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Best iPad Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders--New from O'Reilly

Press release: December 8, 2010

Best iPad Apps

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Sebastopol, CA—What really wows iPad fans is when their touchscreen does what's impossible on other gadgets: the finger-painting app that turns a cross-country flight into a moving art class, the mini music studio (two-dozen instruments strong, each with motion-induced warble effects), and the portable fireworks display that you sculpt by swiping.

Problem is, with tens of thousands of apps available for your iPad, who knows what to download? You can try to sort through a gazillion customer reviews with a mix of 5- and 1-star ratings, but that's not only very confusing, it also takes a lot of time. The stakes are getting higher, too: instead of freebies and 99-cent trinkets, the price of iPad apps is steadily creeping up and beyond their iPhone predecessors.

Best iPad Apps (O'Reilly Media, $21.99 USD) guides you to the hidden treasures in the App Store's crowded aisles. Author Peter Meyers stress-tested thousands of options to put together this irresistible, page-turner of a catalog.

"I had the best job in the world for the past four months: spend all day playing with my iPad. Sure, my fingers got a little weary with all that tapping, swiping, and pinching, but the 1000-plus apps I checked out made clear that the iPad's an innovation magnet," notes Meyers. "But, man, was there a lot of dreck to sort through. There's a seriously high percentage of apps that mainly appear to be practice runs for developers in training."

Fortunately, inside Best iPad Apps, you'll find the apps Meyers curated as magical as the iPad itself.

  • Get work done
  • Manipulate photos
  • Make movies
  • Create comics
  • Browse the Web better
  • Take notes
  • Outline ideas
  • Track your health
  • Explore the world
  • ...and much more!

"My goal was to wade through the mess, pick out the best, and shine a spotlight on those under-the-radar gems—the ones that didn't get their 15 minutes of fame on the App Store's front page, but deserve to be on the screens and in the hands of iPad fans everywhere," adds Meyers.

For a review copy or more information please email peyton@oreilly.com. Please include your delivery address and contact information, as well as where you'll post your review.

About the Author

Peter Meyers writes about and designs digital books. Formerly an editor at O'Reilly Media, he co-founded one of the first multimedia textbook publishers (Digital Learning Interactive). He's covered the intersection of writing and technology for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Wired and blogs at www.anewkindofbook.com.

View Peter Meyers's full profile page.

Additional Resources
For more information about the book, including table of contents, author bios, and cover graphic, see: http://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920010944. The ebook is currently available, and the print book will be availble for purchase on oreilly.com on or around December 17, 2010.

Best iPad Apps Best iPad Apps
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
By Peter Meyers
Print ISBN: 9781449392475   Ebook ISBN: 9781449392482  
Pages: 240 (est.)
Print Price: $21.99   Ebook Price: $17.99  
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000

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About O’Reilly

O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

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