5 Apps That Can Actually Make Your Apple Watch Useful
5 Apps That Can Actually Make Your Apple Watch Useful
The Apple Watch may be the best smartwatch available, but many remain unconvinced that even the best smartwatch is necessary. In fact, the biggest question around the Apple Watch$699.99 at Apple Store is “What am I supposed to do with this very expensive smartphone accessory?” One answer is that you can run apps on it, but the Apple Watch requires an iPhone$794.00 at Amazon , and the iPhone already has thousands of top-notch apps. For the Apple Watch to make it, it needs some truly useful apps of its own.
Here we put a spotlight on a handful of apps we tested that give your Apple Watch a raison d’etre. The app library will assuredly get richer with time (it’s only been around for a month, after all) but it’s worth seeing the current state of Apple Watch apps to figure out where it might go.
This list discusses apps that add new functionality to your Apple Watch, not just superior versions of built-in Apple’s own watch apps. So while Dark Sky$3.99 at iTunes is the better weather app, Runtastic$4.99 at iTunes offers more robust workout options than what you get with your Watch, and CitymapperFree at iTunes blows the integrated Apple Maps out of the water, they’re not on this list. Also, while Apple Watch apps are inherently tethered to their iPhone app counterparts, we also want to highlight apps that are somewhat independent, or at least provide a meaningful extension of their parent app. With that, here are five apps to make your Apple Watch feel useful. If you’re hungry for more apps, maybe some that are a little more fun, check out our list of seven free Apple Watch games.
Calcbot
Free at iTunesCalcbot recognizes that the most effective Apple Watch apps, at least at the moment, are the ones with the more realistically limited ambitions. Calcbot is a calculator for your wrist. It doesn’t get more straightforward than that. A unit converter and a tip calculator add extra convenience, and the force touch menu system expands the options without cluttering the screen. It’s not a fancy scientific or graphing calculator, but Calcbot will quickly, easily, solve most math struggles the average person faces on a daily basis. Don’t settle for just asking Siri.
Epicurious
Free at iTunesCooking is a very hands-on endeavor, so if the Apple Watch can give chefs a precious reference to look at while their fingers are needed elsewhere, that’s great. The watch version of cooking app Epicurious doesn’t quite live up to those expectations. Again, the small screen makes some things that are theoretically convenient more trouble than they’re worth, like scrolling through whole recipes. Instead, the app works as a “smart timer.” Users enter their meal, like a medium-well, ¾ inch, New York strip steak, and the app then calculates how long to cook the food. Users receive periodic updates along with tips like what the finished product should look like. It’s a good way to avoid giving yourself undercooked food poisoning or burning your house down.
Evernote
Free at iTunesWe’ve already heaped plenty of praise onto Evernote for its powerful note-taking features, and the Apple Watch version comfortably slides into users’ existing note ecosystem. After syncing the app to an account, you can access all your notes from the cloud through the watch. You can also dictate new notes by speaking into the watch. I spoke very softly and quickly when testing the app, as if I was embarrassed to be seen talking into my wrist, but Evernote still transcribed my message accurately and almost instantaneously. Now you always have a method to capture flashes of inspiration. If you already have Evernote on your phone, there’s really no reason not to download the watch version, too.
Pacemaker
Free at iTunesWhile you should always hire a DJ to juggle beats if you can, Pacemaker offers a pretty cool, and free, alternative. This app analyzes music playlists, whether they consist of songs on your device or Spotify’s essentially endless supply of tracks, and strings them together into a seamless soundtrack. Not every song is going to smoothly transition into another, but I was consistently impressed by how the app synced tempos across wildly divergent selections. The Apple Watch app provides nearly all the same features as its phone counterpart. Users can manage new playlists and switch between songs on the fly. Let’s face it: If you’re wearing an Apple Watch, you probably want to draw some attention to yourself. What’s more eye-catching than controlling the tunes at a party with just your watch?
Shazam
Free at iTunesIf I can put on my conspiracy hat for a moment, I think the rise of smartwatches is at least partially connected to the rise of big phones. The giant iPhone 6 Plus creates a real need for a device that’s actually portable again. Shazam for Apple Watch is an example of this theory in action. Shazam has already proven its usefulness, but whipping out your huge phone to identity a song like some kind of musical metal detector is awkward and potentially obnoxious. Using your wrist to do the same thing is much slyer.
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