A few people have asked me recently “What are the good apps on an iPad”. So I have waded through all the apps I have bought, and come up with a list of the best, most fun and most useful that I have.
Consuming & Discovering
Pulse – $3.99
An RSS reader that is customisable with all your owen feeds or if you use google reader you can also subscribe to that. Pulse displays the feeds as a series of rows with the articles from each feed along them. Really easy to find some interesting stuff and especially good for content with lots of images.
Flipboard – FREE
Similar to Pulse but you can only choose from selected sources, which there are many, but not ideal for anyone with lots of random smaller news feeds. The layour is more magazine like with a contents section laying out all your subscribed feeds. The content is displayed as articles which makes it really nice to browse for stories. Also lets you subscribe to Twitter and facebook feeds which are displayed in the same way.
iBooks – FREE (Classics are free, most are same as the retail stores)
This is one of my favorite apps. I have bought many books as the convenience is brilliant. The books display clearly and the ability to dim/ brighten the screen easily is ideal for reading in different light such as a dark room or a bright garden. The app is linked to the iTunes book store which needs a few improvements such as the Genius feature of the music and app stores. It’s still pretty early on so I’m sure they will be coming later down the line. The ability to read PDF’s makes it ideal for downloaded brochures and magazines. The app can also sync your progress and bookmarks to other synced devices such as the iPhone which is great if you find yourself with nothing to do when out with your phone as you are up to date with where you were on your iPad.
Marvel – FREE (Some Free comics, but most are paid)
Comics on a handheld device are usually pretty awkward to read but on the iPad screen the comics stand out fantastically. Double tap to go into guided mode and just swipe right and the app will guide you through the story, focusing on the key elements and text. Of double tap again and you can spend time admiring the beautifully drawn work. Just be warned that it’s an addictive app and the bills can rack up quickly when reading a series of comics.
Wired – FREE (Content is paid)
This really is the tech demo of what magazines of the future could be like. The interactive features and videos along side the normal magazine content just make reading a joy. The only niggle, in my opinion, is the navigation of longer articles isn’t 100% easy to detect but that could just be me. Still the content is worth a look, just to see and show off to people, what the iPad can do.
IMDB – FREE
It’s IMDB on a handy sized device, that’s always by your side on the sofa. Useful for finding out those pointless facts in films and finding those random actors you are sure you saw somewhere else before.
epicurious – FREE
Food and cocktail recipies, with a shopping list feature. Ideal for planning a nice meal, or a boozy night in with your mates.
Stumbleupon – FREE
Bumble around the net finding random content based on the things you like and have given the “thumbs up” to before. Useful for finding something random when your not in the mood for much else!
Creating & Editing
Brushes – $7.99
Finger painting with a powerful, and fun app. While not Photoshop, the ability to have layers, blending and a rainbow of colors lets you use your imagination to create whatever you want in a pretty intuitive way. Results can vary! Brushes is at just about the right sweet spot for power to usability that is ideal for most people. Here is a shameless plug for an image I drew in Brushes while on a car journey: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosthedesigner/4818216060/
Sketchbook Pro – $7.99
Similar to Brushes but with more power and control over most elements. The only problem with Sketchbook Pro is that it suffers with being to complex for most elements which makes it less fun. I would class it more as a tool than Brushes which has the fun element. That said, with some decent time put in to beat the learning curve, I think that Sketchbook has the edge for the hardcore user.
Pages – $9.99
Like MS word/publisher (in a good way) but on the iPad. Simple to use with just enough power to do the everyday things that most people need in a document editor. For any long document it’s not ideal but for editing existing documents or knocking up a covering letter for something it is more than perfect.
Gusto – $6.99
A website editor that can connect to your site though ftp and download the site to the iPad for offline editing. The editor has a quick list of common code shortcuts so you don’t need to dig down into the keyboard to get the < and >. Always useful.
KORG iElectribe – $9.99 until July 31st 2010, then $19.99
Cheaper than a real sequencer, but just as fun. I didn’t really know what I was doing with this app, but it was fun to have a go making some tunes and beats. There are a whole load of presets that you can use wand modify. One for the experts, quick learners and musicly minded.
Music
Virtuoso Piano Free 2 HD – FREE
A piano to play on. That’s it, but it’s free!
Magic Piano – $0.99
Another piano. Has a few fun piano modes and a simple mode for “following and learning” a song. For a quick play it’s fun and the video of the cat on youtube persuaded me to get it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40
Social
Gowalla – FREE
The official client for Gowalla. Gowalla is about discovering, capturing and sharing places and events with your friends.
Tweetdeck – FREE
The best twitter client on the iPad so far, assuming tweetie (the official Twitter app) doesn’t come over from the iPhone.
Playing
Harbour master HD – FREE (Extra levels $)
Guide your boats into port and make sure they don’t crash. A charming little game which will give you a new respect for real harbour masters once you realise how complex it can get. Enjoyable and if you like it there are more maps to download for a small price.
Flight Controller HD – $4.99
Like Harbour master but with planes. If you have some [red/blue] 3D glasses you can even play in with a 3D effect! Cool eh! The difference with Flight Controller is that once a plane lands, that is it. With Harbor master you have to get the boat out again once it’s cargo has been processed. Easier in some respects but it gets pretty chaotic pretty quickly. You can play multiplayer on the same iPad too.
Angry Birds HD – $4.99
Fling angry birds from a catapult into pigs hidden in fortresses made from destructable blocks. Some birds flock, some explode and some dive into the blocks and pigs with an almighty force. There is a reason this game has topped the charts for so long… It’s brilliant.
Plants Vs. Zombies HD – $9.99
When attacked by zombies, what do you need? If this game is anything to go by then it is a garden of plants with different skill sets which can defend your homestead. It’s tower defence with an undead twist. Build sunflowers to get “money” from the sun to buy some defensive plants. Just make sure you get that balance right. Customise your starting loadout of plants on each level so it’s upto you to decide what plants are going to help you every level. Another briliant game.
iCopter HD – FREE with ads
Fly the helecopter down the tunnel and don’t hit the edges. An easy game to get the hang of, but far harder to master.
Utilities
Weather Pro HD – $3.99
The most stat filled weather app there is. If you like data and graphs and as much info as possible then this is the app for you. It also has infrared and satellite images. If you just want a smily sunshine images then this isn’t for you.
Day Tides – FREE
Not useful to anyone, except sailors, fishermen and anyone who needs to be somewhere by the sea and know the tides. It’s free an accurate which is good enough for me.
Things – $19.99
Wow expensive, especially if you already have the iPhone app and the mac app. Come on CC, give us some kind of discount for them all in a bundle! Mind you it is the best designed and most thought through interface of them all. Syncing of the apps occurs via the mac on a shared network. Once there is online updates to the sharing this app will be perfect for keeping your to-do’s all upto date via the “cloud”. I have found this and it’s sister apps perfect for keeping projects organised, chores and other things I need to do all moving along nicely.
Dropbox – FREE
Keep files synced up online and access them from other devices with dropbox apps/accounts on. Brilliant for keeping stuff you might need anywhere on, and great for putting files to sync across multiple devices.
Good reader – $0.99
Reads almost any document and can sync with dropbox. The fact it can open up a zip file and you can then browse the content make it almost essential when someone sends you a zipped file in an email.
Final Note…
There are also some apps that I have on my iPhone but don’t want to pay $5 or more for a slightly shinier version for my iPad. Civilisation is the one that springs to mind here.
I am sure there are many apps that I don’t have on this list, so feel free to contribute your own favourites.
