It’s a tablet prone market these days, and consumer electronics giants all-over the globe are frantically trying to get their hands on this hottest selling item. Apple first triggered this race in April, when they launched the iPad; one of the hottest selling tech item of the year. Apple also reflected its iPad’s beefed up sales in their 3Q earnings.

Coming over to the Apple iPad’s app domain, there is a whole universe of apps available on the Apple’s elusive App store integrated with the iTunes. So here are some of the best iPad apps that have been ranked very high by users. The best thing about these Apps is that they are free of cost. Here is a slight insight into these apps:

1. Google Earth iPad App

It is a proven fact, that Google Earth application for iPad is indeed a stunning, digital globe replica of the real Earth that the user can manipulate in various ways. You can spin the 3D image of the Earth by a swipe of your finger, plus the user can zoom-in on any particular destination or can also fly-in to the current location of the iPad. Wikipedia Articles that are geo-tagged can also be viewed with a stunning look; the panoramic layer of various images can also be analyzed. According to some user’s reviews, it is indeed the smartest way of interacting with our home planet.

2. NASA HD App

Well, for all the not so techie people, if you think that NASA only works on the space tech, then you are very much wrong. This app by NASA will totally change your views about this mega organization. NASA Ames Engineers have somewhat created a stunning application for the iPad that will keep users and the space lovers well informed about the Agency space missions, space science topics, news and information about extraterrestrial discoveries. Users can also stream NASA TV contents and can also view stunning pictures library of NASA Missions. Moreover, this application provides options of exploring the universe with tagged photos and missions logs. NASA’s latest tweets can be read and users can track locations of various current on-going missions. With just a couple of taps, users can share stuff available on the application with their friends on Twitter or Facebook.

3. National Public Radio App for iPad

Owners of this trendy Apple iPad can now enjoy the National Public Radio in a totally new way with an amazing NPR App for iPad. The app is totally designed for the iPad and combines radio and magazine formats. A recent survey by a tech company has shown that almost 5% audience of the NPR own an iPad, so this application will further enhance the user’s experience. Moreover, the user can also browse through videos and photo galleries on the NPR app and the contents from their website as well.

4. New York Times App for iPad

So, when it comes to the digital newspaper App, for the Apple Tablet device, then New York Times is the best app available. NYTimes for the Apple’s iPad has been designed visually keeping a futuristic, modern hi-tech world in mind. Users can flick through articles or bring up a complete newspaper section with a single click on the App displayed news. Users can jump to their favorite reading section with ease. HD quality videos embedded in the news articles can be played swiftly and users can also scan through the multimedia slide shows. Press the ‘Update’ tab and a scrolling page of the latest editions from the NYTimes.com is displayed.

5. Flipboard

For me this is one amazing app on the iPad, that totally revolutionize the way you interact with contents, that your friends have shared on the social networking hubs like Facebook and Twitter. It’s a sort of magazine, created for you by your friends, with interesting contents they have shared. It basically creates an iPad style touch and flick magazine that is full of photos, videos, audio and interesting to read text. Browsing these shared contents becomes much easier than to read it from your social networking websites itself. The best thing is that whenever you launch the App, the contents update themselves in real time, so you keep up to date with what your friends have uploaded.

6. Virtuoso Piano App HD

Music lovers can now carry their piano in their hands with this amazing new App called as Virtuoso Piano HD. This wonderful music app provides two different set of Piano Keys one on top of the other. Well the most awesome thing about this App, is that the sound you hear will be the most realistic and the closest to a real Piano sound. With the multi-touch option in iPad, playing actual songs and realistic sound chords is very easy. Moreover, there is also a provision of displaying the notes on the Piano as symbols.

7. Weatherbug App for iPad

For all people on-the-go or enthusiastic travelers, this is an amazing app because existence of a 24-hours weather channel is real necessary. Users in this app can pinch and zoom on the map of their current location, state or their country. Once there, the user can jump over to radar view, showing temperature, precipitation the humidity scale and many other views. Favorite locations can be saved as favorites and can be easily accessed. Users can also view weather update news and videos, and they can also view weather forecast for a total of 5-days.

8. ABC Player App

The ABC player App is very much similar to the Hulu App for Apple’s iPad. Users can also view loads of ABC shows like Castle, Grey Anatomy, Lost, and many other that will keep you glued to your iPad. Moreover, tilting the iPad can further enhance the viewing of the videos and your favorite shows. Although, there are commercials but they won’t disrupt the video watching experience for a longer period.

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