Lifehacker Pack For iPad 2015: Our List Of The Essential iPad Apps

It took a little while for the apps to come into their own, but we’re at a place now where the iPad has nearly as good of a selection of apps as the iPhone. Now, it’s harder than ever to find apps that are worthwhile. Let us save you some time with this collection of the best iPad apps.

The Lifehacker Pack is a yearly snapshot of our favourite, must-have applications for each of our favourite platforms. This list focuses specifically on apps that really shine on the iPad, so no half-done, blown up iPhone apps here.

Productivity

Outlook or Evomail

You wouldn’t think it based solely on the name, but our pick for the best email client on iOS is Microsoft Outlook. It includes everything you need in an email client, including a unified inbox, customisable swipe options, powerful search, and a solid filtering system. It blows Apple’s default Mail app out of the water, so if you’re looking for something with more power, Outlook’s the way to go.

Simplenote/Evernote

Depending on what type of notetaker you are, you have two excellent options on iOS. If you prefer plain text, Simplenote is the best out there. All your notes are synced between your devices and there’s no added fluff, just plain text notes. If you prefer a little more, Evernote’s a better option. Evernote’s all about storing everything. So you can add images, annotate web sites, keep to-do lists, and so much more.

Clear

Like email apps, you have a billion options for to-do apps on the iPhone, but the iPad is a bit more limited. To that point, even though it’s pretty basic, we like Clear. It’s easy to use, fun to swipe around with, and does a great job of being a to-do app without a lot of extra junk.

Pixelmator

Editing images on your iPad isn’t ideal, but sometimes it’s your only option. Pixelmator is a worthy app for doing it because it features just about every tool that the desktop version has. You can quickly jump in and start editing photos, painting, and doing basic graphic design. If you’re editing photos on your iPad, Pixelmator is a must have.

Duet Display

Using your iPad as a second display is a great way to extend your desktop without taking too much space. The best app for doing so is Duet Display. With it, you can connect your iPad to your computer with a cable, then immediately start using your iPad as a second display with almost no lag. It comes with lots of options too, including high resolution displays, 60 frames per second, and touch support.

Paper or Penultimate

The iPad is a fantastic (albeit expensive) notepad, and depending on what you’re looking for you have a couple options. As a sketchbook, Paper is a fantastic option that makes even the worst artist look like an artistic genius with it’s brush options, easy to use book, and downloadable colour palettes. If actual note-taking is more your thing, Penultimate is one of the best out there. With Penultimate you can create all kinds of notebooks for various things, and it all hooks into Evernote for easy sharing and backup. While you’re at it you might consider grabbing a solid stylus as well.

Sunrise Calendar

Sunrise Calendar is our favourite calendar app on the iPhone because it’s free, feature-packed and easy to use. It does everything that a calendar needs to do, including offering a lot of different views to see your upcoming events, syncing, and more. What really makes Sunrise great is the way it taps into other services, including the weather, Google Maps, Evernote and TripIt. In the end, you get a powerful calendar with heaps of features.

Editorial

Writing on an iPad is great and you have a lot of quality apps to choose from to do it. That said, we like Editorial because it’s incredibly customisable. The crux of Editorial is its automation functions, where you can set it up with text expansion, application triggers and more. Basically, it’s as powerful as you want it to be, but still works great for just writing.

Internet/Communication

Chrome

Third-party browsers on the iPad get a bad rap because Apple restricts them from being as fast as Safari, but that doesn’t mean Chrome doesn’t have its share of advantages. In fact, if you’re a Chrome user on your desktop computer, Chrome’s syncing features alone make it a stellar replacement for Safari. Chrome’s packed with some great features, including a desktop view, a solid incognito mode, easy to browse tabs, and the speed dial to quickly access your favourite sites. If Chrome isn’t your thing, you have a few other solid options as well.

Facebook

The official Facebook app does a good job of providing you with a solid mobile experience, but it’s especially good looking on the iPad. With big pictures, a nice wide view of everything and a full set of features, if you’re using Facebook, the iPad app is well worth keeping around.

Google Hangouts or Skype

Skype has long been the kind of video calling, but Google recently introduced Google Hangouts is giving it a run for its money. The reason is simple: pretty much everyone already has a Google account, and that’s all your need to use Google Hangouts. The iPad version looks great on the bigger screen, and the added screen real estate makes video chat a lot better than the iPhone counterpart. With it, you can make video calls instantly, and it doesn’t cost you a cent. That said, Skype is still the kind of VOIP, and it’s widely used enough that most people have it. Both work great for video chats, so pick whichever suits you best.

IM+

When it comes to finding a good IM client, you don’t really need much. It needs to tap into a lot of different services, support different types of media, and it’s beneficial if it syncs to other devices. IM+ does all that and makes it easy to chat with your friends regardless of what service they’re using.

Utilities

Dropbox

Dropbox is already a fantastic cloud storage service, but what really sets it above the competition is its mobile app. While it used to be nothing more than a file browser, nowadays you can instantly upload all your pictures, edit files and easily share anything in your Dropbox through a wide variety of services. The PDF viewer alone is fantastic on the iPad, but overall it’s an incredibly useful app to keep around. Plus, you can always score more space with a little work.

Workflow

Workflow is an app that allows you to create macros and small apps for iOS. Essentially, it’s Automator for your iPad. You can make it so with a tap of a button you can load up upcoming calendar events, print a page to PDF, find lyrics for the currently playing song, and more.

Launch Center Pro

Launch Center Pro makes doing serious work on your iPad a lot easier by allowing you to create application specific shortcuts. Basically, you’ll fire up Launch Center Pro, hit an action button, and you’ll get whisked away to a specific part of an app so you can quickly send emails and create reminders.

Actions for iPad

Actions turns your iPad into a shortcut machine. With it, you can create buttons on your iPad that trigger events on your computer. Think of it like an extension to your computer’s keyboard and you’re on the right track. It’s incredibly versatile and you can customise all kinds of actions, from text expansion to keyboard shortcuts.

IF

If This Then That is already one of our favourite web apps, and the iPad app is just as powerful. Not only can you create any recipe you want on the go, you can also tap directly into the iPad’s contacts, photos, reminders, and more to automate whatever happens on your iPad.

Ebooks, Music, Photos and Video

iBooks or Kindle

It’s hard to really differentiate between any of the ereader apps on the iPad because they’re all pretty similar. They all let you read books on your phone, and most of them are tied to an account on the the store they’re part of. So, if you’re using iBooks on another device, then that’s the logical choice. The same goes for the Kindle app. Pick the ebook app that works best for you. That said, if you’re a student, the Kindle app has all kinds of killer features.

Reeder

Google Reader might be dead, but Reeder for iPhone is still our favourite RSS reader. With a recent update, Reeder added support for a few third-party RSS readers, including Feedly. Reeder is incredibly clean, and you can quickly save articles for later viewing, sync articles, or just browse your feeds in its simple interface.

Instapaper, Pocket or Readability

Bookmarking services are great on the desktop, but they really excel on the iPad. Save articles wherever you find them, and you get access on your phone so you can read when you’re bored. Each service has its own set of benefits and downsides, but they’re all terrific and look fantastic on the iPad. So, pick one and run with it.

Pocket Cast

Listening to podcasts on your iPad is a fantastic way to pass the time, but Apple’s option is less than perfect. We’re big fans of Pocket Casts, because once you set it up it automates pretty much everything for you. It downloads all your podcasts directly in the app, it works over the air or Wi-Fi, or you can set it up so it only streams content. It’s a powerful podcast app that’s a heck of a lot more useful than the other options out there. Plus, if you sign up for the desktop version, all your podcasts are synced up between your computer and your iPad.