App Picks

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article looking at what was the best calendar app for iPhone. While considering all the various options, I started coming across a lot of macOS alternatives. For whatever reason, the built-in calendar for Mac hasn’t been working great for me recently, so I thought I’d look at what’s the best calendar app for the Mac.

Have you ever wondered what the best calendar app for the iPhone was? Calendar apps for iPhone are a tough thing to offer advice about because different people use them in different ways. Some people are busier than others (meeting-wise), and others use their calendar as a to-do system (personally I question your sanity if you are this way). All of the primary calendar apps I tried are great but might not fit how you use a calendar app.

Organizing, backing up, and enjoying digital photos is something I’ve cared deeply about for almost a decade. My oldest son was born in 2010, so he was at the perfect age when iPhone cameras started improving at a dramatic rate year over year. iCloud Photos and Google Photos are the most common solutions for photo management that people use today. What’s the best way to manage photos on iPhone, iPad, and Mac? When comparing Google Photos vs. iCloud, which solution is best?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I had purchased an Apple Watch Series 4. One of the key reasons I purchased it was for GPS tracking while running. I’ve been listening to podcasts while working out for a good decade even when people thought I was crazy. For me, the Apple Watch with AirPods or Powerbeats Pro is the dream device for running. With watchOS 5, we finally got a built-in Apple Podcast app and support for third-party apps to sync files over to Apple Watch. Since I am such a fanatic about podcasts, I try almost every iPhone podcast app that comes around. For the Apple Watch, there aren’t as many podcast apps that support watch only playback, but I still wanted to give a round-up of the best ones.
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A few weeks ago, I took a look at the best Twitter apps for iPhone. It was interesting to read the replies I got on Twitter from people who felt strongly one way or another about third-party apps or using the official Twitter one. People who like third-party apps often prefer them for reasons that do make sense. People who are fine with the official Twitter app (based on how they use Twitter) should stick with it. The great thing about the ecosystem (it’s hanging on by a thread) is that both third-party and first-party options work for people. It’s really one of those “what’s best for you” situations. This week, I want to look at the best Twitter app for Mac. Because Twitter killed its official app for Mac last March, third-party apps are all you can use (except for TweetDeck). Twitter would prefer desktop users use Twitter.com. While the Twitter website is fine for casual tweeting, people who use Twitter on desktop with any regularity will want a dedicated app. This week, I am going to pick the best Twitter app for the Mac.
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Twitter apps for the iPhone have been around before the App Store. Twitterrific was one of the apps released for Jailbroken iPhones prior to the launch of the App Store with iPhone OS 2.0. I would even argue that without the App Store, Twitter would not be the company it is today. While Twitter has done a lot to hurt third-party apps in recent years, there is still a somewhat thriving ecosystem. This week, I want to look at all of the Twitter apps for iPhone to see which one is the best.

Note taking apps for Mac are a fun category to look at because of the variety of options on the market. There are apps like Evernote which aim to be an “everything” bucket and apps like SimpleNote that only handle plain text notes. You then have apps like Bear and Apple Notes which aim to live somewhere in the middle. When I am looking for the best note-taking app for the Mac, I am looking for a few different things: sync to iOS (and web if possible), easy to add new notes, and easy to look up existing notes. I’ve used dozens of apps over the years, and I have opinions on what a note-taking app for Mac should look like for my use cases. Most of the apps offer free trials, so I advise you to check them all out. I’ll run through a few of the apps, and then I’ll help you figure out which will be the best note-taking app for you to try.

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Baseball season is upon us here in the United States, and I am already looking forward to Spring Practice for college football. To be perfectly honest, I am a glutton for punishment when it comes to sports. I root for the Atlanta Braves who last won a World Series in 1995 despite winning fourteen straight divisional titles. In 1996, they went up 2–0 on the New York Yankees in New York and then proceeded to get swept at home. I also root for the Atlanta Falcons, and they famously were up 28–3 in the third quarter in the Super Bowl before the Patriots made the most epic comeback. To make matters worse, my beloved Georgia Bulldogs lost to Alabama in overtime of the college football championship in January of 2018. There’s an old joke that being a Georgia sports fan is hazardous to your health. Despite that, I love sports. Smartphones have made following a lot of teams and sports a lot easier thanks to a plethora of apps. With a number of options to pick from, how do you find the best sports app for iPhone?
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Over the last few years, I’ve become increasingly concerned about personal privacy. I don’t have anything to hide, but I don’t like the fact that so much of my personal information can be used by various companies. The thought of Netflix and Spotify being able to scan Facebook Messenger accounts to make better recommendations is a prime example of what I don’t like about the current state of technology. One of the changes I’ve made to help protect my privacy is always using a VPN when I’m on a Wi-Fi network I don’t manage. iOS has robust support for it, and I recommend you consider it as well. If you search for VPN on the App Store, a long list shows up. How do you determine the best VPN service for iOS?
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I’m a big fan of the “Getting Things Done” methodology from David Allen. I’ve been following it for most of my professional career, and I attribute it to being able to stay organized and on task with my full-time job and writing here at 9to5Mac. With that being said, I don’t put everything in my GTD app. There are a lot of items like grocery lists, home repair plans, or even simple weekend tasks that end up in a list app. I want it to be easy to add to, easy to mark off, easy to organize, and simply get out of the way. It’s the heaviness of my GTD app that allows my simple list app to be light. I’ve tried a bunch of apps, so here’s my round-up of the best list apps for iPhone.
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Knowing up to date weather information is one of the reasons to own a smartphone. From knowing if your pool time is going to be cut short to deciding if you should wear shorts or pants, the weather dominates our life. Before smartphones, we had to rely on local news stations to gather the information. While that is not inherently bad, it’s not as convenient.
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Password management is something that you often hear a lot about in today’s news. Apple has begun supporting various flavors of password managers through APIs while also offering a fairly decent password manager built right into Safari.

You might be wondering – what is the best place to store your passwords and other information you want to keep secure? There are number of third-party options such as 1Password, LastPass, and Dashlane. As I looked at Apple’s offerings and all of the alternatives, here is how I judged them:

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Apple Music and Spotify are the dominant players in the streaming music industry. Spotify just announced they have 75 million paid subscribers with 170 million total active users. Apple recently hit 40 million subscribers. It’s clear that both companies are a hit with consumers. In fact, the streaming music industry has revitalized the music business. I often get asked, how do I choose between Apple Music vs Spotify

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