Best iPad Mini Apps
The advantage the iPad Mini has over its competition is clear as day: it’s a new device that launched with the possibility of running over 270,000 already-existing apps in the App Store. These apps can all be used on the iPad Mini but some of them run especially beautifully on the device. Let’s see a top of these apps and try and decide which ones you want on your screen.
TweetBot for Facebook and Twitter
The iPad Mini is great for social networking. If you’re using Facebook and/or Twitter you must try TweetBot. Although Facebook already has its own application, TweetBot is great for combining Facebook use with Twitter use. This especially since Twitter’s own app is not-so-loved among users. TweetBot costs $2.99 and you can grab it from the App Store.
App Store: Facebook (free), Twitter (free), Tweetbot (US$2.99)
Read books
The iPad Mini is a perfect device for reading books. It’s book-sized and easy to hold< light and with a screen wide enough to hold the width of a page. It lacks Retina Display but due to its cost and size the iPad Mini makes one hell of a reading device.
You can choose between Apple’s own iBooks and Amazon’s Kindle app. They’re both great and they can handle all your old ebook items you have previously bought. Apple has some restrictions when it comes to the Kindle app, this meaning you will have to go through a web browser first to buy books from Amazon.com.
App Store: Kindle (free), iBooks (free)
You won’t find a better app for browsing news. Flipboard presents feeds in a magazine layout that is pleasing to the eye. You can choose from one of the categories or import feeds from Google Reader or your social network.
App Store: Flipboard (free)
Instapaper and other reading apps
Did you know you won’t have to read the articles you deemed interesting on the spot? You can save them for later with Instapaper, Pocket or Readability. The tree apps perform the same function and will present you with saved links in a pleasantly-readable format. There are minor differences between the three apps and you should try each of them before deciding on which one you should use.
App Store: Instapaper (US$3.99), Pocket (free), Readability (free)
YouTube
The old YouTube app in iOS 6 has evaporated leaving you to rely on third party apps. One of the first apps you should try to watch YouTube videos with is Jasmine. It has all the functions of the old YouTube app and it works nice on the iPad Mini.
App Store: Jasmine (free)
Online movies and such
You can try both Hulu Plus and Netflix if you want to see online movies that go past the standard YouTube file length. Both services will stream movies to your device for a monthly fee. Netflix gives you better movies and full TV seasons (like Breaking Bad and Mad Men). To subscribe to these services you will have to register with their respective websites.
App Store: Netflix (free), Hulu Plus (free)
Comics, Comics, Comics…
The thin and small iPad Mini is great for reading comic books. There are many apps dedicated to comic viewing but there are three that caught our eye. They’re comiXology, the DC Comics app and the Marvel Comics app. The three applications have each a large variety of comic books and you will have to try each of them to see which one suits you best.
App Store: Marvel Comics (free), DC Comics (free), Comics by comiXology(free)
Photos and image retouching
After taking pictures with your iDevice for the entire day you will want to retouch these images using your iPad Mini. iOS can manipulate images on a basic level but there are apps that can greatly enhance the way you edit pictures. There’s Apple’s iPhoto app that will help you with its gesture-based interface. Then there’s Adobe’s Photoshop Touch that will further edit your images. It’s far from the options you’ll find in the desktop version of Adobe Photoshop but it;s the best you’ll get o an iDevice. It can do advanced effects regarding lighting and apply filters to your images.
App Store: iPhoto ($4.99), Photoshop Touch ($9.99)
Skype
If your friends also have an iDevice you may use FaceTime to chat with them. If not, you will better use Skype as this app is available on a variety of devices that are not iOS-based. You can make free video calls with Skype and you can use your iPad Mini as a phone with it.
App Store: Skype (free)
OnLive
the OnLive service will let you use a cloud version of Microsoft Windows right from your iPad Mini. You will need a good Internet connection for it because the desktop is streamed over the web. You will also need an OnLive Desktop account. The free account offers you basic Windows access and this includes Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader. The premium version costs $4.99 and adds Internet Explorer with Flash support.
App Store: OnLive Desktop (free)
Dropbox
If you want to transfer large files to friends or just have your own dedicated space in the cloud, you can use Dropbox. The cloud service will offer you 2GB of space for free and you can increase this space by using affiliate links and completing tasks. Having files on Dropbox also means they will be available via sync on other devices that also support a Dropbox client.
App Store: Dropbox (free)
Wikipedia access
If you use Wikipedia a lot you might want to try Wikibot. It will allow you to browse the website on the iPad Mini’s screen while formatting everything to look and feel accustomed to the screen of the device.
App Store: Wikibot (US$2.99)
Games: Infinity Blade and Infinity Blade II
Inspired by a game called Punch-Out, the Infinity Blade games have awesome graphics and are currently among the top games available for the iPad Mini.
App Store: Infinity Blade ($5.99), Infinity Blade II ($6.99)
Games: Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto III is an eleven year old game but it is still making strides on iOS and Android devices alike. It’s been a year since Rockstar Games ported the Grand Theft Auto III title to iOS and since then people have been playing it like crazy. GTA3 is fun to play and has decent graphics. It also behave beautifully on the iPad Mini. Give it a try, waste some time.
App Store: Grand Theft Auto III ($4.99)
Games: Plants vs. Zombies HD
Plants vs. Zombies HD is one of the most-played games of 2011 and it’s fervor didn’t get lost in 2012. It remains one of the top games available for the iOS platform and it also offers many hours of gameplay. Defend your garden from zombies and use different types of flowers and other plants to defend said garden from them. It also has side-levels and bonus levels and you are sure to get glued to the screen once you start playing.
App Store: Plants vs. Zombies HD ($6.99)
Games: The Angry Birds Series
Rovio did a good job with Angry Birds and people liked it so much that the company started to release other games in the franchise. You can get Angry Birds for your iPad Mini in the Apple App Store. Here are some titles to choose from: Angry Birds HD, Angry Birds Seasons HD, Angry Birds Rio HD, Angry Birds Space HD. Each of them has a separate twist and you should try one or two to see what we mean.
App Store: Angry Birds HD ($2.99), Angry Birds Seasons HD ($2.99), Angry Birds Rio HD ($2.99), Angry Birds Space HD ($0.99)
Other Apps and Games
This list is far from complete. There were many titles we would have liked to include here and here are some more titles you could try out on your iPad Mini: GarageBand, iMovie, Grocery IQ, Shazam, Modern Combat 3.
If you happen to know other apps and games that should have made this list please let us know in the comments section below.
