In this week's App Recap, we've highlighted productivity app "Do," productivity app "Flow," and lifestyle app "North Star" as three apps that are worth checking out.
Apps to Check Out
Do: Simple Notes & To Do Lists (iOS, One-Time Purchase) - Do features a simple interface that provides an easy way to keep track of notes and to-do lists. Users can organize notes into sub-lists as well as create reminders with alerts and badges. Do can also be customized in one of nine color themes. The app is free to download, and users have the option to purchase Do's $4.99 one-time upgrade to be able to add more than 30 items, use a passcode as well as Touch ID/Face ID to lock items, and to back up data to iCloud.
Flow - Focus & Pomodoro Timer (Mac, Subscription) - Flow can help users reduce distractions and maintain focus by dividing work into sections using a timer that lives in the menu bar. The app's timer can be customized with predefined values, and users are able to block apps from being used while the flow timer is running. After completing a block of work, users can start the break timer to take a break before taking on another section of work. Users can subscribe to Flow's pro version, which is available in a subscription priced at $0.99 per month and $7.99 per year, to set custom durations for flow and break intervals, access advanced controls, and more.
North Star - Your Goals (iOS, Subscription) - North Star is an app that can be used to easily work toward goals through habits to track frequent activities, milestones to break up a goal into smaller steps, measures to track results over time, and the planner to create to-do lists and reminders. In addition, customizable icons and colors can be utilized to help differentiate items. Although free to download, North Star's basic version only allows users to track one goal. The app's paid version, which features the creation of an unlimited number of goals, is available in both monthly and yearly subscription options as well as a lifetime purchase priced at $4.99, $28.49, and $49.99 respectively.
Are you using a great new app we've missed? Let us know in the comments and we'll check it out for next week's App Recap. Are you a developer of a unique app you'd like us to consider? Send us a message through our tip line at the top of the page and we'll check it out.
Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones.
Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3.
Notification Summary Changes
Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries
Apple Intelligence...
Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes.
While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
Friday January 24, 2025 8:16 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 18.3 is expected to be widely released next week, and that means the first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner.
Apple has previously implied that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, as that is when it promised to make Apple Intelligence available in even more languages.
Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far.
Apple Intelligence for Siri
Siri ...
Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today.
A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device.
The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes.
The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
Friday January 24, 2025 9:09 am PST by Juli Clover
The upcoming iPhone 17 models that Apple plans to release this year will not feature a smaller Dynamic Island, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today.
On social media, he said that he is expecting the size of the Dynamic Island to remain "largely unchanged" across the iPhone 17 lineup. His statement is contrary to prior rumors that we've heard about planned changes for the iPhone 17 models.
...
Saturday January 25, 2025 5:07 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's retail stores will be rolling out "merchandise/floor marketing updates" next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman did not explicitly say if the store updates are related to any upcoming product announcements, but he did mention that next week is around the time that Apple rolls out its annual Black Unity watch band for the Apple Watch.
In each of the past four years, ...
Thursday January 23, 2025 2:48 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
It's also time for Apple's first product announcement of the year.
Last year, Apple said it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and the wireless earbuds are expected to launch very soon.
Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code
In his Power On newsletter last weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the...
I’m avoiding all third party apps that are sub based and don’t offer a lifetime purchase. Or if I can move them over to a built-in solution.
I just phased out 1Password after years of using it, switched to Keychain / iCloud. I now only pay for DownDog, AirMail (against myself, but there is no good alternative), Spotify and Netflix.
As a developer, I don’t believe in “keep paying to keep it working”.
Sorry, but all of these are stupid. Be an adult and manage your time effectively. Or use Siri to execute tasks, reminders, etc, and put your phone down when you’re working. ?
Nice to see you respecting other people’s life choices.
Can you try to be a little less demeaning? I don’t use any of these apps, however I fully respect anyone who not only uses them but finds them helpful.
You could levy the same criticism at me - I use Evernote, Notability, Fantastical and day one.
Each could technically be changed to use Notes and Calendar, but I’d not be nearly as happy, or productive.
LOL at all these subscriptions. Looks like customers are now supposed to buy everybody a cup of coffee or a cake every month to use software.
I am tired of all these subs.
Came here to say this. I understand the need for subs when there's an ongoing cost, like cloud storage (although even that should now be consolidated through iCloud or Dropbox).
But a monthly cost for a piece of software that is largely unchanging doesn't make sense (I'm looking at you notes apps). Also the pricing is a bit insane. I don't understand how an app that used to cost $30 is now $5 a month. If you consider that software gets a major update on average every 3 years (which gives me a choice to upgrade or not if I need the new features), that's $180 total cost of ownership. That's why I bought Scrivener, and did not subscribe to Ulysses for example.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking sides and I think developers should charge as much as they can get away with. They deserve to make as much money as the market can handle. I'm just sharing the point of view of a user who will not pay an ongoing cost for a fixed piece of software (bug fixes don't count because the assumption is that the software is bug free, or at least to the extent that it's functional).
