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Ian Fuchs - page 5

Save time and money on parking with ParkWhiz [50 Essential iOS Apps #38]

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ParkWhiz Start Search screen
ParkWhiz makes finding parking as easy as searching our destination.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: ParkWhiz appIf you live near a big city, or travel to metro areas frequently, you know what a pain in the butt parking can be. Parking lots and garages use confusing signage to trick you into spending more money, and some less expensive spots are often poorly labeled or hidden entirely. With ParkWhiz, you can get the most bang for your buck, and know exactly what you’re getting. Best of all, you’ll save time so you can enjoy your trip without adding stress.

Give the perfect GIF with GIFwrapped [50 Essential iOS Apps #37]

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You'll be amazed at how easy GIFwrapped makes finding the perfect animated GIF.
You'll be amazed at how easy GIFwrapped makes finding the perfect animated GIF.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: GIFwrapped In the ’90s and early 2000, animated GIFs were a staple of web design. Today, they’re still imperative to the web, but for entirely different reasons. With GIFwrapped, you can search a massive database of GIFs, create a personal library of your favorites, and save the ones you find on social media for later.

Refuel for less with GasBuddy [50 Essential iOS Apps #36]

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GasBuddy makes it easy to see where refueling will cost you less.
GasBuddy makes it easy to see where refueling will cost you less.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: GasBuddy gas app It’s road trip season, and that means gas prices can have a big impact on your vacation. Sometimes what seems like a decent gas price is actually a ripoff because you don’t know about the local station around the corner that’s selling fuel for far less.

If you want to get the best gas price, use GasBuddy for iPhone. The app shows you where all the nearby gas stations are. Better still, GasBuddy helps you find the best prices on gas, wherever you are.

Understand your sleep patterns with Pillow [50 Essential iOS Apps #35]

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Pillow on Apple Watch report
Pillow users your Apple Watch or iPhone for sleep tracking and reporting your sleep quality.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: pillow sleep tracker appDo you ever wake up feeling exhausted, even though you are sure you slept well the night before? Or do you find yourself getting that 2:30 feeling a few hours early without any clear explanation? With the Pillow sleep app for iPhone and Apple Watch, you can get detailed analysis of your nightly slumber. Even better, you can gain insight into your body’s ideal sleep and wake times.

Cash App makes splitting the check easy [50 Essential iOS Apps #34]

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Cash app with cash money
Cash app makes paying back your friend as easy as using cash.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Cash App There are tons of ways to give money to a friend or family member. You could mail a check, hand them a stack of cash, or send it digitally. With the Cash App, sending money to someone is as easy as entering an amount, dropping in their $cashtag, and hitting send. While this is very similar to Apple Pay Cash, the Cash App packs a few extra perks that make it awesome.

Heavy-handed promo of Scorpion stings Spotify

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Drake talks Apple Music at WWDC.
Spotify's promotion of Scorpion may be good for Drake, but it's upsetting some customers.
Photo: Apple

Spotify is taking some flack after getting carried away promoting the June 29 release of hip-hop artist Drake’s new album “Scorpion.” In an effort to commemorate the release by the streaming services most-played artist, Spotify spent the weekend highlighting the Canadian artist’s music. These highlights came through Drake-inspired playlists, banners, and the use of his image on playlists without his music.

TickTick helps get your to-do list finished [50 Essential iOS Apps #33]

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Ticktick next week tasks
TickTick works as a Reminders replacement, or an advanced task manager.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: TickTick When Apple rolled out iOS 5 way back in 2011, one of the software’s highlights was a new app — Reminders — to help you keep track of tasks.

Since that time, Reminders hasn’t evolved much. However, the type of task manager people are looking for has changed dramatically. TickTick offers greater control, more granularity, and is an all-around better to-do list app.

Add some personality to your forecast with Carrot Weather [50 Essential iOS Apps #32]

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Carrot Weather forecast says its hot hot hot
Carrot weather tells it like it is... rain or shine, frigid or inferno.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Carrot Weather app Weather can be exciting, but checking the weather rarely is. Regardless of what’s going on outside, Carrot Weather makes checking the forecast hilarious and fun. Better than that, Carrot Weather offers an Apple Watch app that is best in class for the platform.

Paprika makes your iPad a kitchen sidekick [50 Essential iOS Apps #31]

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Paprika on iPad with kitchen items around
Following recipes is easy and convenient with Paprika.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: PaprikaHave you ever decided to make dinner, only to find the recipe has gone missing. Sometimes it’s a misplaced notecard, other times, a saved (or pinned) link that is now dead. With Paprika, your favorite recipes are stored digitally, and you’re in control. As someone who cooks nearly every day, Paprika is the best recipe app for chefs of any skill level.

Take control of your schedule with Fantastical [50 Essential iOS Apps #30]

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Fantastical Ticker view upcoming events
Understanding your calendar, reminders, and events is fast and easy with Fantastical
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: FanstasticalManaging a busy schedule is something we all deal with from time to time. Relying on a calendar app makes it easier, but entering every meeting, project, or appointment can be a hassle. Fantastical is the best calendar app for adding events to your calendar and managing your schedule.

Movies Anywhere puts your movies everywhere [50 Essential iOS Apps #29]

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Movies Anywhere my movies
Movies Anywhere syncs your movies across online services.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Movies AnywhereOwning digital movies used to be a pain in the neck. Movies bought on iTunes were trapped on Apple devices, Google Play movies on Google’s service, and Amazon purchases in Prime Video. At the same time digital copies included with DVD and Blu-rays were often stuck in services like Vudu, Flixter, or UltraViolet. With Movies Anywhere, you can finally sync most of your movies across various services, putting your movies everywhere you want to watch.

Nuzzel highlights important news from your Twitter feed [50 Essential iOS Apps #28]

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Nuzzel news feed on iPhone
Nuzzel prioritizes the most talked about stories from Twitter.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: NuzzelTwitter is a great way to stay up-to-date with the news. A well-curated Twitter feed can provide important updates on topics important to you. Sometimes, knowing what is most important can be a challenge as conversations, memes, and social commentary overwhelm actual news updates. With Nuzzel, you can view a summary of the news stories everyone is talking about. Best of all, it’s personalized to you.

Stay focused on writing with iA Writer [50 Essential iOS Apps #27]

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iA Writer on iPad
iA Writer is perfect for bloggers and others writing on the go
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: iA Writer appThere are dozens of ways to write on iOS. Apple’s own Notes app offers a simple writing platform, while Pages allows for elaborate documents – complete with pictures. While both are good for certain tasks, more serious writers typically want something a little different. iA Writer offers more while doing less, making it the perfect text editor app.

Alto’s Adventure is the perfect zen iPhone game [50 Essential iOS Apps #26]

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Alto's Adventure on iPad and iPhone
Alto's Adventure is the perfect kind of iOS game for passing time on iPhone or iPad
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Alto's Adventure gameGaming on iPhone and iPad has been something that has often gone overlooked. While big name titles haven’t typically made an appearance on iOS Devices, occasionally a game comes to the platform that is both visually amazing and a joy to play. Alto’s Adventure is incredibly fun, surprisingly delightful, and perfectly addictive, making it a rare gem in the iOS game library.

Turn to-dos into lasting habits with Streaks [50 Essential iOS Apps #25]

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Streaks app completing tasks
Streaks turns your to-do list into a game of success.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: StreaksTo-do lists can be incredibly useful for getting tasks done on time and staying on top of ongoing projects. Unfortunately for some, it’s a source of procrastination, with no reward for keeping up with your daily (or weekly tasks). The Streaks app gamifies your recurring tasks and helps create good habits (or break bad habits) quickly and easily.

GoodNotes 4 is the paper notebook of the future [50 Essential iOS Apps #24]

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GoodNotes 4 notebook with Apple Pencil on iPad Pro
GoodNotes 4 is perfect for writing notes, regardless of the topic.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: GoodNotes 4 The iPad has become a workhorse in the last few years. Since the introduction of the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, the transition from pen and paper to digital note-taking is more feasible than ever. GoodNotes 4 is one of the best digital note-taking and document-annotation apps available on iOS.

Go the extra mile with Nike+ Run Club [50 Essential iOS Apps #23]

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Nike+ Run Club app run tracking
Nike+ Run Club offers detailed run tracking whether you're new to running or an experienced marathon runner.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Nike+ Run ClubRunning is a great form of exercise, regardless of your fitness level. Getting motivated to run is a different story. Some running apps are designed for run tracking, others offer training, or make exercise a game. Nike+ Run Club blends all three to get you started and keep you moving, from your first run to your thousandth mile, and beyond.

Theoretical improvements: The status of Siri in iOS 12

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The iPhone's home button could be going away.
Siri should be a lot smarter.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac In the battle of digital voice assistants, people often mock Siri for lagging behind competing products from Amazon and Google. During Monday’s WWDC 2018 keynote, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, glossed over those failings, calling Siri the “world’s most-used digital assistant.”

What he neglected to mention was the increasing frustration of Siri users expecting more from a voice assistant. From simple requests returning inaccurate results to the inability to performthat he compound actions, Siri was in desperate need of attention going into WWDC. But will the Siri upgrades in iOS 12 do the trick?

Avoid road hazards and slowdowns with Waze [50 Essential iOS Apps #22]

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Waze on iPhone in a car GPS mount
Waze provides clear turn-by-turn navigation and alerts you to potential hazards.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Waze map and navigation All across the country (and the world), people depend on cars to get from place to place. Unfortunately, not knowing where traffic is slow, or where a police officer is hiding, can cause serious delays. The Waze navigation app takes out the guesswork.

It tells drivers where traffic, construction or the 5-0 might turn a drive into a total bummer. Better yet, the navigation app’s huge user base means real-time data that lets you change course to avoid slowdowns.

What WWDC’s ‘sneak peek’ at project Marzipan could mean for the Mac

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WWDC 2018
The answer is complicated.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac Near the end of Monday’s WWDC 2018 keynote, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi addressed a question that’s been circulating in the tech press for a while: Are Mac and iOS merging?

His answer was direct and unequivocal: “No.”

Then he delivered a “sneak peek” of Apple’s long-rumored cross-platform project codenamed “Marzipan.” In line with the past six months of rumors, the idea of the framework is to allow UIKit-based iOS apps to run natively on Mac. While that probably sounds exciting to Mac owners, it could yield an unwelcome unintended consequence. It could trigger a “lost year” for Mac apps.

Protect your photo collection with Google Photos [50 Essential iOS Apps #21]

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Google Photos library backup on iPhone X
Google Photos is the photo and video backup app we all wish Apple would give us.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Google Photos Photos and videos are some of our most important mementos, helping us recount our fondest memories. The thought of losing those keepsakes shouldn’t be something that keeps you up at night.

With Google Photos, every photo and video on your iOS device can be safely backed up to the cloud, accessible even if your iPhone or iPad goes up in flames. Even better, Google Photos can help you free up space on your iOS device, so there’s always room to take more pictures.

Explore your interests through pictures with Instagram [50 Essential iOS Apps #20]

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Cult of Mac Instagram profile
Instagram could soon offer original shows of its own.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Workflow appThere are tons of social networks to choose from. Some help you stay up-to-date with news, while others are focused on friends or family. Instagram is the social network for seeing the world and keeping up with your interests through images. Unlike Twitter or Facebook, Instagram lets photos do the majority of the talking.

Explore the depths of Reddit with Narwhal [50 Essential iOS Apps #19]

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Narwhal FrontPage of Reddit
Diving into Reddit is intuitive and fun with Narwhal.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Narwhal reddit appReddit isn’t something that is typically associated with the modern features and design of iOS. While much of the platform calls back to the days of user forums, it is indispensable as a source of news, conversation and entertainment for many. With Narwhal, you can make the most of your Reddit experience on iOS — and find the latest trends or the dankest memes.

Obscura 2 is a manual camera app you can understand [50 Essential iOS Apps #18]

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Obscura 2 camera app taking a photo of a dog
Obscura 2 gives you powerful camera controls in an easy-to-use package.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Obscura Camera For several years in a row, the iPhone has been one of the most popular cameras in the world. Apple’s image sensors, paired with top-notch image processing, results in exceptional photos time and time again.

One thing absent from the default camera app, though, are manual settings. With Obscura 2, you get all the manual controls you want, plus a wide range of image-processing features, perfectly implemented haptics, and a slew of vintage filters to make your photos pop.

Make Twitter great again with Tweetbot [50 Essential iOS Apps #17]

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The Cult of Mac profile in Tweetbot on iOS
Tweetbot for iOS is clean, easy-to-use, and isn't cluttered like the Twitter app.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Tweetbot for Twitter app Over the years, the Twitter app has changed significantly. What started as a container for Twitter’s mobile website has grown into the jumbled mess that it is today.

During that time, many third-party Twitter clients blossomed, providing a more streamlined, logical experience. While many faded away, a select few managed to stick around. For several years now, Tweetbot has been one of the best Twitter clients on iOS. It offers a clear design, simple gestures, and provides a better Twitter experience.