Smart Runners-Up

In addition to my Top 10, I've uncovered scads of other iPad apps that merit your consideration. Some, such as SoundHound ∞, have gained a rabid following. Others, such as Adobe Photoshop Express, have both fans and detractors.

Here's a sampling of a dozen more smart apps, as described by their developers.

• Adobe Photoshop Express - image editor (free)
  "Adobe Photoshop Express software lets you use simple gestures to quickly edit and share photos from your mobile device. Create a free Photoshop.com account to upload and store 2GB of photos and videos online."
• Angry Birds HD - game ($4.99)
  "Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 195 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy."

Angry Birds, the only game I chose, smartly keeps sessions short and gameplay just challenging enough

• At Bat 2010 for iPad - baseball-fan app ($14.99 during baseball season; free off-season)
  "MLB.com At Bat 2010, the iPad's most popular and award-winning sports App, is the place for all the up-to-the-moment Hot Stove news and analysis for your favorite MLB Clubs. "
• Bloom HD - ambient-music synthesizer ($3.99)
  "Part instrument, part composition and part artwork, Bloom's innovative controls allow anyone to create elaborate patterns and unique melodies by simply tapping the screen."
• DataAnalysis - charting app (free)
  "DataAnalysis is a general purpose iPad App for the plotting and analysis of all types of data that can be formulated as x,y pairs. It is particularly useful for quick analysis of various types of data by curve fitting, analysis of data via a standard curve, and analysis of various types of kinetic data including enzyme kinetics."
• Flipboard - social-networking aggregator (free)
  "Flipboard is a fast, beautiful way to flip through the news, photos and updates your friends are sharing on Facebook and Twitter. Share articles and photos, comment on posts, and like or favorite anything"
• Keynote - presentation app ($15.99)
  "Keynote has everything you need to create amazing presentations, including beautiful Apple-designed themes, custom graphic styles, and stunning animations and effects."
• KORG iMS-20 - analog-synthesizer simulator ($15.99)
  "KORG iMS-20 is an analog synth studio; a complete recreation of the Korg MS-20 analog synth, an analog sequencer, a drum machine, a mixer, and even Korg's Kaoss Pad technology."
• Pandora Radio - customizable music-streamer (free)
  "Pandora Radio is your own free personalized radio now available to stream music on your iPhone or iPad. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a "station" that plays their music and more music like it."
• Postmodernism Generator - parody artspeak creator (99¢)
  "The Postmodernism Generator creates realistic-looking but meaningless academic papers about postmodernism, poststructuralism, deconstruction, critical theory and similar subjects at the more esoteric end of the humanities."

Postmodernism Generator's artspeak is a preaxiomatic paradigm of subconceptualist transgressivity

• SoundHound ∞ - music identifier ($4.99; free version offers five IDs per month)
  "SoundHound is music recognition on steroids. The world's FASTEST music recognition: four seconds to name tunes playing from a speaker. The world's only viable singing and humming recognition."
• Things - task manager ($19.99)
  "Things is a beautifully focused and amazingly intuitive task manager. Effortlessly manage to-dos, notes, due dates, and projects. A smart today list and the scheduling feature allow you to work as effectively as possible — every day."

Next page: Stupid Runners-Up