iPad Love

 

It's been a little over a month since my iPad was delivered to me, and the excitement is not even close to subsiding. Sure I wanted an iPad since the first one came out, who didn’t? I decided at that time to hold out and wait for the release of the second generation mostly because I really wanted the camera and I just knew the second one would come with a camera. When the second improved iPad was released, I placed my order and waited anxiously for the three weeks to pass. I now use my iPad so much more than I ever thought I would. I take it with me everywhere, its excellent for traveling, I watch TV shows during lunch, send contracts to clients, tweet during the bachelorette, browse all my favorite websites through bookmarks, shop on gilt and so many many more things. I know I've only just begun to explore all the apps and possibilities of what the iPad can do, but I wanted to go ahead and share the apps that I have discovered thus far that I absolutely love (in no particular order). I know a couple of my friends have just recently purchased iPads or are considering it, so this is for you.


1. Twitter - Twitter for iPad is so much better than twitter for iPhone. Mainly because of the size of it, it’s much larger making tweeting through my favorite shows much much easier. It's also better for clicking on links from others that I follow, and seeing photos. For example: when @possessionista tweets about the latest look that the bachelorette is wearing I can easily click on the link from her tweet that takes me directly to her site and its big, obviously bigger than on a phone making it easier to navigate.


2. Flipboard - Flipboard is soooooooooo cool!!!! It's basically your own personal social media magazine. You select the tabs that you want to see on your flipboard and then the flipboard does the rest of the work. I have many tabs on my flipboard, such as travel, budget travel, fb, twitter, celebrity, style, design, but my favorite tab is the google reader. This tab basically puts all my blogs that I follow on google reader together in one tab to easily flip through and read all of them; it’s so easy and so useful. Big fan!


3. Kindle - I have the ibooks app, but have yet to use it. I'm using the kindle app for reading on the iPad, this is simply because I already own a kindle and the kindle iPad app automatically synchronizes to my kindle and visa versa. So, for example if I feel like reading on the kindle today and read about 50 pages, then tomorrow I want to read on the iPad using the kindle app I select the book I want to read and it automatically syncs to the last page that was read on the kindle. So smart.



4. Dropbox - The best app for any professional that needs to have all their documents handy at a moments notice. From dropbox.com: Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website. Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others, whether you're a student or professional, parent or grandparent. Even if you accidentally spill a latte on your laptop, have no fear! You can relax knowing that Dropbox always has you covered, and none of your stuff will ever be lost. - I have mine synchronized with all my real estate transactions from my work computer, making it very easy to send documents from anywhere.


5. Zinio - Many magazines have their own app such as glamour, and elle, but be warned, to open a magazine in one of these magazine's apps you need to have an internet connection, so for example if you're flying and your plane doesn't have wi-fi you cant read those magazines that you previously downloaded for your flight (I just learned this a couple weeks ago). Though if you purchased and download that magazine through the Zinio app you can open it and browse through the magazine at any time with or without an internet connection. You can’t use the interactive tools, but you can easily read the magazine. Another thing about Zinio that I love is that you can purchase a magazine through your pay pal account or any credit card; it doesn't all have to be through itunes. And it has almost every single magazine, from every single country, in every language you can imagine.


6. HBOGO & Netflix: Love Love Love!!!!!!! Most everyone has heard of HBOGO by now, which allows you to watch any HBO series ever made from beginning to end. All you need to have is an active subscription to HBO with whatever cable company you have. You then go online to DirecTV.com (in my case) set up your online account with a user name and password use that same information to log into the HBOGO app, and there you go HBO at your fingertips. It’s great! Completely obsessed with the new interactive tools on shows, such as from the new series Game of Thrones. Netflix is the same idea, when you log in with your netflix account information you can live stream and watch any movies from your instant Q.

There are so many more apps that I really enjoy using but for now I think I've shared enough. Some last suggestions that I won't go into too much detail about are skype for iPad, abc player, friendly fb for iPad, truxmap (for food truck locations all in one place), cool hunting, gilt and jetsetter, food network in the kitchen (you can view the recipes and videos live while you cook), padmaper (available apartments in your area), and realtor.com.

Initially i was keeping my iPad protected with a smart cover and inside a small velvet pouch, but I quickly became cautious of the back getting scratched up, so now I also have a clear smart back cover. All can be found at the links below.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/
http://www.apple.com/ipad/smart-cover/
http://www.boxwave.com/products/velvetpouch/apple-ipad-2-velvet-pouch_4284.htm
http://www.boxwave.com/products/smartbackcover/apple-ipad-2-smart-back-cover_4284.htm