What good is an iPhone without apps? Odds are the first thing a new owner does is head on over to the App Store and stock their phone up with all the apps they can possibly want. In truth, there are a lot of excellent apps made by Apple but if you don't want to use all their stuff for one reason or another, here are some apps you might want to use in lieu of Apple's offerings.

  • Alarm clocks are not welcome visitors for anyone and most of the population is now using their smartphones to help them wake up in the morning. Some people have noticed that Apple's alarm system is a tad complex and if you don't want to deal with that, check Rise out. Not only is it minimal, it's pretty as well. You can program it to play your favorite song and not be jarred awake by preset alarm tones that don't make your morning a good one.
  • Anything that needs to sync with iTunes is a thorn in your side so for recording voice notes, go for Audio Memos. It even allows you to change the quality of your recordings so as to not take up too much storage space.
  • Are you into the stock market? You might find that Stocks app that is preprogrammed into your phone to be quite nifty but you should give Bloomberg a try, too. If you're even just mildly interested in Wall Street, Bloomberg will make it easy for you to get to company information and other things that may matter to you.
  • Have you ever found yourself trying to use Apple's Podcast app only to realize just how horrible it us? Don't give up hope because Instacast is here to save you. It has a state of the art podcast player that allows you to alter playback, set a snooze time, and play continuously.
  • If you often make use of your phone's calendar feature, you might want to check out Fantastical as a substitute for the standard calendar app. Apple even thinks that it's awesome since they are integrating its features into their own calendar. However, don't let this deter you from using Fantastical since it is still superior. It allows you to add events to your calendar fairly quickly and is easier to maneuver. The most notable feature of Fantastical is that it takes care of most of the text in your calendar entries, saving you time and effort.
  • If you take a look at your iPhone's Photos apps, you will find that they are pictures and videos haphazardly strewn about. By using Flayvr, you get to organize those files and reduce the annoyance of sorting all your stuff out. The best part is that it's free.
  • In case of theft, Apple has Find My iPhone to take care of you. If you are on the lookout for something else, give Prey a try. It has the features that Find My iPhone has with additional ones that you may find useful, such as an alarm for when you can't find your phone and it supports the front camera so the thief may be identified.
  • The iPhone's camera is a bit lackluster, especially with older models that didn't even have flash. With Camera+, you get a lot of additional features to help your camera do its job the best it can.
  • Web browsers matter for smartphones now and most iPhones run Safari. However, if you want to have a great browsing experience, you might want to give Chrome a shot. Odds are you already use that for your computer so why should your smartphone be any different?

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