BEST BUYS… Curated picks of additional apps
PHOTO EDITOR (MAC) Luminar AI
From £59 skylum.com
If you want to improve your photos without spending too much, this is the app for you. If you’re worried that you don’t have the know-how for technical image edits, this is also the app for you! The software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse your photos with templates for various categories, instantly enhancing your shot. And, once the AI has worked its magic, you can make your own easy tweaks.
REMINDER/TO-DO (MAC/iOS) Streaks 6
£4.99 streaksapp.com
We gave the iOS version of Streaks 6 our Ed Choice award in MF361. Whether you need to use it as a reminder tool to take a prescription medicine, or you want to motivate yourself to achieve a regular thing, such as 30 minutes exercise a day, Streaks can not only nudge you to remember essential tasks, but it can also motivate you with a clear interface and graphs to show your activity and progress.
PHOTO EDITOR (iOS) Pixelmator
£4.99 pixelmator.com
Pixelmator is a fullfledged layer-based photo editor, graphic design and painting app. It offers over 100 brushes, dozens of tools and 32 blending modes giving you full control, all for a really affordable price. The app works with iCloud to sync all your projects across devices including Mac. It also supports formats like PSD, PNG and JPEG, making it the best app for all your graphic needs.
RSS READER (iOS) Reeder 5
£4.99 reederapp.com
We’ve been fans of Reeder for our news feeds from day one. And the latest update is even more convincing. Now with added Cloud syncing, you can do everything you need right inside the app and it will sync across all your Apple devices. Some may find the interface a little grey, but it is customisable and, more importantly, it is “quick, clean, efficient, and prioritises the content”.
UTILITY (MAC) Carbon Copy Cloner 5 £31.10 bombich.com
When disaster strikes and your hard drive fails, having a backup can be a lifesaver. This app makes creating and restoring from backups an absolute breeze. It comes with a helpful guided restore feature, plus a Cloning Coach that monitors what you do and looks out for potential problems. If you’re looking to clone or back up your hard drive, this is the app you need.
PRODUCTIVITY APP (MAC/iOS) Fantastical 3
From £3.25 per month
flexibits.com
If your calendar and reminders are getting out of control, Fantastical can sort things out. It has support for natural language entry, so you can enter events and reminders as you would say them. It’s got a nifty menu bar shortcut, plus a great interface, clever calendar management and a powerful iOS app. Its predecessor won MF338’s group test.
NOTE-TAKING APP (iOS) Notability 10
£8.99 gingerlabs.com
Notability is a very flexible note-taking app. It can combine different mediums, such as illustrations, handwriting and audio recordings, and import PDFs and scan documents. Version 10 also brings an in-house Shop for purchasing additional stickers, themes and features, such as handwriting conversion. The app works well with Apple Pencil and supports a range of cloud-based services.
TIME TRACKING (MAC/iOS) Tyme 3
£3.49 per month tyme-app.com
If you need to make sure you’re paid for hours/miles you put in for work, or any expenses you incur, you need this app. Create a project, add your tasks and let Tyme keep track for you. The app doubles as an organiser and project manager and comes as a package for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Geofencing means times can be recorded automatically based on your location.
EMAIL MANAGER (MAC/iOS) Spark
Free sparkmailapp.com
Feeling inbox anxiety? The solution could be Spark, our favourite iPhone email app after winning MF340’s group test. Its ‘smart inbox’ prioritises emails based on perceived importance – no more vital messages getting lost in a sea of spam. You can snooze messages to be reminded about them later, and search your mailboxes using natural language. And to top it all off, it’s free.