Welcome to this edition of Pi Review. You can use the table of contents to quickly jump to the sections you’re interested in. If you’ve discovered other apps worth checking out, or topics you’d like us to cover, feel free to join the discussion in the comments.

New Apps Worth Noticing

While SSPAI has long been dedicated to discovering and introducing high-quality apps across platforms, there are still many excellent apps—whether in design, functionality, interaction, or overall experience—that we haven’t yet covered. Some may be long-standing apps, others newly released. We’ll introduce them to you here.

RecordMaster: A Recorder Can Be Colorful Too

• Platform: Android
• Keywords: Recording

@Peggy_: In the SSPAI homepage feature Deep Dive | What Exactly Is Material 3 Expressive? Using Android 16 Stable as an Example, editor Clyde offered readers a detailed explanation of the M3E design language, its evolution, and its strengths and weaknesses. Compared with large companies, independent developers are often able to respond more quickly to the latest design guidelines, giving rise to many new apps. RecordMaster, the app introduced today, is one such product born from this context.

Starting with the basics, RecordMaster is a voice recorder app built around the newer M3E design language. When you open the app, the main interface features just a simple add button. Tap it to enter the recording screen, then tap “Record” to start recording. During recording, the interface displays a waveform that changes with the audio volume. The animation is smooth, and the rich use of color makes the recording process feel far less monotonous.

Like many recorder apps, RecordMaster allows you to pause and resume recording at any time. Once you stop, the app shows the exact storage path of the current recording, making it easy to organize later. By default, recordings are sorted by recording time and displayed sequentially on the main screen.

As your collection grows, RecordMaster also supports organizing recordings by folders, making it easier to manage different types of audio files. Of course, since all recordings are stored locally, RecordMaster currently does not support speech-to-text conversion, nor does it offer instant syncing of recorded audio. For users who prioritize data privacy, however, this fully local storage approach can actually be an advantage.

If you’re looking to try a recorder app with a distinctive design, you can download and try RecordMaster via its GitHub page. The app is completely free and only requires microphone access.

Eney: A Local Intelligent Companion for macOS

• Platform: macOS
• Keywords: AI assistant, intelligent companion

@ElijahLee: Eney is an AI-driven Mac assistant developed by MacPaw. Positioned as a local-first intelligent companion, it allows users to use natural language to have it carry out a wide range of tasks—rather than merely offering suggestions or answering questions.

After installing Eney, you must grant it Full Disk Access for it to function properly. During the initial setup, Eney downloads AI models that power its various skills. Once installed, a small round bubble with two eyes appears in the lower-left corner of the screen—cute and unmistakable, this is your AI companion. You can summon it by clicking the icon or by double-tapping the Option key.

Eney’s core selling point is completing tasks on macOS through natural language. You can speak to it as you would to a person, telling it what you want to do, and it will carry out the operation automatically—such as scheduling meetings, writing emails, searching files, or editing videos. For these tasks, Eney doesn’t just provide instructions; it actually performs them.

At present, however, Eney’s “intelligent companion” role isn’t quite that intelligent. In my brief testing, using natural language to “add a meeting in the macOS Calendar app” failed—it couldn’t even open macOS apps. This may be related to system permissions, but oddly enough, entering “find yesterday / today / tomorrow” does allow Eney to retrieve the corresponding calendar events and open Calendar. When it comes to launching apps, you must type the app’s name directly; using natural language like “open xx app” results in an error instead. Eney also can’t check the weather. In conversational scenarios, the model frequently hallucinates—for example, describing Heated Rivalry as a book about technology and business competition. All in all, at this stage, Eney doesn’t seem dramatically different from Siri in terms of results 😓.

Eney places strong emphasis on local-first processing and privacy protection. Its models are sourced from HuggingFace, downloaded during setup, and run locally, enabling many tasks even while offline. The downside is that model size and capabilities are limited: it can handle unit conversions, invoke CleanMyMac to clean disk space, retrieve system status, perform local searches, compress images, and so on—but the results may not always be satisfying. User data isn’t uploaded to the cloud arbitrarily; only for more complex tasks (such as long-form summaries) will cloud processing be used, and only with your consent.

Eney is currently in beta, with features under active development. The app runs only on Macs with Apple silicon and is included as part of the Setapp subscription—only Setapp members can install and use it.

AirShare: A Cross-Platform Tool for Fast File Sharing

• Platform: macOS / Windows / Linux
• Keywords: File transfer

@化学心情下2: In an ideal world, sending files should work just like Apple’s AirDrop—select the device you want to send to, wait for confirmation, and the transfer is done, without any complicated pairing or setup. Unfortunately, tools this seamless are still largely “Apple-only” at the moment (even though Google has achieved partial AirDrop compatibility with the Pixel 10). So when you need a similar experience across platforms, third-party tools become the only option.

AirShare is one such file transfer tool. It supports Windows, Linux, and macOS (mobile operating systems are not supported for now), making it well suited for quickly sharing files within small teams—as long as all devices are on the same local network.

When it comes to sending files, AirShare supports transferring single or multiple files, as well as entire folders over a local network. On the receiving end, when a sender initiates a transfer, you’ll see a notification in the system notification area showing who sent the files, their total size, and what files are included. Once you click Accept, the files are automatically saved to the default Downloads folder.

Within the AirShare app itself, you can also view a dedicated receive dialog that displays the sender’s device, the file list, file sizes, and total transfer size. From there, you can choose to reject, accept, or view more detailed information about the files.

AirShare offers both a free version and a Pro version. The free version supports local network transfers only, with a file size limit of 200 MB and a transfer history retained for seven days. The Pro version removes size limits and allows file transfers over the internet. You can download the client from AirShare’s official website, with support for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

App Updates You Shouldn’t Miss

Beyond brand-new apps, many familiar faces on the App Store are constantly iterating, adding more interesting and practical features. At sspai, we aim to help you filter the app updates worth paying attention to, so you can quickly catch up on what’s new from apps and their developers.

Darkroom 7.0: A New Engine and New Lighting Tools

• Platform: iOS / iPadOS / macOS
• Keywords: Image editing

@Snow: Darkroom, a cross-platform photo editing app available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, rolled out its major 7.0 update last week. The new version adopts an entirely new rendering engine, which the developers say significantly improves smoothness and stability during editing. Two new lighting tools have also been added, opening up new creative and expressive possibilities for your photos.

Within the editing tools, you’ll now find two brand-new adjustment sliders—Bloom and Halation—under the Tone section. These additions help fill a long-standing gap in Darkroom’s simulation of vintage lighting effects. Bloom is similar to the popular “black mist” filters of recent years, simulating light diffusion beyond natural boundaries to create a soft, dreamy atmosphere. Halation, on the other hand, mimics a classic film photography effect, where the edges of bright areas bleed a subtle red-orange glow into darker regions. This tool brings a warm, cinematic feel to strong light sources and high-contrast images. If you want to learn more about Bloom and Halation, Darkroom has prepared a professional guide with more detailed explanations and comparison examples.

As a long-time Darkroom user, I have to say that smoothness and stability have always been its most persistent pain points. In older versions, entering or exiting the edit view, zooming images, or working with RAW files would occasionally result in stutters or crashes. The most frustrating issue was when the entire editing preview would intermittently fail—adjustments produced no visual feedback at all, leaving force-quitting the app as the only solution.

After the update, image stability has improved noticeably. Over the past few days, I haven’t encountered crashes or complete preview failures. That said, during zoom operations, version 7.0 still suffers from intermittent preview loss and missing animations. As for perceived smoothness, things feel a bit more “mysterious.” Beyond the new rendering engine, the app has also tweaked the interaction logic when entering the edit view from the library. In the new version, you can swipe left or right to switch between images, swipe down to return to the library, and swipe up to enable editing tools. However, before enabling the editing tools, you can’t zoom with one- or two-finger gestures or tap to compare edits. Once the tools are disabled, gestures and taps work again. This design may indirectly improve perceived smoothness, but the inconsistent interaction logic hardly feels like a true optimization—at least to me.

One improvement that does deserve praise is that version 7.0 removes zoom restrictions in the editing view. You can now zoom all the way in to pixel level to check fine details, zoom out beyond “fit to view” to evaluate the overall composition, or use the Zoom option in the extended menu to quickly switch between preset ratios. The new version also supports adjusting the canvas background color, allowing you to use neutral tones to better judge color and contrast.

Version 7.0 also brings a number of upgrades to video editing. It adds support for slow motion, Apple ProRes, and 8K video, with improved loading efficiency compared to previous versions, and most adjustment tools can be reused. A new draggable timeline with timecode has been added for video clips, supporting frame-by-frame positioning as well as fast forward and rewind. A real-time histogram is also available, making it easier to fine-tune visuals with precision. Unfortunately, the stability gains seen in photo editing don’t fully carry over here. Video clips may load to a black screen or briefly go black when switching between portrait and landscape; the histogram overlay can disappear intermittently; certain adjustments—such as distortion correction—can cause preview glitches; and there are even inexplicable auto-play issues. In short, video editing still falls well short of being reliably usable.

Overall, the two new lighting tools introduced in Darkroom 7.0 are genuinely useful, and image editing stability and smoothness have improved. However, the slight changes in interaction logic may take some getting used to for long-time users. While video editing has seen major feature upgrades, its stability issues mean it’s still not recommended as a primary tool. For a more detailed breakdown of what’s new in Darkroom 7.0, you can check the official changelog on the website.

You can download Darkroom for free from the App Store.

Paste: A Brand-New Power Search with Keyword Prediction, Smart Filters, and Image Search

• Platform: iOS / iPadOS / macOS
• Keywords: Clipboard management

@Vanilla: Paste can be considered one of the most long-standing clipboard managers on macOS. Its biggest strength lies in its UI and interactions, which feel almost like a native app and deliver an excellent user experience. Of course, as Apple has introduced system-level clipboard features of its own, it has become harder for Paste to rely solely on a “system-like” experience to convince users to pay for a subscription to a similar tool. As a result, Paste has continually tried to add features not available in the system clipboard, such as Pinboard, sharing, and previews—but for someone as frugal as me, that still wasn’t quite persuasive enough. Recently, Paste introduced Power Search, comprehensively upgrading clipboard search across three dimensions: keyword prediction, smart filtering, and image search. In terms of functionality, it can be said to fully surpass the system clipboard.

First, Power Search adds keyword prediction. When we type Chinese characters or letters into the search box, Paste performs real-time predictive matching based on the input. It also applies intelligent error correction to the keywords: if no results exactly match what you typed, Paste will still try to surface similar matches.

Second, Power Search supports smart filtering. We can directly enter parameters in the search box—such as file type, app name, date, or device—or click the filter button on the right side of the input field to select them. By using these filters alone or in combination with keywords, we can conduct precise searches and more quickly locate the clipboard history we’re looking for.

Finally, Power Search supports image recognition. When we copy photos, screenshots, or documents, Paste can recognize the text within them, allowing us to search using keywords and even highlight matched text in the preview view. However, in my own testing, I was unable to reproduce this feature when searching Chinese or English text in photos and screenshots, despite what was mentioned in the official update. I can’t be sure whether this is a bug or just an isolated issue on my end.

After this update, I believe Paste offers plenty of motivation for heavy Mac users—such as writers, designers, developers, students, and researchers—to give this clipboard enhancement tool a try. It not only manages clipboard content effectively, but more importantly enables fast and precise searching through that content.

Paste can be downloaded from the App Store and requires a subscription to use. Pricing is 28 RMB per month or 168 RMB per year; the family plan costs 398 RMB per year; and a one-time lifetime purchase is 598 RMB, covering both Mac and iOS clients. You can also purchase team plans based on seats, or access Paste for Mac and Paste for iOS through a Setapp subscription.

Xiaoxing Accounting 4.0: Fully Adapting to Material 3

• Platform: Android
• Keywords: Expense tracking

@大大大K: The Android expense-tracking app Xiaoxing Accounting rolled out its 4.0 Beta major update last Sunday. The biggest change in this release is its long-awaited full adaptation to Material 3.

Upon entering the main interface, you’ll notice the new UI feels more “standardized.” The previously immersive homepage data display has been replaced with a card-based layout; search is now pinned to the top as a search bar; and the quick-access entry at the bottom of the screen has been expanded to include templates, a calendar, expense reimbursement management, and more.

As for core expense-tracking features, the overall layout hasn’t changed much, and the original interaction logic still applies. The most notable improvement is the numeric keypad. In earlier versions, tapping the calculation button would pop up a separate calculator keypad, which felt somewhat disjointed. In the new version, the calculation button appears directly within the existing numeric keypad and is accompanied by a scaling animation, making the recording flow noticeably smoother.

The settings interface has also been reworked in Xiaoxing Accounting 4.0. In previous versions, all settings were listed at the top level and divided by tags. While this made items quicker to find, the accumulation of options often felt cluttered. Version 4.0 organizes settings into categories such as ledgers, display, recording settings, and reports, and many options have been reassigned within the hierarchy. Since settings are typically accessed infrequently, this categorized structure is much clearer from a usability standpoint.

For more detailed changes, you can refer to the update log. It’s worth noting that this release is still a Beta version, and there are some minor bugs related to data calculations and UI display. If your current version is below 3.7, it’s recommended that you first update to 3.7 and manually back up your data before trying the 4.0 update, to avoid potential data incompatibility issues. You can now upgrade to Xiaoxing Accounting 4.0 Beta for free on Coolapk.

FocusFour: When Your To-Do List Blurs Your Focus, the Four Quadrants Make Things Clearer

• Platform: HarmonyOS / iOS
• Keywords: Productivity, Four Quadrants, SSPAI

@轻舟_: If you’ve followed FocusFour on SSPAI before, you may have already witnessed its journey from a co-creation project to release. Recently, FocusFour has launched a native HarmonyOS version. If most of the time your problem isn’t that you don’t know what to do, but that you don’t know what to do first, then FocusFour—built around the “Four Quadrants of Time Management”—might be worth a try.

As a task management tool, FocusFour doesn’t try to hold everything for you. Instead, it repeatedly reminds you, in a very intuitive way, to distinguish between what is important and what is urgent. In FocusFour, tasks are no longer arranged simply by time, but placed into four quadrants. This approach is straightforward and grounded in reality, quickly making you realize that truly important things are actually quite few. Compared with endlessly ticking off completed items, this view is more about helping you make choices than about keeping records.

The newly released HarmonyOS version of FocusFour currently focuses on local data. There’s no complicated setup and no extra learning cost, and it’s completely free. When you open the app, the first thing you do isn’t figuring out “how to use it,” but deciding “where to place this task.” The overall experience of the HarmonyOS version continues the design philosophy of the earlier co-creation release: a clean interface, natural interactions, and no attempt to trap you with features.

If you relate to any of the following:

• You have lots of things to do, but spend every day busy with “not-so-important” tasks
• Important tasks are always pushed to tomorrow
• You’ve tried many tools, but in the end only stick with a single list
• You want a tool that helps you make judgments rather than adding more burden

And you also happen to be using a HarmonyOS device, then FocusFour may be worth trying—especially since there aren’t many apps of this type on the HarmonyOS platform. FocusFour will continue to evolve, keeping feature parity with the iOS version, and will add capabilities such as task analysis, widgets, and notification reminders. When it comes to task management, doing a little less can sometimes be more effective.

You can download FocusFour from the HarmonyOS App Store and the App Store. The HarmonyOS version is currently completely free.

App Brief

Mozilla Firefox (Windows | macOS | Linux): Updated to v146. On Windows 10 devices, users can enable the browser backup feature, which backs up browser data such as passwords and bookmarks to the local device on a daily basis. On macOS, an independent GPU process is now enabled by default, among other changes.