you wish to make it tougher for web sites to track you.
Maintenance
AppCleaner – A free tool to help you completely remove applications, especially applications that store their components in various folders across one’s Mac. It removes the application itself as well as system files used and created but the application.
DaisyDisk – A low-cost tool we commonly use to inventory everything stored on a Mac so we can see if additional storage space can be made available.
Omni DiskSweeper – A free tool to inventory nearly everything stored on a Mac. Not as effective as DaisyDisk, but it’s the best free option.
EasyFind – A free tool that lets one locate files stored on one’s Mac. EasyFind searches more locations that Apple’s own Spotlight.
Onyx – A free tool that gives convenient access to a plethora of macOS’s underlying utilities and functions.
Troubleshooting
SMARTUtility – a low-cost tool that checks the health of hard drives. It can be used to read and analyze a Mac’s internal drive’s diagnostic information.
SMARTReporter – a free tool that monitors the diagnostic information for Mac internal hard drive. It tries to give you notification if the drive reports problems.
SSDReporter a free tool that monitors the diagnostic information for Mac internal solid-state drives (SSDs). It tries to give you notification if the drive reports problems.
Neo Network Utility – a free tool that looks like a replica of Apple’s own Network Utility which they deprecated starting with macOS Big Sur. Neo Network Utility offers network tools including ping, trace route, whois and port scan.
iStatMenus – a low-cost customizable tool that lets you monitor your Mac’s performance. iStatMenus can report on a variety of items including fans, temperatures, CPU usage, memory usage, network and storage.
Splashtop SOS – a tool that permits remote support of macOS, iOS and iPadOS device.
Productivity and Efficiency
TextExpander – a time-saving tool that lets you easily enter text. If you need to type the same information repeatedly that use TextExpander to build a collection of boilerplate text that you can easily insert into any document on your Mac.
MsgFiler a low-cost time-saving tool that lets you quickly file emails. It works with Apple’s Mail application.
Email Marketing
MailChimp – an email marketing tool. The free tier currently allows one to send up to 6,000 emails per month.
Email Hosting
Website Hosting
Media Management:
iMazing – an iPhone and iPad management tool. It lets one backup one’s iPhone or iPad to one’s Mac. iMazing can extract data from an iPhone or iPad. It can also create configuration profiles and scan iPhones for any evidence that malware is on the iPhone.
PowerPhotos – an affordable tool that can be used to find duplicate photos and can either merge or split photo libraries.
Miscellaneous
EagleFiler – email archiving and file storage
Acuity Scheduling – online scheduling
“Tim has been our go-to guy for years! We’re fascinated by how his mind works so methodically as he talks through the issues and works them out. It’s as much an education for us as it is a problem solving performance by him. He is able to explain clearly and in understandable terms for those of us less tech-savvy and is as patient as he is thorough. We really do rely on his expertise and would easily vouch for his value to any who need Mac problem-solving help.”
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