Favorite Apps

In one of our discussions, one of my fellow Mac fans asked us what iPad or iPhone Apps are our favorites and can't live without.  I told him I have a number of favorite apps but not necessarily I can't live without.  I downloaded some apps from the Apps Store to my iPad and use some of them more often than the others.

One of these is Pulse, a news aggregator developed by two Stanford students.  It combines the convenience of RSS feeds with the engaging interface of a web browser.  What I like about this app is that I can choose which news provider to subscribe to and place them in a grid.  I can access them anytime I want and get updated on current and tech news without leaving the app.

For making on the spot reports and other documents, I use Pages.  It is almost the same as the desktop version except that when sent through email, you will have to convert your work into a document that Pages could read.  Otherwise, it's the only app I need to make documents.

I use iBooks and Kindle for iPad alternately to read my e-books because I have books on both formats.  My only issue about reading on an iPad is eyestrain.  Yes, even with the adjustable brightness, I cannot read as much as I would with paper book.  This is one reason why I am contemplating on buying a Kindle.

Another favorite is Magic Piano. I can actually make music with this app even if I don't know how to play the instrument.  All I did was turn on one of it's auto modes and voila! I can play music from it's songbook by just following the falling dots on the screen.

If I have time to waste, which is very seldom, I play games on my iPad.  The big screen on this baby could sometimes make me waste more time than I should.

There's Angry Birds, the insanely addicting game that involves slinging birds to beat the green pigs that stole their eggs.  The game is so wicked because its levels become more and more challenging as you progress.

Also wicked is Zynga's Scramble. It looks easy because you only need to make words from random letters on a 4x4 board.  Try playing the online mode and compete with other players around the globe. The next thing you knew, hours have passed and the deadline you're trying to meet has come closer.

These are the apps that I use most of the time.  There are others on my iPad that are also worth mentioning and I would discuss on another post.