u/Flat-Loquat-7027

Import your own dictionaries, bring your own AI API keys, then you have all set

Hey r/macapps,

Problem: A quiet place to look up words and really understand them.

I wanted a small, native dictionary app (also universal) where I could look up a word, take my time with its meanings and examples, and compare explanations across dictionaries. No distracting services or another subscription. Just a quiet place to understand what I’m reading.

So I built Open Dict. The Mac app is about 5.2 MB before adding dictionaries, no signup.

A few things, done well:

• Bring your dictionaries: import MDX/MDD, MOBI, StarDict, dictd, TXT and TSV. Use your existing collection or explore free and open-source dictionaries. Local lookups work offline.
• Search your whole library: one query across your dictionaries, with easy switching to compare definitions.
• Choose your own AI: bring your API key for OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi or GLM, or connect a custom API. Auto-load the available fast models, choose your preferred one, and customize the explanations. AI is entirely optional.
• Keep what you learn: save words, highlight sentences, and add notes. Sync through your own iCloud across Mac, iPhone and iPad (iPhone/iPad coming soon). No separate account or app subscription needed.

Two built-in AI prompts cover concise definitions and detailed learner explanations. Your own prompt can be as simple as:

>Explain {word} briefly in English, Japanese and Spanish, with two example sentences in each language.

The app fills in the word. You can edit and test your prompts whenever you like.

Comparison

Apple Dictionary is handy for quick, built-in lookups. Open Dict focuses on building your own library from common dictionary formats, searching across those sources, and adding AI explanations with models and prompts you control.

If you collect dictionaries or learn in several languages, that flexibility is the main reason to try it.

Pricing

The free version supports up to 5 dictionaries, with no other feature restrictions or time limit. A US$9.99 one-time purchase permanently removes the dictionary limit. No app subscription.

Open Dict is a Universal App: one purchase covers Mac, iPhone and iPad with the same Apple Account. Mac is available now; iPhone and iPad versions are in App Store review.

Mac App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/id6809827715

Website and screenshots:
https://kmate.io/opendict/

What do you use for dictionary lookups on your Mac? I’d love to hear what’s missing from your current setup.

Transparency

I’m Harvey, the developer of Open Dict.

Quick Note: this app is still in early release, so expect all sorts of rough edges. I’ll keep pushing updates to improve dictionary format support, performance, and add more features — all while keeping true to its lightweight core. A new release is coming soon. Would love your feedback, and I hope it can become a handy daily lookup tool for you. One thing you can rest assured of: this is my own daily driver. Definitely not one of those “release it and abandon it” projects 😊

Privacy policy:
https://kmate.io/opendict/privacy/

Help:
https://kmate.io/opendict/help/

FAQ:
https://kmate.io/opendict/faq/

A heads-up for anyone who relies on My Clippings.txt for their Kindle notes: I would be very cautious about updating to firmware 5.19.6 for now.

I updated as soon as it was released on August 4 and used my Kindle normally for about a week. When I imported my notes into KMate, I noticed something really strange: the newest highlights and notes in My Clippings.txt stopped on August 4. Everything after that was missing, even though I had definitely been highlighting and adding notes.

At first I thought it was an issue with my import workflow. But the timing lined up exactly with the firmware update, and I then found other reports of the same problem, including this thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comments/1vic5t7/my_clippings_folder_issue/

I have now tested this on more than one device, including a Colorsoft and a Kindle Scribe running 5.19.6. I made highlights and notes in both Kindle Store books and personal/sideloaded documents, then compared My Clippings.txt with the notes synced to Amazon’s cloud.

Unfortunately, some newer highlights and notes were never written to My Clippings.txt at all.

From my own devices and other users’ reports, the affected models include:

- Kindle Colorsoft
- Kindle Scribe
- Kindle Scribe Colorsoft

It appears to affect both Store-purchased books and sideloaded books. I would not assume other models are unaffected just because they have not been reported yet.

This matters because My Clippings.txt is still the main local/offline record used by a lot of note workflows: Notion and Obsidian plugins, Readwise, clippings.io, KMate, Klilb, Knotes, and many other tools depend on it. If new entries are silently omitted, they effectively disappear from those workflows.

The factory-reset workaround currently seems reliable: OP in the linked thread reported that reset fixed it, and I was able to confirm the same result afterwards.

However, please be very careful before resetting:

1. A factory reset removes all local data from the Kindle, including your accumulated My Clippings.txt file.
2. First connect the Kindle to a computer via USB file transfer(for Mac only, direct access and copy on Windows) and copy `documents/My Clippings.txt` somewhere safe.
3. Also back up any sideloaded books/documents you want to keep locally.

If you do not want to reset immediately, there is at least a temporary workaround for Kindle Store books:

- Go to https://read.amazon.com and view your Kindle Notebook in the cloud.
- You can also import those cloud notes directly into KMate or any other tools, or import an HTML file saved/exported from the Kindle app.

The important limitation is that Amazon’s cloud notebook does not cover sideloaded books. So if you read personal documents or books transferred by USB, this workaround will not recover those annotations. For those, My Clippings.txt is still the only practical local export/backup path.

That is why this bug is such a big deal. A local clipping file should be the most basic, reliable part of Kindle note-taking — not something that silently stops receiving data after a firmware update.

And honestly, this comes after a worrying run of Kindle software problems: updates being pulled, Vocabulary Builder becoming more cumbersome, long-standing duplicate-note issues on Scribe, and limited access to the vocabulary database on newer MTP-based devices. The overall quality of recent Kindle firmware is becoming hard to ignore.

If you are on 5.19.6, could you please test this?

1. Make a new highlight or note.
2. Connect the Kindle to a computer.
3. Check whether it appears at the bottom of `documents/My Clippings.txt`.

Please include your Kindle model, firmware version, and whether the book is Store-purchased or sideloaded. It would help establish how widespread this is.

https://preview.redd.it/b1r92s3dewfh1.png?width=1842&format=png&auto=webp&s=918e0045c73db9c0845622a7589da89b8bad526b

Hi r/iosapps , I’m the developer of KMate Mobile, which lets you import and review Kindle highlights and vocabulary on iPhone/iPad with no signup needed. It can directly import your Kindle and Amazon Notes, sync with the desktop version via your personal iCloud, and offers flashcards, stats, and export to PDF/Markdown/Anki deck.

A — Answer: What problem does it solve?

I’ve used Kindle for years, and one thing always bothered me: highlights, notes, and looked-up words are easy to collect, but hard to actually use afterwards.

They usually end up scattered across Kindle, Amazon cloud notes, exports, or desktop tools. KMate Mobile is my attempt to make that review loop easier on mobile: import your Kindle highlights and vocabulary, browse them by book, search them, edit notes, review words, and use spare moments to actually revisit what you saved.

B — Better:  How is it different?

The Kindle app is good for reading, but not really built as a study/review tool. Notes apps are flexible, but you have to manually organize everything. Readwise is great if you want a service around highlights, but I wanted something more focused on Kindle notes + Kindle Vocabulary Builder, with a mobile workflow that also works well with desktop.

KMate Mobile can be used on its own: you can import Kindle highlights, Kindle vocabulary, Kindle App / Amazon Kindle Cloud notes, and review everything directly on iPhone or iPad.

But it also fits into a desktop workflow. If you already use KMate / Kindle Mate on Windows or Mac, you can import your existing desktop data into KMate Mobile. And if you use KMate for Mac, the latest version supports iCloud sync, so you can organize and manage your notes/vocabulary on desktop, then review them on mobile and keep learning status/progress synced.

That was an important part of the design for me: desktop is still better for heavy organization, cleanup, and batch management, while mobile is better for spare-moment review.

Once imported or synced, you can view notes in book cover or card layouts, filter and search globally, edit notes, review words with flashcards/random review, see vocabulary context and definitions, and track reading/learning stats like active days, high-frequency words, books, notes, and vocabulary progress.

There are also reading themes, font settings, card layouts, and export options for TXT, Markdown, PDF, Anki deck, copy/share, and print.

C - Cost

The app is free to download.

Free users can use most core features, including iCloud Sync, Kindle/Amazon imports, browsing unlimited notes and words, flashcards, and TXT, Anki export.

Pro unlocks Markdown/PDF export, printing, and unlimited Stats & Insights.

Pricing: $0.99/month, $6.99/year, $14.99 lifetime

App Store: KMate: Notes & Vocab Anywhere https://apps.apple.com/app/kmate-notes-vocab-anywhere/id6765629807

Transparency:

Developer: Me (Harvey), also the maker of Kindle Mate, KMate for Mac and Windows.

Website: https://kmate.io

Privacy Policy: https://kmate.io/privacy

Hi r/windowsapps,

As an consultant in data security and privacy compliance industry,  I’ve long wanted to create a simple, worry-free tool for everyday file verification, evidence auditing, privacy scanning and check accidental data exposure (for example it's not easy for regular users to even simply clean Office save/editing history or saved/modified author info). So I spent months working on this project in my free time to make it happen. I know it’s still not perfect right now, and I’ll keep improving it. It was release only on Mac and on Windows Store now.

File Deep Info is a professional file analysis and metadata auditing tool, which identifies real file formats, discovers hidden data, extracts embedded objects, and audits or cleans sensitive metadata and EXIF from Office documents and images.

https://preview.redd.it/5436w6irud5h1.png?width=2880&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d5e1ffb2687a0f7370018d66628855baa399d56

Metadata Audit & Privacy Clean Export

Audit Office metadata, full EXIF information, hidden tags, and custom properties with one click. Remove sensitive data by selection and export a clean copy without modifying the original file. Clean authors, edit history, creation/modification dates, capture time, GPS location, camera info, and more—ideal for sharing, submission, and compliance archiving.

Real Format Identification

Uses MIME/Magic Number and binary signature detection to accurately verify the real format of thousands of file types and embedded objects. Effectively identifies fake extensions and extensionless files.

Hidden Data & Steganography Inspection

Deeply scan Office, PDF, images, archives, and other files to uncover hidden or unintended content, including hidden sheets/rows/columns, hidden slides/notes/master content, obscured text, tail-appended data, and merged content. Prevent accidental sensitive information leaks.

Embedded Object Extraction

Extract multi-layer Office OLE objects, PDF attachments, iWork internal resources, and EOF shadow data with one click. Supports multi-level structure analysis and restoration.

Checksum & Hex Preview

Calculate MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA512, and CRC32 checksums simultaneously in one read. Provides fast hex preview of file headers.

Transparency:

I'm the developer of the app.

Available on Windows Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9PH017R39N7M

Website: https://filedeep.info

Privacy: https://filedeep.info/privacy 100% local analysis, no data collected or uploaded.

The Problem:

As a developer and data security engineer, I regularly handle files from unknown or untrusted sources. My old workflow was messy and fragmented: separate tools for checksums, hex viewing, EXIF lookup, and document metadata review.

It gets risky and time-consuming when you need to verify if a file extension is fake, inspect nested content inside Office/iWork/PDF files, uncover incomplete redactions, or audit private embedded data before sharing files.

Comparison:

Most existing tools either lack deep inspection or objects extractions capabilities or lock advanced features behind expensive bulky suite subscriptions, or just simply not maintained any more.

- File Info Professional: outdated, and checksum/hex only
- More Info: only checksums
- FileMate: EXIF and metadata

The Solution:

File Deep Info works as an all-in-one native macOS forensic & privacy inspection utility, consolidating all file deep analysis into a single lightweight app — no more juggling multiple CLI or standalone tools.

https://preview.redd.it/v2zs273id5yg1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=cf7baa23eb1bd2ca4e88a042a7547895c3d513ac

Core Capabilities:

1. Hidden Data Discovery Uncover hidden rows/sheets, invisible white-on-white text in Office files, fake PDF redactions, hidden layers, and trailing/steganography data inside images.
2. True Format Identification Ignore misleading file extensions to detect spoofed formats, disguised executables, and extension-less suspicious files.
3. Metadata & Privacy Audit Extract full edit history, author info, EXIF/GPS data, and macOS extended attributes — including the original download source URL of a file.
4. Embedded Object Extraction Drill into internal document structure and extract nested assets: media inside PDFs, OLE objects in Office/iWork docs, and nested embedded content.
5. Hex & Checksum Tools Instant MD5/SHA hash calculation plus hex header preview for fast file signature validation.

Why use this?

Perfect for anyone inspecting sketchy files before opening, verifying whether PDF redactions actually remove sensitive content, or auditing personal/client documents for private metadata leakage — all in one, no subscription, no telemetry, no tracking, 100% offline!

Pricing:

• Free Tier: Full fingerprint analysis, format detection, metadata extraction, and hidden content discovery — covers nearly all the daily use cases.
• Pro Version: $12.99 for one-time purchase to unlock Shadow Data deep parsing, recursive multi-level analysis (Analyze in New Window), and unlimited embedded object extraction.

Transparency:

I'm Harvey, the maker of File Deep Info.
Official Site: https://filedeep.info
Privacy policy: https://filedeep.info/privacy
Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/file-deep-info-hidden-data/id6759220338

Would love for you guys to try it out and hear your feedback!