Here are some apps that I have on my iPad, and the rationale. This, it turns out, is a great exercise, because it forces you to really self-consciously address your technology needs and (actual) use. Note that some of the suggestions that I am making include apps for which you have to pay.

The Center’s goal for getting iPads was to allow us to demonstrate Cleveland Historical (http://app.mobileclevelandhistory.org/) to folks on a big screen (since we cannot project it from PCs and don’t always have PCs present.) Cleveland Historical is cool on a smartphone but it is hard for two or more people to share a smartphone easily. We also want these to be productivity and teaching tools. How can they be so used; is it something that we imagine using and/or having students, teachers, and community collaborators use? Finally, we also wanted to explore the iPad as a publishing platform for the stories/sites we’ve developed on Cleveland Historical. How, we want to ask, is curating a city different on the larger tablets? On this last count, the answer is yes, and we’re working up some exciting solutions.

We purchased the 64GB version, without 3G connectivity. The 3G connectivity is expensive and for most of our uses, wireless connections will be available. Additionally, I have a phone (HTC EVO) that acts as a wireless hotspot, so for the cost of just one phone/4G data connection, I can receive calls AND operate my iPad. I think this latter is an important configuration, and might be superior to paying for two phone lines/data connections.

Second, we bought little mac wireless keyboards to go with the iPads because they transform our set-up into a more functional productive tool that can be used on the road.

In that vein, we have bought a series of productivity applications, which I will tell you about briefly.

Keynote, which allows you to project power points (and do some modest editing of them.) Important for making presentations with your ipad on the go. I use this in my teaching on a regular basis. Even when I am not using the iPad to project on the screen (and am using my laptop instead), I have my notes open on the iPad to help me with my lectures/presentations.

DocstoGo: This is the best editor for word docs, excel, and powerpoint; may allow you to create pdfs, I don’t recall.
Dropbox: This is easy to use and free; it allows you to create a web folder on your laptop, school, home desktop, and ipad (and any smart phones) that is accessible to all.
goodreader: This allows you to connect to all your web folders (including dropbox, google documents, and the xythos web development system that we have at CSU, as well as virtual desktops, if they are available.) I think it costs, but we use all these tools, so I downloaded; importantly, it is a sort of safety net if my use of dropbox (i.e. I forget to save a file there) lets me down. Also, we share hundreds of files on grant projects, so it is easy to “archive” them and have them available at a later date. (This is where we save hundreds upon hundreds of hours of audio, thousands of unique images, and such.)
gogodocs: This allows you to manage your google documents folder. As suggested above, our team uses google docs widely (primarily for documents), so this is the direct entree into those.

I would, on the above tools, imagine them simply in this way: a) docstogo lets you edit your documents, b) dropbox lets you manager your personal files, without needing the little thumb drive, c) gogodocs gives you access to files shared with other folks, such as your colleagues at Bay, d) if you have more complex web folder setups, then good reader gives easy access (in one place) to your complete archive of materials.

Atomic web browser: Wow. Safari is a very limited browser. Atomic lets you mimic other browsers, it lets you print, it lets you project webpages (you have to get a little dongle thingy to connect to projectors, by the way), and oh so much more. I don’t use it as a default but as my very specialized project, work-related browser. It is awesome. So good, in fact, that I should probably just ditch Safari.

Printcentral: I purchased and downloaded several print functions because I want to be able to print to my home printer, on a home wireless network, while I am playing on my ipad at home. Imagine reading a document (perhaps a syllabus or a document shared by a colleague), maybe editing it in docstogo, and saving it to your dropbox. But, you decide you want to print a copy of your revisions and give them to your colleague the next day, or perhaps make a pdf. You discover, quickly, that you have to go to your traditional laptop/desktop, fire it up, go to dropbox, open, and then print. That sucks. So, I experimented with several print applications (bought three actually) and this one worked the best and easiest. The print quality is a little compromised, but it is great.

On a separate note, if you operate a wireless printer, consistent with Mac Air, then you are good to go with the iPad, or so I am told. But, I don’t, and I have to print in multiple settings, and this allows me (in theory and so far in practice) to connect to different sorts of networks and print.

Evernote: I love Evernote for keeping and taking notes that I later use … It allows me to tag, organize, and share them; you can get it on desktop, multiple smart phone platforms, and ipad.
Plaintext: simple text editor, allows you to email and other stuff.
Simplenote: like Plaintext, with a bit more functionality, though not as simple as plaintext.
Both Simplenote and Plaintext are like Notes, which is already available. I am thinking these are a matter of personal preference, but maybe not. They are all clearly in the same category, though.

Flipboard: This is by far my favorite app for iPad. I love its slick design. But, I also love its functionality. It allows you to connect, via RSS I think, all your various information feeds, like twitter, Facebook, and flickr. Also, connects you to pre-arranged content feeds that fliboard makes available (about technology, the arts, museums, … a wide range of relatively esoteric subjects.) It formats those feeds and makes them available in a sort of magazine format. Not only does it look cool, but it makes them easier to read. To me, it suggests some important future directions in integrating social media into cultural applications; for example, I can imagine Cleveland Historical running social media, designed/formatted and well presented, as part of a tablet presentation.

Feedlerpro allows you to take your google (or any) RSS feeds and displays them; I use this for connecting the to various blogs I try to read. Now, I read them more often, about once a week, but unless this is important to you, I am less impressed. the jury is still out.
Flickrstudio connects you to your flickr photo stream.
Zinio appears to be a magazine publishing platform. I love how it looks and the magazines that are available. I think magazines are going to comeback because of ipad and other tablets and readers. They look great and are fun to navigate.

I have some other stuff too: NPR, Angry Birds, Doodle Jump; Remember the Milk (which is cool, but I am not yet a convert to such memory jogging todo list software; though it syncs on ALL my platforms), NYTimes; Friendly (for Facebook, which is terrible); iBooks (using it to keep PDFs of my course syllabi and such, which is so, so, so convenient); BBC News; TWC MAX+ for weather (although I have yet to see a weather application that I like); (which does not work as well as it should nor as well as it does on your Firefox browser); Guardian Eyewitness; WordPress (which allows me to make blog posts easily); Wikipanion; Discover (also based on Wikipedia); and Dragon Dictation (which I used rarely.)

By the way, my google calendars integrate well with my iPad calendar and present beautifully. I now use my iPad to control all my calendar functions, which has made me way more organized.

As much as I love my smart phone, I find that the larger screen of the tablet has really piqued my imagination. Let me know what works for you too!