这个假期，你堵住了你生活中的一个非常重要的漏洞——智能**和电脑之间的漏洞。无论是9.7英寸的iPad还是新的7.9英寸的iPad mini，你现在都拥有了这样一款设备，它不仅拥有出色的屏幕和快速的处理器，还能让你进入全球最好的应用商店之一。iOS应用程序商店拥有数量惊人的优秀应用程序和游戏，但在众多选择中很难找到最好的。当然，你应该下载Facebook、Twitter和Kindle；你早就知道了。这里有一堆很好的应用程序，让你更进一步-在你头扎进应用程序商店，从这些开始(你还应该看看我们为iPhone新用户提供的应用程序列表，因为很多应用程序都有iPad的等价物。）在你还没消化完圣诞晚餐之前，你就已经是iPad专业人士了。

Flipboard

The iPad’s good at a lot of things, but reading is its true forte. More specifically, reading your news feeds, flipping through links your friends have tweeted, and finding out what’s happening in the world. Flipboard’s clean, simple interface makes it the best way to read just about anything, and if you spend a few minutes customizing your sources from the free app’s long list of opti***, it becomes a near-perfect one-stop news shop on your iPad.

Paper

The App Store has drawing apps everywhere you look, but none come close to being as good or as fun as Paper. It has a number of different tools you can use to draw, plus an incredible color picker that makes it feel like you’re actually standing in front of an easel and mixing pigments. It’s an incredibly fun app whether you’re Picasso or can’t draw a straight line to save your life, and you’ll be amazed what it helps you create. Paper is free to get started, but you can also pay for more brushes, colors, and features.

Tumblr

Tumblr only released its free iPad app this month, but it’s already become one of our favorite ways to use the service. Hook it up to a Bluetooth keyboard and you have a great blogging engine; if you’re the take-pictures-with-your-tablet type, it’s an easy way to upload photos. Plus it’s a clean, simple way to browse all of the insanity and creativity on the network.

Instapaper

Reading on your computer is an ugly, uncomfortable experience — so don’t do it. Use Instapaper instead. The $4.99 app does one thing and does it well: it strips all the ads and clutter from an article, and downloads it to your tablet so you can read it from anywhere. Even offline. It’s perfect for catching up on reading in bed, on the subway, or while you’re begrudgingly spending time with your family this week.

Star Walk

Next time someone says “put down your iPad and go outside!” just open up Star Walk. It’s a gorgeous, fun $2.99 stargazing app that lets you point your iPad at the sky and learn about whatever you’re looking at. (There’s even a night mode, so you can still see the sky and not just the iPad’s screen.) You can find out what the sky looked like centuries ago, find c***tellati***, and figure out for sure if what you’re looking at is a planet, a star, or a UFO. (It’s probably a UFO.)

Magic 2013

It’s Magic: The Gathering, on your iPad. And it’s free. What else is there to say about Magic 2013?

Netflix / Hulu Plus / Amazon Instant Video / HBO Go

There’s a pretty good case to be made that Apple already makes a TV, and you just got it as a gift. If you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu Plus, or Amazon Instant Video, there’s a great free iPad app with almost everything you want to watch. Odds are good your cable provider has an app, too, whether it’s Time Warner or Comcast or Verizon. Plus, if you’re an HBO subscriber HBO Go offers a huge catalog of shows and movies from the network.

Kingdom Rush HD

A word of warning: don’t download this game if you’re actually inclined to spend time with your family this week, or if your family’s inclined to spend time with you. Kingdom Rush HD is a $2.99 tower defense game that starts simply — you shoot down bad guys trying to get into your land — but quickly turns into a wild strategy game in a gigantic world. We’ve spent many a night playing Kingdom Rush when we should have been sleeping, but hey, our world remains safe from intruders.

Fayve

So you’ve downloaded a half-dozen apps for watching movies and TV — and now you want to watch a little Breaking Bad. Instead of digging through every app to see what’s available, just open up Fayve and search through the free app. It searches through plenty of subscription services and online sources (plus iTunes, if it’s not available anywhere else), and then with one tap takes you to what you want to watch — no matter where it is.

Fab

If you’re a designer, are into design, or just like things that are pretty, prepare to get lost in the world of Fab. It’s a deals site that mixes elements of Groupon, Gilt, Etsy, and a handful of other sites, but basically it’s just a huge database of awesome and cool-looking things. Whether you’re buying or just window-shopping (so to speak), it’s a really fun, free app.

Day One

The iPad's a really good focused writing tool, and it's helped a few Verge staffers keep journals much more reliably. Day One is the best journaling app, hands down. You can write entries, save URLs or photos, or even use calendar entries — it's as simple or complex as you want it to be. You can also set a passcode for the app, so you can freely hand your iPad to your friends without worrying about divulging your secrets, and it syncs to your iPhone or Mac as well. Day One is $4.99, but it's also one of our favorite apps; it's totally worth the price.