Getting my first iPad on Friday... What apps should I buy?

[itsjared]

I am so stoked to get my first iPad on Friday. Here at the office FedEx and UPS both deliver before 9am.

What apps should I buy? What are essential and used daily by most folks?

 

[sfwalter]

For pdf reading I recommend PDF Expert.

 

[Grease2310]

I am so stoked to get my first iPad on Friday. Here at the office FedEx and UPS both deliver before 9am.

What apps should I buy? What are essential and used daily by most folks?

If you're a Reddit reader I suggest Alien Blue. Comixology if you're a fan of comic books. iPhoto and iMovie are must haves for me, but your mileage may vary there. God theres so many good apps...

 

[dukeblue91]

GoodReader is the first thing I'd buy and pages second.
iCab is a good 2nd browser as it let's you download and upload files too.
If you don't already have Dropbox I would look into that too.

 

[war eagle]

tweetbot

 

[PsstGreek]

Real Racing

 

[RobesNo1]

Flipboard

 

[itsjared]

Thanks folks. Keep 'em coming!

 

[Jarson]

GoodReader - powerful app. Great PDF store/reader. Good thing to have all documents sorted in a one place. It allows you to download files through built-in browser and store files.

Dropbox - good thing if you want to transfer files between mac/ipad/iphone pretty often.

Skype

Pages - it is worth it.

iPhoto - see the last keynote.


Games:

if you have iPhone: FIFA12+EA Gamepad
Infinity Blade
Pirates!
GTA3
SimCity
Red Alert
Monopoly

 

[JeffMorse]

Flipboard is amazing.
Plants vs. Zombies is still a wonderful game, the touch interface rocks for this.
FlightControl HD. Fun, and hard! Oh man, so hooked on this.
iBook - The ipad uses .epub files, though Kindle is .mobi
Netflix
Slingbox if you own one.
LiveATC if you care to listen to airport towers
5-0 Radio for police/fire scanners
F-Sim Shuttle is a great game where you land the space shuttle. Good graphics and fun.

There are so many really fun options. Any of the HD versions of the racing games are great fun too.

 

[DuckSoup]

For TV viewing...

If you have HBO at home and wi-fi access anywhere, get HBO GO. (or Max Go for CineMax)

If you have cable TV at home and wi-fi access, your cable TV provider likely has an app to allow you to watch many of their networks on your iPad.

If sports inclined, most networks have apps, and many have an app where you can watch them on your iPad. Many conferences have an app and many of those that have their own network channel also have an app to watch on your iPad.

If you use imdb.com, they have an iPad app, but I preferr accessing it still via the browser (Safari). Get the app though.

As for games, my fave right now is "10 PinShuffle", a well designed and very good app to play either shuffleboard or bowling (using the shuffleboard). I use it nightly to knock off a few games.

Congrats on the new iPad, you'll LOVE it!!!

Mike

 

[ecib]

I am so stoked to get my first iPad on Friday. Here at the office FedEx and UPS both deliver before 9am.

What apps should I buy? What are essential and used daily by most folks?

I don't know what your interests are, but if you like reading news, by far the best app is Zite. It lets you build custom feeds based off interest, but it isn't locked down to exact sites like RSS readers (a good RSS app is should be on there though!), so it adds a pleasant serendipity to the content you are served. It's been spot on for me, and has quickly become my favorite way to browse. It's free.

Dropbox is kind of a no-brainer. Free additional cloud storage that a ton of apps are tying into via their API. This is probably the #1 app and first thing you should download on your iPad & desktop/laptop if you have not yet. Did I mention free?

iPhoto which the just released. I've already downloaded and played around with it on my iPhone 4. It puts every other photo editing app to terrible shame. Terrible terrible shameful shame. It's that good. Well worth the 5 bucks.

Photosynth. Free panaoramic app developed by Microsoft. Let's you take a series of pictures and it automatically stiches them together. I don't know if you're going to hold your iPad up and take pictures with it instead of your phone, but if you do, this is a nice free app that fills a role.

TuneIn Radio. Nice free internet radio app that lets you search by station or category. Thousands upon thousands of stations, and a section for podcasts as well. I like it for listening to my local stations and tech podcasts.

Yelp. I think this needs no introduction.

Google Earth. The ultimate Map-lapedia. This application shine on an iPad more than any other platform in existence. So good and free.

Evernote. A cross-platform cloud based productivity tool. I use this for work a TON. You may not need it (I don't know your use-case), but it does what it does better than any of it's competitors. Free.

Do you have a cable subscription? Then check out the CNN app. It let's you enter in your subscriber info to gain the ability to live-stream CNN on your iPad. Don't get me started on our completely ineffectual bought and paid for corporate media here in the states, but in the event of some actual newsworthy live, breaking event, it's nice to have the option to watch it live on CNN on your device. I guess. Sort of. Ugh. At least it's not Fox or MSNBC, right?

Imgur. Let's you create a quick link that you can paste to share any image-media on your iPad. Very useful if you like to post in forums. Otherwise, meh.

Those are some of the apps I really like. By no means an exhaustive lists obv.

 

[JeffMorse]

Awesome suggestion for Photosynth. Thanks! I was looking for something like this the other day.

 

[shakeman0]

iMovie
Garageband
iPhoto
Pages
Netflix
Flipboard
iBooks
Kindle
Pandora
Skype
GoodReader
Awesome Note
Notebook
Pulse
Real Racing 2
Infinity Blade (1, 2, and Dungeons)
Splashtop (Remote Desktop)
Penultimate
Corkulous
Plants VS Zombies
Air Display
Atomic Web

 

[aneftp]

Depends,

If you do any school or business, Goodreader a must have app.

Basically can function has a min file storage app along with a PDF viewer. You can down basic office files/pictures/movies. File them and resend them out via email.

Goodreader was first app I ever had in my iPad 1st generation almost 2 years ago.

 

[gorskiegangsta]

Paid:
GarageBand (a must have, IMO)
GoodPlayer (excellent media player that plays almost any kind of video files)
Penultimate or Notability (for note taking)
Sketchbook Pro for iPad or ArtRage (for drawing)
HiCalc Calculator
Phone Drive (opens almost any kind of file; MS Office, iWork documents, PDFs, images, video, audio files)
Mercury web browser (IMO, the best alternative to mobile safari with tons of extra features including private mode)
Printer Pro for iPad (if you have a non AirPrint compatible wireless printer)
WolframAlpha
Djay for iPad (a little pricey but very powerful and super fun)

Free:
iBooks & Kindle
PCalc Lite calculator
Flipboard
Pandora Radio
Dropbox
Netflix (if you have a subscription)
OnLive Desktop
Google Earth
Google Translate
Dictionary.com
Photoshop Express
SoundHound (IMO the best music identification app)
Twitter
Doodle Buddy for iPad (for drawing)
Skype for iPad

Games:
RealRacing 2 HD
Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation
Asphalt 6: Adrenaline
Grand Theft Auto 3
Infinity Blade & Infinity Blade 2
Fruit Ninja for iPad
Jetpack Joyride
Machinarium
Batman Arkham City Lockdown
Dead Space for iPad
Mass Effect Infiltrator
N.O.V.A. 2

Games (free):
Temple Run
Pocket Frogs
The Sims: FreePlay
Tiny Tower
UnblockMe Free
Dungeon Hunter 3
GT Racing: Motor Academy Free+

 

[tommot82]

GoodReader is the first thing I'd buy and pages second.
iCab is a good 2nd browser as it let's you download and upload files too.
If you don't already have Dropbox I would look into that too.

wow! i agree with ALL of these suggestions! I would add iPhoto to the list! its awesome! perticularly if you have a camera kit for the iPad

 

[Icemilk]

Throw some more money at Apple and get the whole iLife and iWork suites. They're worth the $30 bucks and retina supported.

 

[nutmac]

Don't rush into buying apps. Apps are subjective, so assess what you need and try freebies. I also recommend getting an account setup at AppShopper.com (and download free iOS app) and enter paid apps into wish list. Many paid apps fluctuate in value, sometimes becoming free. AppShopper iOS app sends push notification when this happens.

That said, there are few paid iPad/universal apps that I strongly recommend.

• If you use Twitter a lot, Tweetbot
• If you listen to podcasts regularly, Instacast HD
• If you use RSS (Google Reader), Reeder for iPad
• If you need a stylish, at-a-glance weather app, Magical Weather
• For advanced calculation needs, Soulver for iPad

 

[cfairbank]

Tweetbot
Zite
Flipboard
Tapatalk
iPhoto

 

[bobobenobi]

What apps should I buy? What are essential and used daily by most folks?

You bought an iPad before you knew what you wanted to run on it?

 

[UnseenLlama]

There used to be a program called "I am rich". Go for that one.

 

[h00ligan]

Goodreader
Reeder
Filebrowser
Facebook


Plants vs zombies hd
Quarrel deluxe

 

[itsjared]

You bought an iPad before you knew what you wanted to run on it?

Damn Right! Didn't everyone?

 

[bobobenobi]

Damn Right! Didn't everyone?

No. I don't buy things before I know how I'll use them.