The Jolly Gamesman Vol. 19

The Jolly Gamesman and His Many Toys
The iPad Must Have Apps & Accessory

With the impending world-wide launch of the iPad upon us, aka Canada finally gets it, I’m going to take a moment to highlight some of what I think are the must have Apps for Apple’s latest iDevice, and the perfect protector for your new toy.

iBooks FREE
Just as it took time before the iTunes Store got Canadian content other than ‘Corner Gas,’ ‘Trailer Park Boys’ and Gordon Lightfoot, the iBookstore for Canada is missing all the for-sale titles that are available in the US, as of print-time. What you do have access to right now is an amazing selection of 30,000+ public domain books brought to you by Project Gutenburg. This group has taken copyright-free titles and released them for our pleasure. If you ever wanted the complete works of William Shakespeare or Edgar Allan Poe, some The Art of War or War and Peace, now is your chance. (All the books come with a generic tan and white cover, but you can add your own artwork to it just as you would a CD in iTunes.)

The Early Edition $4.99
Any website worth its digital bits has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to. For those unfamiliar with an RSS feed, it’s a no-frills, headlines and paragraphs version of a website for quick browsing. The Early Edition lets you subscribe to the RSS feeds of all your favourite web destinations, and lays them out like a daily newspaper. Each story has it’s own section that you can tap on and expand to greater detail, and within the App itself, you can jump to the website if you want to see all the content. Essentially, it’s a good looking, advertisement-free way of skimming the headlines of all your favourite sites.

IM+ Lite FREE
If you’re looking for an instant messaging client for the iPad, I suggest looking no further than IM+ Lite. With full support for all the popular chat clients, ranging from MSN, Facebook, Yahoo and AOL etc., you’ll be able to take all your digital socializing into one easy-to-use area. The layout is similar to the Mail app on the iPad, with your contact list on the left and your current conversation on the right. The app runs in the background using “push” notifications to let you know when a friend is chatting with you, and also has a built-in web browser if you are in the middle of a conversation and want to quickly check something out online.

Game Table $1.99
Game Table defines the board game experience. For the cost of a large Slurpee, you get checkers, chess, Reversi, a deck of cards and a set of poker chips, or as I see it, a no-frills portable time killer for you and a friend on the other side of the table. No instruction manual, no CPU AI to play against, and when you jump your opponent in checkers, you actually tap and hold on their piece and drag it to the side of the table. Hours of instantly gratifying entertainment can be had without any set up or clean up.

Air Video $2.99
While you can find my review for this app here, I wanted to also include it here to point out that not only can you stream Air Video to the iPad, the developers now allow the video output to attach your iPad to a television. This essentially turns any display into your own media centre. Um, rad!

Worms HD $4.99
Those familiar with the Worms series of games will be right at home with this newest version of the multi-platform title. The gist of it has two teams of worms on varied terrain trying to knock each other off the level, or explode them out of existence. Each turn gives the player control of one of the worms in their platoon to choose from a variety of weapons, ranging from exploding sheep, TNT or Holy Hand Grenades. Crates of health and weapons occasionally fall from the sky, which can give one team an advantage, but those with a skilled shot can make quick work of the opposing forces. Lots of game modes and a wicked multiplayer section makes Worms HD a must have for any fan of the genre.

iPad Case $45.00
While it’s all fun and games come Friday, there is one last thing I suggest you purchase. The iPad case from Apple is a great accessory to get on Day One. With a 9.7″ glass display and all your friends and family wanting to get their clumsy paws on it, the iPad case is also the best way to ensure that your iPad will survive that type of attention.The pictures make it seem a bit more substantial than it really is, but once you get it on, you wouldn’t ever think of taking it off. The front has a flap that opens and closes when you want to use your iPad, and when flipped open, it can tuck inside itself to form either a stand to watch movies on, or an elevated area for typing. It’s only flaw is that it REALLY attracts finger and palm grime, but it feels like it has a micro-fiber finish, so cleaning it is a cinch if you find it overtly dirty.

So there are my must haves. Let me know in the Comments what your iPad is digging tomorrow. And for more R2AK iPad coverage, see here, here and here.