I tried out Apple’s own iBooks app initially, but you just can’t beat Amazon’s selection – or the somewhat reassuring knowledge that your eBooks will work on both an iPad and a Kindle. Yes, that’s right – there is a Kindle app for the iPad. The audio app has not been specifically formatted for iPad yet, but that doesn’t really matter much once you click “Play.”. With 23,469 public domain books in its text collection (all from the Gutenberg Project, I am assuming), Free Books is well worth the price tag – free! You can also download the Free Audiobooks app, which claims 2,947 classics, for $1.99. So, I’ve decided to chunk all of those into Pulse as a place where I can have a quick look at them from time to time. Namely, I like to separate out mainstream news and the “mega” blogs like Mashable and TechCrunch from my more focused RSS feeds. It’s somewhat new to my mix, but I am trying it out to address a particular issue. Pulse bills itself as a “visual news reader” and makes sure to mention on its download page that Steve Jobs himself referenced the app in a recent keynote address. (So far, I have stuck with the free version and have not found the ads obtrusive.). The free version is ad supported, or you can upgrade to a no-ad version for $2.99. MobileRSS is a free app that connects to your Google Reader account and puts into a user-friendly iPad form. RSS feeds have become the backbone of my learning mix, so not having one on the iPad is unimaginable. At this point I am still using the free version, but an upgrade to the pro version may be in my future.
Partly this is a matter of convenience – using Evernote helps greatly with synching notes between the iPad and my laptop – but by having it on a mobile device, I am also in a much better position to take notes when I am out and about. I’ve been using the note-taking app Evernote on my laptop for some time, but since having it available on the iPad, it has assumed a much more prominent place in my learning mix. Regular readers know I am a big believer in taking notes. (Note: You can find all of these simply by going to the app store on the iPad and searching, but I’ve also provided Web site URLs where available.) The iPad is a great tool for lifelong learning, and since that happens to be the focus of this blog, here are the ten apps I have found useful so far as part of my iPad learning mix: Of course, plunking down hundreds of dollars for a highly breakable mobile device that doesn’t even feature a camera wasn’t an entirely crazy thing to do. Apple excels at marketing to our irrational side ( hilarious video to drive home that point), and I guess the iPad was the path into mine. So, I was a bit surprised when I saw the iPad and immediately felt like I had to have one. In spite of being involved with technology in one way or another for most of my working career, I’ve never been much of a gadget guy.
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