Thursday, July 5, 2012

No Cost Must-Have iPad Apps


Source: http://goo.gl/RRZPb
Suffer from "app addiction?" If so, you've come to the right place if you're into productivity tools for your iPad!! Here's my latest list for iPad along with a few extra items thrown in for good measure! I'll be revisiting this list from time to time, pruning it, expanding, so be sure to check back periodically! 


APP LISTING
I hope you'll find the list useful and contribute to it in the comments of this blog entry!
  1. Cloud Storage Solutions 
    1. ecCloud - This is East Central ISD's OwnCloud solution that provides 2-5 gigs of space for folks in the EC3 iPad initiative! You can access content from work and home,and it's ideal for sharing work with students. Be sure to check the EC3 web site for more details!
    2. For other storage that is not provided by the District (please don't use it with students to house confidential/FERPA data):
      1. Box (no cost) - 50 gigs of free storage, 25 meg upload limit per file. Great for sharing!
      2. Dropbox (no cost) - Check out this Dropbox cheat sheet (or quick ref guide!). 
      3. SugarSync (no cost) - an easy way to access videos from your iPad and not have to use iTunes to get them on the iPad!
  2. Content Curation
    1. Curating - Also,be sure to read this blog entry.
      1. EverNote (no cost) - This is the best app on the iPad, IMHO, with its note-taking capabilities that include still images, audio and more. I simply love this app. If I find out that upgrading will result in saving EverNote content to my iPad for offline viewing, then I will happily pay for it.
      2. Pinterest (no cost) - "Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. It lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find in your life."
      3. LiveBinders (no cost) - If you've played with Livebinders, you'll know how it works. This app allows you to view and edit existing LiveBinders. If not, check some Livebinders out!
      4. Pearltrees (no cost) - A nice visual interface that allows you to create trees of content you like, share it, and allow others to contribute/curate with you.
    2. Reading Other's Curation (all no cost)
      1. Zite - A phenomenal app enabling you to read content from everywhere. I love that you can drop content into section topics, exposing you to content you didn't know existed about stuff you are interested in!
      2. Flipboard - This incredible app turns RSS feeds into beautiful magazines you can flip through easily. Some other possibilities: Flud
      3. Taptu - More magazine goodness on your iPad, but not based on social media. Some other possibilities in this category include Zinio.
      4. News360 - Access news on your iPad. Other competitors include News.Me, Pulse.
      5. Showyou Video Curation - Shows you video content. Hmm. 
  3. eBook Reading Software
    1. Stanza (no cost) - free ebook reader. I use this app all the time! Create your own eBooks, PDFs, and then make them available to students via Stanza!
    2. Commercial eBook Reading Software:
      1. Nook (no cost) - Since I own a few Nook books, and the Nook reader serves as an ebook reader, this is a nice one to have.
      2. Amazon Kindle  (no cost) - I don't currently own any books on Amazon for myself, but plan to in the future.
  4. Image Editing/Annotation
    1. Photoshop Express (no cost) - Edit and share photos.
    2. Skitch for iPad (no cost) - Edit and share images, etc.
    3. PicStitch (no cost) - An easy tool to "stitch" photos/images together using panels. Easy to use, and great for juxtaposing images.
  5. Multimedia and Video
    1. Creating Video
      1. Videolicious (no cost) - A great tool for creating videos!
    2. Viewing Video
      1. flex:Player (no cost) - This app allows you to view more than the standard video formats supported by iPad; flex:Player supports AVI, DivX, Xvid, VOB, MP4, MOV.
  6. Note-Taking
    1. EverNote (no cost) - This is the best app on the iPad, IMHO, with its note-taking capabilities that include still images, audio and more. I simply love this app. If I find out that upgrading will result in saving EverNote content to my iPad for offline viewing, then I will happily pay for it.
    2. Dragon Dictation (no cost) - This is an app I really didn't pay attention to until I watched the video above. "...speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard."
  7. Productivity/Office Apps/Printing (view comparison chart)
    Note: Office 2 HD (works with MS Office and GoogleDocs) and Keynote (presentation software) will be provided for EC3 iPads in use in ECISD, but feel free to explore the following!
    1. CloudOn - This app enables you run MS Office on your iPad at no charge, if you need it.
    2. Office 2 HD ($7.99) - This is a must-have app if you use GoogleApps, need WebDav, Dropbox, Box.net, and integration with other systems. I bought this and love it's ease of use. You might want to read this comparison chart. It provides MS Word, MS Excel, and Powerpoint compatibility, as well as integrates with GoogleApps.
    3. Idea Sketch Graphic Organizer- This app provides for graphic organizer creation (e.g. concept/semantic mapping, cluster maps). 
  8. Screen Capture/Mirroring
    1. ScreenChomp (no cost) - Essentially, narrate/annotate tools for your iPad screen capture.
    2. EduCreations Interactive Whiteboard (no cost) - "Educreations turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. Creating a great video tutorial is as simple as touching, tapping and talking. "
    3. Skitch - Just as nice on the iPad as on the desktop.
    4. Explain Everything ($2.99) - Same
    5. Reflection ($15.99) - Mirror your iPad/iOS device to your computer using this app. There's a nice review shown here. Note: This will be provided to ECISD EC3 iPad users.
    1. Social Media Tools (all no cost)- 
      1. Twitterrific - An alternative to the standard Twitter app, Twitterrific is simply fantastic in ease of use. Has some advertising so avoid using it with students.
      2. Twitter - This is the official free Twitter app and is available without advertising, unlike Twitterrific above.
    2. Web Browsers -
      1. Apollo Browser+Addons (without Flash) - Great options for sharing including Evernote, Pinterest, Instapaper, G+, Twitter, Facebook.
      2. Diigo Browser  (without Flash) - offers Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Diigo support in addition to others.
      3. Rover Browser with Flash support
    Other apps that aren't must-have's but worth exploring:
    1. iPad as Interactive Whiteboard - While I confess I don't like the idea of IWBs, if you're already spending money on an iPad and an Apple TV, then you might as well consider one of these two apps.
      1. EduCreations Interactive Whiteboard (no cost) - "Educreations turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. Creating a great video tutorial is as simple as touching, tapping and talking. "
      2. Doceri (no cost) - Although the app is free, you have to pay for the desktop software that installs on your computer.
    Programming on the iPad
    One of my main complaints about the iPad was that it didn't offer support for Scratch programming from MIT...however, there are other solutions out there, such as the ones outlined in this blog entry--6 Awesome Code Editors for iPad.

    Special Education
    You may also want to check out these Autism related Apps.

    More Free Apps
    Many of the best apps in life are free...check out this list from TCEA/McAllen ISD. And, 40 best iPad apps for Young Learners.

    Here's a list of resources from school districts:

    Finally, here's my curated list of iPad content:
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