Got a new iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus? Here are some of our favorite iPhone apps that’ll help you make the most of your shiny new iPhone.
Camera+
Camera+ is the best third-party camera app for the iPhone. It comes with an intuitive interface, photo filters, horizontal leveler and provides advanced composition controls that allow you to adjust almost everything from exposure to focus, photo filters.
➤ Download link – $2.99
Alternative:
VSCO Cam for its awesome filters – Download link – Free
Tweetbot
Tweetbot is the best iOS Twitter client out there, with features like muting, timeline sync, day/night themes, multiple accounts and more. The iPhone version of the app has been updated for iOS 8, and optimized for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
➤ Download link – $2.99
Free alternative:
Twitter’s Official app – Download link
Best Email app: Dispatch
If you’re a disciple of Merlin Mann and are constantly gunning for Inbox Zero, you’ll find Dispatch to be the perfect tool to reach that goal. Swipe left on a message to reveal actions, or swipe further to quickly archive that message and be on your way towards clearing your inbox for good. When it’s time to reply to a message, Dispatch automatically fills in a salutation and hides the To/From fields so you get right down to typing out your reply. If you want to speed things up even more, you can quickly insert searchable text snippets to finish replying in a jiffy.
For those who use multiple apps in conjunction with their email, Dispatch has a huge list of actions to triage your messages with, including creating events, reminders and text messages with default iOS apps, adding to-dos to a range of third-party apps like Clear and Things, sending content to Evernote, opening links in Chrome or Dolphin, saving articles for later with Pocket, Instapaper and more, and even viewing locations with Google Maps.
➤ Download link – $4.99
➤ The Best Email Apps for iPhone
Best Weather app: Dark Sky
The default Weather app is quite great, but if you’re in the US then you should check out Dark Sky. Striking a great balance between information density and readability, Dark Sky puts current temperature and precipitation readouts front and center, and reveals additional data when you tap or swipe. Everything from rain forecasts to humidity and wind speed to updates for the coming week are easy to digest, and never feel overwhelming thanks to clever layouts. With a focus on rain alerts, the app can also send you notifications before it starts to pour.
Dark Sky also has maps for temperature and precipitation, and weather geeks will love the detailed animated globe you can pan and zoom around. but is only available in the US, UK and Ireland for now. We like how the app is great for daily use as well as for harsh conditions when you need more info. It’s ability to predict whether it was going to rain or stop raining in an immediate location and within the next hour is quite magical.
➤ Download link – $3.99
➤ The best Weather apps for iPhone
Best Browser app: iCab Mobile
Power users will feel most at home with iCab Mobile: the iOS counterpart of the famed iCab browser for Mac offers flexibility like no other. Customize your toolbar icon and menu loadouts, use drawn and multi-touch gestures, choose from a wide range of browser IDs to test web sites, import/export your browser settings and bookmarks via cloud services like Dropbox and iCloud, select from a range of search engines for auto-suggestions and congifure how you want the browser to handle operations based on how much memory is free on your device.
iCab Mobile also includes a ton of modules to enhance your browsing experience: find all the sites that link to your active page, share to major social networks and read-later services, examine pages with Firebug Lite, save pages to PDF, query Google Cache to find older versions of a page and even autoscroll your active page for hands-free reading.
iCab Mobile also offers fine-grained control over every aspect of how it works, including whether the address bar should clear itself when activated and how links from the same domain of an active page should open (in a new tab or in the same tab). These are precisely the kind of features that fans of desktop browsers will appreciate, and iCab Mobile brings these in spades — making this browser totally worth its asking price of $2.
➤ Download link – $1.99
1Password
Manage your passwords and other sensitive information like bank account info, credit card numbers etc. securely with 1Password.
➤ Download link – In-app purchase for $5.99
Clear
➤ Download link – $2.99
Best Calendar app: Fantastical
Fantastical is an awesome alternative to the stock Calendar app for the iPhone with support for natural language text entry (“Meet Bob for dinner tomorrow at 8”), reminders, background updates and more. It also includes a gorgeous Notification Center widget for iOS 8.
➤ Download link – $3.99
➤ The best Calendar apps for iPhone
Unread
After being a fan of Reeder for several years, Unread is my new favorite RSS reader for the iPhone and iPad. It comes with a clean interface with support for a variety of RSS services like Feedly, Feedbin, Feed Wrangler, Newsblur and Fever. It also offers themes to make it easy , and the ability to share or export your content to a number of sharing services.
➤ Download link – Free with $4.99 in-app purchase to read unlimited articles and unlock additional themes.
Best To-do List app: Todoist
Todoist is my favorite task management app. Besides the ability to create tasks, set priorities and add labels, you can also search through tasks, attach notes and files, and even receive location-based reminders so you complete to-dos when you’re in the area (perfect for picking up your dry cleaning). The app even handles basic language parsing when setting due dates (terms like ‘tomorrow’ and ‘every day’ are understood correctly).
It’s worth noting that while the app is free, many of its advanced features are only available with a Premium plan ($29/year).
➤ The Best To-Do List Apps for iPhone
Best third-party keyboard: SwiftKey
iOS 8 allows you to add your own third-party keyboard. Our favorite third-party keyboard is SwiftKey. It is easily the most powerful and versatile keyboard, and is recommended for users who want to try several new features in a single keyboard.
➤ Download link – Free
➤ The best third-party keyboards for iPhone
Drafts
Drafts is an interesting take on note taking. I have started using it only recently, and loving it. It is a great way to capture a thought, idea or any kind of note, and the iOS 8 Share Extension now makes it even more easier to capture text from the web and other apps. You can share text to any app or service, or use advanced features such as custom actions to send email, messages, create reminders & events, post to Twitter, Facebook and so much more with a single tap.
➤ Download link – $4.99
Shazam
Shazam has been an all-time favorite ever since it was released in the App Store in 2008. Even though Apple has integrated the song recognition feature in iOS 8, I still think it is worth downloading the standalone app, as it gives you tons of features such as the ability to listen to the song you’ve tagged on your favorite music streaming app such as Spotify, Rdio etc or watch the video on YouTube.
Download link
➤ Shazam – Free
➤ Shazam Encore – $6.99
Sygic
While there are quite a few good navigation apps like Apple’s Maps app, Google Maps, Waze etc. that are free, we prefer the Sygic GPS Navigation app, which comes with offline maps from TomTom so you don’t need an internet connection like the navigation apps mentioned earlier once you’ve downloaded them.
The offline maps are free, but you have to buy one of the packages available via in-app purchase for features such as 3D maps, turn-by-turn navigation, dynamic lane guidance, gives warnings when you exceed speed limits, warning for fixed speedcams in some countries, police trap warnings from other users and more. It also offers premium features such as HUD – Heads up display(at night navigation info is projected directly into the line of sight on the dashboard), BlackBox (a dash-cam that records while you’re navigating), Cockpit (measures the performance of your car). It does not have the best user interface, but the rich feature list compensates for it.
➤ Download link – Free with in-app purchases
Free Alternative:
Google Maps – Download link
Nuzzel
Nuzzel is my favorite news app currently. It connects to your Twitter account, and tells you which are most shared links in your timeline by the people you follow. It’s a lot easier than scrolling through your timeline, and a great way to discover new content, especially if you’re following people from different walks of life.
➤ Download link – Free
Hours
Hours is a simple and intuitive productivity app. It is meant to help you stay productive, which it does by helping you track the time it takes for a task with a single tap. You can see how you spent the time in a day with the visual timeline. The Today widget in iOS 8 makes it even more easier to start/stop/switch timers with a single tap even from the lock screen.
➤ Download link – $4.99
Workflow
Workflow is a clever new app that was released last month that makes it easy to automate processes. You can do things like create a gif, make pdfs from Safari, order a pizza, order an Uber to go home, get directions to your favorite coffee shop with a single tap using actions that are included in the app, or create your own custom action.
➤ Download link – $2.99
Deliveries
Deliveries helps you keep track of packages that you’ve ordered online. It supports UPS, Fedex, US Postal Service, DHL, TNT, Canada Post, City Link, Royal Mail and many more. It can also track orders on Apple and Amazon. With iOS 8, you can check the status of your order right in the Notification Center thanks to the Today widget.
➤ Download link – $2.99
Launch Center Pro
Launch Center Pro is an app that can really boost your productivity on your iPhone. It makes clever use of URL schemes and x-callback-URL to create shortcuts to launch actions, not just apps. You can frequently perform on your iPhone such as calling or messaging a regular contact, jump straight to the camera in Instagram, message a gif to a friend etc.
➤ Download link – $0.99
Camcard
Camcard is my favorite app to scan business cards, and a must-have app if you get a lot of business cards. It lets you scan and organize business cards so that you don’t need to enter the details manually. It scanning technology is also quite accurate, and support 16 languages.
➤ Download link – $0.99
Scanner Pro
Scanner Pro turns your iPhone into a scanner. It is my favorite app for scanning a document on the go, and keeping a digital version of it. It automatically detects the edge of the paper, then rotates and straightens the image if require. You can save the scanned document as a PDF, and share it by email, take a print out, upload it to cloud storage like Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive etc. You can also password protect the scanned document.
It also uploads the documents to iCloud, so you can access the documents from any iOS device.
➤ Download link – $0.99
Synchronize
It can be a nightmare if work with people in different timezones. I use Synchronize, which makes time zone conversions a non-issue. It not only tells you what time it is in different timezone, but you can also use the slider to find out what time it will be in multiple time zones, which can be useful while setting an appointment. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been updated for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
➤ Download – Free
Google Authenticator
It is important to enable Google Authenticator turns your iPhone into a security token for your account with two-step verification. After you’ve verified your account, Google Authenticator generates the unique passcode for two-step verification. Unfortunately, it is not yet optimized for iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.
➤ Download link – Free
FlightTrack
If you’re frequent traveller then FlightTrack is a must-have. It’s a great way to monitor your flights while on the go. It is integrated with Tripdeck, so you don’t even have to enter your flight number, just forward your itinerary confirmation emails to Tripdeck, and it will pull the necessary information to provide the flight details in the app. It also provides real-time departure and arrival information, gives notifications with flight updates, and also gives the gate number when it is available.
➤ Download link – $0.99
RedLaser
RedLaser is a great shopping companion app. Scan the bar code of the product you want to buy, and it automatically retrieves product information, and tells you if there’s a better deal for the product online or a different store nearby. When in a store, it also gives you useful information such as the store map, deals, coupons and more.
➤ Download link – Free
Overcast
Overcast is my favorite podcast app. The Smart Speed feature that shortens silences is quite cool and innovative, and ensures that you don’t waste time unnecessarily. The Voice Boast feature normalizes volume across all shows using a combination of dynamic compression and equalization. You can also create custom playlists, and sort them based on your priority, so you can listen to your favorite podcast first. You can also It also helps you find new podcasts, and get recommendations from people you follow.
➤ Download link – Free (features like Smart Speed and Voice Boast can be unlocked using $4.99 in-app purchase)
TeeVee
TeeVee is a great app to keep track of your favorite TV shows, so you know when the next episode of your favorite show will air. It can remind you of the start times using push notifications, or with the Today widget.
➤ Download link – $2.99
PCalc
Until iOS 8 was released, the stock Calculator app was sufficient. It did the job just fine. But if you’re someone who always needs a calculator at your fingertips, then you should get PCalc, which now comes with a great Today Widget, so you can do most of your calculations without having to open the app, and even from the Lock screen without unlocking your iPhone.
➤ Download link – $6.99
Notifyr
When you’re on your Mac, it’s much more convenient to see notifications on the larger screen, rather than picking up your iPhone each time you receive a new notification. Notifyr lets you forward iOS notifications to your Mac, with a companion OS X app. Notifyr forwards iOS notifications from all apps to your Mac using Bluetooth Low Energy, so you can use the app without draining your battery.
➤ Download link – $4.99
➤ Get iOS notifications on your Mac with Notifyr
TuneIn Radio
If you like listening to radio, then you should check out TuneIn Radio. It not only lets you listen to your local radio stations, but you can listen to radio stations in other cities as well. You can stream from over 100,000 radio stations around the world.
➤ Download link – Free (with in-all purchase)
That’s a wrap for now! I have not included apps for services like Facebook, LinkedIn, Dropbox etc, as you probably already know about them.
While the list includes apps that were released prior to 2014, some really useful and innovative iPhone apps were released in 2014. I can’t wait to see the apps that will be released in 2015, as iOS evolves with new APIs in iOS 9, WatchKit and more.
Please note that some of the apps are available for a discount for Christmas, so download the apps as soon as possible. Let me know your favorite iPhone apps in the comments below.
Have a great Christmas and Happy New year!
