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Must have iPad apps?

noisygirlkk

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Just received my iPad! What are the best must have apps? Looking for apps to read ebooks, mail clients, security, privacy and just nice haves!
 

giradman

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Just received my iPad! What are the best must have apps? Looking for apps to read ebooks, mail clients, security, privacy and just nice haves!

Hello and welcome to the forum! :) Well, there are over 2 million apps in the iOS/iPadOS App Store so your choices are almost unlimited depending on your needs, interests, and storage capacity on your device (e.g. if you are planning to add a lot of music and photos).

First, take a look at what already comes w/ the iPad, e.g. Mail, Safari (web browsing but many others can be downloaded most for free), Books (may want to also obtain Kindle), Music, Photos (again plenty of other photographic organizers & editors), Writing (Notes & Pages, latter part of Apple's iWork Suite w/ Numbers & Keynote), iTunes store, Calendar/Reminders/Contacts, Clock, and others (download the free iPad Manual from HERE for coverage of the iPadOS offerings already on your machine).

Second, take a look HERE for a bunch of suggestions. As is obvious there are plenty of non-Apple apps - just as an example, on my iPad Pro, I use a LOT of 'folders' to organize my similar apps - below are just four w/ the folder's title - some might be of interest to you? BUT, as a follow-up response, let us know your main 'areas of interest' which will help to make specific suggestions. Dave
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Screen Shot 2020-01-03 at 11.26.55 AM.png
Screen Shot 2020-01-03 at 11.27.49 AM.png
 

twerppoet

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Reading: Apple’s Books app is the best reading experience, in my opinion. Amazon Kindle is also good, and the book selection is somewhat larger than iBooks. Either one will let you load free books you find elsewhere; most of which can be found in either app’s format.

Mail: I find the built in email client fills all my needs. It’s also the only client that can be used from within other apps. There are lots of other choices if you need extra features, including Outlook if you need full Office integration.

Security: There is no need for virus checkers (or any available). That leaves VPNs (I don’t have one), and password apps. My favorite is 1Password. Its available on pretty much every platform, and will sync across all of them. There are, however, cheaper choices.

Other apps I use a lot.

Built in apps. Most of them are worth checking out before looking for alternatives. In some cases, they have better integration with the OS than third party, even if they don’t provide every bell and whistle.

Calculator: PCalc is probably the most powerful and versatile calculator available of the iPad and iPhone.

Calendar: Fantastical is a good power-up from the the built in Calendar app, and uses the same data so it works side-by-side with no issues.

Contacts: Cardhop is the best Contacts power-up. The biggest weakness of Apple’s Contacts app is that there is no way to manage groups on the iPhone or iPad. Cardhop fixes that. Like Fantastical it integrates with the built in app, so you don’t lose any compatibility.

PDF: Documents by Readle is a excellent all around PDF reader, markup, editor, and file manager. You need a subscription for all the features, but if you do a lot of work with PDF’s, it’s one of the top apps.

Notes: I use the built in Notes app for most things, but other note apps I use for specifics are: Notability, for taking notes on top of PDF files, or other fancy note taking. Nebo, for when I want to write with the pencil, but need to end up with text.

Recording: Ferrite is the best app for recording and editing audio files. It’s a powerhouse, good enough for a lot of podcasters to use as their default tool.

Scanning: Scanner Pro is one of the better document scanning apps. Better on the iPhone, of course, but still useful on the iPad.

Drawing: SketchBook. I have half a dozen drawing apps that I tinker with. When I actually get around to creating or editing an image, this is the one I usually end up using. It’s a good compromise between tons of features and ease of use.

Image Markup: The Annotable app has more features than the built in image markup in Apple’s apps and screenshot feature. When you want to look more profesional it’s a must.


I didn’t bother with office, entertainment, or games here. I’m sure others will cover these more than adequately. Besides, they are mostly the usual suspects. Well, except for games, but I’m not much of a gamer so I have few.
 

J. A.

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If you’ve had or still have an Android device or Google account: there are quite a few Google apps, which work quite well on and sync with iDevices (Google Photos, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome, ...).
 
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noisygirlkk

noisygirlkk

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Hello and welcome to the forum! :) Well, there are over 2 million apps in the iOS/iPadOS App Store so your choices are almost unlimited depending on your needs, interests, and storage capacity on your device (e.g. if you are planning to add a lot of music and photos).

First, take a look at what already comes w/ the iPad, e.g. Mail, Safari (web browsing but many others can be downloaded most for free), Books (may want to also obtain Kindle), Music, Photos (again plenty of other photographic organizers & editors), Writing (Notes & Pages, latter part of Apple's iWork Suite w/ Numbers & Keynote), iTunes store, Calendar/Reminders/Contacts, Clock, and others (download the free iPad Manual from HERE for coverage of the iPadOS offerings already on your machine).

Second, take a look HERE for a bunch of suggestions. As is obvious there are plenty of non-Apple apps - just as an example, on my iPad Pro, I use a LOT of 'folders' to organize my similar apps - below are just four w/ the folder's title - some might be of interest to you? BUT, as a follow-up response, let us know your main 'areas of interest' which will help to make specific suggestions. Dave
.
View attachment 88560 View attachment 88561

Yes you are right that there are unlimited apps out there but i don't have unlimited time to search from them :D and no need to worry about the storage as i also got extra online storage for music and photos at iCloud Photo Library, iCloud Music Library ;)

Yeah just got Kindle as a most best option for reading and the apps you have told here with the descriptions are way awesome reading and analyzing for saved the most of my time.

Woweee, you have shared your screenshots much appreciated as it's really a headache for me organizing the apps after buying a new device.

Looking into you links :) Thanks a million :cool:
 
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noisygirlkk

noisygirlkk

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Reading: Apple’s Books app is the best reading experience, in my opinion. Amazon Kindle is also good, and the book selection is somewhat larger than iBooks. Either one will let you load free books you find elsewhere; most of which can be found in either app’s format.

Mail: I find the built in email client fills all my needs. It’s also the only client that can be used from within other apps. There are lots of other choices if you need extra features, including Outlook if you need full Office integration.

Security: There is no need for virus checkers (or any available). That leaves VPNs (I don’t have one), and password apps. My favorite is 1Password. Its available on pretty much every platform, and will sync across all of them. There are, however, cheaper choices.

Other apps I use a lot.

Built in apps. Most of them are worth checking out before looking for alternatives. In some cases, they have better integration with the OS than third party, even if they don’t provide every bell and whistle.

Calculator: PCalc is probably the most powerful and versatile calculator available of the iPad and iPhone.

Calendar: Fantastical is a good power-up from the the built in Calendar app, and uses the same data so it works side-by-side with no issues.

Contacts: Cardhop is the best Contacts power-up. The biggest weakness of Apple’s Contacts app is that there is no way to manage groups on the iPhone or iPad. Cardhop fixes that. Like Fantastical it integrates with the built in app, so you don’t lose any compatibility.

PDF: Documents by Readle is a excellent all around PDF reader, markup, editor, and file manager. You need a subscription for all the features, but if you do a lot of work with PDF’s, it’s one of the top apps.

Notes: I use the built in Notes app for most things, but other note apps I use for specifics are: Notability, for taking notes on top of PDF files, or other fancy note taking. Nebo, for when I want to write with the pencil, but need to end up with text.

Recording: Ferrite is the best app for recording and editing audio files. It’s a powerhouse, good enough for a lot of podcasters to use as their default tool.

Scanning: Scanner Pro is one of the better document scanning apps. Better on the iPhone, of course, but still useful on the iPad.

Drawing: SketchBook. I have half a dozen drawing apps that I tinker with. When I actually get around to creating or editing an image, this is the one I usually end up using. It’s a good compromise between tons of features and ease of use.

Image Markup: The Annotable app has more features than the built in image markup in Apple’s apps and screenshot feature. When you want to look more profesional it’s a must.


I didn’t bother with office, entertainment, or games here. I’m sure others will cover these more than adequately. Besides, they are mostly the usual suspects. Well, except for games, but I’m not much of a gamer so I have few.


Yes, this is something i really need. Nicely posted/explained. You are awesome :)
 
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noisygirlkk

noisygirlkk

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If you’ve had or still have an Android device or Google account: there are quite a few Google apps, which work quite well on and sync with iDevices (Google Photos, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome, ...).

No, i don't have any :) but thanks for the useful advice....
 

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