SSPai's Latest 'App Picks' Highlights Five Notable Apps for iOS, macOS and Android

The review first highlights Readmate, an iOS app designed to revisit highlights and notes from WeChat Reading. It syncs users’ marks, thoughts, and reading records through WeChat Reading's Skill API, which was recently launched for AI agents. The main interface shows a bookshelf of titles with annotations; tapping a book displays all underlined passages. The app offers searching, a “daily highlighted quote” reminder, home-screen widgets, and card sharing with flexible templates. For long passages, it automatically adjusts the layout or generates continuous images. Readmate is available free on the App Store; a one-time in-app purchase of 12 yuan unlocks all books, auto-sync, widgets, and sharing cards. The developer says support for more reading sources will be added later.

CleanShot 5.0 for macOS is covered next. The major update centers on screen recording and editing, introducing a Studio Mode that automatically detects parts of the recording that may need zooming, with customizable zoom ranges and focus points. Users can cut clips via a track tool or by pressing B, adjust cursor visibility, size, style, movement and click effects, and configure key presses displayed on screen. Audio settings allow switching the mic and system sound; a webcam feed can be placed in resizeable window. The editor lets users replace the desktop wallpaper, modify window size/margin/shadow, add rounded corners, and export with resolution, quality, and audio options. A license costs 149 yuan with one year of free updates, and the app is also available via Setapp.

For Android, the piece introduces Pixel Budget Tracker, a budget management tool with Material 3 Expressive design. After initial setup, users can add accounts such as bank cards, credit cards, and cash, and define a net asset goal with progress display. Spending and income categories are customizable, and users create monthly budgets per category. The app automatically calculates overspending. It is free to download on the Play Store, with a one-time $7.99 Pro unlock for additional accounts and finer controls.

A macOS translation app called Xiaochuangyi (小窗译) is also featured. Unlike rivals such as Bob, it focuses only on translation, offering five modes: word/phrase selection, clipboard, screenshot, input, and a real-time translation window. The real-time window works for quickly translating web articles while retaining the original layout, but the reviewer found that in video scenarios, current AI response speeds cannot support real-time subtitle translation. The unified translation interface lets users edit source text, copy results, replace original text, polish, and compare multiple AI services. Screenshot translation preserves original formatting and includes OCR. A quick-bar panel and a fast mode with optional auto-translation for selected apps are available. Users can set translation scenes for formal or specialized language and choose from built-in services such as DeepSeek V4, Google Translate, two offline basic models, plus custom APIs. The app sells for 35 yuan during a back-to-school promotion on SSPai's software store.

Finally, Velastar is an iOS app for stargazers. It includes a light pollution map built from offline satellite and sky-glow models, dividing regions by the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale so users can find suitable observation spots. Users can manually mark areas, and a photography planning feature shows solar trajectories. The app aims to help urban users locate darker skies.