Tech Tips

Must-Have iPad Apps For Professionals

When it comes to organizing, simplifying and entertaining, the iPad has it.

In Pictures: Must-Have iPad Apps For Professionals

This week, across the country, people are ripping open some very precious Apple boxes to reveal Steve Jobs' newest wondertoy, the iPad. Sales analyses for the tablet computer's opening weekend are estimated at around 700,000 units, including pre-orders, at a starting price of $499 per model; Apple hasn't offered any official numbers.

There's been much debate and hype over the iPad's next-big-thing status. Instead of jumping into that particular mosh pit, we've been closely watching as the applications have started rolling out, anticipating which tools will organize, simplify and entertain. Here, our picks for the top apps for any business professional.

In Pictures: 10 Must-Have iPad Apps For Every Professional

Air Sharing Pro
The Air Sharing Pro app turns your iPad into a portable hard drive, and the upgrade from the iPhone version puts the larger screen to good use. Wirelessly mount your iPad as a drive on your computer so you can load any files you need on-the-go. The iPad now can open, view or e-mail files in any format--Excel docs, movie files, pdfs, you name it. Air Sharing also allows your iPad to locate any printers available on a wireless network, which will surely come in handy. $9.99.

Big Oven
Ever find yourself roaming the grocery store aisles with little or no clue what to make for dinner. BigOven, a recipe-centric social-networking site with over 170,000 recipes, has built an app just for you. Browse for recipe suggestions and create grocery lists right on the iPad; you'll be eating better and shopping smarter in no time. $4.99.

Cube
Forgetting a taxi receipt or business lunch can get you into trouble when it comes time to fill out your montly T&E report. Cube, which works with your existing Google ( GOOG - news - people ) or Gmail accounts just might be your saving grace. This minimalist app (no fussy design elements here) is an easy way to keep track of time, travel and money. Freelancers, especially, can benefit from Cube's feature that tracks different projects, tasks and clients with color-coding. Free.

Dragon Dictation
Typing on the iPad has mixed reviews from early users, many saying that pecking away at the screen when placed flat is awkward, and propping the tablet on an angle is problematic when you're on-the-move. Enter Dragon Dictation--a voice dictation app from the well-known software maker that translates your voice into text.

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A reviewer from USA Today says his tests were a whopping 98% accurate--a serious step up from most other voice dictation software and far faster than the earlier app developed for the iPhone. Click a tab and your voice note becomes email-ready. Free.

Instapaper Pro
Instantly makes a newspaper out of the many articles and blog posts you come across during the day--but never the time to read. Instapaper lets you cache Web pages right to your iPad to read later on. Bonus from Instapaper: The app is universal. You only have to pay for it once, and it will work on any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. $4.99

While those programs are partly aimed at tapping into the small but growing number of iPhones in the enterprise, IBM's manager of Lotus software, Alistair Rennie, says they're also timed to give Big Blue a foothold on the iPad, which will use the same software platform.

"Our customers are looking at the iPad and they're excited about it," says Rennie. "No one quite knows its use patterns yet, but it's our intention to deliver as much of our portfolio as possible on it as fast as possible."

Rennie says IBM will also design applications targeted specifically at the iPad, which it hopes to release "very close to the delivery date" of the device. "The screen real estate and the touch interface should give us the opportunity to do some very interesting things," he says.

Apple's ( AAPL - news - people ) iPad seems squarely targeted at consumers, not BlackBerry-wielding suits. But Rennie says that the tablet, like the iPhone, will likely be used by executives who blend their home and work life and want to use their own personal gadgets to do work securely. "Peoples' lives don't segment neatly between work and home. The iPad gives people what will probably be a home device, but they're still going to want to access a full suite of business software on it," he says. "It'll be a device our customers will own, and they'll expect us to support it."

Apple's products represent one of the strongest forces in the so-called "consumerization of IT," the influx of gadgets into companies without regard for which technology is meant for use inside or outside the enterprise, says IDC analyst Stephen Drake. While IDC estimates that there are only about 4 million iPhones being used in an enterprise setting today, the firm expects that number to reach 9 million by 2013. IDC also predicts that the number of iPhones bought and maintained by companies will grow the most dramatically, quintupling over the next four years to total more then 3 million devices.

As IBM attempts to ride that wave of iPhones into the enterprise, adding software specifically for the iPad is a low-risk bet. "It makes a lot of sense for IBM to get its solutions onto the iPhone and into the mobile space," says Drake. "Given that the iPad uses the same software infrastructure, porting their software to that platform is relatively painless."

Unlike Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ) and Google ( GOOG - news - people ), which compete with IBM in collaboration and messaging software, IBM doesn't have its own mobile operating system to promote. That platform-agnostic approach means that IBM may be freer to develop Apple-focused software than the two other warring tech giants. "Anything Microsoft does will be first focused on Windows mobile, and Google will push apps for Android," says Drake. "For IBM and others that aren't tied to a particular environment, this is a good opportunity for them."

Google ( GOOG - news - people ), on the other hand, may not be so amused. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has talked openly of creating a powerful and cheap netbook computer by late 2010. Judging from his words, the Google netbook (or, given the way fashions are trending, perhaps now a tablet) will be priced far below Apple's ( AAPL - news - people ) range of $499 to $829.

Both companies are aiming at the business market, but with very different intentions. Apple, long a seller of hardware, is thinking in terms of something cheaper than a laptop, or better than a netbook. Google sees its device as a means to accessing its main businesses of Internet search and, increasingly, Internet-based office applications like word processing. The Google machine might even be subsidized like a cellphone, thrown on at a deep discount for a subscriber to Google Apps.

The two companies have been coming at each other for a while. Google's Nexus One phone is a rival to Apple's iPhone, and Apple is said to be building big data centers to offer online services a la Google. Earlier this week, Google released software for the iPhone that lets users make cheap long distance calls via the Internet, avoiding some charges by phone companies. Google tried this last year, but Apple did not approve the product. Schmidt resigned from Apple's board soon after. The new Google software can be accessed via the Internet, dodging Apple's control.



Who wins this battle may depend on the market result of corporate style. Both Apple and Google have outstanding recent track records on innovation and disruption, but the companies go about it in very different ways. Older Apple, schooled in selling delightful consumer technology products, has a discipline of process control. Its stuff comes out with the hardware and software created in parallel for maximum performance. With the iPod music player, the online store became part of that process. New versions of products roll out, and sometimes (as with the Mac or the iPhone) outside developers contribute ancillary products, but Apple's taste in the matter rules.

BURLINGAME, Calif. -- You've got to hand it to Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard: Last fall, he blogged about the then-upcoming Apple tablet, calling it the "Apple iPad."

Although his prognostication came true, some are snickering that the name reminds them of feminine products and have dubbed the new device "iTampon," a term that has landed into Twitter's trending topics. The name "iPad," however, is just one of several gripes circulating among the tech pundit circuit. Other complaints include lack of camera, lousy virtual keyboard and no killer technology breakthroughs.

First up in Gizmodo's eight-item roundup of bad iPad features was the one-inch-wide bezel. That's the black casing around your iPod or iPhone, and according to the gadget blog's Adam Frucci, "It's huge! I know you don't want to accidentally input a command when your thumb is holding it, but come on."

Blog ReadWriteWeb lamented the lack of a camera, something users expect in a multi-purpose device. The Forbes technology staff thinks a camera would have been swell for videoconferencing.

Another groan? No Flash support, posits VentureBeat's Anthony Ha. "The absence of Flash may not seem like a big deal," he writes, "but if Apple wants this to be a serious computing device ... that's a pretty big drawback."

There's also the wireless keyboard. "This whole time we've been wondering how we'll really get any typing done on Apple's new iPad," notes Engadget's Paul Miller. "At last we have the answer: an optional keyboard dock!"

Even analysts at NPD Group had something to say. "With no changes yet to the purchase model of TV shows or movies through the iTunes store, it doesn't appear that this will fundamentally alter consumers' in-home media consumption," writes Stephen Baker. "Small, slick, typically great-looking, and well priced at $499, it is an interesting but ultimately not breakthrough device."

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To read more of Taylor Buley's stories, click here. Contact the writer at tbuley@forbes.com.