It's here, it's in your hands, and if you're even more hardcore, you're probably surfing our website in mobile Safari on your iPad 2 right now. Doesn't it feel wonderful in your hands? Whether you're a second-generation adopter or this is the second iPad to join your family, there are still a few free apps out there you may not have considered. In this special edition of Free App Friday, we're got a couple of free apps you want to ensure are installed on your new toy.

Friendly Facebook for iPad

Since there is no native app for Facebook on the iPad, this is one of the best free apps available for navigating the social networking giant. The app enables you to swipe through your friends photos, use Facebook chat, upload your own albums and allow you to switch between Facebook accounts.

Weather HD Free

There are plenty of free, high powered weather service apps for both iOS devices, but it's nice to look at a pretty weather report once in awhile, without it screaming at you that it's gonna rain. Weather HD shows you the weather forecast in high definition video, leaving you with a true impression of what the weather outside is like.

Pulse News Reader

This app rocks. It's free, it displays a horizontal feed of your favorite sites and you can easily digest all of the internet's content in one handy, beautiful-looking app. To read a story, just tap the article in the feed and it'll open within the app. You can also peruse news stories as you're reading another article, and share stories with your friends via Facebook and Twitter, or add it to Instapaper for later reading. The app looks wonderful on an iPad and it totally makes you want to come home and catch up on your RSS feeds.

Graphic.ly

Comics look absolutely amazing on the iPad's high definition display. If you're an avid comic book fan, Graphic.ly's cross platform application is like the Kindle for comic books and graphic novels. Graphic.ly includes titles from major publishers like Marcel, Top Cow, Omni and BOOM!, and there's a social networking element where you can chat with other comic readers and share your opinions  The reader itself is free, though you'll have to pay for the comics.

Dragon Dictation

Typing on the iPad is all fine and dandy, but if you'd rather just talk to your tablet device it might make things a little easier. Dragon Dictation enables you to dictate status updates directly to Facebook and Twitter and write notes to yourself. It'll be just like one of those scenes where the protagonist is narrating what they're writing in their diary…except that it's really happening.

Follow this artlcle's author, Florence Ion, on Twitter.