Do You Have a New iPhone?
These are the 10 apps you need to download first
If you found an Apple mobile phone under the tree, what apps can you download to start using its features? Here is a list of iPhone apps for work, organization and leisure for curious users
A smartphone today is an extraordinarily versatile device. But many of its features can be “awakened” thanks to third-party apps. And there are so many: if you have received (or bought yourself) an iPhone as a gift, you can search a catalog of more than 1.8 million apps. A very large number, which makes it difficult to find your way around. Apple has organized its App Store in such a way that new apps are always presented, which are handpicked by a team of real-life editors and have all the privacy specifications. But many others can also be chosen. Let’s see a selection of 10 apps that are among the most useful or almost indispensable for your new smartphone. (We don’t put it in the list, but remember that there is also the Print app available for iOS and Android)
Social Media and Shopping
This is the only entry that is actually presented as a category, rather than a single app. Because each of the social and shopping services has its own reference app: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn among all. But there are also Amazon, Amazon Prime for video, Netflix, Spotify. It’s the list of usual suspects, but it’s easy to forget a few of these essential first apps – it just depends on which ones you use.
Reflex Camera
The app for taking photos with the iPhone is excellent, but very simple and totally automatic. To fully exploit the possibilities of Apple’s phones, it is possible to use third-party apps that add features and even artificial intelligence services. This is the case of Reflex Camera, the “Made with love in Sicily” app by Fulvio Scichilone, who has created an app capable of transforming the iPhone into a mirrorless (more or less). There are also some particularly interesting things, such as the new “AR Portrait” feature which, using the Lidar of the iPhone 12 Pro, allows you to separate the background from the “front” of the photo and insert, for example, writings that disappear behind the subject in the first place plan.
Overcast
One of the most popular uses of phones, especially in the last two years, is listening to podcasts, audio programs that can be downloaded for free from the net. Apple offers basic software, the “Podcast” app, which has quite comprehensive but limited functionality. Here comes Overcast, free with in-app purchases to remove advertising, which allows you to better synchronize podcasts, interact with CarPlay, give more inspiration to speech, adjust playback speed and various other subtleties, all with a much more interface neat and complete.
Google Authenticator
Now that two-factor authentication is becoming the rule, there are more and more sites and services, including Facebook and Dropbox, that allow you to create an always updated code to add to your password to ensure a secure login. Google offers its Google Authenticator app (which obviously also works with Google services, starting from Gmail) free and over time more flexible and secure, with new optimizations even for those who are switching from the old to the new phone: it is indeed possible export all old codes to the new device in one go.
1Password
Password managers are apps that save all our passwords, create new and secure ones, verify that they have not been reused, have not expired or perhaps have ended up in some database of stolen passwords. In the Apple world the best is 1Password from AgileBits, which works on both Mac and iPhone and iPad. Its “safes” also allow you to store other sensitive data: from legal documents to app installation codes. The service is by subscription and is considered the best on the market.
Bear
Made by Parmesan Shiny Frog, Bear is a note-taking app on all Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad and even Apple Watch).
In competition with the German Ulysses, the Swiss / Japanese iA Writer, the Vietnamese 1Writer and the American Drafts, it is part of the minimalist writing services patrol that in the last ten years have revolutionized short and long writing in digital format, following the open markdown standard, created by John Gruber. Each of these apps has its strengths and weaknesses, but iA Writer is definitely the most elegant and Bear the easiest.
Things 3
This small app made in Germany, available on both Mac and iPhone and iPad (unfortunately, you have to pay for it on each platform) is now a legend of its kind. Considered the best way to organize things to do, it is powerful, flexible, but also extremely simple and effective. It can be used following the “Detto, Fatto!” by David Allen.
Spark Mail
There’s more to it than Apple’s little Mail app, or programs like Outlook and Gmail. In fact, on iOS there are also goodies for managing e-mail and perhaps the best of all is called Spark Mail. Created by Readdle, which has a very large suite of software for Apple devices, Spark Mail stands out for its ability to manage both a personal mailbox (for free) and a team of people with shared mailboxes and functions in a fluid way collaboration (for a fee).
The app to archive web pages to be read offline by Mozilla (the foundation behind Firefox) is free in its basic functions and paid if you want to preserve forever a copy of the websites you visit on Mozilla’s servers. But the features on iOS make Pocket one of the most comfortable and relaxing ways to read on iPhone. Not to mention that the automatic reading of articles also works in different languages, and can turn any article or blog post into a small podcast.
Stocard
If you haven’t lived without a smartphone until Christmas day, you know that there are apps to store loyalty cards, from supermarket programs to airline programs, passing through everything in between: shops, bookstores, clothing, food, trains, even the receipt lottery code. The first, most famous (and best) of all is Stocard, an app that allows you to save all cards, manage them even on Apple Watch, find flyers and coupons, check the statement of the various loyalty points and now even pay with Stocard Pay. This app has drastically reduced the wallet size of 50 million people, leaving them piles of loyalty cards at home.