50 Essential iOS Apps - page 2

Gaming 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.

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To-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.

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.

Running 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.

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.

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.

There 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.

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Reddit 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.

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.

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.

Reading books. It’s something we’ve all done at some point in our lives. People read for fun, learning or taking a break. The trouble is, having a huge collection of books takes up space and can literally weigh you down.

E-books are the solution, and the Kindle app is an excellent way to enjoy the world of literature without straining your back or your physical space. With the Kindle app, you can carry an entire library’s worth of books on your iPad or iPhone.

How many logins and passwords do you have? If the answer is more than one, then ask yourself how many accounts use the same password? If that answer isn’t zero, you need Dashlane. Reused and weak passwords are one of the biggest vulnerabilities on the modern web, but remembering a bunch of unique and complex passwords is nearly impossible. What isn’t hard is using your thumb or face to open a password manager with all your strong passwords.

Every day, millions of people watch more than a billion hours of video on YouTube. More than half of those views come from mobile devices.

From tutorials and tech reviews to vlogs and movie trailers, YouTube is the largest video sharing service in the world, growing at a rate of 300 hours of content every minute (that’s an average of 18,000 minutes being uploaded every minute of every day). If you’re not using the YouTube app to dive into this ocean of video content, you’re not doing it right.

Not all tasks are simple or straightforward. Sometimes a task involve multiple complex or repetitive steps. Having the ability to use a “program” to do these tasks quickly and easily makes you more efficient. Unfortunately, we aren’t all programmers. Workflow for iOS makes performing complex or repetitive tasks a breeze, all without needing to know a programming language.

The iPhone and iPad are arguably one of the most powerful computers most of us own. While much argument has been had as to whether you can do real work on iOS, apps are a proving ground for what an iOS device is capable of. Coda for iOS harnesses the power of iOS to make a feature rich programming app, turning your iOS device into a shell terminal, FTP client, remote file viewer, and pocketable coding app.

Email is a necessary evil. Whether it’s personal communications, work-related updates or the latest sale at your favorite store, email is something we deal with nearly every day.

After trying dozens of email apps over the past eight years, Astro is the best email app I’ve come across, and the first that I both recommend and enjoy using.

There has been a lot of talk about online security lately. Having good internet habits is important, and using a good VPN like BulletVPN features is a great way to make sure your data doesn’t end up in the wrong hands. Encrypt.me is an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand VPN app for iOS (and Mac, Android and Windows) that can help keep you safe.

Podcasts are a great way to stay informed and entertained, or just to pass time. The number of podcasts is booming, and if you listen efficiently you can hear even more of them.

With the Overcast podcast app for iOS, you get a great podcast listening experience along with some awesome time-saving features.

iTunes and the App Store are two of the best online stores for buying digital content like movies and books. They’re also really good at getting you (the customer) to spend money. CheapCharts for iOS is the perfect companion to the App Store and iTunes Store, helping you get apps and digital content at the best price possible.

Have you ever visited a website, only to be bombarded with pop-ups, ads and “dickbars“? Purify ad blocker for iOS will kick those annoying JavaScript trackers and ads to the curb, providing you a faster, more private browsing experience.

Public transportation can be a nightmare. Traveling in an unfamiliar city or relying on trains and buses to get around can leave you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.

Transit for iPhone makes finding train bus, and subway schedules simple. With support for more than 80 U.S. cities and dozens more around the world, it is one of the most useful apps for making the right choice of transportation.

While there are dozens of note-taking and writing apps available on iOS, few strike the balance of rich features and simple design the way Drafts does. Whether you’re looking for a quick way to digitally jot down a passing thought, take notes in a meeting, or store an address or phone number, the Drafts app makes it easy to quickly capture text before taking action.

The iPhone’s camera is arguably one of the best cameras most people will use for capturing life moments. Sometimes, though, those photos don’t turn out quite as perfect as you hope. The iOS Camera and Photos apps have some basic editing tools, but if you’re looking for more fine-tuned tweaks, Snapseed is a powerful, free photo editor for iOS that helps revive and tweak your shots.

Knowing when to answer a call from an unknown number is a game of chance. It might be a family emergency, or it might be a scammer trying to rip you off. Hiya Caller ID and Block is a simple iOS app that attempts to determine whether incoming phone calls are telemarketers, spam, or something worth picking up for.

Weather is something we all deal with, and an accurate idea of what’s coming can help inform your day-to-day decisions. With the Dark Sky Weather app, you can know exactly when to expect a change in weather conditions.

Unlike many of its competitors, Dark Sky goes deeper than a simple high-level summary of the day’s forecast. It offers hyperlocal forecasts for your exact address, with down-to-the-minute notifications about changing weather conditions. Uncannily accurate, it’s a shining ray of light in the storm of weather apps.