1. Tweetbot for Twitter
Price: $3
Phone: Apple.
Tablet: Apple
Twitter clients are something of a personal
preference, but there’s one that wins near universal approval from the iOS
users of PC Pro. Tweetbot doesn’t do anything hugely novel few Twitter
clients do – but it does make the basic experience as smooth, stylish and
painless as any we’ve used. It can turn your Twitter lists into multiple
timelines and sync your reading position across devices, and it’s all navigated
with intuitive gestures, keeping the clutter of so many clients to a minimum.
We also like the cartoonishly sinister company logo.
Tweetbot
for Twitter
2. TweakDeck
Price: Free.
Phone: Android.
Tablet: Android
TweetDeck’s purchase by Twitter has stunted
its mobile development, but Android developer MoDaCo takes up the slack with
TweakDeck (“rising from the ashes of that other app”). On the surface it’s
similar, but it adds compatibility with a host of photo services and support
for more devices. It’s unfussy, clean and competent, and that makes it our
favourite for Android.
3. Google+
Price: Free.
Phone: Apple, Android.
Tablet: Apple, Android
Don’t laugh – we know there are more people
using Commodore 64s than Google+, but the company’s app is the nicest of the
social networks. The image-led layout gives it a modern feel, and its Hangouts
work neatly with a phone or tablet camera. If you’re not yet on Google+, or if
you are and haven’t logged in for a while, try the app – it might convert you.
4. Storify
Price: Free.
Tablet: Apple
Twitter is where people go to discuss live
events, but how do you later look back on the event as it unfolded? With
Storify you create edited highlights of events as told on social networks – just
drag and drop posts from people in your timeline to form a coherent narrative
that can be saved and published under its own URL. It also accepts videos from
YouTube or photos from Flickr and Instagram.
5. Quora
Price: Free.
Phone: Apple, Android
Quora is a social network for questions and
answers: post any query you like, and if people deem it interesting they’ll
post responses, which other users then up or down vote. How useful Quora can be
naturally depends on who sees your questions, so the app dovetails with
Facebook and Twitter. Even if you don’t have a question to ask, browsing topics
quickly becomes an addictive time sink.
Quora
is a social network for questions and answers
6. The Guardian & Eyewitness
Price: From $15/mth; free
Tablet: Apple
Unlike the smartphone versions, the
Guardian iPad app is a full-on digital conversion of the daily paper. Your
opinion on the content may vary, but in design, layout and navigation, it’s the
best we’ve read. Plus, even if the paper’s politics aren’t to your taste, the
free Guardian Eyewitness app offers stunning daily photography updates. If your
iPad has a Retina display, you’re in for quite a treat.
7. Instapaper
Price: From $2.9.
Phone: Apple, Android.
Tablet: Apple, Android
Install the Read Later bookmark on your
browser, and whenever you come across an interesting article while you’re busy
at work, just click to send it to Instapaper. The service then strips out the
page furniture and stores it for reading later. We know Instapaper is far from
new, but its feature list is growing, with support for all the major Twitter
clients and social news apps, such as Zite. However, if you’d prefer a free
app, there’s always the highly polished Readability.
8. Longform
Price: $2.5.
Tablet: Apple
This year has seen a surge in the appeal of
longform writing, with all manner of curated print periodicals and websites
popping up with the kind of in depth, intelligent articles that don’t really
fit the quick-fire internet. The Longform iPad app acts as a repository for
such pieces, collating the best from various (mostly American) sources. It also
connects to Instapaper and Readability.
The Longform iPad app aggregates editors’
picks of long form journalism from Longform.org, as well as long stories
from 25 sites known for such work, including The Atlantic, Slate, Mother Jones,
and Esquire.
9. The Verge
Price: Free.
Phone: Apple, Android
We’re happy to praise other quality tech
sites, and they don’t come much better than The Verge. With its finger on the
pulse of the gadget scene, the site is a mix of product news and reviews, plus
imaginative feature pieces, and its smartphone app is one of the neatest
around.
10. Zite
Price: Free.
Phone: Apple, Android, Window.
Tablet: Apple, Android
Personalised news is something many apps
attempt, but Zite manages it better than most. By selecting your categories,
then spending the first few weeks rating the stories you’re offered as relevant
to you or not, Zite gradually evolves into a news gatherer that works to your
interests. It can be a little overzealous don’t go liking too many articles
from the same source unless you want your homepage swamped by it but if rated
sparingly, it’s a great news-reading and sharing tool.
