• Read more: Best AI phones: which smartphone has the best AI features?

Google Photos is doling out this treasure trove of AI photo editing tools, previously the exclusive playground of Pixel phone aficionados and those willing to shell out for a Google One subscription. Now, they’re flinging open the doors to everyone in a free update.

At the heart of this suite of photo editing tools is Magic Editor, an AI wizard that can transform your dreary holiday snaps into envy-inducing masterpieces. It can tweak a grey sky to a vivid blue, give photobombers the boot, and even reposition your sulking teenager to centre stage, all with a few taps. This kind of magic used to require a wand named Photoshop and a hefty sprinkle of patience. Not anymore. The rest of the AI photo editing tools – including the crowd-pleasers like Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, and a bunch of other snazzy features are on the way as well. The crème de la crème, like the AI-powered Best Take, will remain reserved solely for the Pixel 8 series.

But before you start planning a photoshoot in your garden, there are a few hoops to jump through. This whole ensemble is currently rolling out, and older Pixel devices are up first. Don’t expect your ancient tech relics to suddenly become photo-editing powerhouses. There’s a minimum spec requirement. Chromebooks need to be running ChromeOS version 118+ with at least 3GB of RAM, while smartphones must be on Android 8 or higher, or iOS 15 or higher. Pixel tablets are joining the party too.

But there’s one more kicker for the rest of us with iOS and Android devices. You only get 10 Magic Editor saves a month. Want more? That’ll require opening your wallet for a Premium Google One plan.

• Related: The best photo editing apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

A VPN can help you surf safely and anonymously whether you’re watching sports or streaming on Netflix and other services.

What’s the best free VPN service?

1. Proton VPN Free

We think Proton’s free VPN service is one of the best around. One of its biggest selling points is the fact that it has no data limits, which means you never have to worry about hitting any pesky caps. Despite being free, it also offers key features like a kill switch (your connection drops if the VPN service goes down so you’re not left unprotected), and the superior WireGuard VPN protocol.

Obviously, you’re going to have some limitations. In this instance, you only have access to three locations — the USA, Netherlands and Japan. And while you can install Proton VPN on as many devices as you like, you can only connect to one at a time if you’re using the free package. Still, considering it’s one of the fastest VPN services around (even on the free tier), there’s very little to complain about here, as long as the limited country choice doesn’t affect your specific use case.

• View the latest Proton VPN Free deals

2. PrivadoVPN Free

While PrivadoVPN can’t match Proton VPN’s unlimited data allowance, it still offers a respectable 10GB monthly limit. We find this should be enough for more casual use on, say, a smartphone, but even if you do reach the maximum amount, you can still use an emergency server to get online. Sure, the latter is limited solely to the Netherlands with a crawling speed of just 1Mbps, but it’s better than nothing.

When you’re within the data limit, you have a generous choice of thirteen locations to choose from, with speedy 350Mbps connectivity to boot. The best part, though, is the fact that you can use the free version to unblock streaming services, including Netflix USA, Prime Video, Disney+, and more.

• View the latest Privado VPN Free deals

3. Windscribe Free

Windscribe stands out from the crowd in a few key areas. While it has the common 10GB monthly cap, you can install and use it on more than one device, which is a feature that many other free alternatives lack. We appreciate that you have the choice of 11 different countries as well, which is more generous than most.

Overall, it’s definitely worth considering — especially if you’re after light use across different devices like phones and tablets. Just be wary of that strict 10GB cap, and you’ll be good to go.

• View the latest Windscribe Free deals

4. Atlas VPN Free

While its 10GB monthly data allowance is decent enough, its Atlas VPNs Mac-specific allowance that really shines. If you’re a Mac user, like us, you can take advantage of a whopping 2GB per day, making Atlas VPN one of the most competitive free VPNs around.

There are, of course, some catches — namely the limit to just two countries (the Netherlands and the USA). Still, you can connect two devices simultaneously, and the speeds are far from shabby. While streaming site unblocking isn’t officially supported, some people have tried their luck and found success, so it could be worth a shot. Not that we condone that, mind.

• View the latest Atlas VPN Free deals

5. Hotspot Shield Basic VPN

Hotspot Shield’s free VPN service offers an unmatched unlimited data limit, letting you stream and surf to your heart’s content. There’s one major catch though — you can only connect via one USA-based location, which might be a dealbreaker for some users, depending on their needs.

If that’s not an issue for you though, then it’s hard to beat that glorious unlimited data allowance. If you can also live without a kill switch, then we think this is one of the best free VPN services.

• View the latest Hotspot Shield Basic VPN deals

Best VPN FAQs:

What is a free VPN?

A virtual private network (commonly referred to as VPN), is a powerful tool that enables you to cloak your whereabouts on the web. VPNs work by directing your online traffic through the servers of the VPN provider, which are often located in various parts of the world.

You could, for example, use a VPN service to simulate your presence in the USA, letting you access Netflix content that may not be available in the United Kingdom. While we don’t officially endorse such usage, this is just one example of a common VPN use case.

Additionally, for individuals travelling to certain regions such as China (where access to popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google are restricted), VPNs become indispensable tools, letting you use your preferred apps while helping you stay in touch with people back home.

Are free VPNs safe?

The safety of free VPNs is a significant concern, and the answer isn’t straightforward because it varies based on the provider.

Many free VPN services log user data and may sell this information to third parties. This practice can compromise your privacy, which is the opposite of what a VPN should do.

Free VPNs might not have strong encryption protocols, leaving your data vulnerable to interception.

To generate revenue, many free VPNs display intrusive ads and pop-ups. These ads can be annoying and, in some cases, may lead to malicious websites.

You may also find that free VPN providers may not have the resources or motivation to maintain robust security measures or provide customer support. This lack of accountability can result in a poor and potentially unsafe user experience.

To avoid these potential free VPN pitfalls, read the section below on how to choose the best free VPN, as well as our reviews above.

How to choose the best free VPN

If you’re worried about choosing a free VPN, then follow these steps:

First, you’ll want to look for reviews (like ours above) from reputable sources and user feedback. Investigate whether the VPN provider has a history of privacy violations or security issues.

You will probably also want to read the privacy policy carefully to understand what data the VPN logs and how it is used. A trustworthy VPN should have a clear and transparent privacy policy.

Some well-known, trusted VPN providers (like the ones included Stuff’s best VPN guide) offer limited free versions of their paid services. These options might be safer as they often use the same infrastructure and security protocols as their premium counterparts.

Finally, consider why you actually need a VPN. For basic tasks like bypassing geo-restrictions or casual browsing, some free VPNs might suffice, but for more critical activities, such as handling sensitive information, investing in a reputable paid VPN service is advisable.

Are VPNs illegal?

VPNs are absolutely not illegal (although there are some exceptions in certain countries so it’s always worth checking), and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to anonymise your personal data and internet activity. Still, this doesn’t give you a blanket excuse to then carry out illegal activity, such as the downloading of copyrighted material. This also means that you shouldn’t use a VPN to bypass per-country streaming rights for services such as Netflix.

Can VPNs protect you from viruses and malware?

Short answer? No. Using a VPN to browse anonymously is one thing, but you’re still susceptible to malware and viruses. Stay away from dodgy sites, and practice your usual (hopefully alert) levels of internet safety. In other words, don’t go downloading .exe files willy-nilly.

Will using a VPN make your internet slower?

Any VPN will have the unfortunate effect of slowing down your internet connection, which makes total sense when you think about the extra steps your traffic is taking when passing through various server locations. Still, if you’ve got a reasonably fast internet connection already, then you shouldn’t notice too much of a difference.

Are paid VPNs better than free VPNs?

Paid VPNs will offer more services in exchange for your cash. In most cases, this means that you have a larger selection of countries and locations to choose from, with more supported devices to boot. If you’re planning on light usage though, then one of the best free VPNs should be enough for your needs.

What to watch with a VPN

Want to watch the NBA from outside your own country? You can, with the help of a VPN and our series of ‘how to’ guides. We’ve covered how you can watch NBA, MBL, the Bundesliga and more, wherever you are in the world. Want to know more? Take a look on the links below:

• How to watch NBA basketball
• How to watch Major League Baseball
• How to watch German Bundesliga
• How to watch Spanish LaLiga
• How to watch Italian Serie A
• How to watch MLS football
• How to watch NFL

Introduction

The original Hellblade wasn’t just an indie-sized team punching above their weight, using the latest graphics tech to tell a powerful story. Senua’s Sacrifice had the lofty aim of discussing mental health through a narrative action-adventure. The numerous awards it won and the subsequent Microsoft buy-out are clear signs developer Ninja Theory stuck the landing. Seven years on, it has returned for the follow-up.

A bigger budget has meant it meets the usual sequel expectation of being grander in scale – at least in terms of the setting, which goes beyond the dark recesses of the mind and to the gorgeous haunting landscapes of Iceland. Senua’s Saga launches during America’s annual Mental Health Awareness Month. But is there more to it than just a pretty-looking lesson on psychological well-being?

To Hell and back

Miss the first game? An optional recap fills you in: you play as Pict warrior Senua during the Celtic middle ages, on a quest to rescue the soul of her lover who was brutally sacrificed by viking invaders. She also struggles with psychosis, a mental condition that’s depicted by her hearing voices in her head (referred to in-game as furies) and seeing things that may or may not be connected to reality. Whether she actually faces otherworldly enemies or descends into Helheim is therefore up for debate – but the story focuses on accepting the condition that has tormented her throughout her life is also a part of her. Saga picks up from here.

Senua’s attention has turned to the Northmen who pillaged her land, allowing herself to be captured and taken aboard a slaver’s ship to Iceland where she seeks revenge. Unlike the introspective original game, here things open up to a wider world of Norse culture and mythology. And what a setting too, as the story takes you across the unspoiled Icelandic geography.

A bigger budget let Ninja Theory bolster the sequel’s cast. The first game blew most of its resources on capturing Senua (once again played by the award-winning Melina Juergens), transposing live-action and post-processing tricks; this time there are other flesh-and-blood characters long for the ride.

They all put in a good performance, but the real showcase here is Unreal Engine 5’s remarkable tech. Facial expressions look eerily close to the real thing and environments feel indistinguishable from a photograph. Naturally there’s a photo mode just a button press away.

Ragna-not

This sequel isn’t Ninja Theory’s God Of War: Ragnarok, though. The larger narrative depicts how others see Senua and how she can in turn help them, eventually shedding vengeance in favour of healing and redemption. But it’s not like the studio has suddenly ballooned to the size of Sony Santa Monica. The game is on par with its predecessor’s playtime of seven hours, and retains much of the same linear structure. You’ll quickly come up against the environments’ visible and invisible barriers.

It’s not like I’m asking for more scope, as there’s been a fair bit of video game bloat in recent years. But after seven years of development, I was also expecting Saga to give you a bit more to do. Surviving the opening shipwreck looks incredibly cinematic, maintained by the 2.39:1 aspect ratio that leaves black bars top and bottom throughout the game – but there are moments I struggled to discern whether Senua’s actions were just automated.

The first Hellblade‘s strongest gameplay aspect was its gruelling sword combat. Things are visually more visceral this time around, with more enemy variety (including human enemies with visible faces, rather than nondescript helmeted foes like before), but the mechanics haven’t changed at all. You use light or heavy attacks and dodge or guard, while a focus mode slows the action to wail on an enemy.

It’s also gotten worse as it’s limited to one-on-one encounters, with no strategy for taking on multiple enemies that might surround you. Gnarly enemies like Draugrs rip the heads off their victims and drink their blood – but they’ll patiently wait their turn to fight you. That makes each combat encounter drag, and if you die I can’t even say how far back the checkpoint is. It does at least have a dynamic difficulty on by default, an improvement from its predecessor, which deceived players into thinking too many deaths would result in permadeath.

Dark descent

Environmental puzzles remain the other major gameplay element. These also tie into Senua’s condition, being able to perceive another reality or seeing signs by holding down a trigger to focus. One sequence where you’re focusing on an orb that shifts environments from being obstacles to paths you can pass through aside, there’s little that isn’t a repeat of the first game, to the point of tedium for returning players.

The game likes to remind you the depiction of Senua’s condition is based on real research – there’s even a short documentary that includes interviews with a psychiatric consultant and people who live with psychosis. As far as I can tell, it does very faithfully bring to life what it’s like to experience these symptoms, especially when it comes to the voices in Senua’s head. Binaural audio means playing with headphones is absolutely recommended.

It does, however, feel largely like a repeat of what players got in the first game. The furies echo Senua’s very worst negative thoughts, casting those bad vibes outwards to other characters, yet sometimes actually encouraging her. More clumsily, they can feel like an excuse to offer hints and narration of the player’s actions.

In its oppressive horror, the first game had depicted her condition as a ‘curse’, one that straddled a thin line between being something you can either try to get over or even benefit from as a kind of superpower. Saga feels like a narrative improvement in showing how Senua copes with this condition, debating whether she should open up to someone else or not let it get in the way of her capabilities as a warrior. But then this story also casts her as a kind of chosen one who can solve the problems of a land plagued by giants because of how she sees the world differently; that feels either patronising or pandering, which I doubt was the intent. Simulating the experiences of a mental condition is one thing, but when trying to think of what the developer has to say about psychosis or for people living with it, it’s still on wobbly ground seven years later.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II verdict

On the surface, Senua’s Saga is what you would expect from a blockbuster sequel: a grander landscape and a bigger cast, in one of the best showcases of what Unreal Engine 5 can achieve.

But it’s often a torturous, oppressive slog. The grimmest, most nightmarish scenarios are on par with The Last of Us Part II as one of the most harrowing games in recent years – but without the same engaging gameplay to make up for it.

It’s disappointing that in the seven years since its predecessor, Saga often feels like more of the same. And while it may want marks for representing a serious psychiatric condition with all the seriousness that warrants, it doesn’t seem to have much new to say about it.

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

Not according to British drift champ Steve ‘Baggsy’ Biagoni, who I caught up with during the first round of Drift Masters 2024 at the Ricardo Tormo circuit near Valencia. He might’ve done things the ‘traditional’ way, but reckons starting virtually can be a big help for drifting newcomers.

“For me, it’s the G-forces, the braking… I’m looking for that movement I get from the car. People starting out on the sim don’t get that, so when they do get into the car, all that stuff gets given to them as a sort of bonus. A lot of the drivers who’ve come from the sim and then go into the cars have been really good at it.

“There’s a whole online virtual drift championship run by Drift Masters that you can compete in. And, the prize for winning that is you can drive the real car. So, a lot of the youngsters coming up have all been on the sim a lot.

Doing it the other way around is less straightforward, it seems. “I’ve got a sim at home and I’ve struggled with it,” Baggsy chuckles.

“I’ve been doing this professionally for the last eight or nine years,” he says. “But it’s actually a very accessible sport. You can go and buy a relatively cheap rear wheel drive car and get started. I learnt to do donuts and figure of eight moves in a Volvo 340, although I had to wait for it to rain before I could actually drift it because it didn’t have enough power to drift in the dry.”

That’s the curious world of drifting though. It’s all a bit, er, mad. Biagoni’s first drift car might have been the Volvo 340 of all things, but he soon migrated to one of the core drift staples, the Nissan 200SX. At the Drift Masters event, he’s standing next to an immaculately presented and race-prepared Toyota GR86.

‘Baggsy’ is one of over fifty professional drivers who are attracting sponsorship deals from big names. Digital marketplace G2A.com spotted that many of the drivers had started out driving on sims and were avid gamers, so saw Drift Masters as the perfect fit for its push for a broader audience – having already invested more than $12 million in esports.

“Drift Masters is all about emotion,” G2A chief marketing officer Mona Kinal told me. “Which is why we’ve now launched a virtual version of Drift Masters in the e-sports arena. It’s for everybody, so amateurs and the more advanced guys, can all experience the sport online.”

Having started with games, G2A now sells anything and everything associated with the digital marketplace, including gift cards, software and subscriptions. “We have more than 30 million customers in 180 countries who’ve purchased more than 100 million products to date,” she says.

There’s a cool vibe surrounding this sport, both online and in the real world. While it attracts professionals as well as amateur drivers, there isn’t the po-faced aura that surrounds motor sports like F1. It’s easy to walk around the pits and get right up next to both the cars and their drivers.

The inaugural Spanish round was won by Estonian driver Kevin Pesur, but the overall feeling I got is that everyone is in with a chance. That’s a good thing – as are the hugs the drivers share after doing battle on the track. It’s a competition, but there’s camaraderie too.

The next round of Drift Masters moves to Mondello Park, Ireland in June. If you can prise yourself away from your racing sim, it’s well worth getting along to. Who knows, keep practicing and maybe one day it might be your turn to be ‘Baggsy’.

• Related: The best racing movies of all time

Announced at Google I/O, Ask Photos is based on Google’s Gemini AI model. It massively expands Google Photos’ search abilities, using contextual info like how many times you’ve taken pictures of a particular person or object, and where you took them too.

One example shown off during the I/O keynote was asking for your car’s license plate – instead of just showing a bunch of random cars, it knows which car appears most often in your library, and which one is most often seen parked at your home. It also gives you a text summary as well as the images.

Other examples include asking for a timeline of your child’s birthday party themes over the years, with a descriptive list along with the images themselves, and when your child had their first swimming lesson.

Google photos has been around for nine years now, and today sees six billion photo and video uploads every twenty-four hours. That’s a whole lot of data to train Gemini’s face and object detection algorithms. In terms of search accuracy, Google reckons Gemini will nail even the most complex of search queries.

Ask Photos is set to roll out later in 2024. It will work for videos as well as photos, with text and voice input options. It should be integrated into Google Photos, rather than its own separate app.

Right now it’s unclear if you’ll need a Google One subscription; features like Magic Eraser and Magic Editor were initially limited to subscribers only, before Google made them free to all users.

• Related: Best AI phones – which smartphone has the best AI features?

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

A lot of our issues with the original handheld have been addressed with the recently released Steam Deck OLED. This replaced the first Steam Deck‘s solid but unspectacular LCD display with an awesome HDR OLED panel. It also squeezes a bit more battery life out of the machine. And while there are now several rival handheld gaming PCs that are more powerful than the Deck, such as the Asus ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go, Valve’s console-like marriage of hardware and software means it remains our preferred platform for taking our PC library on the go.

Deck verified

If you’ve just picked up either an original Steam Deck or the new OLED-toting model, you’re probably wondering where to start. The Steam store is intimidatingly vast, with a catalogue that spans many eras of gaming. Many of those games run beautifully on Steam Deck. Some, though, work only after you’ve tweaked them according to community advice. There are also still quite a few games that simply don’t function at all on Valve’s handheld. That’s just something you have to accept with the Steam Deck, and we’re here to give you a helping hand. 

We can confirm that every game in this list performs brilliantly on the Steam Deck, and often without changing any of the settings. We’ve included a mix of indie and more AAA fare, and you’ll also find a number of games that we think best show off the Steam Deck OLED’s supremely bright HDR display. 

We update this list regularly with games old and new that we’ve particularly enjoyed on the Steam Deck, but here are our top picks at the end of 2023.

1. Rogue Legacy 2

This fantastic roguelite’s one-more-go nature makes it the perfect fit for Steam Deck. Steam Deck is the only platform on which you can play it natively on a handheld. Making your way through Rogue Legacy 2’s colourful hand-drawn dungeons is hard as nails. But death is a good thing in a game like this, allowing you to accumulate cash that can be used to upgrade your base and classes. Just be careful if you’re sneaking in a few runs before bed; it’s amazing how quickly 2am rolls around. 

Click here to purchase Rogue Legacy 2 on Steam

2. Tunic

Think top-down Zeldas of old, but Link is a little fox, and you have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Tunic. It was one of 2022’s best indie games. As the titular Tunic (who also wears a tunic) you explore a mysterious fantasy world, slowly uncovering more of the map and learning how to progress by collecting pieces of an in-game instruction manual. It’s a brilliant, unapologetically old-school adventure that expects you to put the work in. While we’re not totally in love with the tricky combat, you can make yourself invincible if a particular boss is proving to be insurmountable. Tunic will probably come to the Switch eventually. But right now the Steam Deck is the best way to play it handheld.   

Click here to purchase Tunic on Steam

3. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

When The Witcher 3 was ported to Switch it was lauded as something of a technological miracle, albeit one that involved more than a few performance sacrifices. The best thing we can say about diving into Geralt’s 100+ hour adventure on the Steam Deck is that you’re really not giving up that much at all, with the game running well at decent settings. This is the RPG epic you know and love, but now you can play it on the toilet.

4. Vampire Survivors

The Steam Deck makes it possible to play graphically stunning AAA titles wherever you are. Vampire Survivors is categorically not one of those games, but it is one of the most addictive games we’ve played this year. It’s absolutely perfect on a handheld platform. Vampire Survivors is a graphically rudimentary time survival game. You move around a small map attempting to slay an increasingly overwhelming onslaught of monsters before they slay you. Each run allows you to unlock better characters, items and gear. So eventually you’ll be able to last the whole 30-minute gauntlet. Trust us: it’s brilliant – cheap as chips and the perfect game to pick up when you have a spare five minutes. 

Click here to purchase Vampire Survivors on Steam

5. Portal 2

Valve’s own timeless puzzling masterpiece performs, as you would expect, extremely well on Steam Deck. It runs at an unshakeable 60fps on pretty much its highest settings. If you’ve been looking for a reason to revisit the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, then doing so on its maker’s hardware is a no-brainer. If you’ve never played either Portal game, start with the also magnificent first one, which is also Deck-verified. 

Click here to purchase Portal 2 on Steam

6. Elden Ring

FromSoftware’s 100-hour epic was our current game of the year for 2022. And although we think its biggest moments deserve to be experienced on the biggest screen possible, it’s also really well suited to handheld play, especially when you’re just farming for runes in the open world and levelling up your character. Elden Ring has had well-documented performance issue on all the platforms it’s available for. But actually it runs surprisingly well on Steam Deck, which is pretty incredible to behold. Expect it to guzzle away at the battery life, though. 

Click here to purchase Elden Ring on Steam Deck

7. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

The dialogue-heavy nature of ZA/UM’s landmark RPG means it has always felt like the kind of game you want to play in bed, face right up close. But the long-awaited Switch port’s performance wasn’t up to much, sadly. Enter the Steam Deck, which for our money is the best way to experience Revachol’s murder mystery. This is thanks to myriad control options and the largely rock solid framerate that Nintendo’s machine couldn’t deliver.

Click here to purchase Disco Elysium: The Final Cut on Steam

8. Half-Life 2

Probably the most famous Valve title of them all, and one that has aged surprisingly well, Half-Life 2 is another must-have for your Steam Deck library. The legendary FPS paved the way for so many shooters that would follow it. Its influence can still be seen today. The game performs flawlessly on Steam Deck while taking advantage of the platform’s various control options. Who knows, if Valve sees enough people playing it again we might even get Half-Life 3 one day. Don’t go holding that breath, though.

Click here to purchase Half-Life 2 on Steam

9. God of War

God of War is one of many AAA games that you’d be forgiven for thinking would struggle on the Steam Deck, but the PS4 classic runs like a dream at very decent settings. It is a joy to revisit in handheld form. And with the sequel (hopefully) not too far away, now is the ideal time to reacquaint yourself with Kratos’ unique approach to parenting. 

Click here to purchase God of War on Steam

10. Aperture Desk Job

Clocking in at less than an hour, this one is more of a tech demo than a proper game. But it’s also the only game specifically designed to make use of the Steam Deck’s extensive feature set. Set in the same universe as the Portal games, Valve’s typically amusing short puts you in the shoes of a new starter at Aperture Science, where an initially mundane first day on the job quickly takes a rather violent turn. Aperture Desk Job makes use of every button, sensor and hardware quirk the Steam Deck has to offer. And as it’s absolutely free, you really have no excuse not to give it a shot. 

Click here to download Aperture Desk Job on Steam

11. Hades

The winner of our game of the year award back in 2020 really hasn’t aged a day, and hacking and slashing your way out of the Underworld with Zagreus’ all-powerful arsenal seemingly never stops being fun. If you’ve already sunk tens of hours into this masterful roguelike dungeon crawler on PC, rest assured that taking it on the go makes the game feel brand new. Haven’t played Hades yet? The Steam Deck is as good a platform to fix that on as any. 

Click here to purchase Hades on Steam

12. Hollow Knight

We’re still waiting for Hollow Knight: Silksong, the much-anticipated (to put it lightly) sequel to Team Cherry’s gorgeous Metroidvania masterpiece, but luckily the original plays like a dream on the Steam Deck and, like a lot of the games in this list, feels like it was designed for handheld play. As you explore the meticulously detailed insect kingdom in which Hollow Knight takes place you’re going to die. A lot. But as with any deliberately difficult game, success feels all the sweeter when does come, and the ability to take this one everywhere with you makes gradual progress more realistic.

Click here to purchase Hollow Knight on Steam

13. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered

The second formerly PlayStation-exclusive game to appear in this list is, like God of War, one we expected to crumple the Steam Deck’s innards like a piece of paper. And while the long-awaited PC remaster of the still great Marvel’s Spider-Man does make the Deck’s fans roar and can zap its battery totally dead in well under two hours, it performs astonishingly well on the handheld PC. You’re pretty much getting the same near enough rock solid 30fps performance as the original PS4 game on the default medium settings (using the Deck’s built-in FPS-limiter is advised here), and although desktop and PS5 players can get nicer visuals and superior frame-rates, there’s something truly amazing about swinging through Manhattan while you’re sat on the toilet. And New York looks fantastic on the smaller display. We’re seriously considering a full Deck replay – while sat near a plug socket of course.

Click here to purchase Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on Steam

14. Fable Anniversary

We’re going to be waiting a very long time for the rebooted Fable entry on Xbox Series X|S, but if you wanted to remind yourself about why a return to the iconic Xbox RPG series has been in demand for so long, the remastered original is a Steam Deck gem. The handheld handles the 2014 game effortlessly, and the 7in display helps to disguise any muddy textures. Fable has definitely aged, its grand ideas handled much better by RPGs that came after it, but this is still a charming and very funny adventure. We hope the new game, whenever it does arrive, remembers its roots.

Click here to purchase Fable Anniversary on Steam

15. Cuphead – The Delicious Last Course

Studio MDHR’s hard-as-nails 2D platformer may cause you to throw that sought-after Steam Deck straight out of the nearest window, but it’s a risk worth considering to play the game in handheld form, where you can chip away at the challenging boss battles whenever you have a free five minutes. The game’s retro cartoon visuals are as stunning to behold now as they were when the game first came out in 2017, and really pop on the Steam Deck’s display. This year’s The Delicious Last Course DLC adds a new island and new foes, but its most significant contribution to the the Cuphead experience is Ms. Chalice, a new playable character whose alternative moveset and additional health point arguably make both the base game and the new levels a bit more forgiving. A bit.

Click here to purchase Cuphead – The Delicious Last Course on Steam

16. No Man’s Sky

“The universe in the palm of your hands” sounds hyperbolic, but that’s what you’re getting with No Man’s Sky on Steam Deck, every one of its near infinite procedurally generated planets explorable on the handheld. And the game runs incredibly well considering the dizzying scale, even if you’ll probably want to dial down the settings a bit when the screen gets really busy. No Man’s Sky‘s deliberately directionless spacefaring isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but if you do enjoy the game, you owe it to yourself to try it on the Deck.

Click here to purchase No Man’s Sky on Steam

17. Valheim

While Valheim is currently in early access, over 300,000 Steam users have already rated it ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’. And who are we to argue with that many people? This exploration and survival co-op is set in a procedurally-generated Scandinavian world where you must craft, build and fight your way out of a Viking inspired purgatory. It’s a great co-op title, and will scratch that post-God of War Ragnarök itch for Viking glory.

Click here to purchase Valheim on Steam

18. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Moon Studios’ masterpiece of a Metroidvania remains one of the very best first-party Xbox games, but it arguably suits handheld play even more, and if you have a Steam Deck OLED it’s simply a must-play given that Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the ultimate showcase for its HDR display. The varied and vibrant areas that Ori visits on their adventure absolutely pop on the 7.4in OLED panel, and you really feel the benefit of the 90Hz refresh rate during the frantic escape sequences that are some of the best moments of the game. Will of the Wisps is often bundled with its also brilliant predecessor, Ori and the Blind Forest, in Steam sales, and both games are absolutely worth playing through in their entirety on either Deck. 

Click here to purchase Ori and the Will of the Wisps on Steam

19. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion 

The prequel to Final Fantasy VII was originally a PSP exclusive, but as that system is no longer with us, the Steam Deck is the ideal handheld home for its HD remaster, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion. As it was developed with portable play in mind, the game’s bite-sized side missions make more sense on a device like the Steam Deck than they do on a console and the TV, and the game runs brilliantly on Valve’s machine. Crisis Core follows the story of Zack Fair, a SOLDIER operative whose fate already tied him to Cloud Strife in the original Final Fantasy VII, but if you played the remake you’ll know that Zack is going to be play an even bigger role in this modern re-telling of the legendary RPG’s story. With the sequel to Final Fantasy VII Remake due to land in early 2024, now is the time to get caught up on Crisis Core if you haven’t already. 

Click here to purchase Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion on Steam

20. Dave the Diver 

Perhaps 2023’s biggest word-of-mouth Steam success story, Dave the Diver is a Steam Deck no-brainer, no matter what version of the system you own (trust us, we’ve played hours of the thing on both). Quite literally dipping into the titular diver/waiter/shotgun-wielding action hero’s many underwater adventures is a delight on the Deck, with the core diving/restaurant loop suiting handheld play perfectly. If you’ve yet to experience the joys of Dave the Diver you can read all about it here, but let’s just say that in an average play session you can expect to be serving picky food critics a rare plate of shark-infused sushi one minute, and battling live sharks the next. After you’ve finished running an errand for a mermaid and checking in on your social media profile, of course. All in a day’s work for Dave. 

Click here to purchase Dave the Diver on Steam

21. Diablo IV 

The latest entry in Blizzard’s enduringly popular always-online RPG series was a pain to get running on the Steam Deck at launch, but now you can buy the game directly from Steam it gets our wholehearted recommendation. Merrily grinding your way through Diablo IV’s deliciously grim world and slaying the many monsters it throws your way is even more fun when you’re half-watching the football as you collect loot, and its painterly gothic aesthetic looks particularly spectacular on the Steam Deck OLED. Whether you’re playing solo or with friends, there’s nothing like being able to play Diablo from the comfort of your bed. 

Click here to purchase Diablo IV on Steam

22. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart 

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is not only still one of the very best PS5 games, but it also remains one of the most technically impressive games on the system. You’d think, then, that squeezing all that shiny intergalactic action onto the Steam Deck would prove too much for it to handle, but that’s surprisingly not the case. Sure, the game doesn’t run quite as smoothly, but you can still get solid performance on mostly medium settings, and the generally short, sweet and stress-free levels translate really well to handheld play. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is also a very colourful game, so it’s naturally a treat for the eyes if you’re playing on the Steam Deck OLED. 

Click here to purchase Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on Steam

23. Marvel’s Midnight Suns

A superhero game in which you have to wait your turn to punch someone into oblivion doesn’t sound much fun, but Marvel’s Midnight Suns is not only one of the most enjoyable tactics RPGs we’ve played, but one of the best games to carry the Marvel licence in years, thanks to its winning blend of tense card-based tactical battles, and downtime that lets you go fishing or share a picnic with Tony Stark. It’s also a dream Steam Deck game, whether you’re in combat or growing your bonds with the various spandex-clad heroes in your team, and while the game had some performance teething pains on Valve’s console at launch, these days it runs really well. 

Click here to purchase Marvel’s Midnight Suns on Steam

24. Octopath Traveller II

Sprawling RPGs that demand more than 100 hours of your time to experience in their totality are slightly less intimidating affairs on a handheld, where you can slowly chip away at them whenever you have a few free minutes, and wherever you happen to be. 

Octopath Traveller II is definitely one of those RPGs, with eight different playable characters, each with their own story to tell and destiny to pursue. It’s also one of the best games of its type for a very long time, thanks to a winning blend of deep but accessible turn-based combat, stunning HD-2D graphics (which look particularly nice on an OLED display) and some seriously good music to boot. Octopath Traveller II is available on just about anything, but as it’s best enjoyed under a duvet with the lights dimmed, the Steam Deck gets our vote. 

Click here to purchase Octopath Traveller II on Steam

25. Persona 5 Royal 

Previously, we would have said that the Switch OLED is the best place to play Persona 5 Royal on an OLED, because while the Steam Deck could run the game better, those inky blacks and reds just need to be admired on the superior screen tech. Now there’s an OLED Steam Deck you get the best of both worlds, and you’re giving yourself the best chance of actually finishing Atlus’ enormous all-time great RPG if you can play it on the go. By now you surely know the deal with Persona 5, but if it’s somehow passed you by, the game is part supernatural dungeon-crawling RPG, part teen drama social sim, where you play as a high school student who’s able to infiltrate palaces that are manifestations of the twisted unconscious desires of the various corrupt adults you encounter on your adventure. Provided you’re up to date with your studies, of course.

Click here to purchase Persona 5 Royal on Steam

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Google I/O 2024: watch now

Here’s what was announced at Google I/O 2024:

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19 May 2024 / 06:00 BST19 May 2024 / 07:10 BST

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14 May 2024 / 19:53 BST14 May 2024 / 19:53 BST

Our original article continues below

The Google I/O keynote starts at10am PT local for Google on America’s West Coast, which is 1pm ET on the other side of the US, and 6pm BST in the UK. Things typically last for around a couple of hours, so tune in with us. If you’d rather check the live stream out via YouTube, that’s cool too. You’ll find it on Google’s YouTube page, where there will also be a version available in American Sign Language for accessibility. Anyone who’s really into Google will also find it easy to stream other sessions and talks from Google I/O 2024. The opening keynote is the main draw for most people, but there’s a full programme running from 14-15 May, and anyone registered with the Big G as a developer can stream along.

You’ll find a handy big ‘Register’ button in the top right-hand corner of the official Google I/O website, where the opening shindig is also being aired in its entirety.

Join us to watch all the action unfold, but if you don’t have time, check back after the event for all the latest news and easy-to-understand analysis from the show, which we’ll be covering in full. In the meantime…

Google I/O 2024: what we expect to see

One of the only guaranteed hardware announcements we expect to see at I/O will be the long-awaited Pixel 8a, which, from everything we know so far, is shaping up to be one of the best-value handsets of the year. The Pixel ‘a’ range has long been praised for delivering a pure, long-updated Android experience with quality camera hardware and the latest Google features to boot, and we expect this year to be no different.

Android 15 will also, unsurprisingly, take up a fair chunk of stage time at Google I/O 2024. Currently available in beta, it includes all manner of new features focused on productivity, privacy, and security. And, of course, this leads us on to the topic of AI — a trend that refuses to slow down its momentum.

We could see updates on Google Gemini (formerly Bard), and we’re hoping to see some powerful new functionality that brings the fight straight to the likes of ChatGPT et al. Improvements to existing AI features like Circle to Search could also be on the cards. CSS Insight’s Principal Analyst & Director Americas, Leo Gebbie believes that “AI will be the major theme for Google I/O and we expect updates from every part of the business, focusing on how Google’s Gemini platform will become more integrated across the board. With Google I/O taking place just ahead of WWDC, Google will be keen to get ahead of Apple in terms of explaining why Google has a stronger position in AI given its extensive investment in Gemini. It will also be interesting to see whether Google transitions Google Assistant to Gemini Assistant given all the chatbot capabilities that Gemini offers combined with Google’s desire to keep building the Gemini brand.”

In addition, we could see a teaser for the next-gen Pixel Fold, and/or an update on the Wear OS smartwatch front, with some other surprises thrown in for good measure. Join us at kickoff on 14 May, and we’ll be sure to update you with all the latest news, as it happens.

• Read more: I think the Google Pixel 8a is the best value phone in 2024, and it’s not even close

• Read more: Ikea smart lighting guide: the best Ikea lights to buy

Dubbed Energy Insights, this new feature isn’t just about throwing numbers at you. Rather, it’s about tracking how much juice your appliances are sucking up and, crucially, when it’s costing you an arm and a leg to run them. By showing you real-time data on energy usage and electricity prices, Ikea is pretty much nudging you to switch off that old tumble dryer when the entire neighbourhood is cooking dinner.

The app allows you to compare your energy consumption with that of similar households. Yes, now you can finally confirm whether you’re the only one in your postcode who’s obsessed with air frying everything. Of course, all this data is anonymised. So you won’t be able to see what Sheila in number 4 is doing.

However, don’t throw your wallet on the latest Ikea products just yet. This new app feature is currently only available in Sweden, through the Ikea Home smart app. But Ikea does plan to use what it learns from this test to potentially roll it out globally. So, we might all soon get a chance to play the game of ‘who can use less electricity’.

Ikea also announced the Inspelning smart plug, coming this October. This isn’t just any plug – it (also) measures the energy use of whatever you plug into it. Even your night lamp isn’t safe from scrutiny. Details on the pricing are still under wraps, but Ikea generally leans towards the more wallet-friendly side, so there’s hope this won’t be a bank-breaker.

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