The Essential iPad Applications & Accessories List

After two months of having an iPad, I’ve taken stock of the apps on my iPad that I actually use.  I’ve got a lot more that don’t see much use, but these are the ones that I find myself using day in and day out.  This doesn’t include the Apple-installed basics - just the extras I’ve purchased or obtained for free from App Store.

1. Productivity

• Evernote: I’m a desktop PC evernote user for some of my notes.
• FastFinga: A great note-taking application, with geotagging and export to Evernote.
• Numbers (Excel): this does a very nice job of opening excel sheets and an even better one of creating new sheets in Apple’s proprietary format.
• Pages (Word): another great Apple application, but only if you have a Mac.   Doesn’t natively export and import Word files.
  
• Keynote (Powerpoint): as with the other Apple office suite apps, they’re terrific - by far the most polished on the iPad, but limited to Apple’s proprietary format for exporting.
• Documents To Go: when you need Microsoft Office compatibility, this is the one.
• Penultimate: A terrific note taking application, the only one that prevents accidental touches to the screen while you rest you hand on the device.
• NoteTake HD: Another elegant note taking solution. 
• Adobe Ideas: A great and free sketchbook for doodles and charts.
• iAnnotate PDF: There are lots of PDF readers, but this is the one allows you to annotate documents, sign them, and email them back out.  A great substitute for a fax machine.
• DropBox: I save personal files online with DropBox and this makes them available on the iPad.  It also provides for local storage of “favorite” documents.
• DragonDictation: Honestly, I don’t use this one much.  I can’t quite get used to dictation, but I keep hoping I can try it one day and make it work for me.  Word recognition is great, but I can’t speak in a way that reflects my writing.  Yet.
  

2. News & Media

• Instapaper Pro: Stores your web reading for later in a nicely formatted way.
  
• Kindle: My main bookstore now and as a good as Apple’s iBooks reader.
  
• Google Earth: More fun than the maps application.

3. Music & Video

• Pandora (US Only): the best music discovery service.
  
• ABC Player (US Only): online TV from ABC.
  
• Netflix (US Only): watch-now.  Netflix does a great job of showing how online movie watching should be, but selection of content still sucks.
  
• MusicOne: my favorite web radio station, now with it’s own app.
  
• Shazam: recognize the music you’re listening to.  Works in clubs where they pump up the volume, but you’re out of luck if you want it to recognize the Lawrence Welk tune they’re pumping into the elevator at low volume.
  

4. Accessories

• Pogo Stylus: essential for writing on the iPad.  I don’t care what Steve Jobs says, we don’t learn to write at school using our fingers.  We use pens.
  
• Apple iPad Case: durable, safe, and just right for typing or watching movies.  The best case I’ve seen so far.