What's on your iPad?

Have you taken the plunge and got yourself an iPad yet? Are you sitting on the fence 'cause you’re not sure what the benefits are? Here's what I've got on my iPad and I'd love to hear what's on yours...

I upgraded my iPad 1 to the new iPad and opted for the basic Wi-Fi model. I don't store movies or videos and only keep a small selection of my music as I can access my Sirius satellite radio via their app. In no particular order, here are my favorite apps and why:

Flipboard - this is a widely popular app that is an aggregator of social media, magazine and news channels. What I love about it is the information is displayed in a very user-friendly format, it's easy to navigate and read a variety of feeds in one shell. Bonus Trick...when I attend a show or event, I can pre-load the event's Twitter hashtag as a channel to read/follow so I don't have to search for it every time! Cost: Free

Keynote - this is the ‘Power Point’ for iPad. I can build presentations and promotions quickly and professionally all using my iPad. It took a couple of hours of playing around to get proficient at it but now that I am I couldn't live without it. Cost: $10

Pages - this is the ‘Word’ for iPad. It's easy to use and gives me total flexibility to create, edit and share Word docs. Cost: $10

Dropbox and iCloud - I use these to store and access all my work and personal files. Think of them as virtual hard drives that you can access anywhere... and yes they are secure. Bonus ...with Dropbox you can share folders with others so you don't need to email versions of documents back & forth.

Netflix - this is a great app that allows me to watch TV shows and movies from my iPad or at home through my Wii console. This is great when I'm on the road as I can watch a movie in my room and not pay the hotel to rent one (sorry guys).  Bonus ...I also use Crackle, Global and CityTV but a lot of their content doesn't interest me. Cost: the app is free and the service is $8/month

Epicurious - this is a great app for the amateur cook or chef! Bonus...it comes with a built in grocery item list too. Cost: Free

SoundHound - a must for every iPhone and iPad owner. Don't know who sings that song on the radio? Simply launch the app, let it listen to the song, and it tells you all kind of information including who sang it! Cost: Free

In addition to the above I've got the usual games, banking, and use Notes for meetings and blogging. Bonus Trick... I recently hooked up a wireless receiver at home that I can control and feed music/satellite radio throughout my house (and patio) using AirPlay (100% on the iPad)!

Until next time...

Steve