Our Favourite Apps
There are more than three million apps available on each of the Apple and Google Play app stores!
We often get asked which one is "the best" for doing a specific thing, and while the answer is always going to be subjective, below are the ones which we use and like, or know people who like them.
In some cases, apps are only available for iPhones and iPads, in which case we'll suggest the best alternative for Android if there is one.
These Notes are a work-in-progress…lots more to come!
1) Here's a better app — Supercards — for keeping your loyalty and membership cards on your phone (and Apple Watch)
We were big fans of StoCard, a free app that allowed you to easily store any loyalty or membership card that has a barcode on your phone, so you don't have to carry the stack of cards with you.
But, then Klarna bought StoCard, and required you to migrate to the Klarna app, which doesn't work with Apple Watch, is contantly nagging you with offers, and more recently, has started requiring you to create and use a six-digit PIN code.
"Tech Talk" listener Lollie started trying other apps, and found a great new one called Supercards…
If you're using Stocard or Klarna, the best thing about Supercard is that you can import all the cards you already have stored in them, by simply taking screenshots of the stored cards and then importing them — no having to dig around to find where you put the actual cards!
Supercard is free, has no ads, and also allows you to quickly add cards that aren't in their database, and you can also add pictures of cards that have photo ID on them.
Supercards is free, and available for iPhones, Apple Watch, and Android.
2) Meet Wayther, an iOS weather app designed for road trips
A new iOS app called Wayther wants to help you better plan your road trips by giving you real-time road conditions and weather forecasts along your route.
Created by indie developer Axel Le Pennec, Wayther gives you weather forecasts along your route up to 10 days in advance.
Wayther works in all countries where Apple Weather is available, and supports both metric and imperial units. Wayther can also be used for trips by motorbike, RV, truck, bus, or bike — even walking!
Wayther offers a free trial that gives three trips for free. After the trial period, if you like it, pay $20 a year and get unlimited usage.
3) You asked: which are the best free apps for adding text to photos:
First of all, you may not need an app, if you have an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy phone.
If you have an iPhone or iPad, with iOS/iPadOS 18, you don't need to download a third-party app — you can add text to pictures right within the Photos app.
- Click on the Edit button…
Click on the Markup icon…
Click on the + on the right…
Click on Add Text…
Click on Aa to change the colour, size, style, and font…
Use your finger where you want the text, and then tap on Done in the upper-right
If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, Ron says you can use the built-in Samsung Galaxy Editor to add text and even stickers to photos…
Click on the Text button…
Choose a font and type text…
Choose a font colour…
Move text with finger…
Pinch/zoom to change size…
Add stickers if you want…
If you have a different brand Android phone or want an easier-to-use option, you can try one of these two free apps: Phonto - Text On Photos or Add Text: Write On Photos
Both apps give you lots of options in terms of styles, fonts, borders, shadowing, etc.
This is Add Text: Write On Photos…
…and this is Phonto - Text On Photos…
Both apps are free, but offer paid add-ons to unlock additional fonts and special effects.
4) If you want to know when the next tide change will be, try the Tides Near Me app
There are lots of tides apps out there, but the one which gets to top rating online and from mariners I've asked is Tides Near Me, a free app for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.
Just like weather apps, you can pin specific locations where you frequently go.
The app lets you switch between feet and metres, and miles and kilometres, and is free with subtle ads.
5) See What the winds are, and will be, with the free Windy.com app
There are LOTS of apps for showing wind speeds and direction, but the free Windy.com app consistently gets the best reviews for its layout and functionality.
You can toggle on and off more than four-dozen info layers.
If you want to get rid of on-screen ads and get a 10-day outlook plus forecast updates 4x a day and unlimited favourite locations and alerts, you can pay $25.49/year.
App Store
Windy.com - Weather & Radar
A UNIQUE WEATHER FORECAST VISUALISATION While most weather forecasting apps rely only on free global models, Windy has gone a few steps further and invested heavily in the most accurate models available, always at the highest possible resolution, to ensure accurate weather forecasts. Available wea…
6) For ID'ing flowers and plants: PictureThis - Plant Identifier
We've tried several plant and flower ID'ing apps, and the free PictureThis app from the Glority Global Group is the one which seems to be the most accurate and have the largest database.
It also offers tips on how to care for plants and flowers, and how to diagnose problems.
Important: the catch with this app and its sister apps below is that every time you go to use them, there's a splash screen for a free trial of their expensive ($50/year) premium ad-free version, and you have to find, and tap-on, the faded "cancel" button (see arrow and circled word in screenshot) up in the corner to make it go away.
7) Identify rocks with the free Rock Identifier - Stone ID app
This app from the Glority Global Group uses AI to help identify rocks, and works surprisingly well.
Important: the catch with this app and its sister apps above and below is that every time you go to use them, there's a splash screen for a free trial of their expensive ($40/year) premium ad-free version, and you have to find, and tap-on, the faded "cancel" button (see arrow and circled word in screenshot) up in the corner to make it go away.
8) Find out the value of coins with the free CoinSnap app
If you've got a stash of old coins somewhere, or you've inherited some, the free CoinSnap: Coin Identifier app by Next Vision Limited is a great way to find out if any of them are valuable.
You use the app to take a picture of the front and back of a coin, add in a couple of seconds, it not only identifies it, but also grades it for quality, and gives you an estimated value. If you have lots of coins too go through, we suggest you keep a spreadsheet of the ones that have value and how much they're worth, and then when you're done, you can decide whether to try to sell them online, or via a coin dealer.
Important: the catch with this app and its sister apps above and below, is that every time you go to use them, there's a splash screen for a free trial of their expensive ($40/year) premium ad-free version, and you have to find, and tap-on, the faded "cancel" button (see arrow and circled word in screenshot) up in the corner to make it go away.
9) ID bugs & insects with the free Picture Insect: Spiders & Bugs app
This is a highly-rated free app by Next Vision Limited for identifying spiders and other insects; like others in their family of identifying apps, it's powered by AI for more-accurate results.
Important: the catch with this app and its sister apps above is that every time you go to use them, there's a splash screen for a free trial of their expensive ($50/year) premium ad-free version, and you have to find, and tap-on, the faded "cancel" button up in the corner to make it go away.
10) If you want to chat with someone who doesn't speak your language, the Conversation Mode in Google Translate is great!
Once you switch to Conversation Mode, Google Translate automatically switches between languages, displays what it hears on the screen in both languages (so you can be sure it heard you correctly!), and then speaks the translation.
Google Translate is a free app on iPhones, iPads, and Android phones and tablets.
11a) To find your way back to a spot, with or without a vehicle, we love the free Find My Car app.
The free Find My Car app by Aleandre Marcos is available for iPhones and Android phones.
It lets you add notes and a picture to mark the spot where you want to be able to find your way back to, and again, you don't have to have a car.
There are small ads across the bottom, which you can pay a one-time fee to remove, if you want.
11b) To find the cheapest and/or closest pay-parking spot, use the free Park Me app.
This award-winning app by INRIX is the only one which shows you both on-street parking meters and parking lots which have space available, and in many cases it lets you reserve a spot and pay for it right on the app, so you don't drive there and find its taken.
Park Me is available free for iPhones and Android phones.
12) How to use Microsoft's free CoPilot AI chatbot on an iPhone or iPad
I've had Microsoft's free CoPilot AI chatbot on my iPhone for almost a year now, and within weeks, I moved it to my home app row because I use it so much.
Unlike a web-browser or search engine, CoPilot quickly gives you answers to questions, even subjective ones, and can also create images, poems, songs, stories, and letters for you.
AppleInsider.com has a great article on how to use CoPilot on an iPhone or iPad…
13) Apple has an Apple Sports app to keep tabs on scores
Apple has a free score-oriented app, Apple Sports.
The app, which is available to download for free here in Canada, in the USA and in the UK, focuses on providing real-time game scores in a fast and personalized way.
The app will let you track major leagues like the NHL, NFL, MLS, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, NCAA Basketball (men and women), La Liga, Serie A, Premier League and Liga MX, as well as Tennis, NASCAR, and Formula 1 racing.
14) If your vision is limited, try Microsoft's free Seeing AI app, which superbly narrates the world around you
A lot of people are worried about the bad things they think AI can do, but here's a superb example of what a huge positive difference it can make in the life of people with limited or no vision.
Microsoft's free Seeing AI app (suggested by Tech Talk listener Esther in Brentwood Bay who is unfortunately losing her vision quickly) can do two main things: it can read out any text your phone or tablet camera can see, or, it can describe what it sees in impressive detail. If someone sends you a picture, it can audibly describe in great detail what's in the picture.
It also has buttons for id'ing money, for describing the colours of objects, for scanning barcodes and telling you out loud what the product is and listing its ingredients and calorie info, and you can have it scan your surroundings and tell you how many people or animals are near you and where they are.
Here's a picture from my iPhone, and a screen-capture of the description which it read out aloud…
If you couldn't clearly see the picture, I think you'd have to agree that that's a pretty impressive AI-generated description!
15) A new website to learn Coast Salish words and phrases
NIȽ TU,O Child and Family Services Society is a Coast-Salish-led organization dedicated to strengthening the Beecher Bay, Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Songhees, Tsawout, Tseycum and T’Sou-ke families, communities, and Nations that NIȽ TU,O serves.
As part of that, the NIȽ TU,O website now contains a "Speak" page, which includes short audio recordings of common words and phrases in the three Straits Salish dialects spoken here — SENĆOŦEN, Hul’q’umi’num’, and lək̓ʷəŋən.
16) The popular new Buy Beaver "How Canadian Is It?" app is now available for Android phones as well as for iPhones
Created by the two Montreal guys behind the increasingly-popular IsItFromCanada.ca website, the free Buy Beaver app does a superb job of ranking from 1 to 5 how Canadian a product is.
You just scan the bar-code of a product, and the Buy Beaver app gives you a 1-to-5 Canadian rating in three categories: whether it was totally or partially made in Canada, how much of the ingredients came from within Canada, and whether the brand is Canadian-owned or not…
The Buy Beaver app by Chris Dip and Alexandre Hamila is available free on Apple's App Store and is now available on the Google Play Store for Android devices. The product database can also be accessed on the IsItFromCanada.ca website…
17) To track earthquakes here and anywhere, try the free QuakeFeed app for iPhones, or My Earthquake Alerts for Android
The recent earthquakes off Vancouver Island has prompted many of you to ask which apps we suggest for alerting you to earthquakes.
The #1 free earthquake app for iPhones is QuakeFeed by Artisan Global LLC. It has separate settings for global and nearby quakes, and you can adjust how strong a quake has to be before it alerts you, and also how close it has to be.
QuakeFeed is unfortunately not yet available for Android phones, but another top-rated free quake-monitoring app is My Earthquake Alerts by JRustonApps, and it's available for iPhones and Android phones…
18) To easily and securely store your Drivers Licence, Health card, and Passport on your phone, use the free and updated eID-Me app
Ottawa-based Bluink created the eID-Me app on behalf of the Ontario government in 2020, and since then, it's come to be accepted by provincial and territorial governments and law enforcement across Canada.
It can now also be used to confirm your identity to financial institutions and utilities, without them getting your private identity info.
The eID-Me app is free and works on iPhones and Android phones that have FaceID or TouchID enabled, and is hyper-secure, with your ID data stored only on your phone in an encrypted format.
One of the drawbacks of the previous version was that it would not enroll you if you'd recently moved and your new address was displayed via sticker on your Driver's Licence or provincial ID card. The new version now scans that CoA sticker, verifies your change-of-address, and enrolls you.
13) The "Apps Gone Free" app and newsletter tells you each day which paid apps are temporarily free
The "Apps Gone Free" app is available for iPhones, iPads and Android devices, and has a companion daily newsletter detailing which poaid apps you can download for free that day…
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