10 Epic iPad Apps
Apple's iPad completely changed the way people think about tablets and mobile computing. These 10 must-have iPad apps will help you understand why.
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Like it or not, Apple's iPad has transformed computing, mobile and otherwise. Introduced in April, 2010, it was the first tablet to succeed as a mass-market device and it remains the category leader, in sales.
Research firm Gartner predicts that that Apple's iPad will account for 73.4% of worldwide tablet sales in 2011, down from 83% in 2010. A wave of Android-based tablets has been challenging the dominance of the iPad. Early mover advantage aside, the iPad is a unique device and if you own one, or are considering buying one, you owe it to yourself to find the truly epic, must-have iPad apps.
There are about 140,000 apps written specifically for the iPad, which will also run most of the more than 500,000 apps in the iTunes App Store that were written for the iPhone. There's no shortage of worthwhile apps, but the best ones can be hard to find.
What makes an epic app? Well, there are many different ways to define greatness. Like beauty, greatness is in the eye of the beholder. So we've chosen to focus on some epic apps instead--the ones you simply must have, day-to-day for productivity reasons, and the ones that you will enjoy the most.
You may well ask whether there's any difference between great apps and epic apps. And you'd be right to do so. But rather than engage in a pointless debate about semantics and standards, take a look through our gallery and let your world be rocked by these apps. Then, when you're done, feel free to rain on our hit parade in the comments section. You know you want to.
Created by Dan Bricklin, of VisiCalc fame, Note Taker HD turns your iPad into a functional note pad. You can write with your finger or (if you want to thumb your nose at Apple's design gurus) with an iPad-compatible stylus, and then email the pages as a PDF. It's indispensable.
Everyone loves Flipboard. How can you not? Flipboard has re-imagined content consumption on tablets and done so in a way that honors the traditions of print. Once you try Flipboard, you'll have a hard time going back to reading websites in mobile Safari.
Not so long ago, the iPad was dismissed as a tool for content consumption. Codify proves that the iPad can be used for content creation, specifically software development, thanks to Apple's recently relaxed rules about interpreted code. Codify lets you create applications in Lua, a fairly simply programming language used in Adobe Lightroom, Corona SDK, and for World of Warcraft scripting, among other applications. It's pretty awesome, and will be even more so if Apple ever approves the Codify update that allows users to export their code.
As its name suggests, Splashtop provides a way to access a remote computer (Mac or PC) over a Wi-Fi or 3G network. It's tremendously useful if you prefer to travel without a laptop. It allows you to stream audio and video from a remote computer, to access remote files, and even to play games remotely. No iPad-armed road warrior should be without it.
The fact that you can edit movies on the iPad at all is impressive. Two decades ago, non-linear editing was unheard of outside of major Hollywood film companies. iMovie on the iPad isn't a substitute for a good desktop video editing program like Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5. But it isn't mean to be. For all its limitations, iMovie for iPad is a great way to explore video editing.
Forget about the stupidity of Netflix's plan to spin off its DVD rental operation under the shockingly bad name Qwikster. If you subscribe to Netflix for the streaming, then you want the Netflix iPad app. Ignore limited selection of titles and recommendation system that seems to rate everything four stars. Netflix for iPad turns your tablet into a screening room. Enjoy the show.
QuickOffice Pro HD is like a Swiss Army Knife: It has all the tools required to access files in your favorite apps and desktop applications. It allows you to create and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, to share files via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Yammer, and to access cloud services like Google Docs, Evernote, and Box.net.
Aweditorium takes music discovery and makes it tactile: It re-imagines the experience of music as a product--when there were liner notes, inserts, and photographs to convey something more than sound about an artist--and presents that experience for the mobile age.
Animoog manages to recreate an analog world with digital technology. It's the coolest iPad synthesizer out there. It's evocatively retro, but still supports MIDI controllers. Best of all, it's a steal at its introductory price of $0.99. This introductory price is supposed to last a month, so Animoog may return to its "regular price"--whatever that means in industry where prices are what the market will bear--of $29.99 sometime around November 17.
You can run Square on an iPhone (and Android) but running it on an iPad makes your business look more serious (or more obnoxiously hip). Square lets you accept credit card payments, using the Square Card Reader. The fee is only 2.75% per swipe, and there's no contract, monthly fee, or merchant account hassle. How cool it that? If you're running a small business, it's very cool.
You can run Square on an iPhone (and Android) but running it on an iPad makes your business look more serious (or more obnoxiously hip). Square lets you accept credit card payments, using the Square Card Reader. The fee is only 2.75% per swipe, and there's no contract, monthly fee, or merchant account hassle. How cool it that? If you're running a small business, it's very cool.
Like it or not, Apple's iPad has transformed computing, mobile and otherwise. Introduced in April, 2010, it was the first tablet to succeed as a mass-market device and it remains the category leader, in sales.
Research firm Gartner predicts that that Apple's iPad will account for 73.4% of worldwide tablet sales in 2011, down from 83% in 2010. A wave of Android-based tablets has been challenging the dominance of the iPad. Early mover advantage aside, the iPad is a unique device and if you own one, or are considering buying one, you owe it to yourself to find the truly epic, must-have iPad apps.
There are about 140,000 apps written specifically for the iPad, which will also run most of the more than 500,000 apps in the iTunes App Store that were written for the iPhone. There's no shortage of worthwhile apps, but the best ones can be hard to find.
What makes an epic app? Well, there are many different ways to define greatness. Like beauty, greatness is in the eye of the beholder. So we've chosen to focus on some epic apps instead--the ones you simply must have, day-to-day for productivity reasons, and the ones that you will enjoy the most.
You may well ask whether there's any difference between great apps and epic apps. And you'd be right to do so. But rather than engage in a pointless debate about semantics and standards, take a look through our gallery and let your world be rocked by these apps. Then, when you're done, feel free to rain on our hit parade in the comments section. You know you want to.
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