When you first turn on your new iPhone, you’ll probably notice there are already a lot of apps available. These are the apps Apple makes for the iPhone — they come pre-loaded and you can’t get rid of them.
But there are better apps on the marketplace for your iPhone. There’s an age-old mantra that a nimble competitor doing one thing very well can outmaneuver a titan doing a lot of things well, and it’s true when it comes to the iPhone too.
The pre-loaded Apple apps aren’t terrible. But they lack some features or a fluidity that other native apps on the App Store pull off.
Gizmodo and Business Insider both have good lists of apps that can replace the stock iPhone apps. While we agree with many of their recommendations, there are a few extras that are worth watching that go unmentioned.
Here are a few replacements for some of Apple’s pre-loaded apps:
Maps: Apple Maps is probably one of Apple’s weakest showings on the iPhone, given that CEO Tim Cook publicly apologized for the quality of the maps. Replace it with Google Maps, as there isn’t a maps app for the iPhone that is any better.
Messages: SMS is good, but you can get more out of your messaging. Pick up WhatsApp or GroupMe to add some extra functionality to your basic messaging service. Both of these apps enable you to send richer multimedia messages and have a smoother interface.
Camera: Apple has a solid camera app, but it’s lacking in some respects. Camera+ comes with richer photo-editing tools, and also has a few filters. If you don’t need the editing tools, just stick with Instagram, as it has a nice selection of filters and plugs into an additional sharing network.
Notes: There isn’t an app for taking notes and synchronizing them across multiple platforms that’s better than Evernote. Anything you save on Evernote on your phone will automatically show up on other devices that have the app installed.
Calendar: There are a few calendar apps, but Sunrise synchronizes your Facebook calendar with your basic Google Calendar to keep everything in a nice, straightforward interface. For Google and Facebook users, this is as good as it gets.
Weather: Depending on how hardcore you are when it comes to the weather, you’ll either want to download the free Weather Channel app or the $3.99 Dark Sky. The former will give you more features like alerts and longer forecasts. The latter will give you more detail about pending weather down to the minute.
Music: Downloading music is passe. Pick up a subscription to Spotify, which is a good replacement for your Music application on your iPhone. You’ll be able to synchronize songs to your phone that you can play offline. If you’re looking to discover new music, Pandora is also a solid app that works as a radio for your phone.
Contacts: Brewster is a good alternative to the contacts app, as it brings together your contacts from multiple places like Twitter, Facebook and Google, among other social networks.
Mail: You can sync all of your emails to appear in this app so there is no real need for an alternative. But should you want to look elsewhere, there are two good good apps. If you’re a Google user, Gmail a more seamless version of the mail app for the iPhone. You can also sign up for Mailbox, one of the best mail apps on the iPhone — but you’ll have to wait a while before you can actually use it as there is a “line” to download and open it properly.
Safari: Google wins here again with Chrome. If you are already a Google user, pick up the Chrome app — it’ll synchronize with your Chrome services on other devices, giving you a continuous browsing experience. Tabs saved on the desktop will show up in your mobile Chrome app, and vice versa.
(Source: blogs.wsj.com)
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