App stores are crowded places these days, and because storage space on your phone is often at a premium, you’ll want to fill it with not only the best, but also the most helpful apps out there. Because they come and go quicker than the latest fashion trends, and digging through Google Play, the iTunes App Store, or any of the others is such a mission; a little nudge in the right direction is often very welcome. Here are the apps we think you need to check out this week.
When iOS 9 was announced earlier this year, there was plenty of conversation about new features like Apple’s News app and the overhauled function of Siri. One thing that didn’t come up much, but has proven to be one of the biggest draws, is the introduction of content blockers. Similar to the ad blockers you might use on your computer, the feature swats away unwanted ads and prevents nosy trackers from watching your activity.
Peace has popped up as the cream of the crop for this new frontier. Designed by the creator of popular reader app Instapaper, Peace speeds up the web browsing experience by doing away with the invasive trackers housed on many sites. The app draws its block list from Ghostery, a comprehensive and crowdsourced database of web bugs, ad networks, and widgets on web pages. Peace has additional optional blocking abilities if you want to go further, or a whitelist if you trust some sites with your information.
When it comes to getting directions, there are plenty of apps to choose from. But who knows better: a company trying to record the roads for the entirety of the world or locals who are familiar with the area and what it holds? Mapkin leans on the latter. It’s the first GPS with crowdsourced voice guidance, pulling in audio cues from people who know the lay of the land, and can provide tips for navigating your way around it all.
A great story doesn’t have to be housed between a hard cover; it can exist right on your phone. That’s what Hooked is out to prove. The new app aims to reshape storytelling for the mobile and digital worlds by sharing tales through the familiar form of chat bubbles. The story plays out one message at a time, making it easy to digest the content as it comes without taking up hours of your time to sit, read, and digest it.
There is no shortage of photo editing apps out there, but every now and then a truly unique one will pop up. Spherify qualifies for that category. The app offers you a new way to play with your panoramic photos by turning the winding shots into spheres that look like their own planets. Just capture your photo then follow the simple instructions provided by Spherify and you’ll have a photo that looks like you made a new discovery while looking through a telescope.
The internet is vast and dense with information, and the way it’s organized isn’t always conducive to finding the things you want. When you’re interested in a particular topic, you have to bounce around all sorts of sites to learn about it. Curiyo’s goal is to bring everything the web has to offer on a particular topic straight to you and house it under a single roof. News articles, videos, pictures, social media feeds, Reddit threads, Wikipedia articles, and more all come together under a unified heading for you to explore.
Are you tired of paying for streaming services you never watch just to get a phone plan feature you actually want? T-Mobile has good news for you! The carrier is rolling out new plans, called T-Mix, in early November to replace its old Experience lineup with a build-your-own perks system called Picks.
The benefits you choose vary from streaming and gaming to food delivery, AI, satellite service, and phone discounts. But if you are satisfied with your existing plan, you can keep it.
Merely days after the iPhone Duo hit the shelves, images of broken screens on the phone started popping up across social media. Until now, it’s been unclear what’s causing the line of defective pixels that appears vertically along the crease, as well as horizontally, on the phone’s inner display.
Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, which has shown up on iPhone Duo units owned by customers as well as demo units in stores. In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Apple says that not all iPhone Duo units are affected and that those that are tend to show the display fault early on. The company added that users who experience problems with their iPhone Duo display should contact AppleCare for a replacement.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.