iPad iPad Users...What are your top apps?

[WT Sharpe]

Thanks, Florence. I'll give it a shot.

[FlorenceArt]

I once wrote a long post on handwriting apps, if you care enough to dig it out.

[WT Sharpe]

You buried it?

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

You buried it?

LOL, it got buried by other posts, nobody seemed very interested.

[FlorenceArt]

Here it is.

[WT Sharpe]

Thanks. I made a comment.

[ProfCrash]

Dominion is a great card game and it is free.

It is amazing how little I use my IPad for. Games, checking the new, checking Facebook, checking email. Yetmy computer has been turned on about once a week since getting the IPad.

[WT Sharpe]

Speaking of games, I found a great little time-waster if you like jigsaw puzzles: Jigsawed. It comes with several free puzzles, some okay puzzle packs to buy, but the best feature is the Flickr Image Search that allows you to search and grab a photo from Flickr and convert it into a puzzle (no charge). You can also convert your own store photos. I size all my puzzles to 324 pieces (the max) and it can be quite challenging, especially if you start imposing rules on yourself such as, "I'm going to work this one from the inside out." The only two downsides are that (1) there's not the additional challenge of having to rotate the play pieces—they're already all in the correct orientation, and (2) if you drop a puzzle piece anywhere on the board near to where it fits in the puzzle, it automatically clicks into place, whether you were ready for that piece to click in or not, which can leave you with immovable pieces sitting alone in the middle of the board. You quickly learn not to drop them on the board unless you're ready to fit them in.

Maybe a future upgrade will add the ability to rotate play pieces.

I am really enjoying this app and getting very little needed work done.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

...downsides...there's not the additional challenge of having to rotate the play pieces—they're already all in the correct orientation...Maybe a future upgrade will add the ability to rotate play pieces....

CORRECTION: There is an option for allowing game pieces to rotate to increase the difficulty. I just found it.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Speaking of games, I found a great little time-waster if you like jigsaw puzzles: Jigsawed. It comes with several free puzzles, some okay puzzle packs to buy, but the best feature is the Flickr Image Search that allows you to search and grab a photo from Flickr and convert it into a puzzle (no charge). You can also convert your own store photos. I size all my puzzles to 324 pieces (the max) and it can be quite challenging, especially if you start imposing rules on yourself such as, "I'm going to work this one from the inside out." The only two downsides are that (1) there's not the additional challenge of having to rotate the play pieces—they're already all in the correct orientation, and (2) if you drop a puzzle piece anywhere on the board near to where it fits in the puzzle, it automatically clicks into place, whether you were ready for that piece to click in or not, which can leave you with immovable pieces sitting alone in the middle of the board. You quickly learn not to drop them on the board unless you're ready to fit them in.

Maybe a future upgrade will add the ability to rotate play pieces.

I am really enjoying this app and getting very little needed work done.

Very nice app, thank you! I had thought about trying a jigsaw app but was a bit skeptical. But this one is very well thought out, and has lots of options to control the difficulty of the game. There is one to set the sensitivity of the magnetic thingie when you put a piece in its place, have you seen it? I am increasing the difficulty step by step. I doubt it will ever be as challenging as my hand made wood jigsaws, but it's a lot cheaper, and I can carry it around and choose my own images for the puzzle. Thanks for the recommendation.

[WT Sharpe]

I noticed the sensitivity control, but I keep it in maximum for now. I like to know when I lay a piece somewhere on the board that it's in the right location. Maybe one day I'll want more of a challenge and reduce that sensitivity level. I do have the pieces set for rotate, however.

[FlorenceArt]

I haven't tried that yet (rotating the pieces) because I'm afraid it would be a little awkward. But I'll try it and see.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I haven't tried that yet (rotating the pieces) because I'm afraid it would be a little awkward. But I'll try it and see.

It's not. It only allows four directions for each piece, so each double-click rotates the piece by a 90° angle.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

It's not. It only allows four directions for each piece, so each double-click rotates the piece by a 90° angle.

OK, that does sound easy.

[FlorenceArt]

I seem to be irresistibly drawn to note-taking and check-list apps. I bought a new one a few days ago, which is working fine so far. It's called Priorities.

The icon is a bit lame, but the interface is elegant and easy to use. You can have three hierarchical levels: you create pages, and within each page you can create tasks, which can optionally be organized in lists. Each task has a check box to mark it done, and options for alerts and repeating.

The repeat options are rather good, you can choose the periodicity and you can choose to create the next task based on the due date of the preceding one, or on its completion date.

There is a feature to display your task in the calendar: very useful!

For the price (I don't remember it exactly but it was not very high), this seems to be a very good app. It won't do to manage my "big" projects such as organizing an exhibition (I'll keep using NoteBooks for that), but for managing simple to-do lists and recurrent tasks, I think it will be very useful.