It’s been a year and a half since my last post of this kind, more than enough time for things to change. And indeed they have: after a lifetime as an Android user, I decided to take the plunge and get an iPhone, which forced me to rethink some of my apps.
Having a MacBook already, I could have gone all in on the Apple ecosystem and used their apps for everything. I preferred to keep a certain independence though, trying to stick with the apps I already used or, where that wasn’t possible, going for open-source and cross-platform alternatives.
With 🍎 I’ve marked apps that are heavily tied to the Apple ecosystem, with 🔒 the closed source ones. Bold entries indicate changes from the last post.
✉️ Email Client: Proton Mail
I’m still using Proton and I’m happy with it, especially for email. With the associated services though I still have a bit of a love-hate relationship.
📮 Mail Server: Proton Mail
Nothing new to report here.
On one hand, I do miss the fully outline-based approach. On the other, Obsidian feels like a much more mature solution and syncing via LiveSync works great, so overall I’m happy with the switch.
✅ To-Do: 🍎 Apple Reminders
Nextcloud Tasks on macOS & Tasks.org on AndroidI’d been missing a proper macOS client for a while and couldn’t find anything like Tasks.org for iOS, so I ended up switching to Apple Reminders.
📷 Photo Shooting: Fujifilm X-M5 & iPhone 17
I used to take all my photos with the Pixel, now the good ones are taken with my Fujifilm, the bad ones with the iPhone.
🌅 Photo Gallery: Ente Photos
Google PhotosI finally switched to Ente and I’m very happy with it. Too bad syncing on iOS works much worse than on Android1.
📆 Calendar: Proton Calendar
This is one of the services where Proton has room to improve. It lacks to-do support and doesn’t work offline. The sad part? I wrote the exact same things a year and a half ago.
👤 Contacts: Nextcloud Contacts
It works without third-party apps on iOS, so this is fine.
📝 Journal: jrnl
I’m honestly starting to think about integrating everything into Obsidian.
📰 RSS Server: Miniflux
Been using it forever, never had an issue.
🗞️ RSS Client: NetNewsWire &
FeedMe on AndroidA small change. I now use the same client on both my phone and laptop.
🌐 Browser: Zen on macOS & 🔒 Safari on iOS
Arc on macOS & Cromite on AndroidArc met an unfortunate end, so I had to find an alternative. I’m happy with Zen and I don’t mind using something built on Firefox. On iOS all browsers are just skins for Safari anyway, so I might as well use the original.
🔖 Bookmarks: Karakeep
LinkdingI really like the smart lists and the AI integration. I do miss the integration with search engine results though.
📑 Read it later: Karakeep
PocketPocket is dead, and with it went the Kobo sync too.
💰 Budgeting & Personal Finance: hledger & paisa
Nothing new, which means I’m getting lazy and not tracking everything as I should.
🎶 Music: 🔒 Spotify
Nothing new, but I’m looking for alternatives.
🔐 Password Manager: Proton Pass
Nothing to complain about, integrates well with iOS too.
🔢 2FA: Ente Auth
Well-made app, and the cloud sync gives me peace of mind.
🏃♂️ Fitness Tracker: 🔒 Fitbit & 🔒 Strava
My Pixel Watch can’t sync with iOS, but luckily it’s fairly independent and just needs a Wi-Fi connection.
☁️ Cloud Storage: Proton Drive & Rclone
Probably the weakest Proton service, but I don’t have that many files so I manage fine.
Nothing new, but boring backups are the best backups.
🔎 Search: Searxng
I tried Kagi and liked it, just not enough to pay for it. I think Searxng is a good middle ground.
🧑🍳 Recipes: Cooklang
Fairly recent addition, so far so good, we’ll see if it sticks.
📚 Books: BookLore & Kobo
A bit of a mess, honestly. I switched from Calibre Web to BookLore not long ago, but a couple of weeks later BookLore went belly up. I haven’t found an alternative yet, but I’m keeping an eye on BookLite.
In reality the entire photo management experience on iOS works much worse than on Android, but I’m learning to live with it. ↩︎