It seem’s like I’m at the risk of this becoming an Apple column, but I promised myself that my next post would be of a totally different subject.
Next week.
Coming off the back of last weeks’ iPad vs. Laptop article, which so I’ve heard was a resounding success in Apple claiming another soul, here are a couple of apps to help budding new owners realise the true awesome of the faux-Star Trek PADD.
Also this week, we have a guest contributor in our Executive Editor, Tiarra, chiming in with her suggestions too.
Adobe Ideas
Mentioned in last week’s post, this app is just brilliant. Offering a simple, clean and effective interface, this is the go-to app if you’ve got that picture in your head and need to put it to paper. Just, you know, substitute the paper for the blank virtual canvas. Not only is it productive, but it’s also a great time-sink for doodles if you find yourself bored.
The colour palette is a little clunky and restrictive as it’s dependent on your photos as a way of extracting colours for use on your sketches, but this becomes much less of problem as you go.
Ideal for artists, illustrators, graphic designers and even Warcraft UI aficionados, you’ll be able to sketch your ideas with ease.
Wunder Radio
I am constantly amazed by how, sorry, wonderful this app is. What? I said sorry! Often when I look to buy paid apps, I debate whether I’ll get value for money; and I have to say that honestly, this is one of the finest examples of getting the most out of your buck/pound/latinum.
With well over 50,000 Internet radio stations at your fingertips, you’ll never be short for choice, whether you fancy music, talk-show, sport – this is truly on-demand content.
You can search for nearby radio stations by using the app’s GPS, and it also comes with an in-built web browser and integrated Twitter capabilities; plus, when iOS 4 lands for the iPad in the fall, this app will become infinitely more useful when Apple’s tablet becomes a multi-tasking beast.
Oh, and did I mention that it picks up police scanners too?
FlipTime XL
We know that when not in use the iPad can double as a digital photo frame. Well, why not have it double as something useful? Why not have it double as a fully comprehensive – not to mention, gorgeous – clock and calendar.
Yeah, how about that.
Now imagine your iPad in its down-time plonked on your desk or on your bookshelf and displaying that.
Did I say it was gorgeous?
SkyVoyager
A slightly expensive one but definitely cheaper than buying a telescope, this is comprehensive astronomy app and the “professional” version of Carina Software’s Sky series.
Winner of Macworld’s 2010 Best of Show, boasts a database of 300,00 stars and 30,000 deep sky objects and utilizes images gathered by NASA to render planets in high quality. It’s also apparently a time-machine as it can show the sky from any time in the past or future. With it’s GPS functionality able to accurately show you the sky above your location, and gives you detailed information on the stars and constellations and precise co-ordinates.
Budding stargazers will love this app, and even geeks just fascinated by the subject will get a real, educational kick out of pretending that you’re in Astrometrics*.
*Does not come with Seven of Nine.
Air Display
A bit pricy at $10, but Air Display is well worth the cost. It allows you to turn your iPad into an additional display (currently, this only works with Mac, although they are working on a Windows version). “Why would you need to do that?” you might ask. Well, you can never have enough monitor space, and using the iPad as an additional display lets our lovely Executive Editor put something like her word processor into the small iPad display, clearing up room on her 27″ iMac for things like Netflix, InDesign, and Tweetie. You can also control the mouse within the iPad using the touch screen, which is very helpful.
Air Mouse
Air Mouse was originally designed for the iPod Touch and iPhone, but it’s still a great iPad app — and it’s free. It lets you control the mouse on your computer – both PC and Mac – from your touch device. Our lovely Editor doesn’t own a TV (whereas Rob couldn’t live without his 40″ beauty), so all of her programme watching is on the iMac; it’s really nice to be able to control the computer and everything therein from across the room without having to get up. It also allows for text input, so you can browse the Internet, search your iTunes for songs, or whatever else. “It’s quite convenient actually,” Tiarra admits, “especially for those last hours of laziness before bed. Who needs Apple’s new trackpad when you have an iPad and Air Mouse?”
iBooks and Kindle app
iBooks is great but Tiarra can’t emphasize enough the superiority of the Kindle app. There’s not really too much difference between them, but the Kindle app has a great advantage that makes it a must-have for the e-reader elitist: the Kindle app synchs with all other Kindle apps you own. Tiarra has the Kindle app on her iPad, iMac, and her Android phone. If she’s reading a book on any one of those — the Droid phone, for example — and then closes said book to read later, she can open the same book on a different platform, such as the iPad, and it will automatically take her to the last page she read. “Considering I switch between reading on my Droid and on the iPad a few times a day at least,” our fearless leader says, “it’s definitely a great feature to have.”
Download iBooks and Kindle both for free.
“Cleanse, Tone, Defrag” is a weekly column dedicated to bringing you the best advice in staying ahead in the world of tech.
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Neat stuff, I’m definitely going to recommend my wife check out this article to see if there’s anything she likes. :)