The 10 best widgets for your iPhone Notification Center
Widgets probably make for some of the most helpful features in iOS 8, since they let apps display information right on your lock screen or from anywhere else in your iPhone. You can download widgets that show your calendar, play games, monitor your iPhone’s memory, and even turn your Philips Hue lights on or off. Here is our take on the 10 best iPhone widgets for your iPhone Today View.
Fantastical 2If you’ve got a busy schedule, it’s important to keep on top of your daily appointments as much as possible. Fantastical 2 is a gorgeous app with an incredible natural language entry algorithm, and its widget is both beautiful and functional. Fantastical 2 is available for $4.99 on the App Store.
Deliveries: a package tracker
Online shoppers love to keep up with the deliveries they’re expecting, and Deliveries brings them all together in a single widget. The app and widget support UPS, FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service, DHL, TNT, Canada Post, Royal Mail, and many more. You can also track your orders from services like Amazon and Apple, before they even ship. Deliveries is available for $4.99 on the App Store.
PCalc
If you need a feature-rich calculator, PCalc is a powerful choice. While the full app offers a wealth of features including unit conversion, multiple undo and redo, and even engineering and scientific notation, the widget is much more basic. This is precisely what you need in the Today View: quick and easy addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. PCalc is available for $9.99 on the App Store.
Philips Hue
Hue’s Today View widget helps you get to all of your favorite light settings at any time, from anywhere on your iPhone. There’s no more hunting for the app and then switching tabs to keep yourself out of the dark, since you can just access the Today View and flip your lights on or off. Philips Hue is a free download on the App Store.
NYT Now
Now available for free on the App Store, NYT Now’s widget puts your daily briefing and top stories right in your Today View. You can quickly and easily skim the top news articles of the day without even unlocking your iPhone. When you want to read more of a story, all you have to do is tap on the headline to open the article in the full NYT Now app. NYT Now is available for free on the App Store.
Evernote
It doesn’t matter if you’re writing, scanning business cards, collecting pictures, or making a list, Evernote is the go-to app for the majority of users who want to store projects and sync them across devices. With its Today View widget, Evernote will allow you to quickly create notes and view the entries you’ve recently accessed. Evernote is a free download from the App Store.
Carrot Weather
Weather with a side of snarky humor is a great combination, and Carrot Weather brings that straight to your Today View. Through its widget, you can view current conditions and the four-day forecast without needing to unlock your iPhone to launch the app. Carrot Weather is $3.99 to download from the App Store.
Day One
For your journaling pleasure, Day One provides both elegance and simplicity. The modern journaling app includes a Today View widget that allows you to see flashbacks of your previous entries right from your lock screen. Available for $4.99 on the App Store, Day One is a must-have app with a should-use widget.
Orby Widgets
Last, but definitely not least, is Orby Widgets. This lovely app adds a collection of widgets for your Today View, giving you everything from speed calling to data about your iOS device to social media sharing buttons. Orby Widgets can do a ton of things, so be sure to check out Sandy Stachowiak’s article on making the most of your Today View. Orby Widgets is available for $0.99 on the App Store.
Launcher with Notification Center Widget
If you really want to boost how productive you can be with your iPhone, you should be able to add app shortcuts, website links, contacts, or fire off a canned email or message from your Today View. Launcher with Notification Center Widget lets you do just that. Launcher is free on the App Store, and well worth checking out.
The Today View is a wonderful part of iOS 8 and later, and all of these apps are wonderful additions to it. We hope you find these 10 impressive widgets as useful as we do. All of them are available now on the App Store.