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Launched on Product Hunt today: https://www.producthunt.com/products/hexel-editor

Every time I needed to look at raw bytes on my Mac I ended up either in something that felt ported from 2003, or in a terminal squinting at xxd output. So I built the thing I actually wanted.

Hexel Editor is a native macOS hex editor. Xcode-style document window — navigator on the left, a precise hex grid in the middle, a live data inspector on the right.

Opens anything, instantly Large files are memory-mapped, so a multi-GB binary opens as fast as a 2 KB one and stays responsive while you scroll.

Tells you what the bytes mean The inspector decodes Int/UInt 8–64, Float32/64, binary, hex and strings at the cursor. Little- or big-endian, toggled instantly.

Understands real file formats Built-in parsers for Mach-O, PE, ELF, PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, ZIP, gzip and PDF. Click a parsed field in the navigator and it jumps straight to those bytes.

Finds anything Hex pattern search with ?? wildcards for don't-care bytes, text search in UTF-8 / UTF-16 LE / UTF-16 BE / ASCII, and Go-to-Offset in hex (0x…), octal (0o…) or decimal.

Analyzes CRC32, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, plus entropy and a byte-frequency histogram over a selection or the whole file.

Annotates Named, colored bookmarks and plain-text notes on any byte range — exportable as .hexel files so you can share findings alongside the binary.

Edits safely Insert / overwrite / delete, a read-only mode, unlimited undo and redo, and atomic saves that won't corrupt the file.

Private by design No network access, no analytics, no tracking. Your files never leave your Mac.

Happy to answer anything. I'm especially curious what formats people would want parsers for next — that's the part of the roadmap I most want input on.

https://preview.redd.it/3e3ykdfpsbhh1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=16d817e7a7be9147041db78e6da2efa38d1148b3

Undo, ⌘Z, 20 steps

I deleted the wrong event once and that was that. It was gone, and I got to reconstruct it from memory and an email thread. That's the whole reason this release exists, and it's been the most requested feature by a distance.

Now delete, duplicate, move, drag and tick-off are all reversible, 20 steps back. Every change shows a small banner telling you what it did with an Undo button attached, so duplicating an event or shifting it to another calendar no longer happens silently.

Two details:

Undo checks before it acts. If the event changed on your iPhone or in Calendar.app since you made the edit, it stops and tells you instead of quietly stomping the newer version.

It can't undo deleting a single occurrence of a repeating event. EventKit gives no way to put one back. The app tells you that up front rather than pretending it worked.

The app is free now

The most common request I got, by a distance, was for a trial. Second most common was some version of "I'm a student, $4.99 is a real decision for an app I can't try first." Fair. But a trial on a fully local app is a bad deal for everyone. It's a timer that resets when you reinstall, and it means the app you like turns itself off in two weeks.

So instead of a trial, the free tier is permanent. Viewing your calendar is free forever. Paying once unlocks changing it.

Day view you can drag on

Hit the shortcut and a panel slides out of the side of the screen with your day laid out by time, not as a list. You can see where the gaps are. Drag on empty space to create an event, drag an event to move it, drag its edge to resize. Right-click for edit, duplicate, duration, hide or delete. Move your pointer away and it slides back, or pin it to keep it open.

Reminders are first-class here too: tick them off from anywhere, or drag one onto the timeline to give it a time. It stays a reminder and syncs straight back to Apple Reminders.

A serious fix worth calling out

Editing a single occurrence of a repeating event, just this Tuesday's stand-up, could rewrite the whole series. A weekly event could turn daily, lose its end date, and stop appearing on the days it should. That's fixed. If you're already on 2.3 and you use repeating events, that's the real reason to update.

Comparison:

Menu bar calendars are a crowded shelf and most of these are good. What's notably different about Side Calendar:

• Itsycal: the free open source standard, and excellent at what it does. It gives you a month grid and a list of what's coming up. What it doesn't give you is a time grid, so you can't see the shape of your day or drag something to 4pm.
• Dato: closest in spirit, a genuinely well-made menu bar calendar with time zones and meeting join buttons. Same difference though: month view plus event list, rather than a day you can drag on.
• MeetingBar: free and focused on one job, getting you into your next call. If that's all you need, use it. Side Calendar is trying to be the place you also make changes.
• Fantastical: a more powerful application than mine and I won't pretend otherwise. Natural language parsing, proper week view, cross-platform sync. It's also a subscription and a full window you switch to. If you want a calendar app, buy Fantastical. Side Calendar is for when you don't want to open a calendar app.
• Calendar 366: much broader feature set, more configuration, more surface. Side Calendar is deliberately smaller and does less.

Pricing: Free to download, $4.99 one-time for Pro

Free features:

• Agenda and day views, week numbers, month picker with busy-day dots
• Calendar colours, panel tint, auto-hide, pin
• Keyboard shortcuts, arrow key navigation
• Attendee lists and RSVP status, Join buttons for Zoom, Teams, Meet and Webex
• Ticking reminders off. That one's a write, and I left it free anyway, because an app that won't let you check a box feels stingy
• Opening the editor to see how it works

Pro features:

• Creating events and reminders
• Saving edits to titles, times, notes and links
• Dragging to move, reschedule and resize
• Duplicating and deleting
• Undo

One-time purchase, no subscription, no renewal, no account. The app is entirely local, EventKit on your Mac and nothing else, so there's no server of mine for a subscription to fund.

Link: App Store Link

Note: Side Calendar used to be a paid app. If you bought it before today, you have Pro for life, including everything I add from here, with nothing more to pay. It should just work when you open the app. If it somehow asks you to buy, hit Restore Purchases, and if that still doesn't sort it, comment here and I'll fix it personally.

I'm the developer of Insomniacs, a little menu-bar app that keeps your Mac awake — for a download, a presentation, a long render, or just to stop the screen dimming mid-read. I just shipped 2.0, which is a complete ground-up rewrite, native for macOS, and I'd love your feedback.

I always wanted something that (a) showed me how much time was left at a glance and (b) didn't feel like a utility from 2009. So I rebuilt mine around a live countdown ring.

What's new in 2.0:

• A countdown ring you can just grab. Click the menu-bar icon and a live ring shows the time remaining. Drag it to dial in any duration, or tap a preset (10 min → 8 hours, Custom, or ∞ to stay awake until you stop). Tap the centre to let your Mac sleep again.
• Keep working with the lid closed. Choose sleep-prevention only, or keep the Mac awake with the lid shut for downloads / remote work. There's a one-time ventilation reminder so you don't cook it in a bag.
• Shortcuts, Siri & Spotlight. Native Shortcuts actions — Keep Awake, Keep Awake Indefinitely, Turn Off — so you can automate it, ask Siri ("Keep Insomniacs awake"), or fire it from Spotlight.
• Global keyboard shortcuts. Start a timer, peek at the time remaining, or allow sleep instantly — from any app, fully customisable.
• Status at a glance. Battery, power source and thermal state right in the popover. Optional 5-min and 1-min warnings before a timed session ends.

Details:

• Native, sandboxed menu-bar app. No background daemons, no account, no tracking — it does one thing well.
• Requires macOS 13 (Ventura) or later.
• $1.99, one-time purchase (no subscription).
• App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/insomniacs/id1445351220

Happy to answer anything in the comments — and genuinely keen to hear what would make it more useful for how you work.

https://preview.redd.it/nxpwixmzt2bh1.png?width=2880&format=png&auto=webp&s=b0ff102aa1e7cf842345cdb1083f3a702bddfe61

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I've been building software for years and I keep having the same conversation. A small business owner comes to me with a genuinely good idea — a booking system that matches how they actually work, an inventory tool, a customer portal, whatever. They've outgrown the spreadsheet, and the off-the-shelf SaaS everyone recommends doesn't quite fit their business.

Then they get a quote. And it's a number that, for a business their size, is just a non-starter. So they limp along with duct-taped tools, pay a monthly SaaS subscription forever for 60% of what they need, or the idea just quietly dies.

The reason is simple and kind of brutal: bespoke software is expensive because it's built once, for one client, who has to eat the entire development cost.

So here's the model I keep coming back to, and I honestly want to know if it holds up or if I'm missing something obvious:

You bring the idea. We build it properly. But we retain ownership of the underlying software — and in exchange, the price drops to something a small business can actually afford. You get the tool you need for a fraction of full custom cost. We get an asset we can maintain, improve, and potentially adapt for others in a similar spot, which is exactly what lets the price come down.

I know the obvious objections, because I'd raise them too:

• You don't own the thing you paid to help create.
• You're dependent on one vendor to keep it running and updated.
• What happens if we go under, or want to change the terms later?

Those are real, and I think any honest version of this model has to answer them up front — escrow arrangements, clear exit terms, transparency about what you're actually buying (a really good license, not ownership).

But the alternative for most of these businesses isn't "own custom software." It's "no custom software, ever."

So — small business owners, would you take a great tool you don't own over an expensive one you do? And devs/founders, is this a legit way to make custom software accessible, or does the ownership catch make it a trap dressed up as a deal?

I'm the developer of Insomniacs, a little menu-bar app that keeps your Mac awake — for a download, a presentation, a long render, or just to stop the screen dimming mid-read. I just shipped 2.0, which is a complete ground-up rewrite, native for macOS, and I'd love your feedback.

I always wanted something that (a) showed me how much time was left at a glance and (b) didn't feel like a utility from 2009. So I rebuilt mine around a live countdown ring.

What's new in 2.0:

• A countdown ring you can just grab. Click the menu-bar icon and a live ring shows the time remaining. Drag it to dial in any duration, or tap a preset (10 min → 8 hours, Custom, or ∞ to stay awake until you stop). Tap the centre to let your Mac sleep again.
• Keep working with the lid closed. Choose sleep-prevention only, or keep the Mac awake with the lid shut for downloads / remote work. There's a one-time ventilation reminder so you don't cook it in a bag.
• Shortcuts, Siri & Spotlight. Native Shortcuts actions — Keep Awake, Keep Awake Indefinitely, Turn Off — so you can automate it, ask Siri ("Keep Insomniacs awake"), or fire it from Spotlight.
• Global keyboard shortcuts. Start a timer, peek at the time remaining, or allow sleep instantly — from any app, fully customisable.
• Status at a glance. Battery, power source and thermal state right in the popover. Optional 5-min and 1-min warnings before a timed session ends.

Details:

• Native, sandboxed menu-bar app. No background daemons, no account, no tracking — it does one thing well.
• Requires macOS 13 (Ventura) or later.
• $1.99, one-time purchase (no subscription).
• App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/insomniacs/id1445351220

Happy to answer anything in the comments — and genuinely keen to hear what would make it more useful for how you work.

https://preview.redd.it/nxpwixmzt2bh1.png?width=2880&format=png&auto=webp&s=b0ff102aa1e7cf842345cdb1083f3a702bddfe61

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Quick heads‑up before anything else: I’m the developer of Side Calendar.

Before anything else, a real thank you to everyone who's reached out with suggestions, bug reports, and feedback — this release exists because of you. And a special shout-out to Max

For anyone who hasn’t seen it before: Side Calendar is a slide‑out menu‑bar calendar for macOS. It sits on the edge of your screen, pops in when you need it, and disappears when you don’t.

What’s new in 2.1.0

• Drag to reschedule — grab an event in the day view and drop it onto a new time. Resize handles let you adjust the duration in the same motion. No pop‑ups, no forms, no fuss.
• Recurring events — daily, weekly, monthly, or custom repeats right from the add‑event sheet. Edits behave the way you’d expect.
• Custom global shortcut — set whatever hotkey fits your workflow. ⌘⇧C, ⌥Space, anything.
• Panel polish — smoother animation, rounded corners, and a proper resize handle so the panel adapts to your setup instead of the other way around.

Download: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/side-calendar/id1435738245

How it's different from the calendar app you're already using

• Not a full window. Most macOS calendar apps take over your screen or sit in the dock. Side Calendar lives on the edge and slides in on a shortcut — no dock icon, no app-switching, no focus stolen from what you're doing.
• Not just a menu-bar dropdown either. Most menu-bar calendars are read-only month grids that drop down for two seconds. Side Calendar is a full agenda + day view you can actually work in — drag events to reschedule, resize to change duration, add and edit in place.
• You decide when it's there. Bind your own global shortcut for instant access, pin it open if you want it always visible, hide it again with the same keystroke.
• Native sync, no new account. Reads from macOS Calendar and Reminders — whatever you've already set up it just works.

Now I’d love your input.

2.1.0 was a big update, but the roadmap from here is wide open. I’d rather build what you actually want than guess.

What would you like to see next in Side Calendar?
Week view? Better reminders support? Natural‑language event entry? Meeting links? Time‑zone tools? Something totally different?

Drop your thoughts — I read everything, and whatever comes next will be shaped by this thread.

https://preview.redd.it/wqzqjor3ec4h1.jpg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=94855f26ac56f07e77f33968ccfd9e3fa6ef7a33

Hey r/macapps,

Quick heads‑up before anything else: I’m the developer of Side Calendar.

Before anything else, a real thank you to everyone who's reached out with suggestions, bug reports, and feedback — this release exists because of you. And a special shout-out to Max

For anyone who hasn’t seen it before: Side Calendar is a slide‑out menu‑bar calendar for macOS. It sits on the edge of your screen, pops in when you need it, and disappears when you don’t.

What’s new in 2.1.0

• Drag to reschedule — grab an event in the day view and drop it onto a new time. Resize handles let you adjust the duration in the same motion. No pop‑ups, no forms, no fuss.
• Recurring events — daily, weekly, monthly, or custom repeats right from the add‑event sheet. Edits behave the way you’d expect.
• Custom global shortcut — set whatever hotkey fits your workflow. ⌘⇧C, ⌥Space, anything.
• Panel polish — smoother animation, rounded corners, and a proper resize handle so the panel adapts to your setup instead of the other way around.

Download: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/side-calendar/id1435738245

Price: $3.99

How it's different from the calendar app you're already using

• Not a full window. Most macOS calendar apps take over your screen or sit in the dock. Side Calendar lives on the edge and slides in on a shortcut — no dock icon, no app-switching, no focus stolen from what you're doing.
• Not just a menu-bar dropdown either. Most menu-bar calendars are read-only month grids that drop down for two seconds. Side Calendar is a full agenda + day view you can actually work in — drag events to reschedule, resize to change duration, add and edit in place.
• You decide when it's there. Bind your own global shortcut for instant access, pin it open if you want it always visible, hide it again with the same keystroke.
• Native sync, no new account. Reads from macOS Calendar and Reminders — whatever you've already set up it just works.

Now I’d love your input.

2.1.0 was a big update, but the roadmap from here is wide open. I’d rather build what you actually want than guess.

What would you like to see next in Side Calendar?
Week view? Better reminders support? Natural‑language event entry? Meeting links? Time‑zone tools? Something totally different?

Drop your thoughts — I read everything, and whatever comes next will be shaped by this thread.

https://preview.redd.it/qb50qrso9o3h1.png?width=3456&format=png&auto=webp&s=77e677ceaccbca53e885932f2cf16ca2a0eacd8c

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