Ficus Pontificus

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If your house were burning down, what would you save? I would rush back inside to rescue my iPad. That odd choice attests to how amazingly useful it is, how much of my intellectual, professional, creative, and social life resides on it. Luckily I wouldn’t have to save it as everything on it is backed up on computers and clouds everywhere. That’s good news for my teddy bear. The iPad is the closest thing we have to Alan Kay’s 1970‘s prescient vision of the Dynabook, arguably the inspiration for the personal computer and today’s even more personal tablets. Kay envisioned that if you dropped your Dynabook off a cliff, before it smashed to pieces on the bottom it would have ordered a new Dynabook, delivered to your cliffside or doorstep, pre-loaded with everything on the one shattering Wiley Coyote-like in the ravine below. Is there an app for that? If the accelerometer indicates and imminent crash, order up a new copy of your doomed machine? Though that may not exist, so many others do, and here’s a list of the ones I can’t live without. Idiosyncratic and personal, so your mileage may vary, but at least you’ll be enjoying the ride. Marc’s list of can’t live without iPad apps NoteTaker HD w/ a DAGI stylus GoodReader - bic PDF and other reader, ftp and sftp client!, private files, dropbox, webdav, etc integration DropBox -- "auto cloud" 1Password (for the Mac too-- sync passwords in dropbox for consistency across all devices--install bookmarklets on mobile safari) readitlaterlist -- install the Tap to Save, and ReaditLater bookmarklets for mobile Safari too MochaVNC -- control your mac from your ipad (use dyndns to connect from non-local net) Kindle for ipad Mapquest for Mobile (turn by turn voice driving directions) Stitchr -- podcasts without download and sync, internet radio Skype -- you know, the MSFT product! Google special purpose (your mileage may vary) Friendly for facebook Flipboard GPSKit HD MochaVNC -- control your mac from your ipad (use dyndns to connect from non-local net) StarWalk HD Remote -- if you have an Apple TV Netflix Shazam (what's that music?) Pandora Google Earth TED SpeakIt (read text aloud) SketchBookPro (Painting like Photoshop) Bing AirVideo (watch movies which are on your computer remotely) WebEx flixster (movie listings) http://www.apple.com/

Top of mind, worth a fig.