Essential apps for your new iPhone

Make your new toy even better with Christopher Phin’s must-have apps

Did Father Christmas bring you a new iPhone? Man, that jolly old elf is solid. Faced with literally more than a million apps and games on the App Store to choose from, however, how can you possibly pick the best things to add to your luscious new slab of technology? Why – coincidentally – by continuing to read this article.

The apps below are some of the very best that exist for the iPhone and iPod touch, whether that’s because they do something better than the built-in apps, really help show of your device’s abilities, or are just flat-out awesome.

Sky Guide Price: £2.29

This venerable app is still one that can elicit coos of admiration. Sky Guide is a reasonably simple idea – using your iPhone’s sensors to allow you to hold it up to the night sky to identify the stars, planets, constellations and more using augmented reality – but the effect is remarkable: You feel like a genie. Once you’ve identified a heavenly body, tap it to learn more, or search for things you want to find, such as the International Space Station; in this case you’ll see where it is, its projected orbit, and when it will appear in the sky.

An honourable mention here for Plane Finder (£2.99) too, which is the same basic idea but for identifying planes flying overhead. Knowing precisely where a tube of holidaymakers is headed and on which luxury airline adds a certain piquancy to your jealous and impotent fist-shaking.

Dark Sky Price: £2.99

Knowing today’s vague weather forecast for your state isn’t especially useful to many of us. You want to know: Should you take the dog out now, or is it about to lash with rain? Is it worth making a dash from the car to the shops in this downpour, or is it about to stop? The highly accurate, hyper-local forecasts in Dark Sky make this possible, and you can set customized alerts at different times of day so you know whether to put on your heavy coat, pick up an umbrella or your way out the door, or grab the sunscreen. Plus, it works on the Apple Watch too, and even the small watch-face complication is used smartly to provide a lot of information in a tiny space.

Overcast Price: Free

No, it’s not another weather app, but a podcast player. While Apple’s own app will suffice for most podcast dabblers, serious aficionados want to get in on Overcast. It helps you

discover and sample new podcasts – in part by helping you hook into what your friends on Twitter are listening to – create smart custom playlists, and do clever things to the playback to help you listen how you like.

Google Maps

Price: Free Apple’s Maps app has gotten much better since the ropey days of its launch, and it’s certainly prettier and more comfortable on iOS than its competitor from Google, but there’s one crucial area where it still lags well behind: POIs. Points of interest could be anything from generic gas stations to a mom-and-pop independent craft suppliers in a tiny town in Iowa.

Searching for POIs in Apple Maps is still frustratingly hit-andmiss, but unsurprisingly Google Maps (free) is usually completely reliable – and you get Street View here too so you can even check the business you’ve found is the one you want. Its satnav view is harder to follow, but it’s there.

Citymapper Price: Free

If you’re lucky enough to live in a city covered by Citymapper – or, in some ways even better, if you’re visiting one of these cities on business or

vacation – you want Citymapper (free). Tell it where you want to get to, either from where you are or from a specific starting point, and it will calculate your routes.

The best bit, though, is that it will present you with options for walking, taking a cab (with estimated cost) and a whole range of public transport alternatives with live departure times, and all in a clear and easy to understand list. Once you’ve picked one it shows you turn-by-turn directions, including alerting you when you should be getting ready to alight from a bus, say, along its route. Works great with the Apple Watch too.

Fantastical 2 Price: £2.99

An app so much better than Apple’s equivalent it’s downright embarrassing. In part we love Fantastical for how it makes such better use of the screen space to fit more – and more useful – information into the same rectangle, but the real draw for many is its natural language input of events. No more pecking away at different fields and controls;

just type in ‘Meeting with Caitlin next Wed 10am at Society Cafe /w’ and the correct appointment will be added to (in this case) your Work calendar.

There are handy 3D Touch actions from the Home screen, and it works great with the Apple Watch; indeed, the complication is colour-coded so you even know at a glance what calendar upcoming events belong to.

Cheatsheet Price: Free (in-app purchases)

We all carry around snippets mix of information: Wi-Fi passwords, access codes for doors, and so on. Stop carrying them around in your head or festooning your Mac with scribbled Postit notes, and get them into Cheatsheet instead. The simple but effective app lets you enter these little chunks of info, assign an icon to make it easier to identify, and then have them all terrifically accessible in a Today widget or on your Watch. What’s more, and this is really clever, it can act as a keyboard, making it easy to type these fragments of data into any document or field just by tapping on them.

Keynote Price: £7.99

If you want an example of how hugely ambitious (but also eminently usable) apps on the iPhone can

be, look no further than Apple’s own PowerPoint equivalent, Keynote. Whether you’re doing lastminute tweaks to a slide deck you created on your Mac (and synced via iCloud) just before a business presentation, or you’re building something fun from scratch all on your iPhone, Keynote’s rich toolset makes the process surprisingly viable. Plus, plug in an HDMI or VGA adaptor to the Lightning port on your iPhone and you can present straight from your handset (optionally controlling it with your Apple Watch) rather than lugging a laptop around.

Camera+ Price: £2.29

The filters in Camera+ are no more than okay – though the fact that you can stack and adjust the strength of them can result in some spectacular shots – but it gets included here for two reasons. One is the editing tools in the Lab for tweaking

temperature, exposure and so on – in particular the dramatic effect you get with Clarity Pro – all of which are easy to use and produce good results. The other reason is its shooting tools. It adds some great manual controls for white balance, ISO and shutter speed, lets you set the focus and exposure points separately, and most impressively of all lets you lock the lens elements of your iPhone’s camera into a position so that you can focus much more closely than with the built-in app for some first-rate macro shots.

VSCO Price: Free

It feels sometimes like there are more photo editing apps for the iPhone than there are atoms in the observable universe, but VSCO (free, with in-app purchases) manages to set itself apart. Yes, it has some truly excellent tools for editing your pictures manually, but where it really shines is in its beautiful, elegant filters. There are some included, some can be added for free, and some packs are

available for in-app purchase, but as a way of cheating your way to shots that look like they’re plucked from the pages of a quarterly hipster magazine about fixies and flat whites, they’re without equal.

Honourable mentions here for Pixelmator (£3.99) as a more serious, Photoshop-like image editing tool, and the ubiquitous Instagram (free), which has much more sophisticated image editing tools than most people would give it credit for.

Tweetbot Price: £7.99

Sure, you can just use the free official Twitter app – and yes, this is the way to ensure you get access to all of Twitter’s newest features as soon as they’re ready, for better or worse – but for us there’s no substitute for Tweetbot).

It’s fast and powerful, letting you easily set sophisticated mute filters to keep your stream as interesting and relevant as possible, sync your position in the timeline between multiple devices (including the Mac version), and as shown here keep track not just of who has favourited, replied to, quoted and so on which of your tweets, but also, for those rampant egomaniacs among us, how much engagement you’ve had over the past week.

Monument Valley Price: 2.99

I’ve so far steered clear of games in this list, but I have to make an exception for the wonderful, sweet Monument Valley. This puzzle game looks beautiful, with its pastel colours and Escher-like constructions, and it has a calm, spare soundtrack that creates a lovely little world when you’re playing it. The mechanics are simple, and the puzzles ramp slowly in difficulty, though even the hardest, while requiring you to twist your brain in such peculiar contortions it feels like it might flick out your ears, is still eminently solvable. It’s just a truly magical little game; we challenge anyone to disagree. And when you’re done with that, try Lara Croft GO (£1.49), and don’t forget about Super Mario Run (read our review on page 26) it’s totally worth the £7.99 to unlock the whole thing.

So that’s our list, and if you add all those apps to your new iPhone you’ll make it even more astonishing. Enjoy your new phone.

1. Reigns Price: £2.29

Given how utterly exhausting and demoralizing the entire president election season was, regardless of your affiliations, now might not be the time to play a game about a ruler of people. On the other hand, Reigns is so light and clever that it might be the perfect antidote to these frustrating times.

As the newly-installed medieval monarch, you must make critical decisions to guide your people through hardship, but you’ll do so with a Tinder-like swipe of a card. Army attacking from the north? Strange plague in the city? Swipe one way or the other to make your broad choice. Each decision affects the people, the army, church, and treasury respectively, and failing to balance those needs may bring your swift demise. But then you play as the next king…

2. Mini Metro Price: £3.99

Looking for a one-of-a-kind puzzler for your iPhone or iPad? Mini Metro takes the art of subway creation and turns it into an ever-evolving tactical challenge, in which you’ll have to link together new stations that appear on the super simple-looking map to keep riders moving ahead to their desired destinations.

You’ll get new trains, lines, carriages, and tunnel/ bridge components over time, but randomly linking together lines and stations won’t keep your system from being overloaded by demand. Mini Metro forces you to make smart decisions and create an efficient transit network to stay afloat, otherwise passengers get angry and the game ends. And then what? Well, you do it all over again – and try to learn from your mistakes.

3. Super Mario Run Price: Free (£7.99 in-app purchase)

It’s Mario – on your iPhone and iPad. Nintendo’s star plumber just made the leap onto mobile for the very first time, and Super Mario Run is a smart adaptation of the classic formula. While still a side-scrolling, platform-leaping, enemy-stomping game at heart, everything has been streamlined to make this a fully one-handed play experience.

You won’t need to fuss with virtual buttons or complex inputs, since a tap is really all you need to navigate these stages. And since it is a premium game (the free download gives you a taste), you don’t need to worry about obnoxious free-to-play elements. This is a true Mario game, albeit one built for touch devices.

4. Severed Price: £2.99

Severed is an old-school, first-person dungeon crawler with a grotesque twist: as heroine Sasha slays the imposing beasts she encounters along the way, she’ll slice off limbs and body parts… and then use them to upgrade her own abilities. That’s gross, right? Sure, but it’s also fair payback.

See, Sasha’s family has been taken from her, and so has one of her arms. But you’ll put her other arm to excellent use by swiping the screen to swing your blade while trying to outsmart and outwit these dangerous foes. Accessible touch controls and a cartoonish look help keep Severed reasonably approachable, but this is a meaty, rewarding adventure that hardcore players will also appreciate.

5. Clash Royale Price: Free (in-app purchases)

Given its heritage as a spin-off of Clash of Clans, we certainly expected that Clash Royale would be popular, but we didn’t anticipate being so feverishly drawn into this online battler. Clash Royale brings together elements of card-battling games, real-time strategy affairs, and tower defence action to create a one-on-one combat experience that is incredibly addictive.

You’ll build a deck of your best cards – goblins, knights, witches, and cannons alike – and then drop them into the battlefield as resources allow, all with the goal of demolishing your foe’s base before he/she can take out your own. Constant rewards and a really friendly free-to-play system help fuel the competitive fun here.

6. Pokémon Go Price: Free (in-app purchases)

We’re sure to see other games like Pokémon Go in the not-too-distant future, but it seems unlikely that any of them will be able to recreate the sheer craze around that experience. It was startling, but amazing: seeing packs of people playing the game in public and crowding around gyms and lureenhanced PokéStops, and genuinely having fun finding digital creatures.

Even if the momentum has faded, Pokémon Go is still by far one of our favourite iPhone experiences of the year. With new monsters just added, various holiday promotions, and other smart tweaks made in the last few months, the actual game here is better than ever – even if there’s less buzz around it right now. We’re excited to see how it expands in 2017.

7. Human Resource Machine Price: £3.99

Ever wanted to learn to code software? Well, Human Resource Machine won’t actually teach you the language needed to start programming, but it will stamp your brain with some of the fundamental logic behind coding. And you might not even realize it, since this clever indie creation simply takes the form of a meticulous puzzle game.

You’re the latest recruit of a corporate empire, and you’ll work your way to the top by completing stacks and stacks of busywork. Thrilling, right? Well, that’s the joke, but the initially simple act of moving things from one end of the screen to the other becomes significantly more complex and requires a lot of problem-solving skills. It’s built for total coding novices, but anyone who already has programming knowledge can tackle tougher challenges.

8. Inks Price: £1.49 (in-app purchases)

There’s an art to creating a perfect pinball table, but Inks flips the script a bit: here, you’re the one creating art using the ball and the table. This inventive twist on pinball still has you flipping the shiny ball through an array of curvy, bumper-laden locales, but instead of trying to keep the ball moving to set a high score, you’ll try to detonate little ink pods on the screen.

As the ball makes contact, each coloured block spatters ink onto the table, which your ball then drags around behind it, and the result looks like a pleasing display of action painting. Creating art is really just a byproduct of the gameplay, however, as the task is to trigger each and every ink spatter with as few balls as necessary. It’s really cool, pleasing stuff.

9. Rodeo Stampede: Sky Zoo Safari Price: Free (in-app purchases)

We don’t want to mention Crossy Road every single time we write about Rodeo Stampede: Sky Zoo Safari, but the comparison is perfect and intended to be extremely positive. Rodeo Stampede offers up the same kind of lively, energetic, and freemium-friendly endless sprinting fun, but does so with a totally fresh-feeling play mechanic.

Here, you’ll try to notch the farthest distance possible by vaulting your human character onto the backs of various animals, including zebras, giraffes, and eagles. You’ll need to leap from creature to creature to keep pushing ahead and avoiding obstacles, and it’s fast, fun, and endlessly replayable. And that odd Sky Zoo Safari bit from the title is what you’ll spend your time building all the while.

10. Deus Ex GO Price: £1.49 (in-app purchases)

Deus Ex GO follows in the footsteps of predecessors Hitman GO and Lara Croft GO. Like those earlier mobile hits, it translates a popular 3D action game from consoles and PC into a smart, steady, and smartphone-friendly puzzle experience with slick production values kept intact.

Here, you’ll tap into Deus Ex’s cyberpunk universe as Adam Jensen, a robotically-enhanced hero who must navigate the turn-based environmental challenges. As such, you’ll use his myriad abilities and your surroundings to overcome guards, turrets, and traps and make your way to the end. It’s another winning translation and an impressive mobile experience, whether or not you already know or care about the source franchise.

11. Chameleon Run Price: £1.49

While Super Mario Run is surely the biggest iOS platform game launch of the year, we can’t forget about the remarkable Chameleon Run. Like Mario’s mobile jaunt, this side-scroller challenges you to complete a series of compact stages, but it’s much more focused on precision and timing as you push through each intense new gauntlet.

Chameleon Run’s big hook is its colour-changing mechanic, which lets you swap between pink and yellow as your hero automatically sprints ahead, but you can only land on platforms of the same colour. Correctly alternating colours while zipping through crowded stages is tough but exhilarating, especially as later stages add new play elements into the mix.

12. SteamWorld Heist Price: £4.99

SteamWorld Heist takes the tactical turn-based combat of something like XCOM: Enemy Unknown and gives it a 2D twist. That shift doesn’t just affect the look of the game, which has a sharp, cartoonsteampunk kind of aesthetic, but also changes up combat as well. Now you’ll use the environments to your advantage as you aim epic ricocheting shots to take down foes.

There’s a lot more to SteamWorld Heist than just side-scrolling strategic action, however, as the game exudes personality throughout. Each member of your robotic crew has its own unique tone and traits, with great dialogue and world design to boot. Fans of Joss Whedon’s Firefly will appreciate this ragtag crew of space pirates, as well.

13. Super Stickman Golf 3 Price: Free (in-app purchases)

Five years after the original, the Super Stickman Golf series is still going strong – and that’s definitely true with Super Stickman Golf 3, the first of the franchise to release on iOS without a price tag affixed. Even so, the switch to a freemium model doesn’t hinder this great side-scrolling and cartoonish golf experience from being a perfect fit for your phone.

As ever, you’ll guide the ball to the hole across the nine-hole courses, with things like portals, sticky walls, and giant ice shards lining the paths. And without grabbing your wallet, you’ll have access to 20 diverse courses right off the bat. It’s well worth paying the couple bucks for the premium unlock, however, as you’ll get even more courses along with other sweet perks.

14. RunGunJumpGun Price: £2.29

Without a doubt, RunGunJumpGun is the most intense game we played on iPhone and iPad all year long. This retro-stylized side-scrolling game plays a bit like a slightly demented Jetpack Joyride, only your giant gun is not only used to launch you up and into the air, but also to shoot down any enemies or threats in your way.

You’ll find plenty of threats within the 100+ stages here, but many of them can’t simply be blasted away: homing laser-beam whips, spiky caverns, and spinning, flesh-ripping blades are all around, and precise timing and careful navigation are needed to get through unscathed. And the old-school look is complemented by weird cut-scenes and an ominous atmosphere that gives RunGunJumpGun some added kick.

15. PinOut Price: Free (in-app purchases)

Inks was the first game of 2016 to shake up pinball in a really fun and appealing way, but it’s not the only one. PinOut, from the makers of Smash Hit and Does Not Commute, seems a bit more traditional on the surface – aside from the highly neon, futuristic vibe – but then you’ll find that there’s no top border to the table. It’s endless.

That’s right: PinOut is endless pinball, and your goal is to keep moving the ball up and ahead into new areas, each with its own flippers and unique design. Each new world you encounter adds fresh environmental twists and tweaks the aesthetic, as well, and it’s the kind of game you’ll want to play over and over again as you race against the clock to reach new and deeper areas.

16. Twofold Inc. Price: £2.99

Many of the games on this list are designed to divert your attention for only short spurts, but if you’re looking for a puzzle game to really concentrate on, Twofold Inc. is your top pick from 2016. The game finds you clearing chains of like-coloured blocks to satisfy requests from the little, one-eyed robot atop the screen.

Careful consideration is needed here, as you’ll need to prioritise requests to avoid penalties while also setting up your board for later demands. Speedily swiping together chains will lead to a swift demise, so Twofold Inc. isn’t ideal for bite-sized sessions. Still, between the smart puzzle action and the warm aesthetic (including the music), this is a game you’ll want to stay with for a while.

17. Plants vs Zombies: Heroes Price: Free (in-app purchases)

In the previous mobile Plants vs. Zombies games, we’ve always been the heroic plants, fighting for control of our yards and rooftops by flinging peas and other organic items at the undead creepers on the other side of the screen. This changes that approach, letting you take control of either party, but it’s not the only big shift here.

Heroes takes the form of a competitive card game, in which you’ll pick a side, bring your best deck of character and ability cards, and take turns dropping them into the battlefield. While it’s a big shift for the franchise, Heroes maintains nearly everything we love about PopCap’s silly series while giving you something fresh and really fun to play.

18. Klocki Price: 79p

Exhausted by timed puzzle games? Just want something to unwind and noodle with at the end of a long day? Klocki can fill that role admirably. It’s a play-at-your-own-pace puzzler that finds you swapping or rotating tiles to complete a line from start to finish. Initially, this is very straightforward and simple, but of course, it doesn’t stay that way for too long.

Later levels add further puzzle mechanics, but thankfully do so gradually so you’re prepared when things get very complex. As later levels stretch across 3D planes and introduce different types of lines and patterns to complete, Klocki can get very tricky. However, with no timers or annoying UI elements, you can take your time and enjoy the process. Relax!

19. The Banner Saga 2 Price: £3.99 (in-app purchases)

Looking for a complex adventure to pour some hours into? Seeking a fantasy world to get lost in for a while? The Banner Saga 2, much like its acclaimed predecessor, can satisfy both of those urges and then some. This sequel is pretty close to the original in terms of approach and design, but that’s no knock against one of the most beautiful and engrossing experiences on iOS today.

The Banner Saga finds you leading a caravan of survivors as the world nears its end, and you’ll need to battle some towering monsters in tactical role-playing combat, as well as make strategic decisions for your group. Emotional storytelling and dazzling artwork make this another memorable quest, plus fans of the first game can import their story into the sequel.

20. Lost in Harmony Price: Free (in-app purchases)

Tap-based rhythm games are perfectly suited for touch devices, and that’s definitely the case with Lost in Harmony, although there really hasn’t been a music game like this one before. It’s partially a familiar beat-tapping game, with little icons appearing on the screen in tune with the song, but it’s also a lane-changing runner game, except the hero is skateboarding towards the screen instead of away from it.

That can be a strange mix, and Lost in Harmony surely has some quirks, but the overall experience is enthralling. You’ll zip through some really surreal worlds while thumping electronic versions of orchestral tracks play, and it’s anchored by a story of teen love amidst illness. Like we said: it’s an odd one, but also really imaginative and gripping.