iPad Apps

Wasting time on Wikipedia is a crime that we're not ashamed to admit. How else would we have found this totally trivial — but amazing — list of the handedness of US presidents? How else would Aziz Ansari have learned everything there is to know about Joe Pesci?

Jumping into a Wikipedia wormhole is a beautiful thing but, the truth is, the open-source, online encyclopedia is not. Wikiweb ($3) is an app for iPhone and iPad that takes all the content Wikipedia has to offer, and displays it in a clean, design-forward interface with fun animations.

Wikiweb also enhances the knowledge quest experience by showing a web of how disparate articles are connected. The app shows different areas of inquiry and articles related to that field's history. Curious minds can investigate further by zooming in on high-resolution images, quickly swiping through different articles, or changing between 100 different languages.

So dig in, information huntsman! Download the app and go where your curiosity takes you.

Apps make our personal tech worlds go round, and they've also become a crucial part of how small businesses function. Palmaz Vineyards in Napa, CA, a family-owned winery we recently visited, is one such example of where apps available to the public in the App Store have changed the way the company does business. To balance the small staff and the 55 rolling acres of vineyard, Christian Gastón Palmaz, director of operations at Palmaz, told us he coordinates nearly every aspect of the business from his iPad command station.

Many of the essential apps Christian uses are wine and agriculture-related such as Field Assets ($17), which captures data from across the vineyard plants and has saved the winery "tens of thousands of dollars alone." Since most of us won't need farming-related digital tools, we asked what other apps make the running of a small business smooth, and included those, along with some of our personal favorite task management apps below as our required apps for small business owners.

• CloudOn (free) — Since Microsoft Office software still isn't available as native iOS apps, CloudOn is how to create and edit Excel, Word, and PowerPoint documents for now. Manage the documents via Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, or SkyDrive, and share files updates to colleagues by sending projects via link or attachment through email.
• Delivery ($5) — With dozens of packages of wine being sent to customers on any given day, Palmaz uses this app to track goods. Support for over 30 shipping companies (including Amazon and Google Checkout) guarantees however a shipment is sent, it can be tracked within the app. A must for product-driven businesses.
• Adobe Reader (free)— With documents needing signature or corrections at any hour, Reader gives the power of electronic signatures and editing of PDF documents from your device.
• iTeleport ($20) — When caught in off-site meetings or accessing a document from home, iTeleport brings your work desktop to wherever your business has taken you. Other apps require in-app paid monthly subscriptions, but all remote features are included in iTeleport without new purchases required.
• Milestone (free) — Christian uses Milestone to access the winery's security camera system, with access to the cameras' live and historical views.

Read on for the best note-taking apps and how to manage all those moneymaking invoices.

Based on our level of excitement for Jurassic Park 3D, you'd think we hadn't already watched the film 23 times since its 1993 debut. Nothing can crush our love of dinosaurs, not even what happens when ancient animals come to life on a remote island. Rather than wishing for a real-life version, we'll opt for crafting a virtual dino park from the safety of an iPhone with the Jurassic Park Builder game (free, with in-app purchase options) for iOS.

The game's more SimCity than it is action-packed running-from-a-T-Rex thrills. Players are guided through the ins and outs of building a theme park on land or underwater with prehistoric attractions by the movie's stars John Hammond, Ian Malcolm (hello, Jeff Goldblum!), and Dr. Grant. Expand the park with new buildings and hotels, than take care of the dinosaurs well enough to add more to the menagerie — over 30 varieties in total.

As you progress, show off your creations with Facebook sharing, but whatever you do, don't share the plans with a character named Dennis Nedry!

Christoph Niemann first charmed us back in 2009 with his quick-witted I LEGO N.Y. photos, and now, the acclaimed illustrator is back on our geek radar with his first ever interactive iPhone and iPad app, Petting Zoo ($1.99), which is too cute for words. Seriously: Christoph's app is just drawings and sounds.

The virtual picture book prompts curious minds to poke and prod over 20 different hand-drawn animals. With some nudging, pulling, and swiping, the animated animals react in surprising ways, and a different musical sound plays for each creature.

Christoph's sharp humor is truly fun for geeks of all ages (even you, grown-ups). The user interface is beautiful and effortless: there are no words, only simple charcoal lines that shape themselves into various forms. Watch how an octopus's arm transforms into a mandolin and back again.

Although he is an illustrator, graphic designer, and author by trade, Christoph taught himself to code, and the iPad app isn't his first foray into tech. Check out the web-based games he built with New York Times multimedia editor Jon Huang for more illustrated, interactive play.

You're probably familiar with optical illusions (like the Penrose Triangle) . . . but what about auditory illusions? Sound Uncovered (free) is an educational iPad app that opens minds (and ears) to all the ways that sounds trick us.

Think you can talk and listen at the same time? Or identify the highest note in a series of chimes? Think again. Sound Uncovered shows how ears perceive sound differently than you may think, and puts the experience of a multisensory museum exhibit into the palm of your hand.

Experiment with auditory illusions and acoustic phenomena, or make your own recordings and test your hearing with this interactive app that teaches us all about the space between human ears.

The San Francisco Exploratorium, which reopens to the public in a new waterfront home on April 17, created the app to bring hands-on science into the home. If you're itching for more experimentation, give your visual sensors a run with Color Uncovered (free), which examines how we identify hues in everyday objects.

Out of the way grocery store cookies, there's a yearly sweets tradition that we so desperately crave we need an app to track them down: it's Girl Scout cookie time! While the Girl Scouts themselves say, cookies can go on sale anywhere between January and April, there's a new way to take the guesswork out of this yearly treat. The free iOS Girl Scout Cookie Locator app searches your neighborhood for cookie sales.

The app lets you set reminders to purchase the cookies (like you'd forget), use GPS to find nearby cookies, and even take a quiz to see what draws you to the coconut flavor of the Samoas. Be sure to also check out the in-app recipes for a new edible take on the Girl Scout Cookie experience.