The 53 best iPhone and iPad apps for everything

The 53 best iPhone and iPad apps for everything

These are the iPhone and iPad apps y'all need to accept better photos, pigment like a pro, shut out the world and everything in between

At that place are so many apps these days that if y'all printed out their icons and stacked them up, they'd attain Mars. Probably. Regardless, there are far too many to sift through yourself and and then chances are you don't bother. An awful lot of people download a handful of social media and idiot box apps and telephone call it a day.

That's a huge compassion, considering the very best apps for iPhone and iPad are fantastic. Moreover, they permit you do more with your device. And if you've ever awoken from a marathon Facebook or Twitter session to realise it's half-past Lord's day, that should exist a compelling reason to dig deeper into the App Store.

Hither, then, are what we consider the very best apps for Apple tree devices. Each of them tin transform your metallic and glass sidekick into something to make the most of your time, rather than but eating into information technology.

  • Obscura 2

    Obscura 2

    Best for: Taking great photos

    Digital cameras are oft identikit and soulless, simply Obscura 2 has graphic symbol and feels surprisingly tactile, given that you lot're thumbing glass. Generally, this is down to its dial-based interface that recalls classic cameras and affords smashing control over snaps, from selecting tools to subtly adjusting focus and exposure settings. Got a thing for filters? A agglomeration of tasteful ones are built-in to evoke the feel of old-schoolhouse film.

    £iv.99. Download Obscura 2 .

  • Fantastical

    All-time for: Not missing of import events

    Your iPhone or iPad has Apple's Calendar app, and that works fine, simply Fantastical is like a calendar designed for actual humans, with its scrolling events ticker and integrated reminders. Beyond that, information technology understands natural language when you're adding events and deftly deals with timezones. There are also embedded weather reports, "interesting calendars" for sports/telly/holidays and, brilliantly, the means to offering multiple times for an upshot, with Fantastical dealing with scheduling depending on responses from invitees.

    £4.99 per calendar month. Download Fantastical .

  • Analogousness Photograph

    Best for: Creating art and design masterpieces

    Photoshop now exists for iPad, just isn't yet fully baked, and too demands a monthly subscription. Still Affinity Photo has been letting talented designer types crank out visually stunning fare for years.

    This desktop-class (yet very affordable) app is packed with features for everything from tinkering with images to creating total-blown multi-layered digital art. It also integrates seamlessly with vector-based sibling Affinity Designer and the Mac/Windows versions of both Affinity apps.

    £xix.99. Download Affinity Photo .

  • MindNode

    All-time for: Mapping out ideas

    Want to get an astonishing idea out of your head and properly explore it? You could scribble notes down on the back of an envelope you'll inevitably lose. MindNode is a smarter bet. This tactile, flexible app has you start with a bullet-point list, which with a tap transforms into a beautifully crafted mind map. Your primary thought sits centrally and thoughts branch off in every direction. Y'all can add together icons, pics, stickers and notes and consign the lot in a range of formats.

    £2.49 per month. Download MindNode .

  • Ferrite Recording Studio

    Best for: Making a podcast

    At kickoff, Ferrite doesn't seem much different from Apple's Voice Memos. Using your device's mic, y'all tin record your thoughts and then bask in your amazingness during playback. But tap the edit push and Ferrite instantly transforms into a powerful multitrack recorder. Y'all go everything y'all need for pro-grade, on-the-become podcast creation, from automation and furnishings tools to unlimited tracks. Less lofty ambitions? Stick with the gratuitous version, which even for basic requirements is 1 of the best vox recorders and audio editors around.

    Free or £29 for premium. Download Ferrite Recording Studio .

  • Streaks

    Best for: Forming good habits

    New year's resolutions a distant retentivity? Mid-year equivalents going the same manner? Streaks tin can aid. You define upward to 12 habits, which announced equally large buttons to prod when they're washed. A stats screen keeps track of how you're doing. Streaks excels because it's approachable, focused and adaptable. Habits can link with the Health app, include timers, have flexible scheduling and fifty-fifty be negatives to break (similar smoking). By limiting yourself to 12 (or, ideally, six) tasks, everything feels manageable rather than overwhelming.

    £4.99. Download Streaks .

  • Widgetsmith

    Best for: Making Home screens your own

    Finally, you tin can plonk widgets on your iPhone's Home screens. Although many apps have their own widgets, Widgetsmith lets y'all concoct custom creations, giving you a level of control over their role and appearance.

    Of grade, it isn't a free-for-all, but widgets are available for a range of subjects, including weather, time, astronomy, health and photos. And you lot can mess about with themes and lurid colours until your Home screens beg for mercy.

    £1.99 per month. Download Widgetsmith .

  • Portal

    Best for: Losing yourself in (virtual) worlds

    We love White Noise+ for playing sounds that help yous focus the mind or relax, and Portal takes this to another level, bringing along your eyes for the journey with dozens of loops that combine audio and video.

    Yous become over xl varied scenes, so you tin can sit in a field of barley, gawp at a sped-up starscape above Nepal'southward Ama Dablam or meditate before Lake Kawaguchi in Japan. On iPhone, the app'southward impact is a little lost, merely it's wonderful on an iPad'south larger display.

    £free + IAP. Download Portal .

  • Linea Sketch

    Best for: Pretending y'all can draw

    Art tools tin can overwhelm with their deluge of palettes and menus. Not Linea Sketch. This app stashes everything you'll demand at the side of the screen: colours; a handful of layers; basic tools for scribbling.

    The app works nicely with a finger or an Apple Pencil, has a range of grids and templates to work with, syncs across iCloud, and was the birthplace of the concept holding the screen for a second to transform a squiggly shape into a perfect polygon, which Apple tree duly pilfered for iPadOS 14.

    99p per month. Download Linea Sketch .

  • Mission to Mars AR

    Best for: Exploring the Red Planet

    Excited about the rovers trundling about Mars? Wish you could have a go on one? This app lets you lot do all that and more. Via the magic of AR, y'all tin can pace through a portal on to the Reddish Planet, sentry a rocket launch, or have calibration versions of Mars rovers roam around your business firm or drive down your street. In theory, this is aimed at kids; only if you fail to grin at a dinky Curiosity exploring your desk, yous're emptier within than a cosmic void.

    Free. Download Mission to Mars AR

  • Buddywatch

    All-time for: Face up swapping (on your Apple tree Watch)

    Now that apps tin can employ every bit many Apple Watch complications as they delight, you can construct richer and more useful sentinel faces. Alternatively, you can exist lazy and see if someone else has done the hard work for you. Buddywatch is a huge collection of custom watch faces that you can download and install with a tap. Sign up and you can salvage a personal collection too – or fifty-fifty upload your own creations via the Buddywatch website.

    £free. Download Buddywatch .

  • Longplay

    Best for: Getting back into albums

    Want to return to the halcyon days of listening to unabridged albums? Longplay is for you. It lists your albums by various criteria, including 'orderliness', or 'negligence' to unearth forgotten faves. Tap a encompass and the anthology starts playing.

    The app'southward relaxed since its brutalist debut, which only let you skip entire albums, not tracks. Now you lot tin can avoid songs you dislike, but the app's however geared towards you playing albums correct through, rather than treating your music drove like a gigantic jukebox.

    £2.99. Download Longplay .

  • Infuse vi

    Best for: Streaming videos to your phone

    Buy an Apple device and you tin can't later upgrade its internal storage – a snag if you fancy stuffing it full of Tv set shows and movies that'd be better off saturday on a NAS. Infuse is the solution: it'll connect to local drives and convert almost whatever video on the wing. If files are named appropriately, you'll get cover art as well. Pay to unlock pro-grade audio, cloud storage admission and library sync, so you lot can selection up on your Apple Idiot box where you left off on your iPad.

    Free, 99p per month, £55 for lifetime or £26 for Infuse Pro six . Download Infuse half-dozen .

  • Ulysses Mobile

    Best for: Penning a bestseller

    The days take long gone when authors sat hunched over typewriters in dark rooms. Today, Ulysses gives you a fighting chance of penning a novel on a phone. In fact, it'south designed to shop everything you lot write, enabling you to rework and restructure text, and stitch notes together into annihilation from weblog posts to your debut novel. Cantankerous-device sync also means you're sorted whenever – and wherever – inspiration hits.

    £4.49 per month. Download Ulysses Mobile .

  • Carrot Weather

    Best for: Decision-making the weather

    Many activities hinge on the weather playing ball. Apple'southward Weather tin aid you plan – but is rigid and dull. Carrot is neither. It's helmed past a deranged AI that'due south a mash upward of atmospheric condition forecaster and HAL 9000, providing snark and spinous comments aslope accurate forecasting. But take hold of a subscription and you gain access to unmatched customisation tools to build dynamic interfaces designed effectually your personal requirements. Carrot therefore achieves the improbable – this is a weather app that'south capable, flexible and fun.

    Gratuitous or £4.99 per month/£19.99 per year. Download Carrot Weather

  • Retrospecs

    Best for: Revisiting retro gaming classics

    Many photo-filter apps transform your mug into a mash-up of instant snap and mod fine art. Yawn. Retrospecs is far more interesting, converting images into how they might look on classic gaming systems. Dozens are included: Game Boy; C64; ZX Spectrum; PC; Mega Drive; and many more (even ASCII). Perhaps the best bit is that although the app is accessible and convenient (load a moving picture; cull a filter; export), you can also fully unleash your inner nerd, through concocting custom consoles, delving into retro-infused video and making your own character fonts.

    Free or £three.99 for premium. Download Retrospecs .

  • 1Blocker

    Best for: Taming the cyberspace

    Trackers follow you around the internet, cookie notices spring upward ad-nauseam, and social widgets eat into screen space – and your information. 1Blocker can rid your browsing experience of them all. In one case installed, the app immediately blocks all such bothersome website content – but you can also create custom whitelist rules for sites y'all like, so they don't lose out on ad revenue. 1Blocker's not inexpensive, but it can vastly speed up web browsing on iPhone and iPad, and your iOS subscription as well unlocks the app on Mac.

    Gratuitous and in-app purchases. Download 1Blocker .

  • Lake Coloring Books

    Best for: Spooky while colouring

    Smart people long ago figured out colouring isn't just for kids and is in fact a peachy way for adults to unwind. Lake brings such fare to iPhone and iPad, with a smart, stress-free interface and plenty of emphasis on the artists creating the artwork. For complimentary, pics are limited in number, just there's still enough to keep you lot scribbling into the wee small hours. And if you fancy starting from scratch, in that location'southward a blank sail option for unleashing your inner Picasso.

    Free and in-app purchases. Download Lake Coloring Books .

  • Toca Nature

    Best for: Keeping nippers entertained

    A clamper of land floats in infinite. Select the water button and you lot scythe through ground by dragging a finger, fashioning rivers and lakes. Tap the mountain and snow-capped hills course beneath your digits. A few more taps and y'all can pepper the landscape with trees.

    Utilise the magnifying glass and y'all can explore your tiny domain, collecting fruit to feed roaming animals. Information technology's Populous meets Attenborough past way of a petting zoo; and although clearly aimed at kids, it's suitable chill-out fare for adults, also.

    £3.99. Download Toca Nature .

  • Halide

    Best for: Pretending your iPhone's a DSLR

    This app'south full name is 'Halide Mark Ii – Pro Camera‬' and it's not mucking well-nigh on the 'pro' chip. Halide provides manual controls for shutter speed, ISO and white remainder, and powerful focus and exposure administration. It revolutionises RAW, making it a cinch to simultaneously shoot to RAW and JPEG, or instantly develop RAW DNGs using the app's machine-learning smarts. All this comes in a user-friendly interface y'all tin use 1-handed, giving you a fighting chance of becoming the side by side Annie Leibovitz or Ansel Adams.

    Free + IAP. Download Halide

  • Television Fourth dimension

    Best for: Tracking idiot box shows

    Streaming was meant to brand tv easier. Instead, what you watch is spread over dozens of services and keeping up with favourites is a full-time chore. Hence: Telly Time. The app takes your selection of shows and packages them into handy lists: one contains episodes you lot've nevertheless to picket; the other details upcoming broadcasts for shows that quaintly still air on a weekly ground. In that location's too Trakt support, no ads whatever and a mildly terrifying stats page that details how long you've spent staring at the gogglebox.

    £2.99. Download Goggle box Time .

  • Night Sky

    Best for: Exploring the heavens

    When it comes to form and taste, Sky Guide has the edge in iOS astronomy apps, simply Night Sky pips it as an overall package when you desire to fully delve into the planets, moons and stars. You can wave your device in forepart of your face, or drag a finger to explore the heaven. Alternatively, a quick search box gets you to whatsoever celestial torso, which you can and so pluck from the screen and twiddle about in AR.

    Free. Download Nighttime Sky .

  • Flower: ten Worlds

    Best for: Pretending you lot're Brian Eno

    In 2008, Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers unleashed Flower. With each tap of your iPhone's screen, a annotation played and a disc of colour emerged from beneath your fingertip. Gradually, you congenital an ambient soundtrack that endlessly evolved. If Flower was a single, 10 Worlds is an album – a much wider palette of generative audio and high-sounding visuals that'll make you lot feel then much like Brian Eno, yous'll demand to be part of the side by side Roxy Music tour.

    £vii.99. Download Bloom: 10 Worlds .

  • Cheatsheet

    Best for: Getting at vital info

    The snag with well-nigh notepad apps is you actually accept to open them to see what you've previously written down. Cheatsheet acts more similar scribbles you lot make on the back of your hand in pen. Brief notes are twinned with icons, all of which can be displayed on your Lock screen or Apple Sentinel. It'due south just the ticket for door codes and phone numbers. Probably avert using it for PIN numbers, listen.

    Free or £2.99 for premium. Download Cheatsheet .

  • Morpho Converter

    Best for: Avoiding conversion chaos

    Information technology's hard to get excited about a conversion app. But what about one that does things actually well? Still unconvinced? Trust usa. Morpho lets you define upwardly to eight permanent conversions in the complimentary app – or an unlimited number if you pay – all of which update when you tap numbers into the estimator pad. Calculation types are colour-coded then you can spot them with ease, and a dual-pane view on iPad displays a slew of related conversions on tapping any stored ane.

    From free. Download Morpho Converter

  • Fugue Automobile

    All-time for: Putting your Bach out

    On hearing virtually an app inspired past composition techniques used in Bizarre music and Serialism, you might wonder if your erstwhile music teacher'due south lurking with an incomplete examination paper. Just Fugue Machine doesn't crave you eat a music history volume. Instead, this music creator is all about crafting dizzyingly beautiful loops, by tapping out notes, and then having multiple playheads dance back and along across them at varying speeds and in different directions. To farther inspire you, dozens of examples are built in.

    £nine.99. Download Fugue Car .

  • Pixelmator Photo

    Best for: Fixing snaps with ane tap

    It turns out AI isn't bipedal robots clanking about (yet), but preparation software on loads of files and maxim "do it like that". And so it follows with Pixelmator Photo.

    Load a photo, prod the AI button, and the app uses cognition of 20 1000000 pro-grade photos to spruce upwards your snap. Sometimes, it messes up – sunsets are a trouble, unless you want them turned into daytime; only mostly it'due south magic. And if you want to fiddle, a bevy of sliders lurks within.

    £4.99. Download Pixelmator Photo .

  • White Noise+

    All-time for: Tuning out the world

    Sometimes you need to shut everything out, non least when 9-to-5 office hubbub is drilling deep into your brain. White Noise+ is an ambient noise generator – but it'due south smarter than most. You create personalised mixes by dragging sounds to a grid – those at the top play more loudly, and those to the right use more than circuitous loops. Mixes can be saved, and there'southward an alarm for waking you lot from slumber – accidental or otherwise.

    Free or £2.99 for premium. Download White Noise+ .

  • Streaks Conditioning

    Best for: Working up a sweat

    Information technology's all too easy to brand excuses when armed with do apps. I need a chair? I accept to go outside? That's not the case with Streaks Conditioning. It has y'all prod user-friendly buttons to select exercises you lot fancy doing, then randomises them during a workout. Exist warned: although the "Quick" half dozen-minute workout is easy to slot into whatsoever twenty-four hours, the xxx-infinitesimal "Farthermost" selection was given that name for a skilful reason.

    £iii.99. Download Streaks Conditioning .

  • MusicHarbor

    All-time for: Tracking your favourite bands

    Apple tree Music's fine for playing music and discovering new tunes to mind to, simply it'south far from top of the pops in helping y'all continue tabs on favourite artists. Fortunately, MusicHarbor exists for that. Each artist folio provides fast access to their back catalogue and a pre-populated Google News folio. Alternatively, you tin browse aggregated lists of new releases, upcoming releases, music videos or concerts. For singles and albums, y'all tin can play track previews in-app and add the release to your library with a tap.

    Costless or £v.99. Download MusicHarbor

  • Oak

    All-time for: Taking a sabbatical

    Nearly mindfulness apps for iPhone aim to aid you relax, just merely after first giving you a minor heart assault on revealing monstrous subscription charges. Not Oak – for no outlay whatsoever, you get a bunch of straightforward and effective breathing and meditation exercises. There's no fluff or cruft here either – the interface is elegant and uncomplicated, and shortcuts to exercises you've recently tried are handily readily bachelor at the top of the screen.

    Complimentary. Download Oak .

  • Chunky Comic Reader

    Best for: Feasting your eyes on comics

    Whether y'all're into the spandex brigade, samurai bunnies, or gritty threescore-minutes-into-the-future fare from 2000 Ad and Image, in that location's loads to love about modern comics. Well, except digital apps by and large being gummed upwardly by DRM.

    Chunky is unlike. Load upwards your DRM-free files bought from Humble Bundle and the like, and Chunky volition automatically sort them, and also upscale and de-tint depression-res problems then they look fab. Purchase the IAP and you tin can load comics from your NAS likewise.

    Free and in-app purchases. Download Chunky Comic Reader.

  • Bear Focus Timer

    All-time for: Getting some focus

    If getting things done means not using your phone, this timer does the concern. You set focus and intermission durations and optional white noise sounds. The app then invites you lot to put your phone confront down. This works wonders – a uncomplicated action that makes you experience similar you lot're putting your device out of reach. And if you try to take a sneaky peek, the titular bear growls at you – a stern reminder of your lack of resolve.

    £0.99. Download Behave Focus Timer .

  • Korg Gadget

    Best for: Becoming the new Kraftwerk

    Music studios proceed shrinking. Once, they were the size of a house. So yous could fit them inside a largish PC in a smallish room. At present, Korg Gadget's in your iPhone (or iPad), with an intoxicating mix of former and new. The old: an always-growing set of classic synths and drum machines with virtual knobs to twiddle and sliders to push. The new: an excellent sequencer/songwriter, for crafting your side by side chart striking.

    £38.99. Download Korg Gadget .

  • Procreate

    Best for: Unleashing your inner creative person

    People have been finger-painting on iPhones since the App Store beginning appeared, but Procreate'south skilful enough to fifty-fifty convince traditional artists to chuck their easels, canvases and tubes of paint in the bin. The interface can be stripped back to leave you just with your art, merely you can also delve into brush cosmos, layers and furnishings. Whether you're a newcomer or modernistic-day Cézanne, this app'due south the best around on mobile.

    £nine.99. Download Procreate for iPad . £4.99. Download Procreate Pocket for iPhone .

  • Snapseed

    Best for: Fine-tuning favourite snaps

    Non every photo yous shoot will come out well, but Snapseed can nudge top snaps towards perfection. There are unmarried-tap filters for quick fixes, just as well a huge range of tools, from cropping and adjustments to artsy filters and text overlays. The gestural interface is intuitive, edits are non-subversive and chains of edits can be saved every bit custom filters. Information technology'due south gratis, too, then you lot've no excuse not to become stuck in.

    Free. Download Snapseed .

  • David Bowie Is

    All-time for: Arting up your iPhone

    The problem with art is it's more often than not shoved inside of galleries, or inside of books as boring static photos. Augmented reality offers an alternative: bringing galleries to y'all. Nowhere is this more than apparent than in David Bowie Is, which democratises the acclaimed touring exhibition past beaming it on to your desk. Information technology's all hither, too: dozens of costumes; lyrics and sketches; songs and videos; paintings. Summit stuff for anyone with an interest in a truthful cultural icon.

    £ix.99. Download David Bowie Is .

  • NetNewsWire

    All-time for: Keeping up with the news

    Modern news apps typically serve upwardly stories they recollect y'all'll similar. NetNewsWire is old school, instead having you subscribe to website feeds – either using the app'south own engine or a service such every bit Feedly. With NetNewsWire you demand never miss a story once more from publications you love. Stories are stripped dorsum to text and images and the app itself is fast and efficient in a manner its rivals just aren't. The lack of a price tag seems nearly criminal.

    Free. Download NetNewsWire .

  • GoodLinks

    All-time for: Saving web pages for later

    If you spend the day racking upwardly open up tabs in Safari, you need a read-later app. You share links to the app, which extracts text and images. When you later fancy reading, you tin can focus on just the content rather than web folio cruft. GoodLinks is a premium take on this concept. There are no accounts – everything syncs via iCloud – and you can fine tune everything from typography to gestures. For more than demanding users, extensive shortcuts back up enables the app to be part of a powerful custom multi-app processing/archiving system for spider web pages.

    £4.99. Download GoodLinks .

  • Photoshop Camera

    All-time for: Making photography fun

    Actual Photoshop exists for iPad; it'south solid, just nosotros prefer Analogousness Photo. Photoshop Camera is something else entirely. Every bit its name suggests, it'southward a camera, only this app wants yous to get creative rather than snapping boring reality. You get a bunch of lenses that piece of work live or that you tin apply to existing pics. Some are subtle, for boosting portraits and enhancing landscapes. By and large, they're fun and bonkers, transforming snaps into pop art, slathering photos with glitches or peppering your shots with gigantic lollipops.

    Free. Download Photoshop Camera .

  • Clouded

    Best for: Listening to talky podcasts

    With a podcast app, the most important things are managing favourite shows and beingness able to listen to them more than easily. Which is why it's so odd few podcast apps focus on those things. Overcast has long innovated on audio and podcast management and remains the best histrion for iOS. For talk-oriented shows, you get superb options to heave spoken language, remove silences and increase playback speed. And if you subscribe to many podcasts, custom playlists with smart filters help y'all prioritise favourites and rearrange upcoming shows with ease.

    Gratis. Download Overcast .

  • Cs: Classic Music Player

    Best for: Going retro with Apple Music

    Apple'southward Music app doubled downward on the online component, turning your drove into an afterthought. Cs harks back to a simpler fourth dimension, but without ignoring the realities of modern music streaming. It dispenses with much of Apple tree Music'due south service to focus squarely on your music. You tin can switch between downloaded tracks or your entire iCloud Music library and tap tabs to quickly switch between vocal, artist and anthology lists, which tin exist filtered in various ways. Uncomplicated? You bet. It'southward like a classic tune you one time loved, now joyfully rediscovered.

    £1.99. Download Cs: Archetype Music Player .

  • LumaFusion

    Best for: Editing video similar a pro

    Apple'due south iMovie is a pretty great mobile video editor, just what if yous want to motility to the big leagues? Then information technology's time to invest in LumaFusion, which provides desktop-form video editing on an iPad – and fifty-fifty on iPhone. The app scythes through 4K footage, while freeing you lot from the limitations of simpler fare. You get a half-dozen video tracks, half-dozen boosted sound tracks, a slew of transitions, wonderful layer effects and audio filters. It's like a Hollywood editing suite in the palm of your hand.

    £28.99. Download LumaFusion .

  • Solar Lookout

    Best for: Tracking the sun

    Whether you're a photographer, vampire or merely an interested political party, yous might want to track sunrise and dusk times. Plenty of conditions apps exercise this, but Solar Watch is dedicated fare. Its gigantic visualisation leaves no room for error as yous gawp at hours of light and night and the earth-shaking golden hour that's ideal for super snaps. Multiple locations tin be saved, there's a superb Domicile screen widget and you can besides browse a yearly daylight overview for any location.

    Free or £9.99. Download Solar Watch .

  • The Wallpaper & Background App

    Best for: Generating high-sounding backgrounds

    Yous might question paying for a wallpaper app when so many are costless. But this suitably named option is hands worth two quid. It eschews nicking art from the internet and instead provides well-nigh 20 designs to swipe between. To add a dash of uniqueness, each can be regenerated in semi-randomised fashion with a tap. Find something you similar and it can be saved or exported to fit a range of screen sizes, from Apple Lookout to 5K iMac.

    £ane.99. Download The Wallpaper & Background App .

  • Dice by PCalc

    All-time for: Throwing a 6

    Got a sneaking suspicion your friends cheat during tabletop games? Desperate to play Snakes & Ladders but discovered the dice is mysteriously absent? Yous need Dice past PCalc. Offering physics-based simulation of real-earth die, yous can lob everything from a six-sided one to all kinds of polyhedral types – and the app tots everything up as it goes. Not geeky plenty? Then craft your own custom dice that utilise text, emoji or images to each face and share them with friends.

    £i.99. Download Die by PCalc .

  • LookUp: English Lexicon

    Best for: Expanding your vocabulary

    There are conventional dictionaries for iPhone – Chambers Dictionary is the best of them – just LookUp takes a different arroyo. It infuses fun and colour into rummaging through lists of words. Typography is bold and photos are integrated. There are word quizzes and a Word Of The Day to meliorate your wordy knowledge (so you no longer have to use phrases like "wordy knowledge"). The lack of an offline mode is a pity, simply top marks otherwise for LookUp trying something new – and succeeding.

    £five.99. Download LookUp: English Dictionary .

  • Capo

    All-time for: Learning favourite songs

    Some people barely demand to hear a whiff of a riff before they can knock the entire thing out on their guitar. If your ears aren't as finely tuned, have Capo do the hard graft instead. Load a song and it'll endeavour to figure out the chords. If information technology gets things incorrect, you can make edits, and then slow the entire thing down so you can master the tricky bits. You'll need to subscribe to salvage your edits, listen.

    £eight.99 per year. Download Capo .

  • FileBrowser

    Best for: Getting at all your stuff

    Apple'south Files is baked into your iPhone and iPad and it's fine for getting at documents stored locally or those on iCloud Drive. For everything else, there's FileBrowser. The app makes it easy to connect to local network drives, Macs and PCs and remote storage, exist that FTP or a non-Apple cloud service. The standalone app includes multi-tab browsing, players and previews, but you can besides opt to have it extend Files past setting FileBrowser as a Location.

    £v.99. Download FileBrowser .

  • Deject Battery

    All-time for: Never running out of juice

    Apple tree gadgets are mere dead slabs of glass, metal and plastic when they run out of charge. Stop that from happening past installing Cloud Battery on them all. You can then keep tabs on those that desperately need plugging in, even defining depression-charge alerts on a per-device basis. Usefully, Cloud Battery even works for tracking Mac input accessories, thereby making sure your keyboard won't suddenly terminate working when you lot're halfway through a sen

    Free/£ii.49. Download Deject Battery .

  • Photo Flashback!

    Best for: Doing your own 'on this day'

    If you lot always wondered what y'all were doing on today's date one or more years ago, Facebook will effort to remind you and apps like Timehop tin can serve up "curated" selections of pics and social media postings. Simply if you want rid of cruft, Photo Flashback! is better, laying out in streamlined course relevant snaps it finds in iCloud Photo Library. Using the calendar, you lot can browse alternating days and you can set a daily alert to rifle through your by.

    Costless. Download Photo Flashback! .

  • Volume Rail

    Best for: Keeping you honest with reading

    Books are neat – until they threaten to take over your dwelling, lurking menacingly in piles and making you lot experience guilty yous're not reading them. Book Rail keeps yous honest and organised, letting yous scan paper tomes and add digital titles via a browser. These are then presented every bit thumbnails in a top-notch interface that's a collection manager, reading statistics tracker and wish listing. Just, you know, actually then read something rather than spending all your time faffing in Book Track.

    £4.49. Download Book Rail .

  • Serial Reader