Technology & You!
If you just bought an iPad and are browsing through the available apps, you might be wondering if you should settle with them or look for a third-party app that does something better. Depending on your needs and what you want to do with a certain app, you may or may not need to download new ones.
To help you decide whether you should use the native apps or get something else, here are the apps installed and what they can do for you:
For all its simplicity, it’s actually quite nifty. You can feel like you’re really typing in a note because of the yellow pad background and the simple design. You can even save multiple notes and it automatically uses the first line of your note as the title so less effort in organizing your notes. Another great feature is that it syncs with iCloud so you can write a note on your iPhone and it appears on your iPad as well. The app boots up really fast so it’s very convenient. You can’t use a stylus for the app so you’re restricted to the onscreen keyboard. You can email your notes, but it’s restricted to a text file. You can’t add other media to your notes. If you want something with more syncing capabilities and media, then maybe you should get Evernote or AwesomeNote.
Deciding whether this app is great or not is a bit tricky. Depending on how you want to get your reminders, look at tasks and get alerts, the app may be all right for you. You can set tasks quite easily and make lists, which appear in the drop down reminders tab and alerts. There’s a calendar ready to view and tap at the bottom. Unlike other more full-featured apps, though, you can only set reminders and tasks for yourself and sync it with other iOS devices. If you want collaboration, email alerts and other functions, get a different app. But in itself, the Reminders app is sufficient.
One of the great things about owning an iOS device is that you can contact people with other iOS devices for free. An iPhone and an iPad can make and receive calls from other iOS devices. Just get the Apple ID of the person you want to call on FaceTime or send an message to on iMessage. The main restriction is that you can only contact other iOS devices. If you want actual phone calls on your iPad, then FaceTime really isn’t the best phone service for you and you should use an app like RingCentral.
Apple is actually dipping into the ebook market with iBooks wherein you can use your iPad as an ebook reader with an exclusive bookstore. The Amazon and Barnes and Noble stores are more extensive and have better syncing capabilities over their own apps than iBooks does. iBooks uses EPUB as its preferred book format.
