Find your own type on iBooks

POPULAR APPS:iBooks, Free

ONE OF the reasons the iPad has been hailed as the death of the e-reader, iBooks turns your iPad into an e-reader. And not just any e-reader either.

Ibooks can be customised even down to the font, with the app giving the choice of six typefaces.

You can also pick your favoured layout; reading one page at a time in portrait mode or two pages on screen at once in landscape.

Buy books directly from the iBookstore and download them to your iPad, or transfer your own ePub format books to the device through iTunes.

Pages,€7.99

A word processor for the iPad, Pages is part of Apple’s iWork suite. It allows you to create and share documents from the iPad, complete with formatting and advanced layout tools.

It has a number of pre-set formats to choose from, including cards, flyers, letters and reports. It has a handy feature that saves whenever you make a change.

You can even import Microsoft Word documents to work on or export your finished documents in Word format, ready to send byemail, share with friends, or transfer back to your computer via iTunes Sharing.

Evernote,FREE

Evernote is an app that works with both iPhone and iPad. It even ropes in your home PC or Mac.

It allows you to create text, photo or audio notes, and synchronises them to your PC. If you are out and about and inspiration strikes, all you have to do is take notes on the move and once you have an internet connection it will automatically upload them and synchronise so you can access your material no matter where you are.

It has some really handy features such as making text within snapshots searchable, and each note can include geo-location information.

Scrabble for iPad, €7.99

The addictive word game has been given a new lease of life on the iPad. The digital version of the game comes with high-definition graphics, sound effects and a dictionary in the solo mode.

You have the choice of playing against the computer in a solo game or taking on friends and family in the local network play.

Airvideo,€2.39

To play video files on the iPad, you need first to transfer them using iTunes, which can be time consuming. However, AirVideo gives you a second option: stream them over your local network or internet connection directly from your computer. All you need is the app on your iPad and a piece of free server software on your home machine. It will either convert the video file live, if needed, or you can convert it upfront and store it on your iPad to watch later.