Jury Picks

ElevenReader reads aloud to me things I would never have read myself. Articles, PDFs, and e-books are transformed into audiobooks, using AI voices that sound amazingly natural—a far cry from the robotic, monotonous tones of earlier text-to-speech features. I use the app while out for a walk or in the car to work through my reading pile. For anyone who, like me, has a lot of text to get through every day, this really helps free up time.

My insider tip for studying: I import PDFs, web pages, or YouTube videos into a notebook and can then ask questions about them. The answers are based on my sources rather than just made up. My favorite feature is the audio summaries: Two AI voices go over my material like a podcast. I listen to them on the go, even offline. That way, an 80-page report turns into a relaxing quarter-hour on the train.

The app with the biggest heart in my collection. Blind and visually impaired people point the camera at something and get help: either from sighted volunteers around the world or from an AI that describes labels, letters, or the washing machine display. I’m registered as a volunteer myself, and every request reminds me of what technology is really for. Here, AI makes everyday life tangibly easier—without all the hype.

I first heard about Be My Eyes years ago, and ever since, I’ve been telling people I consider to be good-hearted about it. It helps blind people navigate real-life situations. Once you’ve activated the app and receive a “call,” you can accept or decline it. Often, it’s about such mundane things that a sighted person can do without a second thought, but which are difficult for a blind person: Which jar of pickles at the supermarket is the right one? What color is the pen? The person seeking help points to it with their iPhone during a video call, and you answer. Done. And another good deed done.

What’s the name of that mountain back there, anyway? PeakFinder answers that question before I’ve even finished thinking it. Just point the camera at it, and the names and elevations of all the peaks appear over the panorama. Best of all: The app works completely offline, even where there’s no network coverage. No subscription, no advertising gimmicks—just pay once and use it forever. That’s how apps should be.

To me, Merlin is the best proof that AI can do more than just write text. I hold my iPhone out into the garden, and the app shows me in real time who’s singing: a blackbird, a chiffchaff, a robin. It seems like magic, but it’s actually sophisticated pattern recognition based on a massive collection of audio recordings from the Cornell Lab. Ever since then, I’ve been listening with a whole new perspective on every bike ride. It’s free, ad-free, and an app that connects me to nature instead of a screen.

Evernote, one of the first note-taking apps, has become a powerful all-around tool for organizing daily life, both professionally and personally. I use it not only for quick notes here and there, but also for taking meeting minutes, as a word processor, for simple spreadsheets, and for collecting articles I come across while consuming media. Emails can easily be forwarded to Evernote. It comes very close to being a “jack-of-all-trades” and, for me, often replaces the need for Office apps.

Traveling by electric car requires some preparation and planning—such as determining whether charging stops are necessary and identifying routes optimized for low energy consumption. "A Better Route Planner" (ABRP) excels at this: it presents alternatives with precise timing for each charging stop and imports your vehicle's data directly from the corresponding car app.

Photos need the darkroom to reach their full potential. On my desktop, I use Adobe Lightroom (also available for smartphones), and on my phone, I use Snapseed, a photo editor from Google. No cheap effects from garish filters—just an intuitive tool for precise image editing. Excellent for both professional and personal use.

FileUtils adds new functions to the macOS Finder’s context menu. While many of these can also be executed via the command line (Terminal.app), this tool makes them much easier to use. Since it is a tool for advanced users, it may not be suitable for everyone.

For example, it adds commands that let you create symbolic links, change file and folder permissions, or compress files into other formats such as 7z and tar.

One particularly handy feature is the “Size Browser,” which lets me check file sizes in subfolders—similar to the excellent app DaisyDisk, but with this tool, it’s integrated directly into the Finder.

I am sensitive to noise and have trouble sleeping when there's sounds around me, especially voices.

I found that playing white noise close to my ears helps with that. I looked for a few apps for this purpose and found this one work best for my needs, as it lets me adjust the sound to my liking.

Sometimes I need to access my home computer while I'm on the go. If I have a laptop or MacBook with me, it's very easy, but if I only have my smartphone, Remotix is the solution. I've been using the app for over 10 years, and it has always worked flawlessly. Of course, to access my computers at home, I also have to set up a VPN on my home internet router and then add and enable access to it on my smartphone.

Whenever I'm traveling, I use Pado on my iPhone to track my route. The app not only logs where I've been, but also shows me where I took photos along the way, where I stopped, and how fast or slow I was going. I also use it when I’m skiing. It lets me track my past runs better than any other app on my phone.

An oldie but a goodie: Notes! Whether you’re on the go and have a new product idea, writing a storyline for a role-playing game session, or just want to jot down some thoughts about your day - Notes lets you do it quickly and informally, and your notes are synced to the cloud.

One of my favorite ways to clear my head is hiking. Komoot is super helpful for both spontaneous hikes and planning hikes at vacation destinations. The highlights along the trail, created by previous users, are the icing on the cake!

As a woman of a certain age, I’ve naturally developed a love for gardening! Unfortunately, my enthusiasm sometimes exceeds my talent when it comes to keeping plants alive, or even identifying them. PictureThis has been incredibly helpful, both when I’m out in the wild and when I’m tending to my rooftop garden.

An app that goes beyond vocabulary and set phrases, explains even complicated grammar rules clearly, and teaches you slang and everyday expressions? Count me in! I’ve been learning French with Gymglish for two years now, and I can even understand Canadians and Belgians these days.

To me, Slopes is simply the best snowboarding/skiing app out there. Slopes has been constantly improved over the years, is easy to use, and is a lot of fun. The app provides a wealth of information about your runs and the resort, both on iPhones and Apple Watches.

An app that fixes something Xcode dearly lacks: Cleaning up the stuff Xcode likes to leave behind. And Xcode leaves a lot of things behind. If you develop things with Xcode, you need this.

The absolute Swiss army knife of graphics tools. Quick edits, large edits, conversions, batch automations, everything. And that since 1992.

I’m old enough to have used Airbnb back when hardly anyone knew about it. It has since become a global corporation; Airbnb listings are pushing out long-time tenants, and more and more large-scale landlords—who used to operate exclusively on platforms like booking.com—are flooding Airbnb. Still, it remains my first choice when looking for vacation rentals—though I prefer to use the “Guest Favorite” and “Superhost” filters, because that way I can be sure I won’t end up in a filthy dump with junk furniture.

I didn't expect an app from the German Federal Motor Transport Authority to be enjoyable, but i-Kfz puts your vehicle registration (Zulassungsbescheinigung Teil I) on your iPhone — set up via eID or QR code — and shows it offline when you get pulled over. The automatic reminder for the next inspection is handy, and you can hand out a shared copy by link or QR and revoke it whenever you want. Free, and a rare case of German bureaucracy that actually works on a phone.

Fluid Meteo is the best-looking weather app I know: a 3D globe with rain, clouds and wind drifting across it as fluid animation — you end up understanding the weather better than any column of numbers would let you. For Central Europe it gives minute-by-minute rain forecasts based on DWD data, and it's free, with no subscription. It runs on iPhone, Mac and Vision Pro, and it's a small piece of craftsmanship on every one of them.

YouTube is probably the app I underrate the most — I use it every day, mostly for conference talks, WWDC sessions, and whatever I'm trying to teach myself at the moment. The recommendations get surprisingly good once you've trained them in the right direction. And with Premium and background playback it quietly turns into the best podcast player I own.

Whenever I fly, Flighty is running. It usually knows about a delay or a gate change before the airline does — often hours ahead of time. On top of that, the Watch app and Live Activities are genuinely well done, so you always know where you stand. Easy recommendation if you travel a lot.

The DB Navigator app is one of my absolute favorite apps. Book trips, save tickets, check for delays and alternative routes. And now it's back on the Watch, too!

When I was single for a while, I discovered Spontacts: you can take part in great activities, like hiking, going out to eat, going to the movies or dancing, wine tasting, game nights, cooking together… there’s nothing you can’t do. You’ll find plenty of singles on the platform, but by no means exclusively. You get to meet great new people every time you do an activity, and some of them are now part of my circle of friends. Important for singles: You can get to know interesting people in a much more natural and casual way than on traditional dating platforms.

For many years now, 1Password has been keeping all my secrets safe: not just passwords, which it automatically and securely fills in on all my devices when needed, but also banking information, PIN codes, and more. The app has proven to be robust in various security tests and has won me over completely. I recommend it to anyone who’s willing to invest a little money in the security of their data, because the app’s convenience far exceeds what Apple offers with its built-in “Passwords” app/feature.

ChatGPT was the first AI I took seriously—I worked with it extensively. Claude has since replaced it as my go-to choice, but in some areas, ChatGPT is still the better solution. If you can, you should combine the two and compare the results of their work. I even openly present the output from one AI to the other (“This is what ChatGPT says about it:”), and I benefit from this time and again.

Claude has long since replaced ChatGPT in my daily routine—I use it for writing, brainstorming, and tackling the tricky questions related to my business. No other AI assistant thinks things through so thoroughly while remaining honest, instead of just telling me what I want to hear. What I especially love is the huge context window—entire manuscripts or projects fit into a single conversation. For the very latest topics, I quickly switch on the web search; that way, the answers are all the more well-founded.

Traditional computer games haven't really appealed to me since I was a teenager. But I play online chess obsessively—every single day. It helps me take my mind off things; I love the logic and, above all, the quick thinking required in blitz chess. "Chess – Play and Learn" stands out for its huge community, so you can always find an opponent at your desired skill level at any time of day or night. There are also tournaments and challenges. Some of the opponents are remarkably strong.

In my opinion, Threads is the best social network we have. For me, it has long since replaced Facebook as my daily go-to source for varied and insightful glimpses into other people’s thoughts. The posts are usually more thought-provoking and often funnier, even if they’re text-heavy. The fact that Meta is the company behind it might bother some people. It doesn’t bother me.