In part two of this series, we will look at what we’re calling “essential” apps, including travel, weather, and apps that make your life easier. Because that’s what its all about, isn’t it? This is one of the greatest things about the Apple Watch, in my opinion. It gives you the tools that you need to get through your day. Whether it’s a map helping you navigate your city, or an app to tell you if you need to wear a winter coat or bring an umbrella – the Apple Watch lets you do it all.
Carrot Weather
Carrot Weather is one of my favorite weather apps. Why? Becuase it’s not only funny but it also gives you information about the weather. On the clock face, you will see how the weather will change over the next 10 hours or so. Some funny messages include things like “the cloud looks like a platypus getting a foot massage. What’s not to love?
CityMapper
On the iPhone, Citymapper is fantastic for giving you point-to-point directions for a range of supported cities. It also gives you location-based public transport details and alerts. What’s great is the Apple Watch app is just as good. It offers quick access to your favorite places and information about nearby buses and trains. Journey steps are clearly outlined, providing all the assistance you need, such as times of upcoming trains, stops on your route, and tiny maps that link through to Apple’s Maps app. We just wish it could somehow magically work for every town and city in the world rather than just the handful of (mainly) capitals it’s currently set up for.
Find Near Me
Find Near Me is an app designed to help you quickly find local amenities and stores. All you have to do is tap on the category (restaurants, ATM’s, cafe) and you will get a list of results with place names and distances. This is not one that I regularly use, but I need to start more as I’m always looking for places in my new city. If you want more details on each of these items, you just tap that item to get restaurant reviews, phone numbers, and directions. The app also integrates with Siri, making it even easier to find places that you want to go.
iTranslate
The name kind of says it all. iTranslate is a translation app, but the beauty of it is that you can translate anything on your wrist. All you have to do is say it directly to your watch, or even write it on the watch itself. If you get the pro mode, you will be able to use the app without the use of your iPhone. The app has a clever Complication, which shows a greeting for the current time of day. IT also displays previous translations when you turn the Digital Crown to use the watchOS Time Travel feature.
Elk
When you’re overseas, it’s important to understand how much money you are spending. Which is why Elk is a great app if you do any kind of travel. Elk puts currency conversions right onto your wrist – helping to reduce the likelihood of expensive mistakes. The developers have done a really good job of thinking about how you interact with the Apple Watch. There isn’t a keypad to enter your data, instead, you just turn the Digital Crown in order to adjust numbers and swipe to change the actual digits.
Pennies
I have such a hard time with budgeting. But Pennies does a lot of work for me. If you are like me, you get to the end of the month and wonder what happened to all of your money, then you need to add Pennies to your Apple Watch. You can set up lists, allocate a budget and then input values when you spend or receive cash in those areas. If you want to be constantly guilted into knowing what your money is doing for you (like me), then you need to add Pennies as a Complication.
Multitimer
Apple does have a timer built in, but it doesn’t let you store multiple timers – including custom ones. Set up your timers in the iPhone app, and each is then displayed on your Apple Watch with a color, label, and an icon. You can run as many timers as you like, and their progress is seamlessly synced across devices.