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The Best 50 iPad Apps for Productivity & Living Better
Inspired by my mom getting an iPad, I put together this list of my top apps for the beloved device. It doesn't include all my apps and doesn't include any games (a whole separate project) or location-based services (Mom's not really into that), but I think this is a useful foundation for anyone looking to boost productivity and general life improvement via the iPad.
Also, check out my previous post: Top 48 iPhone App Recommendations (by category) and see all my app posts here.
What great apps did I miss? Let me know in the comments.
The first section are the Must-Have apps. I've also inserted *** before the Must-Have apps (first on lists), then others below, by category. All links go to the iTunes App Store webpage for the app.
Must-Have Apps
- Flipboard - #1 must-have app, which organizes all the content that you want in a clean, brilliant layout, like a magazine - watch videos in place, read articles without leaving, respond to Facebook posts right there, etc. You can pull in any feed from news sites (e.g. NY Times), blogs, etc. The easiest way to do this is to add them to Google Reader and add your Google Reader account to Flipboard. I also HIGHLY encourage you to add your Facebook account here, as it's a beautiful, enjoyable way to look at what your connections are posting. http://bit.ly/kfShGU
- Evernote - 1 of my absolute favorite apps, which I keep in my iPad's dock so I always have it at my fingertips. Save notes, clip parts/all of webpages, make text in photos searchable, record audio notes, etc. You can email them all out to yourself or others. It's a digital notebook that is accessible through your browser, an app you can install on your computer and mobile devices, like the iPad. I couldn't live without it. http://bit.ly/l5XjoN
- TripIt - forward your confirmation emails for flights, hotels, car rentals, etc. and this app organizes everything into a wonderful itinerary with weather, maps, reminders, etc. It also adds each part of your itinerary to your Google Calendar, if you let it. It has social features, too, if you want, so you can see when/where your friends are traveling and let them know about yours, but you can turn that off if you want. http://bit.ly/krc1rZ
- HBO Go - watch the entire HBO library on your iPad. Oh yeah! http://bit.ly/mMjOSf
- Netflix: http://bit.ly/lA2ziZ
- Friendly for Facebook - best way to view Facebook on the iPad (other than Flipboard, of course!) http://bit.ly/lkZmU1
- GetGlue - It's a fun social network, completely centered around entertainment (film, TV, music, books, topics, etc.). You can "check-in" to, "like" and review the content that you're consuming, chat with other people passionate about it, earn virtual rewards (stickers), real world rewards (discounts) and get recommendations for other related content. There's also a browser plugin for Firefox and Chrome, which allows you to perform all these actions around the web and see what your friends from Facebook and GetGlue have liked. You can also post your activity to Facebook and Twitter, which does the work of including information about the TV show/film/etc. for you. http://bit.ly/j1YW2j
- PerfectBrowser - full-featured browser, like you would have on your computer. The default, Safari, is fine for most things, but this is well worth the price when you want a deeper browsing experience. http://bit.ly/kvVSmG
- Yelp - has never failed me when searching for restaurants, even when in strange cities. http://bit.ly/iH3HN2
- Epicurious - find recipes and create shopping lists http://bit.ly/ldARux
- Pandora - stream music that learns your preferences from the brilliant Music Genome Project. http://bit.ly/k0DEny
- Dropbox - it's a hard drive on a server, meaning you can access your files from any computer or mobile device that you authorize. You can share folders with people also, if you wish. It's a lifesaver. http://bit.ly/ldHGrC
- Fring - allows you to chat with AIM, Google Chat, etc. friends all in one place. You can also video and audio chat if you have wifi. http://bit.ly/ihLYre
- Skype - excellent way to chat and video chat with people around the world, for free. You can also get unlimited domestic voice calling for about $30/year through your computer and it's amazing. I use it almost every day to make phone calls. http://bit.ly/ma5j8
- TripAdvisor - best reviews on anything travel-related. http://bit.ly/mC091d
- DragonSearch - amazing. Just speak into it and it'll search Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter and your iTunes library, all at once. It's so good. http://bit.ly/jjOrvF
- Dragon Dictation - who wants to type? This app does an incredible job of transcribing your voice to text. You can them email, post to social networks, etc. http://bit.ly/kmhvLM
- FlightCaster - predicts flight delays 6 hours before the airlines, based on historical data and monitoring of traffic info. Pulls your flight info in from TripIt. (They're going to start charging soon, so just download it, even if you're not sure you want it.) http://bit.ly/ifE8vd
- GateGuru - info on which gate flights are leaving/arriving, security wait times, services, food, maps, reviews and more. Pulls in info from TripIt. http://bit.ly/jmMd4c
- Appzilla - every other function you might need on your iPad. http://bit.ly/iHla0W
- Instagram - simple, lovely app that lets you apply filters to photos and post to social networks. http://bit.ly/jSX5E9
- Pano - helps you take several photos to stitch into a panoramic shot. Works really well - created some beautiful ones in Thailand. http://bit.ly/jK9Tza
- Photofeed for Facebook - pulls in photos from Facebook. http://bit.ly/jMu9hq
- Adobe Photoshop Express - Photoshop's app, which lets you easily make edits and improve your photos. http://bit.ly/lQnH3b
- Goodreader - great way to view and organize PDF, Word and other docs. http://bit.ly/jXzPE5
- Simplenote - basic text app that syncs with a server so you can access them anywhere. http://bit.ly/j3CxX8
News
- ***Flipboard - #1 must-have app, which organizes all the content that you want in a clean, brilliant layout, like a magazine - watch videos in place, read articles without leaving, respond to Facebook posts right there, etc. You can pull in any feed from news sites (e.g. NY Times), blogs, etc. The easiest way to do this is to add them to Google Reader and add your Google Reader account to Flipboard. I also HIGHLY encourage you to add your Facebook account here, as it's a beautiful, enjoyable way to look at what your connections are posting. http://bit.ly/kfShGU
- *Guardian Eyewitness - gorgeous, daily, visual representation of the news from the Guardian (UK). http://bit.ly/loXE1h
- *NPR - read news, watch videos, listen to podcasts or any of their stations, etc. http://bit.ly/mB8tRP
- NYTimes: http://bit.ly/lbZxuY
- Slate - read, watch, listen to news from the great, liberal & culturally rich news service, Slate.com. http://bit.ly/mhrOSO
- This American Life - one of my favorite radio shows of all time, hosted by Ira Glass, which I think you'd love. It's a paid app, but has every episode ever. Otherwise, you can always go to iTunes and download the episodes they have available there for free. http://bit.ly/kful0N
- CNN: http://bit.ly/jToSGs
- BBC News: http://bit.ly/k6ciNC
- The Weather Channel: http://bit.ly/jWWEu0
- Pulse - visual way to look at news headlines before digging deeper: http://bit.ly/kD7eA9
- Blancspot - visual way to look at news headlines before digging deeper: http://bit.ly/lwSq1b
Social Media & Chat
- ***Friendly for Facebook - best way to view Facebook on the iPad (other than Flipboard, of course!). http://bit.ly/lkZmU1
- **GetGlue - It's a fun social network, completely centered around entertainment (film, TV, music, books, topics, etc.). You can "check-in" to, "like" and review the content that you're consuming, chat with other people passionate about it, earn virtual rewards (stickers), real world rewards (discounts) and get recommendations for other related content. There's also a browser plugin for Firefox and Chrome, which allows you to perform all these actions around the web and see what your friends from Facebook and GetGlue have liked. You can also post your activity to Facebook and Twitter, which does the work of including information about the TV show/film/etc. for you. http://bit.ly/j1YW2j
- **Fring - allows you to chat with AIM, Google Chat, etc. friends all in one place. You can also video and audio chat if you have wifi. http://bit.ly/ihLYre
- *Skype - excellent way to chat and video chat with people around the world, for free. You can also get unlimited domestic voice calling for about $30/year through your computer and it's amazing. I use it almost every day to make phone calls. http://bit.ly/ma5j8f
- Twitter - dive in, it's very useful if you learn how to filter all the noise. http://bit.ly/kceQlP
Search/Browsing
- ***PerfectBrowser - full-featured browser, like you would have on your computer. The default, Safari, is fine for most things, but this is well worth the price when you want a deeper browsing experience. http://bit.ly/kvVSmG
- ***DragonSearch - amazing. Just speak into it and it'll search Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter and your iTunes library, all at once. It's so good. http://bit.ly/jjOrvF
- Discover - beautiful, visual way to browse Wikipedia like a magazine. http://bit.ly/lT6KFE
Entertainment, Music & Video
- ***HBO Go - watch the entire HBO library on your iPad (must be a subscriber). Oh yeah! http://bit.ly/mMjOSf
- ***Netflix: http://bit.ly/lA2ziZ
- ***Pandora - stream music that learns your preferences from the brilliant Music Genome Project. http://bit.ly/k0DEny
- PBS - beautiful app with lots of streaming video. http://bit.ly/mxII4N
- TED - watch TEDTalks. http://bit.ly/jXVTkC
- IMDB: http://bit.ly/iuv3wM
- Fandango - movie times, reviews & buy tickets. http://bit.ly/lcNwt1
- Movies by Flixster - another great movie app, which pulls in reviews from Rotten Tomatoes (my favorite) and your Facebook friends. http://bit.ly/m3UiMX
Going Out, Food, Reviews
- ***Yelp - has never failed me when searching for restaurants, even when in strange cities. http://bit.ly/iH3HN2
- **Epicurious - find recipes and create shopping lists. http://bit.ly/ldARux
- MenuPages - view restaurant menus in major cities. http://bit.ly/jFnl4w
- OpenTable - make reservations at restaurants. http://bit.ly/l7s8Yz
- SeamlessWeb - order food for delivery. http://bit.ly/jeU8DA
- GrubHub - another way to order food for delivery. http://bit.ly/jOKdZb
- Seafood Watch - info on ocean-friendly seafood at restaurants. http://bit.ly/ipFCS4
Travel
- ***TripIt - forward your confirmation emails for flights, hotels, car rentals, etc. and this app organizes everything into a wonderful itinerary with weather, maps, reminders, etc. It also adds each part of your itinerary to your Google Calendar, if you let it. It has social features, too, if you want, so you can see when/where your friends are traveling and let them know about yours, but you can turn that off if you want. http://bit.ly/krc1rZ
- **TripAdvisor - best reviews on anything travel-related. http://bit.ly/mC091d
- *FlighCaster - predicts flight delays 6 hours before the airlines, based on historical data and monitoring of traffic info. Pulls your flight info in from TripIt. (They're going to start charging soon, so just download it, even if you're not sure you want it.) http://bit.ly/ifE8vd
- *GateGuru - info on which gate flights are leaving/arriving, security wait times, services, food, maps, reviews and more. Pulls in info from TripIt. http://bit.ly/jmMd4c
Photos
- *Instagram - simple, lovely app that lets you apply filters to photos and post to social networks http://bit.ly/jSX5E9
- *Pano - helps you take several photos to stitch into a panoramic shot. Works really well - created some beautiful ones in Thailand. http://bit.ly/jK9Tza
- *Photofeed for Facebook - pulls in photos from Facebook http://bit.ly/jMu9hq
- *Adobe Photoshop Express - Photoshop's app, which lets you easily make edits and improve your photos. http://bit.ly/lQnH3b
- Precorder - starts recording video a few seconds before you press the record button, so you don't miss what you actually wanted. http://bit.ly/jwXINc
Documents & Utilities
- ***Evernote - 1 of my absolute favorite apps, which I keep in my iPad's dock so I always have it at my fingertips. Save notes, clip parts/all of webpages, make text in photos searchable, record audio notes, etc. You can email them all out to yourself or others. It's a digital notebook that is accessible through your browser, an app you can install on your computer and mobile devices, like the iPad. I couldn't live without it. http://bit.ly/l5XjoN
- ***Dropbox - it's a hard drive on a server, meaning you can access your files from any computer or mobile device that you authorize. You can share folders with people also, if you wish. It's a lifesaver. http://bit.ly/ldHGrC
- ***Dragon Dictation - who wants to type? This app does an incredible job of transcribing your voice to text. You can them email, post to social networks, etc. http://bit.ly/kmhvLM
- **Appzilla - every other function you might need on your iPad. http://bit.ly/iHla0W
- *Goodreader - great way to view and organize PDF, Word and other docs. http://bit.ly/jXzPE5
- *Simplenote - basic text app that syncs with a server so you can access them anywhere. http://bit.ly/j3CxX8
- GeniusScan - use your camera as a scanner. http://bit.ly/kScbLu
- Kindle - download and read eBooks from Amazon's Kindle store. http://bit.ly/jNGl0l
Pizza Hut app - how creating a fun & useful tool can help marketing & sales
When Digital Marketing Actually Works
Lessons from Web and mobile campaigns that yielded real-world business results.by Calvin Jones and Damian RyanWhat do you get for your digital marketing dollars? Figuring how much revenue or brand value companies are generating from their investments in digital media seems to be getting more and more complex. While it's simple to measure click-through rates on the Web, impressions on mobile devices, tweets on Twitter, and "likes" on Facebook, the business impact in the real world is notoriously difficult to quantify. So as marketers "spread their spending over a widening set of digital options," says Chuck Richard, vice president of Outsell Inc., a research firm based in Burlingame, California, "they need more accountability."
Accountability becomes even more urgent when you consider the numbers. In 2010, for the first time ever, spending on digital media will surpass print media in the U.S., Outsell forecasts. The $120 billion that companies are shelling out this year includes all digital advertising and marketing efforts, including web site development, edging past the $111.5 billion to be invested in print-based marketing. Meanwhile, the U.K. has become the first major economy in which spending on Internet advertising has overtaken television. These are milestones in a movement that shows no sign of abating, as digital continues to claim an ever larger share of the corporate marketing budget.
Yet sometimes, companies do know when their digital investments are delivering results. We've searched the globe to discover innovative campaigns that have worked. These two case studies represent only two strategies for breaking through the clutter, but they highlight a big trend--that it's now possible to engage an online audience in novel ways that deliver measurable returns. Each vignette looks at the challenges faced by the marketer, the creative digital strategies they deployed, and finally the impact on business.
Pizza Hut's iPhone App: Building your own location-aware pies
As of two years ago, Pizza Hut had minimal presence in the digital world beyond a rudimentary web site, despite being one of the flagship chains of Yum Brands, the world's largest fast-food restaurant company. Brian Niccol, the Dallas-based chain's chief marketing officer, decided that he wanted to create something innovative and fun that would encourage young, tech-savvy, time-starved customers to order up pies. Since the success of the iPhone was making headlines at the time, it became a natural choice for reaching this demographic.
Niccol hired the Dallas-based digital agency imc2 to create an app that would, in effect, put the pizza kitchen in the customers' pocket, letting them pinch, drag and shake pepperoni, mushrooms and other topping icons onto a graphical pizza crust. The iPhone would then determine which of the chain's thousands of locations the customer happened to be nearest. With the app, "you get to engage in the ordering process which is typically mundane and not all that exciting," Niccol says. Equally important, he adds, is the "confidence factor," that by building a model of their pizza, customers are assured that their order is correct.
The company advertised the new app online, in print, and on television--even winning a placement in Apple's own iPhone commercial. Within two weeks, the Pizza Hut app received 100,000 downloads. Within three months, iPhone users ordered $1 million worth of pizza. Niccol describes the app as "game-changing." The app now has millions of users across the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms. Niccol expects half the company's phone orders to come from apps and texting, accounting for about $500 million in revenue.
Read the rest of the article at technologyreview.comTilapia with Prosciutto & Sage, with a side of Bok Choi
This was one of the easiest and most delicious meals I've cooked. It took me about 10 minutes of prep, maximum, and about 5-6 minutest to cook. Probably took me even less time to eat it! I have to thank my trusty Epicurious iPhone app for the inspiration (iTunes link). The Bok Choi was my idea - just threw it in a nonstick pan with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.
For anyone in Fort Greene, definitely check out Fresh Fanatic, the beautiful market on Washington Ave & Park Ave. Organic produce, great fresh seafood, deli meats, huge cheese selection and more. Reasonable prices too.
Recipe:
Tilapia with Prosciutto and Sage- 4 pieces skinless tilapia fillet (2 lb total)
- 8 thin slices prosciutto (not paper-thin; 6 oz total)
- 12 fresh sage leaves, stems discarded
- 4 teaspoons olive oil [I would use less - the prosciutto adds a good amount of grease]
Cut fillets lengthwise to separate smaller and larger portions, then pat dry and season with pepper. Wrap each piece of fillet crosswise in a slice of prosciutto, leaving ends of fillet exposed if necessary and tucking 1 or 2 sage leaves between prosciutto and fillet (use 1 leaf for smaller pieces of fish).
Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a 12-inch heavy nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté the 4 larger pieces of fish 4 minutes. Turn over and sauté until just cooked through, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to a platter and keep warm, loosely covered with foil. Wipe skillet clean and heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil, then sauté the 4 smaller pieces of fish, turning over once, until just cooked through, about 4 minutes total.
Gourmet
December 2004
Complete recipeHeaded out to Parked Food Truck Festival @ Governors Island. Who's coming?
Parked Food Truck Festival @ Governors Island
MeanRed says:
Finally! Our famous food truck festival can get a little leg-room. We are taking over the shady expanse of Colonel’s Row to host Parked in style. Take the free ferry to spend a day on this gorgeous island with us. Aaaand eat your heart out. The last Parked drew over 3,000 hungry foodies to BKLYN Yard for brick oven pizza, dumplings, German soul food, Vietnamese bbq, ice cream, cup cakes, and key lime pies. Pictures HERE.
We can’t wait to do it all over again… bigger! badder! more napkins!
RAIN DATE: September 26th
Note:
Flavorpill is a proud media sponsor of Parked. Catch a free ferry to Governors Island at the Battery Maritime Building, next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.
Because we didn't stuff our faces enough yesterday at MeanRed's Snout 'n Stout porkopalypse, today we're heading out to Governors Island for Parked, its food-truck fest. Thousands of ravenous foodies crammed into BKLYN Yard last year to get a taste from New York's best restos on wheels, so this year the feast spreads out (not unlike our elastic-waisted pants we're donning for the occasion) on Colonel's Row. There you'll find all your fave trucks and carts — from Halo Berlin and Van Leeuwan to the Red Hook Lobster Pound, Jamaican Dutchy Truck, and many (many) more — lined up for your gluttonous convenience. Prepare to get stuffed!
- Leah TaylorEVENT DETAILS Print
LINKS
- Info Source
via flavorpill.com
Reviews, thoughts, images, articles and other content about digital media, real-time content, apps, advertising & technology that resonate with me.
