Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Thirst Mutilator
Dec 13, 2008

Welcome to the newest iOS Apps Megathread - This thread is for NON-GAMING related applications to the App Store. For iOS game related things in general please go here. For Cydia/Jailbroken Apps, go here



:siren: Remember: Appshopper has history of all app sales/discounts :siren:

Widgets?
iOS8 introduces widgets, which are visual setpieces in Notification Center that will display information associated with its bundled application and can even allow you to go straight to the apps or perform actions within the context of them. The most common widgets right now are related weather applications and to do lists - for example, some reminder apps let you mark items as completed from the Notification Center widget, and some weather apps give you a smaller view/peek at the forecast from it.

Keyboards?
Yep. iOS8 also allows developers to create their own keyboards for use wherever any app would try to pull up the "stock" iOS keyboard. This means that apps like SwiftKey, Swype, and others are available for iOS now. The biggest feature of these keyboards include customizability not available to the stock keyboard, and the ability to swipe your finger from letter to letter in order to spell words. The only places the keyboards won't show up is in apps where they force their own keyboard, and in any password field for security purposes.


RECOMMENDATIONS (All links go to AppShopper)

Email:
  • Gmail - Gmail's iOS client. Supports push notifications. The stock email app no longer supports push notifications from Gmail if you're using a new phone (old phones are grandfathered in. Yes, it sucks) (Free).
  • Mailbox - Inbox Zero oriented email app. Integrates with Gmail, has a bunch of gestures to make it easier to achieve inbox nirvana (remind me later, remind me to reply, archive, etc) (Free).
  • Acompli - Mailbox and Calendar app with some Inbox Zero functionality - reminders to reply, filtering based on what it heuristically finds important to you, etc. Stores your credentials (including password) for certain email accounts (Microsoft Exchange being named specifically) on their own servers and delivers your email by proxy, so if you are :tinfoil: maybe steer clear.

Twitter:
  • Tweetbot - Better Twitter client for power users. Multiple account support, saved searched, better UI for navigating, retweets, and follows.
  • Twitterific - Another alternative Twitter client. Less geared for power users, but includes some improvements over stock client (Free).

Calendars:
  • Fantastical - One of the first to support natural language input - "Lunch with Steve tomorrow at 1pm" creates the event with all the right metadata. Separate apps for iPhone and iPad, unfortunately.
  • Sunrise - Similar in a lot of ways to Fantastical - some natural language processing, effort to be "sleek" and nice looking (Free).
  • Calendars 5 - Integrates with reminders and has its own task manager - haven't used it myself, if someone could contribute.

To Do:
  • Clear - Awesome to-do list app. There are no buttons on-screen, everything is controlled by gestures, and it's very pretty. Includes an NC widget.
  • Due - Straightforward and simply designed. Syncs with its associated OSX app.
  • Omnifocus - expensive, but full featured app completely in line with the GTD framework.

Security/Password Manager
  • 1Password - Features iOS8 integration, allows TouchID to serve as credentials for apps that support it (Free).
  • LastPass - Another password manager with iOS8 integration.

Finance:
  • Mint - Finance management. Log into your bank through the App and it can track how much money you've spent in a given time, as well as let you set up budgets for spending what money you have left in the account, as well as anticipate paychecks (Free).
  • Level - Focused around weekly budgeting and keeping pace than allocating expenditures to different categories (Free).
  • YNAB - Integrates with the multi-platform desktop app. Puts many other budgeting apps to shame with its feature set. Select individuals swear by it but often overkill for a lot of consumers.

Weather:
  • Forecast+ - has a very pretty NC widget, but reportedly scrapes weather data from lovely sources.
  • Weather Underground - Goon favorite for weather. Has 2 NC widgets, both of them kind of oversized.
  • Check the Weather - features a short-term weather radar
  • The Weather Channel - another weather app with a (supposedly ugly) NC widget.

Podcasts:
(I could use writeups on these apps - don't listen to podcasts much)
  • Overcast - Marco Arment's podcast app. Has modes to skip silences, and option to boost voice volume (Free, but you need to pay to unlock the nice features' use for more than a minute)
  • Instacast (Free)
  • Pocketcasts
  • Downcast

Read it/Save it for Later
(Can't go too wrong with either of them. Both have premium, pay per month options with extra benefits, liking one over the other seems to be pure preference)
  • Instapaper - features many font and view customizations (Free).
  • Pocket - a lot of cross-platform and native app support, compared to Instapaper's primarily web based interface (Free).

Cool Miscellany:
  • Awful - SA forums browser. Supports bookmarks, allows you to favorite forums/subforums, actively being improved on as of recently (Free).
  • Drafts - Great app for quickly jotting down ideas in text form, and can be sent to any number of places like Evernote, Twitter, Dropbox, other text editor apps, Reminders, Clear, Fantastical, and a bunch more.
  • Alien Blue - Reddit browser. Cleaner and better looking than the mobile website, better thought out UI too (Free).
  • Marvin - Independent e-reader client. Has library management, cloud sync via Dropbox, and all the nice stuff you'd like from an e-reader. Here is the paid version.
  • Flipboard - A well presented newsreader that you can customize to taste. Articles are usually well curated, and it feature a native article converter/reader for easy reading (Free).
  • Evernote - Generalized note-taking app. Write out text notes for yourself, or take a photo and write notes about it. Syncs with the Windows and OSX clients that Evernote provides as well (Free).
  • Waze - Crowdsourced traffic monitoring and weighted turn by turn directions. Fellow users report on accidents, cop sightings, you name it, and the directions factor this in to get you to your destination in the shortest time possible (Free).
  • PaperKarma - Take a picture of your junk mail, submit it, and you'll never get that crap in the mail again (Free).
  • Plex - Set up your own Plex server on a computer and stream content from it directly to your iDevice. Supports AirPlaying streamed content to your other Apple devices.
  • Day One - full featured journaling app, synchronizes with its desktop client.
  • Transit - public transportation knowledge base and arrival predictor. Scrapes data from predictive services for its supported municipal public transport networks. Has an NC widget.

Finally, IFTTT is a service that pairs really well with smartphones in general. Here's a quick write-up and explanation courtesy of bazaar apparatus:

bazaar apparatus posted:

Essentially, IFTTT is tied into the APIs of about 60 websites and apps, which they refer to as 'channels'. Evernote is a channel, Dropbox is a channel, Twitter is a channel, RSS is a channel, etc.

Each channel has its own set of triggers and actions. An example trigger for RSS would be, "An article has been posted to [x]'s RSS feed." IFTTT can take this trigger and perform an action on another channel, such as Twitter. This whole process is called a 'recipe'; it's always comprised of one trigger channel and one action channel.

Here are some of my own recipes, just to give you an idea:

Whenever I post a new article to my blog, IFTTT automatically tweets that article from a dedicated Twitter account I've set up.
Whenever I post a photo on Instagram, IFTTT automatically saves it to a folder in Dropbox.
If I mark a Youtube or Vimeo video as "Watch Later", IFTTT saves it to my Instapaper account.


This is nowhere near the number of things you can do with it. Some people have IFTTT text them the weather each morning. Some people download all their Gmail attachments directly to Dropbox. Some people make it so that when they change their Facebook profile photo, it changes their Twitter photo as well. Some people schedule a text message to be sent to them while they're in a meeting so they have an excuse to leave.

The number of possibilities is crazy. Here are some of their most popular recipes if you need more ideas. The nice thing is that it's easy to directly add them to your own recipe list.

NOTE
I tried to cut out a lot of the recommendations I felt were boilerplate to thread perusers. I figure most people getting into the iOS game nowdays are pretty aware of Facebook, Netflix, Hulu, and the like, and this thread should be reserved for really specific questions/requests of iOS apps and discussion of functionalities on the fringe of what the average consumer is looking for. Maybe as it approaches the holiday season, if more people are genuinely curious about whether there's still an Instagram app or something I'll add them back in. But until then, I'll try to keep the OP topical and interesting.

As always, point out any shittiness in the OP to me or throw out your own recommendations and I'll do my best to fix/add them.

Thirst Mutilator fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Oct 7, 2014

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Rageaholic
May 31, 2005

Old Town Road to EGOT

At the moment, probably the most aesthetically pleasing NC widgets for weather apps are as follows: Forecast+, which I've heard frequently gets current weather conditions incorrect and only exists as a widget (the app part just contains settings for the widget, no actual data), and Yahoo Weather, which has a nice simple graphical overview of the current conditions/today's conditions but displayed over local images pulled from Flickr, which are too big and usually look obtrusive in NC but still better than the majority of other weather widgets out so far.

Hopefully this changes soon and a weather app drops that has an awesome widget, but iOS 8 just came out recently so we may have to wait for a really great one to come out.

Chevy Slyme
May 2, 2004

We're Gonna Run.

We're Gonna Crawl.

Kick Down Every Wall.
Weather Channel has a widget but it's super lame and text heavy.

For Sports People: The Yahoo Sports App widget is probably the best for keeping track of the score of your favorite team. The ESPN one would be equally good, but they were idiots and decided to fill an enormous amount of NC screen real estate with a dumb ad for one of their dumb podcasts. I just want to know if the Yankees are winning or losing goddamnit.

the kawaiiest
Dec 22, 2010

Uguuuu ~
Whoever asked for an imgur app on the last thread: imgur browser is decent. You have to be signed in to upload and it's a bit unintuitive (you have to open the menu and tap your username, then the upload cloud on the top right) but it's the best one I found, or rather, the only one that isn's complete poo poo as far as I know.

croutonZA
Jan 5, 2011
I think I remember someone mentioned a comic reader in one of the previous threads that can "stream" (if that's the right term) comics from a network source. Does such an app exist?

I love comic zeal and all, but a feature like this would be much more useful for me.

Vince MechMahon
Jan 1, 2008



croutonZA posted:

I think I remember someone mentioned a comic reader in one of the previous threads that can "stream" (if that's the right term) comics from a network source. Does such an app exist?

I love comic zeal and all, but a feature like this would be much more useful for me.

I thought Comic Zeal could do something similar to this?

ibntumart
Mar 18, 2007

Good, bad. I'm the one with the power of Shu, Heru, Amon, Zehuti, Aton, and Mehen.
College Slice

croutonZA posted:

I think I remember someone mentioned a comic reader in one of the previous threads that can "stream" (if that's the right term) comics from a network source. Does such an app exist?

I love comic zeal and all, but a feature like this would be much more useful for me.

If you mean transfer comic books wireless from your computer or another device, Comic Zeal has been able to do that for at least the past two or three editions.

Fcdts26
Mar 18, 2009

croutonZA posted:

I think I remember someone mentioned a comic reader in one of the previous threads that can "stream" (if that's the right term) comics from a network source. Does such an app exist?

I love comic zeal and all, but a feature like this would be much more useful for me.

Comic glass is what your looking for. Its also optimized for ios8/iphone 6.

Mr. Fix It
Oct 26, 2000

💀ayyy💀


Thirst Mutilator posted:


Security/Password Manager
  • 1Password - Features iOS8 integration, allows TouchID to serve as credentials for apps that support it (Free).
  • LastPass - Same as above, but no iOS8 integration to date. Still relevant?


LastPass has had iOS8 integration since September 17th

"AppShopper posted:

What's new

LastPass Safari Extension
Once enabled in Safari, LastPass can fill web logins instantly without leaving the browser. The extension gives direct access to the LastPass vault, so you can use stored logins or save new accounts in fewer steps.

Touch ID Integration
New setting to use Touch ID to protect your LastPass vault. Items that would normally require the master password re-prompt can now be authorized with your fingerprint. While browsing in Safari and launching the LastPass extension, use the Touch ID prompt to authorize LastPass to fill a web login. Only available on supported devices with Touch ID enabled.

the kawaiiest
Dec 22, 2010

Uguuuu ~
Gonna recommend Day One because it's the best journal app out there (trust me, I tried literally all of them). There's a Mac app, too, and if you happen to have Hazel, you can set it up to automatically create entries from your social network posts.

Pissflaps
Oct 20, 2002

by VideoGames
I use flipboard a lot but one thing i'm not sure about: is it possible to aggregate multiple sources into one of their 'magazines'? I can only see how to add individual stories.


edit: Feedly looks a lot better than I remember, might just switch to that as it seems to do what I want. Never have used the social aspects of flipboard.

Pissflaps fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Sep 30, 2014

japtor
Oct 28, 2005
Re: tasks in Calendars 5, it's got some bugs right now. Off the top of my head I think it could end up duplicating tasks and added due dates to stuff instead of just adding an alarm like the stock app without a working way to remove them (you can delete the due date in the UI but it doesn't stick). And the widget doesn't do reminders at all but that's more of a missing feature than bug. I emailed Readdle about that stuff and they're aware and working on them. If not for the bugs it'd be a nice replacement for the stock app if you hate the UI of it like I do. Then again I'd still need notification sounds from the stock app for my custom alarm sounds, and I guess banner notifications cause Calendars 5 doesn't have a mark as completed option yet, just snooze... and a longer snooze :doh:

For more elaborate tasks, I guess "to do", there's 2Do which just got a big redesign finally. I used to use it for iCloud reminders but ran into some issues occasionally cause its functionality is beyond the scope of what iCloud's basic reminders can handle. Pretty sure it works fine with other sync options (I think Dropbox) but then you need the desktop app to handle stuff there if you want.

choobs
Mar 25, 2004
Never bring a duck to a cock fight.

Mr. Fix It posted:

LastPass has had iOS8 integration since September 17th

I was going to post this as well, but it's worth noting that the extension needs a little work. It works fine most of the time, but if you come across a website where autocomplete doesn't work (for example gog.com) you're screwed and have to switch over to the app to copy your password. By contrast, 1Password has the ability to let you copy your password from within the extension. Hopefully LastPass updates to add this soon because it will be great once it does.

ChetReckless
Sep 16, 2009

That is precisely the thing to do, Avatar.

Pissflaps posted:

I use flipboard a lot but one thing i'm not sure about : is it possible to aggregate multiple sources into one of their 'magazines'? I can only see how to add individual stories.


edit: Feedly looks a lot better than I remember, might just switch to that as it seems to do what I want. Never have used the social aspects of flipboard.

Any source you bookmark end up showing up in your 'cover stories' flow. That's pretty much the only way I've found to aggregate sources for new content rather than picking stories. I mostly use Flipboard to follow long form article sources as I think it does a better job showing twitter feeds (and I just like the way they look and handle there).

I use Feedly for everything else. Feedly is pretty slick now, I think. It had some growing pains after Reader shut down, but now it's my favourite of the RSS readers. Might be worth throwing in the OP if others feel similarly.

Pissflaps
Oct 20, 2002

by VideoGames

ChetReckless posted:

Any source you bookmark end up showing up in your 'cover stories' flow. That's pretty much the only way I've found to aggregate sources for new content rather than picking stories. I mostly use Flipboard to follow long form article sources as I think it does a better job showing twitter feeds (and I just like the way they look and handle there).

I use Feedly for everything else. Feedly is pretty slick now, I think. It had some growing pains after Reader shut down, but now it's my favourite of the RSS readers. Might be worth throwing in the OP if others feel similarly.

Yeah I just wanted to be able to group my feeds so that I have collections of feeds on the same topic coming through together as a flippable flipboard magazine thing so like one for goku, another one for MLP etc. Cover stories just lumps them all together.

I've just added my feeds to feedly and this seems to do what I want so I'll try it out for a while - though I will miss the fun skeumorphism and layout of Flipboard I think but I think as I'm entirely RSS i'm making the right choice.

Minidust
Nov 4, 2009

Keep bustin'
Been curious about Plex for a while. I assume it allows me to stream non-iTunes formatted video from my computer. Would I then be able to airplay that content to an Apple TV? It'd be cool if I could play any old video on my Apple TV without jailbreaking (even if I have to use my phone as a middle man).

xzzy
Mar 5, 2009

Plex is pretty badass, but for the setup you're describing I think a Chromecast might actually serve you better (which has Plex support). That way you don't have to make your phone the workhorse.. you use it as a remote which is way cooler.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201812818-Cast-from-iOS

But I guess that doesn't help you if you're set on the AppleTV. It is something to think about though.

choobs
Mar 25, 2004
Never bring a duck to a cock fight.

Minidust posted:

Been curious about Plex for a while. I assume it allows me to stream non-iTunes formatted video from my computer. Would I then be able to airplay that content to an Apple TV? It'd be cool if I could play any old video on my Apple TV without jailbreaking (even if I have to use my phone as a middle man).

I do this all the time. It works great. You can even background Plex and do other things on your phone (though I have had video drop out when I do that before).

Demos
Mar 4, 2004
Have you passed through this night?
How about Moves? It's a step counter app that tracks walking and other sorts of physical activity separately, sums up calories used and distance moved. I seem to recall there being some controversy about them (though I can't recall for what), but it seems decent and works on the iPhone 5C, which seems to lacking in most other similar apps I've seen on the app store.

tuyop
Sep 15, 2006

Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted

Fun Shoe

Demos posted:

How about Moves? It's a step counter app that tracks walking and other sorts of physical activity separately, sums up calories used and distance moved. I seem to recall there being some controversy about them (though I can't recall for what), but it seems decent and works on the iPhone 5C, which seems to lacking in most other similar apps I've seen on the app store.

I tried moves for awhile, but if you ignore its calorie calculations (which you 100% should), then I don't see much point to it other than sperging out about your daily routine.

noirstronaut
Aug 10, 2012

by Cowcaster
Any site have a growing list of apps with widgets?

Feenix
Mar 14, 2003
Sorry, guy.
Another vote for Plex being awesome!

Chinaman7000
Nov 28, 2003

Minidust posted:

Been curious about Plex for a while. I assume it allows me to stream non-iTunes formatted video from my computer. Would I then be able to airplay that content to an Apple TV? It'd be cool if I could play any old video on my Apple TV without jailbreaking (even if I have to use my phone as a middle man).

I do this a bunch. It's the setup I was trying to create for years and is super slick and cool.

Minidust
Nov 4, 2009

Keep bustin'
Great, thanks for all the Plex feedback. Setting up the PC client now!

Thirst Mutilator
Dec 13, 2008

Mr. Fix It posted:

LastPass has had iOS8 integration since September 17th

Amended.

the kawaiiest posted:

Gonna recommend Day One because it's the best journal app out there (trust me, I tried literally all of them). There's a Mac app, too, and if you happen to have Hazel, you can set it up to automatically create entries from your social network posts.

Added.

Feenix posted:

Another vote for Plex being awesome!

Added.

Feenix
Mar 14, 2003
Sorry, guy.
I am disappoint. I was kinda hoping after a long weekend, more of my myriad apps would have updates today.

Grassy Knowles
Apr 4, 2003

"The original Terminator was a gritty fucking AMAZING piece of sci-fi. Gritty fucking rock-hard MURDER!"

Minidust posted:

Been curious about Plex for a while. I assume it allows me to stream non-iTunes formatted video from my computer. Would I then be able to airplay that content to an Apple TV? It'd be cool if I could play any old video on my Apple TV without jailbreaking (even if I have to use my phone as a middle man).

xzzy posted:

Plex is pretty badass, but for the setup you're describing I think a Chromecast might actually serve you better (which has Plex support). That way you don't have to make your phone the workhorse.. you use it as a remote which is way cooler.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201812818-Cast-from-iOS

But I guess that doesn't help you if you're set on the AppleTV. It is something to think about though.

You can install Plex to the Apple TV https://blog.plex.tv/2013/06/04/introducing-plexconnect-an-appletv-client-which-thinks-different/

Pole of Mars
Aug 19, 2008

A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom
Does anyone have any experience with using Siri with Wolfram alpha in another langage (say french)? I can't find a source telling me if it's working or not.

answersyouseek
Aug 19, 2003

No Moderation
Any recommendations on news apps?

Chevy Slyme
May 2, 2004

We're Gonna Run.

We're Gonna Crawl.

Kick Down Every Wall.

answersyouseek posted:

Any recommendations on news apps?

NYTimes app is really good.

Feenix
Mar 14, 2003
Sorry, guy.
I don't take the bus anymore but Transit (which last I used it was a solid transit/bus app) now has a Widget as of today.

Jedi Knight Luigi
Jul 13, 2009

Feenix posted:

I don't take the bus anymore but Transit (which last I used it was a solid transit/bus app) now has a Widget as of today.

Talk about a game changer.

Thirst Mutilator
Dec 13, 2008

Feenix posted:

I don't take the bus anymore but Transit (which last I used it was a solid transit/bus app) now has a Widget as of today.

! wow how could I have forgotten this app I use it every loving day.

editor
Feb 4, 2007

answersyouseek posted:

Any recommendations on news apps?

Circa is great and should be in the OP.

noirstronaut
Aug 10, 2012

by Cowcaster
Circa's branding is ugly and belongs nowhere but a trash can.

Also, I feel like this thread is pretty sparse because it's hard to find. I'd put a link in the final post of the old thread.

editor
Feb 4, 2007
haha what

ChetReckless
Sep 16, 2009

That is precisely the thing to do, Avatar.

answersyouseek posted:

Any recommendations on news apps?

As mentioned above, Flipboard is pretty good. If you're just looking for news by category its nice for that, and you can add twitter feeds as well. I like the physical act of swiping and reading the articles, it just feels good.

If you're a RSS person Feedly is my favourite RSS reader, but other people have their preferences. If you read RSS on your desktop as well Feedly has a good website and syncs beautifully with the app.

Yahoo has an app called News Digest that is okay. Twice a day (on a timer you can set) you get sent 8-12 or so of the top stories for your region (i.e. Canada, US, etc.). You get a couple of paragraphs and a picture or two of what is going on, with links (wikipedia, twitter, etc.) to find out more at the end of the article. It has a clean, simple UI that is easy to navigate. Currently pissing me off due to bugs, though: I'll get a notification that there are new stories available, but when I click the notification to open the app it's still the previous time's news and I have to force close the app to refresh it (which only works sometimes). I'm a baby.

If you like reading long magazine-style articles, Longform collects articles of that style and presents them in a clean, sophisticated looking reader. You can follow specific authors and/or publishers, or just read the curated staff picks. Personally I found it easier just to add Longform to my Flipboard feeds and read the articles there instead, but the app is pretty and is good for discovering new sources of articles to read.

Jose Oquendo
Jun 20, 2004

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a boring movie
Where's my SA smilie keyboard app?

The Dave
Sep 9, 2003

Pokeyman is actually working on it believe it or not.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Jose Oquendo
Jun 20, 2004

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a boring movie

The Dave posted:

Pokeyman is actually working on it believe it or not.

I believe it. You have no idea how bad I have been waiting for that news.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply