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The 48 best iPad apps

Posted on 2 Sep 2011 at 16:00

TOUR WRIST (Free)

An impressive app with an appalling name, Tour Wrist pairs panoramic photography with the iPad’s gyroscope to create a ‘virtual tour’ experience of locations worldwide, including venues as diverse as Canary Wharf and Cannes. Tilting the screen to navigate has an initial wow factor, but it can be tiresome and occasionally jittery, so touchscreen controls are offered as back up. With plenty of spots available to view, and for free, it’s definitely worth a look.

SOUNDROP (£1.19)

The bastard child of Angry Birds and Jean Michel Jarre, Soundrop encourages users to create music by drawing lines on the screen for a steady flow of balls to audibly bounce against. Sound and pitch are affected by geometry, virtually begging you to experiment. Don’t be afraid of trial and error, either, as drawn lines can be repositioned at any time. It’s both utterly pointless and strangely absorbing. A free version is available.

MUSIC & VIDEO

AVPLAYERHD (£1.79)

iPad owners will know that the embedded video player is a little restrictive, able to play only a limited number of formats. If you’re fed up of laboriously converting video just so you can view it on your tablet, AVPlayerHD is for you. It’s quite simply the most versatile video player we’ve ever seen on a tablet: it’ll play everything from Full HD Blu-ray rips to low-resolution podcasts, and it copes with pretty much any format you can think of. We threw MKVs, AVIs, MP4s and even raw AVCHD from a camcorder at it and it played back everything we threw at it, with impressive smoothness on most occasions. That on its own would be enough to justify the budget price, but AVPlayerHD also adds a stupidly easy file-transfer tool to the mix, allowing you to transfer individual videos straight to your iPad over your Wi-Fi network, either with a browser or even your favourite FTP application.

PLEX (£3.05)

Getting video from your computer on to a tablet in the right format can be a chore. With Plex, you can stream your video files straight from your PC or Mac - just install the accompanying helper application on your computer, point the Plex app at your machine’s IP address and it’ll stream everything from Full HD camcorder clips to recorded TV files, straight to the screen of your tablet. It works remotely too, if you’re prepared to fiddle with your router settings.

SONARFLOW (Free)

Bored of browsing music in lists? Sonarflow offers something different, displaying the contents of your iTunes library in the form of a giant interactive Venn diagram. A series of intersecting circles represents music by genre (the larger the circle, the more music there is to browse). Pinch to zoom in and individual band names appear; zoom further and albums hove into view. Tapping any circle, meanwhile brings up the appropriate list of tracks ready for playback or adding to a playlist. An ingenious and refreshing way of browsing your music.

BBC IPLAYER (Free)

While Android tablet owners can simply access the BBC’s iPlayer programming via the excellent web pages, the lack of Flash support forces iPad fans to download a dedicated app. That’s no bad thing however, as it’s free and slick as a squid in an oil slick. Video quality is superb, the seek control is flawless, and the programme browser really makes the most of the iPad’s 10in screen, with horizontally scrolling tiles organised by category and channel. Only one weakness: you can’t yet watch over 3G.

FLIXSTER (Free)

As tool for finding out what’s on where, we’ve found none that beats Flixster. The app provides reviews and ratings from the Rotten Tomatoes website, hosts photos, trailers, and a synopsis for each film to help you decide what to watch. And once you’ve decided on your movie, you can see which nearby cinemas are showing it, complete with show times and contact details. It’s a film buff’s dream.