I’ve been playing with my iPad for over a week now, and I’ve already found quite a few applications I love. Some are simple or just plain fun, and others are real productivity tools.

I will do separate posts for ‘creativity’ and ‘entertainment’ apps, as the list for this post is big enough already, and I haven’t even got started on apps for working on graphics, design apps or games! The ipad is a really great games device and brilliant for drawing etc, so i want to give those app categories the full attention they deserve, rather than lumping them in with these apps, which are mainly content consumption and personal utilities. So, without any further ado, here are my current top 10 iPad apps:

1. iBooks

I’ve been reading ebooks on my iPhone for about a year using Stanza, and iBooks on this massive, beautiful, display really blows that experience out of the water. It is really easy to get lost in a book the way I do with a physical one; I have read 5 or 6 books now and each one has been really enjoyable to read. I haven’t experienced any eye strain at all, and prefer it to reading a physical book sometimes – especially in bed when James doesn’t like me having me bedside light on!

The bookshelf is really nice, though you can also display a list of books & sort by title or author to find the book you’re after more quickly. One of my favourite touches is that when you are reading a book the controls can be hidden away to leave a much more distraction free experience. You only have to tap the screen to bring up brightness, font & search controls, along with links to the table of contents and the bookshelf, and information about your progress overall and the pages left in the current chapter (a really nice touch!).

Reading books on the iPad is easily a nicer experience than reading:

• any book by torchlight.
• a heavy hardback in bed.
• a cheap quality paperback.

2. Simplenote

I’ve extolled the virtues of Simplenote before, so I won’t go on about it too much. The iPad app is easily as well designed as it’s iPhone counterpart. The wireless syncing works marvellously, you can create and edit notes offline, and I’m very happy with the overall experience. The beauty of Simplenote is in the name: it’s simple. There are no frills here, but instead you just have an incredibly easy to use notes app, with no Marker Felt in sight!

3. Dropbox

Pretty much everyone has heard of Dropbox, but just in case you are one of the few who haven’t, it is an absolutely fantastic online storage service that allows you to sync files across several devices & access them online as well. You simply save a file in your dropbox and it is uploaded to their servers, and the accessible via the web or the iPhone/iPad app, or any other computers who use the same dropbox.

This app is great because I can upload or drop a file into my dropbox from my MacBook or the iMac, and I know I will be able to access that file from my iPhone and iPad whenever I need it. The iPad app works really well & has a good user interface. It enables you to open your files in your other apps to edit them, which is a really nice touch – I can have a spreadsheet sitting in my dropbox and edit it using the Numbers app on my iPad.

4. Articles

Articles is a fantastic wikipedia app that I really like using. I have had the iPhone app since it came out, and the iPad version was one of my first downloads. It presents the wealth of information available on wikipedia beautifully, with nice understated controls & search.

You can look at nearby articles, have several pages open at once, bookmark articles, and so on. The nicest thing about articles is it is fairly feature rich (considering it is, as all wiki apps are, just a skin for the online database) for a wikipedia app, whilst still appearing fairly clean and tidy. It’s a really pleasant reading experience too.

5. Sorted

Sorted is a really pretty and intuitive todo app, which is something I’ve been after for a while. The developer has promised to add wireless syncing to the app, which will be the killer feature for me, especially if I can access my list via the web & therefore on my iPhone and any other computer hooked up to the net.

The app allows you to have several lists, and doesn’t insist on every task having a priority or due date, which I like. I want to use the app for all sorts of lists, not just todo ones. Adding new items is just as simple as typing a list in notepad; once you’ve added your first item just hit return to start typing in a new item. You can then rearrange the list items to suit you by tapping & dragging the item’s ‘move icon’.

You can add a priority, due date and notes to each item if you need to, via a popover that comes up when you tap on the arrow to the left of the item. You can view the list in its original order, by priority or by due date. Once you’ve added a note to something, a subtle icon is added to the list to let you know to check the notes for more info. Priorities are displayed via pretty colours, and due dates are displayed when you are in the ‘sort by date’ screen. Items are marked as complete (or deleted if blank) by swiping them. You can view a list of completed items for each list, and delete items entirely from this screen – always useful.

Overall, it’s a well designed and easy to use list app, and I eagerly anticipate the promised updates!

6. BeejiveIM

Beejive is a multi protocol instant messaging app; basically this means that you can use this app to chat to people on different networks at once. I have friends who use msn, some that use gtalk/jabber, others that only use Facebook, and so on. Beejive allows me to be logged in to all these networks at once.

I’ve been using the iPhone version of Beejive since it first appeared on the AppStore, and have always been pleased with the app. It’s supports push notifications so you can set it to leave you logged in after you quit the app, and it will let you know if anyone talks to you. I have always found the iPhone app to be feature rich and stable, and the iPad version is no different.

The iPad screen is perfect for this app; it allows you to see you buddy list, ongoing conversation and list of current conversations all in one screen, as opposed to the iPhone app where you have to switch between these three display options.

All in all, a nice chat app, and perfect for talking to my family & friends while I’m on my iPad!

7. Instapaper

Instapaper is one of those really simple, but really fantastic ideas. The basic concept is that you use a bookmarklet to send something to Instapaper, to be read later. You can access your Instapaper account on the web, or via the apps that are available for iPhone & iPad. A lot of apps now have Instapaper support built in, allowing you to send links and articles that you want to read at another time to Instapaper, from within their app. This is great for those moments when you see an interesting looking link in Twitter but don’t have time to check it out right then.

The iPad app is a joy to use, and I love having the ability to just send an article or webpage to Instapaper, and then being able to open up the app and have it all right there in a beautiful & very readable display. If I’m on my way out somewhere or about to go on a long journey, I can send a load of interesting reading to Instapaper, then sync it all onto my iPad to read while I’m on the Internet.

Instapaper is a really great tool, and I’m really pleased it has such a fantastic iPad app available from the word Go.

8. CaptainsBlog

CaptainsBlog is a very silly app really, but is ideal for Star Trek fans such as myself, as it makes your iPad look just like a PADD from Star Trek! You can keep a log, and then send your log posts to twitter, Facebook, or via email. It’s silly but fun, and it actually quite good for shooting off a quick tweet when you don’t want to wait for your twitter app to load up.

9. The Early Edition

This app is great for all those websites that you like to visit but don’t want clogging up your rss reader. You add rss feeds to different categories, and then each of those categories or feeds is displayed in newspaper format. The app scrapes the title, photos and content of each feed and arranges them on the page so that it looks like as close to a proper newspaper as you are ever going to get on an iPad.

You can you view feed items just from the current day, since your last fetch, or alternatively all the items available. Once you see an article you want to read, you just tap it and a page like display of it replaces the newspaper ‘cover’ so that you can read the full content. A built-in web browser allows you to view the original item at its website, and you can mail links to people, and of course send them to Instapaper.

I think I will find myself making less visits to my favourite news sites, and will favour getting an overview of the news via the Early Edition instead. Rather than visit each site in turn, I can flip through pages of content from all the sites at once. This is a rss app with a difference for me – it’s not one for hooking up to my Google Reader account (although you can) and then going through my favourite feeds, making sure I don’t miss anything, but one for amalgamating content from all over the web in an enjoyable format, without necessarily reading every post in every feed.

10. AirVideo

Again, this is another app I have blogged about previously, and I am happy to say that the iPad version is just as good, and in fact even better, than the iPhone app that I love to use. The quality of the video is outstanding, especially when you consider that the server application is converting the original video on the fly. The navigation is great, the controls are great, and the ease of use is great. This one is definitely a winner.

Honourable Mentions

For managing our TV connected hackintosh/server: iSSH (for VNC), FileBrowser¹ & Rowmote.
For recipes: Epicurious, Big Oven & Betty Crocker’s Cookbook.
iWork: I’ve installed Numbers & Pages, and enjoy using them both. Haven’t bothered with Keynote yet because I don’t use presentations very much.

Also, all of the ‘default’ apps that ship with it are great – Mail is a delight to use, Safari is really nice and nippy, the Maps app is very well done & the Contacts & Calendar apps are delightful.

However…

There are still some gaps in the AppStore as far as my needs are concerned. The two main things I am missing is a decent Google Reader application, and a Twitter app that suits me.

As far as Google Reader goes, I hope I won’t be waiting for long; Reeder for iPad is currently held up in the Apple app approval process, but nobody is sure why. The screenshots and reviews of it look great, and I haven’t found a better app for Google Reader on the iPhone since I started using the iPhone app. I’m chomping at the bit for the iPad version! The selection of apps for this currently available are disappointing – my priorities are speed, sharing capability & Instapaper support – three things which Reeder does brilliantly. I have very high hopes for the iPad app, but I think it will live up to its little brother’s reputation.

Where Twitter is concerned, however, it’s a different story. I’m currently using Twitterrific which is ok, but not great. A lot of the other apps that have come out have UIs which I just don’t like, so I don’t want to spend my pennies on apps that I won’t end up using. Twitterlator looks interesting, and I might look at some reviews of it & consider buying it to try out… But not until the guilt from my latest AppStore shopping spree has worn off! With luck, Loren² and the rest of the Twitter development team are busy creating an iPad app to match their amazing iPhone one.

1. This is fairly ugly, but great for fetching files from the server and saving them, or opening them in apps on my iPad [↩]
2. formerly of atebits, which developed Tweetie for Mac & iPhone – which has now been bought by Twitter and renamed Twitter for iPhone [↩]

Well, I’ve had my iPad for a few days now, and I have to say it has completely lived up to my (very high) expectations thus far. A few observations at this early stage:

• It’s an absolute joy to use – the device is brilliantly made, and feels sturdy in your hand; closer to a MacBook air than an iPhone, yet really thin and light.
• When you’re using it, it’s all about the screen. The minimalistic design is just a frame for the gorgeous display, which changes completely from app to app. It can become a blogging tool¹, an absorbing article or magazine, the complete distraction that is the Internet, a fun game, a notebook, and so on. Videos look just amazing on this thing, and the speaker is surprisingly great – much better than my 13″ MacBook speakers.
• I’m getting used to the keyboard quicker than I expected. Typing is already quite speedy, it’s just getting used to the placement of the non-alphabet keys that is taking a few days.
• The iBooks app is really, really nice. I have read an entire book on it so far² and it was a very enjoyable experience. I didn’t want to put the book down last night when I was going to sleep! I’m a voracious reader and was already using my iPhone to read ebooks in bed, so the iBooks app was one of the main draws for me. It’s great that you can load your own epub files onto it as well – I already have quite a collection in calibre & I think it will continue to grow now I have such a fantastic ebook reader!
• Taking it out in public is going to be like accompanying a mildly famous person to the shops, for a while at least; I’ve had it out in McDonalds³ and at a service station cafeteria so far, and had people ask me “is that the iPad?!?” with starstruck looks on their faces at both places. It’s kinda embarrassing. But I know perfectly well that if I didn’t have such a wonderful husband I would be staring lustily at every iPad I saw out in the wild too.
• I love the ‘lock screen orientation’ clicker on the side⁴ and I’m already finding myself using it automatically when I’m lying in bed, or using the device flat on my lap. I hope that iPhone OS 4.0 includes an easy way to lock the screen orientation on the iPhone, because I’m getting spoilt with this thing. One of my pet peeves on my phone is the lack of a global setting to lock it, and the inevitable situations where I would be lying in bed holding my phone at a bizarre angle to avoid it flipping into landscape mode.
• I find it annoying when apps and games that should work well in both portrait and landscape mode only work in one of them, causing me to change how I’m holding the iPad. Some games are landscape only for good reasons, but others like Words with Friends, which is stuck in portrait, could probably work out a nice landscape layout – that one in particular is annoying me!
• The battery life is brilliant – I used it for more than 10 hours straight on Saturday before it ran down, and it wasn’t just light use; I was downloading apps and books, playing games, playing music, reading and sending emails, and so on. If you put it down with 30% remaining and pick it up hours later it seems as if it hasn’t gone down at all – even if you have it fetching data from your email account every 15 minutes.
• I already love this device, and in a way that I could never love a netbook. The beautiful design combined with the easy to use OS just makes using it a real joy. Netbooks feel physically cheap and tacky to me, with an operating system that’s designed for notebook & desktop p.c. displays crammed into a screen half the size. This doesn’t try to be a small computer, but it’s something else entirely, and I love it. Also, no crummy plastic in sight! I have a feeling I will only pick my MacBook up once or twice a week now, as opposed to every day – the iPad is a perfect ‘sofa device’ for me.

1. Yes, I am writing this entire blog entry on my iPad [↩]
2. Airhead, by Meg Cabot – I love a bit of escapism chick lit! [↩]
3. Hello, free wifi! [↩]
4. It’s positioned where the mute button is on an iPhone. To mute the iPad you just hold down the volume down clicker for a beat longer than normal. [↩]