Must have iPad 2 Applications

It’s been a while since my last post on tablets back in November and a lot has changed.  I recently got an iPad 2 which is my first tablet, having an iPhone I was expecting a lot of applications for the iPad and was slightly disappointed.

Most iPhone applications work on the iPad but are designed for the iPhone and don’t make use of the extra screen estate.  Apple currently have over 65,000 applications for the iPad, here are some must haves –

BBC iPlayer – The iPlayer app is very useful to catch up on TV whilst on the move, it works well with a good internet connection.

4oD Catch up – Similar to iPlayer lets you watch your favorite channel 4 shows.

Sky News – This apps makes the most of the iPad, with lots of rich content and a live news stream facility.

Skype  – This is the same app as the iPhone, it does not look great on the iPad as it is magnified but works well on the iPad 2 making using of the front and back cameras.

Twitter – Have tried the various Twitter apps, I prefer Twitter’s own app on the iPad, it has a nice feature where if you pinch the tweet it will expand to show the full profile of the tweeter.

BTFon – If you have BT Broadband or Openzone this app saves time by avoiding the need to enter your login details each time your in a BT Fon or Openzone hotspot by logging you in automatically.

Vevo HD – If you like watching music video’s this is the app for you, I was surprised with range of content Vevo has and good quality, it also has a social element to see who is watching music videos around you.

RightMove – The app using the GPS to find flats and houses on rent and sale around you, has a neat user interface.

Team Viewer – This app is ideal for the iPad, it allows you to remote desktop to any machine then take full control and manage whilst on the move.  It is all for free!

Apple Remote – The Apple remote is must have if you have a lot of music on your iTunes at home and like to search and play from anywhere in the house.

DropBox – The iPad does not have a file system to let you store documents, this app gives you access to all your files on your DropBox account which is stored in the cloud and can be access from your PC to transfer files.

Metro – This app lets your browse the news and also lets you download the paper and flick over each page.

So these are just a few of the apps for the iPad I like, what are your favourites?

Tablets – iPad, Galaxy Tab, Playbook or eTouch?

Since Apple’s launch of its iPad in April, more and more tablets have been announced and some have recently hit the market.  The Samsung Galaxy Tab went on sale on  Nov 1^st and could be the first serious competitor to the iPad.   The Blackberry Playbook was also recently announced and is expected to be available in 2011.  We have also seen high street retailers enter the market with the cheaper tablets by Toy’s R Us and Next starting at just £90.

The question is do you really need a tablet?  What purpose does it fill if you have a high-end Smartphone and Laptop?   A recent study found that 25% of UK iPads never leave the home and so Samsung are positioning the Galaxy Tab as small enough to fit into your jacket pocket.

The prices of tablets are similar to a sim free high-end Smartphone’s and mid range laptops, so if you have both then you need to question what value it really adds. The capabilities of tablets vary with range of screen sizes, storage, connectivity, cameras and operating systems.  Here is my comparison of some of the tablets

With a wide range of prices, features and sizes different tablets will appeal to different customers. The operating system and its associated app stores is a key attraction with Apple and Android having a wide range of free and paid for applications compared to Blackberry App World.

My recommendation would be the Galaxy Tab with front facing camera its useful for video calls, small enough to keep with you and the growing Android App Store should offer you the applications you need. 

If your on a budget its worth considering the eTouch or Next Tablet at a lower price you can still surf the web and run some apps.   If you don’t feel the need for a tablet at the moment then sit back  and see what Apple launch as the second generation iPad.

Must have iPhone Applications….continued

As more and more new and exciting apps are introduced every week onto the Apple iPhone App Store, here are some more of my must have iPhone applications

1)    Sky Mobile TV – This application is great for those that do not have Sky but like to watch the occasional football match and enables you to watch Sky Sports 1,2,3, Xtra, Sky Sports News, ESPN, At The Races and Sky News all live on your device!

It also allows you to browse the channel guides and see what’s playing over the next 24 hours.  The down side is it is not free and will require subscription to Sky Mobile TV for £6 per month.  For non-sky customers this is reasonable but for Sky TV customers already paying subscriptions I can understand this could be an issue and they may expect this for free.

There is an offer on O2 where you can get 3 months Sky Mobile TV FREE on your iPhone by sending a text to SKY to 2020 for your promotional code but is limited to the first 150,000 customers only.

Overall it is a great application but Sky is only able to offer this service over Wi-Fi.  I am still debating if I will subscribe after the 3-month trial.

2)    Tesco Finder – This app by Tesco lets you find any Tesco’s in the UK using your iPhone GPS location capability and once inside the store of your choice you can find any product on any shelf.

The Tesco Finder app is great and integrates with Google Maps to give you directions to you store, shows contact information and what services are available.  The second part of the app then lets your search for any product in the store and shows you the latest offers with the exact isle and shelf the product is on.

So no more annoying the Tesco staff who are usually always busy stocking the shelves, you just search on the app and find the products yourself.

3)    Bobba Bar – This is a different application altogether but stumbled upon this in social networking section of the app store.  It is similar to second life where you have places to go and avatars but simple and effective on your iPhone.

The app has a great intuitive interface and look/feel where you can set up your avatar then move around different areas.  The initial take-up has been great since introducing this app on the iPhone.

4)    Knocking Live Video – I found this application yesterday and think its work a try and first of its kind I have seen which lets you share instant video between two iPhones on 3G or WiFi.  New features like sound and recording should be coming soon along with support on other platforms like Blackberry and Android.  See the Knocking Live website for more details.

5)    Google Wave – There is a simple web app from google and you can access by going to wave.google.com in mobile Safari on your iPhone. It will warn you that you are not using a browser supported during the preview, but if you click through, it should work ok.

You can then get rid of Safari wrapper altogether by saving to a bookmark on your Home screen, and it creates a little icon which launches mobile Safari to that page. Next time you launch from the home screen you get the look and feel of a web app and works ok but slightly slow.

Moving to the Dark Side with – Apple MacBook Pro

Having been using Windows for most my life I was recently given an opportunity to trial an Apple MacBook Pro with the new Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

From the hardware perspective the MacBook Pro is a solid machine, which is actually carved from a single block of aluminium. The MacBook Pro is slim and light so you can take it anywhere. It has a vivid LED-backlit display and with a high performance graphic card that makes it easy on the eyes.

The battery life far exceeds any other machine I have owned and lasts up to 7 hours on a single charge. Also the glowing Apple Logo on the front and backlit keyboard provides great finishing touch.

From the Operating System perspective it is quite different to your Windows XP or Vista although Windows 7 has some similarities.

The first thing I noticed was startup times in particular using the sleep feature which is like the hibernate capability in Windows. The MacBook Pro just take seconds to Wake-Up from lifting the lid and all the applications you were using are up and running and ready to use. Even starting from “cold” takes approximately one minute compared to 3-5 on my Windows XP laptop.

The login to wireless networks is more or less instant and your mail, IM and other applications are logged in on startup, no waiting around looking at the “egg-timer” like you would have to on Windows.

The Dock is a great feature and Windows 7 has introduced something similar, it usually sits at the bottom of your desktop and give your access to all your running applications, it also give your access to recently downloaded files and documents.

The Finder capability is great and lets your find documents and emails instantly. You can also see devices attached and folders on the machine, it is similar to Windows Explorer but quicker and with the “Quick View” feature you can see the file and document within Finder.

The new Mac OS X Snow Leopard includes support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 so you can use the native applications like mail, iCal and Address Book for your work email rather then MS Entourage. This is good step forward for Apple but they have lots of work to do in this space and missing key features like Out of Office support or delegate access.

The MacBook Pro has a multi touch track pad, which takes a little getting use too but introduces the two-finger scrolling feature which is ideal for scanning web pages and mail.

There are lots of other interesting features and capabilities I keep finding every week including iPhoto new Faces feature which has some facial recognition software that enable sorting of pictures. I will save the rest for a future blog post.

So overall it was a transition from my Windows machines and took a few weeks to get used too but worth the initial pain. If you have already taken a step forward and got an iPhone then I would recommend trying an Apple Mac.