Use these quick links to jump to each section:
Productivity | Remote Control & Access | Social | Travel | Health | Games | Other
Movies
Catch up on all the latest from Channel 4 (UK only).
Definitive US-only streaming movie rentals.
Truly inspiration talks with the power to change the world.
Innovative way to stream the latest news reports. (UK-only)
Plays any format movie you can throw at it.
Movie info at your fingertips.
Free HD catch-up streaming from BBC (UK only).
Catch-up for the US channel ABC (US-only).
Stream movies stored on your PC or Mac in any format.
iOS client for the PC and Mac Plex Media Server.
Innovative video browser with tons of free content, pulls from various channels and social sources.
Stream HBO content if you're alreadya subscriber. (US-only).
Audio
Apple's own superb music making software, now on iPad with full suite of interactive and intuitive instruments.
Streaming radio as it was meant to be done (US-only).
Live music identification through the microphone, and lyrics for you to sing along!
Easy, free, and simple sequencer that makes music accessible.
Browsers and Internet
The ultimate time waster for browsing random websites.
A great way to view this popular auction site, with clear visuals and notifications of auctions ending soon.
Keep up to date with new free apps and price drops / app sales with this useful app.
An alternative web browser that compresses pages for faster browsing.
Save website pages to read offline anytime.
Drawing
Gorgeous vector-based auto-smoothing drawing tool from the makers of Photoshop.
Fabulously simple and feels just like a drawing pad with pencils, perfect for kids.
The ultimate drawing app for professional artists, with a wide variety of brushes. Results can be stunning.
Free version, still feature packed.
Photography
Photoshop on the iPad does exactly what you'd expect it to. Fully featured photo editing!
A stunning new image everyday that showcases photography talent and events the world over. A visual smorgasbord.
Great way to browse and upload to the Photobucket service, focusing on the photos as it should.
Simply the best way to browse Flickr on your iPad, period.
Finance
A beautiful way to simply and easily track your finances.
Currency conversion, stats and graphs for anyone into playing the exchange rates.
News / Reading
The only news worth reading, globally.
Hands-down best Google feed-reader on the iPad, so simple yet feature packed.
A free alternative to Reeder worth considering.
A personalized experience that grabs news from feeds and social connections, and displays it beautifully.
Another personalized news reader that learns your preferences the more you use it.
Similar to FlipBoard in style, but highly customizable news streams.
Comic store and reader, but the interface is a little slow
Most reliable multi-format eBook reader on the iPad yet.
A must-have for Kindle owners, but otherwise lacklustre.
A visual artboard style RSS reader.
An essential for all iPad owners. Store your MakeUseOf PDF guides in this app easily!
The first designed-for-iPad daily newspaper. Free for 2 weeks!
Educational / Reference
Like a sci-fi movie - search for anything, and it will read a description to you, including images if it finds some. Wikipedia on steroids.
Productivity
The de-facto standard for note-taking and organisation. Hundreds of amazing features too numerous to list.
A simple, free to-do list app that syncs with the desktop and web.
Pure plain text editor that does what it says on the can. Also, can edit directly from your Dropbox.
Apple's own feature rich word processing and desktop publishing app.
Easy and secure access to your Dropbox, on your iPad.
Top quality speech recognition from the industry leaders, at a price you cannot beat.
Simple text writer that edits straight from your Dropbox.
Perfect for taking handwritten notes and annotating PDFs during class. Lacking voice recording, if that's essential
Remote Control / Remote Access
Turn your iPad into a secondary display for your PC - amazing!
Simple remote control of your Mac, free.
Free for registered desktop users, this lets you access your virtual machines anywhere.
The choice of technical support professionals everywhere due to ease of use on both ends of the connection.
Performance so good you can stream graphically intense games from your PC, no problem.
Free, cross-platform standard client for open-source VNC-based connections. Reliable, but slow.
Social
Messaging app for basically every platform around. Essential!
The official Twitter client for the iPad does it best.
Take advantage of that Facetime camera with free video chat over Wifi and 3G
Another free video caller, the one works with GTalk.
The best combined Facebook and Twitter client, with both games and chat chat too.
Innovative friend-stream mode gives you live updates in a photoframe style.
Gorgeous location sharing app with nice clear maps of check-ins.
The swiss-army of social apps: chat on multiple networks, checkin with FourSquare, and status updates all over. Phew!
Social check-in for movies, tv and books. Collect badges and discover new content.
Travel
Searching for hotels and flights has never been easier.
Fly a lot? Use this to track your flights and keep informed with helpful notifications.
For iPad 2, Google Googles can help you identify places and buildings.
Zoom to your current location and see what's around, with user photos.
Get advice from locals and travellers about any part of the world.
Map of London's cycle hire scheme with stations and live updates. UK-only.
Comprehensive local directory from Yellow Pages, UK-only.
Find somewhere great to eat with this no-nonsense app.
Hand-picked restaurant and bar reviews for London and various US cities. Innovative carousel interface.
Health
Complete medical reference on your iPad, for free.
Fantastically visual version of the popular health tracking website.
Period and fertility tracker with community site access.
Track your baby's development from week 4 to 40.
Details 700 exercises to target those troublesome areas exactly.
Games
An addictive game that sees you landing aircraft in an ever increasingly packed airspace.
Similar to Flight Control, but free, and with boats.
Top-down turn-based action/RPG. If you liked X-Com, you'll love this.
Free to play massively multiplayer online RPG for when you fancy a break from World of Warcraft.
Slicing fruit has never been more satisfying. Multiplayer too!
Catapult birds at the pigs and try to topple their house. What doesn't sound fantastic about this game?
The reason touch interfaces were made! To play Air Hockey!
Symbol matching frantic puzzle game, and you can't argue with the price.
Be prepared to lose a week to this game - it's that good.
This game sees you release a flurry of metal balls to hit all the pegs. Supremely satisfying.
The hit console game feels just as great on the iPad
Tilt and rotate your way out of the maze. Great for kids and adults alike, and free.
Snowboarding platformer, free.
Frisbees on the iPad? You bet!
Cut the rope to deliver candy to the little monster. Not as easy as it sounds!
Multiplayer/social scrabble, basically
Retro gaming at it's best. In-app purchases.
Iconic game of structure building with goo. Better than it sounds.
Casual puzzle game, rated very highly. Similar to puzzle bobble.
Other
Gorgeous weather app, free - enough said.
A great way to find your next motor - UK only.
Daily deals, with an average rating 4.5 stars it's a must-have for many.
Disclaimer: All iPad applications listed here were thoroughly reviewed. MakeUseOf is not responsible for any damage and/or data loss that might result from use of any of the above mentioned applications.