Must have iPad Apps for the new owner

Just got yourself a new iPad? Have a gander at my selection of apps to get you started in the fun.

Flipboard - Makes your twitter feed, facebook and tons of other social media look like a magazine format, really really cool. (free)

GoodReader - .Pdf viewer/editor, great for work documents. ($5)

FlickStacker - If you are into Flickr at all, gives you better photo browsing. (free)

Dropbox - ONLY real quick way to share files between the pad and PC. (free)

Evernote - Again work related, but once you have the client on your pc, it makes sharing of emails, and documents really nice.

Credit card/banking apps - Any of your major credit cards have apps to check your balances, do transfers, and payments really easy.

Also the Numbers, Pages, and Keynote apps are kinda mandatory if you want to create Word and Excel type joints.

HBO Go, Showtime Anytime (if you subscribe to those) Full access to EVERY single episode of everyshow they ever had.

Lastly - Dolphin HD web browser, which has a nice incognito, no cookies or history option, for teh *ahems*

Games

Words with friends HD, and Scramble with friends are fast and fun to play.

MadPad HD - is a fun app where you record several video clips of sounds or whatever, and then you basically have like a drum machine to make beats with. ($3)

New iPad

So Apple finally unveils the next iteration of the tablet that changed the world; the new iPad, simply named as such. Many of the expected upgrades held true, while some didn't. Lets quickly run through the new features

• 'Retina' Display, means they've upped the resolution to 2048x1536 from 1024x768. What this means in reality, is that the detail of your pictures and movies will really show. 
• 5MP 'iSight' camera, will now shoot HD movies, and as expected look much better. Why they didn't just up it to the 8MP of the iPhone 4S, who knows?
• Voice dictation, nothing quite spectacular, but handy addition.
• Dual-core CPU, for the inevitable speed increase
• 4G LTE support
• Same 10 hour battery life (very impressive)

Main thing 'missing' would be Siri, but I expect Apple needs to set their exceedingly similar devices apart, to keep interest high, by segregating the feature sets. Either way, its not a big sticking point. So there it is, the main compelling point for those of us that just got the iPad 2 would be the new high res display. I personally use mine a lot of the time to show my photos, and with this upgrade, it would only look so much better.

Who's got their pre-orders in?

iPad 3/HD Announcement expected today

Big news for those antsey Apple-ites out there, you know who you are. Today around midday (EST), at Apple's event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the bloggersphere will explode as is normally the case with a new Apple product announcement.

What we think we know:

• Higher resolution display 2048-x1536 pixels (with the infernal 'Retina' display monniker)
• Slightly thicker build, we'll be losing some of the thinness of the iPad 2
• Probably 1GB of Ram
• Better Camera (iPhone 4s quality)
• LTE support
• Siri along for the ride
• Faster processor (the inevitable incremental upgrade)

All this, and probable release date of a week or two after announcement. Will I be right? Come back later an I'll have the full rundown for you guys!