Below you will find a list of my favorite iPad apps (so far). For those of you who are iPhone users, many of them are also available on that platform as well. Instead of trying to be creative, I am just copying the description from the iTunes listing. Each app is categorized and links to the iTunes store. Hope you enjoy. If any of you are getting an iPhone/iPad for Christmas, you’ll be very pleased. My wife and I love ours.
Reading
Named Apple’s iPad App of the year and one of TIME’s Top 50 Innovations, Flipboard creates a personalized magazine out of everything being shared with you, from Instagram photos and Facebook updates to Tumblr posts and articles from your favorite publications. Fill Flipboard with the things you like to read, from the smallest blogs to publications like Rolling Stone or Vanity Fair, and use Instapaper or Read It Later to save articles to read later. Connect Flipboard to all your social networks, and you’ll have a single place to enjoy, browse, comment on and share all the news, photos and updates that matter to you.
Save web pages for later offline reading, optimized for readability on your iPhone or iPod touch’s screen. Featured by Apple and critically acclaimed by top blogs, newspapers, and magazines!
Great for long articles and blog posts that you find during the day and would like to read, but don’t have the time when you find them. Save with Instapaper, then read later when you’re commuting, in a meeting, or waiting in line.
Engadget Distro brings the best articles from the Engadget site to your tablet in a rich, magazine-like format. Each week a new edition is hand-crafted by the Engadget team featuring the best reviews and features curated from the website along with a weekly editorial to bring you up to speed on any news you might have missed. Once downloaded, we encourage you to take Distro offline, kick back in a comfy chair, and dive in to all the great stuff you might not have had time to enjoy during the week. Immerse yourself in the world of gadget news.
Special Mention
All publications by the magazine company Conde Naste (Wired, GQ, Bon Apetit, Details) are available in iPad format free when you also subscribe to the print version. If you download the corresponding app (such as GQ) you will have a chance to enter your subscriber # (found on your print issue) and get a downloaded version as well.
Video
Just download this free app and you can instantly watch TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix.
60 Minutes for iPad, the companion app for America’s number one news program, has been updated for the 2011-2012 Season! This season, the 60 Minutes iPad app will continue to feature the same hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles you’re familiar with, original video content from 60 Minutes Overtime, and expanded archives as well.
VEVO is the web’s number one premium music video and entertainment service. Watch your favorite music videos wherever and whenever with VEVO for iPad.
The all-new NBC app allows you to take all your favorite NBC shows on the go. Watch the latest full episodes, view photos, read recaps, play games, keep track and see previews of upcoming shows, and interact with other fans.
iTunes Movie Trailers puts the newest and most exclusive movie previews in HD in your hands. Browse trailers, clips, and featurettes for the biggest Hollywood blockbusters and independent cinema; view stunning HD photos; explore a year-long calendar of movie releases; find showtimes near you and get ticket info directly from your iPad or iPhone.
Download the ABC Player app to watch your favorite ABC shows for free on the iPad wherever and whenever you want to watch. View full-length episodes of Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, No Ordinary Family, Desperate Housewives and more.
The entire library is at your fingertips. Watch TEDTalks in high or low res formats based on your network connectivity. Play it on your device or send to your home entertainment system via AirPlay. Curate your own playlist. Watch them later, even when you can’t be online. Sort views by recency or popularity. Find something by tags, themes, or related talks. Share favorites with your friends. Tell us how much time you have and let us guide you to a delightful playlist.
Special Mention
iTunes U & Video podcasts (inside the iTunes app) offer a great way to obtain additional video content. Podcasts range on a wide array of subjects and are easily navigated on the iPad. iTunes U, in my personal opinion, is a breakthrough in education. Full classes from top universities like Standard, Berkley, etc. are offering whole lecture series free for anyone willing to learn the material. After you download an iTunes U item, it will appear in your ‘Video’ app. It took me a while to figure this out.
Shopping
AppShopper keeps you up to date on the newest App Store apps, sales and freebies. Organize apps in your own customized Wish List and automatically get notified when there is a sale or update.
Welcome to the 2012 IKEA Catalog for the iPad. The printed IKEA Catalog has been around for more than 60 years, but this is the first version for the iPad. Just like the printed 2012 IKEA Catalog, the iPad version is filled with our latest affordable home furnishing solutions for making the most of the space you have, no matter how big for small your home is. The iPad version features movies and sound to make it even more useful for you. As always, the IKEA Catalog is free of charge.
Google Catalogs is a new, rich, and engaging way to interact with all your favorite catalogs. Flip through pages of beautiful catalogs, discover inspiring photos and videos, save products that catch your eye, and create collages to share with your friends.
The Amazon Windowshop app is a rich media shopping experienced optimized for the iPad and provides a flowing and intuitive Amazon.com (also .de, .fr, .co.uk, and .co.jp) browse experience. It is an amazing new way to shop Amazon’s millions of items. Same selection, same low prices, same fast delivery, same benefits of your Amazon Prime membership – just a completely new fluid interface designed specifically for lean-back, touch screen tablets. With the flick of a finger you will be able to visually browse across many best selling product categories. Windowshop invites you to discover and browse products within popular lists like “Featured”, “Bestsellers”, “Recommendations”, “New Releases”, “Most Wished For”, and “Most Gifted”.
JetSetter allows you to discover the world’s greatest vacations, hand-picked by experts who’ve been there. Get inspired by amazing high-definition photos and first-hand reviews. Book your trip on your iPad, up to 50% off retail rates.
Utilities/Miscellaneous
Called the “Wikipedia of interior and exterior design” by CNN, Houzz has the largest database of home design ideas on the net, with over 200,000 high resolution photos. Browse photos by style, room and location and save them to your virtual idea book — it’s the equivalent of clipping design magazines to a scrapbook — making ideas easier to search, save, and share. Experience Houzz.com as an iPad app and save your photos locally for offline access. Find everything from local designers to architects and contractors who can help you realize your ideas. The best part is, browsing your idea book, they’ll get exactly what you’re trying to do.
Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your iPhone and iPad and even the Dropbox website! With the Dropbox app, you can take everything that matters to you on the go.
Read your docs or flip through your albums when you’re out and about. Save photos or videos to your Dropbox and share them with friends in just a couple taps. Even if you accidentally leave your iPhone in a taxi, your stuff is always safe on Dropbox.
Alien Blue HD is the natural evolution of Reddit for a large touchscreen device. It is feature packed, and designed to let you interact with Reddit like never before.
Games
Get ready to soil your plants in this high-definition, Multi-Touch adaptation of the PopCap hit! Winner of over 20 Game of the Year awards.* Plants vs. Zombies™ was spawned from the fertile minds that created Bejeweled®, Peggle™, Zuma® and Bookworm™.
A mob of fun-loving zombies is about to invade your home. Defend it with an arsenal of 49 zombie-zapping plants that will slow down, confuse and mulchify all 26 types of zombies before they reach your door.
Shoot to clear all the orange pegs from 55 sparkling levels in what msnbc.com calls one of the “top 5 most addictive games of all time.” Become a Peggle Master and pit your skills against over 40 Grand Master Challenges. Rack up bonus points and hit style shots that will make you smile for weeks.
THE BEST SCRABBLE EVER, DESIGNED JUST FOR iPAD! Enjoy the fantastically fun game you know and love with stunning HD-quality graphics, quick, easy play and incredible exclusive features. America’s favorite word game is now an iPad essential!
Pinterest is on it’s way to becoming the next big thing online. It was even named one of Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites for 2011. The website is a visual bookmarking service that allows you to easily “pin” images or videos you find useful, entertaining, inspiring, or “pinteresting”. The service has elements from Twitter (following), Facebook (sharing, social), and Delicious (categorical link building) all rolled into one website. It’s quite addictive.
The service is used primarily by women, which you will see if you use it enough, but it is making headway for the male demographic as well. The service is a virtual scrapbook for you to keep ideas for DIY projects, share photos with friends, maintain a visual journal, etc.
There are multiple ways you can add a “Pin” which make it easy for you to have quick access to record something at the moment you find it useful. There is a bookmarklet feature which allows you to create a browser bookmark which can be pressed at any time. The bookmarklet is the primary way I use the site because most of the existing pin data is very female-driven content, although as I mentioned earlier, that is slowly changing. There is also an iPhone app which will allow you to take pictures with your iPhone and upload them to the site. If you are on Android, or another mobile OS, you can also use the mobile site http://m.pinterest.com/
You can follow me on Pinterest here.
I’m not an experienced/expert parent by anyones measure. My son is a mere 5 months old, yet I feel like a different person. Anyone who has had a child will probably tell you that life changes dramatically after having a child, and your overall perspective on life changes along with it. The way it changes is not easy to put into words, but I am willing to give it my best effort.
1. You are no longer the center of the universe.
For the first 30 years of my life, everything was about me. What toy did I want for Christmas? Where did I want to ride my bike? Which college did I want to go to? Which girl did I want to date? Did I want to go to the bar with friends, or take it easy for the evening? Every decision in my life (barring some important post-marital decisions) had primarily involved my own desires. Once I had my child, all my decisions shifted to what would be best for him. It’s something I should have realized, but I never considered.
2. Your child will make you a better person.
I wouldn’t say I’ve been a bad seed in my life, but I certainly haven’t been perfect either. I don’t believe anyone really is. What I do know, now, is that I want to be a good role model for my son. I am focusing on making good decisions with my health, my career, my marriage, and so on. I realize it’s important for me to lead by example, and as a result, I end up feeling better about myself.
3. You will become closer with your family.
My son is the first grandchild for both my parents and also my wife’s parents. They cherish him just as much as we do. It’s been a great benefit to have them close to us. They aren’t next door, or even in the same town, but they are there for us to help care for him as we need a break from it all sometimes too. Parents and siblings (in most cases) I expect would help out with parenting and you will (also in most cases) be spending less time going to the bar and more time seeing your family for the football games on Sunday.
4. Time is a limited resource.
I have aspirations of writing the next great iPhone app, building a website that scales to 1 million unique visitors, reading a stack of books, renovating my home, checking out all the latest restaurants and movies. Prior to having a son, I certainly could have made it my goal to do all those things. I realized (quite abruptly) after having a child, that my decisions in life would have to be made based on priorities. I would have to pick a few things that were very important to me, focus on those items, and put the rest on the back burner for another day. It simply (in my opinion) wasn’t possible to do it all and still care for an infant child.
5. Your kid does give back to you
The first weeks of my son’s life were very one-directional. It felt as though all I did was feed, comfort, and change his diaper. I lost sleep, entertainment with friends, time for myself, and time with my wife. After a short amount of time, my son started smiling and cooing at me and it made me realize what it has all been for. My son makes life fuller, makes me a better person, and has been looking forward to the future with a positive attitude. Some people will joke that kids just take and take (toys you worked hard to pay for, food you took a long time to prepare, vacations you spent a lot of time planning) but really, they do give back. They just do it in a way that may not realize they are doing.
I recently added two new books to the reading list. If you have any good book recommendations for dads, please let me know on the contact page. I’d love to hear them.
Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five
Impact: 7/10
Well written book on a complex subject. Unfortunately, I found myself focusing on a surprising number of typos, lack of actual references, and some information that is nearly identical to NurtureShock. To the author’s credit, he prefaces that references are in the index.
Impact: 7/10
This won the Pulitzer for fiction in 2007. I must have bad luck with these award winning books because I wasn’t completely thrilled with Tinkers either, although The Road was a short read and mostly enjoyable despite that fact. I included this book because it deals with a father/son combo as they traverse a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Lots of pearls of wisdom for fatherhood are in this book.
If you haven’t already heard by now, you will likely hear about this product in the near future. Similar to how Netflix has become a household name, so to do I believe that Spotify will reach this level.
Spotify is a streaming music service that uses a subscription model. Similar companies have tried this in the past (Rhapsody, Napster, MOG, Rdio, Zune Music Pass), but none of them have executed as well as Spotify. The service uses a desktop interface and is nearly identical to iTunes in that you can create playlists, search, and view album art. I typically describe the service as iTunes but instead of clicking a “buy now” button, you just press play.
Fees for the service run from ad-supported free for 6 months (and 10 hrs./mo capped after that), unlimited for desktop only at $5/mo, and high quality streaming/mobile access/offline access for $10/mo.
Time is a limited resource for all of us, especially fathers. My general thought on Spotify is that it will be successful and that it is well worth the money if only for the reason I don’t spent time managing music, downloading from different locations, and trying to keep everything organized. I use the $5/mo. plan and it is a no-brainer since I had been spending more on music than that per month. I listen all day at work and at home, so having ease of access to any piece of music I wish to listen to is well worth the cost for me.
If I had to highlight a negative, it would be that there are a select few albums and artists (Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beatles) that you won’t find here, but the lion’s share of the music content is readily available.
Added features that make Spotify enjoyable are Facebook integration (I can share and view playlists my friend’s have made public), use sites like sharemyplaylists.com which feature playlists shared by other users and artists, and a nice ‘Radio’ feature where I can select the music types I like (alternative, electronic) and it will play random selections from those lists similar to Pandora.
Spotify is also making their way into the living room with integrations with Boxee and WD Live that make the interface seemless on your living room television. For any home that leverages music to keep the atmosphere enjoyable on a weekend, this is a big plus. You’ll find you will need the full premium $10/mo service to enjoy Spotify on these devices though.
You can try the service for free to see if you like it yourself, so you really don’t have anything to lose. I’m not a spokesperson for this product any more than another person who simply enjoys sharing details about their favorite products.
You’ll see a lot of quotes from Steve Jobs about life, work, and death. Most of them are all from this clip taken in 2005 @ Stanford University.
Son’s reaction to ‘Empire Strikes Back’ reveal
Every business day Facebook’s Pineville, Oregon data center receives 4 truck shipments, with 13 racks of new servers each truck. Each single rack holds 90 servers. Each server has 72GB of RAM and/or a dual 6-core processor. This happens all year to keep up with demand. (source: Maximum PC, Nov. 2011).
That’s 4,680 servers installed every business day. Wow.
There are a lot of great tools out there online, all of which carry the magic price of free, to help you properly manage your family finances. I haven’t always been the best at managing my personal finances growing up, but with the wealth of information and tools available in today’s age, it makes this task much less daunting. There really is no better time to get a handle on your finances, which is especially useful given our current economic climate.
These tools should go a long way to help you feel like you are in control.
Mint.com
The starting point for anyone looking to organize their finances. Mint offers a safe/secure way to pull all your bank accounts, investments, etc. together and track them as well as set retirement goals. Mint will also send you reminders if it believes you can refinance, lower your interest payments on your credit cards, etc. As an added bonus, there is also an Android and iPhone app for Mint.
Finance, personal or otherwise, can be a rather boring and dry topic. Named one of Time magazines ‘Best Blogs of 2011′, this site stands out from the pack of sites that are poorly written, misunderstood, and simply miss the point. The contributors here give sound advice on how to make frequent small money decisions that will improve your overall chances of retiring and meeting your financial goals.
CNN Money Retirement Calculator
Know how much you need to retire? Most people have no idea. I won’t waste words describing the importance of a retirement calculator, but this is good recommendation as a starting point if you would like to use one.
Beyond your retirement calculator, it’s also important to know how much life insurance, disability insurance, or otherwise you will need to keep your family safe and comfortable should something happen to you. This site is very well done, easily understood, and is organized/managed by a non-profit organization.
If you haven’t heard about Khan Academy yet, you are missing out on an amazing resource. You can see this TED video here, or any number of web articles would do a great job to show you how it is revolutionizing education. Sal (Khan) does a great job at showing you how IRAs, tax deductions, bonds vs. stock, and a load of other information all via video format targeting to someone who has no starting knowledge of those topics.
This is a product I can not personally vouch for, but am highlighting it here should someone else be interested in the concept. Smarty Pig allows you to create as many virtual savings accounts as you you would like, at no cost to you. Money can be moved to and from your checking account to help you save for various targets like vacation, gadgets, etc.
One final product I also cannot personally vouch for, but plan to use in the future, is Lending Club. Lending Club works for both lenders and borrowers. If you wish to lend your money out (similar to how a bank would) you can do so and obtain interest in the process. If you are a lender, you could get money loaned to you for a car, home, or other project. This appears to be a great way to make money and make a decent return on that money as well.
