I’ve been utilizing smartphones for the reason that iPhone 3G and writing about them for nearly as lengthy, and it was largely their apps and video games that first obtained me enthusiastic about their potential.
In fact, not all apps are value celebrating – there are many low-quality ones, and others I’d simply quite restrict my engagement with (like most social media platforms). However, for me, there are a handful of apps that basically are must-haves – apps that I take advantage of most days and would really feel barely misplaced with out.
So, below, I’ve rounded up my five favorites. They’re all available on both Android and iOS, and in my view are neither so obvious that they’re not worth mentioning, nor so niche that they’re unlikely to appeal to anyone else. So, hopefully there’s something here that you’ll appreciate too.
1. Pocket Casts
You most likely listen to podcasts, but if you’re doing that on one of the biggest-name players like Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you would possibly need to take into account wanting additional afield, as among the barely lower-profile apps are actually wonderful.
I’m solely saying barely decrease profile right here as a result of Pocket Casts is much from unknown; it has been round since 2011, and in all that point has confirmed itself a dependable, visually pleasing, and feature-packed podcast participant.
Pocket Casts has a number of themes, a format that makes it simple to find and carry on prime of podcasts, and all types of instruments, like choices to trim silence, change the playback pace, increase the quantity, and use a sleep timer.
You can too view transcripts, management playback from a smartwatch, add bookmarks to episodes, and there’s help for AirPlay, Chromecast, CarPlay, Android Auto, and you’ll even browse and play episodes from the Sonos app.
These are many of the app’s headline options, however that basically simply scratches the floor of the instruments and toggles you’ve got obtainable in Pocket Casts. However even in the event you don’t care about any of that, its colourful, intuitive interface makes it a pleasure to easily discover and take heed to podcasts on.
2. Proton Mail
Chances are you use Gmail for your email, or if not that, then probably Outlook or iCloud, none of that are essentially dangerous, however nor are they the only option in the event you worth privateness. For that, I’d suggest Proton Mail.
This app encrypts your emails in order that solely you and the recipient can learn them, with even Proton itself not having entry. Proton Mail additionally blocks trackers to maintain e mail senders from seeing you’ve opened their messages, and to stop them from seeing your IP handle or details about your system.
As you would possibly anticipate from a privacy-focused service, there additionally received’t be any adverts in your inbox, and whereas privateness is Proton Mail’s focus, its app additionally has a slick interface and helpful options like one-click unsubscribe, swipe-based gesture controls, labels, folders, and an non-compulsory darkish mode.
There are additionally safety instruments; the app flags suspicious emails as possible phishing makes an attempt, as an illustration.
All in all, then, Proton Mail appears like a premium e mail service, so it’s value contemplating even in the event you don’t care in regards to the privateness facet. The one draw back is that the free plan limits you to 1GB of storage – if you need greater than that or a number of e mail addresses, you’ll must pay.
3. 1Password
Where Proton Mail is great for privacy, 1Password or another password manager is near essential for security.
Arguably, dedicated password managers like 1Password are less necessary than they once were, since Apple and Google have their very own alternate options constructed into their {hardware} and software program, however personally, I’d all the time select a third-party different.
That manner, if somebody ever breaks into your Apple or Google account, they don’t additionally achieve entry to all of your passwords – whereas in the event that they had been to realize entry to your third-party password supervisor, they’d nonetheless have to get by two-factor authentication to entry your Apple or Google account (assuming you’ve set that up). So, to my thoughts, it’s inherently safer to accommodate your passwords elsewhere.
However past that, some third-party password managers even have extra built-in safety, and that’s a part of why I take advantage of 1Password particularly. It makes use of dual-layer encryption, with each your ‘Grasp Password’ and a singular secret key required to decrypt your information. If a hacker solely has one among these, they’re out of luck. Plus, 1Password periodically undergoes unbiased safety audits.
It is also simply actually handy and well-designed. It really works throughout mainly each platform, it has browser plugins, it will possibly generate passwords for you, it permits you to securely save notes and paperwork too, and you’ll securely share something you’ve saved in its database.
The 1Password app particularly additionally works nicely – it’s intuitively laid out, provides you entry to all the above options, and, in my expertise, its autofill works constantly.
4. AccuWeather
It’s hard to get excited about weather apps, and honestly, AccuWeather is no exception, but nevertheless, this is an extremely useful app that I turn to almost daily.
You see, this is no ordinary weather app – rather than focusing on weather for the day ahead in the general area, it has hyper-local forecasts, predicting the weather basically exactly where you are, and predicting how it will change minute by minute.
You might think that’s unlikely to be very accurate, but in my anecdotal experience, it tells me the upcoming conditions – and particularly whether it’s going to rain – more successfully than other weather apps.
So, this is a great tool to use when you’re just about to head out, so you can see what the weather is likely to do over the next minutes or hours, and even see if that break in the rain is likely to hold long enough for you to run a quick errand.
Of course, there’s plenty more here too. You can also see more conventional hourly forecasts and even look up to ten days ahead. AccuWeather will also tell you things like how warm it feels as well as how warm it actually is, the wind speed, the humidity, the UV Index, and everything else you’d expect from a weather app.
There are weather maps too, and extra features in a paid version that I’ve never felt the need to bother with, because even the free tier gives you a more comprehensive weather app than most rivals can manage.
5. Letterboxd
I’m a massive film fan, so Letterboxd might appeal to me more than most, but if you’ve not used it and you ever find yourself turning to the IMDB for movie information, I’d suggest giving it a try, because for me it has almost completely replaced IMDB.
Letterboxd is in many ways a lot like IMDB – it provides a database of movies, complete with run times, trailers, cast and crew lists, and user reviews and ratings. But to my mind, it’s a lot more attractively and intuitively designed and laid out.
It also seems to attract users who – like me – are passionate about cinema, so – while many of the reviews are a bit jokey – the actual ratings can feel more thoughtful than those on IMDB, with fewer top and bottom marks being handed out.
Personally, though, I mostly use it for logging and rating films I’ve seen, creating and checking out lists of movies, and digging into stats, like my highest rated decades, my most watched genres and themes, and the movies I’ve rated higher than the average user, among many other things.
Some of this – in particular lots of the stats – requires a subscription, but for free you can get all the basics, including most of what you’d find on IMDB, in an app that’s much nicer to use.
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