Software : Editor's pick: Beat procrastination with free website blocker Cold Turkey

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• Editor's pick: Beat procrastination with free website blocker Cold Turkey
• Editor's pick: Download mindmapping app FreeMind to plan the ultimate road trip
• Round up: The best free uninstaller 2016

Editor's pick: Beat procrastination with free website blocker Cold Turkey Posted: Beat procrastination with Cold Turkey Beat procrastination with Cold Turkey Tabbed browsers are both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you can keep multiple sources open simultaneously for cross-referencing, and on the other, you can easily keep your social media feeds alongside your work, with numbers in the tab titles steadily climbing as fresh content appears in your feed. It's the same with emails; if you're honest with yourself, how many of the messages you receive throughout the day truly require an immediate response? And how often do you check your inbox? When you have to knuckle down to some serious work, it can take real grit to resist the lure of those little numbers. That's when you need Cold Turkey – a superb free app for Windows that acts as a high-dose willpower supplement. Cold Turkey is the most effective distraction-blocker around, working as a firewall to deny access to specific websites in all browsers. It comes equipped with a preset list of notorious time-thieves, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and BuzzFeed, which you can customize with your personal procrastination destinations. Cold Turkey also lets you create new blocklists, which can be activated individually. To start blocking, just select 'Timer', enter a time and date for the block to end, and switch it on. Forking out US$19 (about £15, AU$25) for the premium edition lets you block sites on a schedule and add break periods, but the free version of Cold Turkey (as its name implies) is a cruel all-or-nothing affair. Once you've set the blocker, it's very hard to get around it. You can't uninstall Cold Turkey when you've frozen yourself out, or sidestep it using desktop clients or Windows apps. The only way we've found to thaw the Turkey is to access the forbidden sites via a proxy server - but forget we told you that. Provided you can find the self-discipline to avoid pretending you're accessing Facebook from Greenland, you won't find a more effective procrastination-blocker.

Editor's pick: Download mindmapping app FreeMind to plan the ultimate road trip Posted: Plan a road trip with FreeMind Plan the ultimate road trip with FreeMind Road trips take a lot of organization - as well as planning the major waypoints on your journey, you also need to consider driving times, places to stay, activities, what to bring and (perhaps most importantly) how to allocate your budget. Rather than writing everything out as a series of disconnected lists, creating a mindmap or spider diagram will help you think laterally, link ideas and get a lot of information in a small space. Superb free mindmapping software FreeMind will help you get everything on one page, without the hassle of pens and paper. Every mindmap in FreeMind begins as a blank page, with a single central label. Each label that branches off this one is called a node, and these are arranged in a hierarchy: parent, sibling and child. You can add new child nodes by tapping 'Insert' and create new sibling nodes by tapping 'Enter'. Start by listing the places you're planning to visit on your trip as child nodes from the central point, then create child nodes for each location for activities and places you're interested in. You can then use Freemind's options to prioritize the activities for each location. You could also create nodes between locations showing how long it'll take to drive from one to the other, and add costs to each activity. Things might start to look confusing as your map grows, but FreeMind lets you temporarily collapse branches by clicking a parent node. Double-click the node to expand it again. You can also make things clearer by applying formatting - putting each node inside a bubble, applying colors or attaching icons from the menu on the left. Hold Shift and left-click to format nodes as a batch. Now create a new child node for the essentials that you need to pack, and any preparation required to get them ready. Once you've completed each of these tasks, you can mark with with a tick, chosen from the menu on the left. If you decide to reorganise your list, you can move nodes between branches, and even move branches to a more logical place by dragging and dropping. Other nodes will shift to make room. If two nodes are very similar, select both and link them via FreeMind's Tools menu. You might also find it useful to make a list of background reading before you embark on your trip. Add a hyperlink using the Insert menu, then type a descriptive label for it. These could be links to maps, tourist information guides, hotel booking sites or anything else you think will come in handy. You can link to files on your PC in the same way - though you'll need to save your mindmap first. The MM file format can only be opened by FreeMind, so if you're planning to share your map consider installing PDF24 Creator, which can convert it to PDF format via FreeMind's Print menu. Mindmaps can be useful for all sorts of other projects, including weddings and house moves, as well as essays and even novels. Download FreeMind and give it a try before hitting the road.

Round up: The best free uninstaller 2016 Posted: The best free software uninstallers The best free uninstaller Software installers are rarely tidy - they spread files throughout your system, and their built-in uninstallers don't always clear it all away afterwards. Sometimes you'll be informed that "some elements could not be removed" as the uninstaller effectively shrugs its shoulders and leaves the mess behind - whether it's temporary files, old shortcuts or broken registry entries. All this detritus builds up over time, and can slow down your system or cause conflicts further down the line - particularly in the case of security software, which won't run properly if it detects files associated with another tool. Third-party uninstallers can clear up the mess in moments. If you're already having trouble with a program you thought you'd removed, the tool can scan your drives for files and broken links left over. If you want to uninstall a program thoroughly, the tool will run the program's own uninstaller, then perform a cleanup scan immediately afterwards. More advanced tools will monitor what happens when you install a new program - what files are created and changed - so it can rapidly reverse those changes when you want to remove it. 1. IObit Uninstaller Thorough and thoughtfully designed - as good as many premium alternatives IObit Uninstaller gets right down to business, scanning your system for installed software the moment it starts. Its smart, clear interface displays a list of all your installed software, with extra tabs if you're only interested in the newest programs (if you've tried something new and don't like it), and the biggest ones (which will have the greatest impact on system performance). There's a batch processing option for removing multiple programs at once. If you've already uninstalled a program but suspect it's left mucky footprints across your drive, IObit's deep scanner can hunt down junk including broken shortcuts and caches created when installing software updates. IObit Uninstaller also takes a look at your web browsers to identify any plugins that could be uninstalled to speed up your surfing. It currently supports Firefox and Internet Explorer, but not Chrome or Edge. Each extension is accompanied by a user rating to help you decide whether to keep it. There's a file shredder thrown in too, which doesn't really fit with the premise of an uninstaller, but all the other tools are relevant and useful. IObit Uninstaller is the best free uninstaller you can download, and its thorough scanning makes it the equal of many premium programs. 2. Wise Program Uninstaller Light as a feather, but less thorough than IObit Wise Program Uninstaller is a portable app, so you don't have to worry about it leaving mess of its own, though it offers you a free trial of a product called Spyhunter that you might prefer to decline. It's a very quick and lean little uninstaller that scans your system for already installed programs and displays ratings to show you how other users feel about them. You probably already know what you want to erase, but it's a thoughtful touch. Your choices for each program are Safe and Forced uninstall (some also have a Repair option, but only if it's part of the software in the first place). Safe uninstall is simply a way to access the program's own uninstaller, whereas Forced performs a deep scan to track down scrap files and broken registry entries. It shows you everything it's identified before deleting them, but this doesn't serve much purpose; you're unlikely to be able to pick out an individual Registry entry and say "Hang on, I need that!" The main downside of its small size is that it can't log new programs as you install them, but as a program uninstaller it's well designed and not bulked out with unecessary system tools. 3. GeekUninstaller A streamlined little app to mop up messy software GeekUninstaller is another free portable uninstaller, weighing in at just 2.5MB. Although a 'Pro' version is advertised on developer's site, this is actually a completely different program called Uninstall Tool - GeekUninstaller is completely free, It performs a speedy system scan and provides the usual options: regular or forced uninstall. If you don't recognize something, GeekUninstaller will Google it for you - a simple but welcome addition that saves you loading up a browser. That's pretty much it - there's no deep scan for remnants of previously uninstalled programs, and no monitoring for new installations, but if you're simply after something to clean up as you go, uninstallers don't come smaller and simpler than this. It comes in over 30 languages too, which is undoubtedly a bonus. 4. Ashampoo Uninstaller (trial) A premium trial to give your system a thorough scouring This is a time-limited trial of Ashampoo Uninstaller rather than the full program, but is well worth considering if you need to purge your PC of one particularly stubborn piece of software, or want to give it a thorough spring clean. The basic trial lasts 10 days, but you can extend for an extra month by signing up for an account (a standard requirement with Ashampoo's free software). The uninstaller itself is impressive, as you'd expect from a premium product - it can remove existing applications, and log new ones as you add them. You can set it to start automatically at the same time as Windows, though your startup time might take a knock as a result. There are also system optimization tools like a file shredder, file restorer, disk defragmenter and even a font manager, but Ashampoo Uninstaller is an excellent tool without these - they are just padding. 5. Revo Uninstaller Free Effective, but bloated with strange and unnecessary extras Revo Uninstaller Free's icon-strewn interface is colorful but cluttered, and includes tools like a startup program manager, plus links to Windows' own system tools (including defrag and on-screen keyboard). These really aren't necessary, and just distract from an otherwise solid free uninstaller. There are four uninstall options: built-in, safe (built-in with additional registry scanning), moderate (with extra scanning of common locations for leftover files) and advanced (moderate mode, followed by a thorough scanning of your whole system). There's also a strange 'Hunter Mode', which lets you uninstall programs by dragging their icons onto a crosshair on your desktop. It's much more work than selecting the program from a list - a metaphor gone rogue. Unlike some uninstallers, Revo begins by creating a system restore point, which is reassuring. It can't log new installations, though - if you want that, you might like to give Revo's Pro version a whirl for 30 days. It's worlds away from the free edition's late-90s styling, and will give your drives a good scrubbing.

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Apple : Apple's non-iPhone plans reportedly include new MacBooks and iPad enhancements

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Apple's non-iPhone plans reportedly include new MacBooks and iPad enhancements Posted: Looks like the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch 2 aren't all we have to look forward to from Apple in the coming months. A report from the reputable Mark Gurman and Jungah Lee of Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, signals new Macs are in the offing for later this year, while enhanced software features for the iPad could arrive as early as the first half of 2017. Apple is said to be preparing updates to the iMac desktop, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, along with a sharp 5K monitor that'll come all by itself. LG is reportedly working with Apple on the new monitor. Its arrival would mark the iPhone maker's return to the standalone display biz after discontinuing its Thunderbolt Display earlier this year. As we've heard rumored for the MacBook Pro, the upgraded MacBook Air will reportedly feature a USB-C port, while future shoppers can pick up a version of the 5K iMac monitor with an AMD GPU. Neither development is all that surprising given the current computing landscape, but considering the high-performance punch of a 5K display and that Apple has left all but one MacBook untouched over the last year, any upgrade is welcome. The report also reaffirms an earlier Gurman filing that a thinner MacBook Pro will feature a strip of capacitive touch keys beneath its display. An interesting note - apparently the strip will display commands specific to the application you're using, such as controls tailored to Safari and iMovie. iPad goes pro Turning to the iPad, while sales have consistently slipped, Apple has seen the amount spent per tablet rise thanks to its iPad Pro. Clearly, that's planted the seed to offer more robust capabilities for professionals who are willing to pay more, because that's the direction Apple is said to be headed with its tablet. New iPad software enhancements will look to appeal to the professional crowd, Bloomberg notes, and include such back-end improvements as greater OS support for the tablet's stylus, a.k.a. the Apple Pencil. Right now, apps that support the Pencil are few and far between, so Apple hopes to expand its capabilities to such services as Mail, Safari and iMessage with the update. Apple could push out the new features as part of an iOS 10 bump in the first half of the New Year, or it could wait until it lifts the veil on iOS 11 (or whatever its next mobile operating system is called) to introduce the features. The report also includes some morsels on faster and smoother display tech for the iPad, though we likely won't see a new Apple tablet until sometime next year. Apple is holding an event on September 7 to introduce its new iPhone, and potentially an upgraded Apple Watch. We'll also have the official launch of iOS 10, Bloomberg says, but chances are we won't see the new desktops, laptops and monitor at the event. Look out for the iPhone 7 Plus on September 7, too

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Software : Pebble now lets you get to important stuff on your wrist more quickly

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Pebble now lets you get to important stuff on your wrist more quickly Posted: Smartwatch maker Pebble released a massive update today that brings an updated UI and new features. Best of all, the update is available for most Pebble smartwatches, new and old. Pebble began targeting the fitness crowd earlier this summer with an updated Pebble Health app for Android and iOS. Today's update focuses on the Pebble Health app on the smartwatch itself, making it easier to quickly glance at important info. Pressing the Up button on your Pebble will now show you your step and sleep performance. You can press the Right button from each info card to find more in-depth info. Pebble Health for Android and iOS also get minor updates that make it easier to understand Activity and Sleep graphs. The update is compatible with the Pebble Time, Pebble Time Steel, Pebble Time Round, and the upcoming Pebble 2 and Time 2. First-gen Pebble owners are unfortunately out of luck. Need for speed Today's update also speeds up Pebble's watch interface. From your watchface, you'll be able to see more of your upcoming agenda (up to three days ahead) by pressing down. There's also a new quick launcher that gives you access to your most used features. Simply press the Select button to see these options. Pebble also added quick launch buttons for getting things done quickly. You can program the Up, Down, Back and Select buttons to launch your favorite apps. Even the Pebble smartphone app gets in on the action with cleaner menus and faster performance. Last but not least, iOS users can finally act on their emails from their Gmail accounts. Pebble experimented with this feature earlier this summer but now it's available to everyone. Pebble's support for iOS Email Actions allows you Delete, Archive, Mark as Read, Reply All and Star emails on the smartwatch. The update also brings voice replies to email as well, so you can finally answer emails with your voice like you could already do with text messages. Pebble brags it's the only non-Apple smartwatch that can send replies to received iOS Messages, which gives it a leg up on Android Wear on iOS, which only prompts you to reply by opening the app on your iPhone. "Actionable notifications like Pebble email and text replies are a bit easier to implement for Android users, thanks to that operating system's more open philosophy, but we're always working to make the Pebble experience consistent for both mobile platforms," writes Pebble in a blog post. Apple Watch vs Pebble Time Steel

Round up: The best free PDF to Word converter 2016 Posted: Convert PDF documents to Word format Convert PDFs to Word documents If the precise formatting and fonts of a document are essential, PDF is the perfect format. It requires nothing more than a competent PDF reader for documents to display precisely; everything's packaged in and ready to go. Which is all lovely until you need to extract some of that information. PDFs, if you're using software like Adobe Reader, are usually a one-way street, consigning you to look and not touch. Unless you possess the original document used to generate the PDF in the first place, editing is going to be out of your reach. Or is it? We're here to look at the solution: PDF to Word converters. These tools will analyse PDF files, extract the text and images, and make the best stab they can at creating a Microsoft Word-compatible file that replicates the source. Results are unlikely to be absolutely perfect – particularly if the text in your PDF has been scanned or flattened to an image. Look for a converter with OCR (optical character recognition) if you do have flattened documents. We tested using a sample magazine page from our chums at Computer Arts, and opened the results in Microsoft Word 2010. Note that LibreOffice's much looser interpretation of the DOCX standard will likely lead to quite poor results. 1. Foxyutils A wily utility that copes well with unusual fonts Foxyutils' PDF to Word converter takes the top spot in our test for several reasons. First, it was by far the cleverest when it came to picking a font similar to that of our test document, outputting a Word file very close to the original PDF. Second, it did well with the images in our document, recognising that there was more than one and breaking them up appropriately. And third, when you use Foxyutils' tools, you contribute to the company's tree-planting efforts. Isn't that nice? There are slight restrictions – a lack of OCR chief among them - and obviously you'll need internet connectivity to get the job done. But the lack of a dedicated software package to install, Foxyutils' use of SSL, and its promise to delete files as soon as they're downloaded means you could use this in a business situation if required. 2. Nitro PDF to Word Converter Quick, solid PDF conversion with a couple of niggles You'd be forgiven for missing the free online version of Nitro PDF to Word Converter when visiting its site, given that it's so smothered in adverts for its paid-for desktop app, but this is a perfectly competent free tool – no OCR though, sadly – suitable for occasional use. Upload your PDF, give it an email address to send the results to, and it'll transform that PDF into Word, Excel or Powerpoint files and vice versa; we wouldn't recommend using the Excel converter for mission-critical work, however. We were impressed with its attempt at converting our test document. There was a bit of text cleanup required, possibly as a result of the unusual font, but it separated the page's images into individually editable boxes, got the layout perfectly correct, and even managed to replicate the drop-cap, a feature that's often missed. Overall, not a bad job at all – we'd have preferred a direct download rather than it being delivered via email, but that's a small gripe. 3. UniPDF Great for batch processing but not compatible with all files UniPDF is a completely free Windows desktop app (unless you're using it commercially) but one which fell over for an unspecified reason when converting our test PDF to Word format. But let's not be hasty here: UniPDF happily extracted the raw text, had no problem converting the PDF to a pixel-perfect PNG file, and did an good job of converting that very same PDF to HTML format, which we'll count as at least a partial pass. Although UniPDF doesn't support OCR (so flattened PDFs won't convert to editable text) we were impressed with its ability to translate our document's mildly unusual fonts into similar examples. It's also an easy app to use if you're doing batch processing – just drag in a folder full of PDFs, hit 'convert' and it'll go through each automatically. Considering the long-winded limitations of many online tools, this is a reason to try UniPDF. But if you absolutely must have a Word document? Maybe not. 4. Free File Converter Quick, easy and dirty converter that does more than just Word Free File Converter couldn't be simpler: upload your PDF, select an output format (everything from doc to ebook formats like EPUB and MOBI) and click the button to get a download link to your converted file. As you might expect, it offers a number of different format conversions besides just PDFs, although there's no OCR to be seen. Results were just all right. Some of the text formatting Free File Converter gave us was a bit off, with certain headlines running over from one line to two, and it rendered all of the images on the page as a single background graphic, limiting flexibility. But there's one huge upside: Free File Converter can handle PDFs up to 300MB in size, so if you've got a huge, simple PDF to process it could be just the trick. 5. OnlineOCR An OCR specialist – as long as you feed it the right file Our sole OCR-only tool in this test, but there's a reason: OCR works well in certain circumstances, and very poorly in others. Our magazine page, when flattened and run through OnlineOCR's converter, did not fare well. Whether this is a limitation of the unusual fonts or the background images we're not sure, but the mess it made of the boxes at the bottom of the page suggest it's just not great at this sort of complex work. That's not to say it's a poor tool. Far from it; this outperforms a number of competing sites in its class, so much so that we've actually used OnlineOCR here at TechRadar to pull text from magazines so old that their archive discs have crumbled – although this required a lot of preprocessing to improve the clarity and contrast of text. Scanned PDFs of black text on white background tend to work perfectly without any fiddling, so if you've got a suitable source you'll get on well with this tool.

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Software : 10 awesome iPhone camera apps

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10 awesome iPhone camera apps Posted: 10 awesome camera apps for your iPhone The default Camera app that ships with your iPhone (or iPad, or iPod Touch) has gained in creative features over its lifetime, but it's still only functional at best, even on recent models like the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. The stock app's overriding benefits are simplicity, reliability and ease of access – it's one of the few camera apps you can quickly open from your lock screen, for example. And true, it does now also offer panorama, video, time-lapse and slow-mo shooting modes as well as HDR, manual exposure and eight stills filters. But while these are handy features, they're not necessarily enough to sate the needs of today's creative iPhoneographer looking for ever more imaginative ways to frame their images. And since Apple cracked open the iPhone camera innards to developers with the release of iOS 8, there are no shortage of apps to help creatives do just that. So, whether you're a fan of manual controls, long exposures or low light, here are ten top-drawer iOS camera apps that could help you become a better photographer whatever the situation. 1. 645 PRO Mk III Price: £2.99 / US$3.99 / AU$5.99 645 PRO is one of the oldest 'serious photography' apps available in the App Store, but it is still regularly updated – now at Mk III – and remains among the best. Photographers familiar with the manual controls of a DSLR will feel right at home here. The busy main screen faithfully mimics both the viewfinder of a traditional camera and the many knobs, dials and buttons. 645 PRO's extensive feature list includes spot and matrix metering, shutter and ISO priority modes, ±3 EV exposure compensation, tap/slide focus override with focus peaking, a handful of classic film stocks, and the ability to export in 'developed RAW' TIFF files. Any camera feature can be controlled with the exception of aperture – sadly still a physical limitation on most smartphone hardware. Twisting the Mode dial around to 'Guide' reveals a 62-page manual that hints at the 645 PRO's depth – however, it is well worth a read to ensure you get the most from one of the most comprehensive camera apps in the App Store. 2. Camera+ Price: £2.29 / US$2.99 / AU$4.49 Camera+ is one of the best-selling camera apps in the App Store and, with its powerful blend of simplicity and sophistication, it's easy to see why. Front and centre is a clean, minimalist viewfinder with little more than a large shutter release button, zoom slider and menu on display. Don't be fooled by this apparent austerity, though. Manual shooting options are exposed in a slide-out panel allowing focus, exposure, white balance and shutter speed to be separately set via a slider or a touch on the composition. The hamburger menu reveals further camera settings including options to alter output quality starting at social media-friendly small files and up to huge lossless TIFF files. We find the Horizon Level option helpful and unobtrusive, and there's even Apple Watch support for timer shots. The dedicated macro mode deserves a mention too, with Camera+'s viewfinder zoom and focus slider making it one of the easiest apps with which to nail a close-up. The post processing tools in the lightbox are most comprehensive, with a well-considered selection of presets and filters if only a quick fix is required. The Clarity power-up in particular is capable of breathing life into otherwise unsalvageable snaps. Its developers, tap tap tap, recently spawned a free version which eschews some of the manual and advanced features, but for the price we happily recommend the full version here. 3. Custom Cam Price: £1.49 / US$1.99 / AU$2.99 Custom Cam is another app that exposes most of the iPhone camera's innards to the photographer. It's not as slick or as beautifully designed as some, but its focused and minimalist approach might be to many photographers' tastes. On-screen overlays help familiarize with the swipes required to adjust shutter speed, ISO, white balance and so forth, and there are manual, auto and face-detect focusing modes in here too. What's more, two shutter buttons are configurable to match how you want to shoot, and if things are still too cluttered for your liking you can opt to remove one altogether. A novelty here is how Custom Cam embraces more recent iPhone models' 3D Touch capabilities. Like many a physical camera, a half press of the shutter release focuses the image and a full press captures it. Rest assured that the app works just fine for non-3D Touch handsets too. If you wish to try before you buy, Custom Cam Free offers the full feature set (with the exception of uncompressed TIFF output) in exchange for a heavily watermarked image. 4. NightCap Pro Price: £1.49 / US$1.99 / AU$2.99 You: Siri, you're sacked. Siri: Who me? You: You can't help me take better photos at night, Siri, you are useless. Siri: Checking my sources… You: Forget it, Siri, you're dead to me. I have a new AI friend now, don't I Aidie? Aidie, or 'Artificial Intelligence Derived ISO and Exposure' to give her full name, is the backronym given to NightCap Pro's processing engine, making sure your iPhone camera takes as beautiful shots in low light as it does during the daytime. Aidie makes long exposures simple, has a couple of super-sensitive high-ISO modes up her sleeve and some clever processing tricks to remove unwanted noise. She can also apply her AI to lock focus in low-light environments where usual methods struggle. NightCap Pro's AI engine is also a fan of star-gazing, meteor spotting and International Space Station trail tracking, with dedicated preset modes for each. A companion Apple Watch app has a live-view mode and remote trigger to minimise wobble on long exposure shots. Alongside Aidie, your other friend for successful low-light photography will be a steady hand or, better still, a smartphone tripod mount. It's a shame Siri can't help you there, either. 5. Red Dot Camera Price: £2.29 / US$2.99 / AU$4.49 Inspired by the similarly red-dotted iconic Leica M Rangefinder bodies, Red Dot Camera promises the full shoot-from-the-hipster retro experience for a mere slice of the price. Shutter speed, ISO and exposure compensation are manually adjusted with the large Leica-like dials to the left while focus is managed by a satisfying scroll wheel to the right - bringing a familiar feel for enthusiasts and making newbies feel instantly more like a pro. Three focus presets are included to satisfy infinity, room and macro requirements, and the standard (but less authentic) touch-to-focus is also present. All are admirably assisted by a loupe in the centre of the viewfinder to help achieve pin-sharp shots. The only other features of note here are a black-and-white mode and the option to crop shots to Rangefinder standard 35mm and 50mm frames, although output pixel counts will reduce as a result. While not the most configurable or customisable of shooting experiences, this is nonetheless a well-designed app that helps you to focus on photography essentials. If you're a photographer who likes a Leica, then you'll love Red Dot Camera. 6. VSCO Price: £free / US$free / AU$free (in-app purchases apply) VSCO (or, confusingly, VSCO Cam as it was until recently credited) rose to prominence among an Instagram community that had grown increasingly tired of seeing the same old canned filters time and time again. Its developer originally made its name making pro-photographer classic film presets for Adobe Lightroom. So when its much-anticipated smartphone app launched featuring a fistful of its hip filters it quickly became a match made in Instagram heaven. The app's distraction-free viewfinder is an almost reluctant home to three discrete icons, which expose a settings drawer, flip to the front-facing camera, and enter the app's camera roll. There's a shutter too, but the sparse display allows the entire sidebar to act as the release – more useful than it sounds when concentrating on your subject instead of your screen. Even when open the settings drawer does its best not to detract from you composing your image. The spirit-level and horizon lines are a welcome touch, and the 'tap anywhere to take' option will appeal to some; the standard white balance lock, ISO, shutter speed and exposure adjustments are all present too, albeit neatly filed away. Enter the lightroom to polish your pictures and the power of VSCO's beautiful (if blandly-named) stock filters soon becomes apparent. Filters can be adjusted and further packs (with more tempting titles) are available as in-app purchases. There are useful tools here too to correct perspective and alignment, crop and contrast and so on, and VSCO encourages you to upload your creations to its own curated community. VSCO is a beautiful app of few words, preferring to let its clutter-free camera and velvety-smooth stock of filters do the talking. 7. Manual Price: £2.29 / US$2.99 / AU$4.49 With only a limited number of features at their disposal it can be a tough job for a developer to differentiate their iOS camera app amid a sea of me-toos. Manual was one of the first apps to take advantage of iOS 8's camera control APIs but while many other camera apps have caught up, it still manages to stand out from the crowd by keeping things simple. First up is another clean-cut interface going big on image but pulling no punches with power settings, although precise control can sometimes be fiddly. A live histogram, exposure and focus are rarely seen elsewhere, and the zoom for manual focusing is always useful. An EXIF viewer lets you peep into the otherwise squirreled-away metadata that accompanies each picture revealing camera settings at the time of capture and the location (if allowed). 8. ProShot Price: £2.99 / US$3.99 / AU$5.99 Describing itself as 'the future of professional mobile photography' ProShot sets itself up for a fall but, thankfully, stands solidly as one of the better camera apps in the App Store. Everything that can be tweaked with the iPhone camera is tweakable here and then some, with ProCam squeezing every last ounce of juice from Apple's hardware. Alongside standard manual iOS camera controls such as ISO, focus and shutter speed are useful extras including bracketing, which takes multiple photos of the same subject with different exposures, two different bulb modes for creative fun with light trails and light painting, and time-lapse. Initially the pro-style controls aren't quite pick-up and play but, once familiar with the drive and camera mode dials, ProShot's UI fast becomes one of the most powerful here. 9. Verifeye Media Pro Camera Price: £free / US$free / AU$free Unless you're a politician, war zone dweller or Top Gear presenter, news stories don't tend to spontaneously happen around you, but if one ever does then it's as well to be prepared. Verifeye Media is a visual news agency which licences newsworthy photographs and videos to media outlets on your behalf. Crucial to this is verification that the photo or video of a breaking news headline is precisely what it purports to be, particularly if it originates from eyewitness sources instead of traditional journalists. That's where Verifeye Media's Pro Camera app comes in. As a standalone camera Verifeye's app leans towards functional rather than elegant, but manual controls for ISO, shutter, focus, white balance and exposure will ensure most photographers' needs are well catered for. Sitting centrally in the bottom of the viewfinder is a large red shutter button, although its placement may prove an uncomfortable stretch for some. However, the app's strengths also lie beyond what gets framed in the viewfinder. Embedded in the images, and continuously woven into video shot with the app, is a rich layer of additional information – date/time, geolocation, altitude, compass bearing and so on. This metadata, when uploaded via the app, helps the Verifeye team to validate the authenticity of the images to news outlets' satisfaction. Verifeye operates a 50/50 revenue split so you will get paid for your work, but it goes without saying that you should be conscious of your own safety and that of others before you crack open your camera in a developing news situation. 10. DxO One Price: £399.00 / US$439.00 (around AU$611) Okay, you got us. Although there certainly is a camera app here – a very good one at that – the DxO One is all about the plug-in camera accessory. At the heart of the DxO One is a 1-inch 20.2-MP Sony sensor as used in the barnstorming Sony RX100 Mk III. This captures images through an f/1.8 aperture lens with a fixed focal length equivalent to 32mm. This combination of large sensor (15.86mm diagonal versus 6mm on an iPhone 6) and adjustable wide aperture gives detailed low-light images and controllable depth of field, a holy grail for many smartphone photographers. The DxO One plugs securely into the Lightning connector of an iPhone or iPad and turns the screen, courtesy of the DxO One app, into a responsive, lag-free viewfinder. Manual controls over camera functions are as good as any app here and better than many compact cameras. The DxO One shoots in both JPG and RAW, the latter remaining on the microSD card within the main body. Yes, it's not cheap. Sure, it's a little awkward to handle. And perhaps you could buy a standalone compact camera with comparable or better image quality for the same or less cash. But putting all that to one side, if you are intent on taking the highest quality pictures possible using your iPhone then there is no better app or accessory than the DxO One. You've got the camera apps, now fill up with the best iPhone apps around

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