So welcome to our guide to the best free iPhone and iPad apps.

But what can you get when unwilling to spend anything at all? Actually, loads; as our selection shows, iOS and iPadOS apps are available for all manner of tasks, from sprucing up photos and composing music to keeping fit and exploring the world.

Our guide to the top free iPhone and iPad apps

Get an instant fix with the best free iOS and iPadOS app tickling our fancy right now.

RetroArch

With Apple having spent more than a decade squashing emulators, it’s quite something to now have RetroArch on an iPhone. While Delta is a far more usable app – and our recommendation for emulating old Nintendo systems – RetroArch is packed with so many emulation cores and options that it’s the essential install for anyone who fancies exploring gaming’s wider history on iPhone.

If you’ve used RetroArch before, it’s almost all here. (A few cores are absent, due to Apple policy still being more rigid than Google’s.) And it works well, including with physical game controllers. If you’ve not used RetroArch before… you’re probably going to need a setup guide. Yes, homework. But put in the time and RetroArch is unlike anything else out there for revisiting the classics.

Get RetroArch

Once you’re done with that app, try these…

Travel and weather apps

Söka

When the first item on your bucket list is ‘make a bucket list’, you probably need Söka. The app helps you organise your wish list into categories and keep track of what you’ve done. Or if you’re too lazy to think of your own ideas, it’ll churn out a bucket list via the magic of AI – hopefully not ‘hallucinating’ too many things along the way.

For free, you get three bucket lists with up to 30 items, and can generate up to five AI lists. Which is plenty. But if your to-dos cannot be contained by such confines, Söka+ ($8.99/£8.99 per year or $29.99/£29.99 lifetime) removes all limits and also lets you record countries you’ve visited on an interactive map as you go.

Get Söka

Weatherian

The trouble with weather sources is they disagree. One will predict a blast of sun, only for you to venture outside and get soaked. Weatherian gets around this by giving you all sources and data at once. You select providers you’re interested in and their details are then simultaneously displayed on a chart of wiggly lines and coloured bars.

You’d expect cacophony and chaos, but instead Weatherian’s output is more like an average. And if one source is too often an outlier where you live, it’s easy to spot and remove. Beyond that, there’s a handy rainfall map and daylight times. 

Simple and to the point, then, but a welcome dose of data density in an ongoing storm of apps that initially reveal little and make you scroll until your pointer finger screams.

Get Weatherian

Atlas Obscura

Most travel guides lead you to the same old sights. Atlas Obscura, as its name suggests, wants you gawping at more unique things. Load up the app and it’ll figure out where you are and draw from 22,000 crowdsourced curiosities to find those that are nearby.

In each case, you can dig into the details a little before you visit, and save the place to a list if you fancy going. Stats help you track where you’ve been, and if you chance upon something amazing that isn’t yet in the app, you can upload some info. Just make sure it actually is interesting – a fairly weird-looking tree in your garden just isn’t going to cut it.

Download Atlas Obscura

Air Matters

Many weather apps include air quality readings. The snag is they tend to be tucked behind sign that says ‘beware of the leopard’. Air Matters flips all that around: AQI and allergen information is front and centre, and it’s the weather forecast that takes a back seat, being relegated to a few icons detailing current conditions.

But you’re not here to find out whether it’ll rain next Tuesday, rather to see if you’re going to have trouble breathing. And for that, this app excels. You get readings for a range of pollutants and separate data on allergens, including alder, birch, grasses and mugwort. There’s an Apple Watch app to get all that on your wrist, and the entire thing’s free – unless you fancy splashing out a piffling $0.99/79p per year to remove the unobtrusive ads.

Download Air Matters

Google Maps

Apple initially made a mess of its own maps solution, and even today it’s imperfect. The Apple Maps app is pretty good for driving directions, but it’s not great on foot and it remains poor for locating points of interest.

Fortunately, Google’s alternative is excellent, accurate, and also bundles the useful Street View, for checking out routes before a long and unfamiliar journey. Smartly, it’ll also work offline, too, if you download chunks of map to your device.

Download Google Maps

In the city: Citymapper

When roaming about somewhere Citymapper covers, it’s a superb alternative to Google Maps. The app lists transit options and costs, along with telling you how long journeys will be – and how many calories you’ll burn if you put in some legwork yourself, rather than taking the easy option.

XE Currency

When you’re grappling with unfamiliar currency, the last thing you need is for an app to make things difficult, resulting in you accidentally spending your entire life savings on a sponge. XE currency might not be the prettiest app around, but it’s straightforward and usable.

You concoct a custom list of currencies, and prod any of them to make it the main one. Tap the calculator to enter a value and conversions happen instantaneously. If you’re offline, the app retains the most recent rates it downloaded. You can also compare the rates you get at a cashpoint or bureau de change to see how much you just got ripped off.

Download XE Currency

Google Translate

Google has a habit of injecting its apps with a little slice of magic, and Google Translate is no exception. The app will happily translate between over 100 languages (and can handle over 50 of those offline), and translate bi-lingual conversations on the fly.

The best bit, though, is when you’re ambling about somewhere, looking at strange signs and menus, and then point Google Translate’s camera at them. In an instant, it translates everything, like a Babel fish for your eyes. And although some live translations can be a little, um, fishy (sorry), it’s a much more efficient way to translate than laboriously tapping out words, or hiring 50 translators to follow you about wherever you go.

Download Google Translate

Health and wellbeing apps

EZ Meditation Timer

Fancy centring yourself with a spot of mindfulness? Then you probably don’t want an app raiding your piggy bank. Fortunately, EZ Meditation Timer differentiates itself from frequently skeevy contemporaries through ditching a price tag, eradicating cruft, and making good on everything else.

The timer’s easy to set off and use, and you get a range of background noises to help you block out the world during sessions. Whether you stop the timer early or not, the app encourages you with a congratulatory message. Post-meditation, you can dip into a sessions log to see how often you’re using the app, or join a community of like-minded souls and compare stats. No-nonsense stuff, then. Other wellbeing apps, take note.

Download EZ Meditation

In the moment: Smiling Mind

Should you need guidance for meditation, Smiling Mind should set you on your way. It includes programmes for children and adults alike, and sessions for different times and places. If you just need a moment, there are breathing exercises, and you can track sessions too.

RunKeeper

The developers of this app call it a ‘personal trainer in your pocket’. If you opt for RunKeeper’s premium version ($9.99/£7.99 monthly), that might be the case; for everyone else, it’s instead a free, efficient means of logging your hikes, runs and bike rides, and taking a quick gander at the exercise your friends are doing (or not). Routes are mapped, stats are stored, and if you feel really tired half-way through a run, you can procrastinate for a few seconds by taking a photo from inside the app.

Download RunKeeper

Oak – Meditation & Breathing

STRESS! ANXIETY! MORE STRESS! If your heart’s now thumping, Oak can help you unwind.

Breathing exercises have you hold your breath until a circle fills, wait a bit, and breathe out. (Three are provided, covering calming, concentrating, and alertness.) Guided meditations boost awareness, and a guided breath courses helps you unwind when trying to sleep. Use the app often and you get badges with pictures of trees and mountains.

All of which perhaps makes you think Stuff is now helmed by hippies (man). But here’s the thing: Oak really works. Try it. Relax. And be briefly at one with the world, until some idiot does something to annoy you.

Download Oak

Kitchen Stories

Cookery apps tend to make assumptions about your ability, and abandon you with an ingredients list, some brief instructions, and a single photo to show what the dish you’re making should look like.

Kitchen Stories is different. It might lack the recipe numbers of some competing apps, but everything it presents looks mouthwateringly yummy.

More importantly, this app wants to help you cook. Never chopped an onion? Watch a tutorial video. Halfway through a recipe and wondering if you’re on track? Compare your efforts with the current step’s photo. Good enough to eat? Steady on: glass and metal isn’t tasty – unlike whatever you’ll create using this app.

Download Kitchen Stories

Photography apps

Snapseed

For creative enhancements to photographs, it’s hard to beat Snapseed.

The app includes a slew of tools, from basic tuning and adjustments through to advanced filters, all controlled using a gestural interface. Dragging on the screen defines focal points and the strength of effects, ensuring Snapseed is intuitive and fun to use.

Brilliantly, edits are non-destructive, meaning you can at any point go back and adjust the settings for any given step. And if you happen upon an especially pleasing combination of edits and effects, that can be saved as a custom filter.

Download Snapseed

Retrica

The iOS Camera app has live filters, but Retrica’s selection is much larger, drawing on decades of photographic styles. Other tools further boost creativity, including vignettes, blurs and borders.

Our favourite feature, though, is the interval timer, which takes a number of consecutive photos and stitches them together in a user-defined layout, and plays them as an animation you can share.

Download Retrica

Retrospecs

Remember the good old days of computing? Angry that your shiny new iPhone X captures every blemish when taking selfies? Then use Retrospecs to go truly retro.

Any snap or pic can be transformed into the output of a Game Boy, Amstrad CPC or ancient PC. If that’s not enough, go full ASCII with Commodore PET emulation. (Many more systems can be unlocked with a $3.99/£3.99 IAP.)

Then mess about with dithering, scanlines and glitch videos, before sharing your masterpiece and making friends wonder why you now look like Max Headroom’s great grandfather.

Download Retrospecs

Sketchbook

For a good long while, Sketchbook was after your money, but now it just wants you to create. From that blank canvas you start off with, there’s scope to make all manner of compositions, from photorealistic digital paintings to initial stabs at designing the next must-have digital gadget.

The app is packed with features – tons of brushes; layers; grids and perspective guides; curve rulers; Pencil support on iPad. All it lacks is a price tag, meaning that if you’re a scribbler, an iOS fan, and someone who doesn’t have enough cash knocking around for a top-notch sketching app, you no longer need worry. Just grab this one, because it’s fab.

Download Sketchbook

Clarity

On launch, this app was resolutely focussed on helping you make sleek, minimal wallpapers. Welding a scrolling ‘magazine’ of backgrounds has eroded some of this, uh, clarity; even so, it’s a good bet for iPhone wallpapers.

For free, you can create blurs and masks based on your own photos, or choose from a selection of gradients. Whatever you pick can be tested against a Home screen preview, to make sure it doesn’t offend your eyes.

Lob IAP the dev’s way and you open up more editing and download options; but even for free, you won’t find anything better for snazzing up Home and Lock screens – and in a manner even Mr Ive would probably approve of.

Download Clarity

PicsArt Animator

Much like our former favourite Animatic, PicsArt Animator is an app that makes it easy to get into animation. It’s a virtual flip-book of sorts, with onion-skinning smarts: you draw each frame, and see previous ones beneath in faded form. This ensures smooth transitions in your miniature movie, rather than something resembling an explosion in a fly factory.

But delve into the menus and PicsArt takes things further, with varied brushes, a layers system, and the ability to import a photo and scribble all over it. Want to Roobarb and Custard your own face? Now’s your chance.

Download PicsArt Animated Gif & Video Animator

Clips

Unlike Apple’s own iMovie, Clips doesn’t want to be a full-fledged video editor. Instead, it’s about capturing moments, and doing something interesting with them.

Recorded shots can be slathered in filters and stickers, have live titles applied, and be set alongside editable ‘posters’ that sort of work like title cards. And if you’ve an iPhone X, Selfie Scenes can transport you to an immersive neon cityscape, fine-art landscape, or Star Wars spaceships. Really good app, it is.

Download Clips

Music making and audio apps

musicLabe

We’ve seen many pianos on iPhone and iPad, but none of them ever looked like this one. musicLabe has a bunch of interconnected coloured panels you prod, whereupon a piano or guitar noise is emitted from your device. A metronome can be fired up to keep you in time, and a basic looper lets you record overlaid melodies.

Given that the app’s based around scales, selected from the side of the screen, it’s hard to play a bum note. The vibe is meditative and relaxing – ideal for newcomers who like the idea of making music but feel intimidated by traditional fare. Yet there’s scope here for even seasoned musicians, with the unique interface sparking ideas through forcing you to approach composition in a new way.

Download musicLabe

GarageBand

It was already hugely ambitious when first released, but GarageBand has since grown to become a hugely capable app. Newcomers can tap out tunes on a loops grid, experiment with a drum machine, and always play in tune with smart piano strips. Within an hour or two, it’s genuinely possible to end up with something approximating a chart hit.

For pros, there’s a ton of added depth awaiting discovery: multi-track and multi-take recording, a slew of effects, and the mightily impressive Alchemy synth. GarageBand can also act as a hub for a range of other iOS music apps, given that it supports Audiobus, Inter-App Audio and Audio Units. For 20 quid, GarageBand would be a bargain. For free, it’s unmissable, unless you absolutely hate the idea of making music on your iPhone or iPad.

Download GarageBand

Animoog Z

The original Animoog was a pioneering iPad synth, combining classic Moog sounds, eye-popping visuals, and a touchscreen interface that let anyone make an amazing noise without knowing the first thing about playing a keyboard. Animoog Z adds a new dimension to proceedings.

We mean that literally – sounds now exist across three axes. As you play the tactile scale-locked keyboard, tiny neon comets dart about in a 3D visualiser. IAP unlocks pro-grade features, but for free you can still twiddle some knobs, burn through a slew of presets, and save custom sounds – all while aiming to become the next Brian Eno.

Download Animoog Z

Chart topper: AudioKit Synth One

A more conventional synth, AudioKit Synth One is nonetheless borderline ludicrous for a freebie. It’s packed with presets and knobs to twiddle, and there’s an excellent built-in sequencer. With Audiobus and IAA support, about all it can’t do is point your fingers at the right keys to craft a perfect pop hit.

Novation Launchpad

Launchpad is absurdly fun and manages that tricky proposition of appealing to music newbs and pros alike. It’s essentially a board of pads, which you prod to trigger pre-set loops. These are organised into genre-based sets, such as House and Dubstep, and it’s almost impossible to play something that doesn’t make you want to get up and dance about like a loon.

For anyone who’s hankering for a little more depth, IAPs exist for new sounds and the means to import your own audio; additionally, you can record sessions and edit the sounds triggered by each pad.

Download Novation Launchpad

djay

If you fancy yourself a top deck-spinner, but lack any actual decks to spin, djay is the next best thing. For free, you get a classic two-deck set-up, with vinyl controls, a mixer slider, scrolling waveforms, and live effects to faff about with.

Even on iPhone, it can be a lot of fun smashing together tracks from your Spotify or iTunes collections. On iPad, the app’s something else, the large display giving you plenty of creative potential as you UNCH UNCH UNCH into the wee small hours.

And when you decide you’re the next David Guetta, subscription IAP unlocks a slew of pro features, including a four-deck view, video mixing, MIDI, and 1GB of samples.

Download djay

MusicHarbor

The problem with Apple Music when it comes to new releases is that the service shows you whatever it feels like, based on the whims of editors and algorithms you have no control over. By contrast, MusicHarbor acts like a stripped-back discovery engine for bands and record labels you care about.

Choose your favourites and you can then peruse latest and upcoming releases, in case a single’s sneaked out without you noticing. Pop-up menus let you play any item on Apple Music or add it to your library for later. Beyond that, you can gawp at music videos and throw the developer six quid to unlock filtering, appecarance settings, and any future paid features.

Download MusicHarbor

Entertainment and reading apps

Arc Browser

Whereas Safari impresses by attempting to squish everything from a desktop web browser into your iPhone, Arc Browser strips everything right back. The three-button interface provides access to existing tabs (explored like an app switcher), a search button, and details and actions for the current page (URL, reader mode, find, share…)

It’s efficient, then, but Arc goes beyond removing cruft by injecting smarts into search. Although you can still use a standard search engine, you probably shouldn’t, because ‘Browse for Me’ takes things further, serving up an overview of facts and links about your search term. It’s a useful time-saver, and makes it tempting to plump for Arc as your default browser, reserving Safari for deeper dives and moments when integration with other Apple devices is of paramount importance.

Get Arc Search

Albums

Streaming media has marginalised the album, transforming tens of millions of tracks into a colossal virtual jukebox. Albums wants to counter this trend, helping you to appreciate albums and rediscover your music library.

In its free incarnation, the main view randomly lists your albums – and you simply prod one to play it. But the app has nuance too – the Search tab lists recent additions and releases; tapping a band name lists what’s in your collection – and other relevant albums on Apple Music.

Splash out on a subscription and you can take things further, with insights into listening habits, a release feed, and powerful sort and filter options. Either way, the app comes recommended. 

Download Albums

Barcodes

If you had to cart about all the cards foisted on you by organisations from shops to gyms, you’d have no room left in your trousers. Barcodes provides a handier route, by letting you shove these cards inside your iPhone instead.

In the free ad-supported version, you can save up to three items. The app imports barcodes and QR codes using your camera, and each can have a name, icon, colour and notes assigned. In testing, the app worked as expected in supermarkets and even with the clunky scanners at a local library.

There’s also an Apple Watch app, widgets and cross-device iCloud sync. And if you pay ($1.99/£1.99 per month or $14.99/£14.99 ‘lifetime’), ads and card limitations vanish, and you can sync supported cards with Wallet. 

Download Barcodes

Overcast

Previously a paid podcasts app, Overcast’s now on an optional patronage model, meaning you can get your mitts on it for nothing. On using the app, you’ll appreciate the developer’s generosity – Overcast is great for discovering new shows to listen to, organising your podcasts, and for playback.

When it comes to management, you can create smart playlists and per-podcast priorities, to make sense of a deluge of episodes. During playback is where Overcast truly excels, though, with superb smart speed adjustment and voice boost tools that none of the competition – paid or otherwise – have fully matched.

Download Overcast

NetNewsWire

We’re subjected to a daily deluge of information, and so it’s easy to miss stories from sources that matter to you. NetNewsWire draws on a decidedly unfashionable technology, yet one that remains essential to allow you to focus on news and other reports that matter: RSS.

You subscribe in-app to websites and headlines subsequently show up in your feed. Tap on an article and its text and images are pulled into NetNewsWire; alternatively, you can opt to read articles using the built-in browser.

With support for iCloud and popular RSS engines, a simple yet flexible interface, keyboard shortcuts on iPad, Home screen widgets and unread/today smart feeds, NetNewsWire cements its place as an essential download for anyone who wants to keep track of what’s published on their favourite websites.

Download NetNewsWire

Alfread

We elsewhere in this list mention Pocket, which lets you save web pages to read later. The snag: Pocket (or the similar Instapaper) can become a bottomless pit of abandoned articles you never read. Alfread aims to change that.

It links to your account and presents articles as a stack of cards. Echoing Tinder, you swipe left to remove an article (whereupon it’s archived) or right to return it to your queue. Tap an article and it loads in a distraction-free interface.

This elegant approach gets you into the groove of regular reading, rather than amassing an ever-growing queue. Progress is tracked, so you can build a streak, and the app can auto-archive anything you’ve not read after a month. After all, at that point, you probably never will.

Download Alfread

Letterboxd

Watch enough films and they all blur into one, at which point you run the risk of accidentally watching something by Michael Bay. Save yourself by using Letterboxd to make a record of the films you love.

Tracking can be as simple as providing a quick thumbs-up or star rating. All your films can then be browsed in a grid that can be filtered by various criteria. To take things further, you can write reviews and delve into the social side of the app, thereby becoming a virtual mix of Mark Kermode, Roger Ebert, and an angry person on Twitter.

Download Letterboxd

Chunky

There are quite a few comic readers available for iPad, and Chunky rarely gets a mention – which is bizarre when you consider it’s free and astonishingly good. The app will happily grab comics from a range of cloud services, but splash out on the single $3.99/£3.99 IAP and you also gain access to Mac/Windows shared folders and Chunky’s own web server.

When reading, settings enable you to adjust aspects of panning, page turns and rendering, including upscaling; the last of those things ensures comics in Chunky look stunning on the Retina display – even if the source material isn’t of the highest quality.

Download Chunky Comic Reader

Bookshelf

If you’re a big reader, you’ve likely got piles of books awaiting your attention – whether they’re paper tomes on creaking shelves or digital volumes in the cloud. With Bookshelf, you can get properly organised, scanning in books or adding them via a web search, and then placing them on virtual shelves.

That might sound like busywork, but in getting a full overview of your entire collection, you can better see what you own. The app keeps you honest, by keeping track of your reading habits – at least if you regularly check in to tell it how far you’ve got in any given book. And if you loan a book to a friend, it’ll keep track of that as well.

Download Bookshelf

The next chapter: Serial Reader

If you’ve never made time for the classics, try Serial Reader. It serves up everything from Frankenstein to War and Peace in manageable daily ‘issues’ that take ten minutes to read. You can even serialise your own EPUBs. Go pro ($2.99/£2.99) for cross-device sync and other goodies.

Educational apps

Modulart Studio

There are two ways to approach this app. One is with your maths hat on, having it provide a quick way to craft graphs based on modular arithmetic. Or, if anything beyond basic algebra makes your head hurt, you can lob that hat into the sea and make geometric art. 

The interface is dead simple: you either adjust parameters (colours; angles; line widths) or properties (the numbers being fed into the graph). When you’re done, you can export your work as a high-res still image or an animated GIF. 

Modulart Studio sets out to do one thing, and it does it well. This app is as sharp and minimal as the visuals it creates.

Download Modulart Studio

Swift Playgrounds

If the notion of learning to code fills you with terror, Apple’s iPad-only app aims to put a friendly face on the process. Rather than hurling you deep into a sea of code, it splits the screen in two. On the left sits your work in progress. On the right, there’s an interactive 3D world you control by way of your typed commands.

This might sound a bit ‘My First Programming App’, but Apple’s on to something here. Swift Playgrounds is immediate, intuitive and approachable. There’s a good reason it’s also used by the likes of Lego, Sphero and Parrot for helping you work with their technology to take over the world (or at least your living room).

Download Swift Playgrounds

Night Sky

The galaxy in your hands might sound like hyperbole, but that’s what Night Sky offers – of a sort. Using the app, you can wave your device in front of your face, to see what celestial bodies and satellites are in that direction, or drag about the virtual sky with a digit.

Although some of the apps more dazzling moments (notably the AR orrery) lurk behind IAP, you do for nothing also get events notifications, an astrophotography camera, and a Night Sky Tonight animation, outlining which planets you’ll be able to gawp at once the sun scarpers.

Download Night Sky

Yousician

It’s fun pretending to rock out with a tiny plastic guitar with colourful buttons, and learning to play a real guitar can be tedious. Enter Yousician, which spins Guitar Hero 90 degrees and has you play along with a real guitar, aiming to get your timing right as coloured notes and chords work their way leftwards. The instant feedback and slight difficulty curve work wonders, and every lesson is free. The only caveat is freeloaders get limited play time every day.

Download Yousician

Work and studying apps

Unhabit

Mindful tech use is a great thing. The flip side of that – unthinkingly visiting the same old websites, and wasting hours on them – is not. Unhabit aims to break such bad routines, by blocking you from sites you want to spend less time on.

Trigger the Safari extension on a website and during further visits you’ll be confronted by a cooldown timer that’ll make you think twice about proceeding. Handily, the Unhabit app lets you change the duration of each site’s timer, along with turning off the block on specific days. It’s like a souped-up Screen Time, designed specifically for websites, entirely for free.

Download Unhabit

Highlighted

Sure, you can ruin all your precious books by scrawling over them with fluorescent markers, or gumming up the pages with sticky notes. But that won’t help you easily reference things in future. By contrast, Highlighted will.

As you browse a book, you point the app at interesting pages. It automatically scans the text, and you highlight the bit you want, which is then imported. Each note you save can be tagged and have a page number assigned, so you can easily find it in context later.

With powerful search and export functionality, this is an ideal freebie for remembering the important bits from your books, from brain-smashing nuggets in academic texts to countless infuriatingly clever bits in a Terry Pratchett tome.

Download Highlighted

Shortcuts

The thinking behind Shortcuts is to lighten your iOS workload, primarily by having it automate tasks that would otherwise require loads of taps and switching between multiple apps.

In the Gallery, you can choose from dozens of pre-defined workflows, which can be added to your Home screen, welded to Today view, or each given a vocal command you can use as a trigger by bellowing at Siri.

The best bit – at least for irreverent tinkerers – is that workflows can be duplicated, pulled apart, and experimented on. Or you can make your own using a straightforward, flexible interface. Rare is the iOS app that’ll save you loads of time rather than eat into it – but this is one of them.

Download Shortcuts

Drafts 5

This app bills itself as the place where text starts. That’s quite the claim, but Drafts 5 has the toolset to back it up. If you’re just tapping out notes, they’re stashed in a searchable inbox. For structure and editing, there are a bunch of Markdown and formatting tools, quickly accessible from a customisable keyboard row.

When it actually comes to doing something with your writing, Drafts 5 is packed full of useful sharing actions, which integrate with a huge range of apps and services. Splash out for the subscription IAP and you can get your code on and create your own. But even for free, Drafts is a top-notch text editor whether you’re rocking an iPhone or an iPad.

Download Drafts 5

Cloud Battery

If your life was centred around a single Apple device, you’d know when it needed plugging in. But most Stuff readers own a bunch of kit. Fortunately, Cloud Battery lets you keep tabs on how thirsty everything is.

Install the app on iPhones, iPads and your Apple Watch and as long as it’s running in the background you’ll get regular updates on other devices. A Mac app performs the same duties, even adding keyboard and trackpad charge levels to the mix.

Within the app, you can optionally set notifications, handily having the app bug you when one’s about to run out of juice, because you’ve been unsportingly paying more attention to another for hours.

Download Cloud Battery

PCalc Lite

For reasons that baffle us, Apple still doesn’t provide a calculator with the iPad. PCalc Lite is the best of the freebies, boasting an elegant interface, RPN mode, alternate themes, and conversions for length, speed, volume and weight. If you require more features, themes, layouts or conversion options, IAP enables you to bolt on bits of the app’s commercial sibling, the suitably named PCalc. (And the app’s great on the iPhone, too, bettering Apple’s built-in equivalent.)

Download PCalc Lite

• Which iPad should you buy? Pro vs Air vs Mini vs iPad 10.2

There are thousands of apps for Apple Watch. The tiny snag is that most of them aren’t much cop. Some misunderstand how a wearable is best used, and demand you spend too long with your wrist in front of your face, while others only briefly impress. And some apps have arrived on Apple Watch to great fanfare, only for them to meekly disappear after a while.

That’s not good enough for us. We want apps that are clever and well-designed – and also that we return to on a regular basis. That, then, is what this list is all about: the best Apple Watch apps we’re actively using.

The best new Apple Watch app

Get an instant fix with the Apple Watch app tickling our fancy right now.

Gentler Streak

We’ve grumbled before about Apple’s approach to streaks. Gentler Streak has a more human sensibility, urging you on a daily basis to remain within a fitness ‘range’ – and even suggesting you have a break if it thinks you’re over-exerting yourself.

On the watch, there’s no fancy wibbly graphs, but you can check out the day’s efforts or start a workout – including a ‘gentler’ one, when you only need a small boost. And when you’re exercising the multi-pane interface feels more useful than Apple’s regarding stats and fast access to audio playback.

• Price: free or $7.99/£7.99 per month or $54.99/£54.99 per year or $179.99/£179.99 lifetime
• Works on: watchOS 9.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Gentler Streak Workout Tracker

The best Apple Watch exercise and health apps

Get fitter through Apple’s little helper having you work out, run, and sleep more soundly.

Streaks Workout

This app broke a couple of the Stuff team, but we nonetheless heartedly recommend it for a quick calorie burn. All you need is your Apple Watch – Streaks Workout functions independently of the iOS app – and the will to work up a bit of a sweat.

You choose from four workout lengths (the 30-minutes one suitably being dubbed ‘extreme’), and the app strings together simple exercises. When you’re done with a set of reps, you tap the screen. Easy. Except when your entire body is screaming at you for not initially going for the six-minute option.

• Price: $4.99/£4.99
• Works on: watchOS 7.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Streaks Workout

Runance

You might question an indie taking on the terrifying might of the Runkeepers of this world, but Runance deserves a slot on your Apple Watch – at least if you prize privacy and don’t care about leaderboards and the like.

Kick off a workout on your watch and you can gawp at live metrics as you huff and puff, switch between rolling and average tempos, and control music. Back on iPhone, you can dig into your workout history and maps. There’s no login – and no data is shared with third parties. 

• Price: free
• Works on: watchOS 10.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Runance

WorkOutDoors

There are loads of workout apps for Apple Watch, but WorkOutDoors does something the others don’t: maps. On your wrist, you get a vector-based map that can be zoomed, panned or rotated. It’s like someone stuck a tiny iPhone in an Apple Watch case.

And its ambition doesn’t stop there. There are loads of features that show what can be done when you’re aiming to make more than an iPhone app’s sidekick: breadcrumb trails; multi-coloured speed/elevation/heart-rate trails; alternate layouts and zones; compass support; tons of data options; and POIs to help you navigate your way to the nearest pub. (Well, you need a reward after all that exercise, right?)

• Price: $6.99/£6.99
• Works on: watchOS 8.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download WorkOutDoors

Strava

Rather simpler in scope than WorkOutDoors, Strava goes for a more traditional companion app. You get a giant ‘start’ button, and then stats (time/distance/heart-rate) as you blaze about the place on your bike or on foot.

Given that Strava’s been able to work without an Apple Watch for some time now, it’s one of the more reliable efforts on the platform. The tiny snag is that it might give your battery a bit of a kicking. Still, all the more reason for you to pick up the pace a bit.

• Price: free + IAP
• Works on: watchOS 8.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Strava

Watch to 5K

Getting your bum off the sofa is one thing. Being able to jog 5K without your knees collapsing is another. Watch to 5K eases you towards that goal. You do three runs a week, gradually building up how long sessions are and reducing how much walking time’s involved. In the end, you’ll be able to run 5km in under half an hour. All the number crunching happens right on your Apple Watch, meaning you don’t have to lug your iPhone around or figure out how to shove it inside your day-glo lycra running gear.

• Price: $3.99/£3.49
• Works on: watchOS 8.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Watch to 5K

Moodistory

Your Apple Watch encourages you to track and protect your health — steps; stands; hearing. But Moodistory tries something different, inviting you to keep tabs on your mood.

Naturally, this is quite subjective, but the app keeps things simple, asking you to rate how you’re feeling, thereby gradually building up a picture of your mood over time.

It’s possible, even on Apple Watch, to add basic notes to entries, and check how your mood’s changed during the past two weeks. On iPhone, you can dig deeper into your data.

• Price: free + IAP
• Works on: watchOS 6.2 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Moodistory

Standland

If you feel your Apple Watch telling you to get off your behind once every hour isn’t sufficient motivation, you might enjoy Standland. The app has similar intent to Apple’s nagging, but rewards your heroic activity by dishing out adorable collectable creatures.

Any activity lasting at least one minute during an hour is counted, maxing out at 24 per day. Before long, you’ll have a tiny owl or little bunny to gawp at, which can romp around 3D AR environments back on your iPhone. Just take care to not die of a cute overdose.

• Price: free + IAP
• Works on: watchOS 6.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Standland

Heart Analyzer

There’s a Heart Rate app built right into your Apple Watch, but Heart Analyzer allows you to dig deeper into your thumpiest of organs.

After you’ve performed a bout of exercise, you can peruse wiggly lines, showing how your heart rate changed over time. The app logs averages over the past week, and you can even set a massive graph as a complication.

Overkill? For some. But if you’re sporty, Heart Analyzer seems a good bet for keeping track of what your ticker’s up to.

• Price: free + IAP
• Works on: watchOS 8.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Heart Analyzer

Wakeout

You’re at your desk and feel achy. But there’s no way you can exercise, right? Wrong! Wakeout’s cunning plan is to inject tiny bouts of physical activity into your day. On iPhone, you’ll get a schedule. On Apple Watch, it’s more about selecting a context, watching a brief animation of a randomly selected relevant exercise, and performing it for a short period until your wrist buzzes and tells you to stop.

At north of 50 bucks per year, Wakeout is a hefty investment. It’s disappointing there’s no reasonable monthly offer (that’s a whopping $12.99/£11.49), and the Apple Watch app alone might not convince you to subscribe. But as a complete package, it’s a useful tool to fight aches and pains that come from sedentary behaviour – and you do get a seven-day trial to make up your mind.

• Price: $12.99/£11.49 or $59.99/£52.99 per year
• Works on: watchOS 8.5 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Wakeout

The best Apple Watch essentials and travel apps

Everyday essentials you need to install, along with apps that ensure you won’t get lost at home or abroad.

Reward Card Wallet – Barcodes

Be rid of awkward moments where you fish through every pocket to find the barcodes you need to access your gym/loan books from a library/earn tiny bonuses on groceries. This app puts them right on your wrist.

Barcodes are managed on your iPhone, where you add branded visuals, organise cards into groups, and share them with family members over iCloud. On the Apple Watch, the interface is far superior to Wallet’s, making it a cinch to browse barcodes and get them ready for scanning machine beepage.

You can try three cards for free. Want more? Subscribe or pay the one-off lifetime IAP. 

• Price: free or $1.99/£1.99 per month or $14.99/£14.99 lifetime
• Works on: watchOS 9.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Reward Card Wallet

Carrot Weather

Apple’s weather app places forecast data around a dial. It doesn’t scan well. Carrot does a lot better, with a minimalist take on its superb iPhone app, delivering data-dense forecasts with a dollop of snark. You’ll helpfully be told it “sucks to be you” if it’s about to chuck it down – or that it’s “a bit moony” on a cold, clear night.

The big plus of Carrot Weather, though, is its customisation capabilities. On iPhone, this means you can rework the interface however you see fit. On Apple Watch, its power is in complications, with you being able to have it take over a face, like a wrist-based combination of Siân Lloyd and HAL 9000. You’ll need subscription IAP for a bunch of the Apple Watch features, note – but it’s well worth splashing out.

• Price: free + IAP
• Works on: watchOS 7.0 or later
• Age: 17+
• Download Carrot Weather

Solstice

Designed for people who look forward to brighter days, Solstice keeps tabs on daylight levels. Along with providing sunrise and sunset times, it outlines how much more (or less) daylight there is on any given day compared to the previous one.

There are complication options, including a large one with a graph and sunrise/sunset times. And you can also set up notifications on your iPhone that’ll appear on your Apple Watch, which for SAD sufferers can be limited to days when daylight’s increasing.

• Price: free
• Works on: watchOS 9.1 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Solstice

Citymapper

On the iPhone, Citymapper is fantastic, giving you point-to-point directions for a range of supported cities, and location-based public transport details and alerts. The Apple Watch app is equally good, offering rapid access to favourite places, and information about nearby trains, buses, ferries and more.

Journey steps are clearly outlined, providing all the assistance you need, such as times of upcoming trains, stops on your route, and tiny maps that link through to Apple’s Maps app. We just wish it could somehow magically work for every town and city in the world rather than just the handful of (mainly) capitals it’s currently set up for.

• Price: free
• Works on: watchOS 8.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Citymapper

Foursquare

The Foursquare mobile app long ago pivoted from telling the entire world where you were to finding out great places to go – far more useful. But when you’re hungry and in a strange city, you probably don’t want to be waggling your expensive smartphone about.

Fortunately, Foursquare for Apple Watch does the business. You can quickly get at the best tips for your current location, search for other options, and get at salient details regarding whatever you’re currently looking at. And if you don’t want to miss somewhere special, have the app ping you a notification when you’re passing by.

• Price: free
• Works on: watchOS 7.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Foursquare

Phone Buddy Lost Phone Alert for Watch

Apple’s Find My is great, but a better bet would be to avoid losing your gadgets in the first place. With PB (‘Phone Buddy’), you can define alerts that have your iPhone shriek for its life should you wander off and abandon it – and the same for your Apple Watch.

Fortunately, there are plenty of set-up options, meaning you can define how far you must go before everything starts blaring, and turn off alerts when on home Wi-Fi, so your iPhone doesn’t deafen everyone nearby when you head to the kitchen for a biscuit.

• Price: $4.99/£4.99
• Works on: watchOS 6.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Phone Buddy

Elk Currency Converter

When you’re overseas, it’s never good when you get currency conversions wrong and later discover you spent a month’s wages on a pair of socks. Elk puts conversions right on your wrist, reducing the likelihood of expensive mistakes.

Even better: this app’s properly thought about how you interact with Apple Watch. There’s no fiddly keypad for entering data – instead, you twiddle the Digital Crown to adjust numbers, and swipe to increment available digits.

• Price: free + $12.99/£12.99
• Works on: watchOS 3.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Elk Currency Converter

MultiTimer

Although Apple’s Timer has a moniker in the singular, it does in fact store multiple timers – including custom ones. However, they’re devoid of context, and you can only run one at once. Not so with MultiTimer.

Set up your timers in the iPhone app, and each is then displayed on your Apple Watch with a colour, label and icon. You can run as many timers as you like, and their progress is seamlessly synced across devices.

• Price: free + or $1.99/£1.99 per month or $14.99/£14.99 lifetime
• Works on: watchOS 8.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download MultiTimer

Countdowns (Free + IAP)

Calendars and reminder apps are fine, but Countdowns gives you a bespoke space to house important dates – and how long away they are (for things like anniversaries) or how long it’s been since they happened (such as if you’re trying to quit smoking).

You edit the list on your iPhone, and there are loads of customisation options. Those vital dates can then be in your face forever, by way of Apple Watch complications. You’ll never miss a date again – unless you forget to add it to the app. So… don’t do that.

• Price: free + or $0.99/99p per month or $19.99/£19.99 lifetime
• Works on: watchOS 8.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Countdowns

The best Apple Watch productivity apps

You won’t be firing up Office on your wrist any time soon, but your Apple Watch can still help you work.

Cloud Battery (Free or IAP)

On your iPhone, iPad or Mac, Cloud Battery lets you add devices to the app’s ongoing list, along with accessories like trackpads and Apple Pencil. On iPhone/iPad, you can define when you get charge alerts, such as when battery levels fall below 25%.

The Apple Watch app is a mere monitor, but that still proves useful. You can at a glance – either in the app or by way of a complication – see which of your devices needs plugging in. Much better than rocking up to it later and finding only a black screen.

• Price: free + or $4.99/£4.99
• Works on: watchOS 7.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Cloud Battery

Cheatsheet

If you fancy quick access to bite-sized notes (such as Wi-Fi passwords and door combinations) and it doesn’t matter too much if other people see them, Cheatsheet is an excellent download. Each tiny information nugget comprises a piece of text and custom icon. Cheats can be synced from the iPhone app too, aassuming you buy the one-off ‘unlock everything’ IAP.

You can also edit, create and organise (into folders) new cheats directly on Apple Watch (by way of dictation), along with using one of these notes as a complication. Just don’t make it your credit card PIN, eh?

• Price: free + $5.99/£5.99
• Works on: watchOS 8.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Cheatsheet

Drafts

Weirdly, Notes has yet to make its way across to Apple Watch, but fortunately Drafts ably fills that particular void. The app enables you to capture new notes by dictation, which are then hurled into your Drafts inbox. Alternatively, you can append or prepend whatever you input to an existing note – for example, to update a diary or shopping list.

If you don’t fancy talking at your Apple Watch, you can use the watchOS Scribble feature to write notes instead. Also, your inbox is browsable and your notes are readable on you Apple Watch, saving you from having to keep heading to your iPhone.

• Price: free or $1.99/£1.79 per month or $19.99/£17.49 per year
• Works on: watchOS 8.5 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Drafts

Halide Mark II

If you’re a serious iPhone photographer, you’ve probably already got Halide installed. If not, you should have – it’s a superb, premium, feature-rich app that unlocks the full potential of your Apple smartphone’s snapper.

Naturally, the Apple Watch app can’t magic up an Apple Watch camera. But it can provide a live preview of what your iPhone’s camera can see – useful when taking a photo with your arm stretched aloft, or when using the main camera for a selfie. Prod the shutter button to take a snap, or set off the timer to give everyone a few seconds to get their best smile on.

• Price: $2.99/£2.49 per month or $59.99/£59.99 lifetime
• Works on: watchOS 4.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Halide Mark II

Streaks

Streaks wants to infuse habits into your daily routine. However, unlike a great many of its ilk, this is a pay-once app – not one with a subscription. It also has a kind of ruthless efficiency that many of its rivals lack.

Here, you’re encouraged to limit yourself to just six habits (although up to 24 are supported). The interface is restricted to icons depicting your habits, which you prod when a task is completed – unless it’s a timer, in which case a tap sets it going. Reminders can also be sent your way as relevant.

It might seem reductive at first, but the app’s blunt nature works, keeping you focused on your tasks.

• Price: $5.99/£5.99
• Works on: watchOS 9.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Streaks

BFT – Bear Focus Timer

On iPhone, Bear Focus Timer is superb for keeping focused on tasks by breaking the day into work and break sprints. The Apple Watch app puts a similar system right on your wrist.

By default, you get 25 minutes to work and five to rest, whereupon a motivational bear picture is shown. Every four sprint pairs, you get a longer break, and all these values can be defined in-app. To further aid concentration you can also have noise loops piped into your lugholes — assuming you’ve connected some wireless headphones.

• Price: $1.99/£1.99
• Works on: watchOS 6.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download BFT – Bear Focus Timer

PCalc

If you’ve fond memories of calculator watches, you’re probably a) quite old and b) not going to be convinced about using a calculator app on Apple Watch. Because frankly, doing so is a mite fiddly.

Still, PCalc is the best of them. The buttons are chunky, and operators can be got at with a long tap or prodded on a second screen. The app also includes a handy third screen for conversions. It defaults to tips, but you can spin the Digital Crown to get at units for all kinds of things, including functions.

Note that freebie PCalc Lite offers similar functionality to massive cheapskates.

• Price: $9.99/£9.99
• Works on: watchOS 7.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download PCalc

Morpho Converter

On iPhone, this conversions app is all about efficiency and speed. You define a bunch of conversions, tap out a number and then see all of the answers at once. On Apple Watch, you cannot add any new conversions to your favourites, but you do get your existing iPhone list right on your wrist.

A calculator interface lets you punch in new figures, colours usefully differentiate unit types, a ‘reverse’ button enables you to instantly swap converted units around, and there’s a complication to put a specific conversion on your favourite watch face. For free, you’re limited to a handful of custom list items. That restriction can be removed with a subscription or one-off payment.

• Price: free or $0.99/79p per month or $19.99/£19.99 lifetime IAP
• Works on: watchOS 9.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Morpho Converter

Clicker – Count Anything

The original Clicker was an app with a big number on the screen that incremented when prodded. Then it gained – horrors! – complexity. Fortunately Clicker’s by The Iconfactory – and those guys know what they’re doing. (In short, all the options are hidden behind a little cog button.)

The first add-on was a goal setting. Reach it and you then see how far beyond it you are. More recently, the app gained new colour options, data sync, and inclement by a custom value. Just the thing for working on your 173 times table, thereby working up the skills to be the next ‘numbers game’ host on Countdown.

• Price: free
• Works on: watchOS 9.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Clicker

The best Apple Watch entertainment apps and games

When it’s time to unwind, make use of that thing on your wrist. Some Apple Watch games are surprisingly good, too.

OneFootball

On mobile, OneFootball is a a one-stop-shop for all things footie, offering news, telly, scores, results, and enough stats to choke the entire Match of the Day research team. On Apple Watch, it’s mostly a wrist-based companion to fill you with anticipation and terror when it goes ‘ding’.

This is because goal alerts are fed to your Apple Watch, meaning if you’re not able to sit in front of the telly when your favourite team’s playing, you can at least keep up with how well – or badly – things are going.

• Price: free + IAP
• Works on: watchOS 6.0 or later
• Age: 9+
• Download OneFootball

Sundial

Many apps advise when the sun and moon are due to make an appearance. Sundial gives you the finer details by way of multiple pages (‘widgets’) you swipe between. You get solar dials, pages that focus on the sun or moon, and an events page that manages to be an info dump and yet retain total clarity.

Everything’s customisable. You can add/remove widgets and rearrange their order, along with tweaking what information’s shown. And for when you don’t fancy delving into the app, Sundial provides a bunch of great-looking complications for your watch face.

• Price: free + $12.99/£12.99
• Works on: watchOS 7.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Sundial Solar & Lunar Time

Overcast

Apple’s Podcasts is on Apple Watch, enabling iPhone-free podcast bliss. But if you prefer using the iPhone’s best podcast app, Overcast, you’ll love its own Apple Watch app. It can act as a remote for whatever’s playing on your iPhone, but there’s a standalone mode as well, for podcasts Overcast syncs to your watch based on criteria you define.

The app’s design is refined and minimal, packing a lot into a small space. The main view provides fast access to settings and your podcasts list. When playing something, you can also use the Apple Watch app to adjust speed and skip chapters, thereby blazing past any boring bits. Bonus!

• Price: free
• Works on: watchOS 9.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Overcast

WatchFunk

This app bravely bridges the gap between ambitious and ridiculous by attempting to put a music studio right on your wrist. It’s not exactly GarageBand, but a fiver gets you a dinky one-octave keyboard for smashing out riffs during dull moments.

Buttons let you change the octave you’re playing, and if the default piano sound doesn’t suit, you can switch to seven alternatives, including a synth and a trumpet. Should you be more rhythmically inclined, a final option is a six-pad drum kit.

WatchFunk isn’t going to make you the next Daft Punk, but it’s fun, usable and a better use of your time than trying to work through your emails on the Apple Watch’s tiny display.

• Price: $4.99/£4.99
• Works on: watchOS 7.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download WatchFunk

Hit The Island

On iPhone, Hit The Island amusingly makes a game out of Dynamic Island. Apple Watch doesn’t have one of those, so the game bungs a fake one at the top of the screen and have you move a bat left and right to deflect a ball at the lozenge.

In short, then, it’s Pong. And if you’re of a certain vintage, you’ll enjoy twiddling the Digital Crown to play, as if you were a giant manipulating an old-school paddle. Well, at least until your own incompetence lands you with a single-figure score for the umpteenth time. (Gnash.)

• Price: free + IAP
• Works on: watchOS 8.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Hit The Island

Deep Golf

If you’re of the opinion golf would be much better if only you didn’t have to deal with all those other people on the course, Deep Golf might be the solution. First, it’s right there on your watch – no need for expensive clubs. Also, it’s set deep underground.

So as you thwack balls about the side-on 2D view, it’ll ricochet off cave walls, stick to terrifying purple goop, smash up bones, and bounce off of giant subterranean mushrooms. There’s little sound to speak of, but that merely aids with the solitude.

• Price: free or $1.99/£1.99
• Works on: watchOS 8.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Deep Golf

Tiny Armies

Turn-based strategy on a PC with a big display makes sense. Your eyes might narrow a bit at the prospect of such games on a phone. But on an Apple Watch? Hang on a minute.

But Tiny Armies has a go anyway, and it’s surprisingly great with its stripped-back, lightning-fast battles on little chequerboard arenas enveloped in a fog of war.

The AI’s not exactly like a savage Civilization, but for some quickfire turn-based larks on your wrist, Tiny Armies does the job admirably.

• Price: $0.99/99p
• Works on: watchOS 3.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Tiny Armies

Star Duster

Star Duster isn’t just our favourite Apple Watch game – it’s a good game, full stop. It echoes old-school LCD titles, with you twiddling the Digital Crown to have your servicebot zoom around the display, collecting space junk.

It looks and sounds lovely, like you’ve accidentally invoked a time travel app and been zapped back to 1982. But Star Duster isn’t done, because it does a lot with a little, providing real challenge as it ramps up the difficulty level with blocking walls and other service bot-worrying hazards. Games are swift, but when you’re defeated you’ll immediately want another blast – a rarity with an Apple Watch game.

• Price: $1.99/£1.99
• Works on: watchOS 7.1 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Star Duster

Asteroid Commando

A classic arcade cabinet on your wrist? Not quite, but Asteroid Commandoisn’t far off. It takes the classic Asteroids (obliterate space rocks; shoot deadly alien ships) and fashions something around the Digital Crown.

Twiddle that dial and your auto-firing ship spins. Power-ups occasionally appear, giving you a fighting chance of getting to the next level. One hit and you’re dead — and even ancient arcade games weren’t that harsh! Still, you do get two themes (classic and modern) and punchy sound effects when you fancy another go.

• Price: $1.99/£1.99
• Works on: watchOS 5.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Asteroid Commando

Dice by PCalc

Instead of playing a game on your watch, Dice by PCalc helps you play games in the real-world, by way of lobbing virtual dice across a virtual table. From a visual standpoint, this is impressive stuff on Apple Watch, but flexibility is the real win.

In the options screen, you choose from a wide range of dice types – or complete sets to roll with a single tap. Your table can be cleared at any point, or you can gradually throw additional dice, while the app tots up what you’ve thrown and the overall score. Cheats can’t prosper here.

• Price: $1.99/£1.99
• Works on: watchOS 7.0 or later
• Age: 4+
• Download Dice by PCalc

• Now read: our guide to the best iPhone and iPad apps money can buy

Which I’m sure sounds hyperbolic in the extreme. How can you kill the web? It’s huge. There are even sites dedicated to wasps on trampolines. Probably. I would check, but I’m scared to go near Google now for fear it might destroy the entire internet as we know it.

This latest bout of ‘old man yells at cloud’ actually began with Arc Search rather than Google AI. That free iPhone app lets you rattle off a search as normal, but you can alternatively have the browser search for you. It then presents a magazine-like summary packed with sections, images and videos. In other words, it does all the grunt work, rather than you having to piece together and compile information yourself. It’s fast, useful and intoxicating.

AI(EEEEEEEE)

But Google is a giant compared to the ant that is Arc. It has a gargantuan treasure trove of data, and the most powerful online presence imaginable. So while I can see the value in email/meeting summaries and better contextual photo search, I start to bristle when someone from Google says “Google will do the Googling for you” – and then beams about the rollout of AI overviews to a billion people.

Which isn’t to say there won’t be benefits. Google showed off a local search, which answered a complex query about finding a good yoga studio, potentially reducing someone’s faff load by 73%. But then people started pointing out the many inconsistencies and inaccuracies in existing Google Search summaries and Gemini output that the average user would miss. The risk is clear: search results becoming a swirling vortex of ‘maybe true’ information – like a gigantic Wikipedia on fast-forward, edited by an infinite legion of hopped-up monkeys hammering away at battered typewriters. Only infinitely less adorable. And people won’t head any further.

Google, for its part, warmly warbled that this won’t happen. But then it would say that. Instead, it argued Google AI searches create a range of perspectives, aren’t always going to be served, and will even increase click-throughs to the open web, because people want to dig deeper. 

Bots of bother

I’m unconvinced. Self-imposed limitations soon vanish when money and power enter the picture. And so I imagine Google AI results will rapidly become the default, not the exception. But there’s long been compelling evidence that social media has increasingly hollowed out news, because people rarely read beyond headlines. So how many will read beyond Google AI summaries? And will that be enough? We’re already seeing indie sites like Retro Dodo struggling against the Google algorithm. Google AI is a bigger threat. If what creators produce is rarely explored beyond being recycled in an AI summary, countless outlets could wink out of existence entirely.

At that point, things would move at speed. The well of quality information would dry up, forcing AIs to look elsewhere – but to where? User-generated content? With less incentive for producing quality, accuracy will plummet. Academia, forums and PR/paid content, then? Perhaps, but those are increasingly flooded with AI-generated content.

The end game? An internet reduced to a self-help group of AIs, glumly wondering where all the humans went. All while blaming Google, an early champion of connecting humanity to the web, for being the architect of its destruction. Still, at least we’ll all have more time for yoga. 

• Now read: Just say no: not every piece of tech needs subscriptions and AI

• Read: The best large Lego sets you should buy

Note: this list covers officially announced Lego sets. There are no rumours, leaks, nor models the writer ham-fistedly pieced together from a pile of random bricks.

August 2024 Lego sets

Buy these…

NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV ($219.99/£189.99 • 1913 pieces): The last time humans set foot on the moon, they also tootled around in a Lunar Roving Vehicle. This Technic LRV does more than you’d expect. It’s got the usual steering and suspension, along with finer details – including moon rocks. But it also folds up, like the real thing, and adds three equipment displays, each with its own information plaque.

Imperial Star Destroyer ($159.99/£149.99 • 1555 pieces): There have been grumbles about the scale and shape of this minifig playset take on the massive Empire ship. But it’s still packed with details and even has a carry handle for ‘flight play’. Also – and importantly – unlike the discontinued UCS set it won’t take over your home – or choke-hold your wallet, Vader style, until it begs for mercy.

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Milano ($179.99/£159.99 • 2090 pieces): How many versions of the Milano do we need? One more, according to Lego. And, to be fair, this one’s a beaut – a great display set for fans, but with enough swoopability to whoosh through the air when no-one’s looking. Just don’t drop the thing, unless you want a Lego version of the ship before the Nova Corps repaired it.

Consider these…

The Avengers Assemble: Age of Ultron ($99.99/£89.99 • 613 pieces): In Stuff’s view, the scene this set was based on was more Age of Ultra-Bad CGI than Age of Ultron. But this Lego set looks much better. On display, it’s suitably leapy and dynamic. And in play, Lego Avengers can smash the trio of enemy minifigs in the most one-sided Marvel battle since Galactus accidentally sat on Baby Groot. 

The Never Witch’s Nightmare Creatures ($44.99/£39.99 • 457 pieces): The DREAMZzz range might be based on a rubbish cartoon, but the sets are superb – all suitably dream-like and nightmarish constructions. This one’s in the latter camp, and gives you the means to build a bird that would make Hitchcock yelp, a wolf, or a stompy gigantic biped with a ridiculously massive sword.

The Bowser Express Train ($119.99/£104.99 • 1392 pieces): Our favourite of the upcoming Lego Super Mario sets has plenty of characters and features. It’s ideal for kids still making brick-built levels to tackle. But it’s also the closest thing we’ve had to a Lego Super Mario display set. And even though Lego Mario’s dead eyes still look terrifying when he’s switched off, you can distract everyone from the horror by rolling the train along and watching the spoke puff bob up and down. Choo-choo! 

Also coming in 2025: Lego Super Mario Kart. Vrrrrmmm!

June 2024 Lego sets

Buy this…

Batman with the Batmobile vs. Harley Quinn and Mr. Freeze ($59.99/£54.99 • 435 pieces): Finally, the Batmobile from Batman: The Animated Series joins the 1960s and 1980s incarnations in Lego form. It’s a bit spendy, and apparently this Batman doesn’t only work in black or very, very dark grey. But whether or not you can tap into Bruce Waynesque funds, let’s face it: if you’re a fan of the show, you’re buying this one. 

Consider these…

T. rex ($59.99/£54.99 • 626 pieces): This feels like Lego’s taken the phenomenally popular Mighty Dinosaurs and given it the detail of Wild Safari Animals, Majestic Tiger and Forest Animals. We’re here for that. The stompy main build looks great and is infinitely more interesting than the moulded dinos found in most Jurassic World sets.

The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr ($459.99/£399.99 • 5471 pieces): The evil counter to Lego Rivendell, this ominous tower features the Eye of Sauron – and it even lights up, so the ten included minifigs can cower in its terrifying glory. Spin the tower around and there are vignettes to discover. And if the set’s 83cm height isn’t enough, Lego says you can stack multiples. Although you’d need more than a gold ring to fund that endeavour.

Notre-Dame de Paris ($229.99/£199.99 • 4383 pieces): Five years after a devastating fire, this Paris landmark’s reconstruction is almost complete. This Lego set, packed as it is with 1×1 tiles, may take you almost as long to build. But when you’re done, you’ll have a gorgeous brick-built model showing how the building looked before that fateful day.

Note: if you’re in the US, the Batmobile and T. rex won’t arrive until 1 August. We have no idea why. Still, if you buy Barad-dûr, that’ll probably take you two months to build anyway.

Recent highlights – the best of 2024 so far…

Retro Camera ($19.99/£17.99 • 261 pieces): Lego’s recreations of old kit (console; typewriter; grand piano) are usually wallet-thumpingly expensive. Not here. This brick-built snapper – complete with film, strap and moving lens – is pocket-money friendly. And the retro TV ‘b’ build is adorable.

Batman: The Animated Series Gotham City ($299.99/£259.99 • 4210 pieces): A suitably flat set for the most 2D Batman, which you can wall-mount or place on a shelf. It’s packed full of details. You get brick-built takes on Arkham Asylum, Gotham City Court and the Bat Signal, along with the odd interactive element, such as the world’s tiniest Lego Batmobile. Which makes us want the rumoured Animated minifig-scale one all the more.

NASA Artemis Space Launch System ($259.99/£219.99 • 3601 pieces): If your idea of space Lego is more grounded in reality, you’ll love the latest NASA set. As ever, there’s plenty of detail, including retractable launch tower umbilicals, separating rocket stages, and a dinky Orion module with foldout solar panels. In all, it should have space fans over the moon as they brick-build a rocket that’s part of a program to finally once again take people there.

More great recent Lego sets from 2024…

Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale ($359.99/£314.99 • 3745 pieces): Celebrating 50 years of D&D, this set is quite the monster. And suitably, it includes some brick-built monsters too. The biggest is Cinderhorn, a gigantic posable dragon, braced to set fire to the included minifigs – or just sit atop the castle. All depending on whether it rolls a 6 or a 20. Or something.

TIE Interceptor ($229.99/£199.99 • 1931 pieces): This one has history – the TIE Interceptor was part of the very first Ultimate Collector Series line, back in 2000. But mostly, it’s about a massive swooshy spaceship of evil, ready to blast lasers at your UCS X-Wing. Or, you know, just sit there on a shelf, looking menacing – and infinitely more sleek than the comparatively gigantic UCS TIE Fighter.

Avengers Tower ($499.99/£429.99 • 5201 pieces): “Avengers Assemble… this massive Lego tower” is what you’ll want to shout when confronted by this whopper of a Lego set. It recreates the famous Marvel building in fine style, with a 90cm tall build that you can fill with 31 figures, ready to partake in the inevitable CGI-fuelled battle.

And even more cracking Lego sets from 2023…

Corvette ($149.99/£129.99 • 1210 pieces): Car enthusiasts rejoice – and wallets cower: another large-scale Lego car’s ready to zoom your way. This time, it’s a fancy red 1961 Corvette. As ever, it’s packed full of details, including a detailed engine and working steering. You also get to choose between a hard top or an open top, if you’re the kind of Corvette fan who wants the wind in their face rather than a roof over your bonce.

Concorde ($199.99/£169.99 • 2083 pieces): An engineering masterpiece becomes a Lego masterpiece, complete with tiltable nose and realistically cramped seating. Probably don’t try swooshing this metre-long model around, though, or you’ll have an aviation disaster on your hands. Or, rather, in pieces on the floor.

Natural History Museum ($299.99/£259.99 • 4014 pieces): The largest modular building to date gets educational, with tiny Lego exhibits depicting geology, space, fossils, and – sneakily – Lego themes (by way of a cunning collection of hats). Star of the show is a brick-built brachiosaur skeleton that towers over visitors and can be removed to go on tour, just like its British cousin, Dippy.

• Now read: Stuff meets Lego designer Mike Psiaki

While Apple has officially revealed the new iPad Pro and iPad Air, in 11in and 13in screen sizes, there are still plenty of other rumours to peruse…

• Best iPad: Which is the ideal Apple tablet for you?

iPad

The state of play: In October 2022, Apple released the 10th-gen iPad. It resembled a less powerful iPad Air with a reflective screen (boo) but had Apple’s first sensible selfie camera placement (yay). The ninth iteration of the iPad lurked quietly in the line-up, with its old-school charms of a Home button, a chunky screen bezel and a headphone port.

What’s next: The next iteration of the iPad is due, especially since we didn’t get one last year. In fact, 2023 was the first year since 2017 during which the standard iPad doesn’t get an update. So surely it’s coming this year – but reportedly it won’t be early this year and it’ll be later in 2024.

When we do get an 11th-gen, expect a minor spec bump with new colours and an A15 chip. Ideally, we’d prefer 2nd-gen Apple Pencil support and finally being rid of the reflective screen too, but suspect that’s unlikely. What is unlikely is the 9th-gen sticking around as a low-cost iPad, even when the 11th-gen shows up – the 10th will move down to fill that gap.

Stuff says: The 9th-gen iPad is charitably best described as ‘classic’ and ‘familiar’. Buy if the other models are out of your budget. The 10th-gen is a bit pricey and infuriatingly uses the old Apple Pencil. But it’s powerful and worth the outlay if you want an iPad that’ll last.

iPad Mini

The state of play: The iPad Mini has long been an enigma regarding release frequency and positioning. But Apple vastly improved its tiniest iPad with September 2021’s 6th-gen, more or less transforming it into an iPad Air Mini. There’s an A15 inside that tiny frame – but scrolling can be jiggly in portrait. Tsk.

What’s next: The main rumour that’s been swirling around forever now is the 7th-gen iPad Mini getting a 120Hz ProMotion display, which will handily boot ‘jelly scrolling’ concerns into the sun. No-one’s prediction parrot has parped precisely when this’ll rock up, mind. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reckons that the iPad Mini refresh will land later on this year, following the expected release of the new iPad Pro and Air models in the second week of May.

Stuff says: Removing the most overt flaw from the iPad Mini would be good. But who knows when it’ll happen? So if you want one, buy it now. Just be aware even in the Mini’s inconsistent release schedule, the 6th-gen is definitely more mid-cycle than long in the tooth.

iPad Air

The state of play: Apple has officially released its latest-gen iPad Air, complete with a faster M2 processor and new 13in screen-sized variant.

What’s next: It’s too early for the Apple rumour mill to have swung its focus on the future iPad Air, but we’ll be updating this piece with the latest news, as soon as it comes in.

Stuff says: The M2 processor should be more than enough for most people’s needs, so the current-gen iPad Air is worth a punt if you don’t need the bells and whistles that the new iPad Pro offers.

iPad Pro

The state of play: The new iPad Pro, complete with the rumoured OLED display, terrifyingly fast M4 processor, and support for the new Apple Pencil Pro, is officially here. We’ve even reviewed it.

What’s next: Given that the new iPad Pro has just been released, we don’t expect to hear much in the way of the next-gen iPad Pro for quite some time. We’ll be sure to update this piece with the inevitable rumours as soon as they start flying around however.

Stuff says: If you’re after an iPad Pro, you might as well get the current M4 version that’s just come out, given that it took two years for a refresh last time.

• You couldn’t Mac them up: The latest MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro rumours

Much of the reasoning behind the latter sentiment appears to stem from a kind of false equivalence. The new iPad Pro costs roughly the same as a MacBook Air – and heads rapidly towards MacBook Pro territory once you up the spec and add the new, fancy, wallet-thumping Magic Keyboard to your basket. And the iPad Pro’s innards have an awful lot of crossover with the Mac. They have similar amounts of memory and storage. The same silicon. And that M4 could run macOS without breaking sweat.

The tiny snag: the iPad Pro is not a Mac.

Pro Plus

“Aha”, say the people who reckon that Apple should let you flick a switch and run macOS on the iPad Pro. “You’re not really thinking this through. This is the iPad Pro. Pro is in the name. And I am a Pro. Yet I can’t do all Pro things with my iPad. Nor can I stop writing Pro with a capital letter. Help me. Please. I really can’t stop. Help me.” And so on.

At which point a laundry list of complaints gets spewed across social networks and blogs, like the tech geek output of a particularly heavy Saturday night. The new iPad Pro doesn’t let you write apps. You can’t install any app you want. It’s not terribly customisable. There aren’t utilities for call recording, clipboard management and window management. You can’t create multiple user accounts. There’s not always feature parity with iPad Pro apps that are also on the Mac.

Also, background processes sometimes cease with all the subtlety of a guillotine, which isn’t ideal if you’re almost done exporting a massive video from Final Cut Pro for iPad and have the audacity to use Stage Manager to switch to Mail for half a nanosecond. And that doesn’t happen on the Mac. Hence: the iPad Pro should run macOS.

One Pro to rule them all

Part of me does sympathise. I once wrote that the iPhone 14 I want is the one that makes all my other devices obsolete. And that is still kind of the dream: a single device I always have with me that can instantly optimise itself for different contexts, like the sci-fi offspring of a chameleon and a Transformer. But I’m increasingly keen on devices that do specific things really well. And I’m not sure the iPad Pro running macOS would be such a device.

Any product with such a split personality would lack focus. Inevitably, it wouldn’t be one in which you’d hold out hope of both parts evolving equally significantly and meaningfully. And if neither half of this theoretical Apple flagship tablet didn’t quite do the business, it’d be more iPad Proh-no than iPad Pro.

Which isn’t to say I don’t want change. Many of the shortcomings I mentioned earlier need addressing. But that can be done with realistic, considered changes to policy and software. It doesn’t need Apple to throw in the towel and just give you a big Finder-shaped button that lets you launch macOS on an iPad Pro. Because that would be the very definition of giving up – at which point everyone really would ask: why not just buy a Mac?

• Now read: Good riddance to the iPad Home button – now Apple’s tablet finally fulfils its original vision

That reminded me of the original iPad. That one was also ‘lovable’. And I still have mine, in an office drawer. (So, um, ‘draw[er]able’? Just go with me here.) And it definitely felt ‘magical’, once it finally arrived in my hands. Which at the time required it to go on an exciting road trip with a courier after an Icelandic volcano inconveniently erupted.

Anyway, the original iPad really did feel like the future. Much like the iPhone, it was designed to effectively ‘become’ the app you were running. And because it had a much larger display than a phone, the scope was much greater. Piano keys in music apps where you didn’t have to file your fingers down to prod them. Large canvases for painting. More space for words when writing or reading.

It was an amazing all-screen device. At least if you ignored the honking great bezels and chunky Home button. And then everything changed.

Go Pro

In 2018, I got an 11in iPad Pro in for review. And it instantly hit me. That original iPad might have been more ‘lovable’, given the characterless slab that was its redesigned successor. But the 2018 model was far more ‘magical’. And that was because the iPad Home button was gone. 

I mean, it wasn’t just because the Home button was gone. But without the requirement to have a thumbable button on the front of the iPad, the device suddenly and for the first time fully represented Apple’s original vision. It ‘became’ the app that was running. Equal bezels meant it didn’t matter which way up you held the tablet. There were now even fewer visual distractions as you waded into the task at hand.

People grumbled. The Home button had long guided everyone and helped them interact with Apple’s touchscreen devices. It was a simple, accessible, friendly way to always return to the Home Screen. And it later became a logical place to add a layer of security, by way of Touch ID. But flicking upwards from the bottom of the display instead soon became second nature. We didn’t need a Home button on a tablet anymore.

Six of it

Yet for six further years, it stuck around anyway, gradually being squeezed out of the iPad line-up like the last dollop of toothpaste. And I’ve no doubt that people will grumble that Apple still hasn’t gone far enough. Even with its fancy new iPad Pro, with its slogan of ‘so powerful it singes your eyebrows’ (possibly – I’ve not read the full press release yet), Apple’s tablet still has bezels. “But surely,” gripe those minimalists during their brief moments not paying homage at the Shrine of Ive, “Apple could feed those bezels to the shredder too?”

Well, no. I’m Team Bezels. I’ve gravitated towards increasingly doing things on an iPad over the years. Music composition. Drawing. Browsing. Games. Writing. And, as I’ve already noted, I don’t want distractions. Remove the bezel and there’s going to be a notch. Ugly. Moreover, there’s no longer going to be a frame. I don’t need what’s on my iPad bleeding into the world around it. It’s not a Vision Pro.

I’m just not Team Bezels That Are Absolutely Huge And House A Home Button. In part because that’s a really long name. But mostly because of the things I’ve said so far. Anyway, how about you now do the same for the iPhone SE, Apple, and ditch its Home button too? It’s more than time.

• Now read: Air today, obsolete tomorrow? But my ancient iPad still has value

That’s not to say subscriptions and AI are inherently evil. Unless Skynet is taking out yet another subscription to Kill All Humans Monthly, obviously. But subscriptions and AI do otherwise both have their place and their uses. Preferably far away from the vast majority of tech, admittedly.

Because the tiny snag is tech companies live in a world where endless growth is expected, and markets are increasingly saturated. So they flail around, looking for ways to raid your bank account and grab headlines, preferably simultaneously. And whether their cunning plans benefit you is, frankly, immaterial. Sorry to break that to you.

Pay up

So what about that skipping rope? And the adorable mouse? I’m getting to them. But first: music, TV and games! I mention those because companies have been increasing subscription prices for streaming, which is very annoying. But at least you can see the value of those services. Spotify charges an extra buck per month now. But you do get access to a growing library of over 100 million songs. Even if some of them are by the Spin Doctors.

The problem with subscriptions is when they start to feel like pranks. A while ago, I wrote about BMW subscriptions for seat warmers being a bum deal. The story read like satire. It wasn’t. HP also has a spot at the top of the stupid subscriptions leaderboard with Instant Ink, where the company helpfully remote-disables your printer if you stop paying a monthly fee.

But it’s in sports and wellbeing where things have gone properly bonkers, with all manner of kit aiming to part you from your hard-earned on a monthly basis. Presumably, the industry has been inspired by people who buy gym memberships that go unused, thereby giving gym owners money for nothing. So their gadgets flip that idea: you get nothing – unless you pay money.

Skip it

You might be familiar with treadmills that use this principle, locking vital features behind paywalls. But ‘smart’ skipping rope Crossrope took this idea to a comical extreme when it arrived last year. It costs $200 – and there’s a $15 per month subscription on top for functionality that includes the jump counter. Without that, it’s not smart – it’s just a skipping rope.

You might argue the smart person is whoever convinced people to part with that much cash for a skipping rope in the first place. But perhaps this is what we deserve, in a world where everything now has to be smart. Recently, AI Pin – the smartphone-priced gadget that can’t do much of what a smartphone can – was mauled by reviewers. Particular scorn was reserved for it also having a $24 per month subscription attached. Subscriptions and AI! The tech holy grail! Alas, also mostly useless.

So, finally, we reach the mouse. It’s not fluffy – it’s by Logitech, and it’s got AI. Because of course it has. AI is the next big thing and so by law must be injected into every gadget. But did anyone really want a mouse with a button to trigger an AI prompt builder (and that dumps junk in your user folder)? Well, you’re getting one anyway. Fume.

Still, let’s be thankful for small mercies – at least it doesn’t have a subscription. Although that’s probably only a matter of time.

• Now read: Why I think an iPhone 16 powered by Google AI could be rather annoying

And then it kind of fell apart. Today, there aren’t that many amazing Apple TV apps, but also there’s a lot of junk to fish through on the Apple TV App Store. Boo. But there are exceptions for your shiny new Apple TV 4K (or, er, older Apple TV ‘not 4K’). This guide lets you know how to find them – the best Apple TV apps that are actually worth using.

(Note: most of these apps are universal, meaning you can also install on your mobile Apple devices too, if you’d like to.)

The best new Apple TV apps we love right now

Well, new to this list, at any rate.

Play: Save Videos Watch Later

You know read-later apps? Well, this is a watch-later one. You use Play on your phone to stash videos from various sources – such as YouTube and Apple Music – and tag them if you’re an organised type. And on the Apple TV, you can then sit and watch everything. Buy a sub and the app will send all your YouTube subscriptions to the Channels Inbox too. 

Buy Play: Save Videos Watch Later ($2.99/£2.99 + optional IAP)

Artcast

Turned your brain to mush by binging the entire MCU? Make your TV more highbrow by transforming it into a work of art. Or, more accurately, 100,000 works of art, which you can set up as a kind of slideshow while pretending you live in a posh gallery. The app’s ad-supported by default, but you can rent one-off galleries or subscribe for a monthly fee.

Buy Artcast (free + optional IAP)

The best Apple TV apps – everything else…

All of the previous entries in this round-up we still think are fit to feature.

Amazon Prime Video

In the beforetimes, there was no Amazon Prime Video on Apple TV. Finally, towards the end of 2017, Apple and Amazon had a big hug and the service finally came to Apple’s black box. And it’s all rather nice, especially if until then you’d been slumming it getting your Preacher and Man in the High Castle fix through a cheapo Fire TV stick.

Get Amazon Prime Video for Apple TV (free + sub)

Breathing Zone

You know that breathing app on your Apple Watch? This one does much the same for your Apple TV, only in big-screen fashion so it takes over your entire field of view. Just the thing when you need to calm down after an exhilarating end-of-season finale. There are plenty of options too, from colours to breathing types.

Get Breathing Zone for Apple TV (free)

Brian Eno: Reflection

“Thirty quid!” you might yell, and then follow up with a choice expletive. But Reflection is something special – a version of the Brian Eno album that never stops remixing itself, and that shifts and changes depending on the time of day, and even the season. On the TV, you also get an evolving Eno abstract painting, transforming your gogglebox into a slice of living art.

Get Brian Eno : Reflection for Apple TV ($30.99/£29.99)

Carrot Weather TV

Very different from its iPhone counterpart, Carrot for Apple TV nonetheless augments forecasts and maps with plenty of snark. The malevolent AI dishes out twisted animations along with rainfall predictions. Multiple locations can be stored, and secret places await discovery; but whatever you do, don’t poke Carrot’s ocular sensor!

Get Carrot Weather TV for Apple TV ($3.99/£3.99)

Disney+

Given the rate of knots at which Disney is buying up properties, it’s only a matter of time before Disney+ is the only streaming telly service in existence. Until then, it’s fab for Marvel, Disney and Star Wars movies and series. In many countries, you also get a slew of shows bundled under Star. Just, you know, don’t mix that up with Star Wars. Because you’ll be disappointed. Or Vader will get you.

Get Disney+ for Apple TV (free)

Earthlapse 4K

There’s something magical about seeing the Earth from above, and Earthlapse offers some stunning time-lapse photography. There are 20 carefully mastered views from the ISS to choose from, in all the way up to 4K quality. And you can muck about with speed, colour filters and the soundtrack as you gawk at our little blue planet zooming through space.

Get Earthlapse 4K for Apple TV ($1.99/£1.99)

FE File Explorer Pro TV

If you dump all your media on a drive and want to access it from any device, you need FE File Explorer Pro TV. It connects to local network shares and remote servers, whereupon you can stream movies and audio files, or rifle through your photos. Not sure if it’s right for you? Try the free version (‘Owlfiles’, for some reason) before plonking down your cash.

Get FE File Explorer Pro TV for Apple TV ($4.99/£4.99)

Infuse

If your digital video collection is mostly knocking around hard drives or dotted about cloud services, Infuse deals with all that. Whether you grab the free or paid version, you can stream to your Apple TV, re-encoding files on-the-fly. Artwork, catalogue sorting and metadata is all automatic, making for a gorgeous browsing experience. Pro users also get trakt.tv support and can sync viewing progress and libraries across devices.

Get Infuse for Apple TV (free or sub)

JustWatch

Not sure what to watch? Or keen on watching something specific, but not sure where to watch it? JustWatch can help. It does a better job than Apple’s TV app of digging into a range of sources, and it also makes recommendations to feed your viewing habits, along with letting you build a service-agnostic wish list.

Get JustWatch for Apple TV (free)

Kitchen Stories

One of our favourite cookery apps, Kitchen Stories is awash with gorgeous photography and tons of video. Unsurprisingly, Apple TV concentrates on the latter, with a selection of videos covering recipes and skills. If you’ve always wanted to know how to prepare a squid, make a hearty beef stew, or chop (rather than just eat) chocolate, this is the app for you.

Get Kitchen Stories for Apple TV (free)

Letterboxd

A social networking app on Apple TV might strike you as odd, but Letterboxd is all about telly – or, more accurately, films on your telly. You log and rate favourites, flag films you’d like to see, peruse trailers, and optionally gripe to everyone about how unfair it is that new Star Wars flicks aren’t identical to the one you’ve had in your head since 1983.

Get Letterboxd for Apple TV (free)

Lumy

Obsessed with daylight? A secret vampire who’ll only head out after dark? Then get Lumy on your telly, to help you track all the relevant data. It gives you all the geeky data, but does so in a manner that is visually sublime. There’s even a photo frame mode on Apple TV, transforming the progress of the sun and moon into a minimal slice of virtual art.

Get Lumy for Apple TV ($6.99/£6.99)

Netflix

With Netflix having infiltrated pretty much everything with a screen, we’re half surprised it doesn’t appear on Apple Watch – or living room thermostats. The Apple TV version’s much as you’d expect: a usable, reliable way to delve into tons of great telly like Stranger Things – before realising with a start you’ve not actually moved from the sofa in three days.

Get Netflix for Apple TV (free)

Night Sky

If you’re a fan of stargazing, but not of going outside, you can always peer at virtual heavens using an astronomy app on your phone. But if even that seems like too much effort, fire up Night Sky on your Apple TV. Using the Siri Remote, you can zip about constellations. For dedicated buffs, there’s a Tonight Tour that provides information about what will appear in the sky – and when.

Get Night Sky for Apple TV (free or optional sub)

Plex

Although Infuse is in our list, it would be wrong to omit another video favourite, Plex. The app appeared way back in unofficial form on jailbroken second-generation Apple TVs, but this is the real deal. Despite being built in just five weeks, PLEX for Apple TV started out as a first-rate app for organising and streaming media collections, along with finding new things to watch; it’s carried on being great ever since.

Get Plex for Apple TV (free + IAP)

Radio – Receiver

The ‘Radio’ app on the old Apple TV was dreadful, hence why we’re relieved to find Radio – Receiver. It all looks very sleek and swish – dare we say it, a bit Apple-like. You can search for stations, add them to your favourites, and then dance around the living room like a lunatic. The app also supports podcasts, for when you want Infinite Monkey Cage booming out of your telly.

Get Radio – Receiver for Apple TV ($3.99/£3.99)

Solar Walk 2

On iOS, Solar Walk 2 is a gorgeous educational tool for exploring the solar system. On Apple TV, it’s simplified, having you select a planet or moon from a menu, and then fiddle around with Siri Remote to spin it about. However, you can still crack Saturn and co. open like eggs to peer at their insides, along with bringing up infographics to discover how insignificant Earth is compared to the giants of the solar system.

Get Solar Walk 2 for Apple TV ($2.99/£2.99)

Speedtest by Ookla

If you work for an ISP, you might be gnashing your teeth on seeing this entry, and so, yes, we know speed-test apps aren’t entirely accurate. However, if your Apple TV is having trouble streaming your favourite shows, Speedtest by Ookla at least provides an indication of whether your broadband’s conked out or not. It’s dead easy to use: let it rip and within a minute or so you’ll get current ping, download and uploads speed estimates.

View Speediest by Ookla for Apple TV (free)

Steam Link

Apple Arcade aside, games aren’t exactly flying on to Apple TV. Still, you can use Apple’s black box for your Steam collection instead, streaming from a networked PC or Mac. Caveat time: controller set-up can be a faff, and you need very good connectivity to avoid stop-motion syndrome. But when it’s properly up and running, Stream Link’s a blast.

Get Steam Link for Apple TV (free)

Streaks Workout

The ethos behind the Streaks apps is habit-forming and simplicity. With Streaks Workout, you only need your Apple TV, a floor, and some desire to get fit. You select exercises and how long you want to sweat for and then get going. The app tracks your streaks, encouraging you to continue burning off flab that ‘somehow’ appeared due to you spending too much time parked in front of your Apple TV doing less strenuous things.

Get Streaks Workout for Apple TV ($4.99/£4.99)

TED

If you’ve been watching vacuous telly to the point your brain’s threatening to throttle your windpipe, just to end it all, check out TED. You’ll find thousands of free videos that feature smart people talking about interesting things. You can search by type, look for something specific, and stash favourites to later impress your friends that thought you only watched The Big Bang Theory on a loop.

Get TED for Apple TV (free)

White Noise

If you can’t relax without background noise, but don’t want it to be permanently angry ‘Landahners’ in EastEnders, or whatever Spotify serves up, get White Noise on your telly. You choose from audio loops, including gentle beach waves, a tick-tocking grandfather clock, and, er, a vacuum cleaner. Probably just clean the house if that last one’s your thing.

Get White Noise for Apple TV ($0.99/99p)

• Also read: The best Apple Watch apps 2024 that we’re actually using

Fortunately, this wasn’t a surprise. I’d been preparing for this day ever since writing about how Netflix loves adverts more than it loves you. Mostly by grumbling about Netflix binning the ad-free Basic plan I’ve been clinging to for dear life. But no more, because Netflix needs more money.

The thing is, pitching downgrades in the user experience as a benefit is getting old. “Good news, everyone! We’re ramping up your streaming to super-duper-high-quality. You’ll love seeing all the fine details in your favourite shows. (And adverts.)” What was that last bit? “Nothing!”

But will people tolerate Netflix with adverts? Probably. Ads may wreck momentum in whatever you’re watching, but price cuts are always a winner. Even though subsequent price rises mean ‘Netflix with adverts’ will soon enough cost as much as Basic does today.

It doesn’t ad up

The thing is, I loathe ads. Every YouTube session is a painful reminder. And I recently braved a month of Prime Video, with its new injection of adverts. I’d get to the tense bit of a movie and – BAM! – nappy ads. No thanks.

Upgrading is the alternative – for £10.99 per month, I could be ad-free on Netflix once again. But whereas I was once happy to spend a fiver per month on a range of streaming services, I’m less thrilled to subscribe when each has headed well into double figures. We’ve gone from “Love is sharing a password” to “We love your money. So give us more money.”

We’re told there are business reasons for this. Prices were too low. Streaming services were propped up with investor money. But that’s not my problem. I was sold a service, which is now getting worse unless I pay more. And for what? Once, Netflix was the hub for all streaming goodness, from a range of studios. But many long ago took their balls home, aiming to replicate Netflix’s success, and instead found themselves stuck in the same money tar pit, desperately looking for a means of escape.

Cancel culture

So I was considering cancelling anyway. But I decided against doing so when the nine-year-old reacted to that prospect with all the fury a child could muster. And Netflix had wisely said child profiles will never see ads, presumably because parents prefer begrudgingly paying a fiver a month to keep the peace.

But, happily, the youngling is now hooked on iPlayer instead and barely shrugged when I brought up binning Neflix again. So I’m passing on the ‘ruined with ads plan’. And Standard. And also Premium, priced such that I’d expect the actors to perform shows live in my living room. Instead, I’m choosing ‘no plan’. 

And Netflix at least gave me a heads-up, so I have almost two months to finally finish Black Mirror. All while pondering an increasingly dystopian ‘Netflix with adverts’ future, where the cheapest plan plasters your screen with ads when you pause, pauses ads when you’re blinking, or goes full retro by removing on-demand entirely. And you can bet even that – since you’d no longer having to choose what to watch or strain your pointer finger – would be sold as a perk.

• Related: Best UK streaming service 2024: all streaming options compared