B minor

Every few weeks another person I know gets an iPad and asks me about apps for the device. I’ve already written my thoughts about the iPad as a product, but now, in anticipation of the iPad being a hot item this holiday season, I’m throwing together a list of 10 apps that I love and get a ton of mileage out of:

Productivity

Evernote – Evernote is a world-class note taking application. It is cross-platform (desktop, web, mobile, tablet), syncs over the air, supports tagging and a whole host of input formats – voice, text, photo, etc. It is my go-to place to record important information and non-task-oriented lists. There’s a reason its logo is an elephant – it is very hard to forget anything when you store it in Evernote. (free)

OmniFocus – I used to use Cultured Code’s Things for my task management/to-do lists. Unfortunately, they dragged their feet for too long on cloud sync, so I gave up and switched to OmniFocus over the summer. Couldn’t be happier. They make a great suite of products (tablet, phone, desktop) for managing your chores – and they are very heavily influenced by the GTD framework. They come in on the pricier side, but the peace of mind the product buys by freeing up mindshare for things other than remembering chores is well worth it. ($39.99)

iA Writer – This is a beautiful, distraction-eliminating, prose-writing application. If you write seriously, you must have this. ($4.99)

Social

Twitter – the web’s favorite micro-blogging platform, available in a beautiful iPad-native interface. (free)

Flipboard – Flipboard pulls the highlights from your social networks (Facebook, Twitter) and presents pictures, articles, and status messages in a compelling, digi-zine format. It’s a great way to dive deeper into the content your friends are sharing – perfect for end-of-day or Sunday morning reading and browsing. (free)

Entertainment

Netflix – The awesome of Netflix, tabletized. You can stream the same stuff you’d stream to your computer or set-top box to your iPad. The video quality is surprisingly good. Fair warning, though – Netflix can quickly turn into a black hole, sucking all your available time into it. At $7.99/month for unlimited streaming, it’s hard to remember why I ever paid for cable subscription. (free, subscription required.)

Travel

FlightTrack – If you travel even *somewhat* frequently, FlightTrack is a must-have. It has a dead-simple interface for tracking your upcoming flights, including separating the airline’s arrival/departure times from the FAA’s wheels-down/wheels-up times. You’ll have a much better sense of when you’re actually going to leave or arrive with this app. The Pro version integrates with TripIt to pull in your itineraries automagically – which is pretty awesome when you have multi-leg or recurring itineraries. (Unclear how long this lasts, though, as FlightTrack’s developer, Mobiata, was just acquired by Expedia.) ($4.99 standard) ($9.99 pro)

Communication

BeejiveIM - If you use multiple instant messaging services, this is a must-have. Even if you don’t, but are looking for a dead-simple IM client with push alerts for the iPad, this is a great find. I realized recently that IM was one of the reasons I wasn’t using my iPad as frequently, so I was pleasantly surprised to find the iPad version of this app I’ve used on my iPhone for so long. ($9.99)

Fun

StarWalk – One of those great “impress your friends” apps. A must-have if you are an outdoors person or have ever been fascinated by what lies out there in space. A should-have if you ever find yourself outside with friends at night. This app will use your location and give you a 3D rendering of the night sky, perfectly mapped to the current time. Makes identifying stars, constellations, and other nighttime phenomena a breeze. Packed with fun information about everything you might encounter in the night sky. ($4.99)

Osmos HD – The quintessential iPad game. It’s beautifully designed and skirts the line of maddeningly challenging. (You may find yourself googling how to solve certain levels.) But it’s fun and really brings the power of the iPad’s interface to bear. ($4.99)

I know I said 10, but this one’s too good not to include, so consider it a bonus:

Uzu – Trust me on this. Buy it. Your imagination will thank me, your productivity will hate me. [And remember when you use it, you have 10 fingers.] ($1.99)

If you have comments about these apps or want to add your own recos, please do so below!