I love my iPad and I know a few people who are about to get their iPad in the mail, so I thought I would share my experience so far! Maybe I'll save you a few pennies from downloading rubbish apps!!
The first thing I did was try to find good facebook and twitter apps. Either TweetDeck, HootSuite or the official Twitter apps are great. I still haven't found a decent facebook app that allows you to easily manage all your pages, etc - I just use the web version!
For a little bit of context...I have been a Windows user for my whole life until now.m I'm slowly converting to Apple. I'm still trying out new things so no doubt I will update this frequently...get the RSS feed by clicking on the orange thing on the right of the page above my face!
Oh, and so I don't forget - get a case for it! The last thing you want is a scratch on your new baby!!
Free/cheap Apps that you should download
- Box.net
- Allows access to your box files - I haven't really used it that much, although I have an account, I use Dropbox more frequently. Having the extra 5gb of space is handy though!
- Dropbox
- A must have for dropbox users. It works really well
- Remember The Milk
- This is a sync-able things to do list. I am trying to find a good system for managing my things to do, and something that I can use on any other systems, at any time. This is a good app, that syncs with their servers. You can go online at anytime and add/check things off if you haven't got your iPad with you. It's pretty good!
- Sky News
- Great app, get it. It's really well put together. There is a little video that takes you through what you can do. The timeline and backstories are great!
- Mashable
- Keep up to date with tech and social media news. This is a good app too. Easy to see and find the most up to date news. All the news is categorised similar to that on their web site.
- I love this app. You can basically get any feed you want and you can flip through the news feed like a newspaper. Put your facebook and twitter on it and you can share/favourite everything. Such a handy app.
- TED
- Not used it much to be honest.
- Evernote
- GET THIS! Take all your notes, it syncs with online servers, you can get a desktop version for windows or Mac...never be without your notes! Also, it records voice so it's great for taking notes at meetings and lectures, etc.
- Sky +
- If you have Sky + at home, get this so you can record remotely and also check what's on!
- TripAdvisor
- Brilliant app. Really smooth looking. When you start it up it finds your location and tells you where you can eat/stay in the area.
- IMDB
- Not used it much
- ShowYou
- Amazing app...imagine facebook or twitter...but just the videos that people are sharing. You can watch the videos and then share them in your newsfeeds. The way that is put together is really smart...like a quilt of videos.
- TweetDeck
- Awesome application, looking forward to the update. Good for managing multiple accounts and you can view multiple columns
- Good application too, you can also manage several accounts at once
- Guitar World: Lick of the Day
- Great application. You can upgrade to premium if you want to for a monthly subscription price.
Other apps that cost more money...
- Angry Birds
- Great for wasting hours of your life...to be honest, I got bored quickly, but I know others who are addicted to it!
- Garage Band
- Absolutely amazing
- KeyNote
- Great app...apples equivalent to PowerPoint. You can easily and quickly create presentations that look really fresh. You can email them out in .pdf .ptt and keynote format.
- AnalyticsPro
- If you use Google Analytics then you need this app...simple. (You could just use the web version, but the app is extremely handy!)
I want to get some more business apps...so if anyone has any advice on what is good/not so good then please get in touch.
Tips
- 1st Sync
- Make sure your 1st sync is with the computer you are most likely to sync with all the time. The iPad works like the iPod or iPhone; you plug it in to your PC and it will sync automatically. You have the ability to manage what syncs and 'drag and drop' music/videos, etc, that you want on your iPad. If you are anything like me you will have well over the capacity of the iPad in music files, so just pull over what you want on there.
- Double Clicking the button
- You can double click the main button at any time to reveal what apps you have running. Really handy when switching between apps and the Internet, etc.
- FaceTime
- Like skype...talk to your friends face to face. It works by calling someones email address if they have a iPad, or from iPad to iPhone you call their telephone number. Set this up asap and call me!
- Again, really easy to setup and really easy to use. If you have used an email client before then you will find that it's really smooth. It doesn't have all the features of outlook or other desktop clients, but it works great for sending and receiving emails on the move.
What I am having issues with...
I like to have everything syncable, so that I only have to use one or two programs. Pre-iPad I used Microsoft OneNote and outlook which meant that I could have my tasks, emails and notes accessible from all the places I needed...now I'm having to re-think all of this. I'm starting to realise that Office is not the only option!
Also, one thing I really like having is well organised bookmarks. I went beck to Delicious for this. You can download a delicious app that works with Safari. I haven't had time to fully explore yet, but the functionality is there. The major downfall is that I'm going to have to get all my bookmarks from Opera to delicious again. Also, Opera delicious app is rubbish so I'm back to thinking I need to change the main browser I use...back to Firefox soon for my Windows PC's (Work & home)!
Email Me with any thoughts!
Chris.
