Okay, so (sorry) I got myself an ipad. Now tell me what apps to get?

Angry Birds. Wheeeeeeeee!

I really like this one and use it a lot, Photo Transfer. It transfers photos and videos directly from your iPad to your computer via a Wi-Fi connection or Bluetooth and from your computer to your iPad. I use it with a Wi-Fi connection. It’s simple and works as advertised. It’s just really direct. It simply copies the the image or video files from one device to another. No muss, no fuss. 2.99 and worth every penny.

I also use the Kindle emulator app for books. I still generally read actual books made out of paper but it’s nice to have the option to instantly download a Kindle version from Amazon, if it’s available, and read it on the iPad. I also like having a little library on my iPad for when I travel. Application is free, books, generally not.

And I still like my streaming Netflix. If you have a Netflix account, or ever watch anything on Hula, those apps are handy. Something else I generally like having for when I travel. App free, Netlix and Hulu Plus account, not free.

TED Talks has an app if you like those; nothing but TED talks, all the time. Free app.

And I don’t know if you are a birdwatcher, but I am a very, very amateur backyard and occasional birdwatcher and I like my iPad Audubon field guide. It’s not an adequate substitute for a decent library of bird books and CDs but I really like the “multi-medianess” of it. I like having visual identification information, a bit of info on habitat and behavior and the audio of the bird calls and songs all in one reference, one nice little package. Audubon Field Guides generally 19.99 and under.

Also, Pandora and Spotify are good music apps, I think, and I use them a lot. Both can be free or paid depending what features you want and would use.

Those are a few that I like and find useful. Apps are kind of a personal thing. It really depends on you and what you like and want to use your iPad for.

If you have comcast/xfinity for your cable, I like their app.

Tripadvisor

Did you get an Ipad or an Ipad2? Dumb question, but just wanna be sure.

@JLeslie Check my review of Edgewater Beach Hotel in Naples FL….on Tripadvisor.

@JLeslie I have Comcast cable and the Xfinity app for my iPad and I simply cannot get the damn app to work. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

@plethora ipad2

I don’t have a problem with my xfinity app on my iphone, although I haven’t tried it on my ipad yet. @lillycoyote are you sure your password is correct?

There are some apps that are cross-platform or have equivalents on both iOS and a real mobile OS. Here are some of my faves.

- Since I view a lot of PDFs, and because Adobe Ass-robot Reader sucks more than any three porn stars you care to name, I find ezPDF Reader utterly indispensable.

- Zenonia 3 is pretty damn good if you are into that sort of game, as is Shadow Era if you are more of a card-flopper than an RPG-er.

- m48 is handy when you need a real calculator. It also helps that my phone is about half the size and one-quarter the weight of my HP48G. That makes this app even better.

- TuneIn Radio is great for those that like a wide range of stations. I found stuff I never imagined of.

I love the apps from…

PBS Television
ABC Television
NPR News
All great for news and programming

Marvel Comics
DC Comics
Both by Comixology. Loving my digital comics.

Adobe Ideas
Great for sketching and planning designs on the go. And, you can export the files into Adobe Illustrator.

As @jerv said TuneIn Radio is great, but I also really like Jango too. Zen Stones in my favorite game at the moment but play backgammon and Card Shark. Bubble Bust is a great time waster as is Glass Tower and Unblock Me Zen Brush and SketchBook are fun. MotionGrab and 360 are good camera apps. Pizza Boy is so like the original Mario games, that is fun too. I have Kindle and KoBo is another reader with cheaper books in a lot of cases. Audible is good if you want it to read the books to you but unless you join their books are not cheap! AppsGonefree tells you of the new freebies and last Messenger is good because you can send international text messages for free.

That should keep you busy for a while!

Editions is a free, personalized news digest that is delivered daily and very attractive. Read It Later is a good app for reading articles offline.

@lillycoyote I think I might know what is going on with your Xfinity app. I went online and did a search, and there are only certain compatable DVR boxes that will work with the machine. Make sure that your DVR is compatable.
http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?seoid=eligible-stbs-xfinity-tv-app

Also, if you’re trying to stream, only certain stations will stream. Click on “Play Now” at the bottom of the app to see what is available.

Angry Birds.

Thanks everybody. I realize that it’s a personal thing, and one person’s great app is another person’s wasted time. As I noted on a previous question a few weeks ago my goal was for productivity and document reading. My hesitation with getting the ipad was in its file management system, but I found a workaround in Office Pro HD that works for me. Jerv didn’t like the ipad, had good reasons, and I agree with him. My issue with Android was that I checked at work and they don’t have the support for it; everything is set up for the ipad, so I was stuck. In any case, it’s working for me.

But one of the things that I wanted to ask this question for was there are sometimes things that people use a tool for that I have no idea it can be used for. For example, I have a friend who is a musician who uses her ipad to download and read piano music. That’s a neat trick.

So long as you use ezPDF Reader, it’s all good.

Is Ubuntu available on the iPad yet?

Why are you apologizing for getting an iPad, by the way?

I’m just joking with Jerv. It’s in relation to a previous similar question I wrote where he advised me in no uncertain terms not to get one.

@Rarebear Thanks! A lot of time my problem with getting things to work is simple failure to read the instructions. I’ll check Comcast’s helpful.

I also wanted to add a couple of apps that I forgot about.

I don’t know if you got the 3G version of the iPad but if you did this, MotionX GPS
is a good GPS app. I like to use it on long road trips instead of my regular unit because I like to listen to books on tape or music when I am doing that kind of traveling an by using the iPad application I can listen to music or books and the application will automatically cut out the book or song if it has something to tell me. With my regular unit I sometimes can’t hear the directions until it’s too late.

Also Dragon Dication is pretty remarkable little free app. It is a voice to text app and while the output is not 100% it’s amazingly accurate. You just speak and it turns your words into text, like magic. And it’s really a very simple, straightforward application. And free!

Also, this is a nice keyboard case for the iPad and having a keyboard is very useful if you are going to be writing a lot with it or entering data. I like this cases because you just pop the thing in and it’s easy to carry around. I like this one because the iPad is very easy to pop in and pop out of the thing.

This is another good one

@Rarebear: Aaahh. Okay.

@the100thmonkey Not yet, but 14.04 LTS will be geared towards tablets and smartphones.

@lillycoyote Actually the couple of times I tried my ipad xfinity the guide was not working, but the play now and movies were. Not sure what was going on with it? Is that what happened to you? It was working fine before, but it had been a couple months since I tried to look up something. I was going to try and reset the cable choice for my area. I never had it synced up with my cable box, so I don’t think that is it.