Microsoft plans to shut down its Mail and Calendar apps and merge the two into an updated Outlook for Windows, and use this as an opportunity to introduce more artificial intelligence features.
In a blog post from Microsoft earlier this month, the company noted that Windows 11 devices that will be shipped next year will include the new Outlook for Windows as the default mailbox app. The updated Outlook will include both mail and calendar tools that will eliminate the need for the respective Mail and Calendar apps: so you’ll just use the newer Outlook instead.
The Register notes that the Mail and Calendar apps will still be available to download through the Microsoft Store up to the end of 2024, but the move doesn’t seem to be a popular decision going by reactions online – and tweet from a systems engineer and Office 365 specialist Michael Reiners suggests that Microsoft might be rethinking the plan, or at least the timing.
The tweet below shows a screenshot of an email or memo from Microsoft that says “We are reevaluating the timing and implementation of this change and will provide updated information shortly.”
#Microsoft ‘reevaluating the timing…’ of replacing the inbox Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 11 with the New Outlook for Windows.The backlash _over the weekend_ prompted this…wow. ;)@thurrott @maryjofoley @bdsams pic.twitter.com/NirvDCOui2June 19, 2023
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It's unclear why the tech giant is hesitant to roll out these changes, and the company has not responded to a request for comment from the Register as of yet.
Microsoft is giving users a chance to look at the latest Outlook for Windows. If you’d like to give it a try head over to the Mail and Calendar app and hit the 'Try the new Outlook' toggle. Merging the mail and Calendar Capabilities into Outlook is part of Microsoft’s larger One Outlook plan laid out in 2020 to create a single Outlook for PCs, Macs, and the web.
These changes present an opportunity for Microsoft to implement AI into Outlook, and hopefully streamline everyday tasks within mail and calendar capabilities, in a similar way to how Google has introduced Bard and generative AI into the Google Workspace.
Whether you're for AI integration into your daily workspace, it seems like that is the direction companies like Microsoft and Google are adamant to head towards. It would be interesting to see exactly how Microsoft plans to introduce artificial intelligence to declutter and improve your task management.
It is widely believed to be the case that simply dragging the icon of an unwanted app into Trash is all it takes to uninstall it. In some instance this is true, but not always. If you do this, you're likely to find that all manner of data is left behind. So we thought we'd take a look at how to uninstall Mac apps and ensure that nothing is left behind.
It's difficult to say just what might get left behind if you fail to uninstall an app correctly, but some of the files and data could potentially be very revealing. While there is something to said in favour of having an app leave behind your preferences and settings — it makes personalisation much faster should you decide to reinstall it in future, for example — the chances are that when you decide to uninstall an app from your Mac, you are done with it and don't want any traces left behind.
While there are additional files that you can manually delete after moving an app to the Trash, it can be difficult to know precisely what you're looking for and where to find it. And this is why it can be useful to turn to a third party uninstaller tool to help you out. There are also some apps that are helpful and include their own uninstaller that will do the hard work for you, tidying up after themselves quite neatly should you decide to remove them from your Mac.
1. Uninstall with Finder
Uninstall Mac apps with Finder (Image credit: Sofia Wyciślik-Wilson)
To uninstall apps using the Finder, switch to the tool and click Go > Applications. Here you will find a pretty exhaustive list of all of the software you have installed, and you should locate the app you are looking to uninstall. You can then drag the app icon to Trash, or select the app and click File > Move to Bin.
2. Using Launchpad to uninstall
Using Launchpad to uninstall (Image credit: Sofia Wyciślik-Wilson)
You can also use Launchpad to uninstall apps, so open it using the trackpad gesture, via the Dock shortcut, or from the Applications folder. Press and hold the Option key and the app icons will jiggle; alternatively you can click and hold on any app icon. Click the x button in the upper left-hand corner of whatever app you want to uninstall, and it will be deleted.
3. Clean up after uninstalling
Clean up after uninstalling (Image credit: Sofia Wyciślik-Wilson)
It is a good idea to check whether files and settings have been left behind after uninstalling apps using either of these two methods, and there are various locations you will need to look in.
Check in the following folders in Finder by clicking Go > Go to Folder and then typing each location in turn: ~/Library/Application Support, ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins, ~/Library/Preferences, ~/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter, ~/Library/Saved Application State, ~/Library/Caches. Delete any folders relating to uninstalled apps that you find.
4. Download AppCleaner
Download AppCleaner (Image credit: Sofia Wyciślik-Wilson)
Third-party app uninstallers are generally thought of as being for Windows users, but they have their place on Macs too. There are a huge number of such tools to choose from, and while many are very similar to each other, some are much more reliable than others. A good option is AppCleaner which can be downloaded from freemacsoft.
5. Uninstalling with AppCleaner
Uninstalling with AppCleaner (Image credit: Sofia Wyciślik-Wilson)
Using AppCleaner is very similar to the drag-to-trash app uninstallation method. Rather than dragging apps to the trash, you should instead launch AppCleaner and drag and drop an unwanted app icon onto the app window. The software will not only remove the main app you have specified, but also track down any related files so you can delete these in a couple of clicks without having to manually search for anything.
In conclusion
With so many different methods of uninstallation available, it is little wonder that there is a degree of confusion when it comes to getting rid of unwanted Mac apps. The fact that app can be installed both from the App Store and directly from developer websites slightly complicates matter, and it is a good argument for only using App Store apps — they are significantly quicker and easier to delete without worrying about traces being left behind.
That said, the existence of dedicated uninstaller or clean-up utilities is a great lifeline for anyone who doesn't fancy spending their time manually tidying up after a messy uninstallation.
Microsoft is further improving the Paint app in Windows 11, with new changes coming through in testing including a dark mode.
The new version of Paint (11.2304.17.0) is rolling out to testers in both Canary and Dev channels (and the latter just got a new preview of Windows 11, as you may have seen, with a nifty change allowing for viewing smartphone photos on the desktop).
As mentioned, one of the big tweaks for Paint here is the addition of a dark mode, and the app will automatically use it if you’ve turned on dark mode in Windows 11’s settings. (Note that you can turn off the option to automatically switch, mind).
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Another useful change comes with zoom controls. Microsoft has given users a higher level of fine-tuning with the zoom slider, and you can set a custom zoom value if needed. On top of this, a ‘fit to screen’ option is now present which will do just that – zoom to match the size of the app window.
In the blog post describing all the changes, Microsoft further tells us that it has overhauled ‘Image Property’ dialog boxes to match Windows 11’s modern design, and fit with the new backdrop for the Paint client.
Finally, we’re informed that there have been “many accessibility and usability improvements” to dialog panels throughout the app, with better access key support (keyboard presses for interface controls, rather than having to use a mouse) and keyboard shortcuts in general.
Analysis: Could bigger changes be in the pipeline?
The dark mode looks smart and is another piece of the puzzle for those wanting this option throughout Windows 11, wherever they’re working.
Paint remains a popular app, so it’s not surprising to see Microsoft continuing to improve the software. Folks want more though (don’t they always), and we’re still seeing calls for layers to be introduced to the app.
Maybe – just maybe – those are features we might see Microsoft officially working on in the future. Who knows, stranger things have happened, and the software giant certainly appears keen to keep on motoring ahead with Paint improvements.
Windows 11 is getting the ability to kill an unresponsive app, known as ‘force closing’ (or force quitting) right from the taskbar in what’ll be a very useful tweak for the OS.
This functionality was previously spotted hidden in test builds of Windows 11, and caused a fair bit of excitement at the time, so it’s good to see Microsoft confirm it is indeed inbound.
The move represents a far more convenient and easy way to deal with a misfiring app than the current scheme of things in Windows 11, where you have to head into the Task Manager and hunt around a bit to accomplish the same feat.
The Verge reports that Microsoft let us know that the ability is coming to Windows 11 at its Build conference for developers.
Quite a bit of stuff has been announced at Build, in fact, and a bunch of minor but important changes along similar lines – like native support for dealing with RAR or 7-Zip files in Windows 11 (instead of having to download and install a third-party utility).
And of course there’s a huge change that has been announced, one we’re viewing with a little trepidation – namely the introduction of AI into Windows 11 in the form of Microsoft’s Copilot.
Analysis: Mirroring the Mac – finally
So, what’s the big deal here? When apps go rogue and freeze up, they can simply hang around, slowing down your system’s performance (perhaps) and generally being annoying.
To force close such an unresponsive app right now in Windows 11, you have to open Task Manager, which is a bit of a faff in itself, unless you know the keyboard shortcut (press Control+Shift+Escape together). Then you must scroll through the list of running processes to find the rogue app, select it, and click the ‘End Task’ button.
With the new option, all you have to do is right-click on the app in the taskbar, and select ‘End Task’ from the context menu – a far easier and quicker way of taming the application that’s gone awry.
As Mac users will realize, this exact ability is something present in macOS, so Windows 11 is catching up to Apple’s desktop operating system in that respect – and it’s about time, to be honest.
Windows 11 will soon be much easier to set up exactly how you like it on a new PC thanks to a freshly introduced feature which has now entered testing.
PC World reports that Microsoft revealed the new Restore Apps feature at its Build conference for developers.
The feature – if turned on, as apparently it’s an optional ability – will shift not just your personal data onto a new PC (as can already be done via OneDrive, of course), but also your apps (with a catch – we’ll come back to that). Also, it’ll port over the customization you have applied to the interface too – so, for example, your desktop icons and layout, or apps you have pinned to the taskbar.
In essence, this means you can fire up a new installation of Windows 11 and soon have it exactly like your old system, with a minimum of hassle and effort.
As you might imagine, though, to get Restore Apps rolling and the full benefit of this easy migration to a new machine, you’ll need to be signed into a Microsoft Account (as opposed to using Windows 11 with a local account).
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Analysis: A couple of caveats
This is a great move from Microsoft in terms of making it really easy to get a new PC going. The catch is that with the apps being reinstalled, Windows 11 only preserves applications you’ve installed from the Microsoft Store, so you will have to manually set up other software.
And yes, you do have to use your Microsoft Account for the Windows 11 installation, but that’s no surprise. We don’t have a problem with Microsoft leveraging its account where necessary and when it’s of genuine benefit to users, after all. (What we don’t like to see is dubious ‘suggestions’ and ‘help’ in the Start menu which are just thinly veiled adverts for an account).
We’re told that Restore Apps should be available to testers imminently, perhaps by the time you read this, but it’s not clear in which channel Microsoft will deploy the feature first (Canary or Dev, presumably).
Windows 11 is getting some fine-tuning around how default app selections are handled and how apps are pinned on the desktop, making these systems work better and with more overall consistency.
XDA Developers spotted that Microsoft wrote a blog post on its new ‘principled approach’ to these app behaviors, with the incoming changes set to arrive in testing (Dev channel) in the “coming months,” we’re told.
The first measure to be implemented is with app defaults. Windows 11 will get a new Settings deep link URI (uniform resource identifier), allowing developers to take users directly to the correct place in Settings whenever any given app flags itself up as wanting to be the default.
The default app is the software which is opened automatically for a specific file format, so for example, your default browser is the one used when you click a link in, say, an email.
Secondly, Microsoft is changing the way that pinning apps – putting icons permanently on the Start menu or taskbar – works, by introducing a new notification. In the case that an app wants to request being pinned, this notification will pop up explaining just that, allowing the user to either click Accept or Decline.
Crucially, the software giant wants consistency with these interface tweaks, so all third-party software, and Microsoft’s own core apps for Windows 11, work the same way and abide by these rules. That’s the plan, anyway, although whether things work out this neatly, we’ll just have to wait and see.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Analysis: Defending against dodginess, and making up for past mistakes
As made clear in its blog post, part of Microsoft’s aim with this tweaking of app behavior is defending against “unrequested modifications” from dodgy developers. In other words, things happening in the background unbeknownst to the user, and the likes of adware or other rogue software managing to infiltrate into the system.
It’s also designed, no doubt, to reassure Windows 11 users that Microsoft is putting the past well and truly behind it regarding the firm’s own policies on default apps, which have been a source of criticism previously.
You might remember that when Windows 11 first launched, Microsoft made it an unnecessarily clunky process to change browser defaults away from its own Edge product (you had to go through every file type and change the preference individually, such as HTML, PDF and so on – a ridiculous state of affairs, really).
Indeed, Microsoft even mentions its browser specifically in the post, noting that: “We are committing that Microsoft Edge will release an update that adopts the new Settings deep link URI for defaults and public pinning APIs as they become available.”
At any rate, this is a welcome move, although in all honesty, app defaults should never have appeared in the state they were when Windows 11 was launched in the first place. Mind you, the same could be said about a number of things in the Windows 11 interface upon its release, with the OS having very much been a work in progress as Microsoft has gone along.
One of the most widely-used Zoom apps is closing as the company looks to modernize some of its offerings for users around the world.
The video conferencing giant has announced it is shutting its app for Chromebooks, the low-cost machines running Google's ChromeOS that have become incredibly popular among schools and universities.
Users shouldn't fear the loss of Zoom forever though, as the company says it is only making the change in order to build something better.
Zoom on Chromebook
“This app will no longer be officially supported after August 2022. Please use the new Zoom for Chrome PWA to join meetings on ChromeOS,” said a notice in the Zoom app for Chromebooks that has recently begun appearing.
The app is set to close by August 2022, meaning users have a few more weeks of the original offering, which was released during Zoom's heyday in the early weeks and months of the pandemic.
9to5Google, which first spotted the alert, notes that the Zoom app for Chromebooks is pretty basic, only offering standard access to video calls and meetings without any of the added functionality that has been added to other versions of Zoom over the years.
Google had announced back in August 2020 that it would be phasing out Chrome apps on all platforms, with support on Windows, Mac and Linux ending in June 2021. This was later extended to all Chrome apps on ChromeOS for June 2022, with the company no longer accepting new apps, and existing apps no longer being listed or made available to download on the Chrome Web Store.
Zoom had shown off a Progressive Web App (PWA) for Chromebooks in 2021, offering much of the standard functionality familiar to users on other platforms, as well as up to date UI and apps.
In its most recent financial results, the company said that the number of customers contributing more than $ 100,000 was up 46% year-over-year, as it now has around 198,900 enterprise customers, up 24% from the same quarter in its last fiscal year.
April 14 was the day that I became a married man. And during the two years spent arranging it, there were a few apps on iOS 15 that we constantly used to make sure everything was paid for, and perfectly scheduled to play its part on the day.
Planning a wedding involves tasks that you would never expect to have to sort out – from agreeing on the music that would play while you sign the marriage certificate, to checking if the right tree logs for the table have been picked up by the best man.
If we didn't have our iPhones and apps at hand, we may have had to hire a wedding planner to avoid the multiple moments of stress we would have inevitably had.
But thankfully, there were five apps that helped us manage big chunks of the wedding that I was not expecting when I proposed back in 2020.
Notes
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Apple's Notes app is one I've relied on since the first version of iOS. It's simple, useful, and has always helped remind me of what's needed to be done for certain tasks.
For the wedding, its usefulness went to another level, thanks in part to the ability to manage notes with someone.
Having both of us add and remove checklists across the two years helped a bunch, especially when an update can appear as a push notification.
Things 3
(Image credit: TechRadar)
While we had been arranging the wedding since 2020, tasks didn't really ramp up until the beginning of this year, which is where a to-do app came in.
Having tried other apps in this category, such as OmniFocus, Things 3 won out thanks to the quick actions of its Today screen. I could add and remove sudden jobs, and they'd also display in a helpful widget on my iPhone.
It's not just available on your iPhone for $ 9.99 / £9.99 / AU$ 11.99, it's also available on the iPad for $ 19.99 / £19.99 / AU$ 24.99, and on the Mac priced at $ 49.99 / £29.99 / AU$ 59.99.
Being reminded to pay for a photo booth or to decide on types of flowers in Things was a big help. In fact, it was so helpful I've expanded it to other aspects of my life, including my job at TechRadar, and hobbies like, embarrassingly, weekly Fortnite challenges.
Shazam
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Spotify and Apple Music are two apps I've constantly used for the last decade. I still pay for iTunes Match, which is a yearly service that allows me to host all the music content that I owned on my iPod.
For the wedding itself, we found Spotify useful in arranging the entire playlist from start to finish, mainly due to the ability to have collaborative playlists.
This allowed us to add and remove songs in a playlist as we pleased, with our initials letting each of us know who added the most embarrassing song of the evening.
However, Shazam was most useful in helping us discover artists and tracks that we never would have considered. Going to wedding fayres and shops we heard a lot of music and by using Shazam to discover what the titles were, we could add them to our Spotify and Apple Music playlists.
It's a handy app that can help bolster your music library on whichever music app you use, without being intrusive.
A recent update also allows Shazam to be set up as a shortcut in Control Center on iOS 15, which saves you time before the track stops playing.
Angry Birds
(Image credit: TechRadar)
For me, managing a wedding is the equivalent of spinning 50 plates while standing on one leg, and reciting the alphabet backward in Spanish.
And that can lead to moments where you just want to escape the planning and the picking, and the paying, and just play a game instead.
This is where I decided to revisit some games thanks to Apple Arcade, and I rediscovered Angry Birds. It was an ideal pick for alleviating some of the frustration that occurred with some suits in February.
The game's maker, Rovio has also re-released the original game on iOS and Android, which I promptly downloaded. Flicking the irate fowl across four worlds on my iPhone 13 Pro turned out to be a great stress reliever while I was on a train to sort out the suits again or deciding on the right type of chairs for the reception.
Monzo Pots
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Weddings cost money – lots of money. If you want to make sure that the location or items you had your heart set on for years can be part of your special day, you're going to hear the word deposit a lot until the big day arrives.
It's also a great lesson in managing your funds, which is where a feature from Monzo came in handy for us. Pots are a way of moving money into sections that can't be used by your debit card. They're essentially saving methods without creating a savings account.
You can lock a pot to stop you from withdrawing any money from it, alongside naming it whatever you wish and setting it with a picture. If you want, you can set any transactions to round up the payment to the nearest unit, with the spare change being sent to this pot.
It removes a worry about how much you have ready for the wedding or other saving goals, alongside making sure it's safe from temptation.
April 14 was the day that I became a married man. And during the two years spent arranging it, there were a few apps on iOS 15 that we constantly used to make sure everything was paid for, and perfectly scheduled to play its part on the day.
Planning a wedding involves tasks that you would never expect to have to sort out – from agreeing on the music that would play while you sign the marriage certificate, to checking if the right tree logs for the table have been picked up by the best man.
If we didn't have our iPhones and apps at hand, we may have had to hire a wedding planner to avoid the multiple moments of stress we would have inevitably had.
But thankfully, there were five apps that helped us manage big chunks of the wedding that I was not expecting when I proposed back in 2020.
Notes
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Apple's Notes app is one I've relied on since the first version of iOS. It's simple, useful, and has always helped remind me of what's needed to be done for certain tasks.
For the wedding, its usefulness went to another level, thanks in part to the ability to manage notes with someone.
Having both of us add and remove checklists across the two years helped a bunch, especially when an update can appear as a push notification.
Things 3
(Image credit: TechRadar)
While we had been arranging the wedding since 2020, tasks didn't really ramp up until the beginning of this year, which is where a to-do app came in.
Having tried other apps in this category, such as OmniFocus, Things 3 won out thanks to the quick actions of its Today screen. I could add and remove sudden jobs, and they'd also display in a helpful widget on my iPhone.
It's not just available on your iPhone for $ 9.99 / £9.99 / AU$ 11.99, it's also available on the iPad for $ 19.99 / £19.99 / AU$ 24.99, and on the Mac priced at $ 49.99 / £29.99 / AU$ 59.99.
Being reminded to pay for a photo booth or to decide on types of flowers in Things was a big help. In fact, it was so helpful I've expanded it to other aspects of my life, including my job at TechRadar, and hobbies like, embarrassingly, weekly Fortnite challenges.
Shazam
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Spotify and Apple Music are two apps I've constantly used for the last decade. I still pay for iTunes Match, which is a yearly service that allows me to host all the music content that I owned on my iPod.
For the wedding itself, we found Spotify useful in arranging the entire playlist from start to finish, mainly due to the ability to have collaborative playlists.
This allowed us to add and remove songs in a playlist as we pleased, with our initials letting each of us know who added the most embarrassing song of the evening.
However, Shazam was most useful in helping us discover artists and tracks that we never would have considered. Going to wedding fayres and shops we heard a lot of music and by using Shazam to discover what the titles were, we could add them to our Spotify and Apple Music playlists.
It's a handy app that can help bolster your music library on whichever music app you use, without being intrusive.
A recent update also allows Shazam to be set up as a shortcut in Control Center on iOS 15, which saves you time before the track stops playing.
Angry Birds
(Image credit: TechRadar)
For me, managing a wedding is the equivalent of spinning 50 plates while standing on one leg, and reciting the alphabet backward in Spanish.
And that can lead to moments where you just want to escape the planning and the picking, and the paying, and just play a game instead.
This is where I decided to revisit some games thanks to Apple Arcade, and I rediscovered Angry Birds. It was an ideal pick for alleviating some of the frustration that occurred with some suits in February.
The game's maker, Rovio has also re-released the original game on iOS and Android, which I promptly downloaded. Flicking the irate fowl across four worlds on my iPhone 13 Pro turned out to be a great stress reliever while I was on a train to sort out the suits again or deciding on the right type of chairs for the reception.
Monzo Pots
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Weddings cost money – lots of money. If you want to make sure that the location or items you had your heart set on for years can be part of your special day, you're going to hear the word deposit a lot until the big day arrives.
It's also a great lesson in managing your funds, which is where a feature from Monzo came in handy for us. Pots are a way of moving money into sections that can't be used by your debit card. They're essentially saving methods without creating a savings account.
You can lock a pot to stop you from withdrawing any money from it, alongside naming it whatever you wish and setting it with a picture. If you want, you can set any transactions to round up the payment to the nearest unit, with the spare change being sent to this pot.
It removes a worry about how much you have ready for the wedding or other saving goals, alongside making sure it's safe from temptation.
Your iPhone may be the computer you use the most, whether that’s for work, play, or relaxing with a movie. But what about for enjoying written content? That’s where the best ereader apps come in.
Whether it’s a comic book bursting with color, the latest non-fiction from your Amazon library, or a page-turner recommended by a friend, it has never been easier to enjoy a book via your phone. With iPhones growing in size, and including beautiful OLED displays across the iPhone 13 series, your content comes to life like never before.
With that in mind, here are our picks for the best ereader apps you’ll find on iOS. And since a tablet will likely be even better for most, all of the apps listed here have iPadOS versions, too.
Kindle
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Kindle is synonymous with reading digital books, with Amazon offering its own series of devices for doing just that. That association may have buried the lede for some iPhone users, who may not actually have spotted that there’s a Kindle app on the App Store. And the good news is that it’s great.
The app offers more than a million books, and if you’re already an Amazon user who's picked up books before, your entire library will be ready to go from the off. Prime and Kindle Unlimited users can also grab free books as well as those included in their membership, alongside Audible functionality so you can listen to your books.
You’ll find nifty features such as instant Wikipedia lookup and translations, a built-in dictionary, and your progress will even sync to other devices.
Scribd
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Not sure what you fancy reading, or not keen on splashing out on a book you may not like? Scribd has long been the “Netflix for books”, a subscription service that offers unlimited ebooks for $ 8.99/£10.99.
And that's not all. Scribd also delivers access to audiobooks, magazines, and even sheet music. Sticking with written content, though, the app will sync across your iPhone, iPad, and even your Apple Watch, letting you pick up your content wherever you are. In addition, the reader itself is impressively customizable. You can set horizontal or vertical scroll, font size, and annotate pages without worrying about sticky notes.
Finally, Scribd is ad-free, which means more room on-screen for your content, library, and the chance to discover your next favorite book.
ComiXology
(Image credit: TechRadar)
An early darling of the iPad’s app store, ComiXology is another entry on this list for Amazon – and yes, you’ll need an Amazon login to be able to read. That’s a shame, but it does come with the benefit of free issues on a regular basis.
If you’re a comic reader, it’s hard to beat ComiXology, which features Marvel, DC and plenty more – whether you’re a fan of superheroes, manga, or anything else. The digital comics pop right off the screen on the latest iPhones, delivering a feel of real immersion with Guided View.
This clever mode moves from panel to panel, meaning you can spend less time thumbing at your screen and more time reading the adventures of the Justice League or Avengers.
Apple Books
(Image credit: TechRadar)
No longer known as iBooks, and no longer offering that skeuomorphic bookshelf design, Apple’s own book store is well worth a look, and it’s already on your device by default.
As you can imagine, the library is stocked with all of the latest and greatest, alongside the classics, plus audiobooks are high-quality – and CarPlay compatible. You can also add your own documents, so if you have a hefty PDF to work through then you can do so with Apple’s gorgeous and minimal UI.
There are reading goals, too, and all of your progress syncs across your Apple devices, including the Mac.
Wattpad
(Image credit: TechRadar)
If you’re not looking for the kind of article you’d find in your local bookstore, and are instead more interested in finding the next Dickens or Brontë, then perhaps Wattpad is for you.
Wattpad collects the best original stories from budding authors and makes them discoverable, with a wealth of free content to read. You can even upload your own budding bestseller for others to enjoy.
However, it's worth noting that you’ll need a premium membership to sync progress between devices, which will set you back $ 5.99/£5.99.
Kobo Books
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Part ereader, part social network for reading fans, Kobo Books offers an excellent reading experience with a twist.
You can read, highlight, annotate and more; but it really comes into its own with the “Reading Life” feature, which will let you build a community. Think of it as a book club within your app, with millions of books to read and audiobooks to listen to, combined with people to discuss them with.
There are also a huge number of free titles, so it’s worth hopping on to see if anything piques your interest.
Libby, by OverDrive
(Image credit: TechRadar)
If you’re looking for a more authentic library experience, Libby has you covered – not only can you read your own content, but you can borrow books for a period instead of buying them outright.
You can even annotate and make notes on your borrowed books, all without the fear of incurring a heavy fee for defacing them. Progress syncs across devices, but you will need to use a library card to log in (yes, really), and content is restricted to what your visited library has to offer.
Still, there’s something strangely quirky about Libby’s approach that makes us miss the library.
Blinkist
(Image credit: TechRadar)
For our final entry on this list, we opted for something a little unique – an ereader app that tries to stop you from reading a book in its entirety.
Okay, bear with us here. Blinkist’s neuroscientific research suggests you can absorb much of what a book has to offer in around 15 minutes. To that end, the app provides summations of books, either through text or via audiobooks. If that sounds like cheating then this may not be for you. However, if you have limited time or want to brush up on a conversation piece, it could be worth a look.
Still, this unique approach does mean that Blinkist has a smaller library than most of the alternatives here.
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