Apps I Use: iOS

In alphabetical order.

  • 2048 by Gabriele Cirulli — Popular game. (Free.)
  • Google Authenticator — 2-Step Verification for Google and other accounts. (Free.)
  • Binaural – Pure Binaural Beats by Giorgio Calderolla — “[Helps] you relax, meditate, sleep, or even concentrate.” (Free.)
  • Square Cash — Send money to friends and family with your debit card at no cost.
  • Cloak — “Super-simple VPN” for Apple devices. Plans start at $2.99 USD/month.
  • Cloudup — “Instantly and securely stream videos, photos, music, links, and files to anyone.” (Free. An Automattic service.)
  • DataMan Pro — “Track cellular (LTE/4G/3G) and Wi-Fi in real-time […] Push usage alerts in the Notification Center warn you before you hit your data cap.” ($5.99)
  • Day One — Journaling app ($4.99) with iCloud or Dropbox sync to the Mac desktop application ($9.99).
  • Dots — “A Game About Connecting”. (Free.)
  • Drafts — Note taking app “[gets] your text down quickly, then act on it with powerful actions.” ($9.99)
  • Dropbox — Syncs data across multiple devices. I’m on a free plan with 8.75 GB. (Free, or $99/year + tax for Dropbox Pro with 1 TB.)
  • Keezy Drummer — Make a beat in seconds. (Free.)
  • Fantastical 2 — Calendar and reminders app with natural language support. ($4.99)
  • Find Friends — “Easily locate friends and family.” I set a notification to execute when my wife is almost home, which nudges me to unlock the front door and help bring stuff inside. (Free, default in iOS 9.)
  • GasBuddy — Find the cheapest gas near you, and report gas prices. (Free.)
  • GasTracker+ — Track vehicle gas consumption and mileage. Integration with Fuelly. (Free.)
  • Gmail — Email from Google. (Free.)
  • Google Maps — Free.
  • Google Voice — Free SMS messages to U.S. phones, low rates for international calls, and transcribed voicemails. (Free.)
  • Good Habits — Track daily habits with reminders. Don’t break the chain. (Free; IAP for advanced features. I use the free version at the moment.)
  • Instapaper — “Save anything. Read anywhere.” Sync across devices. Save articles to read and videos to watch for later. ($2.99/month or $29.99/year.)
  • Keezy — Make music. (Free.)
  • Kindle — Read eBooks and stuff. (Free app.)
  • Loggr — “Graph Your Life. […] No servers mining your data. You own your own data stored locally on your phone.” (Free.)
  • Messages — Built into iOS.
  • MiniKeePass — Secure password manager compatible with KeePass. (Free.)
  • Netflix — Stream TV shows and movies. (Free app. Plans start at $7.99/month.)
  • Newsy — Video news coverage from multiple sources. (Free.)
  • Obscura — Slick camera app where “everything is within easy reach of your thumb”. (Free.)
  • Overcast — Podcast player with Smart Speed® and Voice Boost®. “Free, supported by voluntary patronage by a small percentage of its users.”
  • Purify — “The simplest, fastest tracking and ad blocker for iOS.” ($1.99)
  • Rdio — Music streaming service, great recommendations through friends. (Free, $3.99/month, or $9.99/month.)
  • Reeder 2 — News reader I use with Fever. ($4.99.)
  • Scanner Pro — Scan paper documents into PDFs. ($5.99.)
  • Shazam — Discover the music or TV I hear, and save songs into a dedicated Rdio playlist for later. (Free.)
  • Shut Up — Comment blocker by Richard Romero, using shutup.css by Steven Frank. (Free.)
  • Signal — Private, encrypted messaging. (Free.)
  • Simplenote — Light and clean notes app. Also available on Android, Mac, Kindle, and web app. (Free. An Automattic product and service.)
  • Skitch — Mark up images and stuff, then share with others. (Free.)
  • Slack — Messaging app for teams. (Free, two other paid plans.)
  • Soulver — Figure out quick calculations. Syncs with iCloud or Dropbox. ($2.99.)
  • Spark — Slick email client. (Free.)
  • Telegram — “A cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app with a focus on security and speed.” (Free.)
  • Things for iPhone — Task manager with Things Cloud for fast, reliable, and free sync. ($9.99.)
  • Timeless — “[…] a countdown timer and stopwatch application that combines a very simple and fast interface with powerful features like multiple timers, labeling, gesture based controls, Focus mode and colour themes.” ($2.99.)
  • Transporter — Browse contents of my Transporter storage, save files to it, open files from it, automatic back up of photos and video, delete files from the Transporter. (Free.)
  • TripIt — Keep my travel plans in one place. (Free, Pro is $4.09/month billed annually.)
  • Tweetbot 4 — Twitter client. ($9.99)
  • Waze — Community-based mapping, traffic, and navigation. (Free.)
  • Weather — Included weather app.
  • Wikipanion — “The best and fastest Wikipedia browsing application for iOS.” (Free; Plus for $4.99.)
  • Health Mate by Withings — Tracks steps, weight, blood pressure, and heart rate, and sync with Withings products. (Free.)
  • WordPress — Publish posts to my blog on the go, check stats, enjoy other blogs with Reader, and check notifications. (Free.)
  • Yelp — Search for nearby food places. (Free.)
  • Yelp Eat24 — Order food delivery. (Free.)
  • YNAB — Enter transactions on the go, and keep an eye on your budget. (Free.)

Last Updated: November 7, 2015