iPad
J.D. Biersdorfer
Beijing | Cambridge | Farnham | Köln | Sebastopol | Tokyo 6th Edition
iPad: The Missing Manual, Sixth Edition
By J.D. Biersdorfer
Copyright © 2014 J.D. Biersdorfer. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.
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Editor: Peter McKie
Production Editor: Kristen Brown
Illustrations: Katherine Ippoliti and J.D. Biersdorfer
Indexer: Julie Hawks
Proofreader: Marcia Simmons
Cover Designer: Karen Montgomery
Interior Designers: Ron Bilodeau and J.D. Biersdorfer
May 2010 First Edition. April 2011 Second Edition. November 2011 Third Edition. April 2012 Fourth Edition. November 2012 Fifth Edition. November 2013 Sixth Edition.
Revision History for the Sixth Edition:
2013-11-06 First release 2013-12-02 Second release
See http://oreil.ly/ipad6E_tmm for release details.
The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. iPad: The Missing Manual and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media, Inc., was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. Adobe Photoshop™ is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc., in the United States and other countries. O’Reilly Media, Inc., is independent of Adobe Systems, Inc.
Image on page 23 appears courtesy of Logitech. Image on pages 2, 4, 5, and 45 appear courtesy of Apple, Inc. Image on page 215 appears courtesy of GameCase. Image on page 70 appears courtesy of Novatel Wireless. Images on page 361 appear courtesy Apple (top) and Griffin Technology (bottom).
Contents
The Missing Credits
. . .x
Introduction
. . .xiii
CHAPTER 1
Set Up Your iPad
. . .1
Meet the iPad . . . 2
Meet the iPad Mini . . . 4
Turn the iPad On and Off . . . 6
Find the Home Button and Cameras . . . 7
Activate and Set Up Your iPad Over WiFi . . . 8
Activate and Set Up Your iPad via USB . . . 10
Sync Your iPad with iTunes . . . 12
Tour iTunes . . . 14
Charge the iPad Battery . . . 16
Extend Battery Life . . . 17
CHAPTER 2
Tour Your Tablet
. . .19
Use the Home Button . . . 20
Use the Mute/Lock and Volume Buttons . . . 21
Connect Through iPad Jacks and Ports . . . 22
Add Earbuds and Earphones . . . 23
Your Home Screen Apps . . . 24
Organize Your Home Screen Icons . . . 26
Navigate Multiple Home Screens . . . 27
Make Home Screen App Folders . . . 28
Switch or Quit Open Apps . . . 29
Keep the iPad Screen Clean . . . 30
CHAPTER 3
Interact with Your iPad
. . .33
Finger Moves for the iPad . . . 34
Use the Standard iPad Keyboard . . . 35
Play Slideshows on Your iPad . . . 308
Play Slideshows on Your TV . . . 310
Change the iPad’s Wallpaper . . . .312
CHAPTER 16
Back Up and Sync Your Gadgets with iCloud
. . .315
Set Up iCloud on Your iPad . . . 316
Set Up iCloud on Your Computer . . . 318
Using iWork with iCloud on the Web . . . 320
Stream Photos with iCloud . . . 322
Share Your Photo Stream . . . 324
Using Shared Photo Streams . . . 326
Lock Up Passwords on iCloud Keychain . . . 328
APPENDIX A
iPad Settings
. . .331
Tour the iPad’s Settings . . . 332
APPENDIX B
iPad Troubleshooting and Care
. . .349
Troubleshooting Basics . . . 350
Reset Your iPad . . . .351
Download iTunes and iTunes Updates, and Reinstall iTunes . . . 352
Update Your iPad’s Software . . . 354
Use iPad Backup Files . . . 355
Start Over: Restore Your iPad’s Software . . . 356
Find a Missing iPad . . . 358
Protect Your iPad From Theft . . . 360
Protect Your iPad From Damage . . . 361
Find an iPad Repair Shop . . . 362
AppleCare—What It Is and Whether You Need It . . . 363
About the Author
J.D. Biersdorfer (author) is the author of several O’Reilly books, including the first five editions of this book; iPod: The Missing Manual; Best iPhone Apps, Second Edition; and
Netbooks: The Missing Manual. She’s been writing the weekly computer Q&A column for The New York Times since 1998 and also writes the Applied Reading column on literary apps for The New York Times Book Review. Over the years, she’s written articles for the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design, Budget
Travel, and Rolling Stone. J.D. can be heard each week on the Pop Tech Jam audio podcast at www.poptechjam.com. She has a degree in Theatre & Drama from Indiana University. You can reach her by email at jd.biersdorfer@gmail.com.
About the Creative Team
Peter McKie (editor) has a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University. In his spare time, he digitizes historic photos of his summer community. Email:
pmckie@oreilly.com.
Kristen Brown (production editor) is a graduate of the publishing program at Emerson College. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and an incredible amount of books and board games. Email: kristen@oreilly.com.
Julie Hawks (indexer) is a teacher and eternal student. She can be found wandering about with a camera in hand. Email: juliehawks@gmail.com.
Marcia Simmons (proofreader) is a writer and editor living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She’s the author of the book DIY Cocktails, and you can find her blog at www.marciaisms.com.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank David Pogue for getting me into the book business back in 2002 and for being a terrific editor on our mutual projects over the years. Also thanks to editor Peter McKie for making sense of things during the mad scram-ble, and to all the Missing Manual folks at O’Reilly Media—especially Kristen Brown, Monica Kamsvaag, Ron Bilodeau, Jamey Harvey, and Frank Deras for the custom iPad photography gracing these pages.
Big thanks to Mac guru Alan Yacavone for sharing his knowledge on all things Apple. Katherine Ippoliti’s graphics work in past and present editions also deserves a shout-out, as does Phil Simpson for his wonderful iOS fonts.
And thanks to the friends who don’t get offended when I go into the deep, dark Deadline Zone, and to my family (especially and most importantly, my partner Betsy Book) for putting up with me during the long hours in the writing corner with The UK 1940s Radio Station streaming forth from the Web.
—J.D. Biersdorfer
The Missing Manual Series
Missing Manuals are witty, superbly written guides to computer products that don’t come with printed manuals (which is just about all of them). Each book features a handcrafted index.
Recent and upcoming titles include:
Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mavericks Edition by David Pogue
Dreamweaver CC: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland and Chris Grover
OS X Mavericks: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
HTML5: The Missing Manual, Second Edition by Matthew MacDonald
Photoshop Elements 12: The Missing Manual by Barbara Brundage
Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual by Lesa Snider
Office 2013: The Missing Manual by Nancy Connor, Matthew MacDonald
Quickbooks 2013: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
WordPress: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
Introduction
APPLE ANNOUNCED THE ORIGINAL iPad on January 27, 2010, and the consumer technology world hasn’t been the same since. Customers rushed to buy the tablet, snapping up more than 300,000 the day it went on sale. Competitors rushed to copy it, with Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Motorola, Amazon, and others creating their own variations on the app-friendly touch-screen device.
In the fall of 2013, Apple released the fifth generation of the iPad, a slimmed-down full-size version dubbed the iPad Air, and the second version of its smaller sidekick, the iPad Mini, now with a super-sharp Retina display. Building on its success with the iPads that came before, this latest set of iPads bring zippier processors, lots of free Apple software for work and play, and the bright new iOS 7 operating system to the table.
Apple has now sold 170 million iPads. So why has the tablet proven so popu-lar, even among its increased competition? One theory: The world has shifted to an online and on-the-go lifestyle. Tablets and smartphones are outselling traditional computers, and a thin Internet-connected device that can expertly handle communications, entertainment, and school/business tasks—and look extremely stylish to boot—is going to be a winner.
Apple embraced this “post-PC” world in 2011 with the arrival of its iCloud service. You don’t have to connect your iPad to your computer to set it up, fill it up, or back it up anymore. Your iPad can be your primary window to the Internet for work, play, and cat videos—no bulky laptop needed, because you’re living in an airy ecosystem where all your stuff is safely online, Up There if you need it. Even your music, videos, and ebooks await you in iCloud. And thanks to the 475,000 third-party tablet-specific apps available, the iPad can move beyond being just a platter that serves up media and Web content. In fact, it can pretty much be whatever you want it to be.
About This Book
The small card that Apple includes with each iPad is enough to get your tablet up and running, charged, and ready to frolic on the Web. But you probably want to know more about all the great things it can do and where to find its coolest features. This book gives you more iPad info than that wee card. It’s neatly orga-nized by task and topic, and it has nice big color pictures.
About
→
These
→
Arrows
Throughout this book, and throughout the Missing Manual series, you’ll find sentences like this: “Tap Home→Settings→Wallpapers & Brightness→Choose Wallpaperand then tap the photo you want to use.” That’s shorthand for a longer set of instructions like this: “From the iPad’s Home screen, tap the Settings icon to go the Settings screen. On the Settings screen, tap Wallpapers & Brightness and then, on the screen that appears, tap Choose Wallpaper. On the next screen, tap the photo you want to use.” Our shorthand system keeps things snappier than these windy instructions do, and get you cruising on your iPad more quickly.
The Very Basics
You’ll learn how to interact with your iPad using its touchscreen in Chapter 2, but you need to be familiar with a few desktop computer terms and concepts, too, so you can use iTunes, the iPad’s media manager:
• Clicking. To click means to point the arrow cursor at something on the screen and then to press and release the button on the mouse (or laptop trackpad). To
When you’re told to Ctrl+click something on a Windows PC, or C-click
something on the Mac, you click while pressing the Ctrl or C key (both of which you can find near each computer’s space bar).
• Menus. The menus are the words at the top of your screen: File, Edit, and so on. Click one to make a list of commands appear, as though they’re written on a window shade you just pulled down.
• Keyboard shortcuts. Jumping up to menus in iTunes takes time. That’s why you’ll find keyboard quickies that perform the same functions sprinkled through-out this book—Windows shortcuts first, followed by Mac shortcuts in paren-theses, like this: “To quickly summon the Preferences box, press Ctrl+comma (C-comma).”
Master these techniques and you’ll have all the technical background you need to enjoy iPad: The Missing Manual.
About MissingManuals.com
This book helps you get the most out of your iPad. As you read through it, you’ll find references to websites that offer additional resources. Each reference includes the site’s URL, but you can save yourself some typing by going to this book’s Missing CD page at http://missingmanuals.com/cds/ipadmm6e/.There, you’ll find clickable links to the sites mentioned in this book.
The Missing CD page also offers corrections and updates to the book. To see them, click the View Errata link. You’re invited to submit corrections and updates yourself by clicking “Submit your own errata” on the same page. To keep this book as up to date and accurate as possible, each time we print more copies, we’ll make any confirmed corrections you’ve suggested.
While you’re online, you can register this book at www.oreilly.com/register. Registering means we can send you updates about the book, and you’ll be eligible for special offers, like discounts on future editions of the iPad Missing Manual.
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• Activate your iPad or
iPad Mini
• Wirelessly sync media to
your tablet
• Use iTunes to manage your
iPad’s contents
• Charge up the iPad’s battery
• Stretch battery life
SINCE ITS ARRIVAL FEWER than four years ago, Apple’s tablet com-puter has been adopted by millions of people, and adapted in countless ways, including as a gaming arcade, a laptop substitute, and a battery-powered media machine that can both play—and make—movies. In November 2013, the fifth version of the 10-inch iPad, now dubbed the iPad Air, hit the scene. The second generation of the popular iPad Mini also arrived, bringing with a faster processor and, best of all, a Retina display that made everything on its 8-inch screen look twice as sharp as the screen on the original 2012 Mini.
Whether it’s showcasing your vacation photos, plotting your position on a 3D map, or describing faraway lands in travel apps like 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, an iPad can whisk you away to new worlds. But before you can take off with your new tablet, you need to set it up for the first time, learn a few basic controls, charge its battery, and stock it with media. That’s where this chapter comes in.
It’s said that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. So let your first step be setting up your new iPad. To do that, turn the page.
CHAPTER
1
Meet the iPad
THE FIRST IPAD APPEARED in the spring of 2010, and the tablet’s been so popular that Apple has updated it four times since, making the screen sharper, the processor faster, and the syncing more seamless. Apple debuted the iPad 2 in 2011. The third- and fourth-generaton iPads, released in March and November 2012 respectively, sported the high-resolution Retina display. And that fall 2012 release saw the debut of the iPad’s little brother, the original iPad Mini.
In October 2013, after 170 million iPads had been snapped up around the world, Apple introduced its fifth-generation full-size tablet, called the iPad Air, the lightest, fastest iPad yet, available with a black or white front. That same day, Apple added the super-sharp Retina display to the iPad Mini (skip to page 4 to read about the Mini’s capabilities).
While older iPad models still float around eBay, Apple and other outlets sell four tablets as new these days: the iPad Air, the iPad 2 (an entry-level option at a lower price), the original Pad Mini, and the Pad Mini with Retina display.
The iPad Air vs. the iPad 2
So what’s the difference between the two larger models, the iPad Air and the iPad 2? Basically, it’s a matter of screen and
speed. The fifth-generation iPad sports a robust A7 proces-sor, an M7 motion coprocessor that handles accelerometer and compass duties, a high-definition Retina display with a thinner frame around the screen, and a 5-megapixel back camera. This iPad can record video at 1080p resolution with the rear camera and at 720p with the front FaceTime camera; both resolutions qualify as high-definition. The Air is available in four storage capacities: 16 gigabytes (GB), 32 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB. All four iPads come in either WiFi-only or Wi-Fi + Cellular models. Cellular-capable iPads can get online through zippy 4G LTE networks when there’s no WiFi signal around.
The iPad 2, on the other hand, cruises along on a slower A5 processor and has a screen that’s half the resolution of the Retina display, though it’s still crisp. It has
a rear camera with around 1 megapixel of resolution for still photos (which isn’t very sharp), but it can record video at a resolution of 720p. The iPad 2 is only available with a 16 GB drive, but it comes in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models; the latter gets online via a wireless network or by tapping into the slower 3G cellular networks from AT&T or Verizon. With its more modest specs, the
iPad 2 is the cheapest 10-inch iPad, but it still runs the apps and media in your life.
What’s In the Box
No matter which iPad you bought, big or small, you get the same components inside its glossy white box. Beyond the tablet itself, here’s what awaits you when you shred the shrinkwrap:
• A white USB cable. The Retina display iPad and the Mini use the smaller Lightning connector on one end, while the iPad 2 uses the big Dock Connector plug.
• A square-shaped USB power adapter for charging the iPad’s battery.
• A little card of basic quick-start information that’s not nearly as fun or as colorful as this book.
NOTE If you have a Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile) or an iPad with 3G
service from AT&T, you’ll find a tiny piece of wire that looks like a paperclip stuck to the pamphlet that came with your iPad. This highly technical piece of gear serves one purpose: to open the micro-SIM card tray on a 4G/3G iPad (Verizon iPad 2 models don’t use SIM cards). You insert the pin into a tiny hole on the left edge of the iPad to pop open the tray. SIM cards (short for Subscriber Identity Module) store information about your cellular account. The Mini’s card is so tiny it’s called a
Meet the iPad Mini
WHEN THE ORIGINAL IPAD debuted in 2010, Apple executives said the 10-inch screen and general form factor worked best for the tablet experience and that the company had no plans to make a smaller model. Still, that didn’t stop the rumor blogs from speculating that a smaller iPad would eventually come along— especially as 7-inch tablets from Amazon, Google, and Samsung began to take a big chomp out of Apple’s tablet market share and juicy profits.
Finally, after years of rumors, leaks, and blogger wishes swirling around every press conference, Apple announced a smaller version of the iPad in October 2012. The new model was officially dubbed the iPad Mini and it went on to snag 60% of total quarterly iPad sales in its first year, according to some analysts.
The Mini was a hit, and the thing people most wished for—a sharper screen—was granted in November 2013, when the Mini with Retina display landed.
In a way, Apple’s broadened iPad line repeats the company’s history with its iPod music players. The original player arrived in 2001, and then, in 2004, Apple released a smaller version called the iPod Mini. That Mini did pretty much every-thing the regular iPod could do, all while being smaller and more colorful.
Just as the iPod Mini ran the same operating system, played the same music, and had the same buttons and switches as its big brother, so does the iPad Mini. This smaller iPad runs the same internal software (iOS 7), plays all the same media files and apps, and has the same arrangement of buttons, ports, and switches as the iPad Air.
iPad Mini with Retina Display vs. the Original iPad Mini
The iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina display (Apple’s formal name for it; its friends call it Retina Mini) have almost identical internal parts. The main differ-ence between iPads big and small is the precise screen size, which, for those with rulers, happens to be 9.7 inches for the Air versus 7.9 inches for the Mini.
Like its Air-y older sibling, the Retina Mini also burns up the airwaves with an A7 processor, the M7 motion coprocessor (designed for handling data from move-ment-oriented games and fitness apps), and the latest WiFi technology for the peppy wireless-network connections. The new Mini also comes in four sizes that fit varying amounts of your digital stuff: 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB.
The original Mini, on the other hand, has more in common with the iPad 2 in terms of processor power and screen technology. Both run the older dual-core A5 chip, and neither has a Retina display. The original Mini, still for sale as the cheapest ticket to iPadWorld, now only comes in the 16 GB size, but it’s still a great starter iPad, especially for kids.
Like the latest iPads, both Minis use the smaller 8-pin Lightning connector port, have the same FaceTime HD front camera and 5-megapixel rear camera for high-def video (Chapter 14), and offer the Siri personal assistant software (page 40). And you get to choose between a white or black Mini.
Like the big iPads, the original Mini and Retina Mini come in a Wi-Fi model for use with wireless networks, and in a more expensive Wi-Fi + Cellular model that lets you jump online through the same 4G LTE data networks that smartphones use. The Minis work with all four major U.S. wireless carriers, too. Chapter 4 explains all the ways to get online with your iPad, no matter its size.
Make no mistake—the smaller size and lighter weight of this petite iPad (less than seven-tenths of a pound) is huge for many people. The Mini’s size makes it easier to tote around and that, coupled with its lower price, means it’s a more attractive option for students and people who need to stay online but want something bigger than a smartphone screen, yet smaller than the regular iPad.
Turn the iPad On and Off
THINK OF APPLE’S IMAC, iPhone, and iPod Touch. In addition to starting with the letter “i,” all these products are sleek gadgets with a minimum of buttons to disrupt their smooth skin. The iPad family is no exception.
Run your finger along the tablet’s top edge and you’ll find a small thin button on the right (circled). It’s got a long name: On/Off, Sleep/Wake.
Here’s what it does:
•
It turns the iPad off and on. To turn your iPad off completely—so that it gobbles no power at all—press and hold down this button until you see an on-screen prompt (’ slide to power off) asking you to confirm your request. Touch the arrow, and slide your finger along the screen from left to right. If you’re not going to use your tablet for a few days, this total shutdown is the way to conserve as much battery life as possible.To turn the iPad back on, press the On/Off button for a second or two, until you see the Apple logo. After a minute or so of boot-up gyrations, you’re back in business.
•
It puts the iPad to sleep and wakes it up. Press the button briefly to turn off the iPad’s screen and put it in power-saving Sleep (standby) mode. To wake the iPad from its power nap, quickly press the Sleep/Wake button again. (You may also need to wake your iPad if you leave it untended for more than a few minutes, because it goes to sleep all by itself to save power. (To change its nod-off settings, see page 338.)Whenever you turn your iPad on or wake it from its electronic slumber, you end up on a locked Home screen (unless you have one of Apple’s Smart Covers; see page 361). To get to the iPad’s goodies, swipe your finger along the slider in the direction of the arrow. Why does the Home screen lock itself? Because on a touchscreen device, one unintended tap when the iPad is in your briefcase or bag can turn on a pro-gram without you knowing it, and poof, there goes that battery charge.
Find the Home Button and Cameras
THERE’S ONLY ONE SWITCH on the front of the iPad: the Home button (circled below). This round, gently indented switch sits in the bottom-center of the iPad’s black or white picture frame (known as a bezel in geek-speak). You’ll probably use this button more than any other in your iPad adventures.
Front Camera
The Home button may seem like a humble little control, but it has a wider range of powers than you might expect. Page 20 gives you the lowdown on its ver-satile role, which changes depending on what screen you’re on and how many times you press it. For now, though, think of the Home button as another way to wake up your iPad—gently press it to wake a sleeping tablet.
Every iPad (except the original model) comes with two tiny cameras built into the tablet’s front and back. The camera on the front, which looks like a small pin-hole, is smack dab in the middle of the bezel’s top edge. This is the camera you use for FaceTime chats and wacky Photo Booth self-portraits (Chapter 15).
The rear camera is, naturally, on the back of the iPad. It’s the small round lens below the Sleep/Wake switch. You use it to take still pictures and shoot vid-eos—which you can then edit right on the tablet. See Chapter 14 for more about videos, and Chapter 15 for details on snapping still shots with the iPad.
NOTE The iPad 2, third- and fourth-generation iPads, the iPad Air, and both iPad Minis
Activate and Set Up Your iPad Over WiFi
BEFORE OCTOBER 2011, IPAD OWNERS had it rough. To set up their tablets so they could move music and other media from their computers to their slabs, they had to link the two with a USB cable, and then use iTunes to broker the deal (see the Note opposite for a summary of iTunes’ role in the iPad’s life).
Those were the old days. Owners of brand-new iPads can rip open the Apple packaging, flip on the device, and set it up wirelessly, without having to go through iTunes. (You do, however, need a WiFi network nearby. If you don’t have one, learn how to set up and sync via USB cable on page 10.)
Here’s how you set up your iPad—providing, of course, the tablet retained its charge on the trip from China (if power is running low, see page 16):
1. Press the iPad’s Home button. You see a “Hello” screen witha right-pointing arrow under it that says “slide to set up.” Put your finger on the arrow and slide it to the right.
2. Tap the language you want the iPad to use for screens and menus. “English” tops the list for U.S. iPads, but other choices fill the rest of the screen.
3. Pick your country or region. The United States is the default, but if you’re not there, pick from the list underneath.
4. Choose your WiFi network. If you’re at home,
find your personal network in the list, tap it to select it, and then type in your network’s password. (If you’re in range of a public network, you can connect to the Internet, but, for security’s sake, be leery of typing in any personal information to set up an iTunes account, like a credit card number.) When the iPad connects to the Internet, it takes a few minutes to activate itself through Apple’s servers.
5. Decide whether you want to turn on Location Services. Location Services lets the iPad physically locate you using its built-in GPS or WiFi signals. It’s great for the Maps app, but not so much for your privacy. If you leave Location Services off now, you can turn it on later by tapping Home→Settings→Privacy→Location Services→On.
iPad’s backup files, either on iCloud or in iTunes. Restoring a previous iPad’s files to your new iPad transfers the settings and content to your new tablet, leaving you with little else to do. If you chose Set Up as New iPad, carry on.
7. Create an Apple ID. Now you’re asked to sign in with or create an Apple ID. Your Apple ID (page 168) is the user name and password you use to buy apps, music, books, videos, and podcasts from the iTunes and App Stores. If you already have an Apple ID, sign in with it here. If not, tap “Create a new Apple ID” to go to the next screen, where you can base your new ID on an existing email address or set up a new—and free—iCloud account (see below). If you don’t want to deal with this now, tap Skip This Step.
8. Set up iCloud. On this screen, you can turn on Apple’s free iCloud service, where you can back up all your apps, contacts, calendars, and more to Apple’s online servers—and restore them later. (Chapter 16 covers iCloud.)
9. Configure apps and services? Decide if you want to use the Find My iPad service (for lost iPads; see page 358) and the Messaging (page 130) and FaceTime apps. You’re prompted to set up a four-digit passcode on your iPad to lock the screen, but you can decline. You can turn on the Siri assis-tant (page 40) now as well.You can also opt to share anonymous iPad diag-nostic info with Apple. On the next screen, register your iPad with Apple so they have a record of it. Finally, when the Thank You screen appears, tap the “Welcome to iPad” button. You land on the iPad’s Home screen, where you can see all its built-in apps. Page 24 tells you what each of those does.
10. Set up your email account. You can compose, send, and receive email on your tablet, but you first have to introduce your iPad to your email account(s) or sign up for a free iCloud account. (If you have an account associated with an old Apple ID, the iPad automatically adds it.) Later, in Settings→Mail, Contacts, Calendars, you can easily set up accounts for most major email services, like Gmail and Yahoo. To add an account from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) like Comcast or RoadRunner, you may need to get the account info from your ISP. Chapter 6 covers email.
NOTE You don’t need iTunes to set up your iPad, but it can be command central for
Activate and Set Up Your iPad via USB
AS LONG AS YOU have a wireless Internet connection within reach, you can get your iPad set up, activated, and working like a charm—all without connecting it to a computer. But if you don’t have a WiFi connection nearby—or if you want to set up your tablet through iTunes because you have a lot of music and movies, and USB transfers go faster than WiFi transfers—setting up and activating your iPad by way of iTunes still works. Your computer just needs a ‘Net connection.
To activate your new iPad with iTunes, you need to:
1. Install iTunes 11.1 on your Windows PC or Mac. Apple’s media manager (and portal to its online stores) is free. If you don’t have iTunes on your computer already, point your web browser to www.itunes.com/downloads. Make sure your computer meets the requirements listed, and then click Download Now. When iTunes lands on your computer, double-click the installer to set it up. (If you already have iTunes on your computer, make sure you have the latest version. In Windows, go to Start→Apple Software Update; on a Mac, go to A→Software Update.)
2. Use the iPad’s USB cable to connect the tablet to the computer. Plug the Lightning or Dock Connector end into the matching jack on the bottom edge of your iPad. Plug the small, rectangular end into an available USB 2.0 (or later) port on your Windows PC or Mac.
If you’ve had an iPad connected to this computer before, iTunes offers to set up the tablet as a new iPad or restore the content from a previous iPad backup. If you want to start with a fresh, empty tablet, pick the first option. To transfer all your stuff from a previous iPad onto this one, pick the second option. Then click Continue.
4. Activate, register, and sync your iPad. Once you decide how you want to set up your new tablet, iTunes takes over. It walks you through the activa-tion and registraactiva-tion process, signing up for an Apple ID (page 168), and selecting the content you may already have in iTunes that you’d like to copy over to your new iPad. iTunes 11 doesn’t automatically copy the contents of your library over by default, but you can dump everything there if you want to by following the directions on page 245—or you can selectively move music, videos, apps, books, photos, and more over to the tablet, as page 246 explains.
Don’t want your iPad to be chained to the computer every time you want to sync with iTunes? See page 12 to find out about wireless syncing.
Sync Your iPad with iTunes
EVEN IF YOU ACTIVATED and set up your iPad over WiFi and didn’t come near your Windows PC or Mac during the process, iTunes is still your iPad’s buddy. It’s the program you use to organize your music, video, apps, and other content on your iPad or iPad Mini.
Syncing your iPad with iTunes doesn’t mean you’re going to be forever lashed to the computer with a USB cable. Thanks to wireless syncing, the cord has been cut! Well, not physically snipped, but, you know, made mostly unnecessary.
Why “mostly”? Because even if you set up wireless syncing, there are at least two occasions when you need the USB cable that came with your iPad. The first is so you can plug the iPad into your computer to turn on iTunes Wi-Fi Sync in the first place. The second, covered in Appendix B, is when you need to fully reinstall the iPad’s system software.
To sync your iPad wirelessly, your computer and iPad need to be on the same WiFi network. That means that you can’t sync the iPad from a hotel WiFi net-work in Philadelphia when your laptop is back home on your kitchen counter in Pittsburgh. And if your home network is a mix of WiFi and wired Ethernet connections, you can usually get iTunes to sync either way—with a computer wirelessly connected to your home network or with one connected via Ethernet cable—as long as the wired machine is part of your WiFi network.
You can now sync content between iTunes and your iPad whenever both devices are on the same network and iTunes is open on your computer. You can tell your iPad is set for wireless syncing because its icon remains in the button bar at the top of the iTunes 11 window—even after you unplug the USB cable.
If you’re set for manual syncing (page 246), you can add songs, videos, and other content to your iPad by dragging the files onto iTunes’ iPad icon, no mat-ter where around the house you left the tablet.
Although syncing and backup occurs automatically at least once a day, you can manually fire off a syncing session from either the computer or iPad:
•
On the computer. Start iTunes if it’s not open, click the iPad icon at the top of the window, and then click Sync atthe bottom of the next screen. When you do, iTunes acts as if it had a USB connection and syncs away. You can see the syncing progress in the status window at the top of the screen.
•
On the iPad. Tap Home→Settings→General→iTunes Wi-Fi Sync→Sync Now. The iPad’s screen (right) shows your syncing progress and offers a Cancel Sync button if you change your mind.
Even if you accidentally click the Eject button (E) next to the iPad icon in the iTunes window and disconnect the two, the icon returns when you restart iTunes or sync from the iPad.
If you decide wireless syncing isn’t for you, you can always reverse course. In iTunes, turn off wireless syncing by turning off the Wi-Fi sync checkbox (circled on the opposite page).
USB or Wi-Fi Sync?
While iTunes Wi-Fi Sync is incredibly liberating, it’s not always the best way to move your stuff around. As previously mentioned, you need to cable up if you want to sync when iTunes and your iPad aren’t on the same WiFi network. Also, your WiFi network may be slow or overloaded, and the trusty USB cable is just plain faster—especially when you have a lot of videos to copy over.
Tour iTunes
ITUNES NOT ONLY LETS you decide which songs, books, and videos from your computer end up on your iPad, it also helps you keep your iPad’s internal soft-ware up to date, shows you how much space you have left on your tablet, and lets you change your music, video, and podcast syncing options.
When you connect your iPad to your computer, it shows up in the row of but-tons along the top of the iTunes window. Click its icon to go to the iPad’s own screen full of controls, as shown below. Like the main iTunes window, the iPad’s settings screen has a row of clickable tabs along the top of the window. Each tab lets you control a different kind of content, like music or books.
You start out on the Summary tab, whose screen tells you:
!
Your iPad’s storage capacity and its serial number.@
Whether your iPad has the latest software on it (and if you’re having prob-lems with your iPad, you get the chance to reinstall the software).#
Whether you set the iPad to back up its settings and data to iCloud or to your computer, and how that happens (page 355 has more on iPad backup).iPad, or whether you’d prefer to update the iPad’s contents manually, so you can specify what goes on it. Other boxes iTunes offers in the Options area let you convert large song files to smaller ones so they don’t hog space, choose standard-definition videos over their heftier HD counterparts, and configure the Universal Access features for visually and hearing-impaired iPadders. Don’t want to be chained to iTunes by a USB cable every time you want to sync? The Options area also includes a setting that lets you sync your iPad over a WiFi connection (see page 12 if you skipped that part).
%
To see what’s on your iPad at the moment, click the button at the far right of the top of the screen, logically called On This iPad. iTunes lists your iPad’s media libraries along the left side of the window. Click a category name, like Music or TV Shows, to see all the items of that type residing on your iPad. Any playlists you made and added to the iPad appear in the list as well. (Chapter 12 has information on making and adding playlists to your tablet.)ÿ
The On This iPad screen also shows the different media types filling up your tablet. This info comes in the form of a bar at the bottom of the window, as shown below. Here, iTunes color-codes your media types (blue for audio, purple for videos, and so on) and reveals the space each takes up using the appropriate color in the bar. Move your mousecursor over a color segment to see a box of media stats that lists the number of items you have and the amount of drive space they take up.
So that’s what you find on the Summary and the On This iPad tabs. Later in this book, you’ll learn how to transfer different types of media to your iPad using iTunes’ other tabs, and how to watch, listen to, and read that media on your tablet.
For example, Chapter 13 is all about playing your favorite music on the iPad, Chapter 14 covers syncing and playing videos, while Chapter 16 explains copying your photos from computer to iPad (which makes a great handheld picture frame to show off your shots).
Charge the iPad Battery
MANY APPLE DEVICES SHIP with enough power to run for a short while. But as you poke and prod your new gadget, that charge won’t last long, so you’ll want to get the iPad connected to a power source to refill its battery. You can charge your iPad in one, maybe two, ways:
•
Charge by AC adapter. Look! Another charger for your collection! Both the iPad and the Mini come with a little square AC adapter ready to keep your tablet charged up. It has a USB port on one side and a plug on the other. To boost your battery, plug the flat end of the iPad’s USB cable into the cube’s USB port. Then plug the cube’s pronged end into an electrical outlet.Hitch up the USB cable’s Lightning connector (Dock Connector on the iPad 2) to the bottom of your iPad and charge away. (Older, smaller adapters from iPhones and older iPods may work if you turn the iPad screen off to direct the full stream of juice to the iPad’s battery, but their low flow will likely charge the iPad much more slowly than its native adapter.)
•
Charge by computer. Unlike iPhones and iPods, charging the iPad over your computer’s USB port isn’t a sure thing anymore. While USB ports on some newer computers—like late-model iMacs—have enough juice, many older ones don’t. To see for sure, grab the USB cable and plug your iPad into your computer’s USB port. If you see a “Not Charging”message in the top corner of your iPad (right), you know the port is underpowered. (The USB port will probably “trickle charge” if the iPad screen is off, but very slowly.)
You can fully gas up your iPad in only a few hours. It displays a battery out-line that fills up with green power as you recharge. A smaller, black-and-white battery icon up in the iPad’s status bar displays a lightning bolt along with the battery’s current charge (as a percentage of its total charge).
Extend Battery Life
APPLE POSTS VARIOUS RECOMMENDATIONS on its iPad website to ensure a longer battery life for hard-working iPads:
•
Don’t expose your iPad to extreme hot or cold temperatures—keep it between 32 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. (In other words, don’t leave it in a hot, parked car, and don’t expect it to operate on Mt. Everest.)•
Use your iPad regularly (not that you wouldn’t). And be sure to charge it at least once a month to keep that battery chemistry peppy.•
Put the iPad to sleep to save power (press the Sleep/Wake button.)•
Take the iPad out of any heat-trapping cases before you charge it up.•
Manually close any apps you’re not using, as described on page 29.•
Dim the screen when you don’t need it at total brightness (see page 340).•
When you see the Low Battery icon or message, plug your iPad into anelec-trical outlet using the AC adapter. The iPad battery indicator shows roughly how much charge the battery has left.
•
Jumping around within your media library can drain your battery faster, as can apps that stream content, like radio shows and live TV. Since these all take their toll on the battery’s power, too, use them sparingly if you’re low on juice.• Use the Home button to
navigate your tablet, switch
apps, and control music
• Connect your iPad through
jacks and ports
• Tour the iPad’s apps
• Organize apps with multiple
Home screens and folders
AS A NEW IPAD owner, once you get past the tablet’s setup screens and installing iTunes (if needed), the thrill of exploration and discovery can really begin. That’s where this chapter comes in—it guides you through the iPad’s physical controls and describes its built-in apps.
A full-size iPad comes with just a few switches and buttons. The iPad Mini, despite its smaller size, has the same arrangement of controls. No matter which model you own, you’ll learn what each button and switch does, and pick up tips and tricks for making them do more.
By contrast, your tablet comes with a lot of apps (20, to be exact), all neatly laid out across the Home screen (see opposite). You’ll learn what each program does and where to go in this book to find out more.
Finally, since you’ll have your fingers all over the iPad’s screen as you tour your tablet, this chapter winds up with some advice for keeping that gor-geous screen clean and the iPad itself intact as you take it with you on all your tablet-toting adventures. And speaking of adventures, turn the page to start learning about your iPad.
CHAPTER
2
Use the Home Button
AS YOU MAY RECALL, you met the iPad’s round Home button (æ) back in Chapter 1, when you set up your slab. But how the Home button behaves really depends on what screen you’re on—and how many times you press it:
• One click, anywhere. Press the Home button once and it takes you Home— back to the iPad’s main screen, where you’ll find all your apps. If you’re running an app and want to launch another one, click the button to return to the Home screen, where you can tap the new app open. You could be waist-deep in a Keynote presentation, for example (page 226), and want to watch an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Press the Home button to close Keynote (and automatically save your file) and go back to the main iPad screen, where you can tap the Videos icon to get to your shows.
• Double-click with an app open. While your iPad displays only one program at a time, it can run several apps at once, a process known as multitasking. The Home button is your ticket to switching among these active apps (flip to page 29 for more). To leave the multitasking screen and return to the single open app, press the Home button again.
Use the Mute/Lock and Volume Buttons
THE BUTTONS ON THE right edge of every iPad mute your alerts, lock your screen in vertical or horizontal orientation, and control the audio for music and other apps that make noise. Here are the buttons, from top to bottom:
Side Switch. The small black nub on the iPad’s right edge does one of two things, and it’s your call. Out of the box, it’s a Mute button that silences the iPad’s audio alerts when you slide it down (until you see an orange dot). Slide the button up to restore your alerts.
If you don’t need a Mute but-ton, you can turn the switch into a screen-orientation lock that keeps the iPad’s display in either vertical or horizontal view so the screen doesn’t spin around as you move about. To lock the screen, press the Home button, tap Settings→General→“Use Side Switch to,” and choose Lock Rotation. Choose Mute to go back to the way things were.
If you use the side switch to mute your iPad, you lock the
screen’s orientation by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to get to the Control Center (page 152). There, tap the Screen Orientation Lock (m). If you use the switch to lock the display, you mute the iPad by tapping › in the Control Center or by turning the volume all the way down, as described next.
Volume.Press the top part of this switch to increase the volume of the iPad’s speaker (or your earbuds, if you’re wearing them; see page 22). Press the bottom half of the switch to lower the volume. The iPad displays a little volume graphic so you can see where you are on the Relative Scale of Loudness.
Side Switch
Volume up
Connect Through iPad Jacks and Ports
WHILE THE IPAD’S INNARDS are full of state-of-the-art electronics, the outside isn’t complex at all—just four buttons (On/Off-Sleep/Wake; Volume; Side Switch; and, discussed on page 20, the Home button). The outside of the iPad sports two jacks so you can plug in cords. Here’s what you do with ’em:
!
Headphone jack. Although it doesn’t come with its own set of headphones, as iPhones and iPods do, the iPad does offer a headphone jack on its top-left edge. You can plug in any pair of earbuds or headphones that come with the standard 3.5-millimeter stereo miniplug. The next page has more on that.@
Lightning Port or Dock Connector. The flat port on theiPad’s bottom edge is called the Lightning port on iPads and Minis released after October 2012, and the Dock Connector on older iPads, including the iPad 2. You plug the provided USB cable in here to connect your iPad to your computer for battery-charging, as well as for music, iBook, and video fill-ups from your iTunes libraries (unless you decide to go with the Wi-Fi Sync option described on page 12). When buying accessories for your iPad, like external speakers and AV cables, make sure you get equipment that fits the port your iPad uses—or that you have an adapter handy. As you can see below, the Dock Connector (top) is much bigger than the petite Lightning port (below), so shop accordingly.
NOTE
Add Earbuds and Earphones
WANT TO LISTEN PRIVATELY on your iPad? Back in the old days, the only headphones you could get came with a cord attached, and those still work just fine. But if you want to free yourself from wires while you lay back, relax, and lis-ten to a Bach cello suite, get a pair of Bluetooth stereo headphones that connect wirelessly to the Bluetooth chip inside your iPad. Then, your only entanglement will be mind with music.
Here’s how you get either type of headphone to work on the iPad:
•
Wired. Pretty much any pair ofhead-phones or earbuds with the ubiquitous 3.5mm stereo plug fits the iPad’s head-phone jack. (Why, yes, you can use the familiar white earbuds from your iPod if you want.) Just be sure to push the plug firmly into the jack so it fully connects.
•
Bluetooth. When you shop for stereoBluetooth headphones, look for those advertised as A2DP; they’re designed to play back music in stereo. To get them to work, you need to pair your headphones with the iPad. (Pairing means introducing two Bluetooth devices so they can communicate with each other; you only have to do this the first time you use the two together.)
The headphone manual tells you which button to push on the ’phones to pair the two. As for the iPad, start on the Home screen and tap Settings→Bluetooth (or Settings→General→Bluetooth in iOS 5). Then tap Bluetooth to On. The iPad looks around, and once it finds your earphones, it lists them by
name. If the headphones require a passkey (listed in the manual), the iPad keyboard appears so you can type it in. Once paired, the iPad screen says
Connected next to a headphones icon, and the audio now plays over your wireless headset.
TIP On some Bluetooth headsets, a small transceiver plugs into the iPad’s headphones
Your Home Screen Apps
ONCE YOU ACTIVATE YOUR iPad, you’ll see 20 icons waiting for you in neat rows on the Home screen. They’re the programs that come free with your new iPad. These two pages tell you what each one does, and where you can find out more about it. So, using Apple’s default placement, and starting at the top-left corner, here’s what you’ll see:
FaceTime. Want to make a video call just like they do on the bridge of the USS Enterprise? The FaceTime app lets you videochat and make audio calls with pals on iOS devices. Page 72 explains how.
Calendar. As you may suspect, this is the app to tap when you need to check your schedule, make an appointment, or look up a date. Get the lowdown on page 138.
Photos. The iPad (especially the latest models with the high-defini-tion Retina display) is great for showing off your digital pictures. This app keeps them organized, as Chapter 15 explains.
Camera. Since the iPad 2 first arrived in 2011, all models include a front and back camera, and this app controls both. See page 294 for info on taking still photos, and page 282 for more on shooting videos.
Contacts. This app serves as your iPad’s address book—and it can even pull in the contacts file on your desktop computer so you don’t have to retype everything. See page 142 for details.
Clock. The Clock app lets you check time on the iPad instead of killing it with other apps. You get not one clock, but four (see page 146). The clock’s Home screen icon shows the current time.
Maps. When you need driving directions from Philadelphia to Provincetown—or you just want to look up an address—Maps is the app for you. Page 156 tells you how to use this electronic atlas.
Videos. This app organizes and plays all your iPad’s movies, TV shows, and other videos. Chapter 14 is all about keeping yourself visually entertained.
Reminders. Have a nagging feeling you need to do something or want to make sure you don’t forget a chore? Keep track of all your tasks on the iPad’s handy to-do list. Page 148 has more.
Photo Booth. If you need a quick profile picture for your Facebook or LinkedIn page—or need to entertain the kids for an hour—tap open Photo Booth to snap creative selfies. See page 297 for more.
Game Center. Since it arrived in 2010, the iPad has become a popular videogame console, but you don’t have to play alone; tap Game Center to find games and friends. See Chapter 10 for lots more.
Newsstand. Scores of magazines and newspapers come in digital editions just for the iPad. The Newsstand app keeps them all orga-nized. See page 198 for instructions.
iTunes. Tap this shiny purple icon, and your iPad transports you right into Apple’s online emporium for all kinds of digital entertainment, including music, videos, games, and books. See page 240.
App Store. When the time comes to get yourself some cool new apps for your iPad, tap this bright blue beacon to go directly to Apple’s App Store and start shopping. See Chapter 8 for details.
Settings. Tap here to go to the controls that let you customize and adjust your iPad. This book discusses app settings when it describes the iPad’s programs, but you get full descriptions in Appendix A, too.
Messages. Use the Messages app to send free text messages to others using iOS 5 (or later) on their iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches, and compatible Macs. Get details on page 130.
Mail. Set up one email account—or several—and keep connected with your correspondents right on your iPad. Find out how to configure and use the Mail app in Chapter 6.
Safari. When you feel like doing a little old-fashioned online surfing, tap here to fire up Safari, the iPad’s window to the Web. Chapter 5 is all about Safari.
Organize Your Home Screen Icons
WHEN YOU GET FAMILIAR with all the built-in apps that come with your iPad, you may find yourself wishing you could put them in custom formation so you could, for example, find your most-used apps more quickly.
Luckily, Apple makes it easy to rearrange the icons right on your iPad. (You can also shift icons around in iTunes, as page 174 explains). Here’s what you do:
1. Press your finger down on an icon for a few seconds, until all the icons start wiggling.
2. As shown below, use your finger to drag the app’s icon to a new location. Existing apps will slide over to make room. Drag the icon to the edge of one screen to move it to the next or previous page of your Home screen; the opposite page tells you more about that.
3. To delete an app, get it to wiggle (see step 1 above), and then tap the ˛ in its top-left corner. Page 171 has more on deleting apps.
4. Press the Home button to stop the Dance of the Icons.
Navigate Multiple Home Screens
ONCE YOU START ADDING apps to your iPad, you may find the Home screen a little crowded. Fortunately, the iPad lets you have more than one of ’em—in fact, you can have 11.
To navigate among Home screens, flick your finger across the iPad’s surface. The small white dots at the bottom of the screen (circled above) indicate how many Home screens you have and which one you’re on.
Once you start buying apps, you may find yourself filling up those 11 screens pretty quickly. If you don’t want to delete any apps, you can put them in folders. Turn the page to find out how.
TIP Need to find an app on a crowded screen in a hurry—or just have so many apps
Make Home Screen App Folders
EVEN WITH A GENEROUS 11 Home screens, some app-loving folk can quickly fill them all with icons. In addition, some people might prefer a tidier way to group their apps, rather than dragging them around to different pages.
That’s where Home screen folders can make everything better. You can group as many apps as you want in a single folder—which looks like an icon with little icons nestled inside it (right). Putting apps in folders saves screen space and keeps common ones corralled.
To create a folder, press and hold an icon until it wiggles, and then drag it on top of another icon that you want in the same folder. A text box appears with a generic name for the folder. You can keep this name, or type in one of your own, like “Kid Stuff” (for apps that keep the children busy at the IHOP). Once you set up a folder, you can move more apps into it. Tap outside the folder to close it.
To get to an app inside a folder, press and hold the app’s icon until it starts to wiggle and drag it on top of the folder. Obviously, if you have a folder with more than nine apps inside, you can’t see them all at once, but see those dots above? Just as with Home screens described on the previous page, the dots mean there are more pages you can swipe through to get to the app you want.
If you change your mind and want to pull an app out of a folder, press the folder to expand it, then press the app’s icon to start the Wiggle Dance. Now you can drag the app out of the folder and dump it back on the Home screen proper.
Switch or Quit Open Apps
PUTTING APPS IN FOLDERS helps organize your iPad, but it doesn’t save you a lot of time when you’re in the middle of one app and want to switch over to another one real quick—like if you’re reading your email and want to nip out and turn on the Pandora radio app while you shovel out your Inbox. Who wants to go all the way out to the Home screen for that?
Fortunately, the iPad has a shortcut: Click the Home button twice. When you do, the multitasking screen (below) appears.
A row of miniature windows displays your currently running apps—with the app icons just below the mini-screens. You can swipe along the apps with a finger. Tap an app window (or its icon) to quickly switch to it. Turn on Pandora, check your sports scores, or whatever. When you finish, double-click the Home button again to return to your previous screen.
In addition to letting you switch apps or see what you have open, the multitask-ing screen also lets you force-quit misbehavmultitask-ing apps (like the App Store if it’s stuck in an app-downloading loop) or programs you suspect might be consum-ing power.
Keep the iPad Screen Clean
NOW THAT YOU’VE HAD your iPad tour, you probably realize that there’s one part of the gadget that’s very, very important to the whole tablet-computing experience.
Yes, like the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad and iPad Mini’s glass touchscreen is the main way you communicate with the slab. Each time you surf the Web or send some email, your fingers tap, slide, and flick across its smooth surface. Do this sort of thing on a normal piece of glass and you end up with a smudged and sticky window, gunked up from finger grease, moisturizer, and whatever else you have on your hands.
Thanks to a special coating (explained in the Note on the opposite page), the iPad’s screen tries to repel fingerprints. But with enough use, even that has its limits; your screen begins to look like a small child has been eating glazed doughnuts and touching your iPad repeatedly—with both hands. Here’s what you should—and shouldn’t—do to keep your iPad screen fresh and clean.
• For smudges and smears on the glass, wipe the screen gently with a soft, lint-free cloth—the kind you use to clean a flat-panel TV screen, camera lens, or pair of glasses.A microfiber cleaning cloth is shown below.
• If the rest of the iPad gets schmutzed up, a quick cleaning session can return its shine.To buff it up, turn it off (page 6) and unplug it from any docks or USB cables. Then take a lightly water-dampened lint-free cloth and wipe down the iPad’s back and sides. Be careful not to slop water into openings like the headphone jack, Lightning port, Dock Connector, or speaker grill. Then wipe your slab down with a dry lint-free cloth.
Protecting the iPad’s Screen
The iPad screen is scratch-resistant, but it could break if you accidentally bounce the tablet off a concrete floor or have some other gravity-related mishap. If disaster strikes and you crack or chip the screen, don’t use the iPad or try to pry out the broken glass. Put it in a box or wrap it up to prevent glass shards from falling out, then take it to your nearest Apple Store or authorized Apple service provider for repair. Appendix B has more on iPad care and repair.
To protect your iPad as much as possible, both from accidental drops or even bouncing around in your shoulder bag alongside house keys, sunglasses, and loose credit cards, consider getting a case for it. Accessory makers have come up with a huge selection, from stately leather portfolio models to neon-colored rubber shells meant to jazz up your iPad or Mini while helping you keep a firm grip on the thing.
When considering a case, think about how you plan to carry and use your iPad. If it’s going to ride along in a backpack, a sturdy padded pouch may be more protective than a thin leather binder-type cover. Page 361 has tips on the type of cases available and where to buy them.
NOTE Apple describes the iPad’s screen as having a “fingerprint-resistant oleophobic
• Control your iPad by touch
• Use keyboard shortcuts
• Have Siri execute commands
and take dictation
• Cut, copy, paste, and
spell-check text
• Beam files with AirDrop
• Print your files
THESE DAYS, YOU FIND touchscreens everywhere: on ATMs, plane- and train-ticket kiosks, and even in some fast-food joints. So the iPad’s touch-screen—full-size or Mini—is pretty familiar territory for most of us.
But using an iPad takes more than just touch. You tap, you flick, you swipe, you double-tap, you drag, you press-and-hold. Which motion you make and when you make it depends on what you’re trying to do. And that’s where this chapter comes in.
Over the next few pages, you’ll learn how to do the digit dance so your iPad responds to your every command. And what could be easier or more direct than entering text into apps like Mail and Notes simply by talking? Yes, the latest tablet even handles dictation thanks to Siri, the iPad’s vir-tual assistant, which can do a whole lot more than type for you.
You’ll also pick up a few keyboard shortcuts here, learn how to find stuff fast on your iPad, and find out how to wirelessly share and print files you’ve been working on—yes, you can send them through the air from your iPad Air. So square your shoulders and get those fingers limbered up by turning the page.
CHAPTER
3
Finger Moves for the iPad
THE “BRAIN” BEHIND THE iPad—its operating system—is smart enough to respond to a series of very different touches. The ones you make depend on what you want to do. Here are the moves:
• Tap. Take the tip of your finger and lightly press an icon, thumbnail image, song title, or control you see on-screen. The iPad isn’t a crusty old calculator, so you don’t have to push hard; a gentle touch does the trick.
• Drag. Keep your fingertip pressed down on the glass and slide it to go to dif-ferent places on the screen. That’s how you pan around a photo, for exam-ple, and adjust the Pad’s volume slider. A two-finger drag scrolls a window within a window, like the floating window that pops up over your Facebook screen when you call up your Friends list.
• Slide. A slide is like a drag, except that you use it almost exclusively with one special control—the iPad’s Unlock/Confirm
button, which sits in a “track” that guides your slide as you wake your iPad from sleep or confirm a total shut-down.
• Flick. Lightly and quickly whip your finger up or down the screen and watch a web page or song list whiz by in the direction of your flick. The faster you flick, the faster the screen scrolls by. In a photo album, flick side-to-side to see your images parade triumphantly across the screen.
• Finger spread and pinch. To zoom in on part of a photo, document, or web page, put your thumb and index finger
together, place them on-screen, and then make a spreading motion across the glass. To zoom out, put your spread fingers on-screen and pinch them together.
Use the Standard iPad Keyboard
THE IPAD HAS NO physical keys—unless you buy the optional keyboard (see page 45). A virtual keyboard, therefore, is the traditional way to enter text.
The iPad’s keyboard pops up when-ever you tap an area of the screen that accepts input, like the address bar of a browser, the text area of a new email message, or a search box.
To use the keyboard, just tap the key you want. As your finger hits the glass, the white target key flickers to a darker gray.
The keyboard works in portrait (vertical) mode, but it’s roomier in landscape (horizontal) view. You can also split the keyboard in half to thumb-type, as on a smartphone keypad; see page 44. The W button (circled above) hides the keyboard. The keyboard has a few other special keys:
1. Shift (L). When you tap this key, the normally clear arrow turns blue (L) to show it’s activated. When you see the blue arrow, the next letter you tap appears capitalized. Once you type that letter, the L key returns to normal, signalling that the following letter will show up in lowercase.
2. Backspace (
V
). This key deletes in all kinds of ways: Tap it once to delete the letter just to the left of the blinking cursor. Hold it down to delete repeat-edly, zapping each letter as you go. Finally, hold it down a bit longer and delete entire words instead of just letters.3. Punctuation/Numbers (
„
). Tap this button to insert punctuation or num-bers. The keyboard switches from alphabet mode to a grid of numerical and grammatical symbols. Tap the same key—which has now become —to return to the alphabet. (Happily, there’s a faster way to get a number or symbol—touch and hold the„
key, and then drag your finger to the character you want.)4. Obscure Characters (
=
). When you switch to the numbers/symbols keyboard, a new keyboard button—=
—appears. Tap it to invoke a thirdkeyboard layout, which offers more obscure characters, like the # and % symbols, bullets, and brackets.
iPad Keyboard Shortcuts
AS YOU’VE PROBABLY DISCOVERED by now, the iPad keyboard has to get a bit creative to fit all the keys you need on that small patch of glass. But face it, when you’re trying to finish an email message, jumping around between keyboard layers to find an ampersand or apostrophe gets old fast. To help balance economy and efficiency, Apple built in a number of keyboard shortcuts and tricks.
slash and the colon—not that you need them since merely typing cnbc and pressing the Go button takes you to http://www.cnbc.com. Not going to a
.com address? Press and hold the . (period) button to get your choice of .us,
.edu, .net, .org. Slide your finger over to the one you want and then tap Go.
• Instant apostrophes. The iPad fills in the apostrophe in many contractions, so if you type cant, the tablet corrects it to can’t.
• Bad aim. Finger on the wrong key? If you haven’t lifted your digit off the screen yet, slide it over to the correct key and let go.
• Punctuation. The iPad’s press-and-slide trick works in a couple of other places as well. Need an apostrophe instead of that comma key on the main keyboard? Press the comma key and slide. Need an ampersand but don’t want to tap all the way into the
„
keyboard? Press the„
key and slide over to the character without taking your finger off the keyboard—or having to switch back to the ABC keyboard.• Accented characters. Need an accented letter, say an é instead of a plain old e? Press and hold the e character to reveal a whole bunch of accented choices. Slide your finger to select the one you need. This trick works on most letters that take accent marks.
TIP If you don’t look at the text on-screen as you merrily type along—and therefore don’t
