7 Ways To Break Out of the Apple Ecosystem

Just because you use a Mac, iPhone or iPad doesn't mean you need to use Apple's services. You can use other email services, browsers, cloud services, streaming music, photo libraries and more.

Comments: 13 Responses to “7 Ways To Break Out of the Apple Ecosystem”

    Joel D Canfield
    12 months ago

    I use lots of alternatives, but one I haven't found a good substitute for is Music for playing local music files. I don't use streaming services. Music is far better than it was years ago but still gets frustrating (guess I should take notes and ask more specific questions, eh?) Are you aware of any especially simple music apps that play nice with Apple?

    Dana
    12 months ago

    @Joel- Music works fine and is included with Mac OS. JR River Median Center (now v31) does work well, and has a lot of options. Not free, though.
    A more general question about web browsers. Having switched to a Android phone, I'm now using Chrome. It does not appear there is a Safari available, and I have no interest in Edge.

    12 months ago

    Joel: I don't use them, as I love the Apple Music streaming service. But I have heard people mention IINA and VLC a lot.

    Sheldon
    12 months ago

    Thanks bunches

    jun
    12 months ago

    Thanks a lot Gary! Just my 2 cents: I also prefer Apple apps just about anything mentioned here EXCEPT ms-office. I wish I could have used Pages/Numbers/Keynote(which I do for personal use ofcourse) for everything. But just one example - I got a .docx to fill in - I couldn't do that even after trying in numerous ways(of course trying with libreoffice - I have used this even 10 years ago and google docs etc.), everytime somethng formatting/font/color scheme/border etc. was off. finlly, I gave up!

    Henning
    12 months ago

    @Joel: As a Mastering Engineer i can highly recommend Colibri as the Music App to go to. It's not expensive, has a ton of features and sounds by far the best of all Mac Apps, i used so far. Plus the Developer reacts to all Customercomments rather quick.
    Regards
    Henning

    Lori
    12 months ago

    Noticed that you mention 1password which I have been using but would sure like to see a video for that app. Setting up...continued use...authentication etc. Thanks

    Eric
    12 months ago

    I switched from 1Password a couple of years ago when it changed to a subscription model. Minimalist Password Manager (available on the App Store) is worth considering. The developer website is at https://minimalistpassword.com

    Peter
    12 months ago

    I want to go the other way, that is, find a Mac alternative for the excellent Irfanview photo handling app, which is only available for Windows machines. I've tried using Wine etc, to run Irfanview on my Macs, but the experience is less than satisfactory.

    John
    12 months ago

    I subscribe to Apple iMatch which stores all my music in iCloud - not just iTunes music. Is there an alternative and less-costly way to secure my music library? Thanks

    12 months ago

    Peter: Just glancing at the web page for that reminds me of Graphic Converter. Look at that. But also look at Pixelmator Pro too.

    12 months ago

    John: Do you mean iTunes Match? Isn't that still $25 per year? I don't think you'll find anything cheaper than that, if there even is anything. Certainly not for iCloud since there would just be one solution provided by Apple in their own app. Well, the other solution is Apple Music, but if you think $25/year is expensive then $10/month is probably not an option for you.

    Dean Alan Rowell
    11 months ago

    I’m looking forward to try this out. I have been using MS 365 and others. Will comment after trying. Thank you.

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