Google Maps
Google Maps is back! Google's reborn iOS navigation app includes turn-by-turn navigation, transit routing, and, of course, Street View, traffic, and tons of point-of-interest data. Welcome back, old friend.
Google Maps is back! Google's reborn iOS navigation app includes turn-by-turn navigation, transit routing, and, of course, Street View, traffic, and tons of point-of-interest data. Welcome back, old friend.
All the things that make Fantastical great on the desktop, like its lean, simple interface and natural language processing for adding appointments, make it great on your mobile device. There are a few caveats, however. Unlike our top iOS calendering app, Calvetica, Fantastical is currently iPhone only; also, its over reliance on natural language input means switching back and forth between text and numeric keyboards, which can make adding appointments a little more onerous than with a better UI. Still, Fantastical is a cut above most other calendaring apps, and a worthy competitor to Calvetica.
Few calendar apps on any platform are able to balance good looks, usability, and functionality. Calvetica does as good a job at all these things -- if not better -- than anything out there we've tried. From its simple, but powerful agenda+month view, to its many gesture-based shortcuts, Calvetica is an elegant productivity app worth its quite reasonable price.
If you'd prefer to walk it, Lumatic is the best way to find your way around about two dozen U.S. cities. Useful features include lists of crosswalks, photos of many streets (no substitute for Google Street View, but adequate in a pinch), and references to local landmarks, to help you find your way.
Scout is a robust GPS app with offline maps, turn-by-turn navigation (free for the first year, $9.99 per year after), extensive point-of-interest data, good traffic info, and flexible routing tools (including the ability to reroute based on traffic conditions).
This free app has public transportation info for most major U.S. cities, along with parking info for those who use their own wheels. You can also report issues with transit lines, and take advantage of its Twitter integration to see what other riders are discussing -- or share your own complaints about that bus that's 20 minutes late.
Available for both the iPad and the iPhone, HopStop provides detailed mass-transit directions for most major U.S. and Canadian cities, plus a handful of European destinations. It also includes good walking and biking directions, along with schedules and maps for major transit providers.
Adjust white balance, exposure, and brightness. Add effects like cross-processing and sepia tones. And do it all with layers and unlimited undos, making it easy to fix a photo's colors, add subtle effects, or get wild (and revert to the original if you've created a mess instead of a masterpiece).
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A fun, elegant, versatile drawing app that mimics the experience of working with paper as closely as possible, without the mess. The free version doesn't have many drawing tools, but pens and brushes are available as in-app purchases.
buy $2.99
Few calendar apps on any platform are able to balance good looks, usability, and functionality. Calvetica does as good a job at all these things -- if not better -- than anything out there we've tried. From its simple, but powerful agenda+month view, to its many gesture-based shortcuts, Calvetica is an elegant productivity app worth its quite reasonable price.
buy $4.99
All the things that make Fantastical great on the desktop, like its lean, simple interface and natural language processing for adding appointments, make it great on your mobile device. There are a few caveats, however. Unlike our top iOS calendering app, Calvetica, Fantastical is currently iPhone only; also, its over reliance on natural language input means switching back and forth between text and numeric keyboards, which can make adding appointments a little more onerous than with a better UI. Still, Fantastical is a cut above most other calendaring apps, and a worthy competitor to Calvetica.
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While you can use iBooks to read any e-book available in the Apple iBookstore, it really shines with titles designed specifically for the iPad, especially children's books, many of which include high-resolution color graphics, a read-aloud function, and other video and audio features.
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RunKeeper uses your iPhone's GPS to keep track of your runs, hikes, and other activities, and provides audible encouragement to help you meet your goals. Detailed, shareable charts help you track your progress, and you can sync RunKeeper's data with info from other devices, including those from Fitbit and Garmin.
buy $3.99
Finishing that run takes on a new sense of urgency when there are zombies at your back. This totally immersive simulation is a great way to make running fun, even if you don't need the undead motivation to meet your goals.
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With Strava Cycling, you'll never bike alone. Share your route, and get details about what to expect, tips from bikers who've done it, and a leaderboard to let you know how your time compares to that of others who've completed each segment.
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Google Maps is back! Google's reborn iOS navigation app includes turn-by-turn navigation, transit routing, and, of course, Street View, traffic, and tons of point-of-interest data. Welcome back, old friend.
get itFree
Available for both the iPad and the iPhone, HopStop provides detailed mass-transit directions for most major U.S. and Canadian cities, plus a handful of European destinations. It also includes good walking and biking directions, along with schedules and maps for major transit providers.
get itFree
This free app has public transportation info for most major U.S. cities, along with parking info for those who use their own wheels. You can also report issues with transit lines, and take advantage of its Twitter integration to see what other riders are discussing -- or share your own complaints about that bus that's 20 minutes late.
get itFree
Spotify makes finding, sharing, and listening to music dead simple, and the service's $10 Premium plan gives you unlimited music on up to 3 mobile devices. One downside: Spotify requires that you use Facebook to log in, rather than using its own accounts.
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What good are notes on your phone if you can't access them from your desktop? With Simplenote, your notes are automatically synced and accessible just about anywhere using third-party apps for Mac, Windows, Android, and other platforms.
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Miss taking notes with a pen and paper? Turn your finger into the ultimate pen, and your iPad into the ultimate, well, pad, with Penultimate. You can also use a stylus, for that full pen-on-paper experience.
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With Mint, you can manage all of your bank and credit card accounts right from your iPhone or iPad, without having to go to individual sites for each provider. Mint's charts make it easy to see where your money is going, and the service's tools can help you learn how to manage it more effectively.
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With more and more retailers using Square to accept payments, this novel system lets you completely dispense with your wallet and pay for things entirely from your phone -- without even needing near field communications (NFC) chip like Google Wallet. It's simple, it's fun, but it's not used in most major retailers, so while you may sometimes be able to Pay with Square, you won't be leaving your wallet at home any time soon.
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If you've got a small business — or friends who never seem to have any cash with them — Square is for you. It turns your iPhone into a credit-card reader, so you can instantly accept Visa, MasterCard, and other major cards. Processing fees are reasonable, and money is usually deposited in your bank account within 24 hours.
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Use DocuSign Ink when you have to sign a PDF, Word document, or just about any other kind of file. Documents can be imported from Safari, Dropbox, and Mail, among other sources, and are saved as email attachments that can be sent off to whoever it was that insisted that only a"real" signature would do.
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You're on the road, it's getting late, and you need to find a hotel, right here, right now. You could search a half-dozen travel sites, or you could let Hipmunk do it for you, and get you a list of available rooms, along with reviews and rates, immediately. Hipmunk also lets you book rooms and flights in advance, if you're the type who actually makes plans.
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Whether you think putting together travel plans is fun or a chore, TripIt can make it easier by helping you keep your flights, hotel reservations, and other info in one place. It can automatically import confirmation notices from your email, help you find hotel deals, and, of course, keep track of all of your frequent flyer points.
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If your iPhone or iPad is lost or stolen, this free app can track it down as soon as it connects to the internet. If you can't get it back, you can lock it — or even completely erase it — to protect your precious data.
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If you've never managed to get the hang of the iPhone's virtual keyboard, or if you still can't type quickly enough on the iPad's larger version, consider Dragon Dictation. If you enunciate and speak slowly, it does a surprisingly good job of accurately capturing your words.
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Access all of your files from anywhere. Dropbox makes it easy to access your desktop files from your iOS device, or sync your mobile files back to your desktop. A new feature lets you automatically send all photos you take with your device's camera to your Dropbox, so they'll always be available.
buy $3.99
Dark Sky is not your average weather app, and it looks (and works) almost nothing like the weather apps you're probably used to. But that's because it's not built to just deliver a big number in Fahrenheit or Celsius, it's built to tell you exactly when it's going to rain, how hard, and for how long. And even if you live somewhere sunny, it's still worth the asking price just to see the radar visuals of current storms. Listen, just try it, Dark Sky is a gdgt Must-have app for a reason.
buy $4.99
Magical Weather lets you customize your display to include as much (or as little) information as you want, get detailed hourly and weekly forecasts, and simultaneously display data on multiple locations. You may find yourself keeping it open all the time.
buy $0.99
Weather 2x makes the weather beautiful — even when it's not. The app makes use of the Retina display on the latest iPad and iPhone to offer up gorgeous graphics, which will make even that passing thunderstorm look great.
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The iPad version of Google Chrome matches the interface of the dekstop browser, providing a consistent experience across platforms. It's fast, you can sync bookmarks with the desktop browser, and you can easily switch between dekstop and mobile versions of web sites. And, yes, the iPad version includes Incognito mode.
buy $4.99
There are a lot of browsers that attempt to bring Flash to the iPad, and Photon is one of the more reliable ones. It's not perfect — no Flash-on-iOS solution is — but if you have to watch an Amazon Prime video, or use the desktop version of Pizza Tracker, Photon works more often than most of the alternatives.
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Better bookmarks, tabs, gestures, and password-saving functions are among the many features that make Dolphin an improvement over Safari. Unfortunately, the iPad app is missing the plug-ins that make the Android version even more powerful, though the developer is looking into ways to add that functionality.
buy $3.99
Instapaper does a great job of shrinking the web down for mobile use, and provides unparalleled customization and display options. Sharing content is easy, and syncing with your web-based account is seamless. While Readability and Pocket are free, if you've saved a lot of content using Instapaper on the web, $4.99 is a reasonable price to bring it onto your iPhone and iPad.
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We love well-designed web pages. But sometimes, we just want to read, and that's where Readability comes in. It strips out the design elements, leaving just text and relevant images, which can be synced to an iPad and other devices for offline reading.
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Having trouble getting through all the reddit and quickmeme links you get each day, along with the articles your boss sends you? Read the urgent stuff now, and store the links from the boss in Pocket to read offline on your iPad, iPhone, or other device.
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Sure, the iPhone's visual voicemail is cool. But if you want voicemail that you can get anywhere, not to mention a completely portable phone number, drop your carrier's number and voicemail and replace it with Google Voice.
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While it really shines as a remote for AppleTV (and is almost a mandatory replacement for AppleTV's own remote), Apple's free remote app also lets you control playback of your iTunes library on your computers from anywhere in your home. We don't know why Apple doesn't include it with every iOS device.
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Sonos has its own touchscreen remotes, but they're expensive, and, of course, only work with your Sonos system. The app lets you easily extend your Sonos system to anywhere in your home, giving you full control over the music playing in every room, and turns your iPhone into a streaming player for all of the music in your home and just about everything on the internet.
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Need to know how to take better iPhone photos or how to keep your cat entertained on the cheap? If you have Snapguide, you can find out instantly. Snapguide's user-contributed how-tos may not all be perfect, but that's part of the app's appeal. That, and the fact that, if you're really good at something, and there's no guide on the topic, the app gives you a chance to show off your expertise. The new iPad version of the app makes learning new things even better, with full-screen photos, easy navigation and a sharp, magazine-like design.
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Google Reader may be the best way to aggregate news feeds from thousands of sources, but its mobile interface leaves a lot to be desired. Reeder fixes that, with a clean, intuitive interface, along with full syncing, and offline reading for those times when you're forced to disconnect.
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Reeder for the iPad isn't just a supersized version of the Reeder iPhone app. It takes full advantage of all that real estate, with customizable multi-column layouts, full-screen reading modes, and snazzy icon-based navigation of your news sources. Like the iPhone version, it's the best way to bring Google Reader into the mobile world.
buy $9.99
1Password Pro keeps your passwords in sync across desktop and mobile devices, and backs up your (encrypted) password data to your Dropbox account. It's not cheap; you'll end up paying at least $50 for a desktop license. But it's a bargain compared to the cost and hassle involved with becoming the victim of a security breach.
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LastPass Premium lets you create strong passwords for every web site you visit, and sync that data across all of your gadgets, for a $1-per-month subscription. It also includes support for multi-factor authentication through Google and other services, for added security.
buy $4.99
You can just use iPhoto for iOS to crop, straighten, and automatically fix exposure flaws in your photos — or you can dig deep and use it to add a whole range of effects, and then share your photos via Facebook, Flickr, or a custom web journal you can build right in the app.
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With its great range of image enhancement and correction tools, Snapseed is the closest thing to a desktop photo-editing tool you'll find for your iPad. Whether you want to do a quick cleanup of your phone shots, or do more detailed work on photos imported from another camera, you can do it with Snapseed.
buy $0.99
Adjust white balance, exposure, and brightness. Add effects like cross-processing and sepia tones. And do it all with layers and unlimited undos, making it easy to fix a photo's colors, add subtle effects, or get wild (and revert to the original if you've created a mess instead of a masterpiece).
get itFree
There are a lot of ways to shop on Amazon.com using your iPad, but Amazon Windowshop is the only one that makes flipping through previous purchases, recommendations, and bestsellers fun — maybe a little too fun, so you may want to limit how much you use it if you're too easily tempted to go beyond window-shopping.
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With more and more retailers using Square to accept payments, this novel system lets you completely dispense with your wallet and pay for things entirely from your phone -- without even needing near field communications (NFC) chip like Google Wallet. It's simple, it's fun, but it's not used in most major retailers, so while you may sometimes be able to Pay with Square, you won't be leaving your wallet at home any time soon.
get itFree
If you're serious about baseball, $14.99 per season is a bargain for this app's live audio of every game, copious highlight videos, and condensed games. If you're a casual fan, the free version will keep you up-to-date with live scores.
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Three words: Red Zone Channel. If you've got DirecTV's Sunday Ticket package, get this app now, and you may actually be able to leave the house on Sunday during football season.
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Get updates on every team you follow, in every sport (even MMA and European soccer). ScoreMobile can send you push alerts on every scoring play, final scores, and lets you group players together so you can track your fantasy teams in real time.
buy $2.99
If you follow more than a handful of people on Twitter, you need Tweetbot. Its sophisticated filtering lets you create multiple timelines, ignore or focus on specific subjects or users, and perform sophisticated searches. The time it'll save you is easily worth the app's $2.99 price.
buy $2.99
Tweetbot for the iPad builds on the iPhone version of the app with configurable layouts that take full advantage of the iPad's bigger screen. Gestures are fully customizable, and building multiple timelines based on your filters is easier than ever. If you find yourself buried by tweets, Tweetbot is the way to dig yourself out.
buy $3.99
CineXPlayer frees your iPad from iTunes, by letting it play videos in just about any format, including 720p HD files, and quasi-3D Xvid movies. Want to add videos? Download them from the web from your own local or networked drives, or even from a Dropbox account.
Social networking apps
Instagram
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There were other photo-sharing tools before Instagram. But it's made the process so simple and fun that it's hard to imagine using anything else. Its filters are cute, but Instagram's real strength is how easy it makes it to share, like, and comment on photos.
Path
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Like other social networking apps, Path lets you share photos, videos and updates with your friends. Unlike the others, your Path network is limited to your real friends, and your info can't be shared outside of your network. Path's elegant interface and simple sharing tools also set it apart from some other services.