Guide iPad

iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
iPad: A Magical and
Revolutionary Guide
By: James Bruce
http://ipadboardgames.com
Edited by: Justin Pot
This manual is the intellectual property of MakeUseOf. It must only be published in its
original form. Using parts or republishing altered parts of this guide is prohibited.
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4
2. Basic Interface ..................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Managing your Home Screen ..................................................................................... 4
2.2 Searching for specific items ......................................................................................... 6
2.3 Multitasking ..................................................................................................................... 6
2.4 Screen Rotation Lock: ................................................................................................... 7
3. Typing on the iPad............................................................................................................... 7
3.1 International Keyboards ............................................................................................... 7
3. 2 Quick Symbols ............................................................................................................... 8
3. 3 Copy and Paste ............................................................................................................ 8
4. Adding Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail Email Accounts: ............................................................ 9
Syncing Your Google Calendar and Contacts: .............................................................. 9
5.iTunes Sync .......................................................................................................................... 10
5.2 The easy way to manage your apps ........................................................................ 11
5.3 Add files to use in your apps ...................................................................................... 11
5.4 Converting Videos For Watching on the iPad ......................................................... 12
6. MakeUseOf iPad App Picks .............................................................................................. 12
7. Troubleshooting and Extending the Battery Life: .......................................................... 24
7.1 App Crashes ................................................................................................................. 24
7. 2 Wifi Problems ............................................................................................................... 24
7. 3 Getting the Most From Your Battery ......................................................................... 25
Wrap Up: ................................................................................................................................. 26
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
1. Introduction
The iPad manual from Apple is also a great compliment to this guide, feel free to
download it as well:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iPad_User_Guide.pdf
2. Basic Interface
everyone else, the home screen interface is the best place to start learning
exploring the settings. We wil assume default settings for most of this guide,
2.1 Managing your Home Screen
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Touch and hold on any icon on the home screen for about 3 seconds and the icons
wil al start wobbling. In this mode, each icon has an X in the corner, to quickly and
easily delete icons from your home screens. Apps deleted like this wil stil be stored in
your iTunes library, so to delete the app entirely do so in iTunes and sync your device.
the edge of the screen wil push you onto the next home screen.
up to 6 of your favourite apps to the main dock area too, or move the existing ones
As of iOS version 4.2 you can drag an application icon on top of another icon in
order to create a folder, or drag an application into an existing folder. Of course,
you can also rearrange the location of apps within a folder. If you have a lot of apps
that you really need one-click access to, just create a folder of essential apps and
add that folder to your main dock launch area.
The easiest way to manage your apps, however, is through the app tab of the iTunes
sync screen. You can read about this more in the iTunes Sync section of this guide.
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
2.2 Searching for specific items
If your home screens are often as disorganised as mine are, and you find yourself
with hundreds of apps or a badly organised media library, the easiest way to find
something instantly is through the Spotlight search tool. To access it, press the home
button and scrol across to the furthest home screen on the left. Just start typing in
the file, song, app name, contact or email that you wish to find, and the search
results are displayed instantaneously.
I often use this search function to quickly launch apps without searching across the
2.3 Multitasking
you click an Internet link or a mail link, you wil no longer need to shut down
are done, you can switch back by pressing the Home button twice quickly to bring
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
up the multitasking menu. The multitask menu can also be used to quickly dim the
display or control iPod functionality.
2.4 Screen Rotation Lock:
Locking the screen orientation of your iPad is essential for reading in bed and lazing
switch on the side of the iPad - next to the volume rocker - could used to do this
quickly and easily. In version 4.2 of iOS, Apple changed the switch so it behaved as
a mute button instead, choosing to move the screen rotation lock to a touch button
on the multitask menu. Understandably, users were distraught. In version 4.3, you can
choose the behaviour of this switch from the Settings screen.
3. Typing on the iPad
Since any typing you do on the iPad is on a smal keyboard and with no haptic
(touch) feedback, it wil take a while to get used to. With the device horizontal, I can
now type almost as fast as I can on a regular keyboard. Even so, there are a few tips
we can al learn to make typing on the iPad that little bit easier.
3.1 International Keyboards
If you need to type in another
language, iOS is remarkably wel
adapted
without
physical
limitations of real keyboards.
From the settings screen, select
an absolute life-saver in international
marriages, let me tell you! Switching
between
Chinese
handwriting,
Japanese romaji input system, and
foreign language, the natural handwriting keyboards are great for practising your
order correct for it to be recognised.
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
3. 2 Quick Symbols
For most people, the occasional accented letter is more than sufficient. For
languages based on the Roman alphabet, just hold down the base letter and
variants wil appear. The same also applies to quotations and other symbols.
3. 3 Copy and Paste
Selecting, copying and pasting items on the iPad is somewhat of a black art. Let us
easy when you know how.
Triple-tap a block of text to select all of
it - this wil grab the entire paragraph.
Double-tap to select a single word.
From here, you can adjust the
selection by dragging the blue tags to
expand or contact it.
To paste, hold your finger on the
screen until the magnifying area
appears. Carefully drag into the
desired position, and simply hit paste.
Finally, you need not bother using the
period key. Simply double tap the
space bar when you are done with
your sentence and your iPad wil automatical y add a period and begin a new
sentence. Also note that by default the first letter of any sentence is automatical y
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
4. Adding Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail
Email Accounts:
By default there are built in settings for Gmail and Yahoo to easily add your webmail
account to your iPad. From the settings screen, select Mail, Contacts, Calendar then
Add Account, select the account provider, and fil in your name and password.
in the same details, but there are no complicated settings or server addresses. If your
4.1 Syncing Your Google Calendar and Contacts:
Setting up your iPad to sync calendar and contact data with your Google account
is a little more difficult, but not impossible. Follow these steps:
Exchange
2. Type in your full Google email address for email, as wel as the same again for
username.
3. Leave the domain field blank, and fil in your password.
4. Press Next. A box labelled Server wil magically appear.
5. Enter m.google.com
6. Select the services you want to sync.
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
5.iTunes Sync
The iTunes Sync screen is a remarkably powerful tool that new iPad users tend to
overlook. Let me show you all the great things you can do with the iTunes Sync
screen to enhance and customise your iPad experience. Not an iTunes fan? Try this
iTunes alternative.
5.1 Manage your storage space
You actual y have a high degree of control over precisely what gets synced onto
music, the latest podcasts, some videos, all of your apps - but with a little
micromanagement of the storage area you set your iPad up to be even more useful
to you. With your iPad connected and recognised in iTunes, take some time to go
through each tab and personalise the content you real y want on your iPad.
For instance, I like to use my iPad to show family and visitors particular photo albums
favourites like wedding photos and vacations. On the other hand, I have an iPhone
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
5.2 The easy way to manage your apps
consuming. The easier way is to plug in your iPad and use the Apps tab of the iTunes
Sync screen. Just drag the icons around with your mouse. You can also drag the
icons from one screen straight on to another by dragging the icon to the preview of
your preferred screen on the right.
and double click it. iTunes wil show you where the app is currently placed.
5.3 Add files to use in your apps
Toward the bottom of the App sync tab there is a section devoted to apps that can
exchange files (such as Apple Pages, or various PDF and ebook reader apps). To
share a file with that app, simply click on the app name, then drag your files into the
box on the right, or select them manual y using the Add button.
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
5.4 Converting Videos For Watching on the iPad
later for streaming movies from your computer over WiFi, sometimes you find yourself
beforehand, then import it into iTunes.
downloaded and installed it, click the Source button to select the original file, then
select the iPad preset from the right hand sidebar. Hit the big start button to begin. If
movie, so you might want to add it to the queue, find more to convert, then convert
the entire queue overnight.
6. MakeUseOf iPad App Picks
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
are our personal favourites, with a quick screenshot and summary of what they do,
as well as a link to the app store where you can download them.
As ever all apps are free to download, so you can MakeUseOf them right away.
Whether you're viewing this guide on your PC or iPad, the links should take you
straight to the app store.
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
BBC News: My personal favourite for
unbiased news reports from the world over,
the app also features live streaming audio
and embedded video for most stories. You
can customise the news selection screen to
hide categories you have no interest in and
shuffle the important ones to the top. [iTunes]
Flipboard is a beautiful way to merge all your
news sources. The interface is ground
breaking, and it wil automatical y pul in the
Facebook and Twitter news stories, pictures
and videos that your friends are posting. You
can share, like, or reply from within the app.
[iTunes]. Check out the spin-off Surfboard, for
browsing webpages in flip-style.
MobileRSS HD Free: Whilst the free version is
ad-supported (not heavily, though), this app
syncs with your Google Reader account and
simply offers the best way to view your feed
items and share them. One particular
feature I like is the one-click image save
feature, and the choice of dark or light
Guardian Eyewitness: For those of you who
are more visual learners, this app from the
British newspaper The Guardian features a
stunning
high-resolution
everyday. Each image is meticulously
chosen to make you examine every part of
the detail, not simply flip to the next, and a
quick blurb explaining the context. [iTunes]
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
6. 2 Book and PDF Reading:
Stanza: A competent no-fril s PDF and e-book
reader, and my personal choice for reading
mostly anything on the iPad. The quick
brightness adjustment and text size make this
suitable for any time of day, and it handles
any format ebook file, including obscure
comic-book formats like CBR and DjVU. Add
books by iTunes, or browse the built-in library
of out-of-copyright works. [iTunes]
Bookman: [iTunes] For comic books and large
PDF files that are graphic intensive, Stanza just
faster PDF rendering engine, and the
thumbnail overview of PDFs is great for quick
iBooks reader, then you can always use these
tools to create your own iBooks to read on
Kindle: [iTunes] If you'd rather leave your book
purchases to Amazon, or are already a Kindle
owner, the Kindle app is your only choice. The
own iBooks, but do consider the new Barnes
kids, the Barnes and Noble Nook for Kids might
Kobo: A curious eBook app that claims to
have 1.8 mil ion free books (and not just
ancient classics, either) that tries to make
reading into a kind of game, with
achievements,
personal
dashboard,
Facebook sharing, and a page full of stats.
You can even set up a daily newspaper
deliver of your Instapaper clippings [iTunes].
Give it a go, I quite enjoyed it.
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6. 3 Drawing and Photo Apps
Draw for iPad: For the kids, Draw for iPad
offers a familiar crayon and paper interface,
and you can even draw co-operatively over
Bluetooth, and play some simple built-in
games like tic-tac-toe. Your kids can keep
their digital masterpieces forever, or email
Adobe Ideas: While the free version is limited
to one layer, this app is the ultimate
sketching tool for adults. Anything you sketch
is automatical y vectorized, so zooming in on
good if you have shaky fingers, as it removes
any imperfections when it renders your stroke
sketching up logo ideas or just doodling, you
can then save the results or email them as a
PDF. [iTunes]
Adobe
Photoshop
Express:
favourite photo editor has official y made it
simply the best photo editor the iPad has to
offer, and I applaud Adobe for making it
free. [iTunes]
Photobucket: Looking for inspiration? Sadly,
Photobucket then their iPad app is just
perfect, showcasing featured photography
or letting you search simply and view
that you could theoretical y get access to
some of the adult content. [iTunes]
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
6. 4 Blogging and Writing
PlainText: From the makers of Writeroom,
PlainText is a simple distraction-free writing
app that does exactly what it says on the box.
PlainText also syncs with your DropBox to
avoid file sharing issues, though this free
version is somewhat supported by ads (not
particularly intrusive ones, though). [iTunes] If
to check out these 3 great study aid apps
Wordpress: If you have a Wordpress.com or
self hosted blog, you can be blogging from
the official iPad Wordpress app in no time.
Though the WSYIWG editor is absent, and
inserting pictures and media is limited to either
to quickly draft up your ideas before
publishing them when you get home. [iTunes]
Evernote: While not strictly a writing-only or
blogging app, Evernote is an incredibly
competent personal data organiser with
options to include audio recording too, and it
all syncs with your Evernote account online
whole lifestyle choice, and some would say a
religion! Find out more at evernote.com then
download the app [iTunes].
Clockwork Notebook: [iTunes] A simple
notebook app within which is hidden lots of
advanced functionality, including
handwritten doodles, sticky notes, and an
undo button -al in one free package. If
ideas this is for you. Bakari also wrote an
extensive article on free iPad writing apps that
sure to read that too.
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6.5 Live TV and TV Guides
ABC Player: (US Only) Watch the latest
episodes of all your favourite ABC shows,
streaming
limited
certainly watchable. UK users should look
towards BBC iPlayer instead as even with a
US iTunes account it wil stil detect your ISP
location. [iTunes]
BBC iPlayer: (UK only) Though not strictly an
app, the BBC iPlayer site has been ful y iPad
optimized and all the current BBC shows
can be watched, streaming in HD, for free.
To get the full app experience, just click the
like an app and remove the Safari address
bar. [BBC iPlayer iPad optimized site]
TV Guide for iPad (UK): If you do stil insist on
watching the box live, this is the essential
free app for UK viewers. The interface is
gorgeous and functional, and it lists every
digital channel as wel as hooking into your
Sky account if you have one, and even
gives you a quick link to search BBC iPlayer
for past episodes if you need to catch-up.
Perfect! [iTunes]
Yahoo! Entertainment: For American users,
this seems to be the most popular app of
a little clunkier than the UK alternative and
the interface is certainly slower. If you know
a better one, let us know! [iTunes]
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6.6 Music and Streaming Media
myself, those of you with unlimited accounts
wil find you can not only manage your Netflix
queue, but stream movies in HD straight to the
iPad, with very little lag and simply superb
quality. Netflix was one of the first
professional y developed iPad apps that
why. [iTunes]
station that learns your preferences over time,
delivering new music it knows you wil love. If
track again! This app was the top free
download of 2010, so what are you waiting
for? [iTunes]
AirVideo Free: [iTunes] Though the free version
limits the number of files you can view in any
one folder, this app is simply amazing. With
the movie server software on your PC or Mac
setup, you can stream movies directly to the
iPad without ever having to care about
format issues -it wil basical y play anything
and re-encode on the fly so you can begin
watching immediately.
Soundhound and Shazam: These are both
pretty incredible apps that al ow you to
identify songs by recording a short clip, or
even by humming and singing with the
Soundhound app. When Nancy covered both
apps on MakeUseOf, she found it quite
difficult to decide between the two, so be
sure to read the ful article for the low down
on each app. [iTunes Shazam, SoundHound]
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6.7 Social Media
Tweetdeck: [iTunes] Hands-down the best
Twitter client for the iPad and the app of
identical to the desktop version and gives you
a nice 3-column customizable overview of your
latest tweets, direct messages, mentions, or
twitter searches. Anyone familiar with the PC
app wil have no problem. Find more iPad
twitter clients online here.
Friendly: Until Facebook releases it own official
Facebook client, Friendly seems to be the
client of choice for most. The free version is
unobtrusively ad-supported, and lets you do all
your essential Facebook functions much the
same as the actual website does, including
chat. Simple but effective. [iTunes]
AIM: Instant messaging fans need look no
further than the official AIM app. Looks great,
and free. No bells and whistles here, just simple
the app interfaces with Facebook chat.
break. [iTunes]
Gowalla for iPad: [iTunes] For social sharing
junkies, Gowalla is the ultimate location sharing
tool, where you can check-in, tweet and
the highlights of a new town too, and my wife
and I make sure to check-in whenever we visit
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6.8 Remote Control
TeamViewer HD: This remote viewing and
control app is simplicity itself. After
downloading, you get a quick address and
passcode, and you can connect. I use the
PC version of this app daily to oversee new
employees and occasionally give a helping
works. [iTunes] and teamviewer.com
Connect My Mac / PC: For local networks
app iRemoteDesktop Free [iTunes] let you
view and control your computer without any
with the Home edition of Windows 7. It uses
built-in Windows and OSX functionality, but
check out TeamViewer if you need cross-
platform support via the internet.
Wifi Touchpad HD Free: If you ever thought
how cool it would be to use your iPad as a
giant trackpad to control your Mac or PC,
then this app is for you. With both trackpad
your living media center and works over the
Wifi network, so no BlueTooth problems or
loss of signal after a few meters of distance.
[iTunes]
provides a great free remote that you can
use to control iTunes on your computer or
your Apple TV, from your iPad. The interface
problem navigating. Remember, this wil only
remote control iTunes on your computer so
the sound wil come out of your PC speakers
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
6. 9 Productivity and Business
Roambi: If charts and data visualisation are
your thing, Roambi wil give you visual
ecstasies you never thought possible. Just
upload an excel file to your free personal
online Roambi account, and the data wil be
transformed into interactive charts and
graphs on your iPad. Read more and sign up
at Roambi.com [iTunes], and be sure to read
our iPad business tools write-up too.
Dropbox: Sometimes simply emailing a file to
yourself is enough, but for everything else
the cloud, which syncs with your local
computer. While you can't edit the files, it is
simply the easiest way to view basic
nearly al the major text, spreadsheet and
presentation file formats. [iTunes] and sign-
Wunderlist: This incredible to-do list app has
all the features you could want while
keeping things basic! Wunderlist is not only
beautiful and simply functional, it also syncs
automatically with the Wunderlist PC, Mac
and iPhone versions so you can keep
abreast of what you have to do wherever
you are. [iTunes] Read more on this amazing
productive on your iPad, you can total up al
your new earnings and write the iPad off as
a business expense with this great free
accounting app. Ideal y suited to smal
businesses, sole traders and the self
employed, this app wil handle every aspect
help calculate your VAT payments. [iTunes]
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
6.10 Games
Harbor Master HD: If you do decide to
anything important to do for the next 3
weeks. Harbor Master is a ridiculously
addictive game of steering boats into
harbors. [iTunes]
another 10 great addictive games here.
Pocket Legends: Though it requires a
heavy investment of time, Pocket Legends
is a massively multiplayer online role-play
game that is simply unparalleled in quality
-and free. Featuring a detailed 3D world
and the usual assortment of fantasy
cliches. [iTunes]
Angry Birds HD Free: How to explain this
game best? You catapult some angry red
birds at poorly built structures ful of green
pigs who stole the birds eggs. Understood?
addictive, and has been single handedly
responsible for a global 5% loss in
productivity. [iTunes]
Game Room: A collection of no less than 8
classic board games for you and a friend,
with beautiful graphics that real y emulate
the feel of the originals. It even includes a
custom game mode, where you can
design your board size and pieces. [iTunes]
Be sure to check out my article on the best
iPad board games for more classics.
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
7. Troubleshooting and Extending
the Battery Life:
also going to show a little about how to get the most from your iPad battery -
though even with ful on usage you should get a good 6-10 hours.
7.1 App Crashes
Though iPads are often more stable than their iPhone counterparts due to less
hardware configurations, Apple cannot test every function of every app that
passes through the store. Fortunately, if a bug has been reported and the
software updated, then a quick check on the Updates tab of the App store
should put things right again.
With the advent of multitasking, the multitude of apps left partial y running in the
background can sometimes cause problems. To close these, double press the
Home button, then hold over an app icon to enter wobble mode. Click the red X
to close down as app as you would to delete one from the Home screens.
order to get al the available video memory. Hold down the On/Off Switch and the
Home button until the Apple appears to reset the iPad.
7. 2 Wifi Problems
Early versions of iPad software were known to have lots of wifi issues, so the first
thing you should check is if you are running the latest version. Plug your iPad into
your computer as you would to sync it, and select Check for Update.
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
Apple also suggests you try resetting the network settings, but bear in mind this
wil delete your wifi password so make sure you have it handy. Do this from
though this is beyond the scope of this guide. Refer to your router manual or ISP
technical support line to help you with this.
passwords and Wifi security levels are incompatible with the iPad. Try lowering or
simply changing the security level, or shortening the password.
7. 3 Getting the Most From Your Battery
There are 3 things that wil deplete your battery life quickly - videos, brightness, and
brightness to its lowest level - your iPad battery would last about a week of regular
daily use before it needed charging. At full brightness, with wifi on, and constantly
watching videos, you can probably get about 6 solid hours out of it.
mean half as much battery life as it does now - but there are precautions you can
take to reduce the aging effects on your battery.
3. Use the iPad until the battery is 100% depleted. If possible, leave it for an hour after
depletion.
4. When charging, allow it to charge fully back to 100%
5. Heat wil also decrease your battery life, so take your iPad out of the case while
charging.
should have minimal loss of battery life. Remember, every time you charge the
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iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide
The success of the iPad lies in the fact that it is precisely what you make of it, and no
two people wil use their device in exactly the same way. While we can show the
best apps for the most common use cases, there are thousands of fantastic but
matter what your level is. If you can follow our simple battery-saving advice, you
should get a good battery life for at least a few years.
For the latest iPad tutorials, tips, and free app reviews, make sure to visit MakeUseOf
often or subscribe to the RSS feed in your shiny new iPad RSS reader. We have a
team of dedicated and knowledgeable iPad owners just waiting to show you the
latest cool apps, and we love getting feedback from you - about this guide, or any
of the other fantastic MakeUseOf guides available for free download.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you get as much enjoyment and use from your
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