Photo by Mariia Shalabaieva on Unsplash

The start of the school year is just around the corner, and now is a good time to check out free applications that you can use on your iPhone that will help you this semester.

First up is an obvious choice - the Notes application. Apple has improved Notes considerably that if you don't want the bells and whistles of cross-platform note-taking applications, Notes is more than sufficient. Notes allow you to store PDF documents now and with notes-linking (you refer to other notes via a hyperlink), it is even more powerful. You can scribble, scan a document, tag documents to organize them (in addition to folders), encrypt notes, and more. 

Pair the Notes application with the Voice Memos application and you have a powerful notes taking duo to accompany you in in-person lectures and discussions. No more excuses of missing what was said in class. 

Apple's new Freeform application is perfect if you're a visual learner - visualizing concepts and topics during the lecture instead of taking notes. Freeform is also perfect for mind mapping, too. Add text, photos, documents, scribble, add URLs, videos, practically anything you can drag and drop, works on Freeform!

Next is the Reminders application. What I love about this application is that I can set reminders based on location, e.g. "check if the book is available to borrow when I'm at the library", or "buy meds for the dog when I'm at the mall". Location-aware reminders only pop up when you are within a certain radius of a set location. With the upcoming iOS 17, Reminders adds a Grocery list feature that automatically categorizes and sorts your items, e.g., type "rice" and it creates "Pasta, Rice & Beans" category, like a grocery aisle. Cool, eh?

The Podcast application allows you to manage your favorite podcasts. Podcasts is pretty much an untapped resource for learning, with videos from video sharing sites eclipsing it. I love listening to the Mystery AI Hype Theatre 3000, to learn about all the hype behind "artificial intelligence". Think of a subject or topic, chances are there's a podcast about it already.

In addition to podcasts, there's Broadcasts application. The free version allows you to listen to a limited number of radio station from all over the world. I recommend this for students to tune in to local radio news stations specially when there is a typhoon. Nothing still beats the good ole AM radio, of course.

To complement your podcasts and radio stations, you can use NetNewsWire and subscribe to your local newspaper's RSS feed, like Manila Bulletin's. Unfortunately, not all Philippine newspapers have RSS feeds. IN addition to newspapers, you can subscribe to websites (UP System has an RSS feed for its news/updates) and blogs - you can even subscribe to one's Mastodon account, if you like. Don't rely on social media as a reliable news source.

Whilst some of the above work offline, they're best used online. Being online requires that you be protected from all types of malicious actors. To help protect you, use ProtonVPN to ensure that your online session is encrypted specially when you use public WiFi services (yes, most sites use HTTPS already, but another layer of protection won't hurt). Speaking of encryption, encrypt your communications as well, and use Signal as your cross-platform messaging service (if your friends all use iPhones, iMessage is best here) - a service that does not collect data to use it to serve you with advertisements! 

Schools, colleges and universities provide students with various online services, which require username and passwords. In most cases, students only need their school username and password to access all the services. However, there are other online services that require different username and passwords. Here is where password managers, like Bitwarden, come in really handy. Maximize the features provided by password managers, such as generating random passwords (and checking it against known compromised passwords) and detecting password reuse. 

Finally, one of the most underrated iOS applications that proves to be versatile and super useful is Shortcuts. If you are new to Shortcuts, I'd recommend checking out the Gallery to find out what shortcuts are useful to you. Play with Shortcuts, customize them to your liking, and you'd be surprised to find yourself creating shortcuts yourself in the near future.

These applications are powerful. I recommend that you check them out and master them before the start of the semester. Enjoy!