Author Topic: App suggestions for iPad?  (Read 970 times)

SLDF_Spector

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App suggestions for iPad?
« on: 23 February 2018, 20:41:55 »
I just picked up an iPad Pro.  I’m used to android tablets, but, no idea what apps I should get.  Any suggestions?  Any BT specific apps?
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Bedwyr

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Re: App suggestions for iPad?
« Reply #1 on: 23 February 2018, 21:10:41 »
- Mostly recommend a good PDF reader. Fast is good, but color accuracy is important. Apple has some sort of internal rendering engine that is quick but saturates and darkens color imagery. Unfortunately a lot of readers use that engine to display PDFs themselves. I prefer GoodReader (full version) for being a full-featured app, including connectivity to multiple cloud services. The rendering is accurate and the speed reasonable. It also does a nice job caching pages so you can thumb through them finding your place in a book or document.

- Also recommend Office unless you're married to Google Docs. The suite has gotten much better in recent years. OneNote is especially nice if you're not committed to Evernote. I keep an Office 365 subscription and so have full access to the suite, but I understand that non subscribers can get reasonable basic access to editing stuff.

- A good password manager if I'm allowed to nag about good security practices. I use KeePass mobile, but I know others swear by OnePass.

- A decent dice roller. There's some colorful ones you  can shake your tablet to, but I won't make any specific recommendations.

- Anything else you use on your other mobile devices, if any, (social media, RSS readers, etc) and anything that connects to your professional life (I keep an algebra engine, Wolfram Alpha, a basic circuit simulator, and a paid calculator on mine).

I don't have anything BT specific and don't recall if anyone has developed anything that is intended for the tabletop. Record sheet apps for instance. I haven't seen any.

Regarding games:
It depends on what you want to get out of the tablet and what games, if any, you like. I could recommend anything from good free-to-play games to full-scale premium RPGs such as Knights of the Old Republic or the Baldur's Gate series.
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Bosefius

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Re: App suggestions for iPad?
« Reply #2 on: 23 February 2018, 23:03:43 »
For PDFs I love Xodos, not the least of which is because you can set it to turn pages like a book, instead of scrolling up and down (a little thing but argh). Goodreader is great also, anything but the stock app.
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Matti

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Re: App suggestions for iPad?
« Reply #3 on: 24 February 2018, 17:32:07 »
PDF reader and Kindle. Kindle can also deal PDF. Then copy all your BattleTech PDFs to it. All the record sheet PDFs will be available for you that you can use to fill stack of the blank record sheets in case you don't know beforehand what 'Mechs you're going to use. One BattleTech game available for iOS is MechWarrior: Tactical Command. Reviews aren't good.

Is it possible to run Java programs in iOS? Like MegaMek for example?
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Bedwyr

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Re: App suggestions for iPad?
« Reply #4 on: 24 February 2018, 18:11:33 »
I don’t believe that’s possible.
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SLDF_Spector

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Re: App suggestions for iPad?
« Reply #5 on: 24 February 2018, 18:52:59 »
Thanks for the suggestions!  I did grab some of your recommended apps plus I found the iPad version of my networking apps. 

Now, if someone would only make a decent BT app, I'd be set.
One day I will have a woman who's name doesn't end in jpg, bmp, or png.

 

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