Top 10 free iPad apps you will love

The iPad is such a great productivity tool, and already there are lots of great apps, it’s hard to know which ones to choose or where to find them. I’ve spent the last few days trawling through all of the iPad apps and already these ones are my favourites, and best of all, they’re free! What follows is a list of my favourite free apps for the iPad. As a graphic designer, they make life easier, more fun and generally shinier! Please let me know if there are any free iPad apps you find invaluable.

1. Beatwave

I can’t believe how cute and easy to use this is. Everyone who has played with it finds it just delightful. Waves of colour scan the screen and you hit dots with your fingers and lay down beat tracks, then you can layer more on top and remove dots just as easily. It’s so intuitive, my 10 year old niece had no problems making a cool tune.

2. BMW Magazine

This is a glimpse into the future of magazines as far as I’m concerned. The interface is invisible, the thumbnails pop up, the contents are a scroll away and click and hold on the pages and you get map links, web links and all the meta data you would expect. It’s quite beautiful. Click the image and you’ll be taken to BMW’s page which demonstrates how it works. Way more than a PDF version of a magazine. Love it.

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3. Drop Box

This is a great way to carry files around, once you’ve set up a free online account, you can download the software and install on your computer. This gives you a virtual hard drive which then syncs seamlessly with your iPad. Great way to get PDFs on the because I haven’t figured out how else to do it just yet. It’s also great to have an online version for when you’re without your own computer or iPad.

4. TED

If you haven’t seen a TED talk, you’re missing out. Some of the world’s most interesting people speak at the TED forums and this handy little app lets you view all the videos of the talks for free. They get updated with new ones every few days and the iPad version of the interface is just lovely. They also sync with your podcasts in your iTunes if you have that set up.

5. Epicurious

I love this app, it’s so nice to look at, and simply made for the iPad. Select the recipes you want to cook and then it prepares a shopping list for you. A great way to plan a dinner party or large meal. Looks so elegant and a great website to go with it.

6. Granimator

This is a fun little app for generating wallpapers and backgrounds, though it’s great just to get inspiration from colours and different graphic combinations. With free packs from UsTwo, Jon Burgerman, Bobby Bobson and more for purchase, it’s a visual feast of colour and funky graphics. Great fun and post to Twitter, Facebook and Flickr when you’re done.

7. Adobe Ideas

Essential for every creative person. Adobe Ideas helps you visually organise words and pictures. Think of it as a doodle pad or scrapbook.

8. Evernote

Almost a classic in the world of iPhone apps, the iPad version is just seamless and makes use of the landscape format. Take notes in whatever form you find most comfortable. Use text, photo or audio notes to help you remember and recall anything of interest that happens during your day and sync with your computer and iPhone. I can’t live without this app, especially when I get ideas in my car and can’t write anything down. I use the voice recorder all the time.

9. Sky Grid

As soon as I played with this app, I deleted all of my Google alerts. This is such a great way to browse. Type a word in the search bar, such as “creativity” and down the side list the latest popular blog and website articles on creativity. You can view them instantly in the right pane and keep the current list visible in the left pane. Such a great research tool.

10. TweetDeck

You have to have a Twitter application of some kind, the question is which one? I quite like the simplicity and elegance of the interface and the fact you can rearrange which columns you have in view.

I’d love to hear what you think of this article, please make a comment below.

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