As the years pass, we’re diving deeper and deeper into the digital age. New technological devices are constantly being made and innovated from design and outlook to bug fixes and updates. iPads are one device that has been on the rise. As a college student, I can spot more than a handful of iPads in one classroom alone. It’s a device that so many, alongside myself, have come to depend a great deal on. And why wouldn’t you? You can save yourself from buying so many average office supplies like notebooks, pencils, paper, and other utensils with the use of an iPad.
So, say you just got a brand new next-generation iPad or you’re ready to yassify your old (but sufficient) iPad and you’re now staring at the “hello” page, ready to embark on a new task before you. I take my personalization to be a sort of ritual. This iPad needs to fit not just your everyday needs, but your entertainment, educational, and creativity needs as well. So, let’s take a look at some apps you can download to make your life just a tad bit easier and enjoyable.
- For your Productivity Needs
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Keeping up to date with all of the tasks in a day can take a lot of brain power. So here are some great task management apps, you can utilize:
- For simplicity: Google Tasks and Microsoft To-Do are great. Both apps synchronize to their respective calendars.
- For more complex tasks such as project management: Click-up is a great way to go. It gives you the option to add attachments, group in spaces or dashboards, include subjects, completion timelines, and assign tasks to team members, etc.
- For a full vision board or planner-type deal: Notion or xTiles can be utilized with various templates and customization.
As an added bonus, all of these apps are free to download from the App Store!
- For your educational needs
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Whether you’re in undergrad or grad school, your education is important and the tools you utilize can make learning that much more organized and efficient.
- In college, course selection and schedule planning can be quite stressful. To make registration a tad bit easier, an app called Coursicle has your university’s courses, times, and instructors, so that when registration time begins, you can enroll with ease.
- Distractions are inevitable and boredom strikes easier than not. For these times, apps such as Flora can help bring focus to your studies by keeping a timer that grows a seed into a plant, as long as you don’t use your iPad while studying.
- Goodnotes is the official note-taking app! It has a growing popularity and an array of tools from different types of pens and thickness levels, lasso, image and sticker insert ability, synching, etc. The only con is that the free version of the application is limited to only three notebooks on the App Store. A potential alternative to Goodnotes that you may consider checking out is Notability!
- There are things school simply doesn’t teach us and sometimes we need courses from different places. Apps such as Udemy and Coursera can teach us so much. For learning languages, the best bet can be Duolingo: a gamified way to learn, have streaks, and master a new language.
- For your entertainment needs
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Life isn’t just about planning, running errands, and working. Sometimes we just want to relax with a few iPad games.
- If you’re looking for the best action-adventure games: Genshin Impact, Sonic Dream Team, and Super Fowlst 2 are great picks for 2024.
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- For board/card Games: Ticket to Ride, Monopoly GO, Marvel Snap, and Carcassonne are good pastimes.
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- Some bonus mentions: Alto’s Odessey, Among Us, Bastion, Asphalt 9 Legends
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- Aside from games, films are also a part of the entertainment industry, with a new app on the horizon called Letterboxd, a version of a social app for film junkies.
- For your creative needs
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Let your inner artist shine with some of my favorite apps.
- First and foremost, Procreate (a paid application) is a great way to do some digital illustrations or even create moving animations with their different features. If free-hand painting isn’t your cup of tea, a drawing book with coloring pages can be found in Lake.
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- For Mockups, designs, and sketches: Figma and Curve are two great options, both with their own vast resources for all your creative needs.
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- For collages and posters/fliers, Canva is a great bet. It can even be utilized for presentations.
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With these apps, there is so much you can do. A starter pack is what it is: a starter. From this point on, I hope you continue this iPad ritual and personalize it with even more applications fitting your needs to fully take advantage of your device!
