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Apple’s iPad 2 goes on sale in the UK today — Friday 25 March — so what are the best British apps to download for your new tablet? We’ve picked out 10 of the most relevant and interesting iPad apps for the UK to get you started.
BBC iPlayer came out in February this year, finally giving native access to the Beeb’s catch-up TV and radio service on an iPad. It lets you browse the schedules and watch shows up to seven days after they aired, along with the ability to stream BBC channels live. It’s free for us Brits, with a paid version launching elsewhere in the world later this year.
Rightmove for the iPad might seem like an app for a niche audience: people looking to move house. More fool you. It’s for anyone who fancies having a nose around inside local properties through a tactile tablet interface. Swipe through photos, check out prices, and blanch in horror at the carpets. Marvellous — and free.
Windowshop is the work of Amazon, in an attempt to make shopping on Amazon UK even more tablet-friendly. Product pictures are to the fore, as you flick between categories and dig deep to find what you want. 1-Click ordering and wishlists make it excellent for shopping on the sofa. It’s free to download, although you’ll soon be spending some money through it, trust us.
The Guardian doesn’t have its own iPad app yet — although one is reportedly on the way — but its Eyewitness spin-off app is great fun in the meantime. It collects stunning photographs shot by the newspaper’s snappers, making the latest 100 available to browse full-screen at any time. Another freebie.
In The Night Garden needs no introduction to most British parents, except for those who’ve long forgotten Igglepiggle and Upsy Daisy in favour of Rastamouse, of course. In the absence of an irie app for that show, the Beeb has instead launched a beautiful interactive play-app for In The Night Garden, which will keep your kids quiet engrossed for hours. Currently selling for 59p, it’s a steal.
Gordon Ramsay Cook With Me HD is the ideal iPad app for wannabe chefs — or at least those who don’t mind having their shiny new tablet in a room while chucking flour, oil and spices around with gay abandon. There are 56 recipes to try, along with 10 videos full of Ramsay’s top cooking tips and a shopping list feature to help you get the right ingredients. As the man himself might say, YES? £4.99, which compares well to a printed cookbook.
FindMeTV for iPad is an app for couch potatoes, offering a 14-day TV guide for more than 400 UK channels, including terrestrial, cable and satellite. You can add shows you like to a personal schedule, ensuring you never have to miss an episode of Midsomer Murders again (we pull that example out of the air entirely at random). If you have a Sky+ box at home, you can even schedule recordings remotely. It costs £2.99.
Ocado is a universal app, so works across the iPad and iPhone. It taps into the online supermarket and lets you order groceries on your iPad then have them delivered to your home. We’ve found it easy and intuitive to use when it comes to finding items and building a virtual basket, while the nifty Your Instant Shop feature will try to do the hard work for you, guessing what you might want based on previous orders. Gin, tonic, limes and more gin. Sorry, did we say that out loud? It’s free to use.
Sky News for iPad only came out this month, but is already proving to be a hit with tablet-owning news junkies. You can watch a live feed from Sky News itself, or dig into photo galleries, graphs and text articles. We’re very impressed with the ability to rewind live news if you tune in after a report has started, too. Free for now, but a subscription charge will be introduced for non-Sky customers at some point.
The Times is one of the better examples of first-generation UK newspaper apps, as it does a good job of turning the print edition into something that reads well on the iPad. Extras include videos, photos and even an interactive crossword. If you already subscribe to the Times‘ paywalled website, the iPad edition is free. If not, you pay £9.99 for 30 days’ access.
Got your own Brit picks for the iPad 2? Let us know about them with a comment.
