Okay … Here’s a quick rundown of what’s installed on my iPad right now.
First, a quick look at all of the stock apps:
- Calendar — The first of the built-in apps, Calendar is quite improved in its upgrade from the iPhone. The Month view, especially in landscape orientation, is everything I wanted it to be.
- Contacts — This app takes on the look and feel of a Moleskin address book on the iPad. Its functionality is pretty straight-forward.
- Notes — This is basically the same as the iPhone app, with the addition of a list of all your existing notes on the left side of the screen when in portrait orientation. It still has that god-awful font, Marker Felt, which I absolutely hate.
- Google Maps — Arguably the most improved app, compared to its iPhone version, Maps on the iPad is fast. The larger display lends itself well to the experience, resulting in a touch-interactive map that is roughly the same size as the map I see when I use Google Maps on my computer. This is the way Google Maps was meant to be used.
- Videos — Used for playing movies, TV shows, and other videos, this app is pretty straight-forward. There is a lot of aesthetic polish (watch the transition from one view to the next, as you select a movie, then press play), which makes for a very satisfying experience.
- YouTube — Again, this is a pretty straight-forward app. It uses the h.264 encodes of the videos on YouTube, which usually come across surprisingly crisp. There are a lot of minor compression artifacts, but that’s just the nature of the beast. The best feature here is the ability to read the detailed video info, browse for similar videos, or read and post comments, all while watching the video in the top half of the screen.
- iTunes — This is just another view of the iTunes Store, formatted to better fit the iPad screen. It harnesses a lot of the HTML5 upgrade we saw to the store last year. You can use it to find and buy music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, audiobooks, and iTunes U content. I still don’t understand why this app is called “iTunes” (versus “iTunes Store”). It confuses users who are used to using iTunes to play their music on their laptop desktop.
- App Store — This is functionally identical to the iTunes app, but is exclusive to downloadable apps.
- Settings — Not much has really changed here from the iPhone, aside from a list of all the setting groups (the top-most menu on the iPhone app) on the left hand side, allowing you to quickly and easily jump from one group of settings to the next.
- Safari — There are a few minor aesthetic changes (mostly in the navigation and location bars), but this is otherwise the same browser you’d find on the iPhone. The larger screen and blazingly fast A4 SoC make this feel like a desktop browsing experience.
- Mail – In portrait orientation, this app is virtually unchanged. In landscape orientation, a list of all your messages for the current mailbox (Inbox, Sent, Trash, etc.) will appear on the left.
- Photos — I haven’t used this much, but it seems to be a from-scratch build, specifically designed for the iPad. Photos are grouped into visual stacks (based on Event or Album information), then you use your finger to select and open any of the piles.
- iPod — As its name would suggest, this is the music playback app. Its visual interface has been completely redesigned for the iPad, but I’m not sure that it makes the best possible use of the screen real estate. If you’ve ever used an iPod, you’ll know how to use this app. I still don’t understand why Cover Flow and iTunes LP were omitted.
Now, for the apps that I’ve downloaded:
- iBooks — $0 — This is an eBook reader, built and designed by Apple for the iPad. It came with a free copy of Winnie-the-Pooh, which I thought was a nice touch. The artwork is bright and vibrant, as you’d expect on this gorgeous screen. There’s a built-in dictionary (just double-tap on a word), one-touch brightness controls (saving you a trip back to the Settings app), and a built-in search tool. The iBookstore is literally built onto the backside of the app, where you can instantly buy and download a book to add to your library. You can also download free books (ePub format) from Google Books or Project Gutenburg, then sync them to your iPad from your desktop iTunes software.
- Netflix — $0 — This might just be the killer app for the iPad launch. It’s basically a custom web interface for the Netflix.com website, but it also enables access to all of the streaming (aka “Watch Instantly”) content they offer. A Netflix subscription is required, starting at around $9 per month.
- ABC Player — $0 — Like the Netflix app, this is basically a custom web interface to the streaming section of ABC.com, where you can watch the latest episodes from many of the network’s most popular series. It’s pretty buggy right now, though, as I haven’t gotten a single episode to load successfully.
- WeatherBug Elite for iPad — $0 — This is one of the best weather applications I’ve seen, on any platform, and for any device. It uses the Google Maps interface and mapping data as its base, then adds several layers of radar and satellite info. It also has widgets for current conditions, a 6-day forecast, and local weather cameras.
- Twitteriffic — $0 — This is the least worst of all the Twitter apps currently available for the iPad. It gets the job done, but it absolutely pales in comparison to Tweetie 2 for the iPhone.
- Harbor Master HD — $0 — This is a line-drawing game where you have to guide ships to docks so they can unload their cargo, then guide them from the dock to the edge of the map. The goal is to unload as many ships as possible before two of them collide. This game is simple, addictive, gorgeous, and free. What’s not to like?
- Labyrinth 2 HD Lite — $0 — This is the demo version of Labyrinth 2 HD, which itself is an adaptation of an old wood-and-marble game I mastered in elementary school. It adds a lot of new mechanics (lasers, magnets, fans, and more), which add to the fun and keep things interesting. I’ll probably be buying the full version of this (for $8) before too long.
- Zen Bound 2 — $8 — This game is sort of hard to describe, but the goal is to wrap a piece of rope around a wooden block, covering the entire block with rope. You do this by twisting and turning the block with the iPad’s multitouch interface. The soundtrack is calm and ambient, adding to the meditative nature of the whole package. Highly recommended.
- Canabalt — $3 — I bought this for my iPhone about six months ago and have really enjoyed it. It’s a one-button action/arcade game, where the goal is simply to jump across various gaps and obstacles as your character runs — at an increasingly faster pace — across a city’s skyline. The pixel-based artwork scales beautifully to the iPad screen, which alleviates the biggest problem I’ve seen with running iPhone apps on the iPad.
So, there you have it: a quick run-down of everything currently on my iPad. There are a lot of details left out (like the ink bleed-through rendered on the back of every page in iBooks), so I’m sure that I’ll be going in-depth on one or more of these before too long.
For a closer look at the built-in apps, plus iBooks, check out this set of guided tours from Apple.
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