The iPad apps I can’t live without

I’ve written recently about how the iPad replaced a laptop in my life. I arrived at that point after forcing myself to use only the iPad 2 for about a week.  It’s been over a month now since I’ve used a laptop and so far, so good.

One of the reasons I’ve been able to go in this direction and couldn’t earlier in 2011 is because the apps have come a long way since then. Especially the apps that use some sort of cloud service to sync data, allowing you to work on different devices and retrieve your content. So, without further adieu…

The iPad apps I can’t live without (other than Mail, Calendar and Safari):

Evernote – THE note taking app on any device. Syncs across everything, old design and the recent enhancements to the iPad app make it a must have.

Reeder – I’m an avid Google Reader user and this is the best app I’ve found for consuming my feeds. Also love it on the iPhone.

Flipboard – Magazine-style app, allows you to select from many content sources and even pull in your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds, among others.

Blogsy – This is the best app for editing a WordPress app, though it’s still only a B. Sometimes crashy and the photo elements need some improving, but works for the most part and superior to anything else available. But I’m always looking to see if something better comes along as I blog almost daily and need a solid app for it.

Kindle – Favorite book reading app. I’ve tried iBooks but no reason not to use the Kindle as I already have a library of books there. Plus I’m an Amazon Prime member and it has nice benefits for reading and sharing books.

Pages – This is Apple’s version of Word. Not quite as robust as Word but a fine word processor and for my needs, has everything I need.  It also syncs seemlessly with iCloud which is how I am able to easily work across all my devices. Plus, I write most of my blogs in Pages first and then move them to Blogsy for final edits and publishing.

Dropbox – File sharing at its best and since Yousendit doesn’t work on the iPad, I am very reliant on Dropox for sharing files with co-workers.

GV Connect – How I access Google Voice from the iPad. I can text and make calls and listen to voicemail all from the iPad…when this app works. Which is about half the time. Google, please make an acceptable Google Voice app in 2012. PS – The seven reasons I switched to Google Voice, if you’re curious.

IMO.IM – Pretty good instant messaging application. Really like the alerts and lets me use both my gChat and exchange IM accounts.

Instapaper – This is the app I use to store anything I want to “read later”. Syncs up across devices and most of the apps I use (including Reeder and Flipboard) allow you to save articles into Instapaper for reading later.

Ok, so what are YOUR can’t-live-without iPad apps?

11 Comments

  1. Mike on January 20, 2012 at 8:20 am

    My favorite apps are Evernote, TuneIn (awesome Internet radio player) and SkyDrive (Microsoft’s cloud storage/sharing app)



  2. Josh Martin on January 20, 2012 at 8:42 am

    What, no Angry Birds? ;)



  3. Jason Read on January 20, 2012 at 8:54 am

    Penultimate is great for stylus users!



  4. Matt Haritan on January 20, 2012 at 8:54 am

    Remote  – makes interfacing with my AppleTV a heck of a lot easier with a full screen, at your fingertips keyboard and iTunes home sharing.



  5. Jeff Hilimire on January 20, 2012 at 10:27 am

    LOL, nope. Come on, name some of your favorites ;)



  6. Jeff Hilimire on January 20, 2012 at 10:27 am

    Thanks Mike, haven’t tried the iPad apps TuneIn and SkyDrive. Will do!



  7. Dennisdube on January 20, 2012 at 3:06 pm

    Bamboo Paper. Great app for those of us who are going paperless. :)
    Keynote for Presentations and Docs to Go for other MS content.
    Best games are Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride which might be the best conversion yet for the iPad.
    And for my kids, JibJab Jr. Great job of bringing them into stories.



  8. Seth Miller on January 20, 2012 at 3:26 pm

    I really dig iA Writer for composing blog posts & such (much how you use Pages & Blogsy together).

    My wife & I are also big fans of GroceryIQ  – which is not just for shopping lists – we use it to synchronize “honey do”/household items (Call the plumber, etc.). I owe the internet a blog post on that topic. 



  9. Vlad Gorenshteyn on January 27, 2012 at 10:18 am

    I’m loving Stanza as a eBook reader and FlexPlayer to play non-iPad compliant media like  .mpg

    Thanks for posting this, Jeff. App discovery can be a nightmare (funny enough there’s an app for that). I’m looking forward to trying GV Connect (cause Talkatone, doesn’t cut it) and Penulitmate that Jason Read suggested.

    What I haven’t been able to find is an App that will work with both Windows and Mac and willl turn the iPad (in a non-latent way) into a second screen with touch functionality. Perhaps someone here can recommend something that doesn’t require me to jail-break…



  10. Engauge on Flipboard on February 27, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    […] gal) worked hard to get our innovation reports on Flipboard (don’t know Flipboard? It’s one of the iPad apps I can’t live without). And now its highlighted in the Cool Curators […]



  11. What’s on your Flipboard? on December 11, 2012 at 7:39 am

    […] up with. I figured I’d share my Flipboard screens (after all, Flipboard is one of the iPad apps that I can’t live without) and see if some others wanted to share […]



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