By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
The Apple iPad has been out for barely more than a week and already we have seen a number of compelling iPad apps that really define its functionality. The iPad has been heralded as a media consumption device and for the most part that is true.
We wanted to explore how it might be more of a content creation device and possibly a substitute for a notebook computer. Since we are using a US iPad in Canada, we were dismayed to find out that we had limited access to the iPad App Store and were unable to buy the iWorks suite of apps (Pages, Numbers and Keynote).
Office Pro offers Word and Excel document creation on the iPad
Needing a more robust word processor than the included Notes App, we were thrilled to find a viable option in Office Pro ($7.99 ).
Office Pro allows you to create and edit Word Documents and Excel Spreadsheets which you can then email or sync to cloud-based services like Apple's MobileMe or Google Docs.
While this offers basic word processing features, it makes good use of the iPad's screen real estate. We haven't used the spreadsheet function extensively but it seems to look and work much alike an older, no-frills version of Microsoft's own Excel app which is pretty much all you might need.
There are some niggles with Office Pro. When backspacing text it sometimes runs out of steam and leaves you stuck, you can move something elese and go back to backspacing but it is tedious. There's also an issue when typing on landscape mode where the page does not automatically scroll as you type. This means you need to manually scroll down as you type. These features will hopefully be fixed in upcoming revisions, we're just thankful Office Pro exists and allows us to be more productive on the iPad. We wrote a few articles, including this one, on Office Pro.
Amazon Kindle (free) on the iPad is simply the best ebook reading experience www have had. Better than using Amazon's Kindle hardware. We transferred our existing library and were soon immersed in the experience. Users get the option of white, black or beige backgrounds for the books as well as varied the font sizes. The best thing is that the cool page turning dynamics of the iBooks app has also been integrated into the Kindle App so it simulates page turning and has variable speed depending on how fast you type next and previous.
TVU Player brings 80's videos and a ton of other content to the iPad
TVU Player ($4.99) offers streaming video feeds from all over the world. This app is perfect if you have a relatively strong WiFi signal and want to use the iPad as streaming TV. There are a ton of sports channels, a few movie channels and a rich collection of news from all over the world with more being added regularly. TVU Player shows how compelling video on the iPad can be and with network stations pushing content to the web, it makes sense that the iPad will thrive in the video and movie viewing space.
Epicurious (Free) is an amazing app for people who love food and love to cook. Linked to their rich database of rated recipes, Epicurious will show you hundreds of recipes based on the ingredients you may have available. The information is presented clearly and vividly with yummy looking photos to accompany many of the recipes. Epicurious already has the content but it found a smart way to repackage it for the iPad market. On the web, Epicurious is one of hundreds of food websites, on the iPad it is simply the best food app currently available.
One of the best apps to demonstrate the iPad and its multi-touch capabilities is Air Hockey ($.99). This game is great for two-player matches of air hockey, the speed action and physics are simply amazing and really do a fine job of simulating the high energy nature of the game. Everyone I have showed the iPad to has seen the Air Hockey game and has liked it even if they're not into games or into technology.
Canadian Reviewer will continue to review and cover iPad apps as they come along.
