Six Clicks: Good apps for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus

The ability to put widgets on the Today screen is new in iOS 8, and a useful feature. Apps that have been coded to include a widget automatically appear for inclusion on the notification shade.

Vidgets is a free app that offers a number of simple informational widgets for posting on the shade. There are clocks, calendars, weather widgets, and more. The battery level widget is particularly useful.

There is a paid version of Vidgets that adds the ability to customize the color of each widget. That seems to currently be the only extra feature of the paid version so the free one should be all you need.

Free (Pro version $2.99)

Read more

• The pros and cons of iPhone 6 Plus ownership
• Yes, an iPhone 6 Plus can replace a Kindle Fire HDX (or other small tablet)
• Third-party iOS 8 keyboards offer choice, but Apple limits functionality
• Griffin iPhone 6 Plus case roundup: Slim and stylish to rugged durability
• Back up your iPhone photos: Eight affordable (or free) cloud options
• Eight questions to ask before you buy your next smartphone
  
  
  

Feedly is a popular service for working with (and syncing) RSS feeds. It aggregates feeds into a river of news that makes it easy to keep up with even a lot of news sources.

The Feedly app is designed to make interacting with the service nice on the new iPhones. The river of news is presented in a format that shows a small thumbnail preview of the news item next to a summary of the article.

The app casts aside the typical scrolling of the list of articles in favor of a "stack" action that moves down the list one screen at a time. This makes going through a long list of news items fast and accurate.

Free

Read more

• The pros and cons of iPhone 6 Plus ownership
• Yes, an iPhone 6 Plus can replace a Kindle Fire HDX (or other small tablet)
• Third-party iOS 8 keyboards offer choice, but Apple limits functionality
• Griffin iPhone 6 Plus case roundup: Slim and stylish to rugged durability
• Back up your iPhone photos: Eight affordable (or free) cloud options
• Eight questions to ask before you buy your next smartphone
  
  

Acompli is an app that integrates email with a calendar. The display is uncluttered and attractive on the new iPhones.

Like many apps optimized for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, this one rotates properly in landscpe to present a two-pane view of the inbox.

See the full review of Acompli on ZDNet.

Free

Read more

• The pros and cons of iPhone 6 Plus ownership
• Yes, an iPhone 6 Plus can replace a Kindle Fire HDX (or other small tablet)
• Third-party iOS 8 keyboards offer choice, but Apple limits functionality
• Griffin iPhone 6 Plus case roundup: Slim and stylish to rugged durability
• Back up your iPhone photos: Eight affordable (or free) cloud options
• Eight questions to ask before you buy your next smartphone
  
  

This is the Cadillac of note-taking apps, and the optimization for the new iPhones is first-rate. Every element of the interface is attractive, and the developers have put them all together to be easy to use while displaying as much as possible on the phone screen.

In addition to handling simple note-taking, information can be captured from the web, by voice, and with the iPhone camera.

The large screens of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus combined with the Evernote app make a useful tool for both work and play.

Free

Read more

• The pros and cons of iPhone 6 Plus ownership
• Yes, an iPhone 6 Plus can replace a Kindle Fire HDX (or other small tablet)
• Third-party iOS 8 keyboards offer choice, but Apple limits functionality
• Griffin iPhone 6 Plus case roundup: Slim and stylish to rugged durability
• Back up your iPhone photos: Eight affordable (or free) cloud options
• Eight questions to ask before you buy your next smartphone
  
  
  

The CNN news organization has created an app that is marvelous to use. It works equally well in portrait and landscape orientations, and transitions between them without missing a beat.

The handling of video on the new iPhones is very well done, and especially nice on the iPhone 6 Plus in landscape. It makes it a breeze to keep up with current events, and developers should take a look at the CNN app to see how it is when it's done right.

Free

Read more

• The pros and cons of iPhone 6 Plus ownership
• Yes, an iPhone 6 Plus can replace a Kindle Fire HDX (or other small tablet)
• Third-party iOS 8 keyboards offer choice, but Apple limits functionality
• Griffin iPhone 6 Plus case roundup: Slim and stylish to rugged durability
• Back up your iPhone photos: Eight affordable (or free) cloud options
• Eight questions to ask before you buy your next smartphone
  
  

Fantastical 2 is a long-time favorite calendar app on iOS, and the latest version is really good on the new iPhones. It presents a lot of information about the user's schedule on each screen without being too busy and overwhelming.

It presents a monthly overview above an agenda view in portrait, and transitions into a weekly view when rotated to landscape. This makes reviewing the schedule and entering new events very simple, especially considering the natural language entry ("Lunch with Bob on Tuesday at noon").

$4.99

Read more

• The pros and cons of iPhone 6 Plus ownership
• Yes, an iPhone 6 Plus can replace a Kindle Fire HDX (or other small tablet)
• Third-party iOS 8 keyboards offer choice, but Apple limits functionality
• Griffin iPhone 6 Plus case roundup: Slim and stylish to rugged durability
• Back up your iPhone photos: Eight affordable (or free) cloud options
• Eight questions to ask before you buy your next smartphone