There are a lot of apps on the App Store. Here are some excellent apps that you may not have even heard of!
Ever since the App Store for the iPhone debuted back in 2008, there have been millions of apps available to us at our fingertips. There are definitely plenty of big name apps that we are familiar with and probably use on a daily basis, but what about some other, lesser-known apps that are also quite useful to have around? We’ve rounded up some of the best iPhone apps that you should be using, but probably haven’t heard of them before. These apps will make your life easier, and then some!
- Deliveries
- Scanbot
- JustWatch
- Tab – the simple bill splitter
- 1Blocker X
- WolframAlpha
- PCalc
- Popsicolor
- Halide
- Pigment Adult Coloring Book
- Gyroscope
- Yoink
Deliveries
Everyone does a lot of online shopping these days, right? It gets difficult keeping track of multiple shipments, but you won’t have to worry if you have the Deliveries app.
With Deliveries, you can simply plug in your tracking numbers, and Deliveries is intelligent when it comes to determining which courier service is using that tracking info. You can then see all of your shipments in one place, neatly color-coded by service, their status, and how many days until delivery. You can also tap on an item to view where it is on a map, along with more delivery details.
Deliveries is actually one of the more popular delivery tracking apps, but we feel it was worth mentioning on this list just in case you haven’t heard of it. It’s well worth the price, and has made it so easy to track all of our deliveries.
Scanbot
We often have situations where we have important paperwork or documentation, and want to have a digital copy of it for our records, or to email to others. The best way to do this is to scan that stuff in, but not everyone has a printer/scanner. Fortunately, there is Scanbot.
Scanbot launches directly into the camera mode by default, so it’s fast—just launch and capture. It’s smart enough to detect when the document is in the frame, and will tell you to get closer if needed and when to stop moving so it can capture it. It supports multiple scans, there are different color filters if you want it like a photo or in stark contrast black & white, and you can save scans directly to iCloud Drive. Another option is automatic uploads to third-party services like Dropbox, Evernote, and more.
I’ve been using Scanbot for years, and it’s one of the best document scanning apps that I’ve tried, and incredibly reliable. It has made my life easier, and is definitely one I recommend for every iPhone. The free version is fully functional, but you can also get the Scanbot Pro upgrade for more features with an in-app purchase.
Free with in-app purchases – Download Now
JustWatch
We all like to watch movies and television, but let’s address the elephant in the room: “where can I watch ____?” Say hello to JustWatch.
With so many streaming video services available to us, it can be annoying when we want to watch something specific, but don’t know which service currently has it (thanks to licensing and contracts and whatnot). Instead of going to every streaming service and searching for the title one-by-one, JustWatch lets you search for a movie or television series, and then you’ll see everywhere that it is available to watch, along with the price if you’re renting or buying. You can also view showtimes at nearby movie theaters and buy tickets directly from JustWatch. You can even keep a list of everything that you plan to watch, so it helps you stay on track too.
Tab – The simple bill splitter
Ever go out to eat with friends, but then when the bill comes it becomes a headache to figure out who owes what? Don’t worry, Tab is here!
Tab is a simple app that makes it easy to figure out who needs to pay what when the dinner bill comes. Just take a picture of the receipt, and Tab itemizes everything. Everyone can claim their items from their own phone (even if an item was shared among people), and Tab calculates everything for everyone, including proportional tax and tip, before giving you your total. Tab also has full Venmo integration, so you can pay or request money directly. Tab keeps a history of completed bills for reference if need be, too. And when it comes to birthdays? Don’t worry, Tab can split the birthday person’s total equally among everyone else.
This is such a frequent occurrence for many of us, and it’s amazing that Tab is absolutely free.
1Blocker X
While we love browsing the web, the number of ads we see daily just keeps going higher and higher. That’s why you should check out 1Blocker X, a content blocker for Safari.
We get it—sites need to make money, and that’s done through advertising. But sometimes they’re just way too obnoxious. 1Blocker is a powerful content blocker that lets you block ads and trackers on all sites, but you can also create a whitelist of sites that you want to support. When 1Blocker X blocks ads and trackers, you’ll find load times to be at least 2X faster, and it’s much less clutter on the screen. You can also create custom rules to tailor the experience for your own needs, and even hide web elements with a tap.
There’s a lot of options to make 1Blocker X yours, while also improving your overall Safari experience.
WolframAlpha
If you need instant expert knowledge and computation, then you need WolframAlpha. While Siri has some WolframAlpha integration, the app itself grants you full access to the entire WolframAlpha database.
So what is WolframAlpha, exactly? It’s a computational knowledge engine. It’s packed with algorithms and data to compute answers and generate reports for you. It works with pretty much every level of the following:
- Mathematics
- Statistics and Data Analysis
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Materials
- Engineering
- Astronomy
- Earth sciences
- Life sciences
- Computational sciences
- Units and Measurements
- Dates and Times
- Weather
- Places and Geography
- People and History
- Music
- Words and Linguistics
- Sports and Games
- Colors
- Money and Finance
- Socioeconomic Data
- Health and Medicine
- Food and Nutrition
- Education
- Organizations
- Transportation
- Technological World
- Web and Computer Systems
No matter what you need to compute, WolframAlpha will help you out.
PCalc
While the iPhone comes with a built-in calculator, it’s still pretty bare-bones in terms of features, even with the scientific version. Thankfully there is PCalc for literally all of your calculating needs.
With PCalc, you get an optional RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) mode that eliminates the need for parentheses during input, multi-line display, choice of various button layouts, extensive set of unit conversions and constants, a paper tape, multiple undo and redo, engineering and scientific notation, and support for hexadecimal, octal, and binary calculations. PCalc is a great option for scientists, engineers, students, programmers, and anyone else who needs a feature-rich calculator.
PCalc Lite is free to download and gives you the basics (RPN Mode, undo and redo, unit conversions and constants, and two themes), but you can also purchase the more advanced options a la carte if needed. There is also a paid version that includes everything for one price up front.
Free with in-app purchases – Download Now
$10 – Download Now
Popsicolor
There are a lot of photo editing apps that help you perfect your photos. But what if you want something completely different to help you stand out from the crowd? Then you should check out Popsicolor.
Popsicolor is one of several photo editing apps from Tinrocket that turns your photos into bright and colorful illustrations. In Popsicolor, the focus is on watercolor and ink effects that look like they’re made from melted down popsicles (hence the name). You can choose two colors to create the gradient effect, add effects like Rake or Round, and have the colors mixed in together or make it duo-tone, it’s up to you! The end result is something that’s unique, fun, and unlike anything you would see from everyone else.
Other good recommendations from Tinrocket are Olli (hand drawn art illustrations) and Waterlogue (watercolor paintings).
Halide
While the built-in Camera app on your iPhone is the fastest way to snap a quick picture of a great memory, sometimes you want something more powerful for pre-planned photo sessions. That’s when you want something like Halide.
Halide is a powerful camera replacement app that is designed to be used when you want to really take a photo, instead of a quick snapshot. It’s gesture-based, so you swipe to do things like change exposure and manual focus. It also has professional grade tools like focus peaking, histograms, adaptive level grid, manual depth capture, and RAW support. If you have an iPhone X or later, the app was made to be used with just one hand too, making it super easy to use. The full manual controls mean you get to choose the shutter speed, ISO, and white balance.
Halide is a great camera replacement app, and it’s one I’ve been using for a while and highly recommend if you want to do serious iPhone photography.
Pigment – Adult Coloring Book
Sometimes you just need to relax and unwind, and a good way to do that is to color. Pigment is a great app to consider if you’re looking for an adult coloring book.
Pigment comes with a nice variety of designs that you can choose from at the start to color in. You can also choose to color by the tap-to-fill method, or go with the more traditional coloring modes, such as paintbrushes and colored pencils. But if you are seeking more, there are a ton of designs, including Disney, that you can purchase through Premium Access, as well as premium brushes and tools. There is a Pigment community, where you can get inspired by other users’ submissions, and submit your own colored work.
If you just want a way to unwind after a long day, then Pigment’s free download should give you enough with just the basics. If you want to opt for the Premium subscription, it’s $5 a week, $10 a month, or $60 a year.
Free with in-app purchases – Download Now
Gyroscope
Want to keep track of everything relating to your health in one place? Then you need to try out Gyroscope. It even integrates fully with your Apple Watch, giving you a seamless experience.
Gyroscope can help you keep track of your steps, where you go, sleep, and even mood, with or without an Apple Watch (the latter just helps it out a lot). There are also integrations with other services like Strava and RescueTime for running/cycling workouts and computer time tracking, respectively. It presents all of this data in a single screen, so you get the overall picture in a single glance. It’s great for seeing where you need to improve and also how you’re doing among friends who also use the app. If you want to track how you’re doing in the long run, Gyroscope has nice bar graphs that give you a better view of how you’re doing overall.
Gyroscope is free to download and use with the basic features. If you want to track even more health data, get more themes, have insights that may predict the next time you’re sick, app icons, and more, you can subscribe to Gyroscope Pro starting at $10 a month.
Free with in-app purchases – Download Now
Yoink
If you find yourself constantly copying a lot of things to share with others, or even to transfer to another app, then you may be frustrated with how iOS handles these things. I mean, you can only have one thing copied to the clipboard at a time. That’s why you should check out Yoink.
With Yoink, you can quickly and easily store items to use later. This app is more effective on an iPad, but it’s still good for iPhone too. Think of Yoink as a central drawer for everything that you want to share, whether it’s with an app that’s different from the source, or someone you think would appreciate the item. Yoink works with text, files, URLs, emails, documents, photos and video, and anything else you can think of. You can even combine multiple items into a stack to be shared elsewhere, and there is also a keyboard that you can utilize. The keyboard lets you check out everything that is stored in Yoink, and then you tap on the item that you want, and it’ll be inserted into the text field automatically, no matter what app you’re in.
Yoink works best with drag-and-drop on an iPad, but again, the iPhone app is also useful if you like to collect many things in one place to reference and use later. It’s quite versatile, and can fit in anyone’s workflow. It also has iCloud sync, so all of your Yoinks can be found on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, as long as you’re logged into your iCloud account.
What are some of your favorite underrated apps?
These are some of our favorite, lesser-known apps that we highly recommend. What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!
Source of the article – iMore