Fantastical 2 ($4.99)
The stock Calendar
app is pretty plain and
boring. It’s not that
well organized, and it
has a serious lack of
integration with other
apps. That’s why when
it comes to a calendar
on your phone, I turn to
Fantastical 2 every time.
This is one of those
rare apps that provides
everything you ever
wanted and needed
and gives you more
than you expected.
Everything in this app
is intuitive, smooth,
and ultra-responsive.
You can easily switch
between month, week, and day view, and back again with a
single swipe each. It just makes sense. The standard Calendar
app can be a bit frustrating to use, and Fantastical is an abso-
lute joy. Once you try it, you’ll never want to go back the stock
app again.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo refers to
itself as a privacy-based
browser, and a lot of its
features are very in your
face about that. On the
new tab screen, it has a
prominent bar showing
how many trackers it’s
blocked for you. You
can “burn” your history
very quickly with the tap
of the fl ame icon. The
search engine itself is
not only based around
privacy but is also ex-
tremely fast and respon-
sive. It’s a solid choice
to replace Safari and
can become well inte-
grated with other apps
and services if you set it up right. Safari, however, remains
tightly integrated with the Apple ecosystem, so if you value
that over everything else, you may want to stick with Safari.
You’ll also hear Dolphin bandied about as a replacement, but
my experience with it has proven it to have numerous issues,
including consistently crashing when I try to open a blank
new tab. I fi nd Dolphin diffi cult to recommend as a replace-
ment until this and other issues are fi xed.
Waze, Google Maps
Don’t use Apple
Maps. The navigation
has been unreliable and
the app poorly designed
since the beginning,
and the updates so far
haven’t made up for it.
There are numerous
horror stories of Apple
Maps routing people to
wrong destinations. In-
stead, use Google Maps
or Waze. Most of you
will already know about
Google Maps, a classic
yet robust navigation
app that offers not only
driving but walking,
biking, and public transit
directions.
Waze, which is also owned by Google, crowdsources infor-
mation from its users to help you avoid traffi c. As you drive
down the road, your speed will automatically be recorded by
the app (your contributions are anonymous), and you can also
manually identify problems like a broken-down car, police, and
road hazards, to name a few. The app will update everyone in
the vicinity and en route, and, best of all, will quickly re-route
you. By collaborating, you improve navigation and reduce
your overall time spent behind the wheel. As a bonus, you
can choose from a variety of navigational voices, including the
Cookie Monster (a crowd favorite).Overcast
There are a number
of excellent podcast
players out there, but
Overcast is one of
the best, and you can
access all the features
for free. It does have
a premium option for
$9.99/year to eliminate
the banner ads at the
bottom, and considering
the work the developer
put in to making Over-
cast such an excellent
app, it’s worth a sub-
scription for ten dollars
a year. Simple to use,
intuitive to navigate, and
scarily responsive, this
podcast player does it
all and does it better than almost anything else out there. It
blows Apple’s stock Podcasts app out of the water, and doesCALENDAR REPLACEMENT
SAFARI REPLACEMENT
MAPS REPLACEMENT
PODCASTS REPLACEMENT