TOP 5 Free productivity Apps for Tablet PC
There are enough Apps for both the iPad and the Android device to keep you engaged without spending a penny Here are the top five productivity Apps for your tablet PC
Every one loves a free deal and there are plenty available in the
Apps stores, both in the iTunes market for the iPad and Android's revamped
Google Play. Over the past month, I tried out several free Apps on my iPad
(third generation) and made a list of the ones I figured are a must-have.
The Apps reviewed here are the most recent iterations, the ones
that had put out upgraded versions for the new iPad's Retina Display.
EVERNOTE: The note-taking App Evernote ranks pretty high
on my list of must-have Apps for mobile devices. It is available on virtually
all the mobile platforms, making it platform-agnostic. What's more, Evernote's
basic free service, which has some restrictions on usage, is still good for
most users. It allows you to synchronise all your notes on the cloud. So all one
needs is to create a central Evernote account, and all notes can be accessed
across platforms.
Evernote's mission statement is to ‘remember everything'. Users
can create text and audio notes, clip web pages using browser extensions, tag
photos and so on. Apart from its basic note-taking App, Evernote has a few
other branded Apps, including ‘Skitch' (a note annotation App) that allows
users to create simple ‘how-to-do-it' manuals, ‘Clearly' a distraction-free
reader for web pages and ‘Evernote Food' that allows one to create a journal of
gastronomic adventures.
But perhaps the most innovative App for tablet PC in recent times
from Evernote is ‘Peek' that allows users to convert their notes into study
material. Users can create short quiz programs using the App. It takes
advantage of iPad's SmartCover technology to reveal one hint at a time for
students revising their school lessons. To find out more, check out the video
on www.evernote.com.
App: Evernote
Category: Productivity
Platforms: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, WebOS, Web
Browser extensions
Link: www.evernote.com
FLIPBOARD: There are plenty of innovative news readers on
mobile platforms that it is difficult to pick one over the other in terms of
appeal. Flipboard works better because of the way it simulates the magazine
reading experience of flipping through pages.
Consider it your personalised web magazine as it draws content
from across the web and also from social network streams, including Facebook
and Twitter. For iPad users, Flipboard is a must-have with morning breakfast.
It has recently added Soundcloud as a source.
App: Flipboard
Category: News
Platforms: iOS (iPad and iPhone); Android — coming soon.
Link: www.flipboard.com
SKYDRIVE: This is a bit of a contentious choice because
Dropbox is the obvious pioneer in online cloud storage, and Microsoft Skydrive
and Google Drive
are fairly late entrants. But the late entrants offer ‘on-the-cloud' editing
options through their online collaborative tools, Microsoft with its Office
suite and Google through its Google Docs. Dropbox does not have such editing
support.
Skydrive offers the maximum free space among the three services
at 75 GB free storage. That could help clear up a lot of space on the mobile
devices that come with fixed internal storage, but this must be carefully used,
else it would blow a hole in one's wallet because of bandwidth usage. Google Drive does
not have a native iOS App at the time of publication of this article. So
Microsoft holds the edge here.
App: Microsoft Skydrive
Category: Cloud Storage
Platforms: Windows Phone, Android, iOS
Link: skydrive.live.com
POCKET: Formerly known as Read it Later, Pocket is a handy
App that allows users to save their webpages for reading later, even when there
is no internet connectivity. This is particularly useful for those who do not
enjoy constant data connectivity.
Pocket also comes with a browser extension for Chrome, which
means users can log into the service, and save web pages that can be read
across devices through online synchronising. Another App that successfully does
the same is Readability, but Pocket gets my vote because I prefer the user
interface.
App: Pocket
Category: Productivity
Platforms: iOS, Android, Chrome extension.
Link: www.getpocket.com
SKETCHBOOK EXPRESS: For those who prefer doing a quick
sketch of their ideas, Sketchbook Express from Autodesk is a priceless App. The
free Lite version offers a range of brushes, colours, even some professional
grade tools and canvases to choose from to create anything from a casual doodle
to a serious artwork.
App: Sketchbook Express
Category: Productivity
Platforms: iOS, Android
TH120523
No comments:
Post a Comment