Bloomberg Businessweek+

The Bloomberg Businessweek+ app is a must-have for print subscribers, mostly because it's free.  If you're already paying for the print edition you can quickly get free iPad app issue access by providing your account number.  If you're not a print subscriber I'm not sure you'll find the $3 per iPad issue much of a bargain.  You're probably better off signing up for a $20/year print subscription with free iPad access instead.

As far as features are concerned, there's nothing unique or special here.  You'll find the print content in digital format without a lot of bells and whistles.  So while the app is simple and effective, it's not pushing the envelope of what's possible in the digital world.  Heck, you can't even download an issue in the background, so don't bother hopping to another app while waiting for this week's issue to appear.

Although you'll also find all the requisite social networking options at your fingertips, can we think bolder?  Let's start with the simple: A dictionary is built in to almost every ebook reading app these days, so why not do the same with a magazine app?  I still come across a word or two every so often I'd like to look up; am I asking too much to be able to do that right within the magazine's app?

One feature I have to give them credit for is the "Related" option in most articles.  There you'll find links and summaries for companies and industries related to the one you're currently reading about.  This is all done with a slider frame, so it's unobtrusive but there if you want to explore.  Nicely done.  But if you're going to offer access to content within the Businessweek empire, why not also let me grab the same type of related links from the Wikipedia or Google News from within the app?  Turn it into a one-stop news portal, not just an gateway to Businessweek content.

It might not look like it, but I'm trying to encourage more functionality and not necessarily complaining about the app itself.  I plan to keep my $20/year print subscription alive but this is one of those few situations where I'll probably read it almost exclusively via the iPad app.  Bloomberg, you've done a decent job up to now, but please keep adding new features to help me broaden my horizons!

Hitpad

I spend a lot of time trolling the likes of Google News, Techmeme, Digg and countless other news sites and apps.  I'm always on the lookout for something new, especially if it turns out to be a reliable resource and timesaver.  That's exactly what I've found with the Hitpad iPad app.

Hitpad is a terrific visual way to quickly see what's hot.  It offers six categories of news: top stories, entertainment, business, sports, technology and the ever-important Canadian news.  (Yeah, I don't spend a lot of time on that last one.)

When you select one of those main categories you'll see the the subtopics within them that are trending today.  Touch any of those subtopics and Hitpad displays columns with the latest news, tweets, videos, websites and photos related to that trending topic.  It's the iPad user interface at its finest.  Facebook, Twitter and Instapaper support are all built in, of course.

My one complaint about Hitpad is that the main categories are pre-defined and can't be changed.  So if you want to add a new main category you're out of luck.  It also doesn't offer personalized recommendation content like Zite, so I find myself using both.  The Hitpad developers include a link to what they're working on for the next version though (nice touch!) and it includes saved searches and better personalized content support.  I can't wait.

Hitpad is yet another one of those wonderful free apps.  Perhaps they're just trying to hook us now and planning to charge for an update later.  That's OK with me.  I'd gladly pay $4.99 for this one.  Do yourself a favor though and get it now while it's free!

TuneIn Radio Pro

There are quite a few radio apps for the iPad out there so how do you know which one to download?  I vote for TuneIn Radio Pro.  It's earned a coveted spot on my home page for plenty of good reasons.

First of all, there's the breadth.  The app claims it offers access to more than 40,000 stations around the globe.  I don't know the exact number but I can tell you I've never searched for something specific and came up empty.  All the stations I care about are here...at least so far.

Next, and this is by far my favorite feature...  I can record stations and listen to them later.  Yes, it's like a DVR for radio.  I never thought I'd care for something like this but I'm discovering regular radio programs that are on at inconvenient times, so I just queue them up via TuneIn's recording feature and listen later.

Be forewarned that there are some glitches with TuneIn's recording capability though.  Every so often I'll set the app to record a station and it doesn't.  I haven't been able to narrow down the culprit but it seems to be tied to whether TuneIn was the last app running before the recording is to start.

TuneIn Radio Pro is a universal app, so the 99 cents you spend on the iPad version also gets you the iPhone app.  The iPhone app is even more quirky when it comes to recordings.  You have to make sure your phone is plugged in or it won't record; that's not a problem with the iPad app as I've made plenty of recordings without plugging it in.

This one's a steal at 99 cents.  Even if you don't think you listen to much radio today you'll discover a whole bunch of interesting stuff you've been missing out on...and you'll be able to record and listen when you have time.  Highly recommended!

iPad Lessons Learned After One Year

Was it really a year ago that I got up at the crack of dawn, stood in line at the local Apple store and left with my new favorite gadget, a 32G wifi-only iPad?  The last 12 months have been an interesting period and I thought it would be fun to share the iPad lessons I've learned in that time:

iPad is great for consuming short-form content... -- In fact, it's unbeatable when it comes to browsing websites, reading articles, etc.  When I think back to the "old days" when I used to subscribe to The New York Times on my Kindle I shudder in horror.  I can't believe I was paying $14/month for that Kindle service.  It was awful and remains awful, for that matter. 

...but it's not the best for long-form content -- I've definitely rethought my original assumption of my iPad replacing my Kindle.  For almost 12 months I ditched my Kindle and did all my long-form reading on my iPad.  The result: OK, but not exceptional.  I still do a lot of long-form reading on my iPad but I also recently bought a new Kindle and use it as an accessory for my iPad.  The combination is a terrific solution, or at least till Apple does something with their proposed patent on a hybrid eInk/LCD display. 

Content consumption? Yes. Content creation? Not so much -- I haven't been able to ditch my laptop on road trips.  It's just way too awkward typing on the virtual keyboard for more than a tweet or two.  I've also tried a Bluetooth keyboard but it's less than optimal constantly having to move your hand from keyboard to screen and back.  Maybe a Bluetooth keyboard with a built-in touch pad would work...

Some of the best apps are free -- Zite is a great example.  It's a fairly new app but it's quickly become one of my favorites.  Thanks to Zite I'm finally at a point where I can see my iPad replacing the daily paper. 

Instapaper is a must-have app for every iPad owner -- 'Nuff said. 

MLB knows their At Bat app users are addicted -- Why else would they charge $14.99 for the iPad version and another $14.99 for the iPhone edition?  Yeah, I was a sucker last year and bought both but this year I limited myself to just the iPad version.  I'm using one of the many free ESPN apps for MLB updates on my iPhone. 

My battery isn't as strong as it was on day one -- I haven't closely measured this but I'll bet my battery only holds a charge for about half as long as it did when I bought my iPad.  Speaking of which, does anyone else find it odd that reading an ebook (with the Kindle app) sucks the battery dry faster than, say, watching a movie for the same length of time?  Btw, you can't blame multitasking for the battery issue.  I noticed the drop-off before the multitasking iOS update ever arrived. 

Discoverability is still a huge issue in the app store -- That's why one of the last things I do each night is check out the new releases that day.  There's got to be a better solution (and I'm afraid the genius feature isn't it).

I have no use for the iBookstore -- It all comes down to content use on a variety of platforms.  I buy all my ebooks from Amazon because I know they offer reader apps for all platforms.  Why would I buy an ebook from Apple knowing that they'll only let me read it on one of their devices? 

Why upgrade to iPad 2.0? -- I certainly don't see a reason to.  Yes, it's thinner and offers cameras but I'm quite happy with iPad 1.0, thank you very much.

Zite

The Zite app has won a coveted spot on my iPad's home screen.  It's only a few days old and quickly became my most-used app.  I spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or more a day in Zite.

So what is Zite and why do I love it?  The app is described as "a personalized magazine."  The personalization comes from your Twitter account and/or Google Reader feeds.  I configured Zite to pull from both on my iPad.

Zite pays attention to what you read and suggests more articles in those same areas.  The more you use it the more it learns about you.

I gave up trying to stay up-to-date on all the RSS feeds I'd gathered over the years but Zite is a great way to dip back into that stream.  I know I'm not catching all the feeds but I'm reading from them a lot more than I used to and it feels like I'm coming across significantly more relevant content than I did using an RSS reader.

Zite is terrific but far from perfect.  It tends to be slow and often refreshes itself when it probably doesn't need to.  If it just checked my feeds 3 minutes ago there's really no need for it to refresh them again now.  This should be a user-configurable setting not something that automatically happens all the time.

My bigger complaint has to do with the customization options for new content sections.  There's a box where you can "enter your own" section but that's misleading.  In Google News I have a bunch of custom sections set up to search for specific phrases.  You can't get that granular with Zite.  If your search string isn't one of their existing sections you're out of luck.  That means I still have to use Google News to track all these other items.  I hope they'll let you create truly customized sections in a future release.  It's a huge opportunity to make this an even more compelling app.

Zite is a must-have app for pretty much everyone.  Best of all, it's totally free.  I wouldn't be surprised to see them offer a premium version for pay.  Heck, if they'd add that full custom section feature I'm looking for I'd be more than happy to pay $5 or even $10 for this one.  Highly recommended.

Why I'm Sticking with iPad 1.0

I couldn't be happier about Apple's iPad 2 announcement.  I was worried they were going to show so many killer features I'd have to spend at least $500 upgrading.  Whew.  Thankfully for me and my bank account, I consider this new product more like iPad 1.1 than iPad 2.

Thinner?  Nice.  Dual cameras?  Don't need 'em.  Smart covers?  Need 'em even less.  iOS 4.3?  I'll take it, but I don't have to upgrade the hardware to get it.

Honestly, I've been wrestling with the notion of switching from Apple to Android in a few months and I was sweating the thought of having to upgrade my iPad so soon.  My iPhone contract is up in June and everyone I know who has switched from iPhone to Android seems to love the latter.  Now I can wait till this summer, knowing both my iPhone and iPad will be more than a year old and I won't guilty about switching so soon after a major purchase.

I am looking forward to iOS 4.3 though.  iTunes Home Sharing will be nice.  I've purposely kept all my music off my iPad so that I'd have more memory for videos, books and apps.  As a result, there have been countless times when I've sat down to read, wanting to listen to some background music but couldn't.  When iOS 4.3 hits I'll be able to just stream all that music from my Mac.  Nice.  I'm also looking forward to the new version of Safari that comes with 4.3.  Then there's the ability to customize the side switch's function.  Like many, I never understood why Apple decided to take a dedicated screen lock button and turn it into a mute one instead.  It's so easy to just turn the volume all the way down with the rocker switch, why take away my ability to quickly lock the screen orientation?  I'm glad they're righting that wrong with iOS 4.3 and letting the user decide what the button should do.

Finally, if you haven't already seen it, be sure to watch the hilarious short iPad 2 ad from Conan O'Brien:

This Day in Led Zeppelin App

I wish all my favorite bands had iPad apps like this one.  I'm talking about a wonderfully rich product called This Day in Led Zeppelin.  The title makes it sound like all you get is a Zeppelin-themed calendar but it's much more than that.

For the bargain price of $2.99 you get all the Zeppelin trivia you can handle as well as a quiz to test your knowledge.  Then there's my favorite part, the Zeppelin song notes.  Every song from every album is covered here.  The Rain Song is one of my favorite tunes and I just learned it was inspired by George Harrison.  In fact, the first two chords of the song are similar to the opening of Harrison's wildly popular Something.

I never made that connection, but was immediately able to do so within this app.  That's because This Day in Led Zeppelin looks through your iTunes collection and knows what Zeppelin songs you own.  If you're reading the song notes for a tune you own you'll be able to play it within the app (while you're reading the notes).  The app also knows which songs you don't own, so it features a "buy" button on those notes screens taking you to the track's album in the iTunes store.  Very cool.

Additional links in this app take you to sites where you can buy Zeppelin sheet music and merchandise.  I wish they'd just open up within the app but unfortunately you have to visit those pages via Safari.

If you're a Zeppelin fan you need this app.  And if you just want to see an example of how a great band app is constructed, spend the three bucks on this one.  You won't regret it.

P.S. -- In addition to all these entertaining features, as the app's name says, it also includes notes about what happened on this day in Led Zeppelin history.  For example, did you know that on this day (February 28th) in 1970 the band played a gig in Copenhagen under an assumed name because Eva Von Zeppelin, a relative of the airship designer, threatened to sue if the family name was used in Denmark?  You'll need to buy the app to see how that interesting story ended for the band...