Avista.... I love my iPad; I am just amazed at what all it can do.

3G or Wifi only? Depends on how you plan to use it. 3G is about $100 more and you have to pay a monthly access fee. It gives you access anywhere. Good if you're on the move, in the car, etc.

Wifi is built in and gives you internet access wherever you can sniff a signal. Lots of free spots.

ebooks, many games, and other types of apps don't require a constant internet connection to use them.

There are rumors of iPad version 2 (with cameras) coming in April'ish timeframe. Maybe that'll put version 1 iPads on sale/clearance.

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iFavorites
 

iPhone favorite is Diabetes Pilot, I use it to count carbs and calculate my insulin needs...it has been a great help.
For iPad I use iAnnotate to read, markup and print PDFs This is handy for business use as well as used by many students to take notes and write "on top" of their e textbooks. USA Today has a great app for both as well

An alternative web browser to Safari is "Atomic Web" ... A 99c app that is noticeably faster than Safari, enables true tabs for new pages, and allows color scheme customizing.

Not an app, but an accessory I bought is a Jensen iPad docking station. I found it at Target on sale for $59, regularly $79. Has much improved speakers, a nice tilt and swivel that that let's you position the tablet in just about any direction ... Horizontal, vertical, and typing mode. The docking does the battery recharge. It has a video out port that let's you hook up iPad to a TV to show YouTube, streaming Netflix videos.

I use it on my desk when I'm multitasking between the iPad and my desktop. Vertical is great for ereading

Some buts... It does require a plug, not battery operated. The iPad has to be removed from any case or cover to insert it into the dock.

Here's a link to the product on buy.com, $63, no tax, and free shipping, so about what I paid at target.

http://www.buy.com/prod/spectra-jips...216746369.html

DirecTV App for iPad
 

DirecTV has a new app for the iPad that is really cool. Lets you control your TV from the iPad over your WiFi network. Allows you to setup lots of favorite channels, which you can either browse or change the TV to those channels.

Just got it today, so not too much testing yet.

Cost is FREE on the app store.....

Try PenUltimate app. Free and loads a notebook where you write with your finger. You can then e-mail to anyone. You can write, erase, change font, colors etc. Pretty neat.

I DID get my iPad and just love it. Got the 3G and it is great while traveling in the car. Since we are mentioning our favorite Aps, I will mention a few:

I have Barnes and Noble, Kindle and iBooks for reading. Twitter, Ancestry, Pinochle XL Hand and Foot, Netflix, Spider, CNN, FarkleDice, Typing Test (free version--gives tips on typing with iPad, Scrabble $2.99 my favorite, Time Mag is free since we have a subscription, Google Earth. Flipboard.

Just thought I would "tickle" this post again, since it's hurricane season. It's a very nice app for tracking tropical storms --> hurricanes. Works great on the iPad...

later.....

Broke down and bought an iPad2 last week. Downloaded a bunch of apps. Some of my favorites:

The Good
PhoneBook: Search businesses, it returns their location on a map, with choices to get driving directions and add to your contacts. If you enable "locate" services, it automatically gives the directions from where ever you currently are with your iPad. Choose "add to contacts" and it automatically populates all the relevant fields (bus. name, address, phone, email, etc.)

Discovr Apps: Know of an app that does something you want, but don't know if it's the best app your your particular style or needs? This apps for you. Type an app you are interested in and tells you other apps with similar features. You can click on any of the suggested apps to learn more about them in the App Store before deciding which one to buy.

FlightTracker: Just key in the airline and flight number of your flight (or someone coming to visit or whatever) and it will track the flight's real-time path.

NASA App, National Geographic and Google Earth all look mighty good on iPad. Star Walk: Take it outside and it identifies everything you see in the sky.

Radio, TV and Movies: So many good apps for streaming TV, radio and movies. Most are fee so help yourself to as many as you want.

Zino: About 400 leading magazines included.

Dropbox: Cloud sharing. Drop a document or photo in a Dropbox folder from your iPhone, iPad or computer, and the doc will show up on all the other devices without the need to wire sync. (In addition to installing the app, you download a folder to your computer from the company's website.)

TapTrack: Among many good sites for tracking weight goals, calories and nutrition and exercises.

Atomic Web: Better browser than Safari. Has tab browsing and is faster.

Flex Search: Simplifies searching from a number of leading online reference sources. You can also call up a website and do a keyword search. Great for finding old threads on TOTV!


The Better
Wikihood: Learn about the sites to see, geography, history, companies, people, landmarks, schools, the local media and anything else you might want to know about home or anywhere else on the planet you are visiting or planning to visit.

Fax Print & Share: If the only reason you keep a land-line is to fax, you can ditch your land line and fax from this app. Also prints to any wifi printer (no added software needed) and has document management features. Can also send docs directly to Fedex Office (formerly Fedex-Kinkos). $8.99 but great app.

News360: Actually, I have quite a few news apps that I enjoy. This one is different in that it is organized by subject rather than by source. Click on a category (World, U.S., Bus., Tech, Arts, Health, etc. etc.) and it will bring up many articles. For each article, it shows dozens of news sources that covered the same story. So, if you think one source is biased, you can easily see how a different new source covered the same story.

Notes Plus: Several note apps let you take notes on the iPad with your finger or a stylus. This is the best of these I could find, putting Penultimate for example to shame. Notes can be drawn, handwritten, voice recorded and/or typed, all on a single page. Best adjustable palm rest for hand writing and drawing. Draw something that looks like a geometric shape and it will automatically make the shape perfect. Easily erase. Good filing, printing, sharing and exporting support. If you export a page with any voice recordings, it adds the play, pause, etc. commands on the exported page. Very cool app!

The Gorgeous
iMuscle: 3-D tour of all the muscles in human body and a huge reservoir of exercises for each muscle with animated demo. Same developer has several other gorgeous educational apps, but this is only one I downloaded (so far).

Is there a app for iPad to find my way around the golf cart ? Would be like a GPS I can't find one.I get loss on the golf cart there I need HELP

Added gas buddy and around me on my iphone.

Gas buddy shows you the price of gas at all stations near you. Price variation will amaze you. Best if in a strange area as we all know the usual low price places near us. I used it last week in The Villages when I was headed out to fill up my pickup and 3 5 gallon gas cans. Of course the place across from Wal-Mart is always the lowest, but there were two places on 27/441 that matched that price.

Around me brings up a menu of items to select. Includes restaurants, hospitals, banks, ATM's, hotels, theaters, etc. Select the category and it will show all those things near you. Again best if not in an area you already know.

Am trying a few different golf apps to find the best one to replace the sky caddy. Tried golf logic and golf gps so far. Anyone have a favorite they like that has all The Villages courses?

Favorites
 

Word Feud is killing me. Scrabble with unknown players. I have found seven and we play all day, every day.
Twitter. Again I follow a large variety of celebs.
IMDB..reviews and bios.

The Villages Mobile App
 

For those who may have not added this to your phones it will be very handy here in The Villages. It has all the local phone numbers of many of the things we use in The Villages. Link below.


Are there any new apps that you are using?

http://www.thevillagesmobile.com/

Quick update on DirecTV app: With the latest upgrade, you can actually watch live TV on your iPad, as long as you are on your WiFi network. Now all channels, but around 30 different channels. DirecTV app is a free app. Caveat: you need to be a DirecTV customer to use this app.

TuneIN Radio... This is an app that will allow you to listen to radio stations all over the world. I have SiriusXM in my car, but will not renew. I use this app on my phone, plugged into the car stereo system to listen to music, comedy, news, etc. from whatever worldwide location I like...hundreds and hundreds of radio sources. You can try out the service [free] on your computer at http://tunein.com/

App is $.99 for Apple
Free for Android

MeMason...how do you hook it up to the car stereo? Only on newer cars?
Thanks!