My Favorite ios Apps

I seem to constantly be setting up new tablets and devices for myself  (read a little more about why here) or for other family members.  When I’m not helping out my own family, oftentimes I’m opening friends, friend’s kids, friend’s spouses, or you name it…just about anyone else who asks me too!  I guess I must love it.

I’ve got the whole process down to a science, and generally install a subsection of the apps shown below depending upon the needs of the person involved.  That’s why I decided to publish my standard list of ‘go to apps’…these are the apps that I can’t live without and that I oftentimes recommend to those just starting out with their first tablet.

General Apps

Evernote (Notes) free & premium plans
Dashlane (Password Manager) free & premium plans
YouTube & YouTube Creator Studio (Videos & Video Creation) free
EyeFi (SD Card Wireless Transfer) free with the purchase of an SD card
GoodReader (The Greatest ios File Manager) $4.99
Photon Browser (A Flash Browser for ios) $4.99 
WordPress (App for Website Publishing) free
ScanSnap (Fujitsu Scanner) free with purchase of Fujitizu Scanner
Pages (Apple Word Processor) $9.99 or free with purchase of new idevice
DocsToGo (MS Word &Excel) replaced in 2015 by MS Word free & Premium
Adobe Reader (pdf management) free with premium subscriptions
Numbers (Apple Spreadsheets) $9.99 or free with new idevice
Google Photos, Drive & Chrome all free
Twitter free
Facebook & Messenger free
Buffer (Schedule Twitter Posts) free & Premium
CaLPrint (Print Calenders) $1.99
Kindle (eBooks) free
OverDrive (Library Books) free
Instapaper (Article Clipper & Mgt) free with Premium plan
DS Video & DS Photo (NAS Server app) free with NAS Server
Speedtest (app for bandwidth mgt) free
Status (ios System Status Information) $2.99
The Free Calculator 
Mirriam Webster Dictionary free
HP ePrint and AiORemote (HP Printer Mgt.) free
Kayak (Find Flights) free
Delta Air (Airline App cool glass bottom plane) free
My Infinity (Furnace Mgt.) free
Flixter (Movies) free
iMovie (Video Editing) $5.99 or free with idevice purchase 
5SGIF (GIF Maker) free or $1.99 for longer GIFs
5-0 Radio (CB Scanner) free

Photography & Art

I edit and use images for my website, for my YouTube channel and for personal use…a lot!  The apps below are all indispensable to me…each fulfills at least one specific need really well…that need may be addressed by another app, but not as well.

Some newish ios photo and painting apps I’m just learning about include Enlight $3.99, Procreate $9.99.

Snapseed (This was for many years my best photo editing tool but now it’s one of 4 along with the following 3) a Google product now & free
Pixelmator (Great New ios 8 Photo Editing Tool) $4.99
Photogene4 (Another powerful photo editing tool) $2.99
PhotoToaster (Good Photo Editor) $2.99
OneEdit Pro (Batch resizing photos plus lots more) $2.99
TouchReTouch (The 1st Retouching & Cloning app) $1.99
Adobe PS Express (This is a great & easy Photoshop-like tool) free SmartPhotoOrganiz (Quick Stats on all your Photos) $.99 pre ios 8
PhotoManagerPro (Best Album Transfer App) $2.99
Cymera (Nice/Unusual Effects) Free but lots of addons

Artistic Apps which aren’t mandatory but great if you’re interested are ArtRage $4.99 an amazingly full-featured drawing & painting app similar to Procreate, ABM A Beautiful Mess is a funky, whimsical  layout app to create cool compositions with photos and texts…things like cards $.99 but they sorta nickel and dime you on the extra packs and Adobe Voice a free app to create cool self-narrated photo videos.

Tech News

This is sort of a bonus because these are just great resources for tech news.  But most of these tech sites also have standalone apps for ios.

Engadget
Tech
Techsmart
Appy Geek
TechCrunch
TechNews
TechPort
MacWorld
iGeeky
Cult of Mac