Best apps for iPhone: seven top iOS apps for 2015
Sleep better, run faster and save cash with this list of the best free and paid-for apps for iPhones and iPads
Whether it's drinking, exercising or managing your finances, there's an app out there to make every day-to-day activity easier. Here are seven of the best apps currently available:
Hopper (free)
Hopper, Flight Research & Predictions, helps you find the best time to fly and the best time to buy plane tickets. It shows you the cheapest days to depart on your selected route, using a colour-coded calendar, as well as alternative airports that might provide cheaper travel. It's not just a standard aggregator though. It can also predict how the cost of flights will change over time, claiming to analyse "billions of flight prices daily" to help you decide whether to buy now or wait. Users can also receive notifications when the price of their flight drops or when Hopper thinks it is about to climb.
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Hotel My Phone (free)
For those who regularly forget their phone or find themselves running out of battery, Hotel My Phone offers a handy service. The app enables you to borrow a friend's mobile and use it as your own. After "checking in" to another phone, you can access your own contacts, as well as make calls, and send and receive text messages, for up to four hours at a time. The host phone will also need the app, but none of your personal information will remain on it once you log out. While the app itself is free to download, charges do apply on some of the features.
Sleepbetter (free)
Runtastic has produced an app that helps you track your sleep quality as well as daily habits, such as caffeine intake and exercise, which might affect your slumber. By placing your phone next to your pillow at night, you can monitor your sleep duration and cycles, and use the app's alarm to wake you up in your lightest sleep phase. Users can monitor moon phases and keep a diary of their dreams and morning moods. It is also fully compatible with iOS 8's HealthKit.
Vivino (free)
An app for both wine connoisseurs and the infrequent wine buyer, Vivino allows users to rate different wines and check to see what others think of a particular bottle. You simply scan in a photograph of the label and rate it out of five. There is also an option to add tips, such as food paring suggestions, or personal notes for yourself. Wine lovers can find the best deals and buy online, as well as browse reviews from the app's eight-million-strong community.
Strava (free)
Cyclists and runners can connect with athletes all over the world with Strava, which allows you to record your runs and rides, track your progress and see how you compare with friends, locals and pros. It offers key stats such as distance, pace, speed, elevation and calories burned. Users can also join monthly challenges, such as a half marathon, a 28,000ft climb or a 150km cycle, in a bid to top the leaderboard and win a digital reward.
MoneyWiz 2 (paid)
SilverWiz, the developers behind personal finance management app MoneyWiz, have come up with a brand new version of the app. The original was designed to give users a complete picture of their finances, helping them manage bank accounts, budgets and bills from one place. MoneyWiz 2 features a new dashboard, more account types, budget goals, transaction entry customisation and automatic downloading of transactions. It also allows you to build custom reports based on what you want to know about your money.
Tidal (paid)
The music app, which launched last year, is similar to Spotify but claims to be "the world's first music service with high fidelity sound quality". It also offers high definition music videos and editorial curated by music journalists and artists. Tidal currently has more than 25 million tracks and 75,000 music videos, as well as music articles, interviews, recommendations and playlists put together by experts.
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