Thursday, January 13, 2011

more things i learned about my ipad

Well, I finally learned what an "app" is.

When I first got my iPad, my sister-in-law told me to take it to Greenhills so that I could have some apps installed, so I did. I paid a guy 800 pesos and after an hour, my iPad was full of crap that I didn't understand or need. Plus, the apps weren't organised in any recognisable manner. Not alphabetical, not by category... and there were ten pages of them. Hundreds of apps!

For MONTHS, I didn't know what to do. Should I just erase everything and start from scratch? What about my 800 bucks? What if I later find out that I deleted something that was important to me?

Ah yez, the travails of an obsessive-compulsive Luddite.

Finally, last month, I signed up for an iTunes account (which i resisted for the longest time because they want your credit card details right away when you register), held my breath and deleted everything. So now I had a clean slate. And for the past few weeks, I have been researching, downloading and installing stuff.

First I looked at iTunes Store's most popular apps, then I Googled "best ipad apps" and read other people's suggestions. I like this one: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362572,00.asp

I am very pleased with my iPad right now. The first "page" still has the apps that came pre-installed. I moved the Settings icon to the dock because it makes more sense to me for it to be there. iBooks is there because Steve Jobs told me to put it there. I added a calculator and a currency converter-- absolute necessities which the iPad doesn't have-- why not, Steve? IMO is an instant messaging app which I use to connect with my Yahoo! Messenger friends. I like it because it's always running in the background and I can still receive messages even when I'm surfing the web or reading an e-book. And for my to-do list app, I chose To Do's Lite because it lets me peek into my Calendar app.

 

Next is my "reading materials" page. I love each and every one of these apps, though my favorites would be Zinio, Huff Post and Net-A-Porter. Everyday I can get fresh news, catalogs, books and magazines-- I can hardly keep up. And if I do lack for something to read, I just download a bootlegged PDF magazine and read it using my PDF reader Bookman. My most recently downloaded app is FeeddlerRSS which allows me to catch up with all the blogs I'm reading without using Safari. It's so freaking neat. RSS rocks!



Third page is games. Angry Birds reside in my dreams now, complete with sound effects. But I spend more time playing Fruit Ninja and Fruit Cup. There's something about making fruits explode and creating a juicy virtual mush that I find deeply satisfying. I was never a gaming type of person, so I don't have a lot of games in my iPad, but the ones I do have are entertaining and cute. (Proudly boring and child-friendly!)



My last page is for my uncategorised apps. AccuWeather is amazing. When I first used it, it asked me if I wanted to use my current location. I said OK, and now it's giving me the seven-day weather report for the actual village (not just the city or general area) that I'm living in. The iPad doesn't have an alarm clock-- how weird is that? So I got Nightstand. The Compass and Sticky Notes (like electronic Post-it notes) are just for fun, but the PS Express is so, so fantastic. It's a super lite version of Adobe Photoshop, but it can do all the basic stuff that can't wait-- like cropping, straightening and even a few special effects.



All of my apps are FREE. I have not spent a single cent, and I don't feel the need to upgrade to any paid versions... yet.

So that's how my iPad looks today. More and more apps are being created everyday, so who knows tomorrow?

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