I figure with a seperate forum area we can have at least one thread focused on non-gaming apps. Someone who games more on the iPhone/iPad should start threads for must have games though!
I've had my iPad 2 for a little over a month now (got it on 3/15) and here are the apps I've been using a lot.
News Apps
New York Times--Still my favorite even after going paid. The Top News and Most e-mailed are still free and update with new stories rotating in throughout the day.
Washington Post--not big on the layout, but the full paper is still free for now. Says it will go paid sometime in the future.
USA Today--nice layout, full paper is free.
Politico--decent layout. Free.
CNN--has a couple layout options, lots of videos.
NPR--love being able to build your own playlists with segments of shows like All Things Considered
AP--different layout style than the others, bu not all that useful since most of the good stories get covered in the above sources
Zite and Flipboard--these are the two best news aggregators I've found.
Movies/TV Apps
Netflix--a must if you're a subscriber
Crackle--has a decent amount of free streaming TV episodes and movies (older stuff)
ABC Player--solid app for streaming ABC shows
Youtube--self explanatory
Movies by Flixter--good app for Rotten Tomatoes scores and looking up show times
PBS--has some of their shows streaming
Discovery--haven't used it much. Not sure how many full shows, but lots of clips available from the little I've seen
Hulu Plus--sure it's great for members, I haven't tried it as I don't watch much TV these days.
DirecTV--neat app if you have your TV through them and a compatible set top box. You can control the box with the app. Access your DVR playlist and choose what to start up, browse the guide etc. Mainly useful to me as the menu and guide is very slow on my DirecTV DVR most of the time, so it's often quicker to use this app.
E-Books and PDFs
Kindle--the best of the e-book apps IMO simply because of the selection of the Kindle store. Full disclosure--I'm biased here since I've owned a Kindle for quite a while and still do most of my reading on it.
Goodreader--the best PDF reader out there. And they've added a lot of good annotation features to it so you can easily nighlight, add notes and draw on PDFs so there's not reason to spend $5 more for iAnnotate anymore really.
iBooks--nice interface, but the iBook store is limited and often more expensive than the Kindle store.
Stanza--very useful as there are several free book sources built into the app as well as some smaller pay stores.
Nook--haven't used this one really, but the interface seems decent.
Kobo--interface on this one seemed a bit slow for turning pages etc.
Miscellaneous
Epicurous--a neat, free cookbook
Kayak--quick way to look up flight prices
Open Table--great for making dining reservations
TWC Max (weather channel)--solid weather app
Engadget--ok app, but not any better than the website really.
ESPN Scorescenter--not really much more than an app version of their mobile website enhanced a bit. Still handy for looking up scores etc.
Marvel Comics/Comixology--great comics apps, but I don't like the pricing.
Pandora--self explanatory
Backgrounds--lots of free wallpaper for the iPad.
I've had my iPad 2 for a little over a month now (got it on 3/15) and here are the apps I've been using a lot.
News Apps
New York Times--Still my favorite even after going paid. The Top News and Most e-mailed are still free and update with new stories rotating in throughout the day.
Washington Post--not big on the layout, but the full paper is still free for now. Says it will go paid sometime in the future.
USA Today--nice layout, full paper is free.
Politico--decent layout. Free.
CNN--has a couple layout options, lots of videos.
NPR--love being able to build your own playlists with segments of shows like All Things Considered
AP--different layout style than the others, bu not all that useful since most of the good stories get covered in the above sources
Zite and Flipboard--these are the two best news aggregators I've found.
Movies/TV Apps
Netflix--a must if you're a subscriber
Crackle--has a decent amount of free streaming TV episodes and movies (older stuff)
ABC Player--solid app for streaming ABC shows
Youtube--self explanatory
Movies by Flixter--good app for Rotten Tomatoes scores and looking up show times
PBS--has some of their shows streaming
Discovery--haven't used it much. Not sure how many full shows, but lots of clips available from the little I've seen
Hulu Plus--sure it's great for members, I haven't tried it as I don't watch much TV these days.
DirecTV--neat app if you have your TV through them and a compatible set top box. You can control the box with the app. Access your DVR playlist and choose what to start up, browse the guide etc. Mainly useful to me as the menu and guide is very slow on my DirecTV DVR most of the time, so it's often quicker to use this app.
E-Books and PDFs
Kindle--the best of the e-book apps IMO simply because of the selection of the Kindle store. Full disclosure--I'm biased here since I've owned a Kindle for quite a while and still do most of my reading on it.
Goodreader--the best PDF reader out there. And they've added a lot of good annotation features to it so you can easily nighlight, add notes and draw on PDFs so there's not reason to spend $5 more for iAnnotate anymore really.
iBooks--nice interface, but the iBook store is limited and often more expensive than the Kindle store.
Stanza--very useful as there are several free book sources built into the app as well as some smaller pay stores.
Nook--haven't used this one really, but the interface seems decent.
Kobo--interface on this one seemed a bit slow for turning pages etc.
Miscellaneous
Epicurous--a neat, free cookbook
Kayak--quick way to look up flight prices
Open Table--great for making dining reservations
TWC Max (weather channel)--solid weather app
Engadget--ok app, but not any better than the website really.
ESPN Scorescenter--not really much more than an app version of their mobile website enhanced a bit. Still handy for looking up scores etc.
Marvel Comics/Comixology--great comics apps, but I don't like the pricing.
Pandora--self explanatory
Backgrounds--lots of free wallpaper for the iPad.