Indispensable additions to your iPhone
Our selection of the very best apps for iPhones, from creativity to organization
ARD TO BELIEVE, but the iPhone nearly didn’t get apps at all: the initial plan was for us to save websites as favorites on our Home Screen instead. Thankfully Apple changed its mind, the App Store was born, and today we’re running Photoshop apps on our iPhones. And that’s not all. Our phones bring us AR experiences, language learning, live sports, real–time transport updates, radio, ebooks, and so much more. Here are some of our current favorites.
DOUBLETAKE
From FiLMiC, filmicpro.com
Also on iPad
> The thing about most iPhone camera apps is that they can only use one of your cameras. FiLMiC’s DoubleTake can record from the front and back ones simultaneously on iPhones from the XR/XS onwards, turning your phone into a multi–camera video studio and opening up all kinds of new creative possibilities.
NIGHT SKY
From iCandi Apps, icandiapps.com
Also on Mac, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch
> Night Sky is one of those apps you want to show everyone. It’s a stargazing app that uses augmented reality to show you what’s in the skies, enabling you to identify planets, stars, constellations, satellites, and the International Space Station. It also includes great educational content about stars and planets.
PHOTOSHOP EXPRESS
From Adobe, adobe.com
Also on Mac, iPad
> Adobe’s photo editor comes to your iPhone, although some powerful features such as advanced healing are only available to subscribers. It’s still a very useful and capable image editor, though, and you can use it to combine multiple images, add backgrounds, and use themes.
PCALC LITE
From TLA Systems, pcalc.com
Also on iPad, Apple Watch
> We prefer PCalc to the iPhone calculator, and not just because its Twilight theme gives us a nostalgia hit. It’s a fully featured scientific calculator with optional RPN mode, multiple undo/redo, conversions, constants, and more. There’s an Apple Watch version included and it’s a great iPad option too.
PROCAM — MANUAL CONTROL CAMERA
From Loi Nguyen Van, l7mobile.com
Also on iPad
> ProCam gives you manual control of your iPhone or iPad’s camera hardware for better creative control of your photos. It’s easy to use, and there are even experimental tools like fill flash, focus zoom, and delayed shutter mode for longer exposures.
From Read It Later, getpocket.com
Also on iPad, Mac
> Pocket is what Apple’s Reading List wants to be when it grows up. It enables you to save almost anything from almost anywhere — web pages, news stories, social media posts, YouTube videos — then access and share it from your phone, iPad, or Mac. It’s great for saving things to explore at your leisure.
QUIK
From Go Pro, gopro.com Also on Mac
> Although it’s marketed towards GoPro users, Quik is a great video app for anybody. It works with your iPhone videos and Live Photos too, enabling you to add themes and transitions, reorganize clips, speed up or slow down the footage, and reformat for social media sharing. You can even add a soundtrack.
ACCUWEATHER
From AccuWeather, accuweather.com Also on iPad
> While you could rely on old wives’ tales for your local forecast, AccuWeather offers users a more science–based approach. It can tell you what’s happening weather–wise anywhere between 15 days and two hours in advance. And the clever app really lives up to its name.
DUOLINGO
From Duolingo, duolingo.com
Also on iPad, Mac (via website)
> We can’t be the only ones who turned to Duolingo during lockdown — if you ever need to know how to ask for a purple shirt in Spanish, hit us up. Duolingo has become a bit of a meme thanks to its passive– aggressive notifications, but with its game–style streaks to keep you motivated it’s an absolutely superb app for people of any age who want to learn a new language. SPARK
From Readdle, sparkmailapp.com
Also on iPad, Mac
> Apple’s Mail app is quite basic but Spark, which is free, is much more advanced. Tools like Smart Inbox, collaborative email composing, email scheduling and powerful search are just some of its talents. There’s also extensive cloud integration, sync to Spark on your Mac, integrated calendar, and more.
MONEY MANAGER
EXPENSE & BUDGET
From Realbyte Inc, realbyteapps.com Also on iPad
> Designed to help you manage your household accounting, it lets you input your spending and costs, see stats and trends, and search and organize your finances by category. There’s budget planning, the ability to connect payment cards to accounts, and set up automatic payments. The ad–free paid version provides unlimited numbers of accounts. OVERCAST
From Overcast Radio, overcast.fm Also on iPad
> This powerful, simple podcast player is our go–to for listening to our ever–growing library. Smart Speed and Voice Boost make episodes quicker and clearer, the podcast management is fast and effective, and the app is clearly a labour of love. It works on Apple Watch and CarPlay too.
FANTASTICAL 3
From Flexibits, flexibits.com
Also on iPad, Mac
> Fantastical would really like you to take out a subscription, but the core calendar features are free. That includes natural language processing so you can create calendar entries by saying or typing things like “meeting 10am Monday with Louise calendar work.” It’s a superb app that syncs with your Mac and your iPad, and there are good complications for your Apple Watch too. CLOCKIFY
From Clockify, clockify.me
Also on iPad
> Freelancers and others often need to keep precise records of time for billing purposes. With this app you can manage and track team members, categorize time by project, mark billable time, and more. It syncs data across iCloud, and you can generate visual breakdowns of time, share reports and export as PDF, CSV, and Excel. OCR SCANNER WITH LEADTOOLS SDK
From LEAD Technologies, leadtools.com Also on iPad, Mac
> Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanners like this convert scanned text into digital text. This app lets you capture pages and extract the text, saving out to docs like PDF, DOC, and TXT. Build multi–page docs, use text–to–speech, and work in any of 45 languages. SPOTIFY
From Spotify, spotify.com
Also on iPad, Mac
> If you don’t want to spend money on a music subscription then Spotify’s advertising–funded offering is hard to beat. Its catalogue is enormous, the app is really easy and quick to use, and the ads aren’t too annoying or age–inappropriate for family listening. It’s particularly good for discovering new music. CITYMAPPER
From Citymapper Limited, citymapper.com Also on iPad
> If you live in a big city like New York, Chicago or Toronto, or travel to cities overseas, then CityMapper is a must–have. It’s a one–stop app for all public transport with real–time data as well as directions for walking, driving, cycling, and even scootering. The app also includes bike– and car–sharing services.