So someone just gifted me a used 1st gen iPad. What apps should I be checking out?

interested in ALL recommendations, but also specifically for things that make media very accessible (will be using for video when we travel with young children) and kids and general audience games. Also will likely use it as an e-reader and for internet and email, etc..

Also, anyone have a keyboard case that they love? I like my friend's zaggfolio case, but it's only for iPad2 and iPad3.

Google Earth for, well for pretty
PlainText a great simple text editor with DropBox support
PDFpen great for viewing/annotating PDFs
Pages/Numbers/Keynote great demos for how impressive iPad apps can be
GarageBand another Apple demonstration of the peak of app development
Abobe Ideas the best idea sketching app I've seen
iBooks/Kindle for book reading
Byline an RSS reader with Google Reader support, my favourite of the ones I've tried
Instapaper for offline reading of web pages
Flipboard for a unique way to consume Twitter/Facebook etc
Handoff a quick easy way to send web pages from your desktop browser to the iPad
ShopShop a great little shopping list app
iTunes U
StarmapHD
Paper best drawing app
Calvetica for a different take on a calendar app

Have you tried Reeder? my brother recommended that and I was wondering if you've compared the two?

I have tried Reeder, still have it installed. I just prefer the navigation in Byline, which takes a very standard iPad UI approach to moving around the app.

Reeder certainly is good and has some clever touches, but I still prefer actually using Byline.

Just played with Reeder again. My biggest problem with it is that it bunches all the articles in each Google Reader folder into one list. Byline in comparison keeps each feed separate.

Andy, I use Reeder (and prefer it since I also use it on my Mac), and I am able to sort by both category/folder (which, as you say, bunches all the articles into a single list) or by individual source (which keeps articles separate).

An, yes. Just rediscovered the fiddly hidden pinch to zoom gesture that allows you to zoom into a folder and see the feeds.

I still prefer Byline

If you have Squeezebox server (Logitech Media Server) running (or are willing to run it), whether or not you have any hardware-based Squeezebox devices, grab iPeng as it's the best way to consume/control music from elsewhere on your LAN.

The built-in Video app is barebones and shows a distinct lack of thought in design, but third-party ones aren't much better, except for the fact that some of them will allow you to play containers and codecs the built-in app doesn't support. You won't be doing HD video on that iPad using any of the third-party apps though. I keep 3 or 4 alternative ones and frankly I haven't yet chosen which ones to delete and which one to keep. You may have to do some testing yourself if you want to be able to play alternative formats such as mkv.

I have yet to find an app to consume media from your local network other than iPeng for music as I mentioned - and that requires you to run the Logitech server app. I wish I could recommend something for video and pictures.

For your regular PC/Mac, grab and familiarize yourself with Handbrake - you can get away with using its quick preset to convert things into H.264 in an MP4 container for the iPad. It gets the job done - that's about the best plug I can give it.

It turns out that the iPad is actually a better device for creating content than it is for consuming it, since connectivity options, including apps, are pretty much nonexistent. There's no easy way to move media onto the device other than doing manual syncing as I've outlined above. Moving photos to it from a camera is tedious and borders on completely pointless because of it. If you also have an iPhone and too both up to iCloud, then you can see those photos, a few at a time, via Photostream. But that's also kind of clunky since Apple hasn't really come to grips yet with photos.

For consuming video from my locals network I use an app called Air Video. It requires a server side install, that transcodes to MP4 when needed.

I have also used the Plex app, that works well too. That of course also requires a server side install.

I should have mentioned that transcoding-type server-client apps like Plex existed. A lot of people like that one, based on XBMC and similar-looking skin on the desktop client at least.

I did find one app that promised simple folder browsing and file playback without anything to install on the network, but I couldn't get it to work when I last tried it. I've also tried a photo browsing/slideshow app that did require a small server-style app be installed on the machine to serve the photos. But I found it a little too junky and it didn't seem to handle the Nikon RAW images it said it would.

So I don't use the iPad for that stuff. It makes a better computer for my daughter, so it lives happily in a soft rubber-foam case and uses it for educational games and some videos I pre-transcode for her.

I've thought about transitioning my wife's email and web use onto the iPad, which would probably account for the majority of her needs, but then I'd also have to install keynote, pages and excel and then there's the inability to do anything with photos that weren't shot on the iPad or brought in from Mac. It's a tough one, almost there but not quite.

Looks like Andy and Bruno have covered most of what I'd also suggest. Here are a few others though:

I personally use Flipboard to access my Google Reader feeds.

Comixology if comics interest you at all
Reading Rainbow recently launched, the kids may enjoy that one
Jump is the Windows RDP client I use
iSSH for SSH and XWindows
Verbs for IM
Dark Sky for rain weather (may be US only)
Star Walk for star identification

I use Plex on my Google TV and Galaxy Tab. It works really well once it gets all set up. I had a ton of trouble getting it working at first, but eventually I got everything worked out and they made some changes to their software.

However, Bruno, the interface you're talking about is probably the desktop interface. The one on mobile platforms is pretty rough and doesn't have a lick of the really nice UI elements of the desktop software.

I like:
MegaReader for ebooks
Audible
Podcasts
Calculator Pro
Passwords
USA Today
WhitePages
Redfin
Realtor

For video:
ABC Player, NBC, DirecTV, Snag Films,
Hulu Plus works well but is about 2x+ power hungry over DirecTV (subjective eval.)

Flixster for movie times

Shanghai,

The Dtv app seems to be very efficient. But it's no good for travel.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I see some in each of your lists that pique my interest and also some that I can definitely say "not for me."

As far as video goes, anything that downloads content from the internet is probably off the table, since I have pay-as-you-go internet and I can't afford to buzz through my allowance that fast.

I'd love to be able to have one of our computers work as a video server and be able to consume it over the wireless network with the ipad. Is that what Plex does?

Also, any input on a keyboard case?

Games are going be the best bet for long duration kid fun.
Manic Marble
Monster Trucks Nitro
BClassicLite or BClassic (paid)

Try out the lite versions of everything first. A lot of apps are small money, but it adds up fast. That's ok if they are all games you like. But there is a lot of pretty looking drek too.

Keyboard cases for iPads don't appeal to me. The instances where a kbd would be useful, are ripe for breaking out the laptop. Or a detached kbd. Otherwise, It's just something for the kids to destroy.

Yes and also what Air Video does. Plex is more fully featured, but the server can be a bit of a pain to get running. Air Video in comparison has a painless server install, but does less.

Win Zip or something similar.

Don't know how many downloads I waited for, only to find it was zipped. Pdf's images... The dnload goes to WinZip and it offers to let files in the archive to be opened by comparable apps.

Many similar apps have ads.

I never posted back on this, but Plex client and server worked perfectly for me straight out of the box. No pain to get running ( latest version on Snow Leopard ). Works great and the kids love being able to access their library of Disney movies any time.