So the iPad will be delivered to lucky Americans in a few days. Cue the mass of unboxing videos and delirious first reviews.
We in Japan are not so lucky, we’ll be lucky to get them in late April but early May is also likely. This is opposite to what you know who claimed in his announcement in January. Oh well…
Anyway when it does arrive, these are the 5 apps I am most looking forward to using with the iPad and why. *Click on the images to go to the iTunes Preview page
Dropbox
Dropbox
If you’ve ever used Dropbox, I probably don’t need to explain but for some of you who haven’t it provides effortless and free syncing between computers and computers or computers and iPhones/iPod touches/iPads (paid plans are also available). As someone who doesn’t do the full USB sync often it is a lifesaver. Just drop a PDF or some pictures in the dropbox on your computer and seconds later you can access it on your iPad. If you mark files as favourites, it will store them locally. But talking of pdfs…
GoodReader
GoodReader
The iPhone has built-in PDF reader functionality but it’s not very good. Zooming, controls, how to access it or files are all poorly implemented. It seems like an afterthought. GoodReader on the other hand is a supremely well made PDF reader. Zooming is great. It does PDF reflowing, where it tries to read the text of the PDF, fits it to the screen and then allow you to change font size. Access to files is easy too, download direct from the web, or from Dropbox or ftp servers. The files are then stored on the iPad/iPhone. With the likelyhood of the iBooks store not being available in Japan at launch and even then with limited or overpriced content, GoodReader will let me read PDF versions of books I already have or are available on the web. The biggest problem with GoodReader on the iPhone is the iPhone’s screen size. It isn’t really comfortable to read long books, even with all the tricks GoodReader has, but the iPad’s screen should be much better in this regard. It would be even better if it read ePub files, so that I wouldn’t need to use Stanza. Stanza is great for ePub files, stylish, usable, easy to read but trying to access books not in the libraries is a maze.
WriteRoom
WriteRoom
I’m actually typing this in WriteRoom and it is great for just bashing out text without distractions. You could say that the notes app is sufficient but I love the syncing abilities of WriteRoom. (see a pattern here?) Half of this post was typed on the iPhone and half on my desktop. I don’t actually see myself doing a lot of work on the iPad, but one type of task I probably could do without frustration would be writing. I can definitely see myself at Starbucks bashing out posts with the iPad 3G and a bluetooth keyboard ala Gruber.
VNC
VNC
I use vnc quite a lot with my iPhone. Of course with the screen resolution, it is bearable but not totally productive. With 1024×768 of iPad screen space I could control the mac mini being used as a media center in full screen mode and for my desktops I could control them with a lot less scrolling. Add in a VPN connection and I could access the Mac I use at work. In the same way, I’m sure some people are also looking forward to using the pricier LogMeIn Ignition.
Evernote
Evernote
This is a strange one as although it is available for the iPhone I haven’t made much use of it. I’m not alone, there are quite a number of 1 star reviews on the app store. So why am I looking forward to the iPad version? Because I can see how it can pair up with the one I have on the iPhone. The iPhone is a great capture device but it feels cramped as an organising or filing device. So I see myself using my iPhone to capture notes and photos, they would be automatically synced in the Evernote cloud and then I can review and organise on the iPad. And it isn’t just Evernote but all the other apps like JotNot that upload to the Evernote cloud that will make Evernote (iPad version) attractive to try out.
So those were my top 5 apps I am looking forward to using on the iPad. If you are thinking of getting an iPad what are yours?