Happy October! I hope you’re having a delightfully spooky month so far. Today, we’re going to be covering the scariest apps available right now. Or, rather, we’re going to be looking at the best iOS apps and the best macOS apps.
For those who are new to this series, this is a monthly series I write here at AppleToolBox. Each month, I curate what I believe to be some of the best apps available for iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and of course, Mac.
Unlike other “Best Of” lists, which tend to list the same apps over and over, we strive to find unique, indie, and less popular apps that might not have crossed your attention before. This way, you can always be sure to find something new and useful each month.
And of course, I am not affiliated with any of these apps in any way. The opinions in this post are my own authentic thoughts.
With all of that out of the way, let’s go ahead and dive in!
Meditation is a great tool for a variety of self-improvement processes, with mindfulness and mental health being two great features of meditation.
Unfortunately, meditating with an app as your guide (while convenient) can oftentimes end up distracting and downright annoying. That’s because so many meditation apps are cluttered with social features, guided meditations, sound effects, and other distractions that aren’t conducive to quickly sitting down for some quiet time.
That’s why I’m excited to share Simple Meditation Timer with you, which I believe is one of the best iOS apps available for meditation.
As the name implies, this app is incredibly simple. You just set the time you want to meditate, start the timer, and begin your meditation. A chime will alert you when your time is up, and that’s it! There is nothing else to this app.
It’s super simple, totally free, and it even syncs with your Health app. So you can track your mindfulness minutes spent in this app with the Health app. If you meditate or are looking to get started meditating, definitely check this app out!
2. Dime: One of the best budgeting apps for iPhone is also one of the best iOS apps
Next on our list of the best iOS apps is Dime. I had only heard of this app recently, which surprised me since I like to think I’ve tried nearly every budgeting app out there.
Dime is an excellent budgeting app that allows you to easily track your expenses, spending, and income all in one place. But there are a ton of apps that do that, so what makes Dime so special?
Well for starters, Dime is totally free. No ads, no pay-to-unlock features. You get everything as soon as you download it.
In addition to being completely free, this app has a wonderful design language. It’s meant to mirror the design language of iOS, so it blends in with the other apps on your iPhone seamlessly.
And despite being free, it’s packed with features. You’ll have access to plenty of graphs, charts, stats, and more to help you understand your finances. If you’ve been looking for a great budgeting app, this is it.
3. HiFutureSelf: Send messages to your future self
The next app on our list of the best iOS apps is one that I find to be particularly sweet. It’s called HiFutureSelf, and as the name suggests, it’s about sending messages to your future self.
While you can choose the content of these messages, the idea is to send your future self something positive and affirming. For instance, you can send yourself messages like:
Reminding yourself to practice gratitude
Checking in to see if something that troubled you in the past is still troubling you in the future
Send yourself inspiring quotes
Medication reminders
And of course, you can send yourself much more. You can schedule these messages to repeat so that they resend periodically. Or you can even set them up to send whenever you arrive at certain locations, which I think is a super cool feature.
Just like the other apps we’ve covered so far, this one is completely free as well. So check it out if it sounds interesting to you at no cost!
Last on our list of the best iOS apps is Wallpapers Now. This is an app some of you may have heard of before, but if you’re like me, this will be a new one for you.
There isn’t a lot to this app except that it’s a solid wallpaper app with great wallpapers and features. These features include the ability to shuffle your wallpapers, have animations play on your wallpapers, and more.
Best of all, this app is also completely free! There are ads, but most reviewers agree that they’re minimal and worth it due to how solid the app is. So if you’re looking to customize your iPhone with great, iOS 16 ready wallpapers, this is the app for you.
The best macOS apps of October 2022
1. CardPointers: Maximize your credit card savings with one of the best macOS apps
And with that, we move on to the best macOS apps of October 2022. First on our list is CardPointers, which is great for those who are constantly trying to maximize the rewards from the credit cards.
CardPointers essentially tracks all incoming deals and savings tied to nearly every credit card. You just add the cards that you use and you’ll instantly start seeing deals for your specific credit cards.
This will in turn allow you to start cashing in on more savings than ever before. According to the app, users of CardPointers save an average of $750/year – which is pretty great!
So if you already have a handful of credit cards and are obsessed with making them save you money (rather than the opposite) then this is a great app to check out. It’s available on Mac and iOS, so you can use it on whatever platform best suits your needs.
Alright, I’ll admit it. I’m not the biggest fan of dark mode. I only use it at night, though I know most people like to keep it on 24/7.
If you’re one of those who can’t live without dark mode, then you’re going to like Turn Off the Lights. This is one of the best macOS apps that allows you to view websites all across Safari in dark mode – even if the website doesn’t natively support it.
The catch (or feature, depending on how you look at it) is that it only works when playing a video. Whenever you start playing a video, the app will detect this is make the rest of the webpage dark. You just click a lamp icon to turn dark mode on or off.
This feature works with YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu, and a ton of other websites. And it’s available in other web browsers as well, so if you prefer Chrome, Opera, or Firefox to Safari, you can still use this app just fine.
And like so many of the apps on this month’s list of the best iOS apps and the best macOS apps, Turn Off the Lights is free, through and through.
3. Crouton: Create, save, and organize recipes in one location
We’ve covered a few different recipe apps on our lists of the best macOS apps, and this month we’re covering another great option. That’s Crouton.
Crouton is an app that allows you to save recipes from the web, create your own, add photos to recipes, and more. It’s an excellent tool for organizing your recipes, and best of all, it’s available on all of your Apple devices.
Another great feature that Crouton has to offer is the fact that it syncs with your reminders. So you can plan out your meal prep for the week and then have it sync with the Reminders app. This makes it that much easier to stick to your meal prep goals.
You can try Crouton for free and then pay later to support the developer. Check it out!
Last on our list of the best macOS apps is TinkerTool. This is one of those apps that I can’t believe I didn’t hear about sooner. And sadly, it’s a little too late for me to use this app, as I’m already familiar with most of what it does.
But for those who aren’t, TinkerTool can be a great resource for your Mac. It doesn’t add anything new to your Mac, but rather shows you additional settings that you can configure on your Mac that you may not have found otherwise.
For instance, you can change the spacing in the Dock or Launchpad. You can add a “Quit” function to Finder. And a whole lot more.
It’s important to note that TinkerTool doesn’t include any settings that will “break” your Mac. It’s just simple features that Apple has hidden away in macOS. It’s completely free, installs in just a few seconds, and instantly gives you more control over your Mac. Give it a look!
Start using the best iOS apps and the best macOS apps today
And that’s it! Those are our October picks for the best iOS apps and the best macOS apps. We mostly went for free options this time around, so you can try nearly all of these at no cost or risk.
If I had to pick my personal favorites, they’d be Simple Meditation Timer, Dime, and TinkerTool. Let me know what your favorites are in the comments below!
I can no longer open my own attachments and nor can others open my attachments. Why has it suddenly stopped working>. Fix your download screwup and rectify.
I can no longer open my own attachments and nor can others open my attachments. Why has it suddenly stopped working>. Fix your download screwup and rectify.