As you know, there are just too many iPad apps to sift through. So I don't think this is a definitive list of my Top 5 iPad apps of all time. Rather, I'm only sharing with you my 5 favorite free apps
at the moment. Most of them require internet connection. But once you have that, these 5 apps can surely keep you amused for hours! Some of them are excellent utilities or resource tools as well. Here they are:
5.) Tap TV
Make your iPad a handy TV! With 17 channels to choose from, this app will definitely eat up a lot of your time. The channels are not necessarily channels you'll find on your television at home. Rather, the 'channels' include the likes of Documentary TV, Travel, Kids' TV, Best of YouTube, Silent Movies, Tap TV, and many others. My personal favorite is the Audio Books channel. Here they've got audio books of novels and short stories like "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and works by Kafka, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, O. Henry, Tolstoy and even Rudyard Kipling. So far there are only 30 audio books there. I really hope that they'll keep adding more.
To enjoy and maximize this app, you really need to have fast internet connection. Otherwise, the movies/shows will take a very long time to load and it will just end up frustrating you. Don't forget to have your earphones with you too!
4.) AllRecipes
Not sure what to make for dinner? Install this app and you'll end up with a thousand and one ideas at the very least! ;-) You can filter the thousands of recipes in this app by choosing the meal course, the main ingredient, the cooking method, and even your cooking time preference! Once you've chosen, sumptious pictures of food items that fit all of your preferences will show up side by side on the screen. Tap on the picture and from there, you can find the recipe, calorie count, and reviews of people who have tried the recipe. Some recipes are tweaked to make them better. They're all documented there too. I suggest that you do read the reviews before trying a recipe. The contributors aren't necessarily chefs or professional cooks, etc. The reviews will give you an idea of the ingredients that you can leave out, which ingredients there are too much of/not enough of in the original recipe, and so forth. Nonetheless, this is an excellent starting point. I imagine you will find lots of recipes here that you can include in your repertoire. ;-)
3.) Paper Desk LT
This is only the lite version of Paper Desk. That one's free. But if you'd like to upgrade, it'll cost you a mere $2.99. It's very cheap, but frankly, the lite version on its own will do. There's already so much that you can do on the lite version alone!
So what is Paper Desk? Do you know of Smart Pen? Well, this app will allow you to do everything that you can do on the Smart Pen. It's kind of like an interactive notebook. You can record audio on there, take pictures, type up notes, write actual notes on the screen, and/or combine any or all of these into one file. It's an app that you can definitely use during meetings or if you're a student, during lectures. You can save the file right on your iPad or email them, move them to your Google Docs, or print them! It's real handy. And for someone who's neither a student or one who goes to meetings either, I just use it to write my "To Do" lists. ;-) I'm sure anyone can find other uses for this very helpful app.
2.) Houzz
Looking for interior design inspiration? Once you've installed Houzz, you can browse through close to 150,000 photos of beautifully designed homes. Whatever your design sense may happen to be, you're bound to find lots of inspiration from these pictures. The photos are categorized by the type of space. From powder room, staircase, landscape, kids' rooms, home office, porch, closet, and of course, the usual bedroom, bathroom, living room, and dining room -- they're all there! Aside from photos, there are three other sections that you can look at as well. There's one on Ideabooks. These have articles and more pictures(!) to give you tips and suggestions on DIY projects that you can do, assistance on how you can choose the right paint colour, how to choose a theme, and so many other topics under the sun. They're categorized as well so it's really very easy to browse through.
If you live in North America (ie: Canada and the United States), there's also a section on Professionals that you can get in touch with to get the job done. From architects to general contractors to interior designers, you can find their contact info here as well as samples of their work. There's another section called "My Houzz" where you can create your own Ideabook article. I haven't explored that one yet. I think it requires you to register.
1.) Tune In Radio
Pick any city in the world, a random station from the list, let it buffer, and within seconds, there you are -- listening to live radio streaming! Aside from location, the stations are organized too by music genre and there's also a separate category for sports and talk radio (the AM ones, I assume). It's a great way to beat feeling homesick in my case. I listen to Calgary radio stations, alternating between Up 97.7, 98.5 Virgin Radio, and Kool 101.5. when I'm doing my chores or simply want to listen to music while surfing the net. If it weren't for the Manila heat, I could swear it felt like I was back in Calgary again. You can hear the advertisement on the radio -- know which places are on sale, be updated on the news, and find out about upcoming events too. Not all of the radio stations on the list do this, but there are some that even specify the song that you're listening to and show a picture of the album it came from right on your iPad screen. It's super neat! The very reason why it's number one on my list! ;-)
Have you got other neat (and free!) iPad apps to share as well? Please leave a note in the message section. In the mean time, I'll continue to keep my eyes open for more neat apps. Enjoy and install away! ;-)
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