Default Apps Update

A more or less yearly tradition. We all started in 2023, did an update in 2024, and now it’s time for the third round. Because, there are changes.

📨 Mail Client: Fastmail A big change. I used Apple Mail for a long time, but stumbled upon Fastmail when reading what others are using as default. It comes with a lot of neat features, and is not too expansive. Love it. The downside I see is that it’s US based. I may try Migadu.

📮 Mail Server: Fastmail The switch of the Mail Client came after the switch of the Mail Server. After many years of using the mail server my Hoster provided, I am on Fastmail now.

📝 Notes: Apple Notes Currently back to Apple Notes. Big fan of Obsidian but Apple Notes is less stress when sharing Notes with family. I may move the important ones (journal?) back to Obsidian.

✅ To-Do: Reminders.app No update. I don’t like paying for a todo-app. This should come out of the box. And reminders is ok-ish.

📷 iPhone Photo Shooting: Camera.app No update. Looked at the camera app from Leica once, saw the price and was healed immediately.

🟦 Photo Management: Ugreen Photos I used iCloud Photos for the past two years. Liked how easy it is to have photos on all devices and share a library with family. At the same time, always annoyed when the monthly bill came. I bought a new Ugreen NAS for the general backup, iCloud for the most recent photos.

📆 Calendar: Apple Calendar & Calendars My go-to App, Calendars 5, was phased out. I worked with Apples Calendar, but miss colored events (not calendars). Luckily, a new version of Calendars 5, simply called Calendars was launched. Currently using both.

📁 Cloud File Storage: Ugreen Drive NAS.

📖 RSS: Reeder + iCloud Reeder stayed. Best RSS reading app. I use iCloud as the server.

🙍🏻‍♂️ Contacts: Contacts.app No update.

🌐 Browser: Safari Arc is out, back on Safari, though not super-happy with it. Anyone with a good recommendation?

💬 Chat: Signal, WhatsApp No change.

🔖 Bookmarks: Apple Reminders Not good, but works for me now. I created a new list in Reminders called „Follow-Up“, add links to it, and sporadically go through them and mark them as „completed“ once read.

📑 Read It Later: Apple Reminders See Bookmarks, I use a dedicated list in Apple Reminders.

🛒 Shopping Lists: Apple Reminders No change. Reminders works perfectly for us. No need to load another app.

🍴 Meal Planning: no app Not doing that. Any suggestions?

💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance: none Honestly, I don’t have a good overview about our budget right now. Something I should tackle again. Any recommendations?

📰 News: Sueddeutsche Zeitung No change.

🎵 Music: Spotify To save costs, I am back on the Spotify Family Plan. I miss Apple Music.

🎤 Podcasts: Castro No change. Love the app.

🔐 Password Management: Enpass No change.