My Favorite Apps - Part 1

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Those of you who are my Facebook friends know of the consternation I went through over choosing a tablet.  I finally bought a 1st generation iPad from someone on craigslist, and I have no regrets.  I love it!  And my kids and husband do, too.

I love finding lists of recommended apps, so I'm hoping you do, too.  Today, I'm going to start with the ones I use myself.

These are in no particular order except for this one: AppShopper.  Using this app can potentially save a person quite a bit of money over time.  I put in a Wish List of apps, and then it notifies me when the price changes on the app.  Also, within AppShopper, you can see the price history of a particular app.  So for example, if I see that the price has been $1.99 for the past two years, I know it's probably not going to change anytime soon.  On the other hand, if I see that it drops down to $0.99 every couple of months (or better yet, FREE!), then I know it will be best to wait it out.  Genius!  There are several similar apps out there that may also be wonderful, but this is the one I use and love.

Commercial over.

Here are the obvious ones that I love (all FREE!):

Pandora (Christmas music whenever the mood strikes?  80s music all the time?  Yes, please.)

Facebook (although I still primarily use my desktop)

Netflix (app is free but requires a Netflix subscription)

Kindle (I can now check out library books for Kindle.  Plus there is now a Send to Kindle app for desktops for sending pdfs (e-books, anyone?) straight to my Kindle.)

Weight Watchers Mobile and WW Kitchen (apps are free, but you will need WW e-tools to use any part except the included recipes)

Notes (I have used this for packing lists, prayer lists, and I'm reading off of it now as I type out this list. :) )

Less obvious ones (most also free):

GoTasks (This syncs directly to my Google tasks list on my desktop.  I love that I can make lots of different lists - color-coded - that can be viewed separately or all at once.)

FreeBooks (HUGE selection of books, especially classics.)

1000Gifts (This app created by Ann Voskamp of A Holy Experience is a gratitude journal.)

Weather + (I'm a weather junkie.  We bought the full version to add lots of cities from around the world.  It helps to make some of the faraway places we have studied in geography feel more "real.")

Pulse feed reader (It won't show all of the blogs I follow, but that's kind of a good thing.  It helps me to focus on the ones I most care about.  Please add mine.  hehehe)

ShowMe (Awesome for teaching.  I have already used it this term in helping some of my online students.  It allows me to "write" on a whiteboard, record the writing as well as my voice, and then creates a link I can send to the student.  Wonderful!)

Games I'm now addicted to:

Bees&Flowers

Bumpling (I have the free version now but will probably break down and get the full version soon.)

7 Words

I have downloaded many more apps, but some I haven't really used much or at all.  I'll be sure to post more if I discover some really great ones.

Later, I'll be posting my favorites for the kiddos.  What are your favorite apps?  Please share!