I usually consider myself part of the “hip crowd”. I mean I drink Stag out of the tallboy cans. I shop at Target. I watched The Voice and The Sing-Off.  I did not know that I would feel so much cooler with an iPad.  This being my first Apple product, it’s my first foray into being part of that hipster crowd.  Now that I have had the iPad for about a month, I feel like I am qualified to post about the coolest applications I’ve found. Since I am undeniably cheap, I don’t buy apps either.  I’m sure there are some really cool ones out there to buy, but I’ll leave those to the rich folks. You know, the the folks who actually buy clothes at full price from Express.

• Hulu Plus–You can’t watch Hulu content on iPad without downloading this app and paying the $7.99/month for the service.  For your money you get more shows, more episodes and more movies.  You can watch all these on everything except your paper plates and all in High Definition.
• Zite— This is an app I use every morning.  You pick the categories you are interested in and let the app do its thing.  As you go along, you rate the stories like Roger Ebert rates movies.  The more you use, the more the app learns what you like.  My two favorite categories? Gadgets and Celebrity Gossip.
• iHeartRadio — I’m not very cultured when it comes to music.  I listen to mostly country music. In saying that, I mean I like to listen to something other than the same 20 songs all day long.  That alone pretty much cancels out listening to the two big local stations in St. Louis. I probably don’t get the full iHeartRadio experience with my barn-sheltered musical tastes, but I’m sure that the options for other musical tastes are great too.
• Google Search— As this review from ZDNet talks about, while Google markets this as an upgrade to its standard Google Search application, it really seems like their way of putting the main features of the Google Chrome operating system on the iPad.  If you use multiple Google products, such as Gmail, Google Docs and YouTube, you need to download this app
• HootSuite — If Jack Dorsey created the original Twitter application and website while he was on some sort of messy, 1960s LSD trip, it would be this.  If you call yourself a “Social Media Expert” then this is probably to you like giving me an Unlimited-For-Life Taco Bell gift card would be.
• Amazon Windowshop — This is exactly what it sounds like.  This app makes it easy to scroll through the extensive library of Amazon things that you can justify needing in your life.  It’s perfect for selecting your Christmas list to email to Mom.  Or it would probably be useful for ladies on Sugardaddie.com as well.
• Explore St. Louis — I’ll admit I was a little leery of this one.  I wasn’t sure at first if it would be very useful.  I admit I was wrong.  Developed mostly for tourists, locals will find themselves using this application quite a bit.  It works to find restuarants, shops and things to do that may not be on the tip of your toungue.
• Spotify — I thought this app was absolutely amazing when I first downloaded it.  I was able to find and play songs I hadn’t heard in forever like Wade Hayes’ “On A Good Night” or Da Hol’ 9’s “Urbody In Da Club Up”.  After 48 hours, your free trial of Spotify Premium ends on the iPad.  You can always play any song out there from your laptop or desktop, but you need to pay for the premium version to do the same from a mobile device. Otherwise, the only songs you can play on your iPad are the ones that you actually have on your home computer.

What applications do you use every day?  Do you have opinions on the ones I featured? I need to find a good free word processor for the iPad because I am ironically enough typing this on a desktop computer. Any help?

Brought to you by Mills Properties 

Photo courtesy of Time.com

P.S. If you couldn’t tell by the lead for this post or by knowing me in person, I’m not a hipster at all.  I am pretty much what Ren McCormack would have been like in Bomont if he couldn’t dance. You can call me Willard, Willard Hewitt.

Ryan

Ryan is a weird dude. He doesn't cook, yet owns a plethora of kitchen gadgets. He rationalized buying a SodaStream while unemployed. He counts Step Up 2: The Streets as one of his favorite movies along with Footloose, Rent, Grease and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. He loves Mizzou but only wants them in the SEC so he can tailgate in Nashville. He owns a ShakeWeight and AbLounger, but still loves him some John Donut and Billie's Fine Foods. You can get more of Ryan at iLoveSoulard.com or just check the stool on the far end of the bar at iTap in Soulard.

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