iPadNewsDaily's Essential iPad Apps

Nov

2010

Derek Walter, iPadNewsDaily Contributor
05:40 AM ET

With the holidays here many of you are either giving or receiving an iPad. More than likely the lucky recipient is going to immediately jump onto the App Store and start downloading some cool apps. iPadNewsDaily is here to help. Our team has compiled a list of the top five apps that you shouldn't live without. Downlaod these ASAP! They cover the gamut from productivity to pure entertainment, with each showing off in its own way the unique strengths of the iPad.

Twitter for iPad

If you want to keep tabs on the Twitterverse, the best option is the official Twitter app. It makes great use of screen real estate with sleek columns and pop-up menus. It can also handle multiple accounts and sends push notifications.

Pulse News Reader

This app has done the best job of re-imagining the news browsing experience for the iPad. Any of your favorite news sites can be added in this attractive format, which allows you to scroll through stories from multiple sources. Best of all it is now free (previously it cost $1.99) and also has an excellent version for the iPhone.

Evernote

Evernote is by far the productivity king. Its strength lies in its ability to keep all of your notes in sync. Start a note on the iPad and finish it up on your iPhone. Or pull up that same note on a Mac or PC to view or make changes. Notes can be tagged and saved into different notebooks depending on how organized you wish to keep everything. It is by far the best cross-platform, cross-device productivity tool around.

iBooks/Kindle

Both apps get mention here as it is a virtual dead heat between the two. The iBooks app, which is Apple’s eReader, offers the best reading experience with beautiful page turning animations as well as other aesthetic features.

However, the iBooks store still lags behind what is available for the Kindle. And while the Kindle app is not as pretty as iBooks, it has a more robust store and the ability to sync bookmarks across any mobile device or computer running the Kindle app.

Netflix

With its tablet form factor the iPad cries out for watching TV shows or movies. And there is no better way to do it than through Netflix. If you are an existing user just sign in and start watching. Otherwise you can sign up for the various packages, including the new streaming-only option. From time to time the app can get a bit buggy, so some patience is required. Once it gets working you will be able to enjoy what you may have bought the iPad for: catching up on old TV show episodes.