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Keep up with the latest in iOS apps reviews, iPhone/iPad news, and articles, perfect for discovering the best in mobile tech.
With Christmas music apps on Apple TV, you can set the scene with festive sights and sounds. So, jingle your bells, rock around the Christmas tree, or just have a silent night. These apps will have your toe tapping while you’re gift wrapping.
Christmas
Simply named Christmas, the app offers a nice selection of holiday music with a festive scene that includes a countdown until Christmas Day. You can play through all of the songs or set your favorite to repeat. For some wonderful holiday atmosphere in your living room, take a look at the Christmas app.
The Christmas app gives you a simple way to add some holiday cheer to your room on Apple TV.
The app is $0.99 and also available on the iPhone and all iPad models.
Christmas Carols Sing-Along
Let the music play or read to lyrics to sing along with Christmas Carols by Virtual Sheet Music. You can select from a collection of holiday carols for free and upgrade for even more. And, since the app includes sheet music, you can play your instrument along as well as sing.
Only for the Apple TV, the free download offers a few songs to get started with. You can unlock the entire app with a $1.99 in-app purchase.
Radio Christmas TV
Radio Christmas TV gives you just what it says, Christmas radio which is a charity station in the United Kingdom and Guatemala. Volunteers help the station to provide you with lovely Christmas classics. While the app does not offer a holiday scene like many others, it does give you a nice backdrop for music.
Radio Christmas TV is a great Christmas music app for Apple TV to play in the background as you celebrate the holiday with family and friends.
It’s free and only for the Apple TV.
Fireplace Christmas Radio
With Fireplace Christmas Radio for Apple TV, you can create a soothing atmosphere this holiday season. Watch the fire, listen to the music, or just hear the crackle of the logs. The choice is yours. If you want a simple fireplace scene with the sounds of Christmas, check out Fireplace Christmas Radio.
Fireplace Christmas Radio helps you set the mood for a relaxing holiday with music and a crackling fire. The app is a free download.
Tinsel & Tunes Yule Log
Tinsel & Tunes Yule Log plays Christmas songs, old and new, while showing you a peaceful fireplace scene. You can see who plays each song along with its title, pause the music to hear the crackling fire, and create a festive holiday mood in your home.
Welcome your visitors this holiday season with tunes and a fireplace with Tinsel & Tunes Yule Log for Apple TV.
The Apple TV app is a free download.
Craft is all about productivity. The cross-platform app integrates notes, tasks, and a calendar under one roof.
The standout feature is the ability to create and stricter your ideas into a beautiful document for everything from quick thoughts or a full presentation. There is even a built-in AI assistant that can help you brainstorm ideas, summarize long documents, or edits for tone and style.
It’s also easy to share documents and collaborate with others in real time.
The app has just been updated to version 3.0 with a number of additional feature.
With a dedicated Task inbox, you can quickly capture a to-do. There is also a new global view showing all of your tasks in the app along with the ability to schedule tasks and view them in the calendar.
To better organize your thoughts, you can use the new Collections. It allows you to create personal databases within documents.
You can now also customize the look and feel of documents to your own preferences.
Craft is a free download for the iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro, and Mac. With the free version you can create up to 10 docs for free. You’ll receive two extra free docs per week after that.
To unlock all of the features of the app, you’ll need a subscription.The Plus option is $4 per month or $60 per year until the end of 2024.
Subscribers can create unlimited notes and access additional features like link expiration, password protection sharing, email based sharing, and much more.
There are also additional subscription tiers for a family, team, and business.
Planning a holiday dinner for family and friends can be a stressful undertaking. These apps will help you plan your meal from beginning to end, have you cooking like a pro, and let you enjoy your time with your guests.
Food Network Kitchen
Food Network In The Kitchen is an app for all fans of The Food Network. With this app, users are able to search recipes by chef or ingredient, and there are new recipes being added to the database all the time, so it’s important to check back frequently if you want to try out new things.
There are tons of how-to videos, step-by-step photo instructions, the option to save your favorites to your own Recipe Box, and the app can generate grocery lists for recipes you want to try cooking right now. And if you have improvements that can be made to a recipe, the app lets you add notes and edit recipes to reflect your own changes to improve it or fit your dietary needs. Any aspiring chef will need to have this app in the kitchen.
Food Network In The Kitchen makes it easy to browse recipes by ingredients or your favorite chef, and there are a ton of recipes with more being added every day. It’s a cook’s dream come true with this app.
The app is available on the iPhone, iPad, and even Apple TV. It’s a free download.
Yummly Recipes & Cooking Tools
Yummly is a handy app for all of your cooking needs. You can save recipes and view them in the My Yums section whenever you are ready to get cooking. Pop the ingredients for any recipe into the shopping list for convenience when you head to the grocery store. You can also share recipes with friends and family, get necessary nutrition information, and receive recipe specific to your tastes automatically.
When looking for that perfect dish, Yummly gives a great array of recipe options. Save tasty Yums, have the ingredients added to your shopping list, and check out what others think of the dishes too with comments and star ratings.
The app is free and for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. An optional subscription will unlock additional features like smart meal planning, exclusive recipes, and more.
Skinny Desserts
Skinny Desserts is a gorgeous app that everyone who bakes should have on their devices. Don’t you just love sweets and desserts, but wish that they could be a bit more…healthy? Well, Skinny Desserts has you covered.
The app is packed with dozens of dessert recipes that actually take out all of the bad stuff and replaced it with some healthy alternatives, so you have less guilt while eating your finished treats. Skinny Desserts has six different categories of recipes that you can browse through, and you can quickly create shopping lists for the ingredients of your chosen recipe without any extra effort. If you find new favorites, you can save them for easy reference later.
While Skinny Desserts helps you enjoy tasty, healthy sweets, you will eventually cut down on sugar cravings, increase your energy levels, stabilize blood sugar levels, boost metabolism, and help you lose weight while still treating yourself. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Wine4.me
Wine4.Me is a mobile wine discovery app that combines wine experts, patent-pending technology and a proprietary algorithm to offer users wine suggestions based on their individual taste profile, not crowd-sourced reviews.
You don’t have to be an expert to enjoy wine. Wine4.Me helps you explore wine with confidence by offering you personalized wine rankings based on your own unique taste profile. All the wines in Wine4.Me’s extensive database are objectively analyzed one by a team of wine evaluators, who can pinpoint wine characteristics with a 90% repeat rate, which is pretty stellar.
This data is intricately indexed by patent-pending technology and passed through the company’s proprietary algorithm that compares the profile of each wine to your taste profile to offer personalized wine rankings. Worried about finding a great wine? Wine4.Me’s wine selections are widely available at many stores and wine outlets across the country.
The app is free and for the iPhone and iPad.
Anylist: Grocery Shopping List
AnyList lets you quickly add items by voice, create multiple lists, reorder items, use custom categories, and share with others. With reminders, syncing, and import capability, AnyList is a handy tool for your grocery shopping.
AnyList Grocery List is a shopping list app that has a good recipe function too. Simply find a recipe from any site and you can dump the ingredients into your list. The app can be associated with a list in Reminders. So, you could simply tell Siri, “Add circus peanuts to the shopping list.” The next time you open AnyList, those Siri-added items will be added to your list.
AnyList has a simple interface that is easy to use and very functional. Even with a free account, there are tons of useful features and your data goes with you as long as you make a free account.
It’s a free download and designed for the iPhone and iPad. An optional subscription will unlock the app for Appel Watch, meal planning calendar, and more.
We’ve all got small bits of information like an ID number, door code, hotel room number, locker combination, or something else that we need to remember. Instead of banking on your memory, try out Cheatsheet.
As you might have expected by the app name, its a great way to store information so you won’t need to remember it later.
To help you find what you’re looking for, there are more than 200 icons to add with a cheat. You can also search for what you’re looking for in the app or through Spotlight.
For easy access, you can also add a widget to your home screen to see a cheat without needing to open up the app. With Shortcuts support, you can even ask Siri to retrieve a cheat or add one to the app.
On the Apple Watch, there is a comprehensive app where you can access and add cheats. You can even use a complication to quickly see a cheat on your watch face.
And the app has just moved up to version 5.0 with two major new features. With formatted text, you can use bold, italics, links, and lists in the app.
True editing support is now also available on the Apple Watch, You can place the cursor inside a note to fix a typo, delete a word, or add a new items to a list.
Cheatsheet is for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. It’s a free download on the App Store now.
You will need a subscription to unlock all of the app’s features. That’s $5.99 per year. Subscribers can protect each of the notes with a passcode lock, sync between devices and organize notes with folders.
The separate Mac app is $7.99 on the Mac App Store.
As we near the end of 2024, Apple has just unveiled its list of the App Store Award Winners for the year.
Apps
iPhone App of the Year: Kino
iPad App of the Year: Moises
Mac App of the Year: Adobe Lightroom
Apple Vision Pro App of the Year: What If…? An Immersive Story
Apple Watch App of the Year: Lumy
Apple TV App of the Year: F1 TV
Games
iPhone Game of the Year: AFK Journey
iPad Game of the Year: Squad Busters
Mac Game of the Year: Thank Goodness You’re Here!
Apple Vision Pro Game of the Year: THRASHER: Arcade Odyssey
Apple Arcade Game of the Year: Balatro+
Cultural Impact Winners
It might be hard to believe, but 2025 is just a few weeks away. And the new year is often for reflection and goal setting. Griply is a unique new app that allows you to map out and track goals.
The app brings together a task manager and habit tracker with a focus on your personal goals.
You can create a SMART goal—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Long-term goals can be broken into manageable subgoals, tasks, and habits.
To help visualize goals, you can add pictures. Adding deadlines and reminders can also help you stay on track. All of the progress can be tracked with detailed charts and graphs.
Instead of switching between apps, you can manage both everyday tasks and long-term goals.
Home screen widgets allow you to quickly see goals, habits, and tasks without needing to open up the app.
Griply is designed for the iPhone and iPad. It’s a free download on the App Store now.
The free version allows you to set a limited number of goals and habits. You’ll need a subscription to add an unlimited amount.
That’s available for $4.99 monthly or $47.90 per year. Subscribers can also see more insightful charts, tap additional customization options, set subgoals, and more. There is a free, seven-day trial available for the premium version.
The new app Festivas can help add a touch of cheer to your Mac.
After installing the app, it ill add festive lights to your menu bar and dock upon launching. You can customize the appearance of the lights as you’d like. You can change the cable thickness, size of lights, distances, drop width/height, speed, and color.
After launching, the app will request access to accessibility features. Festivas needs that to locate the dock on the screen and place the lights.
The app is from Simon Støvring, who is also behind great iOS apps like Runestone, a lightweight plain text editor.
You can download Festivas now from the app’s site for a suggested price of $4.50.
In the iconic App Store classic, players worked hard to destroy the world with a virus. Now you can rebuild what you destroyed in After Inc.
The new game is from the team behind virus-spreading original.
Decades after the virus almost extinguished humanity, a few survivors emerge. You will build a settlement, explore, scavenge resources, and attempt to grow the society. It combines strategic simulation and city building.
Set in the beautiful, post-apocalyptic United Kingdom, you’ll be forced to make difficult decisions to help move civilization forward. The narrative algorithm of the story will be shaped by those decisions.
You can choose from 5 unique leaders of the settlement, each with radically different abilities.
To build a better tomorrow and keep your people happy, you will also need to explore the ruins of the past and scavenge resources. While uncovering old technologies, you will also be able to explore new ones.
There’s no need for an Internet connection to play, making the game perfect for a plane flight.
After Inc. is designed for the iPhone and all iPad models. It’s a $1.99 purchase now on the App Store. There are in-app purchases available.
In just a few minutes, the new app Death Clock can predict the date of your death.
To begin, you’ll answer a wide variety of questions about your current health and habits like sleep, what food you eat, and whether you drink alcohol. Using AI trained on more than 1,200 life expectancy studies, you’ll then see a predicted day of death.
I answered the questions and was given a death date of January 22, 2060 at age 82. I also saw the three most likely ways that I will die. You can share that information with others.
But that bit of morbid information is designed to spur you into action. The app will recommend better habits to help extend your life. With the better habits, the app says I can add 10 years to my lifespan.
After answering the questions, you will see an evaluation that will show your risks, strengths, and key factors for a longer life. The app will also create a personalized longevity plan with specific ways to improve your health like supplements, cancer screenings, and more.
Death Clock is a free download now on the App Store. You’ll need a subscription to unlock all of the better habits information. That’s available for $59.99 yearly or $14.99 monthly. To try out all of those subscription features, there is a free, 3-day trial available on a yearly subscription.
It’s Black Friday, so there are sales on pretty much anything imaginable, including some top-notch apps.
Make sure to head to the Indie App Sales site now. There are more than 400 apps offering discounts.
You can filter by app name, developer name, and more to help you find that title you’d like. There are a number of great titles offering discounts like Darkroom, Plinky, Söka, Peaks, and many more.
You can quickly see the sales and then follow a link to the App Store to download the app. Many apps also have links to contact the developer.
Make sure to read each app discount carefully as some may require a promo code to enter or require you to follow the provided link.
The sales will lat until Tuesday, December 3.
Thanksgiving is almost here. And the top-notch cooking app Pestle is here to help you turn that perfect recipe from TikTok into the hit dish on your table.
The app has been updated to version 2.0 with a number of new features, including TikTok integration. Using on-device AI instead of a service like ChatGPT, Pestle will import the recipe into the app. Earlier this summer, the app also added a similar feature from Instagram Reels.
From both site, the nutritional information will be saved in Pestle as well.
Another great feature in the update us that the menu bar in the cep viewer has been recapped to make it easier to add recipes to your Shopping List and Meal Plan.
If you’re looking for an all-in-one kitchen companion, Pestle is perfect to help make cooking easier. You can import a recipe from almost anywhere including a website, or even a photo from a cookbook or meal card.
When ready to cook, the app provides a guided cooking experience that breaks down everything in a step-by-step process. Pestle can even be controlled hands-free when preparing something messy.
Outside of the kitchen, You can also create a meal plan for the next 14 days where you can assign a recipe for each day. The app will also take ingredients for recipes and add it to a shipping list.
For larger households, you can share recipes and create meal plans together.
Pestle is a free download on the App Store now. It’s for the iPhone and all iPad models and Apple Watch.
With the free version, you can keep 15 recipes, save recipes from a site, create a shopping list, and use guided cooking.
You’ll need a subscription to make the most of the app. That’s available for $1.99 per month, $19.99 yearly, or $39.99 for lifetime access.
Subscribers can do more including save unlimited recipes, sync between devices, create meal plans, discover new recipes, use widgets, and more.
Apple has just announced the finalists for the 2024 App Store Awards. Here are all of the apps. The winners will be announced in the coming weeks.
iPhone App of the Year Finalists
iPhone Game of the Year Finalists
AFK Journey
The WereCleaner
Zenless Zone Zero
iPad App of the Year Finalists
Bluey: Let’s Play
Moises
Procreate Dreams
iPad Game of the Year Finalists
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Disney Speedstorm
Squad Busters
Apple Arcade Game of the Year Finalists
Balatro+
Outlanders 2
Sonic Dream Team
Mac App of the Year Finalists
Adobe Lightroom
OmniFocus 4
Shapr3D
Mac Game of the Year Finalists
Frostpunk 2
Stray
Thanks Goodness You’re Here
Apple Watch App of the Year Finalists
Apple Vision Pro App of the Year Finalists
JigSpace
NBA
What If…? An Immersive Story
Apple Vision Pro Game of the Year Finalists
Loóna
THRASHER
Vacation Simulator
Apple TV App of the Year Finalists
Cultural Impact Finalists
Arco
The Bear
BetterSleep
Brawl Stars
DailyArt
Do You Really Want to Know 2
EE Hello
NYT Games
Oko
Partiful
Pinterest
The Wreck
Get ready for Thanksgiving with helpful recipes, thoughtful greetings, fun games, and more.
Thanksgiving Recipes & Meals
No Thanksgiving is complete without a great meal. And with Thanksgiving Recipes & Meals, you can create perfect feast for your friends and family.
With the app, you can browse hundreds of recipes by name or ingredient. When you find something great, you can save it to access later. For a trip to the grocery stories, you can add ingredient details to a shopping list. For each recipe, you can see comprehensive information including the nutrition facts and macro breakdowns. It also shows cooking directions.
The app is a free download for the iPhone and all iPad models. A $1.99 in-app purchase will unlock the ad-free version.
More Holiday Dinner!
While the feast is being cooked, it’s oftentimes hard to keep children away from the kitchen. But with More Holiday Dinner!, kids can create their own meal on their iOS device.
They can start by making a main dish including turkey, turkey with stuffing, ham, and more. After that, it’s time for sides like mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and more. You can finish off the meal with a tasty dessert. After the meal is done, head to the dining room to serve up a plate where you can add as much or little as wanted. For fun, kids can even share their plate via email or save it to a Photo Library. And there’s always room for seconds.
The app is $0.99.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
The classic tale comes to life on your iPhone or iPad in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The app blends together the book with fun interactive elements. All of the dialogue, music, and sound effects are from the 1973 special.
Kids and kids at hearty can touch, tilt, and slide through each page of the book. You can do things like kick the football with Charlie Brown and cook the unique meal with Master Chef Snoopy. There are three reading modes for kids to experience: read to me, read myself, and autoplay. Kids can also highlight a word and hear it with touch-to-speak technology.
You can download the app for $4.99.
Thanksgiving App
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the holiday can be found in the Thanksgiving App. First up, you can find a tons of facts about the holiday.
Other features include Thanksgiving trivia, a countdown timer to the holiday, and even a funny turkey that will gobble on your screen.
And that’s not all, you can use the turkey calculator to see how long it will take to cook the bird. It will even remind you when the turkey needs to be covered or checked. Finally, when you have some extra time, you can create your own greeting card to share with others via email or social networks.
The app is a free download for the iPhone and iPad. A $1.99 in-app purchase will remove all of the advertisements.
Thanksgiving Sticker Greetings
Many of us spend the day with friends and family. But you can share your holiday greetings with other with Thanksgiving Sticker Greetings. There are more than 75 handcrafted stickers, everything from Happy Thanksgiving to Pumpkin Pie.
The app is $0.99 and for the iPhone and iPad.
Ever wanted to visit the cockpit of an aeroplane? Maybe even press the buttons and put the pilot hat on yourself? FS Global lets you do that all from your phone.
Diverse Fleet of Aircraft
Aerofly FS Global provides a wide range of over 30 impressive aircraft, from small training planes to large passenger airliners and military jets. Each plane has been designed with precision, offering highly detailed cockpits and super realistic control systems. Instruments can be found and are fully operational, meaning players can manage everything from autopilot to navigation systems.
The game also incorporates authentic engine sounds and cockpit vibrations, immersing players further into the experience. This level of realism means each plane feels unique, rewarding players who take the time to learn and understand each different model while providing an exciting challenge for those wanting to try a different aircraft.
Fly an Airbus A380 “Super Jumbo” and More
Bring a marvel of modern aviation to your living room. The Airbus A380 “Super Jumbo” is the world’s largest passenger airliner, and offers a truly unique flying experience with its massive size and advanced fly-by-wire systems faithfully recreated.
The fully interactive cockpit features operational controls, intricate navigation systems and high-definition displays which give players complete control.
Pilot a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, a classic training and recreational plane which is great for beginners or short flights. Or how about the Airbus A32? It’s a modern workhorse of the skies and offers players an authentic airline experience. If it’s a sleek business jet you’re looking to take to the clouds, Aerofly FS Global features the Learjet 45, a sleek business jet offering speed and luxury.
Helicopters can also be found in the game. The Bell 206 Jetranger is a versatile helicopter that players can take for a scenic flight or to tackle some precision landings.
There’s Something For Everyone
This diverse roster ensures that every player, regardless of their skill level or preference, can find an aircraft that suits their interests.
Whether you’re exploring the skies in a single-engine Cessna, commanding a massive A380, or pulling daring manoeuvres in a fighter jet, Aerofly FS Global has something for everyone.
Download Aerofly FS Global today on iOS and Android and get into the pilot’s seat.
Book fans need the new app Nightstand.
The app allows you to easily keep track of your reading list while also organizing your book collection. Getting started is easy as you can quickly search from more than 40 million books to add to your library in seconds.
Each book can be moved through the entire cycle—Wishlist, Purchased, In Progress, Complete, or Did Not Finish.
To help you read more, you can also set a daily reading goal and log it to preserve your streak.
While reading, you can record your thoughts, favorite quotes, or other information,
You can even arrange your books in custom shelves and then take a screenshot to share with friends.
If you run out of book ideas, the app also offers AI-powered recommendations on your personal reading history. For example, you can search for something specific like a romantic novel set in a countryside.
Nightstand is a free download on the App Store now for the iPhone.
There is an optional subscription for $1.99 monthly or $14.99 yearly. There is also a lifetime unlock for $19.99. Both the monthly and yearly option have a free, seven-day trial.
Subscribers can unlock the AI recommendations, track reading states and goals, and use customize fonts, colors, and icons.
As the weather is getting colder, skiing and snowboarding season is heating up. If you’re looking for a perfect companion to track your runs and more, take a look at Slopes.
There’s no need to worry about doing anything to track your runs with the app. Just select your activity and Slopes will figure out everything else in the background while recording runs all day long with your iPhone tucked inside a pocket.
On the Apple Watch, you can see live heart rate data and more.
After runs, you can see a wide variety of information like performance, speed, vertical, run times, and more.
You can even find friends at the resorts with location tracking.
One of the best features of the app is custom resort mapping. With the, you can see extensive information like trails, lifts, facilities, and more. There is also a 3D mode and search feature. Those maps are available in more than 2,000 resorts worldwide.
If you haven’t used the app since last winter, there are also a number of other great changes. A new card-based UI always keep that map of your data visible and more interactive.
The app has also added better Siri and Shortcuts support. On the Apple Watch, the app supports Double Tap and features a widget for the Smart Stack.
Slopes is for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. It’s a free download on the App Store now.
With the free version, you can tap unlimited recording of runs, daily summary of stats, and view resort conditions/trail maps. You can also see leaderboards with friends.
To unlock all of the apps features, you’ll need a subscription. Subscribers can unlock run-by-run maps, offline trail maps, virtual 3D mountains, level-of-effort insights and compared runs side-by-side.
There are two options, a $3.99 day pass or $29.99 yearly subscription.