E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week – Week #9

As we keep witnessing how the iPad is entering a whole bunch of new markets for tablets that perhaps never thought they would be making it that far, while being taken by storm by the iPad itself like they are at the moment, here I am, once again, ready to go and share with you folks the next blog post from the series of My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week, this time around with Week #9. First though I would want to share with you folks a couple of rather helpful articles you may want to check out, specially, if you are a librarian or perhaps an English language teacher. They are just basically a couple of articles with plenty of helpful tips and recommendations on Apps to check out, specially for those two groups, which I am sure is going to keep you all busy for a while. To name: “40 iPad Apps That Librarians Love” and “iPad Apps for English Language Teachers“, respectively. And now that we are over with that short introduction, let me recommend you as well to read one of those posts a good friend of mine put together just recently and that sounds incredibly scary as to how well he has described not only his own iPad experience so far, but mine, too! Check out Jim Worth‘s “What’s so special about the iPad“… Yes, indeed, that’s exactly how I feel about it myself: special!

Some of Jim’s thoughts on what appeals to him about the iPad would also be very true for me: the always Instant On, the All Day Battery Life, the Portability, the Continuous and Free Software Updates, the Social Web, the Video and Audio Capabilities and, of course, the games, the brilliant games that I have been playing there now for a few months and that helped my gamer self resurface once again from the good old times! However, there are still plenty of other things for which I *heart* my iPad experience and very shortly I will be putting together another blog entry where I will try to cover the main reasons as to why I gave in a few months back, bought my iPad, while in the US, and haven’t walked back ever since!

The always inspiring Paul Gillin already hints some of the topics I will be covering as well in that upcoming blog post in a recent entry he wrote under the title “Age of the Tablet Has Begun“, which, I am sure you would agree with me, has got a very suggestive title of what’s to come in the new year we are approaching fast and furious. Indeed, Paul is just basically detailing how he feels the iPad, and other upcoming tablets, whenever they come out!, are going to change the whole concept of mobility and portability, even beyond that one of ultra-portable devices like netbooks or the MacBook Air, to name a couple. And I think he is absolutely right and spot on on that one, since the last couple of months, while I have been on the road myself in various different business trips, I, too, have experienced what it is like just relying on my iPad while presenting to customers, or being immersed in workshops, attending & presenting at conference events, etc. etc. and just having to rely effectively on my iPad alone.

To name a couple of very simple and straight forward benefits, which I will touch base on at a later time on that other upcoming post, from carrying an iPad for your business travelling, as an starting point, is that both my shoulders and my back are incredibly grateful they no longer have to carry that extra bag which weighs a few extra pounds, more than probably necessary ; instead I just have to carry with me my iPad in its light case and off we go. Instant access, wherever I may well be, ready to work and catch up with things under whatever the circumstances, scenarios and whatever other contexts. The other benefit is that my wrists are rather grateful, too! Mainly, because I am no longer spending so much time in front of the Mac typing away, but instead I am much more mobile, changing work places on a rather regular basis and finding those lovely breaks one can use here and there to give those wrists a well deserved break. Something that while using the Mac I keep skipping time and time again, for whatever the reason…

Like I said, there are several other reasons as to why the iPad is probably that particular device that has changed, the most substantially over the last 6 months!, the way I interact with my own working environment, whether behind the firewall or outside. It’s that device that has certainly brought back a level of comfort that I felt I was losing time and time again when having to spend too much time in front of the Mac itself. Now I can still keep up and have that mobility I once thought I lost it for good!

But you will find out plenty more about the rest of the other benefits I am getting from my own iPad experience in that upcoming post. For now though, I am going to go ahead with the usual sharing of the “My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week“, this time around for Week #9 picking up those Top 5 iPad Apps from the ones I keep sharing every so often over at my Twitter acount under the hash tag #elsuapps. So if you would want to see which ones I am sharing on a daily basis, you may want to subscribe to the Twitter feed from that hash tag. As usual, this set of recommendations helps me in two different areas: first, as a way for me to recommend some of the iPad Apps I have been enjoying quite a bit as of late, as more and more of my friends and colleagues are purchasing their iPads and want to know which ones I have been enjoying the most and, secondly, a method for me to remember and capture them over here in my own blog, since Twitter doesn’t want to do a proper job at it, at least, for now. In a way, it’s like my own Personal Knowledge Sharing iPad tips!

As usual, I will be recommending 5 different Apps, one of which is the iPad Game of the Week and the others are Apps I keep using on a regular basis for a bunch of tasks and activities, both for work and for personal use. I will also try to keep the reasons why I am recommending them a bit short and include the link to them in iTunes, so you can have a look into them right away and without delay, should you be interested in any of them. And, as always, if you would have any other iPad apps you yourself would want to recommend, share them across in the comments section, and I will incorporate them into future posts as well. The more, the better!

Thus without much further ado, let’s go with the recommendations for Week #9:

• XpenseTracker – (Expense Tracker & Mileage Log): This is one of my favourite iPad Apps to keep track of expenses, both personal and work related, specially, for when I am in the road and need to keep track of them in order to declare them at a later time, for the work ones, and to keep an eye on things for the personal ones. It’s just as good as it gets, in my opinion, more than anything else because it allows you to get the job done easily and, most importantly, export it elsewhere for easier processing while handling those expenses. A must-have for those travel warriors out there!
• Slide by Slide: My good friend Stu McIntyre recommended this one a little while ago over at the This Week In Lotus podcast as perhaps one of the most powerful iPad Apps to view, digest and share across presentations stored in one of our favourite Web 2.0 tools available out there: Slideshare and after having used it myself for a little while now I can confirm it just rocks!! It’s my default viewer for Slideshare decks at the moment and the ease of use it has along with the lack of ads surely makes it a treat working with it, specially when you are hunting down for ideas and other thoughts to reuse for your upcoming presentations! Very very helpful!
• All-IN-1 Battery HD: Yes, I know! Even though the battery of the iPad can last from anything between 10 to 13 hours, I still like to have a little App that helps me stay informed about the status of the battery, hours I got left for various activities and how to fine tune things better, to, even get better results! Well, that is exactly what All-IN-1 Battery HD does for you and although there are a bunch of other related iPad Apps, this is probably one of the best out there! Oh, and it has a lovely Weather widget you can use at the same time! hehe

• Google Earth: At this point in time, there is probably very little that I would need to add about Google Earth that may not have been said yet about it, but if I can add my ¢2 I could probably say that the experience in an iPad is fantastic! Having that ability to check out places, while on the move, to see where you are going, what you need to do, places to check, people to meet in places you never heard about, show everyone where you live or where you work in a way they, too, can interact with it at the same time as you are, is just priceless! It’s just like having that wonderful thing we call World right at your fingertips! Amazing! This is one of those Apps I really enjoy using with people who have never used the Web, nor are they interested in it. Yes, I know, there are still plenty of people out there in that realm and they all *love* the Google Earth iPad App… I can’t blame them for it. I do, too! 
  

• Fieldrunners for iPad: And, finally, the iPad Game of the Week, which in this case comes directly from the iPhone, where I first fell in love with Fieldrunners; it’s a rather simple game with a rather concrete plot, but, boy, does it get addictive the more you play it and the game develops further! I can guarantee you that you will be spending a bunch of hours playing this fun game and don’t get bored with it! And the music is rather catchy, too! hehe

And that’s it for today, folks! Very soon I will be putting together the next one which will make Week #10 of My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week. Stay tuned for that one to come up! For now, I would want to wrap up this blog entry by reminding folks to check the blog post for Week #8, where I shared the tip about AppShopper, which given the time of the year we are in, is a must have, an essential iPad App to have, to catch all of the best deals and sales offers that most Apps are already offering during the holiday period. You may want to give it a go and see what you find! Some of the gems I have bumped into over the last week or so I have got them for almost no money just waiting for the bargains to kick in! Don’t miss out either!

Hope you have enjoyed this blog post, just as much as I am enjoying it myself with all of these iPad Apps and I surely look forward to reading your recommendations in the comments! Keep having fun with your iPads!

My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week – Week #4

Continuing further with that on-going series of blog posts on My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week, here I am, once again, sharing with you folks another round of interesting and worth while checking out iPad Apps I have bumped into over the last few weeks and which I have been enjoying quite a bit. This time around we are going for Week #4 where I have got something for news junkies, road warriors, weather addicts and, of course, the game of the week! So, let’s do it!

Oh, hang on, before we get things going with them, and like I have mentioned on a previous blog post over here as well, I thought I would share a couple of interesting links related to the iPad and how it is changing the way not only we participate on the Web as end-users, i.e. as Web 2.0 enthusiasts, amongst several other activities, but also from a business perspective. Specially, today, where I have got a couple of superb links to share with you folks that clearly establish the path to follow on improving the overall user experience into new heights for mobile business workers.

The first link comes from my good friend Thomas Otter, who, not long ago put together this blog entry under the heading “The iPad and the Enterprise” and where he shared this rather thought-provoking reflection:

“[...] But what I’ve not yet seen is the must have enterprise application on the iPad. Yes, I’ve seen some neat repurposed reports and simple entry screens but I’ve not yet seen an application that makes me sit up and say wow, that is a new and fundamentally better process enabled by the device. So far the innovation is all about Apple.“

Well, that may no longer be the case. Read further on for his conclusion, which I think is very much worth while reading. I think the race has just gotten started. I think that more and more businesses are beginning to turn into devices such as the iPad to help improve overall the performance from their knowledge workers, specially those who are mobile. SAP has already started with that race, but I think that’s just the beginning. Have a look though into what Hyatt Hotels & Resorts are doing though. Specially, check out the nearly three minute long video clip that explains thoroughly what that innovation within the Enterprise could look like! And be ready to be WOWed big time!

The whole article is very much worth while a read, for sure, on what’s to come not just for knowledge workers, but also for consumers enjoying some of those really nice and powerful services, but here is one of my favourite quotes:

“Mobilizing hotel staff with iPad lets them get out from behind the desk and in front of the guests“

Or this other one:

“We use Lotus Traveler as the core platform to integrate with our messaging collaboration system, Lotus Notes — and users have full access to our VPN infrastructure“

Indeed, I can relate, very much, to what John Prusnick mentions on that article, since I have been using Lotus Traveler myself for work and it’s just beautiful! Not that I care too much about email, since I hardly use it anymore, but having quick access to my work calendar & agenda, as well as contacts, while I’m on the road, in a secured manner, is a killer! And, if, on top of that, you have got VPN access to your company’s Intranet network, like I do, then it all becomes a treat, to say the least! Boy, I just can’t wait for my next business trip and see whether I can make it and survive it without having to carry anything else than the iPad. Can you believe that? 2 months ago I didn’t think it would be possible to travel without my Mac. Very soon, on my next business trip, it’ll be a reality!

Yes, the iPad for the Enterprise is here! And, sooner or latter, it will catch up with everyone! So you better start looking forward to travel light, to much less pain on your shoulders and back, to the complete mess with cabling and gadgets to carry with you, and so on and so forth. Never mind where things will be going as we all become more and more mobile by the day! Indeed, I can’t wait!

Ok, enough with that drooling! Let’s go and move on focusing on the My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week for Week #4, where this time around I have got some recommendations for news junkies, folks up in the air, weather addicts and, of course, the iPad Game of the Week. So let’s go!:

• Pulse News Reader: For those news junkies out there (Yes, I know! You can never get enough of them, can you? Welcome to my club! hehe), here is the first news related app I installed on the iPad on the same week when I bought it and I still use it on a daily basis. It allows you to customise the resources you would want to tap into and both the horizontal and vertical scrolling experiences are amazing. Incredibly engaging! Worth a look, for sure!
• NewsRack: Ok, in the past I have mentioned how Reeder for iPad was my preferred RSS feed reader client for the iPad. Well, since we all know how RSS Feeds are not dead just yet, right?, I have got a second one: NewsRack. It was actually my first iPhone app for feed reading and I was surely really glad when it came over to the iPad as well. I access my second Google Reader account through it on a regular basis and the reading experience is quite something! Even for large amounts of feeds! Loving it!
• Kayak Explore + Flight Search: This one is for those road warriors or those folks up in the air living their lives more on a plane than on the ground itself. Kayak would allow you to just find plenty of really good options for your upcoming trips and find that weird combination you can get anywhere else! I have tried it out a few times and it’s gotten me out of trouble far too many times! And browsing it through the iPad vs. the iPhone *does* make a difference!
• Accu Weather Free for iPad: From all of the various iPad apps related to the weather and weather forecasting, I must confess there are a couple of them that I really enjoy. Accu Weather is one of them. It’s free, rather accurate and the hourly forecast is quite an amazing experience, specially if you slide your fingers through the clock! Never thought I’d be interested in the weather just as much, but this iPad app is helping change that perception rather quick! Not much more to add … hehe

• AirAttack HD: And, finally, like usual, to close off the Top Picks of the week, here is the iPad Game of the Week: AirAttack HD. When I was a lot younger I used to be hooked into these kind of video games where I could play them for hours without getting tired of them. Remember the original Battlefield 1942? Well, this one is just as good, if not better! The graphics are amazing and the overall gaming experience is amazingly engaging and all of that for 0.99$; so who can’t ignore that? It’s just unbeatable, don’t you think?

And that’s it for now, folks! Hope you have enjoyed the Top Picks for this time around and, stay tuned, because, if I have some more free time later on in the week, I may be capable of sharing another round of Top 5 iPad Apps, since I am running a little big behind still from what I have been sharing over at Twitter under #elsuapps. That just to keep you busy for a little while longer… For now, I will let you all go and explore some of those, while I will go back to my meetings galore

Keep having fun!

Technorati Tags: #elsuapps, Apple, Collaboration, Games, iPad, iPad Apps, Mac, Thomas Otter, SAP, Enterprise iPad, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Lotus Traveler, IBM, Mobility, Mobile, IBM Mobile, Lotus, Pulse News Reader, NewsRack, Reeder for iPad, Kayak, Travelling, Road Warriors, News Junkies, Weather Addicts, Accu Weather, AirAttack HD, Battlefield 1942, Productivity, Productivity Tools, iPhone, iPhone Apps, Recommentations, iPads for Business, iPads for Biz

My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week – Week #2

Judging by the good number of positive comments I have received both online and offline, it looks like the first of the series of blog posts on My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week has been somewhat helpful to a good number of folks. So, like I have mentioned on the initial blog entry, here I am, once again, wanting to share on this blog the top picks for Week #2.

You would remember how I am putting together these short articles based on the Daily #iPad App series I keep sharing over in Twitter, more than anything else as a reference for myself that I can keep mentioning back and forth, whenever people would be asking me about my favourite iPad apps. And also as a way to provide a more permanent basis for those recommendations, other than Twitter, since its search engine can only go back up to so many days…

The purpose of this exercise is to keep it on the short side as well, so you have an opportunity to read briefly why I have gone for those weekly picks and then provide you with a link to where you could download the apps, as you may see fit. So I am also going to continue with that plan for this particular blog post on Week #2. And without much further ado, here we go, once again:

• Twitter for iPad: Last week I mentioned how my all time favourite Twitter client on the iPad is Osfoora HD; this week, it looks like we have got a pretty decent rival in the shape of Twitter for iPad, the official Twitter client that has put together some pretty nifty features that would surely bring you a new Twitter experience on a mobile device. Now, I will still continue to make use of Osfoora HD, but you cannot deny one of the biggest advantages from this Twitter client: it is free! Worth a try, for sure!
• MindNode: Like I have mentioned in the past, I have been a big fan of mindmapping for several years now and time and time again, whenever there is a new mindmap app out there worth while having a look into I just can’t resist the temptation. Check MindNode. One of those mindmapping applications for the iPad that surely is quite interesting and worth while having a look into, more than anything else, because, if you have got MindNode Pro installed in your Mac, there is a full, and rather nifty, integration between the iPad and Mac apps, so you can take your newly created mindmaps where you would you would to. Pretty neat, don’t you think?
• GoodReader for iPad: There are quite a few file sharing apps available for the iPad, but if I would have to pick one that I enjoy quite a bit, I think that one would be GoodReader. One of the reasons why I have been accumulating a good number of PDF files, and other file formats is because I now have a lovely way of interacting with them through GoodReader, no matter how large they are. There is one other app I enjoy quite a bit (That I will probably talk about in another blog post from the series), but I think this one will make it into the top list of essential ones to get without any doubt. Another must-have.
• Newsy: If you are a news junkie, like I am myself, if you have a tendency to enjoy a cup of coffee (Or tea) in the morning and / or in the afternoon while you are catching up with the worlds and its various news, Newsy is one of those resources you just can’t do without. From an innovative approach towards delivering news (“Multiple Sources. The Real Story”), to a rather refreshing user experience of how you are actually going to digest the ones you would be interested in, Newsy is the kind of iPad app I am sure you will be checking out a couple of times a day … 
• Words with Friends HD: And, finally, the iPad game of the week! This one, Words with Friends, is actually one of my all time favourite ones, as I have mentioned, and blogged about, not too long ago. It’s like playing Scrabble, but with friends, so it gives you an opportunity to chill out in between activities, on a break at work, while you are travelling, while on vacation, etc. etc. and be just one short message away from those friends who may have hit that magic word that will get you in trouble. In a good way, obviously… And all of that in a matter of a couple of minutes. Here and there. Ideal for those idle times while you are waiting for things to happen 

  (Feel free to reach out over there, if you would want to play a game or two, because I guess you already know what my handle over there will be, right? )

And that’s it, folks! That’s My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week for Week #2. Hope you have enjoyed the post and stay tuned for next week’s where I will be sharing the next round!

Have a good one everyone!

Technorati Tags: #elsuapps, Apple, Collaboration, Games, iPad, iPad Apps, Mac, Mindmapping, Osfoora HD, Productivity, Productivity Tools, Scrabble, Words With Friends, MindMaps, Recommentations, MindNode, Twitter for iPad, GoodReader for iPad, Newsy, Words