The Apple Core

Jason D. O'Grady & David Morgenstern

iPad apps to get right now

By | April 6, 2010, 12:01am PDT

Summary: Some of my favorite iPad selections from the App Store.

Special Report: Apple iPad

The App Store has been a treasure trove of new iPad-centric releases since Friday and the parade of apps makes the iPad better every day. Following are several iPad apps that I discovered in my first weekend of using the iPad and already can’t live without. Here are several of my favorite iPad apps, so far.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2010/4/netflix-ipad.jpg

Netflix (free app, sub req’d, App Store) – If you have a Netflix account, this app allows you to stream movies directly to an iPad. It’s so good, that many people will get a Netflix account (which start at $5/month) just because of the iPad version. The Netflix app was also one of the best kept secrets of the iPad launch, which is cool.

Pandora (free, $36/yr pro, App Store) - What can one say about Pandora that hasn’t already been said? It’s the best music streaming app out there and the iPad version does quite a nice job. The only thing that would make this streaming sensation better was if it were multi-threaded, but that’s on Apple’s (and we may have a solution as soon as Thursday).

http://www.tweetdeck.com/assets/ipad/ipad_landscape_1.png

TweetDeck for iPad (free) - This Twitter client was made for the iPad. It’s clean, column-based navigation and feature set makes TweetDeck my Twitter app of choice these days. It’s got some quirks though, like having to switch to portrait view to click on a link. I’m sure that it will get better. Honorable mention goes to Twittelator Pad ($4.99).

http://a1.phobos.apple.com/us/r1000/018/Purple/91/af/a9/mzl.stapvslf.480x480-75.jpg

OmniGraffle for iPad ($49.99, App Store) – OmniGraffle is an amazing diagraming/charting app whose freehand drawing capabilities are a perfect complement for the iPad’s multitouch surface. With it you can draw shapes, smart-align them and easily instant arrows to connect objects. There’s also numerous templates, shape libraries and style choices to choose from.

Wall Street Journal (free app, sub req’d) – Although it’s a little spendy (subscriptions start at $3.99 per week and $17.29 per month) WSJ has a compelling and readable interface. It actually feels like you’re reading the real thing (except with embedded video) which is both frightening and exciting at the same time. Existing WSJ online subscribers get unfettered access to the iPad app for a limited time.

Air Sharing HD ($9.99, App Store) - This essential app makes up for the lack of an accessible file system on the iPad. Air Sharing turns the iPad into a wireless flash drive where you can transfer and store files. You can connect to a number of different types of file servers and transfer files back and forth between them and Air Sharing. Once files are on the iPad you can manipulate them in a number of ways and even print them via Mac OS X Printer Sharing - something the iPad can’t do out of the box.

GoodReader for iPad ($0.99, App Store) – If you need to access PDFs on a regular basis then I recommend GoodReader. In addition to viewing massive (up to 1GB) PDFs with ease GoodReader features inline searching and an amazing PDF reflow algorithm that makes your PDFs reformat fit the iPad perfectly. You can either transfer files to GoodReader via Wi-Fi or open PDFs directly via server-style access to MobileMe, Google Docs, Dropbox and other servers.

More to follow…

What are are your favorite iPad apps?

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Topics

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve
  • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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Omnigroup releases
dmendels 6th Apr 2010
Ah, I agree, the OmniGraffle app rules! A very neat interface, I'm very
pleased to see that they managed to capture the essence of the device
without having one in their hands... Read their blog it's actually hilarious!
Yet, we're still waiting for Omnifocus, which may be a cool add-on to the
store, but mostly for Omnioutliner, which people like me can't live
without.
Guess we'll have to wait a little...

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