First Apps to Install

One of the best calendars for your iPhone

Fantastical Calendar

Anyone who wants a gorgeous and intuitive calendar app with natural language input should use this.

Fantastical has quickly become the gold standard of calendar apps. This app has been overhauled for iOS 8 and brings with it some new tricks. Fantastical still has its innovative split view where you see the month and your list of appointments on a single screen. It still supports natural language input. It still looks amazing. Fantastical 2 integrates reminders. Just use the same plain English approach to create reminders that save right into iCloud. Some great enhancements include: a map on events with an address, a new light theme, the ability to open locations in Google Maps, and even Google Chrome support for URLs. There are more features and amazing parts to Fantastical 2 than anyone can say in a single blurb, so check it out for yourself and see what the hype is all about.

Why we love it

Fantastical 2 continues to be one of the most beautiful calendar apps around and the natural language support is superb. It is also intuitive to use and packs in plenty of features.

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Listen to radio stations and much more from all over the world.

TuneIn Radio: Music & Sports

For those who still prefer to listen to the radio.

TuneIn Radio gives users hundreds of options for streaming radio stations. This is great for those who still prefer old-time radio over music streaming, or if they don't want to miss out on their favortie talk shows on the air. There are a ton of streams to pick from, so your favorites are bound to be here. The free version will have some advertisements, but the Pro version gets you the ability to even record broadcasts if you want to listen to them later.

Why we love it

While streaming services are all the rage, sometimes listening to a old-fashioned radio station is just what the doctor ordered. And with the add-on premuium service, which costs an additional $7.99 per month, you can listen to a number of professional sports including the NFL, MLB, NBA, Barclays Premier League, and Bundesliga matches.

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The best app for GPS, traffic details, community reporting, and more

Waze Navigation & Live Traffic

For anyone looking for the most real-time traffic details.

Waze is a pretty impressive app. You may plan to leave for an appointment based on how long it normally takes you. But, if there is a traffic incident or closure that will lengthen your average drive-time, it is beyond helpful to know that. Waze has you covered.

Why we love it

For community-based reports, real-time traffic conditions, and reminders for what time you need to leave for an appointment, Waze is a terrific tool.

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Use this great camera app in any low-light situation

ProCamera. Professional Camera

For photographers who are looking for a great way to take low-light photos.

When you're ready to capture an image or video, just start the app up. There are a ton of different levels you can adjust quickly and easily.

Why we love it

ProCamera+ is one of the best third-party camera apps available. It's powerful and truly gives photographers more control over their images - especially if they shoot in low light. The ability to shoot video is a great added plus as well. You will need to pay extra to unlock some features with an in-app purchase, but the technology is definitely worth it.

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Unlimited cloud photo backups that are magically searchable

Google Photos: Backup & Edit

For those who have lots of photos and no way to organize them.

Google Photos is a Great way to store and manage all of your images and videos. Everything is automatically uploaded from your Camera Roll, and everything is automatically organized and searchable. Along with iOS devices, you can also access everything on the Web. And best of all, you'll receive unlimited storage for free. After uploading everything, the app makes it easy to find what you're looking for. One of the more unique features is the visual search capability that allows you to search the people, places, and things in each photo - no tagging required. Along with managing images, you can also edit your photos.

Why we love it

Google Photos is dead simple to use. You literally just open the app and it does everything. The backups, the organizing, the searching, etc. You do not have to tag anything, Google just knows. It even has a cool "Assistant" feature which creates little recap videos, animated gifs of your photos, and albums of events. Google Photos also groups all the photos of the same person together. So you can click on one image of a person and see all their photos. If you want to go ahead and tell Google that person's name, you can even search by their name. So for example you can search for "John at the beach" or "John and Mary" to see all the photos that have both John and Mary together in them.

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Stay organized in a clean and simple way.

Wunderlist: To-Do List & Tasks

Those who want a simple and clean task manager.

Wunderlist is a simplistic task manager that lets users easily create lists to share with others. The minimalistic design of Wunderlist makes it super easy to capture, share, and complete all of your daily tasks. The service is also cross-platform for iOS, Mac, Windows, and Android, so your tasks go wherever you go. While the basic free account will be enough for most people, there is also a Pro subscription that can be purchased as an in-app purchase for even more productivity-on-the-go, such as files and delegating tasks to others.

Why we love it

We enjoy using Wunderlist because it is simple, sleek, and powerful yet flexible enough for all of our needs.

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A great email app that's even better on an iOS 11-based iPad

Airmail - Your Mail With You

For those who want a powerful and comprehensive email app.

Airmail is a powerful and comprehensive email app that originated on the Mac and has made its way to iOS. The iOS version contains all of the powerful features of the Mac app in a much more portable package. Users can have multiple email accounts from a variety of email services, a unified inbox with color-coded mailboxes for each account, complete support for folders and labels, thread viewing, PDF creation, HTML signatures, aliases, email tracking and much more. On top of that, if you use Airmail on your Mac, then you can go for the iCloud syncing that will sync all of your accounts and preferences without any effort from you. With iOS 11 on your iPad, Airmail fully supports Drag and Drop, so you can easily get new attachments into your emails.

Why we love it

Airmail has a nice interface that is easy to use and it has a ton of powerful features that make it easy to manage your email inboxes. Plus the iCloud sync means you can have all of your accounts and preferences synced from the Mac version without any extra effort. When you receive an email attachment, Airmail quickly shows you a preview so you don't have to open it up in another app right away. When you're ready to open the attachment for editing or commenting, just tap the Share button in the top right corner. The app also supports email tracking, so you'll know right away when your recipient opens your message. The only drawback is I can't find a way to have Airmail track emails by default.

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One of the most robust journaling experiences out there

Day One Journal: Private Diary

For those who want to capture their lives as they live them

Easily the best new feature is a unified editor that makes it easier to write and compose a journal entry. Previously, there was both an edit mode and read mode for the Markdown text. A new content editor menu also allows users to add text formatting without knowing specific Markdown shortcuts. Premium subscribers can also take advantage of two other features, Dark Mode and audio recording. While you can utilize Dark Mode full time, an optional auto-toggle setting will switch the app to the dark side at sunset. Audio recording is available in two different modes. The 1-minute transcription will dictate your speech to text. There is also a 30-minute mode that just records audio.  Day One Journal is designed for the iPhone and all iPad models. It can be downloaded now on the App Store for for free. The Premium version is available with an in-app purchase of $2.99 per month or $24.99 yearly.

Why we love it

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Flixster tells you everything you need to know

Flixster - Showtimes + Tickets

For those who want showtimes, reviews, Rotten Tomatoes, and news in one place.

Flixster is a simplistic app that is packed to the brim with features. Users can get showtimes for their favorite theaters, order tickets directly through Fandango, connect to social networks to share reviews and ratings with friends and family, and even get Rotten Tomatoes scores in a single glance so you know what movies are worth watching or not. Flixster is a powerful little app that has been around for quite some time that is a must-have for any movie goer.

Why we love it

It's simple but packs in a ton of features. Plus it is great to see Rotten Tomatoes scores without having to leave the app.

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Venmo is a safe and secure alternative

Venmo

For those who want a safe and secure way to pay and receive money from others

Venmo is another peer-to-peer payment app. Just set up your account with your information, debit or bank account, and you're good to go. You can send payments to others while including a note so you can make sure you and the other party know what the money is for, and you can get money from others just as quickly. Remember to cash out to have that money transferred overnight to your bank account, so it's ready the next day. It's fast and secure to use.

Why we love it

It's simple and has a great process for sending and receiving money.

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