Tuesday, March 22, 2011

iPad Apps I like.

As I've mentioned, I bought a first-generation iPad due to it being cheaper with the iPad 2 coming out. I bought the first-gen because the new version has features I just don't need, like the cameras (I won't be using Facetime), and a more powerful processor that while good for games isn't quite worth the extra "scratch" it would have taken for an iPad 2. Not to mention the darn things are so difficult to get. Anyways, having enjoyed my iPad for around two weeks now I thought I would discuss some of my favorite apps. There are many I like, but these are the ones I chose to spotlight for now. Let's continue, shall we?

Zite
I can not state enough how cool this app is. You tell it your interests from a long list and it separates them into sections like a newspaper or magazine. Then, chunks of articles are displayed in these pages that you can click on for the full piece. You can also tell Zite things you are interested in that it didn't initially list, so you know I have a, "comic book" section. It's free, so what are you waiting for?

Comics (by Comixology)
The best comic-reading app. You can buy popular releases from almost all the publishers (although Marvel and DC have a smaller selection due to having their own apps) and there are often free comic issues or sections. It's great!

Outliner
I often like to write to-do lists that I break down, outlines of sorts. This program is amazing for doing that. It's simple, concise, and right up my alley. For $4.99 you could do worse.

Dropbox
Another free app, although you could pay extra money for more than the 1 gigabyte of storage space you get, but why would you need it? You can install this on multiple computers and your ipad, then when you put a file in your Dropbox folder it becomes accessible from any device that has your Dropbox account. It's cloud technology at its finest.

McSweeney's
I'm a fan of the short-story quarterly and this app collects the daily website posts, special material for the app, and digital copies of books the company publishes.

GoodReader
The best way to read PDFs and make annotations on them. You can use it to access Dropbox too, making a pdf saved on one computer editable. Worth the $4.99

Flipboard
The snazziest way to see Facebook and Twitter feeds along with other information. Everyone's been talking about this app so why not download it and see what all the fuss is? It's free!

PS Express
A free version of Adobe Photoshop that lets you make simple edits that still look startlingly good.

iBooks
Better than Kindle? That's up for debate, but the full-color books that are possible with this app sure look nice.

Pages
A snazzy word processor that you can insert images in or otherwise do work on. Not nearly at Microsoft Word levels of complexity, but still quite useful and capable of knocking out some quality documents.

Sometime I'll talk about all the sweet games there are too, but these apps should get you started if you have an iPad. A fair amount of these also work on other Apple products such as the iPhone or iPod Touch, so go nuts.

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