Best Apps of 2014: Media -#038; Entertainment

Best Apps of 2014: Media -#038; Entertainment

This post is part of our “Best Apps of 2014? series! The series highlights the finest apps of the year — either released in 2014 or heavily updated. You can follow along with all entries in the series HERE. We’re approaching the end of the year, so what better time to bring together all of the best apps from the last twelve months? We’ve...

Best Apps of 2014: Media -#038; Entertainment

This post is part of our “Best Apps of 2014? series! The series highlights the finest apps of the year — either released in 2014 or heavily updated. You can follow along with all entries in the series HERE.

We’re approaching the end of the year, so what better time to bring together all of the best apps from the last twelve months? We’ve been racking our brains and asking our lovely readers for help in order to try and whittle down all the App Store had to offer in 2014 to a few simple lists.

You’ve seen our picks for the best Games, Utilities, Social and Productivity apps and now we’re bringing you the best apps for media consumption and entertainment!

The App Store is chock-full of apps for watching, reading and listening to content, so compiling this list was no mean feat. Regardless, here are the best entertainment and media apps of 2014…

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Yahoo News Digest

News Digest from Yahoo is the easiest way to get a summary of the day’s important news. The app delivers to you around 10 stories across all different categories of news in the morning and evening, keeping you posted on what’s going on in the world. Thanks to Summly’s technology, the app present news in an easy to digest form, summarizing events into bite size chunks.

FREE — Download now for iPhone and iPad

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Nuzzel

Nuzzel describes itself as “new from your friends” and, well, that’s a pretty accurate description. The app brings together the top news stories shared by the people you’re linked with on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. It’s a great way of staying on top of the popular, most talked about stories in your circles and saves you scrolling through Twitter of Facebook feeds to see what’s going on. Also, super cute name and icon.

FREE — Download now for iPhone and iPad

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ESPN SportsCenter

Yes, ESPN’s SportsCenter app has been around for some time but in 2014 it became even more useful. Thanks to iOS 8, the app gained a Notification Center widget that is capable of displaying live scores for your favorite teams. To keep up with a game I no longer have to open the app or ask Siri for the score — it’s just a swipe away wherever I am on my iPhone.

FREE — Download now for iPhone

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Pocket

Another app that went from strength to strength in 2014 was Pocket. The popular ‘read it later’ service allows you to save web content for offline reading at a later date across pretty much all platforms but this year, it took advantage of iOS 8′s new capabilities to make saving content even easier. Thanks to an extension in the Share Sheet, you can save pretty much anything with a URL to Pocket to view later no matter what app you are in. Previously, individual apps had to build in this functionality, but with iOS 8, Pocket has made that function available wherever there’s a share button.

FREE — Download now for iPhone and iPad

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Stringer

Stringer only hit the App Store last month but it solved some flaws in the way that the iOS Music app handles the shuffling of music. The beautifully designed app allows you to shuffle your music library but still have some control over what plays next without interrupting your flow — simply drag and drop tracks from the current album or related songs on the fly. It’s a neat idea and prevents the stop-start nature of Music.app’s shuffle mode when changing songs.

FREE — Download now for iPhone

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Rormix

If you’re into new and emerging music talent, then Rormix is the app for you. Completely reinvented in 2014, the app enables users to browse, watch and fave music videos from unsigned musicians and bands using your own iOS Music library as a source for recommendations. You can find some hidden musical gems in this app and learn about new artists you might never have heard of otherwise.

FREE — Download now for iPhone

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Overcast

If podcasts are your thing, you need to check out Overcast. Not only does the app allow you to subscribe and listen to your favorite shows, it also has some nifty features for discovering new podcasts and altering playback for a better experience. In the app, you can see recommendations from your Twitter friends or dive into one of the topic ‘starter kits.’ As for playback, the app boasts Smart Speed for shortening silences and Voice Boost for getting the spoken word sound just right. Plus it has bonus CarPlay support if you’re lucky enough to have a car that has it…

FREE — Download now for iPhone and iPad

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