I posted my 2012 iPad Essentials (excluding games) in March this year when the iPad 3 came out. Since then, the iPad 4 and the iPad mini have launched. Surprisingly enough, the early 2012 essentials (excluding games) have changed very little:

New Additions

• The Magazine - Technically not an app, The Magazine is a brilliant new take on how a magazine should work, with great writing on a wide variety of interesting topics.
• NetBot - Joins TweetBot at the top of my most popular apps page. I trust you will all join App.Net and follow me there as @hiltmon. I find the level and depth of conversation on App.Net so much better than Twitter.
• 500px - to show off my very best pictures. Better go out and take some more.
• Paper by Fifty Three - has become my go-to drawing and scratchpad app, it’s unique take on pens and color is amazing. I find myself spending more time in design just because this app creates such good looking sketches.
• Tweet Library - to save old tweets that did not make it into DayOne via Slogger.
• Pinbook - to access my links saved on Pinboard.
• Diet Coda - for writing code and fixing up static web sites, replacing Textastic.
• Pythonista - to help me learn Python programming.
• iStat 2 - To remotely view the performance of my servers.
• Quotebook - For quickly saving great quotes I find while reading.

Updates

• Day One - has become more important as I now use Slogger to record daily social network interactions, site stats (my own plugin) and stock prices.
• 1Password - great makeover of the best password manager in existence.

Old Favorites

• OmniFocus - for all my to-do and project needs. One of my top-5 must have tools.
• Reeder - For RSS.
• Instapaper - for offline reading of saved articles.
• Soulver - A better calculation tool, using it more and more for project estimation.
• Elements - (back to it) to view and create notes, and write, replacing Byword.
• TextExpander - I just wish more apps used its expansions.
• iBooks - I still read almost everything in the iPad.

Still There

• FlipBoard - for more news.
• Zite - for even more news.
• Facebook
• Keynote, Numbers and Pages - Just in case.
• xScope Mirror
• Prompt - for SSH access to servers in emergencies.
• Yojimbo

Removals

• Penultimate - replaced by Paper by Fifty Three.
• Skype - I use it on the Mac only these days.

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.