Editor’s Note: This was written way back in March 2012 with the launch of the iPad 3. For updates see 2012 Year End iPad Essentials.

The new iPad arrived yesterday. Instead of restoring from a backup, I decided to build it clean and install only essential apps. Here are the ones (excluding games) that made it in the first 24 hours, pretty much in order of addition:

• iBooks - I read a lot of ePub books on the iPad, and the new retina text rendering is so great.
• Instapaper - Essential tool to save, search and read long form writing found on the net. Use it to archive all the cool articles I find.
• TweetBot - The best twitter client out there, even better than my old favorite Twitterrific. Love the UI and the gap detection.
• Reeder - Lovely RSS reader, for all my news and technology feeds.
• FlipBoard - More news, from sources not followed in RSS.
• Zite - Even more reading material, should I run out of the above.
• Skype - For those who do not use Facetime.
• Facebook - Cause I gotta share.
• Keynote, Numbers and Pages - I have to iWork too. Most of my demos these days are on the iPad, and Keynote rocks.
• iMovie, iPhoto and Garageband - So I can create, or play, or annoy.
• OmniFocus - to keep me on track and remind me what I need to get done, synched across all my iDevices.
• DayOne - to remember what I did.
• Byword - to view and create notes, and write, replacing Elements for notes.
• Penultimate - scribble notes, or draw diagrams to support my points, it’s my scratchpad.
• xScope Mirror - to see how things look from the Mac.
• TextExpander - to share my expansions, especially for notes.
• Prompt - to get to servers when I need to, when Murphy’s Law strikes.
• Textastic - so I can edit code anywhere, this is my “Emergency: Break Glass” app after Prompt.
• Yojimbo - Key document and information backup.
• 1Password - Of course
• Soulver - A better calculation tool.

Of course, Mail, FaceTime, iMessage and iTunes Match were set up first.

Surprise dropouts (applications I though I would have loaded but did not):

• Boxcar - Notifications when something happens out there - I don’t need the interruptions any more.
• Readability - I’m an Instapaper man, I don’t need another.
• IMDB - Never used it, seem to Google first, yet it has been on my iPad since the original.
• OpenTable - I find myself calling restaurants directly instead of online booking these days, saves them money and I am more likely to get a table.
• MacGourmet - Never take the iPad into the kitchen, so I don’t need the recipes. The missus just found out I had this. Oops.
• StarWalk - I love this app, just never use it.

Note: The links above to the App Store are affiliate links, so if you purchase any of these products, I get a few pennies.

Follow the author as @hiltmon on Twitter or @hiltmon on App.Net.