The Official iPad Apps discussion thread

[Kaido]

Figured it'd be nice to put a general discussion thread up.

I got my iPad at work yesterday (my boss is awesome!). My mini app reviews so far:

GoodReader: (99 cents) PDF reader (and other documents). I read a lot of technical PDF's and wanted a good PDF reader. This is decent, but the implementation is pretty bad. It's laggy and the GUI is terrible. They need to seriously clean up the touch controls. I won't be using the app again until they do. Waste of 99 cents right now.

Marvel Comics: (free, with free & paid comics) First thought was WOW this is a nice app. I haven't read comic books in forever, but it's SO COOL! Colors are bright & vivid and the interface is super neat - you can do a fluid panel slide where it kind of animations the motion from panel to panel, as well as just flipping from page to page. Definitely get this one to play with.

Plants vs. Zombies: ($9.99) Extremely vivid colors, looks like a shining jewel. I'm not a fan, but my wife is addicted to this game. Neat application of the touchscreen.

Dragon Dictation: (free) Speech to text translator. Works surprisingly well.

Labyrinth Lite: (free) Uses the tilt sensor to roll a marble around. The graphics actually twist in 3D so it looks like you're looking at it from different angles when you play with it. Definitely a fun show-off app.

iBooks: (free) Apple's e-Book reader. Works great, but wish it did PDF files. Excellent book reader, although I prefer reading on a Kindle's e-ink screen. I have to turn down the iPad's brightness to about 50%, and I'm still not super comfortable with it. Reading on a monitor is one thing, but reading on a smaller, brighter screen is another. I'll have to try out a few books and see how I like it more. If I read more books (instead of PDF's), I'd go with a dedicated Kindle, but mostly I just read online now.

Youtube: (free, default app) Surprisingly great quality. The 1024x768 screen was a good choice for both SD and HD viewing. I really like watching product reviews on a larger screen (my only complaint is iPad-related - the back of the iPad vibrates from the speaker, which is kind of annoying when you're holding it).

Safari: (free, default app) Super awesome. Thanks to Youtube & Vimeo in HTML5, I don't miss Flash at all. imo this is the ultimate mobile Internet device. Very intuitive. VERY intuitive - so much that people walking by my cubicle would pick it up and understand how to use it in seconds without any instruction, no matter what age they were.

That's all I've tested so far. Post your reviews & discuss!

 

[Pliablemoose]

Netflix (free, but need Netflix account) one of the killer apps IMHO, allows you to watch all of Netflixs streaming content on the iPad. It allows pause & resume and app switching if you need to swap.

eTrade (free) If you use eTrade, its ful featured, provides real time quotes, customizable, and streams CNBClive. Aside from SyFy, CNBC is the only reason I have cable.

 

[Kaido]

Netflix (free, but need Netflix account) one of the killer apps IMHO, allows you to watch all of Netflixs streaming content on the iPad. It allows pause & resume and app switching if you need to swap.

eTrade (free) If you use eTrade, its ful featured, provides real time quotes, customizable, and streams CNBClive. Aside from SyFy, CNBC is the only reason I have cable.

I've heard Netflix is awesome on it. I don't use Netflix anymore, but maaaaybe I should :awe: I'm sure I'll get the 3G iPad for personal use at some point, so I'll look at it again then. I'm also waiting for Air Video to hit...it was so great for the iPhone!

I'll have to pass the eTrade app onto my buddies who do stocks, sounds pretty sweet!

I'm also waiting for a good remote desktop app. Been reading reviews and they all sound pretty beta-ish, so I'm going to wait to pick one up.

 

[BD2003]

iCab mobile as a browser- it's as close as you'll ever get to firefox on the iPad, has a few neat features like ad blocking and downloads.

BLNS is a great google reader/RSS app, much cheaper than netnewswire. A little buggy right now, but gets the job done, and looks nice.

Wikipanion is still my favorite wiki app, and it's still free.

 

[BD2003]

I've heard Netflix is awesome on it. I don't use Netflix anymore, but maaaaybe I should :awe: I'm sure I'll get the 3G iPad for personal use at some point, so I'll look at it again then. I'm also waiting for Air Video to hit...it was so great for the iPhone!

I'll have to pass the eTrade app onto my buddies who do stocks, sounds pretty sweet!

I'm also waiting for a good remote desktop app. Been reading reviews and they all sound pretty beta-ish, so I'm going to wait to pick one up.

The netflix app itself is agonizingly slow, especially worse considering it's basically just a wrapper for the website. But the video itself OTOH, looks and sounds great, and that's all that really matters in the end.

 

[Pliablemoose]

What I really like is that the damn thing is immersive, when you click on an app, the thing becomes that app.

I liked the eTrade iPhone app, but everything was so small, it was near useless.

Pandora (free) all of the streaming goodness of the phone apps, but with more info, just fired it up with John Mayer, has a pic of the album cover and 5 paragraphs about John.

ABC Player (free) Wow, Lost for free does the same pause & resume that Netflix app does.

 

[Kaido]

Desktop Connect: ($11.99) RDP (Remote Desktop) & VNC app. Probably the best out there right now. Supports Windows, Macs, PCs, etc. Needs a bit of polish, but definitely good. I'm powering down all of the Win200x servers here at work for a scheduled power outage and I'm doing it via iPad...pretty sweet haha. Pinch-zoom is handy, although I'd like to see it fit the native resolution of the iPad via double-tap.

The mouse takes a bit to get used to but is actually a good idea - it's more like a giant trackpad, not direct control - it follows the motion of your finger anywhere on the screen and moves the mouse via that motion, not directly on top, which is a bit different than you expect, but turns out to be a nice feature because then you can see tiny buttons to click on if you don't want to zoom in. This will be handy for sure!

 

[Kaido]

What I really like is that the damn thing is immersive, when you click on an app, the thing becomes that app.

I liked the eTrade iPhone app, but everything was so small, it was near useless.

Pandora (free) all of the streaming goodness of the phone apps, but with more info, just fired it up with John Mayer, has a pic of the album cover and 5 paragraphs about John.

ABC Player (free) Wow, Lost for free does the same pause & resume that Netflix app does.

I love Pandora! I really hope GrooveShark gets pushed through too, that's such a great site/app.

 

[Pliablemoose]

npr (free) Pretty impressive, at first I thought it was a joke and a poor match, but it works well. Has NPR content organized well, with additional information with a text version of the info & or streaming audio of the program or bit of news, divided into news, arts and life and music. Also has streaming content from NPR stations across the US with a very functional search option for stations.

I can see running this in the background while reading when multitasking is allowed.

 

[Kaido]

IMDB: (free) This is a must-have app for iPad imo. It's one of the best show-off apps for just how fluid of an experience the Internet can be. It's amazing. It's just so "instant". Really great example of the iPad's functionality. Bing, bang, boom, you've got info.

 

[Kaido]

Air Video: ($2.99) Basically you run a server at home on your Mac and it transcodes your videos on-the-fly to send to your iPad (also iPhone & iPod Touch). I have no idea how it works, but it works great - it can start streaming a 10-gig 1080p MKV from home to any wifi connection in less than 10 seconds, and it looks GREAT! I hear they'll be adding Music streaming too at some point (it may already be in there, not sure), which is great since SimplifyMedia folded.

Netflix: (free, iirc) Tried this out on my buddy's Netflix account. WOW is it nice! Like 14,000 movies at your fingertips! Quality is pretty incredible too...this would be fabulous on road trips with kids on a 3G connection, haha.

 

[Justinus]

N.O.V.A.: My favorite game so far. First person shooter, uses a virtual joystick to control movement while you swipe another finger anywhere on the screen to look. (That sounds kind of strange, it allows you to rearrange every UI element as you see fit to make the game work for you. As the iTunes reviews say, you have to play with it and figure out how you want to play. It took me 20 minutes to arrange it well then another 15 getting used to it). The storyline is decent, graphics are definitely good (For a mobile device). Sucks battery pretty quickly, though. maybe 10% in 40-45 minutes.

Asphalt 5: Graphics are decent, gameplay is okay. I wish I bought Real Racing HD instead, but I'm not spending all that money on two racing games currently.

 

[Pliablemoose]

epicurious: perfectly scaled up from the iPhone, all you need is a stand, and you have an e-cookbook

 

[secretanchitman]

Geometry Wars: Touch - $10, but holy crap, its amazing. its like the xbla version but ipad sized. the only problem i have with it? the bomb button is in the bottom center of the screen, which is really awkwardly placed. otherwise, its the same old good, addicting, and easy to pick and up play game.

 

[Emulex]

yeah airvideo rocks but make sure your nas thats doing the airserver is like quad-core imo the best app of the year since you pay for unlimited data

 

[XiZiT]

Besides Airvideo, Netflix, iBooks, i'm surprised no one is mentioning NYTimes app, probably the best newspaper reading experience ever. Also USA Today and WSJ is good.

Some cool Twitter apps as well like Tweetdeck as well.

P.S. eBay just announced an ipad specific app today. Should be interesting.

 

[AnyMal]

Atomic Browser. There's free and paid versions ($0.99) Excellent full-featured browser with tabs, full screen, privacy mode, compatibility mode, ad block.

P.S. eBay just announced an ipad specific app today. Should be interesting.

eBay app is fantastic! Also, iPad made me change my mind about cancelling Netflix. It works great.

 

[Reliant]

Desktop Connect: ($11.99) RDP (Remote Desktop) & VNC app. Probably the best out there right now. Supports Windows, Macs, PCs, etc. Needs a bit of polish, but definitely good. I'm powering down all of the Win200x servers here at work for a scheduled power outage and I'm doing it via iPad...pretty sweet haha. Pinch-zoom is handy, although I'd like to see it fit the native resolution of the iPad via double-tap.

The mouse takes a bit to get used to but is actually a good idea - it's more like a giant trackpad, not direct control - it follows the motion of your finger anywhere on the screen and moves the mouse via that motion, not directly on top, which is a bit different than you expect, but turns out to be a nice feature because then you can see tiny buttons to click on if you don't want to zoom in. This will be handy for sure!

I just got the Wyse pocket client. I love that! I've been using it to RDP in to servers and I am amazed at how smooth and usable it is.

 

[zylander]

yeah airvideo rocks but make sure your nas thats doing the airserver is like quad-core imo the best app of the year since you pay for unlimited data

Hardly. My Pentium D dual core 2gb streams air video without breaking a sweat.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Atomic Browser. There's free and paid versions ($0.99) Excellent full-featured browser with tabs, full screen, privacy mode, compatibility mode, ad block.

eBay app is fantastic! Also, iPad made me change my mind about cancelling Netflix. It works great.

LOL, Atomic Browser is the first app I've actually paid for, it's a little buggy (won't allow me to post on vBullitin, WTF?) But it's going to seriously rock with a little polishing... Love the tabbed browsing.

 

[Justinus]

LOL, Atomic Browser is the first app I've actually paid for, it's a little buggy (won't allow me to post on vBullitin, WTF?) But it's going to seriously rock with a little polishing... Love the tabbed browsing.

Atomic browser works just fine for posting for me, I'm actually writing this post in it. There is one beef I have with it, though. I wrote out a whole post with a review, then hit the home button to look at one of my apps for reference, then opened Atomic Browser. I found out the hard way it doesn't cache your page on exit like Safari does. I had to retype this whole post.

Strategery: Combined iPad and iPhone game, just like Dice Wars. Works great online to play as a casual game, my brother and I always have a game up that we check at our leisure and play over time.

Space Station: Frontier HD : Fun tower defense-ish kind of game. Doesn't work on a grid or map, though, quite a lot different play style from most TD. The menu interface isn't the best functionally, but the gameplay is a lot of fun.

 

[XiZiT]

New update to Dropbox:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dropbox/id327630330?mt=8

Definitely one of the top apps to have!

 

[Crono]

Kindle (free): Allows the iPad to download and read Kindle books from the Amazon store.

I just installed the app and downloaded my first Kindle book; went fairly quickly and smoothly, and the reader appears to be as good as the default iPad book app.

Adobe Ideas (free): Simple drawing app that allows you to create and manage many images. Has limited layer support.

I'm finding this app useful for sketching charts and ideas for a project (a book) I am working on.

 

[Emulex]

whats a good app for moving files via gmail or ftp to the ipod.

pdf/kindle apps? i'd like to read my own pdf magazines and kindle-like books (pdf,epub,mobi,etc) with the same ease as emailing me@kindle.com .

i'm not big on wired sync'ing.

Spirit'd so those options help.

Anyone get PDANET or tethering to work on ipad yet? would be nice to route the 3G to wifi or usb

 

[SpeedZealot369]

Some great games that I've found:

Defender Chronicles - a tower defense game with a lot of depth and rpg elements
Trace (free) - a fun 'draw a way to the end' game. I was surprised it's free.
Implode! - a fun physics type game where you use dynamite to demolish buildings.
Angry birds - a must have, cute game.