Here are 50 great phone apps for all your entertainment, music, news, and lifestyle needs.

News/Finance

1. Flipboard

Create your own personalized news source with this app. You can create content and even produce magazines to share with others.

2. Sky News for iPad

See the news as it unfolds. Get links to the latest stories, watch live streams, and more.

3. BBC News

Find out what the latest news with this app. It even supports video content on iPads and iPhones.

4. The Guardian Eyewitness

Check out some of the most amazing images from around the world. Images are updated regularly, and there are always at least 100 images to look at.

5. QuantShare Trading Software

This is the most advanced trading solution, and the most complete. If you want to stay on top of the stock market, you need this app, which includes charting, backtesting, and a whole lot more.

Cooking/Shopping

6. Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List

Find a huge selection of recipes, shopping lists, and use customized searches. This is a great app for master and amateur chefs, and everyone in between.

7. Great British Chefs: Recipes HD

Learn how to cook like a Michelin Star chef with this app. You can even book tables at their restaurants.

8. Google Shopper

This awesome shopping app lets you browse, search barcodes, and more. Find everything you need with this app.

9. Snapguide

Find guides on cooking, DIY, and a whole lot more. You can even create your own guides.

Entertainment

10. Star Walk

Check out the constellations, planets, and stars in real time. Track their movements, alignments, and more.

11. Disney Animated

Learn how Disney animation comes to life. Find all kinds of great features, including music and every Disney animated film.

12. iPoe 2

Find all of the tales from Edgar Allan Poe in one interactive collection. Tales are also illustrated.

13. Netflix

Watch all your favorite TV shows and movies, for $7.99 per month. New titles are added regularly.

14. Sky Go

Watch live sports, as well as movies, any place, and at any time. Never miss a game or one of your favorite programs again.

Photo/Video

15. Action Movie FX

Use special effects to make your videos amazing. You can use sea monsters, tornadoes, air strikes, and all kinds of other effects.

16. Mextures

This is an advanced photo editing app with more than 80 textures. You can use blend modes, and create some really cool effects.

17. iMovie

Make your own movies on your iPhone and iPad. This app lets you capture footage, as well as edit and share.

18. Seene

Create awesome 3D images by panning your smartphone camera in any direction. Share your images with everyone.

Games

19. Year Walk

Check out the best Swedish myths and mysteries. There is plenty here to keep you interested, and a few scary facts as well.

20. Cut the Rope 2

This is the sequel to the original game. Meet new characters, visit new locations, and more.

21. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Get over 70 hours of gameplay in this fast and fun game. New to the game are HD graphics designed for mobile users.

22. Boson X

This game combines Temple Run and the Large Hadron Collider. You need to think fast to beat this one.

23. Infinity Blade III

The graphics even look good on the iPad. There are two playable characters, responsive touch controls, and three new playing modes.

Social Media

24. Instagram

Share smart photos to followers or to specific users. Use fun effects and frames to make your photos really stand out.

25. LinkedIn Pulse

You can use this app to customize your feeds based on what you like. Sync with your LinkedIn account to get updates from your network.

26. Snapchat

Send photos to friends quickly and easily with this app. Caption images, put in doodles, and more to personalize all of your photos.

27. Pinterest

Collate content, find new interests, and more with Pinterest. You can find just about anything you are interested in, and then some.

28. WhatsApp Messenger 

Send messages, photos, videos, and more to all of your contacts. This app is free for the first year, and only $0.99 per year after that.

29. Twitter

Share your thoughts, images, and videos, follow hashtags, and more. Get push notifications when your Favorites tweet.

30. Facebook

Update your status, share photos, chat with friends, play games, and so much more with Facebook. This is the most popular social media app by far.

Music/Podcast

31. Castro: High Fidelity Podcasts

Watch podcasts that actually look and sound good with this app. You can play podcasts without having to subscribe right away, and enjoy offline playback.

32. djay 2

This is an app that is popular with beginner and expert deejays. There are HD waveforms, and advanced tools to help you find your groove.

33. Soundwave Music Discovery

This app tracks what you listen to, so you receive only the music you like. You can also follow friends and celebrities, and see who is listening to what.

34. Spotify

Create playlists, or use playlists that are already there for you. Find out what is popular now, and download tunes so you can hear them when you are offline.

35. Shazam

This app can identify songs after playing for just one second. All you have to do is hold your iPhone up to the music, and the app will search the database.

Travel

36. GuidePal City Guides

Find maps for 50 major cities all over the world. Find the best restaurants, clubs, shopping, sights to see, and a whole lot more.

37. Google Translate

Get translations for 80 languages, both spoken and written. Now you can order food in any language.

38. Airbnb

Find just about type of accommodations in more than 34,000 cities, from rooms to rent to sublets and more. You can also list your own place as somewhere for vacationers to stay.

39. Google Earth

See anything you want in the world, from tropical islands to your own home. You will find maps that show hiking trails, and there is even a tour guide feature that allows you to take virtual tours.

40. TripAdvisor Hotels Flights Restaurants

Search for hotels, flights, restaurants, and attractions. This is a travel companion you should never travel without.

41. AroundMe

Find any local amenities you need with this app. Whether you need to find a banking machine, or a place to eat, this app will help you find it.

Weather

42. The Weather Channel

Find detailed maps, video feeds, and much more. The Travel Watch feature lets you see what the weather will be like along your route, so you can plan for alternate routes if necessary.

43. BBC Weather

This is a great weather app that gives you hourly updates on current weather conditions. You will also find pollen and pollution counts for the UK.

44. Yahoo Weather

This app uses beautiful images from Flickr to show you what the current weather conditions are in your area. Find weather conditions for any location in seconds.

45. WeatherMob

You can add your own text, photos, and location to contribute to this app. You can even make your own weather channels so you will only receive the updates you want.

46. Weatherwise

This app uses fun animations and reactive backgrounds to deliver weather updates throughout the day. Find details about precipitation, humidity, and more.

Education

47. The Elements in Action

This educational app brings the periodic tables to life with 79 video experiments. This app makes learning fun.

48. Duolingo

This is a great app to help students learn different languages. The games make it fun to use, and you can compare scores with friends.

49. TED

Technology, entertainment, science and design. Get free lectures and watch talk-based shows.

50. DK the Human Body

Learn how the body works, with drawings of all of the inner workings. Video content is also available.

Featured photo credit: albyantoniazzi via flickr.com

Whether at work or at school, people these days are under tremendous pressure to perform, perform and perform! Stress and pressure can have adverse affects on the well-being of a person, and need to be controlled.

Now, this doesn’t mean you make a dash to your nearest therapist. There are a number of wonderful and smart apps that you can use on your phone. These brain training apps have been scientifically designed to target specific areas of the human mind and control harmful emotions such as anxiety, as well as to improve memory and sharpness of the brain.

Here are 11 iPhone apps that you will not only enjoy but also find useful in keeping your mental health balanced at all times.

1. Lumosity

This app consists of games that focus on improving the user’s memory, problem-solving capability, attention span, and thinking. There are three games in each session, and they challenge the brain by changing every time. The user has to complete the games while playing against a clock.

Free of trial. $15 per month for the full version.

2. Fit Brains Trainer

This brain training app has 10 sets of games that work on different areas of the brain and improve memory as well as concentration. A user is required to finish a particular task from each category on a daily basis and the app tracks the progress by a color coded graph.

Free.

3. CogniFit Brain Fitness

Developed with the help of neuroscientists, this fun app improves a person’s cognitive abilities, which includes memory and concentration. The progress made by the user over a period of time can be tracked. Users can also play challenge rounds with their friends. The app also modifies the difficulty level to suit the profile of the user and provide recommendations based on the results. Spending 20–30 minutes a few times every week can give measurable improvement in the performance of a user.

First four games free, then $13 a month.

4. Brain Fitness Pro

The makers of this app claim that it can improve the IQ of a user, and improve intelligence and memory. The app is fun and is user friendly, and 30 minutes a day can fetch you results in less than three weeks.

Buy for $3.99.

5. Happify

If nothing else makes you happy in life, this app will. Well, this is what the developers claim at least. This app comes loaded with lots of quizzes, polls and gratitude journals, which work on the fundamentals of positive psychology. The app also helps to control stress and emotions to make you feel better.

Free to use.

6. Clockwork Brain

You will like the little gold robot that comes in every time to explain the next game you are going to play. While the games are not much different to those offered in apps such as Luminosity, the look and feel reminds me of a workshop from old times.

Free.

7. ReliefLink

Initially created as an app for suicide prevention, it has found its use as a great app for tracking the mood of the user by taking measure of all things relevant to the user’s mental health. In case the user experiences high emotional stress, the app has a coping mechanism that includes voice-recorded mindfulness, exercises and music for relaxation. There is also a map that informs the user of the nearest therapist and medical facilities for mental health treatment.

8. Eidetic

Eidetic is a memory enhancement app and uses a ‘spaced repetition’ technique to help users memorize information such as important phone numbers, words, credit card details or passwords. It also notifies you when it’s time to take a test to see what you remember, so that you retain information in your long-term memory.

9. Braingle

Braingle helps to maintain the sharpness of the brain and improve the reasoning ability of a person through riddles and optical illusions. It is different from other brain training apps that employ memory and reaction based tests. You can also compete with your friends and family members in figuring out the fun riddles.

Free.

10. Not The Hole Story

If you have a penchant for solving hard riddles, then this app is a must-have for you. Filled with exclusive riddles along with a simple-to-use interface, the app gives you riddles that you have to solve through a book. You will be given hints along the way, and when you give up, the answers will be revealed. This app will encourage you to broaden your thinking and put your mind to a challenging test.

Free.

11. Personal Zen

This fun brain training app follows the journey of two animated characters who travel through a field of grass. Personal Zen is a nice app meant for reducing anxiety and trains the brain to focus on the positive aspects. The developer’s advice is to use the app for 10 minutes a day to see the best results.

Free.

More to Boost Your Brain Power

• 8 Ways to Train Your Brain to Learn Faster and Remember More
• How to Train Your Brain to Think Fast and Think Smart
• How to Increase Brain Power, Boost Memory and Become 10X Smarter

Featured photo credit: NeONBRAND via unsplash.com