I feel like I gave the impression that I’m not enjoying my iPad, or that I regret its purchase. I don’t, and have been having a lot of fun with it. My big grief in the last post deals with stupid corporations, not limitations of the iPad. Anyway, from my few days of using this thing (I’m typing this blog post on it now), here are some of my favorite apps:

Alien Blue HD

I surf Reddit a lot, and the only way I do so on my iPhone is via the free version of Alien Blue. Conde Nast’s own client is terrible, and even the Reddit admins tell people to skip it in favor of Alien Blue. The iPad version of Alien Blue is just as convenient as the iPhone version, making it easier to reply to threads and browse subreddits than in the web browser.

Carcassonne

This is one of my favorite board games and it’s lovely on the iPad. My aging iPhone is a bit slow when playing it, with lag in many places. It’s much smoother on the iPad, with the board loading almost instantly and turns going faster because the computer players take less time to decide on moves. It’s nice playing with Jon, too, because of the bigger screen.

Upad

This is my favorite app for handwriting and taking notes because of the zoom feature it offers. It can zoom in on a section, let you write, then your actual writing is much smaller on the paper and fits in the lines. It also allows typed text, so I switch between drawing and typing for drawing figures, writing out formulas and symbols, and typing plain-text notes. It’s been great in class. On my MacBook, I use a combination of Curio and OmniOutliner for drawing and taking notes, and it’s nice to have a single program for both.

Artree

This is a simple little app for generating pretty tree images. That’s it, but it’s been very relaxing just to watch the different random trees grow, and then use the resulting image as wallpaper. I’d like to use one of the images I make in a layout here, too.

Doodle Fit

This is a game where you try to fit Tetris-like pieces into a shape, like tangrams but the number of pieces changes with each puzzle, and you can’t rotate the pieces. You can either drag and drop pieces into the boundary shape, or you can draw them in. Everything has a scribbled look to it, and the sound effects are like someone drawing on paper.

AppShopper

This has been the way I’ve found several sales in the App Store, and how I got Procreate today for free instead of the usual $8. It keeps track of sales, updates, and new apps in the App Store, and displays them like an RSS reader. I like checking it daily to find nifty little apps that I’m interested in when they’re free, but that I wouldn’t buy otherwise.

Zite and Flipboard

I honestly get these two confused because I use them for such similar purposes. They both display news from different sources, displayed in magazine format. It’s really a lovely layout and both apps are pleasant to use. They can connect to your Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr accounts to display your friends’ stuff.

Procreate

This is a nice painting program with layers and custom brushes. I haven’t managed to do much that’s impressive with it myself because I’m not an artist, but I love that I can make my own brushes with shapes and textures from other images. I’ve had fun fiddling about in the app, and I caught it on sale for free.