tech, simplified.

The iPad Apps That Keep Me Productive

The iPad is often considered to be an entertainment device, the TV of the 21st century. Apple has tried hard to show with their own apps that the iPad has much more potential than that, and I believe they see the iPad as the computer of the future for many people, and expect that we’ll still be able to be creative and productive from them. I personally use an original iPad (iPad 1, shall we say?) as my full computer when I’m traveling. It’s perfect because its so easy to carry and go, and you can easily knock out a 15 minute work session in a lobby without having to wait for it to boot and connect to the ’net. Plus, an all-day battery makes searching for plugs a thing of the past. Sure, I’m working as a writer, editor, and tech support guy, but for my work, I’m able to be very productive on the iPad, with the on-screen keyboard or an external Apple Bluetooth keyboard.

So, here’s the apps I use to keep me productive on my iPad. Each of them are great, in my opinion, and many of them are nicer than their respective counterparts on any other computing platform. Seriously.

Then, there’s a few more apps that make up more of my iPad’s time: the built-in Mail and Calendar apps, which are definitely productivity tools, Tweetbot and Facebook for social networking, which is definitely not productive, and Reeder for RSS feeds, which like all news apps straddles the dangerous line of non-productivity that feels productive. Oh, and Calcbot, because you never know when you’ll need a calculator.

That’s the apps I use regularly on my iPad, and really, most of my iPad time is productive (other than reading, which can go both ways). If I had an iPad 2 or the new iPad, I’d use videochat in Skype as well, but without that, Skype isn’t nearly as useful for me on the iPad. As a writer, perhaps the iPad can be a full computer much easier than it could for other people, but the App Store has so many apps that are great for so many industries, its hard to believe that writers are the only ones who could find the iPad to be a great productivity tool.

Did I miss any great iPad productivity tools? If so, I’d love to hear your favorites, as I always love trying out new apps as well!

Thoughts? @reply me on Twitter.