Thursday, December 2, 2010

Favorite Apps - My Brand New List Is Here!

The Twitterverse is full of requests from new iPad users for app suggestions. NOTE: an "app" is just the new name for a program. Since there are over 300,000 apps (programs) available you can see why a newbie might be overwhelmed. I certainly haven't tried them all but I have used over 400 on both the iPad and the iPhone. Remember iPhone apps will work on the iPad; they will just use a small portion of the screen and will resemble the iPhone display. Of course most iPhone apps will also work on the iPod Touch. In many cases a company will provide two versions - one for the iPhone/iPod Touch and one that takes advantage of the large screen on the iPad. Many newspapers do this.

So - what do I like?

Travel
  • The built-in Maps - for navigation and traffic displays
  • Beat The Traffic - large screen version for the iPad
  • GPS Drive - locating coffee shops, etc.
Voice Input
  • Dragon Search - I use this for Google searches even when I'm at my computer
  • Dragon Dictate - tiny keyboards be gone! it's time to talk
  • Vlingo is the current alternative but I have not used it
Photo Editing (one of  my favorite hobbies!) - The iPad doesn't have a camera but editing on the large screen is fantastic
  • Photo Delight - a wonderful and easy to use special effect app
  • Alien Booth - a simple version of iMac Photo Booth
  • Transfer - to move photos wirelessly between iPad, iPhone and iMac.
  • Filterstorm
  • Photogene
  • Framed! - you'll love this one
  • Imikimi
  • Fingerdesign
  • CameraFun
  • ToonCamera - can't wait for the video version
  • iFlashReady - compensates for the lack of flash on early iPhones (before version 4)
  • dpReview - digital photography review site
News and Weather
  • Fluent News - aggregates news from a variety of sources
  • SkyGrid - similar to Fluent News but more organized
  • Dozens of other general, technical and political news sites
  • Built-in weather app
  • The Weather Channel
  • ESPN - for all things sports
Calendar, Contacts, Etc.
  • The built in Calendar and Contact apps are integrated across platforms and the web
  • Bento - this easy to use Filemaker lite database greatly improves on the standard contact app and integrates with it
  • W&Y Pages - White and Yellow Pages
  • MobileMe - a service that has apps for syncing contacts and calendars
  • Bump - moves contact info, calendar dates and other information between Apple and Android devices - by bumping them together - you have to see it to believe it.
Presentation
  • Keynote - a version of the Mac program
  • Picture Frame - built in iPad photo display app
Reference
  • World Atlas - National Geographic
  • US Documents - text of 100 important documents from the Constitution to the Louisiana Purchase Treaty and the Gettysburg Address
  • Dictionary.com
  • MyConvert - thousands of conversation factors - just fun to try - did you know there were 12,152.23312 cubits in a league!
Entertainment
  • Netflix - Watch movies on your iPad or stream them wirelessly to TV
  • IMDb - movie database
  • TV Guide
  • YouTube
  • Movie Vault - free movies
  • Pandora - music
  • Flip Clock - radio
  • Several dedicated radio station apps
Stock Market
  • Stocks - Built in iPhone app
  • QFolio HD - A powerful iPad app
Apps for finding Apps - you'll need these!
  • BestAppSite
  • AppAdvice
Miscellaneous
  • FlightAware - flight tracking
  • Big Tipper - calculate tips and split restaurant bills
  • World Clock - display clocks for numerous locations of your choice.
  • TweetDeck and Twitter - for Tweeting
  • Sketchbook Pro - drawing and painting
  • Dropbox - file exchange

2 comments:

  1. Excellent information Gary. If you're going to be at the AAM gathering Thursday I have a couple of questions for you and it will be nice to reconnect. Joy www.joypecchia.com

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  2. Very helpful list of apps! I also have discovered www.zoomappy.com that is a search engine for iOS apps. Zoomappy has many more filters for searching than iTunes so it's now my "go to" website for searching.

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