07 - What's on my iPad?

In an earlier piece I covered the stuff that comes with the device out of the box. So here I'm just gonna run down the apps that I've bought/loaded and what we (me and my hosts) think of them.

This is after just a few days of use, so by no means is it a definitive viewpoint, nor is it a definitive list of what's out there. Where possible, I am using an iPad version of the app, but some of these are iPod apps. I've left a couple out, because they aren't really worth talking about.

If you spot any outdated info here, please feel free to comment, as apps are being updated at a rate that's faster than I'm generally using them! In fact, by the time that's past between writing and posting this (I went to Disney World!), the number of apps on my iPad has doubled, so I'll post another selection at a later date.

Skype. Even though it's only available as an iPhone app at the moment, Skype is a big winner for me on the iPad. As well as it working great with the built in mic & speakers, the iPad provides a strange new type of portability that I didn't foresee as being relevant. You can carry someone around the house in the crook of your arm - or put them on a shelf - and talk to them hands free. It really is a weird sensation. Like talking to a picture frame. Hopefully, when Skype get round to doing an iPad version of the app, they will allow you to receive video, too. This is a must-have app for Skype users!

Marvel Comics. Marvel's iPad app is both a shop and and a comic reader. As well as reading, you can browse currently available titles & download them directly to the iPad. As I've said elsewhere, the comics look great on the iPad, so this is definitely worth checking out. On the downside, Marvel only seem to have old titles available at the moment and they are expenisve. I'm not really interested in paying nearly $2 for a 6 year old comic which takes about 15 minutes to read!

BBC News. The BBC were quick to create a news app. It's nothing amazing - it grabs live news articles from the news website and reformats it for the iPad. There is a scrolling news ticker and a live radio button. There doesn't seem to be a way to change the radio from the BBC world service, though. If that's what it is. I'm not sure because it doesn't actually say. None the less, it does the job of providing the news just fine. Video clips play back full screen, and I don't get any 'video can't play back in you region' type errors that I often get on the BBC main site when I'm out of the country. Strangely, you can only edit the news sections in landscape mode and the app has crashed quite a few times, but you can start it up again immediately and normally its fine. All in all, its an ok experience: a bit better than going to the BBC website if you are just looking for the main stories.

Wikipanion. On my iPod there is a Wikipedia app, provided by Wikipedia. They haven't done an iPad version (yet), but someone else has, and frankly, it's so well done I'll probably stick with it. Like the BBC News app, it reformats the website data for the iPad. Unlike the BBC app it provides some additional functionality in the form of customisable settings, bookmarking, links to wiki dictionary and, most importantly, a search box.

AccuWeather. I tried a number of different weather apps, but AccuWeather has the best layout for me. It has nice features, and has been carefully designed to fully utilise the iPad's screen. We use it at least twice a day!

Facebook. No sign of a iPad specific app yet, so I'm using the iPhone version. One of the things that makes the facebook app so nice to use is that there absolutely no adverts.

The Guardian Newspaper. Another iPhone app which scales well. The text has a little anti-aliasing on it, but that's offset by the fact that larger text is easier to read. The photo galleries look great, which leads me to wonder what the resolution of the pics are, because on the iPhone you can't zoom in to them, yet on the iPad they don't don't have the anti-aliasing issues that the text suffers from.

The Guardian Eyewitness. This is an iPad app that takes select images from the gallery of the Guardian's iPhone app and provides them in a higher res along with photo tips. It comes with 100 pictures and adds a couple more each day. There is a slide-show feature and a mini-browser. The pictures are excellent and this makes for a good muse when you are bored.

Kindle Reader. Despite selling a competing e-reader device (the Kindle), Amazon have decided to play nice with Apple by providing an app that allows you to read your Kindle purchased books on the iPad. I don't have any Kindle purchased books, so I can't really comment, but now that I have the reader I might buy some, which I guess is their master plan.

I did manage to get a free/demo version of Alice in Wonderland and it looks nice. Clear text, easy page turns. Bookmarking features and other navigational aids seem to work pretty well, but until I read a whole book on it, I can't really add much more.

NYT Editors choice. Selected articles from the current issue of the New York Times for free. They are presented nicely - it looks and feels like a newspaper - and there is a good selection to choose from, including: main news, business, technology, opinions & features sections. The articles all have photography with them, and you can email a specific article to someone if you wish.

TweetDeck & Twitterrific I couldn't decide which Twitter app to use, so I thought I'd try them both. To be honest, I still can't decide. They have different pros & cons. I think TweetDeck is winning because it goes straight to the most recent tweets, unlike Twitterrific, which picks up where you left off. If that was a couple of days previous, it would be a bit of a chore scrolling though a zillion tweets. However, I'd say that Twitterrifc has the easier-to-read interface. There is a lot going on in Tweet Deck.

ComiXology. These guys are actually the builders of Marvel's app, but this one is for everyone else (except DC), so there is a much larger selection of comics available. Its much the same as the Marvel app - you can read, browse and buy directly, as well as flip pages with your finder and zoom in to panels.

Night Stand. An iPhone classic. This works great on the iPad as the Flip clock is large enough to be seen from down the hall!

Flight Control HD. One of the best finger-drawing control games on the platform. The HD version for the iPad takes the game into a new direction, cos you've got a lot more room to mess with a lot more planes.

IMDB. Like Wikipanion and others, this is just data from their website reformatted for the iPad. And, like those others, it's done really well.

Shazam. As a retired DJ and one time club promoter, I've always loved the Shazam service. It started in the UK about 5 years ago as a text service. You dial a 4 digit number, hold your phone to a speaker, and about a minute later you get the name of the track. That is, if the Shazam magicians can identify it. The iPad app does the same thing, but it does it pretty well and very fast. I tried it out on a 10 second sample of a badly ripped alarm tone on my mobile phone, and it gave me the track name (Ame/Rej) almost immediately. And its been successful with everything else I've thrown at it.

Netflix. Potentially a killer app if you have a Netflix account. Access any streaming film or TV show instantly. Unfortunately, it wasn't plain sailing. It was a little tricky to find what I was looking for, and when I did... the app crashed when I rotated the iPad accidentally and the screen re-oriented itself. Gave it a second chance, and the same thing happened again. Eventually, I managed to watch an episode of 'Weeds', and the experience was quite good. No delay or buffering or drop outs. Of course, I was doing this via a US Netflix account, so it will be interesting to see what happens when I get back to the UK. I'm not sure that the service is available to non-US residents.

SHOUTcast. This is an iPhone app. It simply provides a direct connection to the world of SHOUTcast internet radio. The iPad's external speakers and long battery life make it a great portable radio!

ABC Player. This app is provided by ABC Television and allows you to watch the last 7 days (or more) of popular TV series, streaming directly to your iPad for free. This includes Lost, V, Flash Forward and loads of other shows. The shows have ads in them and - rather cleverly - when the ads are running you can't pause or fast forward the video stream, but aside from that, the app is quite nice. I suspect there will be an app like this from every major broadcast network sooner or later (if that's not the case already).

Drop7. Possibly the most addictive iPod game ever. There is no iPad version, but it doesn't need one. It actually works better on a larger screen cos you are less likely to put a numbered ball in the wrong spot. And the kids love it.