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BEST FREE APPS

Find some great software for your Macs and mobile gear without spending a single penny! Written by Ian Osborne

Software can be expensive. The Mac’s 3D modelling tool ViaCAD Pro 12, for example, sets you back £700 on the Mac App Store, and on the iPhone and iPad, professional piano-tuning app Verituner costs £600. But you don’t have to break the bank to bag an app. There’s a huge range of software available for your Apple gear that’s entirely free of charge.

‘Free’ doesn’t mean ‘poor’ either. Some of the best apps in their class are freebies. Handbrake, for example, has long been the Mac’s go-to app for video conversion, and it’s completely free to download and use. If you’re struggling to play a video file, the free VLC app can probably do it and The Unarchiver is the only tool you need for decompressing archived files.

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MacFormat
February 2025
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