You And Your iPad: 6 Stunning Apps You Should Own

Everyone seemed skeptical at first, but over a million sales later and it seems pretty clear everybody is getting more and more interested in trying out Apple’s iPad.

We bounced some ideas around the office to come up with six great apps we think every iPad user’s going to want to have installed on their new toy.

1. Marvel Comics

Free, cost of comics varies

This beautiful app seems set to change the way we consume comic books. It’s almost as if the iPad is built for them — now Marvel intends making new comic titles available digitally first.

New titles are sold through an online store that works very much like the iTunes Store. It’s, easy to read your comics – we particularly like the smooth flow between panels when you’re zoomed in. Your comic books are stored offline so you can read your new titles whenever you like. Get it here.

Bookworms will like Apple’s free iBooks app, which offers access to a huge and growing number of eBooks across multiple categories. You can download that here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U646zZCs5ms

2. NetNewsWire for iPad

Costs $9.99

After reading your favourite comic strip just what is wrong with settling down to a little news. NetNewsWire for iPad is a beautiful invocation of the already widely-used Mac and iPhone newsreading app.

Your feeds show up on the left with new content in a frame on the right, so it is easy to read, star, and even save items to Instapaper. Handily, this app lets your read items sync across Google Reader to your Mac or iPhone. Get it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eAYiUSiTeI

3. Real Racing HD

App costs $9.99

Wake up your mind with a game of Real Racing HD. While this is essentially the same exciting racing game as already available on the iPhone, this version offers a few extra features (including replays, ghost racers and car skins).

The main selling point of the iPad version is the larger display. It makes for immersive action. We particularly like the multi-player play as shown in this sequence — watch your friend overtake you (or overtake them) as you each enjoy the action with your own screen. Very exciting racing action and you can get it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC4–Vt8fcg

4. Netflix

App is free, movies cost monthly subscription

This is a great app. If you’re a Netflix subscriber (from $9 per month) you can instantly watch anything in the online catalogue on your iPad. You can stream TV shows and movies just like you would on your computer — there’s no usage limit as its part of the Netflix Unlimited membership offer.

Among other nifty features, the app will remember precisely where in a movie you where when you stopped watching it, and lets you browse and manage your download queues from within the app. This is going to be very popular. Get it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcNuoUpsmJE

5. Apple Pages

This app costs $9.99

Don’t be fooled: the iPad isn’t just a machine for media consumption — there’s plenty of creative possibilities to be explored. Apple’s Pages app is a case in point — all the functionality of a word processing application all accessible through the power of touch.

The app’s incredibly easy-to-use and your documents will look like the business: the only down side is that Pages on iPad doesn’t yet support printing. We understand support for printing is in the works, but lack a time-scale for this. Apple suggests exporting your documents as PDFs for print using a Mac or PC.

Grab it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsj6E_D6Ui0

6. Photogene for iPad

The app costs $3.99

This is a lovely application. Ever so easy-to-use the app really makes use of touch and the lush high-res screen to make editing photos on your iPad a whole lot more fun than attempting similar operations using a mouse and computer. We’re impressed.

You’ll love the extensive selection of tools, filters and effects. You get controllable RGB levels and color temperature adjustments. You also gain the ability to send your creations to others using email; you can also specify the resolution of an image before uploading it to Twitter or Facebook when you are back online. Things like the 70’s Vintage tool will keep you entertained.

Just a shame the iPad doesn’t have a camera. Get this splendid app here.

We’d love your feedback on these and other apps. Have you come across any you think we should take a look at and maybe tell the world about? Let us know in comments below…