Apps

8 mindfulness apps to help you cope in this time of uncertainty

Take some time for your mental health

Published

April 18, 2020

Chay Lazaro

Caring for your health goes beyond eating more whole foods instead of processed foods. Getting good sleep, working out, and practicing mindfulness are just as important for your overall well-being.

Taking a brief moment for your mental health is necessary especially at a time like this when stress and anxiety levels are high for a lot of people. Here are some mindfulness apps that can help you cope during this time of uncertainty, whether it’s guided meditation, breathing exercises, or looking for help to relieve stress.

Breathe

The Breathe app on your Apple Watch encourages you to set aside a few minutes a day to relax and focus on your breathing. Taking moments throughout the day to stop, relax, and practice mindfulness can help reduce stress and improve overall health. It’s also available as a watch face, so you can bring focus to your day just by raising your wrist.

3 Minute Mindfulness

If meditating for 20 minutes feels like too much, 3 Minute Mindfulness is the perfect introduction. 3 Minute Mindfulness helps you stop, pause and reset in just 3 minutes so you can remain calm and relaxed throughout the day. You can choose from a 7 Days of Mindfulness course to a range of breathing exercise that each have different benefits. In addition, 3 Minute Mindfulness connects with the Health app to save all the time you spend being mindful.

Ten Percent Happier

Want to sleep better, be more mindful, improve your relationships, and become just about ten percent happier? This is the app for you. The guided meditations, videos, talks, and sleep content will help you build (or boost) your meditation practice, and stick with it. Ten Percent Happier also integrates with the Health app.

Simple Habit

Wellness & sleep therapy sessions offer guided mindfulness & meditation, daily motivation, guided sleep sessions and coaching by world-renowned experts, personalized for the way you live your life. Whether you have 5 minutes in the morning or need to fall asleep quickly, start your Simple Habit today and live better every day. Optionally integrate your meditations with Apple Health by connecting your meditations with Mindful Minutes.

Headspace

Get happy. Stress less. Sleep soundly. Headspace is your guide to everyday mindfulness in just a few minutes a day. Choose from hundreds of guided meditations on everything from managing stress and anxiety to sleep, productivity, exercise, and physical health — including short SOS meditations for when you’re on the go. And to help you find some space during tough times, Headspace is here for you with the new Weathering the storm pack. Track your progress and time spent meditating while adding Mindful Minutes to your Health app.

Timeless

Multi-day courses, guided meditations, and a beautiful personal practice timer. Timeless is made by meditators, for meditators. The app provides high-quality guided instruction with practicing meditators, multi-day immersions for learning new techniques, and a personal practice timer that is elegant, easy-to-use, and fully customizable. Timeless is fully integrated with the Health app, making it easy to track Mindful Minutes.The app is also beautifully designed for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, honoring each device and its unique features while Cloud Sync and handoff ensure seamless experiences across devices.

Zen

If you want to live a happier, healthier and more balanced emotional life, Zen is the perfect app for you. On Apple’s list of ‘Best apps of 2016’, Zen offers a diverse and ever-growing amount of content and features such as HealthKit compatibility to save all health data on your Health app.

Stop, Breathe & Think Kids

Stop, Breathe & Think Kids is a mindful games app designed specifically for kids ages 5 – 10. Kids can check into how they are feeling using fun emojis and try recommended mindful missions and meditations tuned to those emotions. Stickers reward their progress and keep the mindful activities engaging. The kids meditation and mindful missions in Stop, Breathe & Think Kids were developed in collaboration with activity-based mindfulness expert Susan Kaiser Greenland, creator of the Inner Kids program and author of Mindful Games and The Mindful Child.

Accessories

TicNote AI recorder launches in the Philippines

AI-powered transcription, translation, insights, more

Published

December 19, 2025

Manila Connoisseur

Mobvoi has officially launched TicNote, its AI-powered note-taking device in the Philippines for PhP 9,499. The thin and lightweight recorder is currently available offline and will soon roll out on Lazada and Shopee.

The pocket-friendly TicNote comes with 64GB of memory and offers up to 25 hours of continuous recording. Beyond these, it supports real-time translation in over 120 languages through the TicNote app.

Moreover, powered by Shadow AI, the device goes further with advanced insights, including Smart Summary, Mind Map View, Deep Research Reports, Aha Moment, and even AI Podcast Generation.

To complement the device, Mobvoi offers unlimited TicNote cloud storage and 600 minutes of free monthly recording time.

On paper, the TicNote AI recorder has several professional applications. It can be used for meetings, legal and medical consultations, and more scenarios to record high-quality audio.

Meanwhile, journalists can leverage the tool for press conferences and media scrums. Even content creators can use the tool as a microphone as TicNote can process high bitrate audio and save it to .wav format.

Still, there’s a catch. Users will still need a smartphone, tablet, or laptop to make the most out of TicNote’s AI-powered features.

And that raises the dilemma: modern phones already offer AI translation, real-time transcription, and audio-to-text uploads through popular AI assistants.

For consumers, the question becomes whether TicNote offers enough beyond what their phones already do — or if it will just make having both devices redundant.

Apps

Disney Plus: NBA Christmas Day games to stream live

More sports content also available on the platform

Published

December 19, 2025

GadgetMatch

Disney+ will stream the entire 2025 NBA Christmas Day games slate live on the platform for Philippine basketball fans to enjoy.

Fans can tune in to the anticipated matchups starting at 1:00 AM (Manila time) on December 26.

Here’s the full schedule:

1:00 AM: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. New York Knicks
3:30 AM: San Antonio Spurs vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
6:00 AM: Dallas Mavericks vs. Golden State Warriors
9:00 AM: Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers
11:30 AM: Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Denver Nuggets

And in case viewers missed a tip-off, the full replays will also be available on the app. Worth noting is the second matchup, which is a rematch of the Emirates NBA Cup semifinals.

Meanwhile, the third pairing brings long-time former Golden State Warrior Klay Thompson back to the Bay Area in a compelling match.

Plus, the Rockets-Lakers showdown features two seasoned veterans and future Hall of Famers Kevin Durant and LeBron James in their latest meeting.

Beyond the NBA Christmas Day games on Disney+, fans can stay plugged in all day with ESPN’s NBA Tip-Off at 12:00 AM. Inside the NBA, on the other hand, airs at 8:30 AM.

In addition, for something totally different, check out NBA alt-cast, Dunk the Halls, the first real-time animated NBA game.

This playful showdown happening also on December 26 at 1:00 AM reimagines the Cavaliers-Knicks tiff on Main Street, U.S.A. in Magic Kingdom Park, with some help from Mickey Mouse and his friends.

In line with Disney+’s NBA Christmas Day games, the platform has also uploaded highlights of the 2025 League of Legends KeSPA Cup on the app. The tournament features top teams from Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and North America.

Disney+ continues to strengthen its sports offerings on the platform, with an all-new Sports Page for easier access.

Apps

Google Maps is finally getting a power saving mode

Waze needs this update, pronto.

Published

November 28, 2025

Luigi Leonardo

In a congested country like the Philippines, using navigation for shortcuts is a requirement. However, these apps can hog a lot of battery. If you forgot your car charger, it’s practically game over for your phone. Today, Google is shipping out a Maps update which can save your phone’s battery for those long drives.

Announced earlier this month, the update will include a Power Saving mode for Google Maps. The new mode will turn the normally colorful interface into monochrome with particular emphasis on black. The interface will reduce all interactable elements, so you can just focus on the display.

Presumably, it also reduces the power required by the app, while still prioritizing navigation. According to Google, smartphones will get up to four hours more juice when the mode is enabled.

Unfortunately, it’s not a widely released update yet. Google is limiting the update’s rollout to the Pixel 10 series for now. It’s also limited to driving mode; it won’t work if you’re just walking or cycling. The option is accessible through Driving options under Navigation in the settings.

In countries where Android Auto isn’t the norm just yet, a power saving mode for navigation is a godsend. Besides hoping that the update arrives on more devices, one can also hope that Google, who also owns the app, will introduce a similar mode to Waze. (To be fair, Waze did have a battery saver option, but it just dimmed the display for long straights.

SEE ALSO: Android now supports AirDrop!