Apple : In Depth: Top 60 best free iPad apps 2012 |
| In Depth: Top 60 best free iPad apps 2012 Posted:  Best free iPad apps: 1-30On comparing iPad apps with iPhone equivalents, one thing rapidly becomes clear: apps for Apple's tablet are pricier. Many of the best free iPhone apps cost 59p or more in their iPad incarnations, and the quality level of what's still free is often ropey. But among the dross lie rare gems – iPad apps that are so good you can't believe they're still free. Of those we unearthed, here is our pick of the best free iPad apps. Note that apps marked 'universal' will run on your iPad and iPhone, optimising themselves accordingly. You can also check out our quick video run down of the top 5 1. AccuWeather for iPadAnnoyingly, some free iPad weather apps refuse to believe that the UK has any weather (or that the country exists), so AccuWeather gets props for merely working. Happily, AccuWeather also proves to be a decent – if quirky – weather app. The interface is odd (but fun) and there's a 'lifestyle' page that determines how your current local conditions might affect over 20 activities, including dog-walking and stargazing.
2. Facebook (universal)Facebook remains the king of social networks, and while the app is occasionally laggy and buggy it still beats using the website. You get access to sets of high-res photos you can flip through, navigation is simple, and there's support for iPads with a Retina display.
3. Air Video Free (universal)Despite naysayers whining about the iPad screen's 4:3 aspect ratio, it's a decent device for watching video, although it lacks storage for housing large video collections. Air Video enables you to stream video (converting it on-the-fly, if necessary) from your Mac or PC. The main limitation of the free version is that it only shows a few items (randomly selected) from each folder or playlist.
4. Beatwave (universal)Beatwave is a simplified Tenori-On-style synth which enables you to rapidly build pleasing melodies by prodding a grid. Multiple layers and various instruments provide scope for complex compositions, and you can save sessions or, handily, store and share compositions via email. You can also buy more instruments via in-app purchases.
5. Bloomberg for iPadWith an eye-searing white-and-orange-on-black colour scheme that's a little like being repeatedly punched in the eyes, Bloomberg isn't an app you'll want to spend all day staring at. However, for business news, stocks and major currency rates, it's a usable and efficient app.
6. Comics (universal)On the iPhone, Comics is innovative, but zooming each panel and constantly rotating your device gets old fast. By contrast, the iPad's screen is big enough to display an entire page without the need to zoom or scroll. And with dozens of free comics available via the bundled store, comic book fans should lap this app up.
7. Dictionary.com – Dictionary & Thesaurus – For iPadWe approached Dictionary with scepticism, since most free dictionary apps are sluggish interfaces to websites. That's certainly what this looks like, but it works offline, providing speedy access to over a million words and 90,000 thesaurus entries. The app's search is also reassuringly fast.
8. Dropbox (universal)Dropbox is a great service for syncing documents across multiple devices. The iPad client works like the iPhone one (hardly surprising, since this is a universal app), enabling you to preview many file types and store those marked as favourites locally.
9. Evernote (universal)Like Dropbox, Evernote (a free online service for saving ideas – text documents, images and web clips – that you can then access from multiple devices) works the same way on the iPad as it does on the iPhone. It benefits from the iPad's larger screen, which enables you to see and navigate your stored snippets more easily.
10. Feeddler RSS Reader for iPadFeeddler RSS Reader for iPad is fairly basic as RSS readers go, but once you've pointed it at your Google Reader account it's efficient, stores text offline, enables you to browse by feed and has a built-in browser so you're not booted to Safari when you want to visit a link.
11. The Guardian EyewitnessA showcase for engaging photography, The Guardian Eyewitness provides a daily, visual reflection of global events. You get access to the most recent 100 photos, which can be viewed full-screen or with a caption and 'pro tip'. You can also save photos to your iPad or share them via email.
12. iBooksGoing head-to-head with Kindle, iBooks is a decent ebook reader, backed by the iBookstore. As you'd expect from Apple, the interface is polished and usable, with handy cross-device bookmark syncing, highlighting, and various display options. It's also a capable PDF reader, for your digital magazine collection.
13. IM+ (universal)Although the iPad enables a certain amount of basic multi-tasking, anyone who constantly juggles a number of instant messaging services will soon be tired of leaping between apps. IM+ is a good solution, enabling you to run a number of IM services in a single app, and there's also a built-in web browser for checking out links.
14. Kindle (universal)Amazon's Kindle iPad app for reading myriad books available at the Kindle Store is a little workmanlike, and doesn't match the coherence of iBooks (you buy titles in Safari and 'sync' purchases via Kindle). However, Kindle's fine for reading, and you get options to optimise your experience (including the ability to kill the naff page-turn animation and amend the page background to a pleasant sepia tone).
15. Movies by Flixter (universal)One for film buffs, Movies figures out where you are and tells you what's showing in your local cinemas – or you can pick a film and it'll tell you where and when it's on. The app is functionally identical on iPad and iPhone, but again the extra screen space improves the experience.
16. PaperDesk Lite for iPadEffectively a souped-up digital notepad, PaperDesk Lite for iPad enables you to combine typed words, scribbles and audio recordings in user-defined notebooks. Pages can be emailed (typed text is sent along with a copy of the entire page as a PDF), although be mindful that this free version restricts you to three pages per notebook.
17. PCalc Lite (universal)PCalc Lite's existence means the lack of a built-in iPad calculator doesn't bother us (in fact, we'd love to replace the iPhone Calculator app with PCalc Lite as well). This app is usable and feature-rich – and if you end up wanting more, in-app purchases enable you to bolt on extras from the full PCalc.
18. Reuters News Pro for iPadSpurious anti-competition complaints meant the BBC News app took a while to come to the UK; in the meantime, Reuters offered the next best free news app for iPad with its Reuters News Pro for iPad. It's a little US-centric, but can be skewed towards UK coverage via the Settings app, and it's worth downloading for a more international take on news coverage than BBC News provides.
19. Twitterrific for Twitter (universal)The iPad version of Twitterrific marked a new beginning for the app, which the developers decided had become too complicated. On iPad, it was reworked into a simpler form, and this has resulted in Twitterrific becoming a simple, good-looking and usable Twitter client. Multiple-account functionality is available via IAP.
20. Wikipanion for iPadThe Wikipedia website works fine in Safari for iPad, but dedicated apps make navigating the site simpler and faster. We went back and forth between Simplepedia and Wikipanion, eventually plumping for the latter, largely due to its efficient two-pane landscape view with excellent bookmarking and history access.
21. eBay for iPadUse eBay for iPad and you'll never touch eBay in a web browser again. It's fast and efficient, beautifully showcasing important details and images in its main results view. The app also enables quickfire sorting and drag-based definition of price-ranges.
22. Soundrop (universal)Soundrop is a minimal generative sound toy that offers an endless stream of balls, which make noises when they collide with and bounce off user-drawn lines. The overall result is surprisingly fun and hypnotic. For more advanced features – save, multiple instruments and gravity adjustment – there's an in-app 'pro' purchase option.
23. GranimatorWallpaper apps litter the App Store, but are mostly dull, offering photos of brick walls or bored animals. Granimator is a bonkers art tool, enabling you to choose a background and spray all manner of shapes around. Compositions can be fine-tuned by dragging objects, and then shared to Flickr, Twitter or your device's Photos app.
24. Google Earth (universal)It's not the smoothest app in the world, and it lacks some elements from the desktop, but Google Earth is nonetheless a joy on the iPad. Touch gestures are an intuitive means of swooping around the planet, and the optional layers enable you to display as much or as little ancillary information as you wish.
25. Explore Flickr (universal)Explore Flickr provides an engaging way to discover new photography. On launch, your iPad screen fills with a grid of thumbnails, drawn from Flickr.com's top daily images. Tap one to view (and, if rights permit, download to your device), or just leave the app lazily updating (every now and again, a thumbnail spins to reveal a new image) while your iPad charges in its dock.
As a special bonus, you can check out T3's favourite five iPad apps: 26. Rj VoyagerOne for budding iPad DJs, Rj Voyager enables you to choose from a selection of bundled tracks, turn parts on and off and edit parameters in real-time via an intuitive, futuristic interface. Play through headphones or a decent sound system and the result is infectious.
27. BBC News (universal)Although the BBC News website works nicely on the iPad, BBC News is still worth downloading. Rather than trying to provide all of the news, it instead concentrates on the latest stories, with inline video. Categories can be rearranged, stories can be shared and the app's layout adjusts to portrait and landscape orientations.
28. Epicurious (universal)Tens of thousands of recipes at your fingertips (as long as you have a web connection) ensure Epicurious is worth a download for the culinary-inclined. The app even composes a shopping list for recipes; it's just a pity it doesn't include measurements for those of us who use that new-fangled metric system.
29. WordPress (universal)This official WordPress app has a reputation for being a bit clunky, but it's fine for authoring the odd blog post on the go, along with making quick edits to existing content and managing comments. It also offers both text-based and visual approaches to crafting posts, so you're not stuck with HTML.
Best free iPad apps: 31-6030. TV Guide for iPadFrom simple beginnings, TV Guide for iPad has grown into a robust and useful app for TV addicts. It would be worth downloading for the smart-looking listings alone, but you can also flag favourites, search listings, set alerts, share to social networks, and get info on a programme from IMDb or Wikipedia. And if you own a Sky or Virgin system, you can even remote-record from the app.
31. Adobe Photoshop ExpressWith people regularly moaning about bloat in Adobe's desktop applications, it's great to see the giant create something as focused and usable as Adobe Photoshop Express. Its toolset is strictly for basic edits (crop, straighten, rotate, flip, levels and lighting adjustments), and applying a few effects, but the app is fast, stable and extremely useable. Top marks.
32. App ShopperPrices on the App Store go up and down like a yo-yo, and Apple's own wish-list mechanics leave a lot to be desired. You're better off using App Shopper, which lists bargain apps and also enables you to compile a wish-list and be notified when an item drops in price.
33. Find my iPhoneFind my iPhone would perhaps be better named 'Find my Apple stuff', because it's not just for figuring out where a missing iPhone is—it can also track iPads, iPods and Macs. The app is simple, elegant and, generally speaking, provides an accurate location for devices. It also enables you to remote-lock or wipe a device.
34. FlipboardInitially, Flipboard looked like a gimmick, trying desperately to make online content resemble a magazine. But now it can integrate Google Reader, Flickr and other networks, beautifully laying out their articles, Flipboard's muscled into the 'essential' category – and it's still free.
35. Find My Friends (universal)While perhaps less practical than on the iPhone, Find My Friends on the iPad nonetheless works well, enabling you to track any pals that are happy with you digitally stalking them. The iPad's large display improves the app's usability, simultaneously displaying your friend list and a map.
36. IMDBIMDB might be a wee bit US-focused at times (much like the movie industry), but the app is a great way to browse more movie-related info than you could ever hope to consume in a single lifetime. Settings enable you to define which sites IMDB and Amazon info is taken from, and the show times finder works pretty well.
37. Read It Later FreeRead It Later and Instapaper battle it out for 'article scraper' king, but Read It Later trumps its rival in appealing to iPad-owning cheapskates. Instapaper requires a purchase for iPad goodness, but Read It Later Free is, suitably, free. It's also very fast and has a great original article/plain-text toggle.
38. TEDTED describes itself as "riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world". The app pretty much does as you'd expect – you get quick access to dozens of inspiring videos. However, it goes the extra mile in enabling you to save any talk for offline viewing, and also for providing hints on what to watch next if you've enjoyed a particular talk.
39. TwitterIt's a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it app, but Twitter showcases some breathtaking UI innovation; if you can deal with its unique way of presenting timelines and associated content, you'll find it an efficient and intuitive means of using Twitter.
40. Virtuoso Piano Free 2 HDThere's not a great deal to piano app Virtuoso Piano Free 2 HD, but it's not bad for a freebie. You get a dual-keyboard set-up, with optional key labels, and you can shift octaves and notes by prodding arrows. A really nice touch is the 'duette' [sic] button, which creates a second, mirror image, keyboard, so that two people can play at once.
41. BBC iPlayerAlthough not quite as satisfying as the desktop version, BBC iPlayer is a must-have download for iPad users. The slick interface makes it easy to browse/watch recent shows and current broadcasts. You can also choose from two quality settings and toggle subtitles, and there's AirPlay support for an Apple TV.
42. Dolphin BrowserSafari for iPad is a great mobile browser, but if you hanker for more features, Dolphin is a decent alternative. The browser has an Opera-like 'speed dial' that provides one-touch access to favourites, and you can create personalised action gestures. There's also a distraction-free full-screen mode for when you really want to get into a website.
43. Skyscanner (universal)Skyscanner's website is pretty good, but the iPad app's another great example of how an app's focus can really help you speed through a task. You use the app to search over a thousand airlines, and it provides straightforward competitive journey lists and comparison graphs. If you're planning a flight, it's an indispensable download.
44. Dragon DictationThere's always something slightly spooky about voice recognition software, as if Skynet's listening in or something, but such tools had for years been out of most people's reach. Now, Dragon Dictation is free for iOS. It's eerily accurate, trainable and, despite the dev recommending you use an external microphone, the app works fine with the iPad's built-in one.
45. RemoteAlthough pretty basic on the iPhone, Remote on the iPad is akin to a stripped-down iTunes when it comes to accessing network libraries and playing music. It's also indispensable if you have an Apple TV and want to control it with something other than the hateful metal chewing-gum stick that ships with the device.
46. Pulse News ReaderWhen unveiled, RSS reader Pulse was divisive, with an unresponsive oddball interface. But it's evolved to become free and fast, and is now a tactile, enjoyable way to catch up on news. The image-oriented interface, with slider-based RSS feeds (akin to those in the BBC News app) and configurable tab groups, makes it particularly suitable for anyone who subscribes to image-heavy sites.
47. Fotopedia HeritageRather like The Guardian Eyewitness, Fotopedia Heritage is perfect for anyone who enjoys awe-inspiring photography. The app enables you to browse tens of thousands of photos of beautiful locations worldwide. It also provides information about each location, and can be used for travel planning through favourites and links to TripAdvisor.
48. YellIf you're in an unfamiliar place or travelling somewhere new, Yell is a great app for figuring out what amenities are available locally. The interface is responsive and efficient, and you can handily add any business you find as a favourite for easy access later on.
49. XE Currency for iPadIt's as ugly as they come, but XE Currency is the best free currency app you'll find. You define which currencies you want to see, along with the number of decimals to show. Double-tap a currency and you can set it as the base currency by tapping 1.0 in the calculator, or do bespoke conversions by typing any other value.
50. Airport UtilityWith apps like Airport Utility, it's increasingly clear Apple now sees the iPad as an independent unit, not merely an accessory to a PC or Mac. The app provides an overview of your Wi-Fi network, and enables you to view and change settings, restore or restart a base station, and get terribly angry at a flashing orange light that denotes your ISP's gone belly up.
51. Skype for iPadIn theory, we should be cheerleading for FaceTime, what with it being built into iOS devices, but it's still an Apple-only system. Skype, however, is enjoyed by myriad users who haven't been bitten by the Apple bug, and it works very nicely on the iPad, including over 3G.
52. Skitch for iPadSkitch is a screen-grab and annotation tool that was snapped up by Evernote. In its iPad incarnation, it enables you to scribble on grabs, photos, maps and web pages and then fling the result to Twitter, email or Evernote, or fire your work at an Apple TV.
53. Readability (universal)The latest of the major read-it-later systems, Readability brings with it a clean interface and a lovely set of fonts. As with the likes of Instapaper, Readability strips junk from web pages, leaving only the content. As you'd expect, you can also send on anything particularly interesting to Twitter and Facebook.
54. iTunes U (universal)If you're still convinced the iPad is only a device for staring brain-dead at TV shows and not a practical tool for education, check out iTunes U. The app enables you to access many thousands of free lectures and courses taught by universities and colleges, thereby learning far more than what bizarre schemes current soap characters are hatching.
55. 4oD Catch Up (universal)Despite what we said in the previous entry, the iPad is, of course, a great tool for TV. (After all, once you're done studying, you need some downtime, right?) Channel 4's 4oD app enables you to view a selection of recent shows, along with a handful of classic programmes.
56. Google Search (universal)Google Search might seem redundant—after all, the iPad's Safari app has a built-in Google search field. However, Google's own offering provides a superior search experience that's been specifically designed for iPad. Highlights include a tactile image carousel, visual search history and Google Goggles integration.
57. TuneIn Radio (universal)Output your iPad's audio to an amp or a set of portable speakers, fire up TuneIn Radio, select a station and you've a set-up to beat any DAB radio. Along with inevitable social sharing, the app also provides an alarm, AirPlay support, pause and rewind, and a 'shake to switch station' feature—handy if the current DJ's annoying and you feel the need to vent.
58. Watch TV Free Live with TVCatchup (universal)More TV! This time, it's the only partially inaccurately named Watch TV Free Live with TVCatchup; with it, you can watch TV for free, but it's not so much 'catch-up' as 'watch what's on now'. You get access to over 50 channels, although we're unsure about taking the developer's advice that you can "even watch TV in the bath"—iPads don't float.
59. Netflix (universal)Netflix has been described by some in the UK as the perfect way to experience everything a DVD bargain bin has to offer. We do agree there's a lack of content compared to the US library, but Netflix is cheap and fine for catching up on older shows. And the iPad app includes AirPlay support and a resume function, so you can pick up where you left off on another device.
60. SoundCloud (universal)SoundCloud is a popular service for sharing sounds, and the iPad app enables you to search and play myriad snippets and music tracks hosted on SoundCloud's servers. If you're a budding musician or oddball loudmouth, you can also record and upload sounds from your iPad, or record to upload later.
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| Updated: iPhone 5 release date, news and rumours Posted:  iPhone 5 news and rumoursAlthough widely expected, as it happened, there was no iPhone 5 in 2011 after all, but the company did announce the iPhone 4S. But the Phone 5 will surely be with us later this year. So we've gathered together all the latest iPhone 5 rumours to give us a reasonable picture of what Apple's latest handset might be like. iPhone 5 release dateGiven the pattern of Apple's iPhone launches, we're expecting the next-gen iPhone 5 to debut in mid to late 2012. We reckon it's most likely to be shown off at Apple's Worldwide Developer Event (WWDC), which usually takes place in early June - even if the focus of the 2011 event was software. However, we reported in February that the new iPhone would be launched in October, falling into line with the same release schedule from last year, and Macotakara 'sources' confirming the Cupertino brand would be honouring the same upgrade cycle from now on. Rumours keep appearing that the iPhone 5 release date is June 2012. It seems Foxconn is even gearing up for that date. Production was also reported to be very close in late March 2012. iPhone 5 form factorUnlike the iPhone 4S, the new iPhone will be a completely new design from what has gone before, so that means an entirely new casing as we saw with the iPhone 3G and, later, the iPhone 4. Interestingly, someone who claimed to have seen a larger-screened iPhone 5 prototype said in November 2011 that Steve Jobs canned the new handset and opted for the iPhone 4S because of the larger screen size of the new device. According to Business Insider, it was feared that a new size would create a two-tier iPhone ecosystem. Beatweek also claimed in November 2011 that the 5-inch was scrapped "because Apple wouldn't be able to do it properly" this year. However, the Daily Mail (make of that what you will) then suggested that a four-inch version was likely and that Sony has already shipped top secret demo screens to Apple. iPhone 5 specsBased on the roadmap of mobile chip design specialist ARM (of which Apple is a licensee), we'll see a quad-core processor debut in the new iPhone 5 - probably called the Apple A6. We know that we'll see other quad core handsets debut in 2012, so it's not too much of a stretch to say that the iPhone 5 will be the same. We had expected some kind of help in terms of predicting the iPhone 5 CPU from the launch of the new iPad, but the announcement of a slightly tweaked A5X processor really didn't help things there. iPhone 5 will have 4G/LTE supportAfter the new iPad's launch brought 4G to an Apple device, it's widely expected that 4G will come to iPhone 5. And with many 4G handsets already announced in the US, it can't be long before the iPhone supports 4G technologies - even if we won't even have a UK spectrum auction until 2012. Cnet.com quotes Will Strauss from analyst firm Forward Concepts, who says that the next iPhone will feature LTE technologies."They're saving iPhone 5 for the LTE version and that won't be out until next spring," said Strauss. Steve Jobs' iPhone 5 legacyMany sites have reported that Steve Jobs was working hard on the iPhone 5 project, which will apparently be a "radical redesign". We shall see... but the fact the iPhone 4S was so similar to the iPhone 4 suggests that Steve was working on something pretty special before And if you're in a bit of a hurry, we've also got a handy iPhone 5 video detailing the latest rumours on release date, spec and more - so check if out for a quick fix of next-gen Apple fun: The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that: "Apple is also developing a new iPhone model, said people briefed on the phone. One person familiar said the fifth-generation iPhone would be a different form factor than those that are currently available… it was unclear how soon that version would be available to Verizon or other carriers." This has since been backed up by reports from Engadget, which state the design will be a 'total rethink'. iPhone 5 screenVarious sources claim the iPhone 5 will feature a larger, 4-inch screen. Digitimes quotes the source as saying that Apple is expanding the screen size "to support the tablet PC market as the vendor only has a 9.7-inch iPad in the market." On 23 May 2011, we reported on rumours that the iPhone 5 could feature a curved glass screen. These rumours also came from Digitimes, which said that Apple has purchased between 200 and 300 special glass cutting machines because they're too costly for the manufacturers to invest in. In March 2012, new reports suggested that the new iPhone 5 would come sporting a larger 4.6-inch retina display, while April rumours even suggested the next iPhone will use new touch technology and will be encased in something called "liquidmetal." iPhone 5 digital wallet - NFCThere's been some speculation that Apple might include Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in the iPhone 5, turning it into a kind of credit/debit card. However, with the tech being inside the Google Nexus S and Samsung Galaxy Nexus, as well as a host of other top smartphones, the time for NFC may finally be here. On 24 June 2011 it was reported that the Google Wallet mobile payment platform could feature on the new iPhone. Eric Schmidt admitted that Google is looking to port the software to other manufacturers. However, on 31 January 2012 9to5Mac claimed to have spoken with a well-connected developer who disclosed information received from Apple iOS engineers saying they are "heavily into NFC". The developer in question has not been named, but is working on a dedicated iOS app which includes NFC reading for mobile transactions. When questioned how confident he was on the information he had received his reply was "Enough to bet the app development on". On April 30 2012 an Apple patent filing reinforced the idea NFC in iPhone 5. iPhone 5 cameraSony makes the camera for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Speaking at a live Wall Street Journal event, Sony's Sir Howard Stringer was talking about the company's camera image sensor facility in Sendai, a town that was recently ravaged by the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami. According to 9to5Mac, he said something along the lines of, "Our best sensor technology is built in one of the [tsunami] affected factories. Those go to Apple for their iPhones… or iPads. Isn't that something? They buy our best sensors from us." Sources have also suggested the new iPhone could have an 8MP camera. Indeed, Sony announced in January 2012 that it had developed new back-illuminated stacked CMOS image sensors which are smaller in size. iPhone 5 priceIf the iPhone 5 is an evolutionary step like the move from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4S then we'd expect the price to stay more or less the same, although in the UK higher VAT rates may well mean a higher price tag. It's pretty much nailed on that the new iPhone will cost around £500 for a 16GB / 32GB model (depending on the capacity Apple whacks in there) and unless the iPhone 5 comes with some truly next generation technology that pricing model should hold firm. iPhone 5 reviewTechRadar is renowned for its detailed phone reviews where we look at every aspect of a handset, and we'll be bringing you a full, in-depth iPhone 5 review when we get our hands on one. |
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