(image source: Apple, Inc) With the release of the iPad 2, there has been a lot of commentary on the overall usefulness of the iPad. Even amongst the iSource staff, there is some debate as to whether or not the iPad is a truly useful device, or merely an expensive toy. Here’s my take. When the iPad was announced a year ago, I had no plans at all to buy it. Like many others, I concluded that it was little more than a large iPod Touch; and I simply didn’t see a need for one, especially considering that I had a perfectly usable iPhone. When my friend Mike got one, I played around with it a bit; but ultimately, I came to the same conclusion – a big iPod. Much later, when I started traveling for work again, I finally realized how useful the iPad could be and decided to take Read More

When it’s not displaying the Fail Whale, Twitter is a pretty useful service for keeping up with family and friends. The first app I install on every mobile device is a Twitter app of one flavor or another, since having a good app can make all the difference to getting the most benefit out of Twitter. Fortunately, there are plenty to choose from. The iPad screen is particularly good at working with the social network, due to its larger size. I admit I have a weakness for Twitter apps, and I’ve tried so many I have lost count. Here are my current top five Twitter apps for the iPad. If you have a favorite share it in the comments. . This is my “go-to” Twitter app on the iPad. I use it in either portrait or landscape as it displays well in either orientation. Working with multiple Twitter accounts is easy Read More

When it’s not displaying the Fail Whale, Twitter is a pretty useful service for keeping up with family and friends. The first app I install on every mobile device is a Twitter app of one flavor or another, since having a good app can make all the difference to getting the most benefit out of Twitter. Fortunately, there are plenty to choose from. The iPad screen is particularly good at working with the social network, due to its larger size. I admit I have a weakness for Twitter apps, and I’ve tried so many I have lost count. Here are my current top five Twitter apps for the iPad. If you have a favorite share it in the comments. . This is my “go-to” Twitter app on the iPad. I use it in either portrait or landscape as it displays well in either orientation. Working with multiple Twitter accounts is easy Read More

...Inc - TweetDeck for iPad - http://itunes.apple.com/ph/app/tweetdeck-for-ipad/id364153769?mt=8 #iTunes... Read More

There you go, Apple has officially launched the iPad in 9 new countries today. Well, the iPad actually didn’t wait on Apple to go around the world, and one in four iPads bought in the US has already flown the country by now. Also, an important amount of pre-orders has already been delivered early throughout the week, so the launch is not really that much of a massive event. Anyway, for our international readers who just got their iPad, here is some help for you. Short after unpacking and starting the device, you’re going to feel like you don’t know what to do with it. This feeling is not going to leave right away as it takes a couple days to get used to this new toy. What you’re going to need are apps, and that’s where the fun starts: I would tell you to start with some free apps, so you Read More

The Iconfactory’s Twitterrific for iPad was one of the best iPad-optimized Twitter apps available at launch for a handful of reasons. It was elegant like the original, free to try, stable (yeah, this one’s directed at you TweetDeck), and contained just enough features to get you by. But “just enough features” only gets you so far, especially this far out after launch. Thankfully The Iconfactory heard our cries and have finally added the ability to upload pictures and videos in v1.1, among a handful of other worthy features and fixes. Twitterrific for iPad v1.1 now allows you to upload pictures and videos via a variety of services including yFrog, TwitPic, TwitVid, Posterous, img.ly, and more. Twitter power users can even choose to configure their own custom image uploading services. Twitterrific for iPad is also able to handle image URLs from img.ly and Tweetphoto better by allowing them to appear as popovers. Read More

TweetDeck has always been my personal Twitter app of choice. Even though heavy Twitter users will argue it isn't as robust as some other apps and can be a little bloated, I find it to be the best for my situation. The app has recently been released for the iPad and includes many of the features TweetDeck users have come to expect. The app actually comes close to matching it's desktop counterpart thanks to the large screen size but it seems to be lacking many essential features. The iPad app works in both portrait and landscape but the only view you will actually use is portrait. Landscape mode disables many essential Twitter features like clicking links in tweets and browsing those links. Only in portrait mode can a user view outside content which defeats the purpose of having a device like the iPad. But despite some of it's shortcoming, TweetDeck is Read More

So, you got your shiny new iPad on Saturday and you’ve done all the basic stuff on it: web browsing, email, video. But now that the awesomeness of that has worn off, it’s time to get some new apps. Here are the ones you should buy first. Imagine holding the entire Netflix instant watch database in your hands. This is it. The app is free, but you’ll need a Netflix subscription if you don’t already have one. IMDb is an iPad-friendly version of the Internet Movie Database. So, while you’re watching movies with Netflix, you can settle arguments about them with this. Free. A perfectly optimized version of ABC’s website, so you can watch the iPad on Modern Family with an actual iPad. (Ironically, ABC currently has a Flash banner on its website advertising this app.) The popular browser-based content discovery extension has its first foray into the mobile app market. Free. Read More

After a surprisingly short wait in line at our local Apple Store, where about 100 people lined up for their reserved iPads - and another 100 who didn't have a reservations - we finally took possession of our very own Apple tablet. We will take a closer look at all the apps, hardware and iPad-optimized web sites over the course of the next few days, but here are our first impressions after spending some quality time with the iPad. Without a doubt, the first thing you will notice is the sheer speed of the iPad. Web pages render very fast, switching from landscape to portrait mode only takes a second - even in image and video-heavy apps like the Popular Science app or the ABC Player - and apps open extremely fast. The device itself is light for its size, feels very solid, but still feels a bit heavy when holding Read More

Pünktlich zum iPad-Release schafft es auch die Amazon Kindle-Anwendung in den App Store (kostenlos; universal; App Store-Link). Version 2.0 läuft als ‘Universal’-Programm sowohl auf dem iPhone als auch dem iPad und steht (natürlich) in direkter Konkurrenz zum Apple iBookstore. Cupertino räumt mit dieser Zulassung jeden Zweifel über ein unrechtmäßiges Ausnutzen seines Genehmigungsprozesses aus – zumindest in dieser Software-Kategorie. Time Magazin (3.99 €; App Store-Link) landet mit seiner aktuellen Ausgabe ebenfalls im App Store für iPad-Besitzer. Das Cover der aktuellen Ausgabe bedarf keiner weiteren Erklärung. Im Heft enthalten ist die bereits verlinkte Stephen Fry-Kolumne: I have met five British Prime Ministers, two American Presidents, Nelson Mandela, Michael Jackson and the Queen. My hour with Steve Jobs certainly made me more nervous than any of those encounters. Die 64 Megabyte der Anwendung soll nur die eine Ausgabe beinhalten und keine Möglichkeit der Aktualisierung zulassen. Time Magazine kostet auf bedrucktem Papier derzeit $20 US-Dollar Read More

As an early adopter of an Apple iPad, it’s a safe bet you enjoy media of all kinds. Fortunately Yahoo! has created the best looking entertainment resource available for the iPad and it’s completely free of charge. Yahoo! Entertainment is an interactive guide to all things media related. Find all of the latest news in the entertainment world from movies, television, books and music all organized in a very slick interface. If you plan to have your iPad on hand as you watch television, you’ll be able to access an interactive television program guide giving you  highlights of things to watch so you’ll never miss a thing. Additionally, catch Yahoo! Videos specifically formatted for use on the iPad to keep up to date on news within several entertainment categories. The presentation is very appealing and takes full advantage of the iPad’s very slick touchscreen interface and it’s available all for free. Read More

Tweetdeck has just announced that it is bringing its well-respected Twitter app to the iPad. The app is available for free now, for use with the iPad from launch tomorrow. Far more than just being a port of the iPhone or Adobe Air versions of the app, Tweetdeck for iPhone is completely re-worked for the iPad. Designed to work in either landscape or portrait modes, the big news here is a map mode for viewing geotagged tweets. Tweetdeck explains that: “We didn’t just want to port TweetDeck for iPhone to iPad so we’ve built a new interface which is quintessentially TweetDeck but also takes full advantage of all this new device offers – our “highest common denominator” approach.” A full feature list and video is below. We think Tweetdeck has gone down the correct route of reinterpreting the app for a completely new type of ‘casual computing’ device. While you can Read More

In preparation for the launch of the iPad tomorrow, iPad Apps are live in iTunes and we’re sorting through the best ones as fast as we can. But with more than 2,000 iPad apps in the App Store, the choices are already daunting. To help you find the best apps at launch, we’ve put together the definitive list below. It includes all the iPad apps reviewed on TechCrunch, as well as other promising ones we have not gotten to yet. If you have a favorite you think should go on this list, tell us why in comments. Here is our list, which we will keep updating through the launch of the iPad: Apple’s answer to the Amazon Kindle, iBooks turns the iPad into an electronic book reader with 60,000 books at launch to choose from (the app is free, the e-books are not). Although the Kindle has many more titles (450,000), Read More

by Come iPad launch day, you’ll certainly have your pick of Twitter iPad apps. Now you can add popular desktop and iPhone app TweetDeck to that mix. While you can’t use it until tomorrow morning, TweetDeck for iPad [iTunes Link] is available now in the App Store and promises a super-sized Twitter experience that stays true to the application’s standby format. The application is free and includes two custom-built iPad interfaces — for distinct portrait and landscape experiences — that maximize column appearance and app functionality. Most of the same features from the desktop and iPhone version have made their way into the iPad app. The application supports multiple Twitter accounts, synchronization with the desktop or iPhone app, search, Twitter Lists, trending topics, photo upload, user profiles, tweet geo-tagging and the ability to rearrange columns with your fingers as you see fit. At launch, TweetDeck for iPad won’t have Facebook integration Read More