The Top 10 iPad Apps of 2012 So Far

The announcement of the iPad was met with both positivity and negativity, with naysayers denouncing Apple’s tablet as nothing more than an ‘ipod touch with a big screen’. It’s been over two years since the release of the original iPad, and critics of the device have been proven wrong; the iPad has wowed users around the world and surpassed even Apple’s sales expectations. The increased screen size and friendly development environment has encouraged tens of thousands of app developers to create unique and useful applications that make use of the hardware to provide unique experiences designed for the tablet environment. While tablets running Android, Blackberry and HP’s operating systems contain similar features to the iPad, they lack the apps needed to make the hardware shine. This article will take a look at the top 10 iPad apps of 2012 so far.

Amazon Mobile & Amazon Kindle

Amazon has two apps available on the iPad, the first being the “Amazon Mobile” app. Amazon has taken the world by storm, growing to become one of the most trusted and reliable online retailers with prices that are hard to beat. The “Amazon Mobile” app provides an interface specially designed to make use of the iPad's touch screen that makes it easier than ever to peruse and buy items from Amazon.

Amazon’s second app, “Amazon Kindle”, grants access to the Amazon Kindle store. The Kindle store is one of the largest ebook stores on the Internet, with millions of books up for sale. Amazons iPad Kindle app allows for ebooks to be bought and read on the iPad, turning the iPad into a portable library.

Star Walk

Star Walk is a unique app that enhances star gazing. When loaded, Star Walk scans your location and shows the location of stars, planets and constellations visible from where you’re standing. By aiming the iPad at the stars, Star Walk scans the night sky and shows details about the sights in front of you. Star Walk provides a great deal of information allowing for a more informed and educational look at the stars.

Garage Band

Garage Band for iPad turns your iPad into a full recording studio complete with instruments, allowing for music to be created easily wherever you are. Simply choose what type of music you want to play, hit the ‘jam’ button and start playing your instrument. It’s that easy. Garage Band caused a revolution when it was originally released for Macs, allowing professional and amateur musicians to effortlessly record songs – Garage Band for the iPad is set to do the same.

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is a computational search engine capable of answering questions. For example, if you were to ask Wolfram Alpha, “What is the weather today?” it would reply with your current location and a weather forecast. The Wolfram Alpha for iPad app features an interface specially designed for the iPad, making it easier and more fun to access the wealth of knowledge available on Wolfram Alpha.

Facebook

Facebook is the biggest social networking site in the world, with millions of users visiting the site every day. Facebook’s iPad app features a special user interface designed to take advantage of the iPad’s large touchscreen that makes it easier to interact with Facebook.

Jamie’s Recipes

Jamie Oliver is one of the most popular chefs today, with his cook books dominating the book charts week after week. His new iPad app, Jamie’s Recipes, provides a number of recipes alongside detailed instructions, videos and ingredient lists that make it easier to make delicious recipes. The app comes with 10 free recipes as standard with more available to buy in the app’s store.

Draw Something

Draw Something brings the game of Pictionary into the 21st century. The game is simple: you’re presented with a word and have to do your best to draw a picture that symbolises the word; another player is then shown the picture and has to guess what the word is. This simple game has been played for decades, and it’s no less fun today than it was before. The free version is supported by ads, but an ad-free version is available on the app store for a small cost.

Beatwave

Beatwave is a beat mixer that makes it easy to sample songs to create electronic music. By tapping on instrument samples and mixing and matching them up, it’s possible to create and record high quality songs and share them with others. A ‘Pro’ version featuring additional instrument samples and functionality is available for just over a fiver.

Dropbox

Dropbox makes it easy to share files between multiple devices. When installing Dropbox on your PC or Mac, a special Dropbox folder is created. All files that are placed in this folder are uploaded onto Dropbox’s servers. By using the Dropbox iPad app, it’s possible to access these files and interact with them on the iPad. Dropbox provides 2.5GB of storage for free, with more storage being available with their paid pro plans.

Imdb

The Internet Movie Database, or imdb for short, is the internet’s largest repository of film information, containing details about actors, films, and directors, as well as providing reviews of films and user critiques. The imdb app for iPad provides an interface designed for the iPad’s touchscreen that makes it effortless to browse around the site and learn about films.

Thousands of apps have been released already for the iPad, and it doesn’t look like support for the device is going to dry up any time soon. The early months of 2012 have already provided a number of brilliant apps that make use of the iPad to provide useful and fun experiences... who knows what else is in store!

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