Saturday, February 11, 2012

How I use my IPad2 a list? Or How I learned to love the iPad cuz its the bomb!

How I use my IPad2 a list?

Recently, one of my co-workers mentioned that her husband was underwhelmed by his IPad2 and was contemplating sending it back. I couldn't understand that. My iPad2 is rarely more than 10 ft from me. I use it that much. I must admit I have the 32 gig wifi only model. I am not paying for the 3G model. As such I don't pay for the service plan so I can't comment on that aspect. When I first got my iPad, my years of Microsoft products led  me to have a meh feeling. Everything seemed in the wrong place and didn't seem to do what I wanted it to do. Then I really started playing with it. As I did the logic of it became second nature. The one down side is if you engage with a lot of flash tech.  Ie the same kind of tech used to power facecrack games. #20 is a solution for flash video but doesn't help with the games. So, without further ado here is my list of apps and how I use them.

1. Notes - meeting notes, long forum posts, blogs, stories, etc.
2. Photo booth- Video kids concerts, sporting events, pictures
3. iTunes - music, podcasts
4. *withFriends - Play scrabble or chess with friends from around the globe
5. Pizza ordering apps - Order pizza in two minutes while talking to the kids
6. Calendar - My wife adds all of our appointments, kids practices, dances etc to a shared calendar, this trickles down to both our phones and iPads from outlook. I know where we all need to be any time we need to be there
7. Newsstand - We subscribe to a couple of magazines and I can access them here as can my wife
8. Comic books - I have an app for comic books (geek) freebies and download on demand. 
9. Netflix - I don't like American tv, or at least most American tv since the 90's. This app let's me stream any show or movie on instant straight to my device. This with our Wii is our main form of entertainment. I can watch Netflix on the wii with the kids ensuring they are watching something apropos and still see something else on my iPad
10. Imdb - cant remember a movie or actor title bam there she is
11. Games galore - Slice it, angry birds, back yard pilot, finger physics, zombie dice, Arcs - Free little time wasters that put Facebook crack apps to shame
12. Music - pandora, tune in radio - stream music from around the world - I listen to talk shows in London and listen to the radio stations in Denver I grew up with, Alternate rock in Montreal is a click away
13. Big Oven - at my leisure, I pick a few meals I would like to have, update the shopping list and the ingredients appear on my wife's iPhone, we don't have to stare blankly at each other trying to figure out what meals we are planning for the week. 
14. Twitter - stay connected to an online community of your choice, not a big fan of social media but for my blog this is a must (still don't use it much)
15. Skype - free calls from your device to another wifi connection w vid chat
16. FaceTime - same as above but only apple to apple
17. Adobe reader, PDF reader and iBooks- I own and read about 2000 PDF. They are at my fingertips day or night, on- line or off, in the can, at lunch or in bed late at night when I want to write
18. Dropbox - quick file sharing between your PC and iPad for up to 2.2 gig no iTunes sync required
19. Safari - internet, forums, others blogs - coupled with google reader or similar it is a good way to earmark web pages you are interested in reading but not really feeling at the moment
20. Sky fire - having trouble with the blue lego this is your solution - opens up video not otherwise supported by apple

Top 20 apps I use on a daily or weekly basis. 
Hope this helps.

Typed entirely on the iPad in twenty mins while keeping my three year old son out of the skittles, off the stove, and watching the pink panther with the five year old. Now if I could get the fifteen year old out of bed that would be miracle technology. Typos as usual are fully mine and can not be blamed on anything more than laziness.

3 comments :

  1. .....still not convinved! Using most of the above listed apps. Lack of Flash is a problem. Need a windows emulator for a GPS laptimer (but I think that would the case for other tablets too). It has 3G but I have not used it yet - it is a good feature. Photos poor quality. Scratching my head to figure how it can be useful at the race track. I like ebooks but can get that on other tablets. Overpriced web browser! It's got one more day to wow me or it's going back....

    Typed entirely on a Windows XP laptop :)

    Maybe an Android will get the teenager out of bed - lol

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  2. Ahhhh I see. Your wanting something for the track. I could only find two apps one is 4.99 and seems unreliable with a plus or minus one second variation. The other requires an outside gps like bad elf and runs 30 bucks. It's called lap coach. I haven't had any issues with photo quality but I am making crappy home videos and not a very good photographer in general. The iPad my wife has didn't have a camera at all so my expectations were pretty low in that regard.

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  3. This is his aforementioned wife. I had an android tablet at first, and I was really pleased with it. It did everything I wanted it to do and more. The iPad I was at first nonplussed with, and it seemed quite user unfriendly. Once I played with it a bit, and it took some time and convincing, I wouldn't have anything else. I love it. The apps are easier to find and use than with the droid, and now the user friendliness of the iPad is great. There is a bit of a learning curve moving from one to the other, but I just have to say that the iPad wins with me.

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