iPad 2 – a quick review and list of favorite apps

So I got an iPad 2 and honestly, I do have to say, I love it.  This is my first hands on iOS experience (big Android guy) and this is my review of the device, OS and some of the apps that really make the purchase worthy.

The Device.

• iPad 2′s size is amazing.  The engineering behind the size is really something Apple should be proud of.
• The screen is great, it’s vibrant and looks great with games and video.
• Battery life is long, much longer than must devices I’ve had in the past, its great knowing I can actively use the iPad 2 throughout the day without a low battery.

Some Accessories.

• Smart Cover. I really like the fact that this cover is not just a screen cover.  Acting as 2 different level stands and the ability to sleep and wakeup the iPad is great.  My only drawback is that it doesn’t cover the entire device, which somewhat worries me that I might scratch the iPad itself.
• Apple VGA Adapter. One of the reasons for the iPad 2 was for its video out capabilities.  This is the cable that makes it happen.  This makes the iPad 2 a great device for presentations without having to lug around an entire laptop.
• A Stylus. Another purpose of the iPad 2 was to act as a device I can take to meetings and use a stylus to jot down my notes and drawings.   Per Apple’s recommendation I bought the Pogo Sketch.  I immediately had troubles using it.  It seemed flakey and the tip is cheap.  I’m a bit disappointed and plan on returning it.  After reading further reviews, I ordered the Boxwave which I’m excited to get.

Apps I Love.

• Air Display ($9.99) - This app is great for using your iPad as a 2nd (or in my case a 3rd) monitor.  Works with PC and Mac.
• AppShopper (FREE) - I love this app for finding recently discount apps.
• AppStart for iPad (FREE) - If you’re new to iPad, I highly recommend this app.  Shows you the many cool tricks of the device as well as an extensive list of recommeded iPad apps.
• Evernote (FREE) – Having this app on my Android phone, laptop, home PC and now my iPad, its great having all my notes organized and shared between devices.
• Google Search (FREE) – The name of this app is really understated.  It should be call Google.  This is a great portal of many popular Google services such as Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and more.  I particularly love this app because it allows me to add additional accounts, including those that are Google App hosted.
• Kindle (FREE) – I have an actual Kindle device, which I still do most of my reading on, but having this app on the iPad makes it much more enjoyable browsing and purchasing from the Amazon Kindle store.
• Netflix (FREE) – Very few words need to explain this.  Thousands of streaming movies at your fingertips (literally!)
• The Photo Cookbook ($4.99) – This app is an excellent example of the many uses of the iPad.  Perfect photos walk you through the recipe making it near impossible to screw up.
• Square (FREE) - If you haven’t heard about Square yet, check it out.  What I particularly like about the iPad rendition of this app is the ability to create pre-configured items and just select those when completing a sale.  Can you say mobile point-of-sale?
• Teavana (FREE) – Fun app to discovering new teas flavors and blends.
• WordPress (FREE) – Its great being able to moderate comments to many of my WordPress hosted blogs with this app.
• Flipboard (FREE) – This truly one amazing app.  I’ve been using this app to read my daily Facebook and Twitter streams.  I love how it “CURLs” (its geeky term, I know, but essentially reads the contents of many links posted by my friends) the links.
• Garageband ($4.99) – What a fun and creative outlet for making music.  I love the many “smart” instruments making it easier for me to creating tracks.
• Keynote ($9.99) - Now I can create presentations on my iPad and use it with my VGA adapter when actually presenting, awesome.
• Notes Plus ($5.99) – I was looking for a really good app for drawing and handwriting ideas and notes.  I first bought Penultimate, but there was nothing that stood out, honestly a wasted app.  What makes Notes Plus really above the rest is its gesture and shape drawing technology.  I can now draw shapes with my finger (or stylus) and then move them around on the canvas.  Further more I can circle items on the canvas and move them around, or swipe back and forth across a drawing to erase it.  The app has many more great features, but definitely worth its price.
• Prezi Viewer (FREE) – A perfect companion app to my Prezi account making it easy for me to show my Prezi’s when I do presentations.
• Pulse News Reader (FREE) – This app makes reading RSS feeds fun and enjoyable.  As much as I love the Flipboard App, Pulse Reader allows me to scan the many headlines from my RSS feeds and read the ones that interest me the most.
• Amazon Windowshop (FREE) – A fun way of viewing new products on Amazon using a huge scrolling (horizontally and vertically) canvas of product images)

Game I Love.

• Fruit Ninja HD ($2.99) – An addicting, simple game slicing and dicing fruits tossed in the air.  I really love the multiplayer capabilities allowing me to challenge my friends in a Fruit Ninja session.
• Hockey Nations 2010 HD ($3.99) – A really cool hockey game that has awesome multiplayer capabilities, excellent use of the multitouch technology.
• Monopoly for iPad HD ($9.99) – What a great rendition of this boardgame classic.  The multiplayer tabletop mode is awesome.  Just set the iPad in the middle of the table and the controls rotate around the device for each player.  Really fun!
• The Price is Right HD ($1.99) – A fun game of the classic TV show, has many of the favorite minigames you remember from the show.
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 HD ($9.99) – I love the touch controls of this game.
• Wheel of Fortune HD ($6.99) – Another great classic TV show app.  The multiplayer is fun.
• Words with Friends HD ($2.99) - Its really fun playing this game on a bigger screen.  For those of you who haven’t heard of this game, its a multiplayer version of Scrabble.

Lacking/Missing iPad Apps.

• Facebook - I’ve tried a few of the native Facebook apps (Facely and MyPad) but I really wish there was an official Facebook app for the iPad
• Last.fm – I’m currently using the iPhone version of this app, but would like it if there was an iPad version utilizing the bigger screen to show more things such as artist information.
• Meetup - Again, using the iPhone version.  I’m actually using two different apps for  Meetup, the official Meetup app and Snapup app (both iPhone).  I’d really like to see both of these combined together into an iPad friendly app.
• Tweetdeck - Maybe its just me, but the Tweetdeck for iPad app seems to crash a lot, would love to have this fixed, definitely would use it more.
• Google Docs – I know I mentioned the Google Search app above having many other Google services, but most of them just point the browser based iPad friendly site.  This is a lesser of request, but I’ve noticed the Google Docs to somewhat be flaky on my iPad.  Maybe a native app might fix these concerns, minor, but enough for me to make a fuss about it.
• Skype - Where’s Skype?  I want to make some calls, chat, video chat (with the iPad 2′s new front facing camera)
• Mailchimp - Would love to manage my Mailchimp account with my iPad.
• Mint - I use Mint to help manage my finances, having a native app would be great.

Summary

All in all my iPad 2 purchase and experience has been nothing less than amazing and has really been an enjoyable experience so far.  I’m really see myself using this more and more each day.  Do you have an iPad?  What are you using your iPad for?  Any apps worth trying?  Any apps to avoid?