3 Useful Free Apps for iOS/Android Smartphone Users

According to my phone, I have 51 downloaded apps which confuses me. I am very careful when it comes to downloading apps, picking ones I know I'll actually use and ones that don't take up too much space. I'm sure you'll probably have LOADS more apps than me but 51 is quite a lot for my smartphone. Despite this, I would say that I would use/need every single one of those apps to either ensure a smooth running of my day-to-day work or something to kick back with and relax to. But here are the top three apps that I would recommend you get installed on your smartphone.

Peak

Game: Brain Training --- App Store --- Play Store --- In-app purchases

I only downloaded this a few days ago (after seeing an advert on the London Underground - wow, advertising down there actually works) but I'm already hooked. I'd been looking for a brain training type game for a while to help keep my brain 'in shape' and finally I have found the one. 

With 14 different games available, Peak aims to improve different aspects of your mental capacity, working on focus, memory, mental agility, language and problem solving. Each day, you are presented with four of the 15 games to play which works on some or all of these areas and after completing the four activities, you are given your 'Performance' score for each game as well as your overall 'Peak Brain Score'. The better you perform, the higher your score, the higher your rank in that game and the harder that game becomes. You can play your given activity for that day as many times as possible to try and improve on your score but you will not be presented with new activities until the following day (although some activities are chosen two days in a row). 

Performance allows you to evaluate your ability using a lovely radar chart (I do love me a good radar chart). It will also track your performance over the past 30 days as well as compare your ability against friends, people of the same profession or in your age group (using percentiles and a radar chart).

In terms of in-app purchases, Peak gives you the option to upgrade to 'Pro' which gives users access to personal training programs, more in-depth insights and five additional games with one new game added each month. You can upgrade for one month which costs £3.99 or for 12 months at £25.99. For me, I'm happy with the free version; there are enough activities to keep me going and interested and the Performance section offers enough insight and data for me. I was tempted to upgrade but thought the £25.99 subscription for one year seemed a bit too steep for what I was getting. 

St John Ambulance First Aid

Health: First Aid --- App Store --- Play Store

Hopefully you will never have to use this app and thankfully I never have. But if ever I had to administer first aid to someone, I'd be pretty much lost after DR ABC so here's where this app comes in. Free from St John Ambulance, a British first aid charity, the app provides first aid advice for a range of different ailments, broken down into 12 areas from asthma and bleeding to seizure and stroke. It also has a section about common techniques, for example, how to treat shock and open airways and another section to deal with other problems such as colds, diabetes and heatstroke. This app may save someone's life one day. That's why it's on my list. 

Sync.ME - Caller ID and Block

Communication --- App Store --- Play Store

All the music on my computer has to be accompanied by the downloaded album art. I don't like having the album art empty, its bugs me. The same is also true for contacts on my phone. I don't like that small white square next to a person's contact details, that greyish silhouette of a person, that blank space (I got a blank space baby, and I'll write your name). I'm one of those people. Thank goodness for Sync.ME.

Sync.ME links with your Facebook, Google Plus and/or VKontakte accounts to provide contact photos, birthdays etc for existing contacts on your phone. Once you sign in with any of those accounts and sync, the app will link together contacts in your 'phonebook' and contacts in Facebook/Google Plus/VKontakte and usually do a very good job. If the app is unsure about a particular phone contact, you can manually assign them to someone on Facebook etc. It won't add any contacts from those accounts onto your phone and you can choose whether you would like the app to overwrite existing contact details (birthday, company, job title, address, website) and contact photo. You can also choose whether you would like the app to auto-sync contacts or if you would like to do it manually.

Sync.ME also has two other features: Caller ID and Call Blocker. Caller ID shows information before and during the call and can be enabled for all calls, including those in your phonebook, or just for calls where you do not have their number saved. With the latter, Sync.ME draws upon a database to try and identify the caller so you'll have a better idea of whether you want to accept or decline the call from a random number. Caller ID also works for text messages from random numbers and you can determine how long you would like this information displayed.

Call Blocker can automatically block calls from 'Top Spammers' (again, a database collated from users) as well as from private numbers and each option can be toggled on or off. You can also manually add numbers to block so if you have any stalkers/persistent 'partners'/weirdos in your life, at least they won't be able to call you.



So there you have it, my three recommended apps for iOS and Android smartphone users. There are many more that I could have listed (Inbox, Google Drive, Accuweather, Swiftkey, Uber) but I felt these three were lesser known and yet still incredibly useful. And sorry to BB/Windows Phone users, some/all of these apps aren't available on your platforms!

What do you think of these apps?

Which apps would you recommend?