For my birthday, I got an iPad Mini (my begging and pleading for seven months worked like a charm!).  While I’m totally going to use it for responsible things like teacher’s college and wedding planning, I first had to fill it up with apps!  Here are the ones I chose, and why I love them.

(All of these apps are free!  I’m far too cheap to pay anything for apps, even the $0.99 ones.  Though if anyone wanted to buy me an App Store Gift Card, I would not turn it down!)

1. Social Networking: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Skype, WordPress (Plus Bonus: Etsy!)

The iPad apps for these top social networking platforms do not disappoint!  The Pinterest app is especially user-friendly, allowing you to browse pins and add them to your boards with simple taps of the finger.  The pictures are still gorgeous, and now any re-pins, comments, etc. come up as app notifications, so you’re always up-to-date.

While the Facebook and Twitter apps are everything I would need them to be, it gets even better!  I simply swipe my finger down from the top of the screen (in any app or on the home screen), and I’m presented with the ability to tweet or post to Facebook without even needing to enter the app.  Very handy!

The Skype app is fantastic.  The mic is great, the picture quality is comparable to your typical webcam, and conversations are easy to start and finish.  Best of all, because no app actually closes when you hit the “home” button (until you go and manually close it from your taskbar), you can carry on your conversation while browsing the web and accessing all your other apps!  Just as handy as on a laptop or desktop.

The WordPress app allows you to edit and post to your blog right from your iPad.  You can also moderate comments, view stats, and add images or videos easily.  This app works for WordPress.com or WordPress.org sites running 3.1 or higher.  There’s not a whole lot to say about the app beyond that, because what can you really say about a blog-editing app?  It edits your blog, yay!  (I’ve heard really good things about Blogsy, but it’s a paid app, and I still do the majority of my blogging on my laptop.  If you’d prefer to pay the $5 or so that Blogsy costs, I hear it’s a lot better for writing new posts.  However, I have also heard that blog editing is best left to the official WordPress app, as Blogsy gets “messy.”)

I tacked the Etsy app onto this post because I didn’t really know where else to include it.  I don’t have any other shopping apps, and for some reason, Etsy reminds me of Pinterest.  I think mostly it’s the aesthetics of the program?  I don’t know.  Moving on.  The Etsy app allows you to do everything – browse, search, view your liked items and stores, and make purchases – right on your iPad.  I don’t know about doing whatever is involved in running a shop on Etsy, though maybe someday I’ll get my butt in motion and will be able to speak to that.  So all I can say is that, supposedly, you can manage your Etsy shop from the app and apparently it’s quite easy.  What I can definitely attest to is the ease with which I can view lots of pretty things that I really want to purchase.  Yay!

Thanks for reading!  I hope you enjoyed part one of my series on iPad apps!  Check in again tomorrow for my review of News apps.

– Sam