Photo: Jared Anderson, LaFese Davis and myself

If I haven't blogged about it shame on me.  I have folded my company and merged it from a web site design/video production to an app development/media company.  Sympatico is the name of the company and I will be blogging about it more soon. We are working on some exciting app projects for government, religious and corporate clients.  

I am so excited to be working with Jared and LaFese, two people I have met in the last year, but our synergy is amazing and shared vision is amazing. I haven't found that in too many people I have worked with over the years as focused as them.  

I heard a powerful quote that has propelled me in my business career:

We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.” --Unknown

 

During a recent shoot I used Movie★Slate  and I was very impressed. Here is a screen shot below of my caputure window in Final Cut Pro.  For more information visit their web site or the App Store. It was well worth it for my DSLR Shoot.

 

 

The year 2010 has been a very good year for the Apple iPad. In earlier blog posts I was a bit critical, but now I am a believer.  People ask me often should they purchase an iPad, and my answer is generally the same-"buying an iPad is like having leather interior in your car, you don't need it, but it's nice if you have it."  

It is very hard to narrow down my top ten apps because there are so many that are so good, but here is my list.

1. Flipboard-This app has revolutionized the way I see my twitter lists, rss feeds from Google reader and Flickr.  It was the apple app of the year from 2010. I can write so much about this app, but do yourself a favor and download this asap.
2. Instapaper- This app is new to me, but not new to the app store. This is a great app for reading content that you save from any web site and viewing offline.  This is great for those long airline flights with no wifi.  
3. Evernote-If you are like me you have a hard time remembering things so you write a lot of notes. The Evernote iPad app makes it easy to upload/sort/create notes and even audio record them. I am using it now for a major proposal I am writing and it is very good and easier than keeping multiple word documents.
4. Goodreader -Quick summary: super-robust PDF reader with advanced reading, annotating, markup and highlighting capabilities, excellent file manager, TXT file reader and editor, audio/video player, Safari-like viewer for MS Office and iWorks files(From the Goodreader web site). I couldn't have written it any better. I use this to read and organize all pdfs on my iPad.
5. Osfoora HD- This app is by far my favorite twitter app for my iPhone and iPad.  I have tried many twitter apps and I like this one because its versatile and fast and I can access everything I want quickly in this app. If you are a "twitter app snob" like me, trust me, give this one a try. I have persuaded many friends to purchase it.
6. Dropbox If you don’t know what Dropbox is, the service offers about 2GB of free space in their cloud for your files, and automatically syncs your cloud storage space with the folder of your choice on your Mac or PC. Dropbox for iPad  allows you to view these files on the go, as long as you are connected via 3G or WiFi. You can for instance open a Keynote/Powerpoint document available in your dropbox folder via Keynote on your iPad. It is hands down my favorite cloud storage services and apps.
7. Keynote for iPad- In 2010 I used this app for major presentations and it hasn't let me down. Apple has been good about rolling out updates, for example being able to view your presenter notes while presenting. This won't take the place of my laptop for presentations, but for short presentations this is my app of choice.
8. Kindle- I included this app and not the apple iBooks app because of the amount of books that are available on the kindle store. The iBooks apps interfaces better, but the selection is still lacking. Amazon's specialty is books and I use this app daily whenever I am reading my ebooks. 
9. Netflix-This app came in handy recently when I took my 4 year old daughter to spend the night at my mothers house.  She asked me did I bring DVD's for her to watch and I said, "just give her my iPad and pull up a movie on Netflix for her." That application alone makes me love this app. Of course you need a netflix subscription, but with their recent changes, you can purchase a streaming only plan and that is exactly what I have instead of mailing DVD's back to them.
10. Prompster-If you are like me, you may have to give a public speech sooner or later and you don't want to be up front shuffling note cards or pieces of paper. My friend, Pastor Noah Washington, suggested this app, so I took his advice since he does speak weekly and I wasn't disappointed. In the photo above I had to do a speech at my high school and I used this app and it worked flawlessly. 

Those are my top ten apps, I didn't even get into game, entertainment and sports.The iPad opens up so many possibilities and I am glad I made the "leap" to purchase one in 2010. Look out for iPad 2 hopefully soon. 

This story was produced and written by Jared Anderson of SympaticoApps.com

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="iPad"] [/caption] All the hoopla has passed now since Apple's iPad has been released.   I was very skeptical in my first review of the iPad, but I have changed my views. (Sigh) The iPad is like leather interior on a car, you don't need it, but it sure is nice if you have it. There are numerous reviews on the functionality and  specifications on the iPad so I figured I would review the key ways I use my iPad. 32 GB iPad Wi-Fi (I would  suggest to purchase the 3G though) Main uses: reading, surfing the web, email and creating short presentations, notes, and gaming. My favorite apps (in no particular order) Updated April 24, 2010 AirVideo -Some apps just solve issues and this one does it well. I have a lot of movies in .avi format and I didn't want to convert all of them to the .m4v format for the iPad now I don't need to copy your videos to the device just to watch them. Netflix-streaming movies right to your iPad and ordering DVD's from the app.  This has to be in my top 3 list off iPad apps. This is one of the main reasons to love the iPad. TweetDeck--I use this to access all of my twitter accounts on my desktop, iPhone and now it moves to my iPad.  Tweetie, I like you but for now TweetDeck has it. Keynote-I recently did a presentation and uses my iPad and it worked flawlessly.  Now if you are doing major presentations I wouldn't use this, but for a few slides it works very well.  I think the negative reviews are because people are expecting this to replace the keynote program on their laptop-  and its not, but another way to do some quick presentations. Goodreader--allows me to read and archive pdf's and transfer them back and forth to my Mac. It's a good utility app. NPR--I am a news junkie and this app looks beautiful and works flawlessly and you can catch up with all the news of the day. Pandora--free Radio, need I say more? Games Scrabble--I could play this all day, it's a great app on the iPhone and it gets better on the iPad. Asphalt 5-I usually don't like racing games, but this game holds my attention and keeps it going. iBooks--this app is what Steve Jobs debuted during his iPad keynote and it is very good, I just wish they had a better selection of books Kindle--this app is ok, and the selection of books from Amazon.com is amazing, but I guess you can't really compete with an book app on Apple's device. I am sure they are retooling this. For my kids Doodle Buddy--keeps them drawing and quiet, but the app is really good. Cat in the Hat--It reads the book to them and the graphics look so good. A few more apps that I want to mention are: WordBook XL-this app is very good especially if you like a good dictionary app and this one offers so much more. AirSharing HD-this app offers you to share documents between computers. Key vertical markets:

1. Photographers-show off your work and portfolios easily at client meetings and presentations. Here is an interesting article that states more possibilities.
2. Educators-Use it to download classic books and electronic textbooks.

Overall: This device isn't necessary, but it is a nice addition, if you have the extra cash from your tax return or other income you may want to consider getting it. All in all, however, the iPad is an advance in making more-sophisticated computing possible via a simple touch interface on a light device. Only time will tell if it’s a real challenger to the laptop and netbook.