If you believe the data : Lots of people
had the iPad on the top of their
Christmas lists. Well, if you woke up
with Apple's tablet under the tree –
Congratulations! The wonderful world
of tablet computing awaits you.
But now what? An iPad is only as good
as the apps you get for it. With over
275,000 made just for the tablet in
Apple's store, though, it can be
overwhelming to find the right ones.
Not to worry, ABC News' technology
team has you covered. We have
rounded up the best iPad apps out
there -- free and paid -- for you in
different categories. Get ready to start
downloading!
SOCIAL NETWORKING
1. Twitter
The first category of apps is all about
connecting with others – one of the
iPad's greatest strengths. If you are a
Twitter addict, Twitter's official app is
a must-have. It's simple to operate:
sign in with your account and your
stream of tweets will be displayed. The
best part of the app, though, is that
you can see photos and websites that
your followers have shared right
within your stream. No need to jump
out to the web browser or photo app.
Twitter also recently added its own
photo filters and cropping tools. ( Free)
SOCIAL NETWORKING
2. Facebook
For a long time the best way to look at
Facebook on the iPad was through the
browser, but the Facebook app is
finally at a place that makes it the best
place to keep track of your social
network. You can view your Newsfeed,
flick through photos and send
messages to your friends. Facebook
also recently released a new version,
which sped up the entire app and the
load times of photos. When you set this
one up, be mindful about accepting the
push notifications. Do you want to be
notified every time someone likes your
post? That's up to you! ( Free)
SOCIAL NETWORKING
3. Pinterest
Rounding out the social networking
apps is Pinterest. (If you aren't
familiar with Pinterest, check out this
article.) This is a must have for the
Pinterest addict, but even if you aren't
a huge fan of the social pinning
service, you can appreciate the
beautiful app. Even if you refrain from
creating your own digital bulletin
boards, you can browse others in
different categories (travel, food, etc.)
by swiping in from the left side. The
highlight here is content – photos are
beautifully displayed and it's easy to
flip through others' boards and admire
the striking collections of cool stuff.
You can also browse the web through
the app and pin new things to your
boards. ( Free)
COMMUNICATIONS
4. Skype
Yes, every iPad comes with Facetime
for video calling with others who have
an iPad, iPhone or Mac computer. But
Skype is one of the best cross-platform
video calling services. The app works
much like the desktop programs. Log
in with your username and password
and you'll get a list of your contacts.
You can choose to video call with
them, send them a message, or make a
regular voice call. The quality of the
calls will depend on your Internet
connection; stick with using WiFi for
the best results, though 3G or LTE calls
will work. ( Free)
COMMUNICATIONS
5. Gmail
Every iPad does come the built in e-
mail application where you can add
any e-mail account, but for those who
use Gmail the dedicated app brings
extras to the tablet. With Google's new
Gmail app you can star and label your
messages and switch between up to
five Gmail accounts. When you hold
the tablet horizontally you can view
your Inbox on the left and your
messages on the right. You can select
multiple messages, watch them pile up
on top of each other and then bulk
delete them. ( Free)
READING
6. Amazon Kindle
Whether you've got an iPad Mini or
the 9.7-inch iPad with the Retina
Display you'll soon discover that your
new tablet will transform into one of
the best books you've ever owned.
Apple's iBooks has a good selection of
digital tomes, but Amazon store is
second to none. Download Kindle for
the iPad and you will be able to choose
from millions of titles and also access
any books you've bought on other
Kindle e-readers right on the tablet. It
also has a feature called X-Ray, which
shows the "bones of the book,"
including the main characters and
places. You can also purchase
magazines through the app. ( Free)
READING
7. Flipboard
If we narrowed down this list to the
top five iPad apps, Flipboard might
just be at the top of that list. Flipboard
is a social reader app – log in with
your social network and it gathers all
the links to the stories and photos your
friends are sharing in a clean and
easy-on-the-eyes layout. You can flip
through pages and pages of stories
that are popular with your friends.
You can customize your news sources
and select different topic areas too.
Basically, if you were looking to build
your own personalized magazine – this
would be the app to do it. ( Free)
READING
8. News360
News360 is similar to Flipboard but is
for the harder news addict. The app
learns your news habits. When you
first launch it, you select the topics you
are interested in – politics, technology,
health, etc. It will then feed you
current news about each of those from
different news outlets. As you click
through, the app will analyze what you
like and start to feed you more about
those stories. It's also very well
designed; each story is presented on a
cube – swipe up or down to turn the
cube and see other options, including
some sharing functions. ( Free)
READING
9. Instapaper
Reading a long article on your
computer is not an enjoyable
experience. That's where Instapaper
comes in. Sign up for an Instapaper
account and when you come across a
long article on your computer, you can
"Instapaper it" with a bookmarklet
that you install. Then you can log in to
that same account through the iPad
app and waiting there will be the
article in an easy to read format.
( Free)
READING
10. IDW and Marvel Comics
Comic book fan or not, the iPad is a
great platform to read graphic novels
or books. IDW Comics and Marvel
have a strong lineup of comics,
including same day as print releases.
Yes, we are including two apps in one
here, but within the Marvel app you
can buy X Men, Iron Man, Thor and
others. In the IDW Comics app you can
purchase G.I. Joe and classic comics
like Popeye. Both apps will require you
to buy the comics from the companies
directly. Marvel is owned by The Walt
Disney Co., which also owns ABC News.
( IDW and Marvel )
PRODUCTIVITY
11. Pages
Believe it or not, you can do work on
your iPad, and Apple's Pages is a great
place to start. The word processing
app is touch-friendly and doesn't only
support text. You can rearrange
images and make colorful documents
and presentations with Apple's
templates. As you would expect,
there's lots of font and color options
and you can open Microsoft Word and
other documents in it. Pages one-ups
the other word-processing apps for the
iPad with its iCloud integration. Save a
file and you can instantly view it in
Pages for Mac or the iPhone. ( $9.99 )
PRODUCTIVITY
12. Evernote
However, if you are just looking to take
notes, Evernote is a great option and a
step up from Apple's built-in Notes
app. The cross-platform app syncs
your notes from the web and all of
Evernotes other apps so you always
have them in one place. You can insert
images and voice reminders within
your notes too. Evernote has organized
all your notes into notebooks, which
you can give a cover photo. The
company is constantly adding features,
but this is already one of the best to-do
list apps out there. ( Free)
PRODUCTIVITY
13. Dropbox
Now that you have an iPad, you're
probably wondering what's the best
way to get photos and files from one
device to another. Dropbox is one of
the best options. The app can be
downloaded on your computer (Mac
or PC), your phone, and your iPad.
Drop a file in your Dropbox on your
computer and it will pop up on your
iPad. It's a great way to transfer
images or files. Dropbox gives you 2GB
for free; you can upgrade to larger
plans for a monthly plan. ( Free)
PRODUCTIVITY
14. OnLive Desktop
We've covered a number of ways for
you to do work on the iPad, but this is
the ultimate option. OnLive Desktop
lets you see your full PC desktop right
on the iPad's screen. Yes, you can
navigate your Windows PC, open files
or folders and even read and edit
Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint
documents. You can access your PC
from anywhere as long as you are
connected to WiFi. It's actually quite
fast, and not as laggy as some other
remote PC programs. If you're
planning to do work on your iPad, you
might want to consider a Bluetooth
keyboard. Here are reviews of some of
the best. ( Free)
ORGANIZATION
15. Mint
Mint is a personal finance organization
app. Similar to the website, the iPad
app lets you track your budget and see
all your accounts in one place. The
iPad app, though, presents everything
in a touch-friendly way. You can tap
the graphs and swipe to move through
the months. For those worried about
putting all that personal financial
information into the app, the app is
protected by a 4-digit PIN. If you lose
your iPad you can deactivate it from
your Mint.com profile. ( Free)
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