Are you frustrated that some websites that really should have a native Mac app, but aren’t (looking at you Twitter!) Are there websites that you have to use but you simply don’t trust them not to track you online (or offline!)? Would you like some sites to open up in a window that’s always in the same size or position? Want to get websites into your menu bar so you can stay updated with one click? Then you need Unite 2, a fantastic utility that makes any website into a customizable native Mac app.

Open up Unite 2 and you’ll be greeted with a dead-simple window that asks for what name you want to give your app and the website URL you want made into an app. Choose your own image–or ask Unite 2 to automatically grab that sites favicon–click “create,” and you’re done. It’s dead simple and takes seconds. 

Once created, the app appears in your application folders and, something I love, appears in Spotlight and Siri search results to easily launch the website. There’s tons of customizations you can do–put the app in your menu bar for one-click viewing, set up desktop notifications (eligible sites to greatly expand in Q1 of 2019), change colors, and set it to always open the window in the same size and position. There’s a lot of power in Unite 2 to get things working exactly the way you want, all powered by a WebKit 2-powered browser to give you all the latest web features and security standards.

One thing I love about Unite 2 is that it effectively creates a quarantine for the data of each website you create, which is a huge win for security and privacy–and that alone is worth Unite 2 to me. I have long tried to keep Google and Facebook’s privacy-invading sites in a different browser than my day-to-day browser, but I regularly forgot to open up those sites in my separate browser, thereby exposing all of my web activity to those sites. No longer–I created Unite 2 apps for those sites and now I can easily pull up Siri or Spotlight to launch them into their own separate browsers. That’s a win for privacy and security and why I’ll be using Unite 2 going forward.

Unite 2 is free to download and try; when you go to buy, use the code MDM to get a 20% discount just for MDM Deals fans! The developer is also sponsoring a giveaway:

• 1 copy will be given away to Patrons of MDM Deals, so make sure to sign up for this and other exclusive benefits!
• 2 copies will be given away to anyone who enters the giveaway

You can enter to win both ways and increase your odds of winning! My thanks to Unite 2 and BZG for sponsoring MDM Deals this week!

My MacBook Pro is five years old and has an SSD and you probably immediately know the problem: space. I love being able to take video of my adorable kids in 4k (hopefully future-proofing those images), but a 1 minute takes half a gigabyte of space (yikes!) and last year my Mac’s SSD was rapidly running out of space. What I needed was a way to easily clean up gigabytes of space–not just 1-3 gigs, but 10-30, and hopefully in a way that wouldn’t make me want to poke my eyeballs out in drudgery.

Enter CleanMyMac X, a fantastic app that has helped me reclaim over 40 gigabytes with dead-simple ease. What I love most about CleanMyMac X–and why I asked MacPaw to sponsor MDM Deals–is that its Smart Scan turns hours-consuming drudgery of finding and deleting files into a simple process that takes a couple clicks. Click once and Smart Scan goes through your computer and identifies space-hogging files that you don’t need: system language & localizations you’ll never use, hidden caches, app-specific trash bins you’ve forgotten to empty, mail attachments you can download again, and much much more. Click once more, and *poof*, CleanMyMac X removes the space hogs, giving you gigabytes back, just like this:

One of the additions in the X version is that it now also scans for malware and perform system maintenance & optimization tasks. All that, with one simple click. Of course, you can manually choose what files it finds to clean up, but I’ve found its analysis is so good that I just trust the automatic settings. CleanMyMac X even helps you identify the largest unused files on your computer so that you can decide what to do with them–nice.

CleanMyMac X is a dead-simple, safe, and easy way to reclaim your space and get your life back. I’ve been a very happy user and highly recommend it to anyone who has a Mac–you’ll be amazed at not only how much space it can save you but how much time as well. Best yet? It’s a 100% free download.

I’m also excited to announce that MacPaw is sponsoring a giveaway to give away three copies of CleanMyMac X–you’ll definitely not to miss out on this giveaway! Here’s how I’ll be giving away three copies:

• One copy exclusively for MDM Deals Patrons, so sign up today! You’ll receive as many entries into the giveaway as your pledge amount, so you control your odds!
• One copy given to those who subscribe to the MDM Deals newsletter. Get the best deals of the day delivered to your inbox each day by signing up today!
• One copy given away to any reader of the site, just enter the giveaway

Enter all three ways to boost your odds of winning!

My thanks to the MacPaw team and CleanMyMac X for sponsoring MDM Deals this week.