I’ve had an iPad now for coming close to a year. It’s becoming an all-purpose device for me with regards to Bible reading, journaling, reading books, preaching from and communication device.

Mark Stevens, over at Near Emmaus, just purchased one and was asking for some of the better apps we all liked. I am no app-junky who downloads hundreds of apps, but I did list my top 10.

So here are my top 10 apps on my iPad (though not in any particular order, rather than the Kindle app being first):

1. Kindle – Last January I read from Amazon that, in the last quarter of 2010, they moved into selling more books via the Kindle device and app than their selling of paper books. I’ve always been a paper book fan, along with a hot drink in my hand to sip on. But realising where our world is headed, I decided to go ahead and make the switch. This is when I began looking into e-reader devices, especially the iPad. It is extremely nice having so many books available to you at once. Now if I could only find out if Amazon will do a deal where you send them your paper copy of a book and they give you a gift card to get the book electronically.

2. You Version Bible – This is probably the most popular free Bible app. It contains multiple translations that can be downloaded for free (albeit the NIV2011), even quite a lot from other languages.

3. PDF Reader – You can read PDF documents in the iBooks app, but I mainly use this app for reading PDF documents. This has now become helpful for me as I have begun using my iPad to preach from.

4. Pages (Mac’s version of Word) – This cost $9.99 and I didn’t use it much at first. But I have now begun to electronically journal a bit, switching back and forth between my Bible app and Pages.

5. Skype – With the Skype app now available in the iPad version, rather than only the iPhone/iPod version (though you could download it on the iPad), it is a very great tool for audio and video communication from either my home or office. And it’s very mobile and that’s a plus as I communicate with my family in the US so that I can show them the grandkids.

6. Google Translate – There are about 60 languages that you can translate out of and in to. The great thing is that it also has voice recognition for about 15 different languages. This is good for me as I am learning Dutch and will one day in the future take up French. The negative is you have to be connected to the internet via Wifi or 3G.

7. Dropbox – A helpful app to transfer files from my Macbook Pro to my iPad (though iCloud will take care of that soon).

8. Dish Network – This allows me to watch my parent’s television from Belgium and do it in a mobile way. And I never disturb them if they are also watching their television. Technology today!

9. Short URL – Turns long URL’s into short ones in a very quick way.

10. Vimeo – Maybe the Mac version of online videos. Just always feels nicer and cleaner than YouTube (though I still use YouTube).