Netflix/LoveFilm
Free
If you’re a real video streaming fan, you’ll want to check out the Netflix and LoveFilm services. For well under £10 a month, they give you unlimited streaming of a giant collection of movies and TV episodes.
Both apps are free to download, but service-wise, LoveFilm is the cheaper of the two. It costs £4.99 a month, while Netflix is £5.99 a month. Netflix offers tonnes of great TV shows, though, so we recommend flicking through the selection before making a decision. Both offer free trial months too.
Movies with Flixster
Free
The greatest app for quickly checking out the latest movies and whether they’re any good, Flixster is the official partner of the Rotten Tomatoes movie review site.
Aside from seeing what the critics think, the Flixster app also lets you check out movie times, and watch trailers. It even lets you build up your own “want to see” list, although it works best as a quick-fire way to judge whether you should see film X by David Cronenberg or film Y starring Adam Sandler at a moment’s notice.
IMdB
Free
For a little more in-depth information than Flixter can provide, you need IMdB. This is the official app of the IMdB website, the internet movie database.
As the title suggests, it’s absolutely packed with reams of information, from the names of movie runners to trivia about films’ casts. This is the go-to app if you just can’t quite remember the name of that David Duchovny film from back in nineteen ninety something. Also it’s a star for pub quiz questions.
TuneIn Radio
Free (Pro edition 69p)
For the last couple of years at least, TuneIn Radio has become the only internet radio app to download. Its interface is great, it offers access to thousands and thousands of station and has a free version.
Real radio fans should consider the 69p Pro version. This lets you record, pause and rewind stations too – features you rarely get in internet radio apps. Both versions are AirPlay compatible too, letting you use an audio device with a bit more clout than the iPad mini’s internal speakers.
Dropbox
Free
If you want to access files on your iPad mini without having to plug into iTunes all the time, Dropbox is an excellent solution. With a PC, you can turn your Dropbox online storage into a virtual drive on your computer, which you can then drag and drop files onto.
These files can then be accessed through the Dropbox iPad app, through a simple list interface. It’s a free download, and you get a few gigs of free storage as standard with Dropbox, so there’s no reason not to give it a go.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
