I take my iPad everywhere. Buying this thing was probably one of the best business and productivity decisions I’ve made in a long time. Yes, there will be a CNY MMA iPad case coming out soon. Ha (inside joke for the people who know I put the school’s logo on everything).
Anyway, I’m always running into other iPad users and we usually wind up talking about the business apps that we’re using. There’s always one or two apps that someone didn’t have that turned out to be a really useful for the other person.
I figured I would share a couple of them here with you on my blog. Saves me from having to email people and maybe you’ll find a couple on the list to be useful for you too. I’m not receiving any kind of compensation from any of the companies or products recommended on here. I just provided links to make it easier for you to get more info if you wanted it. These also aren’t in any particular order.
If you click the links, they will take you to the iTunes store where you can view screen shots, get pricing, and/or more detailed information than what I’m giving you here. Basically, what I’m doing here is telling you how I use the programs below. Click the link for more in depth info.
GoodReader
This program is a pdf reader and editor. Not only can you edit text but you can highlight and draw on the pdf document you are viewing. All of your edits are saved right to the document. I get a lot of files in pdf format that need editing. Unless I’m at my computer with Adobe Acrobat, I can’t edit them. I like to make notes and highlights to magazine articles I’ve read and/or are reading. I can then send them to staff, students, or whoever with my notes and highlights saved within. As our students up at Fort Drum say, “Too easy!”
Penultimate
Penultimate is a sketch pad app that I use to jot down all of the ideas that pulsate through my head during the course of the day. A tap on the iPad and Penultimate creates a png of my sketch or idea which can then be emailed to whoever I choose. I can create multiple “notebooks” within Penultimate. Right now, I have one for design ideas, marketing ideas, business ideas, and random thoughts. If I like a design or marketing idea enough, I can just email the page to whoever could use the idea or make it happen. It’s also great for taking hand written notes. Short notes.
ScreenChalk
This program is a must for all coaches. You know the telestrator that all of the big sports broadcasts use, where they draw on the screen? Yeah, that’s what this is for your iPad. I load in fight videos and I can analyze and draw angles, point out defensive holes, show openings and attacks on opponents, etc. I can do it live in front of my athletes or I can save it and email it to them for them to watch on their own or both. I love using this program. It takes my ability to communicate valuable and strategic information to another level.
GotoMeeting
Due to our business being conducted in multiple locations, it’s very cost effective and necessary to have meetings over the internet. Now, I don’t need to cancel or reschedule weekly meetings because I’m traveling. As long as I have this app and my iPad, I can do the meeting from anywhere.
Box.net
Access, view, share, and collaborate on files. This program is a phenomenal time saver. I send an idea to our marketing. That idea is laid out and uploaded to our box.net account. I preview it and make comments. The author is automatically notified that I have made comments to their file. They update the file and it’s done. Great for approving artwork and design stuff fast. This program alone was worth buying the iPad for. It has cut our turnaround time for artwork approval to a third of the time of what it used to be.
VNC Viewer
Control any computer you want from your iPad. That’s right. Log into your computer from anywhere and see your entire desktop on your iPad. Your finger moves the pointer on your desktop and a tap clicks it. You can run your computer from anywhere with your iPad just like you were sitting in front of it. That’s sick.
Keynote, Pages, Numbers
I give speeches, make presentations, and look at spreadsheets a lot. This suite of programs makes creating and editing all of that portable and easy. You can also view and edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files with these programs. These three programs are worth the price tag of $10 each.
iBooks
I used to love going in to Barnes and Noble. I would sit in the aisle of the business section and read a little bit of each book before I bought any. I would spend hours as a teenager just sitting there reading pieces of all kinds of business books. I don’t have the time to sit there in the bookstore for that long anymore. Now with iBooks I sit in my bed at night and do it. It’s just like back in the day when I would sit in the aisles of the bookstore only it’s a lot more comfortable in my bed. Nostalgia plus comfort. 🙂
Entrepreneur Magazine
This is easily my favorite magazine of all time. Every time I read it I get a new idea or new way of doing something. I’ve been reading it since I was 15 years old and it has been an immense resource and “secret” to my success as an entrepreneur. I’m also pretty stoked that I don’t have to carry four copies of the magazine with me at all times now. I can just read them on my iPad. I can also email articles and pages directly from the app. Fast Company is another magazine that got on the iPad bandwagon early and is a great magazine.
Twitter
Twitter is easily the best of the social media big dogs to be on the iPad. Facebook doesn’t even have an iPad app. The twitter app on iPad makes it easy to update multiple accounts, read tweets by people you’re following, and even click links without leaving the program. It takes a minute to get used to it, especially if you have used other versions. Twitter can be a lot of fun, last week I used it to tweet the corner advice I was giving to one of my Boxer’s who competed in the NY Amateur Championships. I had quite a few followers who really dug that. Follow me at http://twitter.com/erikcharlestm
Dragon Dictation
This one is pretty self explanatory … you talk, it puts your words into written text. This app is crazy accurate too. I was demonstrating this thing to Tamdan and the only word it was messing up was his name. Regular people screw his name up all the time so it’s not a big deal that Dragon Dictation can’t get it right either. The other neat thing this can do is that with one tap you can use it to speak your tweets directly to your twitter or update your facebook status.
Bonus recommendations:
Get a stylus.
It drives me crazy to see fingerprints on my iPad. Using a stylus basically eliminates that altogether. It’s also a lot easier to sketch and write notes with it. I feel like my iPad responds better to my stylus too although I can’t really verify that’s true. It might just be in my head because I love my stylus. A stylus runs about $20 but it’s definitely the way to go for high volume iPad users that have some OCD for fingerprints and a clean iPad screen.
Netflix
I love watching documentaries, especially if it involves some kind of conspiracy theory. With the amount of time I spend waiting, for 1 event last week we spent a total of 13 hours of waiting for 22 minutes of competition. Netflix is great for killing time and the iPad app works awesome.
I hope that you found this list useful. Leave a comment with any apps you may have found that aren’t on my list.
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