Pieoneer 1.15 — Mac version

Digging through the Dock or thumbing through Mission Control to grab the right app. It gets slow when you’ve got ten things open. Pieoneer puts a radial menu under one hotkey so you land on the app you need without hunting.

Appears wherever your pointer sits

It works alongside them. The pie menu gives you a configurable hotkey, so it appears right where your mouse pointer sits. Keep the Dock for favourites and the switcher for what’s open now — Pieoneer handles both from one ring.

Skip tracks from any app with Music Remote

It pulls in music. The built-in Music Remote works with Apple Music, Spotify and Doppler, so you can skip tracks or pause without switching windows. The Shortcuts Controller can also fire off key combos inside whatever app you’re in.

Can I tidy what shows up?

Yes. Finder and any other app can be hidden from the Switcher view. You can reorder launcher items by dragging them around in the menu, so the stuff you reach for most sits right under your thumb.

Is it quick enough for daily work?

The pie menu pops open with no lag I could notice — even on an older Intel Mac. Animations are snappy and the app itself sits at about 60 MB of RAM while idle. If you’re already running a dozen heavy apps you won’t feel the difference. The Music Remote keeps track info in sync without stuttering, and the Shortcuts Controller fires commands instantly. I haven’t seen a crash in two weeks of using it as my main launcher. That’s the sort of stability you want from something you lean on fifty times a day.

Move the menu from screen centre to pointer

Out of the box the menu appears in the centre of the screen. I moved mine to appear at the pointer — it’s quicker when your hand is already on the mouse. You’ll find that under the Appearance tab.

While you’re there, check the hotkey. The default probably isn’t one you’ll remember. I set mine to Ctrl-Option-Space and it’s stayed that way since day one.

If you use Spotify more than Apple Music, switch the Music Remote’s source in Features before you do anything else. Otherwise you’ll open the controller and wonder why nothing’s playing.

One last thing: turn off animation for apps you never want in the switcher. Not hiding them — actually excluding them under Switcher > Excluded Apps. It keeps the ring lean and stops Finder from hogging a slice every time.

Tip: if you work with a handful of apps day in, day out, drop the rest from the switcher and keep that ring tight.

• macOS 15.6 or newer
• Intel or Apple Silicon Mac