Conner Carey

Author Details

Conner Carey's picture

Author Details

Conner Carey

Conner Carey's writing can be found at conpoet.com. She is currently writing a book, creating lots of content, and writing poetry via @conpoet on Instagram. She lives in an RV full-time with her mom, Jan and dog, Jodi as they slow-travel around the country. 

Cost, convenience, and (lack of) variety are three major factors that either hold people back from working out or make it difficult for them to work out consistently. But Aaptiv removes all of those obstacles with its audio-based fitness classes, programs, and challenges led by professional trainers. For $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Aaptiv gives you access to over 2500 classes with more being added each week. Plus, there are classes designed for the gym, working out at home, and even for working out while traveling. I honestly didn’t expect to like this app as much as I do; it’s audio-based format is completely different than any other fitness class app I’ve seen, and that’s what makes it shine. Check out more on what Aaptiv does and why we love it below.

I love gaming on my iPhone, and I am happy to pay for an app. But too often, I’ll get into a ‘free’ game only to end up spending more on in-app purchases than I ever would have on a single game for any regular gaming console. Which is why Riptide GP: Renegade is such a refreshing surprise. I spent $2.99 for the initial game, which is a great price considering the developers don’t upsell you within the app at all. The graphics are beautiful, the racing controls are the smoothest I’ve ever tried, and it feels like a normal game because once I buy it, it’s fully-featured and ready to play. All of this combined makes Riptide GP: Renegade the best racing game on the iPhone. We’ll cover more on what this game offers and why I love it below.

Everyone has to eat to live, which is why apps that make planning, shopping, and preparing healthy meals are a godsend. This year I’ve been cooking the most I ever have in my life, and I’ve quickly realized how difficult it can be to keep all the recipes I’ve tried (or want to try) organized. And on top of that, there seemed to be no way to use those recipes to create a shopping list. But what I didn't previously know about is today’s incredible app: Paprika 3. For a one-time purchase of $4.99, this app allows you to save recipes from the internet without having to type any ingredients or directions. You can create a list of everything in your own pantry, build a meal plan with recipes you’ve saved, and add whatever you need to buy to a grocery list. All the work that takes place outside of the kitchen can be done with Paprika 3. There’s a whole lot this app can do, and we'll cover it all below.

I have never used my Photos app to properly sort my pictures into albums, and I’m going to make an educated guess and say that this is true for most of us. We take a bunch of photos at an event or with friends, share the ones we love, and let the others take up space on our devices. When it comes time to find a photo, I’m always searching through the All Photos album, scanning for the one I need. But there is a better way! I found Slidebox because I was looking for an app that would let me easily create albums, sort photos into those albums, and delete the photos I don’t need to keep. To my absolute delight, Slidebox allows me to do this super easily by using swiping gestures to quickly sort through photos like you sort through potential connections on Tinder. Learn more on why I love this app and what it does below.

Organizing your life so that it works for you instead of against you is a great way to lower overall stress and free up some brain power. Wunderlist is a to-do list and task manager that allows you to easily keep track of any area of life, get reminders about what you need to do, and collaborate with others from right within the app. I also use Wunderlist to make lists of random things I want to remember, such as movies I want to watch or books I want to read. On the surface, it’s easy to look at Wunderlist and see just a to-do app, but the plethora of features make it an incredible tool for staying organized and on top of things without having to remember it all yourself. We’ll go over more on what Wunderlist does and why we love it below.

Moodnotes is an app I’m passionate about sharing with others, because it provides a service millions of people need for the price of a latte. Healthcare in America sucks; and, even more so, mental healthcare is not readily available or affordable to the vast majority of people. But it’s so incredibly important. As someone who has bipolar disorder, I understand how difficult it is to find help that is actually helpful. While this app is not a replacement for medical treatment, it’s a companion that can make a world of difference. Utilizing the science-supported methods of cognitive behavior therapy, Moodnotes is a powerful app for tracking moods and improving thinking habits whether you struggle with mental health or not. I’ll go over lots more on what Moodnotes does and why we love it below.

There are the apps we try and the apps we use. For the longest time, Day One sat on my iPhone as a wonderful journaling app I never used. Then iPhone Life magazine’s managing editor Rheanne Taylor showed me how she organizes her Day One journaling app. And in that moment, I realized I completely missed arguably the best feature this app has: the ability to create multiple journals. I’ll go more into her brilliant organization below. But with a simple change of outlook, the app has become more invaluable to me than any other note-taking, journaling, or markup app available. If you’re not familiar with Day One, then you’re really in for a treat. This journaling app is beautifully designed and works like a dream. I’ll go over more on what Day One does and why we love it below.

Google found a clever way to make people pay attention to its already impressive Arts & Culture app: selfies. If you’re on social media, you’ve likely seen someone's face next to a piece of art that looks eerily similar—they probably did that with the Google’s Arts & Culture (Free) app. Once you’ve found your doppelgangers, you can learn more about the artwork and the artist that created it. Aside from this really cool feature, there is an incredible reservoir of information available within the app. Anyone with an interest in art, art history, iconic figures, and culture will be delighted by the plethora of fantastic information from around the world and throughout time. We’ll go over more on what the app does and why we love it below.

You can use iCloud to upload photos to the cloud automatically, access iCloud photos on your PC or Mac, and easily download your iCloud photos. Here's how to set up iCloud for storing photos and upload photos to iCloud. We’ll also go over how to access iCloud photos on an iPhone, a PC, and a Mac. Lastly, we'll cover how to download photos from iCloud.

Let me start off by saying that this is not a perfect app, but I still think Evolve (Free) is worth your time. It’s an app that’s still building momentum, so it lacks some of the features I’ve come to take for granted in an app such as MyFitnessPal. But I’ve been using this app to track my calories for over a week, which is something I’ve never before been able to do every day. But Evolve’s minimalist user-interface makes a huge difference in the level of stress or discomfort I feel when tracking calories. Other apps have amazing features; but for me, it’s often too much. Evolve’s goal is to make tracking food the easiest and simplest it’s ever been. And at this, it succeeds. The clean, unobtrusive interface lends beautifully to this, and the streamlined design is mirrored in Evolve’s features. One of the app’s most promoted features is the ability to track what you’ve eaten with only your voice, which is meant to take only ten seconds (and sometimes does). I’m going to dive into the specifics of Evolve below; find out if it’s right for you.

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