The 10 Best iPad Apps

When I first bought my iPad, I spent some time researching, trying to discover what types of apps I wanted and which apps of those types were the best. Based on that research, I have put together this list of which apps are considered the ten best apps. In compiling this list, I used several lists compiled by various Web sites and picked the ten apps which appeared most frequently. Your choices may vary depending on your individual needs; I, in fact, only use six of these ten apps.

1. Instapaper  ($4.99)

Instapaper is listed in the News category in the App Store, but it can be useful for almost any time of reading. This app allows you to save a Web page for later offline reading. Handy for when you find a long article or post, but just don’t have time to read it at the moment.

2. Netflix (Free)

While this app is free, to use the Netflix service you must have a Netflix streaming subscription. Otherwise this app is useless to you. It’s great for watching streaming videos, although the Netflix selection can sometimes by limited.

3. Flipboard (Free)

Flipboard is a news and social media aggregator. It takes feeds from Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, Flickr, Instagram, and many news and entertainment sites and combines them into one interface, allowing you to get your news and check your friends’ statuses in one easy place.

4. Kindle (Free)

Kindle is Amazon.com‘s ereader. The Kindle app allows you quick and easy access to every Kindle book you have purchased through Amazon. Unfortunately, you can no longer purchase books directly through the Kindle app; instead you must visit Amazon.com and have them sent to your iPad.

5. Epicurious Recipes and Shopping List (Free)

Using the Epicurious.com Web site, this app allows you quick and easy access to your favorite recipes. The app also allows you to create shopping lists based on those recipes and e-mails both the lists and recipes to your friends.

6. Star Walk for iPad ($4.99)

Using your iPad’s camera, Star Walk is an app that provides a graphical overlay of the sky, showing you the constellations and locations of satellites in wherever direction your camera is pointing.

7. Dropbox (Free)

The Dropbox app requires a free account with Dropbox.com. It provides you with a place to store files for easy access and sharing, similar to an FTP site. Once downloaded to your iPad, the files can by opened in any app supporting that file’s type.

8. Adobe Photoshop Express (Free)

While not as powerful as a full blown version of Photoshop, this app allows you to perform quick, simple edits and share photos on Photoshop.com. It’s great when you need a photo editor on the go.

9. Twitter (Free)

The Twitter app gives you instant access to your Twitter account. From the app, you can perform all the basic functions of Twitter without having to use a computer.

10. Marvel Comics (Free)

If you’re into comics, especially Marvel comics, this is the app for you. The app includes several free comics, as well as an easy interface to purchase and download many more comics and graphic novels.