OT: iPad source of distraction

[ThisJustIn]

having survived a trip to the UAE and back.. and then to Louisville and back, I gave myself a present: iPad2, since 3 doesn't seem to be a huge improvement... and now it's cheaper.

So, what apps can you NOT do without -- and is taptalk necessary?

 

[Icebear]

having survived a trip to the UAE and back.. and then to Louisville and back, I gave myself a present: iPad2, since 3 doesn't seem to be a huge improvement... and now it's cheaper.

So, what apps can you NOT do without -- and is taptalk necessary?

Tried Tapatalk for awhile and went back to using Safari. Having upgraded to the 3 and sold my 2 I am amazed by the reduction in eye fatigue with the new screen. The new screen is like looking at film. I only changed because I needed more memory and upgraded to the iPad 64gb.

 

[Biff]

Tried Tapatalk for awhile and went back to using Safari.

I think tapatalk is a must on an iphone but an option on an ipad.

Using a browser on an iphone makes the boneyard format very difficult to read
Tapatalk removes most of the formatting associated with a web page and displays larger, readable text. Losing the web formatting presents some minor issues but nothing that can't be dealt with.

With an ipad you have the screen size to view the yard in a web format and so other than possibly reducing the download data flow required to read the board it's probably not "necessary", especially in wifi situations.

On the other hand, Tapatalk is like $1.99? Not much of a risk to try it out....

 

[Drumguy]

Carcasonne, boggle, yelp, kindle, plants vs zombies, flighttrack, garageband, skype, landgrabbers, newstand, nightstand; considering iphoto
Use safari 80% of the time.

 

[Icebear]

I think tapatalk is a must on an iphone but an option on an ipad.

Using a browser on an iphone makes the boneyard format very difficult to read
Tapatalk removes most of the formatting associated with a web page and displays larger, readable text. Losing the web formatting presents some minor issues but nothing that can't be dealt with.

With an ipad you have the screen size to view the yard in a web format and so other than possibly reducing the download data flow required to read the board it's probably not "necessary", especially in wifi situations.

On the other hand, Tapatalk is like $1.99? Not much of a risk to try it out....

I think that is very true, biff. I use Tapatalk much more on my iPhone. I, also, use my iPad exclusively in Wifi.

What types of uses do you want to put your iPad to, TJI?

 

[Ctpaul0825]

Have Taptalk but don't use it. Play Words with Friends all the time, add and delete apps as I need them.

 

[ThisJustIn]

I'm still experimenting with it to see, Ice.

Subway reading, distracting -- on site work at schools -- vacation connection v. my laptop. Have to explore other options for work - planning and such.

After Denver and Costa Rica with the mom, I'm going to take the Apple workshop. It's my first touch screen beast -- I have a stoopid phone, but on purpose.

 

[Icebear]

The pattern I have found helpful is to identify areas I think the iPad could be helpful. Then I search out and try out several free apps or almost free .99 apps for that use and research bigger pay for apps in MacLife or other reviewers. If I find the free apps useful I weigh the purchase of highly recommended pay apps. Many LiTE Apps are samples of full blown apps.

 

[Fishy]

I surrendered our first iPad to my wife and daughter but did buy the new version of it -still going about adding the apps I used to use. I'm not including some of the iPhone apps that I also have on my iPad but rarely use.

Caveat - I do not mind paying for apps I like. There are some here that cost me money, but most, I believe, are free. The ones that cost money, Pages and Instapaper, for example, are well-worth whatever they cost.

Here goes...

Entertainment -

ABC Player - ABC television shows, free o' charge. It's basically how I watch Modern Family.
Netflix - Self-explanatory
Vimeo - Basically, YouTube for people with taste.
Trailers - An Apple app that shows movie trailers. I think I like the trailers more than I like most movies.
Crackle - Free movies. Some of them are pretty good - Seinfeld episodes as well. Kind of hit or miss, but free is free.
Vevo HD - Music videos. Didn't think I would use it, but I do occasionally.
HBO Go - Great if you're an HBO subscriber and your internet provider is with the service.

Books -

iBooks - I love the way Apple put this app together. You'll marvel at how turning a page looks.
Kindle - Not as nice to look at or use, but if you buy books via Amazon, perfectly acceptable.

Social -

Facebook - If you use it.
Twitter - I like the official app (free).
Tweetbot - Seems to be the most popular third-party Twitter client.
Tapatalk - I do like it, even for the iPad.

Work -

Pages - Great word processing app from Apple. I use it with an Apple bluetooth keyboard.
Keynote - Build presentations, web-pages, whatever.
Dropbox - Free storage and document syncing. Great.
Box - Free storage.
Evernote - A 'junk drawer' for notes, lists, whatever.

Lifestyle-type apps -

TripIt - Travel organizer. Get an email confirmation of a hotel, flight, whatever reservation, forward it to TripIt and it builds and keeps you itinerary.
Yelp - Recommendations for restaurants, hotels, etc.
The Weather Channel - It's, well, the Weather Channel.
Epicurious - Recipes
Flixster - Movies trailers, reviews, showtimes.

News -

Flipboard - Great. Just get it.
Zite - Great. Just get it. Both are personalized 'magazines' you organize around your interests.
Reeder - Syncs with Google Reader if that is how you organize any RSS feeds you subscribe to, but much prettier.
StumbleUpon - Kind of a random article generator that is geared to your interests - hit the Stumble button, get an article on the topics you follow.
Instapaper - I love Instapaper. It's an offline reader of sorts - what it does is save the articles you want to read for later. It installs via a browser button...if you're using the browser and you come across something you want to read, but not right now, hit the Instapaper button and it will be saved for you.

Where it gets really handy for me...it works with StumbleUpon. I click through the StumbleUpon suggestions and just save the ones I like to Instapaper. (Just a button press). I can get a pretty good pile of stuff to read offline that way.

 

[msf22b]

I'm one of the old fogies who get on perfectly well without it nor any social networking.
My son says this site is social networking, I disagree.

 

[ThisJustIn]

I'm one of the old fogies who get on perfectly well without it nor any social networking.
My son says this site is social networking, I disagree.

Thanks, Fishy -- a great start on places to explore.

And msf22b - you're absolutely right. There's nothing social about this board, and people certainly don't network.

 

[Drumguy]

Carcasonne, boggle, yelp, kindle, plants vs zombies, flighttrack, garageband, skype, landgrabbers, newstand, nightstand; considering iphoto
Use safari 80% of the time.

SInce Fishy did such a good job of elaborating, I feel (competitively) obliged to go into a little more detail.

I don't use my iPad for work, it's a content consumer not really very quick to use for work type applications. That said I have used gotomypc app to feed off my work computer.

I used to use all the social apps like facebook, but it's just as easy to go through Safari. (I don't tweet or care about anyone's tweets but Fi)shy gave you the big apps if you care)
I've found the optimum app great if you have Cablevision - you get a portible TV in your lap (I've used it to watch multiple games at the same time (hdtv, pip and iPad)).

I'm fairly picky on games, they have to be challenging and I will pay for them if you know someone who has loved it. Don't believe the ratings. I tried words for friends but hate waiting for the response. I don't like the board game Carcasonne but it's the best iPad game ever - you can play by yourself or with friends and stays challenging. I found Plants vs. Zombies to be a lot of fun, very disappointed when I beat it and had no more top levels, but the mini games are a constant source of fun. Boggle is well Boggle.

I leave my MacBook Pro home now unless I need to create a lot of word or excel docs. I use flighttrack(I bought the upgrade but use the free version to start); tripit free; I use Yelp a lot, I mean a LOT even though I have it on my phone. Facetime is great but Skype is necessary for non-apple connections. I use nightstand for bedside alarm clock.

For e-readers, you can't go wrong with Kindle (I have a Kindle too) and iBook (free) and I use Newsstand to read the NY times - it's easier to read it than the paper (I have a subscription.

Anyway, it's a cool device, enjoy it!

 

[Icebear]

Fishy has a lot of what I would suggest as quality apps I will mark the ones I, also, use.

I surrendered our first iPad to my wife and daughter but did buy the new version of it -still going about adding the apps I used to use. I'm not including some of the iPhone apps that I also have on my iPad but rarely use.

Caveat - I do not mind paying for apps I like. There are some here that cost me money, but most, I believe, are free. The ones that cost money, Pages and Instapaper, for example, are well-worth whatever they cost.

Here goes...

Entertainment -

ABC Player - ABC television shows, free o' charge. It's basically how I watch Modern Family.
Netflix - Self-explanatory
Vimeo - Basically, YouTube for people with taste.
Trailers - An Apple app that shows movie trailers. I think I like the trailers more than I like most movies.
Crackle - Free movies. Some of them are pretty good - Seinfeld episodes as well. Kind of hit or miss, but free is free.
Vevo HD - Music videos. Didn't think I would use it, but I do occasionally.
HBO Go - Great if you're an HBO subscriber and your internet provider is with the service.

Books -

iBooks - I love the way Apple put this app together. You'll marvel at how turning a page looks.
Kindle - Not as nice to look at or use, but if you buy books via Amazon, perfectly acceptable. I prefer Kindle

Social -

Facebook - If you use it.
Twitter - I like the official app (free).
Tweetbot - Seems to be the most popular third-party Twitter client.
Tapatalk - I do like it, even for the iPad.

Work -

Pages - Great word processing app from Apple. I use it with an Apple bluetooth keyboard.
Keynote - Build presentations, web-pages, whatever.
Dropbox - Free storage and document syncing. Great.
Box - Free storage.
Evernote - A 'junk drawer' for notes, lists, whatever.
Numbers my add on -, also, iPhoto and iMovie

Lifestyle-type apps -

TripIt - Travel organizer. Get an email confirmation of a hotel, flight, whatever reservation, forward it to TripIt and it builds and keeps you itinerary.
Yelp - Recommendations for restaurants, hotels, etc.
The Weather Channel - It's, well, the Weather Channel.
Epicurious - Recipes
Flixster - Movies trailers, reviews, showtimes.

News -
I use AOL's news collector for iPad - Editions
Flipboard - Great. Just get it.
Zite - Great. Just get it. Both are personalized 'magazines' you organize around your interests.
Reeder - Syncs with Google Reader if that is how you organize any RSS feeds you subscribe to, but much prettier.
StumbleUpon - Kind of a random article generator that is geared to your interests - hit the Stumble button, get an article on the topics you follow.
Instapaper - I love Instapaper. It's an offline reader of sorts - what it does is save the articles you want to read for later. It installs via a browser button...if you're using the browser and you come across something you want to read, but not right now, hit the Instapaper button and it will be saved for you.

Where it gets really handy for me...it works with StumbleUpon. I click through the StumbleUpon suggestions and just save the ones I like to Instapaper. (Just a button press). I can get a pretty good pile of stuff to read offline that way.

Hope that adds to your info. I, also, really like Informant HD which is a sophisticate datebook/info/multitool program

 

[Dogdeacon]

Lifestyle-type
Do you use Strava? Great for recording bike rides and segment feature if you are competitive.

 

[Fishy]

Lifestyle-type
Do you use Strava? Great for recording bike rides and segment feature if you are competitive.

I actually don't - I use Garmins for both. I like to keep my training stats on Garmin Connect and I just find specific purpose devices a bit better for such things. (Even though Garmin has never sold a perfect device in the history of the company - every product has bugs you have to learn to live with.)

Garmin 705 on the bike - GPS, plus Ant+ to monitor cadence and heart rate.

Garmin 405CX for running - GPS, Ant+ for heart rate, virtual partner, etc. (That said, I don't recommend this watch - it has so many quirks.)

 

[DaddyChoc]

Unblock Me is a good game on Android-based tablets (Im sure IPad has it also)

 

[DaddyChoc]

I'm one of the old fogies who get on perfectly well without it nor any social networking.
My son says this site is social networking, I disagree.

I agree with your son... only we have FAKE names her and their post under their real names (or nicknames)

 

[Icebear]

Unblock Me is a good game on Android-based tablets (Im sure IPad has it also)

Along with the various Angry Birds and Sudoku2 UnBlock Me are my favorite games for iPad or iPhone currently.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Along with the various Angry Birds and Sudoku2 UnBlock Me are my favorite games for iPad or iPhone currently.

Angry Birds are flooding the market right now... getting kind of boring.

Unblock Me is very challenging... love it!

 

[Icebear]

Angry Birds are flooding the market right now... getting kind of boring.

Unblock Me is very challenging... love it!

True on Angry Birds but I've played them for two years.

 

[justML]

I agree with your son... only we have FAKE names her and their post under their real names (or nicknames)

What do you mean FAKE names?

I'm sure "DaddyChoc" will soon hit the list of favorite baby boy names soon

 

[Icebear]

I agree with your son... only we have FAKE names her and their post under their real names (or nicknames)

Actually, I am an icebear even if it is a translation of my last name.

 

[justML]

Actually, I am an icebear even if it is a translation of my last name.

And I am just "ml" to my friends!

 

[Dogdeacon]

I actually don't - I use Garmins for both. I like to keep my training stats on Garmin Connect and I just find specific purpose devices a bit better for such things. (Even though Garmin has never sold a perfect device in the history of the company - every product has bugs you have to learn to live with.)

Garmin 705 on the bike - GPS, plus Ant+ to monitor cadence and heart rate.

Garmin 405CX for running - GPS, Ant+ for heart rate, virtual partner, etc. (That said, I don't recommend this watch - it has so many quirks.)

Generally speaking I don't really care to collect data or analyze my workouts - get enough of that elsewhere. Could help but then it takes away from escapism.

But I'm competitive so the Strava thing is pretty cool. Get just basic data of time/distance & average speed and now I've got some little challenges built into next ride. For example there's a 1.1 mile gradual hill that is almost always the start of my bike rides and 1st time taking it casually I'm 10th at 4:25 and the KOM (king) is at 3:29. Not sure if I can shave a full minute, but looking forward to trying next time = adds interest to mundane portions of rides.

 

[ThisJustIn]

Unblock Me is a good game on Android-based tablets (Im sure IPad has it also)

I bet Stanford's going to try and use it against Baylor.

Thanks all for more input. I'm hoping there's some open space in my calendar in the not too distant future where I can explore the play and work side. Gotta get that chapter done first, though... sigh.