Recommended Business Apps

I recently did a search in Google for the Top 10 business apps for an iPad, and it quickly returned over 609,000,000 results. In going through the first few pages, everyone seems to have his/her own favorites–as expected with over 500,000 apps available. As I have progressed through several versions of iPad touches, iPhones, and now on my third iPad, I have found a few apps useful for business.

Penultimate ($0.99). For those whom miss taking notes with pen and paper, Penultimate is a useful app. I have found using a stylus makes it easier for lengthy notes but a finger will work. This app also provides a nice place to doodle. Once you have completed your notes, they can be saved to a PDF and shared through Dropbox.

iWork ($29.97). Apple’s word processing (Pages $9.99), spreadsheet (Numbers $9.99) and presentation (Keynote $9.99) applications. I think this is a pretty obvious inclusion to any list for anyone who works with spreadsheets, documents, and presentations. Although commonly referred to as a package each application must be purchased individually. Although I have included these I feel compelled to also point out a few negatives. From my experience these programs are neither as robust nor as intuitive to use as its Mac OS X counterparts. Complex spreadsheets can be done in Numbers albeit frustrating and time consuming. Despite the people at the local Apple store adamantly telling me formatting will not be lost between PowerPoint and Keynote I have not found that to be true—with a simple demonstration at Apple I quickly showed examples where words and graphics ended up in different places on the screen. Given the computing power of the new iPad I would surprised if Apple didn’t these comparable to the Mac version and allow users to have a truly desktop replacement option. Maybe they are waiting for a little competition from Microsoft. We can only hope the rumors are true and Microsoft has put their denial away that the iPad wouldn’t catch on and are working on series of Office apps.

FlightTrack Pro ($9.99). Receive continuous updates for airline flights, gate information and even check seat information. There are also a number of terminal maps included to help you navigate the airport once you have landed. Although I have read a number of reviews to the contrary I have noticed some slight lags in updates. Very useful though and a map provides a fun little animation of the flight.

ScannerPro ($6.99). Scanner Pro is an easy to use program that I find new uses for everyday; receipts, documents, whiteboards. Multiple pages are allowed which is nice for larger documents. Simply take a picture of the data source and save it into a PDF that can be shared or saved.

Kindle (Free). If you purchase e-books through Amazon this is a must have app. With iBooks I didn’t think I would have a need for another “book” app. However, I have found on many occasions a book I am wanting is cheaper through Kindle. Also, more business titles seem to be available through Kindle than iBooks. This could very well be only a perception.

LinkedIn (Free). In my opinion, this is a must have app. I routinely access my contacts in Linkedin when I am working on something, and it is nice to be able to pull up someone’s information. It is also very handy to be able to update something on the fly. The app has recently been upgraded and now allows virtually the same functionality as the computer version.

Skype (Free). In case your clients are not on Apple and FaceTime is not an option having Skype available is nice for whenever a quick videoconference is needed.

1Password Pro ($14.99). I have noticed that even basic websites with logins are requiring more secure passwords and login information. If you have a different password for every site like me, it makes it challenging to remember them all. This app also stores sensitive information like credit cards and bank accounts.

Dropbox (Free). A free app that supports sharing of documents, pictures, etc.

Goodreader ($4.99). Allows for viewing a variety of files including PDFs, MS Office files and TXT documents. Various editing options are available and there is an annotation feature that allows little notes to be added to documents.

Documents To Go Premium ($16.99). Allows editing of Microsoft Word and Excel documents. The Premium version also allows editing of PowerPoint documents, as well as support of Cloud documents.

I am sure there are hundreds of other apps available at Apple’s App Store that are could be added to this list. I would be interested in hearing what business apps you have found particularly useful.