Developer Spotlight -The Low-Tech Guys, Maker of Clop, Lunar, rcmd, Pipiri and Crank
LTGIt's always such a pleasure to find out when one of my favorite developers has released a new app. That's how I felt recently, when I read that The Low‑Tech Guys not only had a new app but that it was going to be a pretty strong player in the Mac automation field. That prompted me to approach the lead developer to learn more about the past, present and future of the company. But first, the apps. CrankCrank acts on triggers you define to take action without requiring user intervention. It's more powerful than just Apple Shortcuts or Shortery, but at just €8 for a five-seat lifetime license, it stops short of Keyboard Maestro's complexity and price. Crank can do all of this and a lot more:Stop notifications from interrupting Zoom callsCheck and fic quarantine issues on everything you downloadToggle VPN usage based on the connected wi-fi networkMove downloaded ebooks right into calibreChange the audio output to bluetooh headphones or speakers when they connectAutomatically adjust your displayDisconnect Bluetooth devices before closing the MacBook lidThe PortfolioIt was the quality of Low Tech Guys' previous applications that made me happy to hear about their new release. I first encountered one of their apps a couple of years ago when I discovered Clop. Since then, I have systematically gone through their portfolio to take advantage of the extremely useful, free, and low‑priced powerhouses they've developed. Clop ($15) - Clop automatically optimizes (reduces) the file sizes of images, videos and PDFs copied to your clipboard. Optionally, it can also convert files on the fly. Clop can even feed the results to a shortcut for further processing. You can set it so that it watches specific folders for different file types. - Clop - Image, video, PDF and clipboard optimiserrcmd (FREE) - rcmd uses your right command key + a letter to launch applications. You get app-launching hotkeys without having to set them up manually, although you can do that too. You can use the same hotkey to hide an app or cycle through other apps. If you pait rcmd with Hammerspoon, you can even cycle through windows, not just apps. rcmd - Switch apps instantly using the ⌘ Right Command keyLunar ($23) - Lunar is the acknowledged leader in display control for all DDC capable monitors, whether it's a brand new Apple Studio with a Mac Pro, or a no name brand connected to a Hackintosh. It's features include:Extending keyboard control for brightness and volume to all displaysExtra controls on Apple native displaysSync mode to change the brightness of all connected displays based on the built-in Ambient Light SensorExceed the brightness constraints on XDR Apple laptop displaysDial screen brightness below the 0% setting (because that's not really 0%)Selectively black out any connected displayFacelight turns a connected display into a a light panel so that you don't look obscured on video calls from locations with dim environmental lightingLunar - The defacto app for controlling monitor brightnessStartup Folder (FREE) - Startup folder gives you aw way to open anything at startup, apps. shortcuts, links and files. It can hide anything you wajt running but not on screen even when that's not a native feature. You can optionally set it up to keeps apps from quitting and if they fo, they will automatically be relaunched. Startup Folder - Run anything at startup by simply placing it in a special folderPipiri (€8) - Pipiri brings picture in a picture functionality to ant macOS window and that has more use cases than you would think"Watching a long-running terminal command while working in another appKeeping logs visible while debugging softwareKeeping an eye on AI agent progress (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, etc.) while browsingStreaming a video that doesn't support native PiP (Twitter/X, Reddit, Twitch, etc.)Monitoring a dashboard or CI pipeline without switching windowsWatching a community chat (Discord, Twitch) while coding or readingPipiri…
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