Free apps for iPad
Make your iPad more capable without having to splash the cash…
There are plenty of free App Store offerings that take advantage of the iPad’s bigger screen. You can stream TV shows and movies with a freebie app, for example, or watch videos at your convenience on the YouTube app. Or, if you’re more of a reader, why not enjoy ebooks on the Kindle app, read web comics on WEBTOON and much more. Here are just a few ways you can get even more out of your iPad at work or play.
Kindle
> FROM App Store
> NEEDS iPadOS 14 or later
While there’s no substitute for a dedicated Kindle with an e-ink screen, downloading the Kindle app to use on your iPad is pretty handy. The app is great to use with ebooks that have pictures or diagrams, or if you sideload PDFs onto your ebook reader, then you can read them on the Kindle app for iPad too. The app is free and it’s easy to buy books for it via the Amazon website (but you can’t buy them from within the app or in the Amazon shopping app). As with the standard Kindle, you can download samples to try before you buy, including audio if you prefer to listen to audiobooks.
Igloo – IRC Client
> FROM iglooirc.com
> NEEDS iPadOS 12 or later
This app’s visibility isn’t helped by the fact there’s several apps on the app store called ‘Igloo’. Be sure to search for ‘Igloo IRC’. Igloo is a client for Internet Relay Chat (IRC). It’s used for internet chat rooms, an online service that isn’t as popular as it used to be, but is worth a look if you enjoy chatting with people the world over. Igloo’s developers claim it’s the only IRC client on iOS to support DCC/XDCC downloads that get synced right to iCloud Drive, so you can access them on your iPhone/iPad in the Files app or on your Mac in a folder called ‘Igloo’, which is a definite bonus.
YouTube
> FROM App Store
> NEEDS iPadOS 14 or later
Another website that’s far more convenient to use on its dedicated app is YouTube. As we all know, it’s a goldmine of usercreated content, from both amateur and pro video makers. There are videos on all sorts of subjects, and you can upload your own movies too. If you’ve bought films and TV shows through Google Play (including digital copies you got with Blu-ray and DVD purchases) you can watch them through YouTube; just search for the title of the film or show in question. You can also switch to full-screen while watching a video if you want to cut out the borders.
WEBTOON: Comics
> FROM webtoons.com/en
> NEEDS iPadOS 12 or later
There are some awesome comics on the web, and WEBTOON: Comics collates them to enjoy on a single, free app. WEBTOON describes itself as ‘the largest webc
