I've been using the iPad for over a week now and I am seriously impressed. I have decided to get rid of my current laptop and replace it with a Mac Pro or Server as I don't see myself using a laptop in the future. Anyway below are my favourite Apps:
1. The Financial Times - Mobile Edition
Although Rupert Murdoch's paywall has been getting a lot of negative press, the FT is sponsored (by Hublot) so its free for now. I am most impressed with the way they have mixed old media and New media and it is an intuitive interface.
2. Thomson Reuters - Marketboard
This is an app that was developed specifically for the iPad and its simplicity is beautiful. It opens with an overview page showing the various international markets, latest news and 'Street Events. and then there is a briefcase function which allows you to add stocks, commodities or currencies and track them numerically or graphically. My only gripe with the application is the speed when on 3G however it is very snappy on wireless. Its stability needs to be improved as it has crashed on me a couple of times ironically when adding BARC to my briefcase! An honorable mention has to go to Bloomberg for its iPad app which has the advantage of linking in with Bloomberg feeds but is not as visually stunning as Thomson's Marketboard.
This is the best universal iPad book reader there is. You can buy books from the Amazon online store and read them on this app on the iPad, iPhone and your Computer. It automatically synchs bookmarks and remembers your page and position regardless of which device you were last reading on.
Two book reading apps that deserve an honorable mention are Stanza (also by Amazon) and iBooks by Apple. A third popular book / document reading app is called Good Reader but I have not had the opportunity to fully evaluate it yet.
This is a classic "Time Waster" app that you can use when watching TV, waiting in a queue or just have a few minutes to kill. All it does is it aggregates trending news in categories like movies, gadgets, politics and displays feed updates in real time.
Pulse is an up and coming news reader that links in with your Google Reader app and other feeds to present syndicated news (rss) in a manner that exploits the iPad interface and speed.
The perfect iPad Wikipedia application.
Honorable mentions:
- Marvel Comics - Comic Book Reader
- Adobe Ideas - Sketching and noting
- Twitteriffic (I tried Tweet Deck but uninstalled it) - Twitter
Wish List:
- Facebook for iPad - I am currently using the facebook website on the iPad but would love an app similar to the one thats on the iPhone
- Twitter - the twitter app for iPhone is overwhelmingly the best app I have used however it does not scale well on the iPad
;)