Dear PropellerHeads: I just received an iPad for my birthday and, well... I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. Any ideas?

A: Just strut around looking cool. That is pretty much what I do. I mean, I don't really do anything other than waste a lot of time playing Angry Birds thinking that most people looking upon me and my iPad must be really jealous.

When you first fire up an iPad, it looks strikingly like the iPhone, but with a much larger screen and no way to make a phone call. It comes with all the basic features: Web browsing, email, contacts list, calendar, note taker, camera, music and video player, Google Maps and YouTube. What more could you possibly need?

In my mind: Everything! I can do all of this already, and more, on my smartphone. So why the iPad? After playing with mine awhile (my wife would say I play with it too much), I've come to realize that the iPad doesn't do anything a smartphone can't, but it does certain things better because of that much larger screen.

What can it do better? WRAP. Wstuff, Rstuff, Afriends with stuff and Pstuff. OK, I admit it. I just came up with that one. You can shake my hand later.

I bet your next question is why not use a netbook or a laptop? Well, then you are just lugging around all that extra weight and heat. Yes, heat! You know how many times I nearly burned myself while using a laptop in bed? Those items just aren't as mobile as the iPad is, nor as sexy.

OK, so I may have convinced you that the brand-new iPad you are holding is actually worth something. Now let's get you started with some applications you can get by going to the App Store. And since I'm cheap, all of these will be perfectly free.

In the "watching stuff" category, if you have subscriptions to Netflix, HBO and ESPN, there are specific apps for those content providers which will allow you to view some of their content free on your iPad. For the rest of us, you might look into Crackle and SnagFilms. Crackle, like Netflix, has a limited selection of free movies you can stream. I found the quality to be low on the few I tried out. SnagFilms specializes in documentaries.

In the "reading stuff" category, you can get the e-reader that empowers iBooks and Kindle. Naturally, although the apps are free, you need to pay for the books you want to read. Comic books look absolutely gorgeous on an iPad. Marvel has a free app, but again you'll need to pay for the pleasure of an issue of X-Men. Use CNN to keep up with the news. The Daily gets rave reviews and it does have an amazing interface, but I found the content a little too tabloid for my tastes. Pulse is a good RSS reader.

Amazing your friends should be a lot easier just by the presence of an iPad. Friendly and Twitter provide free apps for Facebook and Twitter. TextNow sets you up with a phone number so you can both send and receive text messages on your iPad. Add in Skype and you basically just made your iPad into a really large iPhone. Dragon Dictation sounds like a really good idea, and it works really well for about the first 10 words, but then it starts speaking Engrish.

Of course, what better time-waster is there than playing games? Angry Birds certainly has caught all the attention lately and this comes in all sorts of editions, many for free. If you like to blow stuff up, I find Demolition Master thoroughly enjoying. Harbor Master makes you appreciate how tough that job must be. And for those with a more historical bent, look into Empire Story.

Install some of these and I can guarantee you'll find it hard to put that new iPad down. That's a wrap!

When the PropellerHeads at Data Directions aren't busy with their IT projects, they love to answer questions on business or consumer technology. Email them to questions@askthepropellerheads.com or contact us at Data Directions Inc., 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116. Visit our website at www.askthepropellerheads.com.