So the 'leaked' iPad app list is out over here courtesy of Gizmodo. There's a link on the page you can browse the whole archive yourself, including visit individual app pages.

There are a lot of duplicates in there - and I don't mean the full version plus the lite version, but identical copies of the same app turning up more than once. This makes me rather doubt the 1350 apps claim (were they just hoping people wouldn't look too hard?) but some are looking useful:

• Blogazine: for those who don't have too many blogs on their reader list, this little app puts them into a nice magazine-format for you to read. Apparently also works for the iPhone. Must say, the idea strongly appeals, but I have over two hundred feeds in my reader - far too many to read through on that little app, and if I did a 'best-of', I'd be forever marking things as read on either device.
• Story Tracker: I fight a slight niggle of "hey, I was doing that!" here, though I never had intentions to develop for the Apple market (too much investment for no return, there) and this app is a much simpler version of my planned one. Though, then again, this app is actually on the market right now, while mine has stalled just before release due to other things monopolising my time for a few months.
  • It tracks your submissions of stories to markets, acceptances, rejections, expected response due, etc. There's so much in common with mine, actually, that I'd feel that's where they got the idea, were it not for the fact that this blog is so tiny it's practically invisible
  • Gives the ability to send emails or call (using Skype? or is this an iPhone app? the page isn't clear) from the market details page of the app. That one I actually think is a 'bad' feature, because it makes it too easy to do exactly what you shouldn't do - bug editors and agents for updates on your submission. Newbie writers might easily be swayed into thinking it's okay to do that. Not good.
  • It's also not free: there's a very limited lite version, and a $6.99 full version.
• My Writing Notebook - write novels on your iPad, although why you'd want to write 100,000 words on that keyboard, I've no idea. Definitely something better suited to a netbook or similar device. It does have a free web-app, apparently, so it's possible you could just use it to write a few hundred words on the train each day - certainly faster than powering up a netbook there.
• Whiteboard HD - collaborative 'whiteboard' over bluetooth / wireless with two (or more?) devices. Good for projects and joint books, also good for students / colleagues wanting to pass notes during class/work.
• MaxJournal, Notebook and Diarybook - keep a journal, good for jotting notes, though not so good for cross referencing them later, I guess. More for a write-once, read-never diary.
• Instapaper - save webpages for full reading later, when offline. I can see this as an excellent app for people who only want the wifi version of the iPad, and great for writers who need to save a particularly useful reference page for use later on.
• Evernote, the ever-familiar all-in-one note app. Unfortunately, it's mac-only.
• GoDocs (google docs for iPad) - one of the many googledoc things, I believe I saw Office2 in there somewhere, too (which, in my opinion, is infinitely better).

The repetition of identical apps is becoming far too annoying for me to continue (and the list is already pretty long... there's not much point distilling it down into a list that's only a little shorter than the original archive), so I'll leave it there - but there seem to be at least a few dozen apps that might appeal to writers.

As it stands, I'm not planning on buying an iPad just yet. Personally, I think there are too many things that it doesn't do that it will do within a few generations, and what it does do at the moment is already covered by my iPhone / laptop / PC / server. I think it's definitely a device for consuming rather than creating content - not so great for us writers, really, unless someone comes up with a kickarse editing-comment app - but I'd definitely wait to see what the competition has to offer.

• Add New
• Search
• RSS

Comments (0)

Write comment

Your Contact Details:

Name:

Email: do not notifynotify

Website:

Comment:

Title:

Message:

Security

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 4.0 beta2