Despite the spat between Apple and Adobe, which means that the iPad is hobbled by its inability to play Flash content, it's still a wonderful device for consuming media. The PressReader app (free, paid-for content) offers digital editions of newspapers and magazines from around the world. You can flick through pages, zoom in to read them as they were printed, or bring up easier-on-the-eyes text versions of stories.
Zinio (free, paid-for content) similarly displays glossy magazines and has much the same functionality but with a slicker interface; crucially, it turns printed weblinks into interactive ones. Geeks will love the Wired app (£2.99), which takes the concept a bit further by adding iPad-only content to the technology magazine.
The Financial Times' app is a good way to access FT content, but while the app itself is free, you have to pay to view content after a miserly three articles. Don't miss the Guardian's wonderful Eyewitness app (free), which serves up the best of our photographic library complete with captions and notes on how and why the picture was made.
The BBC's iPlayer is a reason all by itself to buy the iPad. It handles streaming content via a Wi-Fi connection seamlessly and, as with the full-fat website, gives you catch-up for much of the corporation's output. The catch is, of course, that it's UK-only – get to it via the BBC website and then put a link to it on your desktop.
However, if you're outside the UK, the BBC News app (free) should make up for that. It dishes up the day's news in a format better suited to the iPad than just going to the BBC website – video plays (which it doesn't on the website) and the layout is clear and intuitive.
For web browsing, have a look at the Atomic web browser (59p for the ad-free version). It beats Safari hands-down with its tabbed browsing and adblocking.
I prefer TweetDeck (free) of the apps for Tweeters, who have lots to choose from, as the team has done an excellent job of optimising for the iPad. And finally, if you only buy one game, make it Angry Birds HD (£2.99), which will keep you going for hours trying to squash the evil green pigs by catapulting the birds at their houses. Genius.
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