> small size, great features, always on the go!
Today’s post is slightly different for once, as I wanted to say a little something about the present I gifted myself about 3 weeks ago: a white, 16 Go iPad Mini!
Yes, I finally fell for this gorgeous 7″ tablet, even customized with my name engraved on the back, and I was so proud I could buy it thanks to my freelance earnings!
Now I wanted to show that beside being a great entertainment source and a beautifully manufactured item, the iPad Mini could also be used as a real business tool. So here I voluntarily got inspired from the talented blogger of “Young & Connected”, who gave me this idea of presenting the apps I daily work with: I organized 2 main sections, the 1st one for productivity (what helps me to manage my freelance stuff from almost A to Z), and the 2nd part being dedicated to social-networking and tech watch (to stay up-to-date as much as I can).
BUSINESS & PRODUCTIVITY
- Contacts and Notes > basic ones, yet so useful.
- Mon Compte > a beautiful app for managing my pro bank account at BNP Paribas. Free.
- Evernote > Keep trace on anything important with notes, photos, vocal memos under a beautiful display, and sync it all with your Evernote desktop app too. Free.
- Keeper > Best passwords manager with strong security – you can organize your items into hierarchic folders and categories. Free.
- Dropbox > Access your Dropbox account on your tablet, and even upload files on it to find them back on your computer later. Free.
- USB Disk > Turns your iPad into a real USB disk, storing and reading any type of file, very useful when working away from your usual machines. Free.
- Pages > Apple’s documents manager, simple and very efficient, I use it for writing all my courses at school. 9€.
- DocuSign Ink > Insert you signature on any document stored on your device – very useful to quickly sign invoices and estimates for example. Free.
- MindMeister > Easy and fast mind-mappings, great for projects brainstorming or navigation structure defining. Free.
- Analytics > Keep an eye on your website traffic anytime, or show and explain it to your clients – a real must-have. 6€.
- CamScanner > Create documents from pictures taken with the iPad – the app will correct perspective, crop and adjust colors to give you a clear result. You can even add notes and gather several pages under one single document to export in PDF. Free.
- Sketchy > Awesome app for website mock-ups and interface designing with a large range of stencils and editable colors, texts and images – just perfect. 5€.
- MyTime > Very nice-looking time-tracking tool, you can manage several clients & tasks. Free.
- Invoice2go > Essential app for quickly creating invoices and estimates – well, I already had my own system for doing this, but this app truly is an excellent surprise thanks to its simplicity and high usability. Free.
WEB WATCH
- WordPress > Of course I could not but get to manage my blog from my iPad. Free.
- Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn > All my social networks in my pocket. Free.
- Pages for Facebook > The best Facebook Pages manager, I use it for me as well as for Community Management tasks for my clients. The only black point might be the lack of possibility of easily switching accounts. Free.
- Hootsuite > My main social networks flow in a glimpse – I use it particularly for Facebook to avoid logging in and out 20 times a day with my CM work. Free.
- Pocket > It will only take you 2min to set-up the bookmark that will directly save your web pages into this app, allowing you to read them later, even with no Wifi connected. The app interface is very nice and the reading very pleasant. Free.
- Pulse News > Get news flow from a wide range of websites, with the possibility to organize your own tabs. Free.
- TED > Discover jaw-dropping high-quality videos from TED, covering various topics from design to science and given by amazing speakers. The real plus is that you can “save” videos to watch them off-line. Free.
- Flipboard > The best magazine-format aggregation app, easy to browse through and to read, with up-level graphic design. Free.
- Pinterest > The mobile app for the trendy pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies and co. Free.
- River of News > It was hard finding a good RSS reader, and this one is an honest choice – and you can sync it with Google Reader. Free, or less than 1€ for add-free version.
I can say I use my iPad almost all the time: at home in complement of my computer, at school to take notes, on the move to visit my clients, or at my boyfriend’s too – my only rule being not to take it out in the subway… And contrary to what people can think (and tell me), using my tablet is not a way to get isolated from other people around me, but it even gets me to share more with them, conveying my passion for technology and web! The size of screen is ideal – good portability with light weight but still beautiful display and high-definition with Retina screen, and battery’s duration is just amazing – it lasts all day long without restricting myself! Need one more plea? Well, my iPad also allows me to check the compatibility of my web works on a mobile device – which is definitely an unavoidable point nowadays with the “think mobile” motto!
WAY – What About You?
How do you use your tablet every day? Any great apps to share with me??
