This is a list of the most essential iPad apps that you should have on your iOS device. It includes news apps, text editors, dictation apps and apps for reading books on your iPad.

Get the latest news from India on your iPad with NDTV HD. The apps also includes live videos and photo galleries. With the BBC News App, you can get news stories by geographical region and there's live radio that can play news in the background. The New York Times for App supports breaking news alerts that will pop-up even while the app is closed. Save long news articles and blog posts and read read them offline on your iPad with the Instapaper App. It removes all the clutter from the articles and formats them like a novel. You can read PDFs and any eBook in the ePub format with the Apple iBooks app. PlainText is a minimal text editing app for iPad that can also sync with Dropbox. You can use the Dropbox app to quickly upload files from your computer to the iPad over Wi-Fi without requiring iTunes. Solve crossword puzzles, find calories in that pizza slice, or find the date for the next solar eclipse - all using the Wolfram Alpha app for iPad. The Dragon Dictation App will help you write email message and documents on the iPad using your own voice. Extremely accurate. The FlipBoard app is the most beautiful news reader for your iPad. It can also sync with your Google Reader, Twitter and Facebook accounts. You can read documents and other office files on the iPad with Good Reader. It can also help you download music and videos from the web to your iPad. The official Facebook app is only available for the iPhone. Friendly is a nice alternative for catching up with Facebook and it even supports multiple accounts If you are an RSS addict like me, get Reeder - it the best RSS reader for iPad that also sync with your Google Reader. While Twitter now has an official app for the iPad, I still prefer Twitterrific since it's more simple and requires less number of clicks. Google App for iPad supports voice search so you may search the web without lifting the finger. Also comes with an integrated web browser. Google Maps is a built-in app and though it doesn't offer offline functionality, you can always press the home button and the sleep button to save images of maps locally. Click here to go to Digital Inspiration, a popular how-to blog. You can send an email to the author at amit@labnol.org You can find more apps for your iPad through this Facebook page without iTunes. Watch video tutorials and screencasts on our YouTube channel.

Also check out:
iPad Screen 2 iPad Screen 3