The wait is over for the Apple iPad tablet, it was released on April 3, 2010 and it sold more than 300,000 tablets on the first day. The iPad has features that make operating it a lot easier than a customary computer or laptop. There are several accessories and thousands of applications that can make understanding your new iPad somewhat difficult. This page has iPad tips and tricks to make using the iPad easier and more enjoyable. The clear, crisp LED back-lit picture of the iPad can make watching movies, playing games and viewing your photos a new experience and it let you see the Internet in a whole new way. When the highly anticipated Apple iPad was unveiled Saturday, the revolutionary piece of technology was 1/2 inch thick and it weighed only 1.5 pounds. A record number of iPads were sold within the first 24 hours and the initial reviews are positive.
Here are some iPad tips and secrets to help you operate your iPad.
* You can keep six icons in the bottom app tray. There are already four icons
already loaded in the tray and you can drop and drag two more. These six icons will remain at the bottom of the screen.
* If you want to play Scrabble with someone who has an iPhone, you can put the iPad on the table and use it as the game board. You can use your iPhones as the control pads, where you keep your letters. You have to download the free Scrabble letter holder app on your iPhone to play this way.
* You can get the books app that hold all of your books and novels in one place. This app come with a free Winnie The Pooh app.
* The Marvel Comics app is one of the most talked about apps that is in the Apple store. You can read your comics right on the screen. There are free comic books already embedded in the app but, you can buy more from the app store.
* Toy Story is a read-along book and the app is free for your iPad
* The X Pane app will put you in the pilots seat. This fight simulator game let you control the action with the movement of your iPad.
* If you travel a lot, especially with children in the car, the iPad car mount will keep the iPad positioned for viewing movies and photographs.
Here is a list of the best iPad games and the top ten free iPad games available for download.
* The iPad HD apps have photos that are crystal clear with life-like graphics.
* The sketchbook app let you be the artist. You can draw sketches on the screen with the knobs.
* If you know how to play the piano, the piano app will let you play right there on the iPad screen. It does not offer piano lessons, it is mainly for experienced piano players.
* When you surf the web, if you want to go to the top of the page, click the top and it will scroll back up, automatically.
Showing posts with label iPad Tips and Tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPad Tips and Tricks. Show all posts
Monday, April 12, 2010
iPad Screen Care Kit
Clean and protect your iPad’s MultiTouch display with Griffin's Screen Care Kit.
The included premium cleaning cloth removes smudges, dust and fingerprints without messy liquids, and without scratching your screen. Then smooth on lasting protection with a static peel screen protector to keep grit and dust away from your touchscreen. Matte finish minimizes fingerprints and cuts down on screen glare.
The included premium cleaning cloth removes smudges, dust and fingerprints without messy liquids, and without scratching your screen. Then smooth on lasting protection with a static peel screen protector to keep grit and dust away from your touchscreen. Matte finish minimizes fingerprints and cuts down on screen glare.
Clean Apple iPad screen & surface
iPad is a stylish looking device. You can keep the visual glitz going by keeping iPad neat and clean. iPad has an oleophobic coating on the screen. You can simply wipe the iPad screen with a soft, lint-free cloth to remove oil left by your hands. Basic cleaning routine can help you clean ipad screen and surface quickly.
Procedure to clean ipad tablet device
1. First unplug cables (if any) connected to the iPad.
2. Then turn off iPad completely. Press and hold sleep/ wake button and then slide the onscreen slider.
3. Then use a soft, slightly damp, lint-free cloth. Avoid getting moisture in openings.
Please note, do not use window cleaners, household cleaners, aerosol sprays, solvents, alcohol, ammonia, or abrasives to clean iPad. Rubbing the screen with an abrasive material will further diminish its effect and may scratch your screen. So, be careful!
Procedure to clean ipad tablet device
1. First unplug cables (if any) connected to the iPad.
2. Then turn off iPad completely. Press and hold sleep/ wake button and then slide the onscreen slider.
3. Then use a soft, slightly damp, lint-free cloth. Avoid getting moisture in openings.
Please note, do not use window cleaners, household cleaners, aerosol sprays, solvents, alcohol, ammonia, or abrasives to clean iPad. Rubbing the screen with an abrasive material will further diminish its effect and may scratch your screen. So, be careful!
Tips to clean the iPad touchscreen
After 30 minutes of usage, the iPad screen gets all smudgy with finger prints. How can I best and safely clean the touchscreen?
Cleaning iPad touchscreen is very simple. First don't use any liquid cleaners as it can damage the oleophobic coating which makes it easy to remove finger prints from the device.
The iPad doesn't come with a cleaning cloth but all the Macbooks and Macbook Pro's do and it works great.
Just wipe down the screen of your iPad with a Microfiber cloth or really any soft cloth. Bathrobes work great, cotton towels, t-shirts, even an old clean sock can do the trick.
The prints just wipe right off no water or liquid chemicals of any kind required. In fact I would highly recommend against chemicals on it of any kind.
If it does happen to get wet. My English Mastiff came in this morning and laid her head right on my iPad while I was typing. Just take a dry cloth and wipe it off. If something sticky gets on it put a little bit of plain water on a soft cloth and wipe it clean then use a dry one to dry it off.
Cleaning iPad touchscreen is very simple. First don't use any liquid cleaners as it can damage the oleophobic coating which makes it easy to remove finger prints from the device.
The iPad doesn't come with a cleaning cloth but all the Macbooks and Macbook Pro's do and it works great.
Just wipe down the screen of your iPad with a Microfiber cloth or really any soft cloth. Bathrobes work great, cotton towels, t-shirts, even an old clean sock can do the trick.
The prints just wipe right off no water or liquid chemicals of any kind required. In fact I would highly recommend against chemicals on it of any kind.
If it does happen to get wet. My English Mastiff came in this morning and laid her head right on my iPad while I was typing. Just take a dry cloth and wipe it off. If something sticky gets on it put a little bit of plain water on a soft cloth and wipe it clean then use a dry one to dry it off.
Tips for New iPad Users
The iPad, as the new flashy kid at school, has people scrambling on how to maximize its special features. Part iPhone, part laptop, the iPad seems to exist in a middle earth of its own design. In this way much of its technology seems mythological to new users. Here are a few practical tips for those who have just picket up the first round of iPads are are looking to get it off the shelf.
The first thing that you have to note about the iPad is how many of the things that are the same from the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can reset the iPad the same way as with the iPhone, and the soft reset comes from simply hit the top button and the Home button with a few seconds of hold. The copy and paste functions, screenshots, keyboard functions, and basic built in applications all really work the same. The main thing that you have to look for on the iPad is items that are going to be fundamentally different from the iPhone.
Watching video content on your iPad is one of the most solid reasons to own it, but this is also one of the main places that you are given limitations. Not only are you basically prevented from watching videos from online websites, but you also have a limitation in what you can watch in the regular video section. If you have videos that are in 1080P you are not going to find them compatible for your iPad. The best tip to follow for remedy this is to use video conversion software to bring it down to 720P. You can find this easy to do in video programs like Compressor or Handbreak, and there are dozens of freeware ones dotting the internet.
You may want to take extra control over the bottom bar of the iPad and make it so that your constant tray holds a little more than the four previously allowed. This is easy to do by simply selecting and dragging two other applications down into the bottom tray. There is nothing restricting this so you can do it just as easily as you would when moving around iPad applications on the regular desktop. A good tip to follow is to continue to focus on only allowing built in applications down there as you are going to always want to be able to get at them with ease.
Since the iPad does take some of the regular laptop functions you will likely want to forgo the simple built in keyboard and use an attachable one for actual typing. What you have to note is that this will actually eliminate access to the standard iPad keyboard, which is the same as the one that has been a staple of the iPhone. If you want to get the regular iPad keyboard back you simply have to eject the attachable bluetooth keyboard.
One of the defining applications for the iPad is iBooks, a free iPad application that you get from the iTunes' App Store. This is an e-book reader that acts as a main competitor to the Amazon Kindle, but within this complete gadget. iBooks acts as both a store and a reader, but what it does well is actually conforms itself to the specifications of the iBooks user. The iBooks reader starts by just looking at a single page with the iPad held vertically, but if you want to look at two pages as a time you can just turn it horizontally. Changing the text size and font it relatively standard, but for those with any type of vision problems this can be an issue. If this is the case it is best to maintain a san serif font that is easier to read on the iPad.
Though you can buy books from iBooks, and definitely get some of the free books that Apple offers, the iPad is also a serious e-book reader that allows you to import content independently in the same way that it does with audio and video. You can find e-books independently, but note that the iPad only supports the ePub format.
One of the large selling points for the iPad has been its use in looking at photos. It has the Photo features that are standard on the iPhone and iPod Touch, such as the slideshow. What makes the iPad even more accessible for these needs is the ability for you to turn it in to a digital photo frame. A digital photo frame often takes the appearance of a classic frame that you would insert a picture into, but instead has an LCD screen that shuffles through pictures that you attached on a digital storage device. When you first start up the iPad you will notice that there is a Photo button to the right of the Slide to Unlock opener. When you hit this a slideshow of your photos will begin in full screen. This is best done when the iPad is on its side and in an adjustable stand for easy viewing. If you want to adjust the speeds you can do this in the normal iPad Photo Settings area, which is mainly defined by selecting the speed you want the photos to go through.
Besides iBooks, iWork may be the other defining feature of the iPad. It is here that the actual laptop functions from Apple are being worked in, even if there are slight compared to a fully functional Macbook Pro. iWork, though very much simplified, can be a little involved for use on the iPad. The best way to approach this is with constant syncs to your home computer. Here you can arrange everything you need for presentation ahead of time and do not have to slide around the touch screen getting things ready. Some things are great to do on the iPad, such as adding video effects, but you want to make sure that anything that is to be used as part of a complete presentation is not arranged there exclusively. The best way this can be done is by using Keynote to import Power Point files. If a presentation is arranged on Power Point ahead of time you will have more control. You can also easily create presentation in Keynote from your iPad and send them off, especially as a PDF. This is not going to give you as much in depth control as with Power Point, but if you are already doing it on your iPad then that may not be what you're looking for.
The first thing that you have to note about the iPad is how many of the things that are the same from the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can reset the iPad the same way as with the iPhone, and the soft reset comes from simply hit the top button and the Home button with a few seconds of hold. The copy and paste functions, screenshots, keyboard functions, and basic built in applications all really work the same. The main thing that you have to look for on the iPad is items that are going to be fundamentally different from the iPhone.
Watching video content on your iPad is one of the most solid reasons to own it, but this is also one of the main places that you are given limitations. Not only are you basically prevented from watching videos from online websites, but you also have a limitation in what you can watch in the regular video section. If you have videos that are in 1080P you are not going to find them compatible for your iPad. The best tip to follow for remedy this is to use video conversion software to bring it down to 720P. You can find this easy to do in video programs like Compressor or Handbreak, and there are dozens of freeware ones dotting the internet.
You may want to take extra control over the bottom bar of the iPad and make it so that your constant tray holds a little more than the four previously allowed. This is easy to do by simply selecting and dragging two other applications down into the bottom tray. There is nothing restricting this so you can do it just as easily as you would when moving around iPad applications on the regular desktop. A good tip to follow is to continue to focus on only allowing built in applications down there as you are going to always want to be able to get at them with ease.
Since the iPad does take some of the regular laptop functions you will likely want to forgo the simple built in keyboard and use an attachable one for actual typing. What you have to note is that this will actually eliminate access to the standard iPad keyboard, which is the same as the one that has been a staple of the iPhone. If you want to get the regular iPad keyboard back you simply have to eject the attachable bluetooth keyboard.
One of the defining applications for the iPad is iBooks, a free iPad application that you get from the iTunes' App Store. This is an e-book reader that acts as a main competitor to the Amazon Kindle, but within this complete gadget. iBooks acts as both a store and a reader, but what it does well is actually conforms itself to the specifications of the iBooks user. The iBooks reader starts by just looking at a single page with the iPad held vertically, but if you want to look at two pages as a time you can just turn it horizontally. Changing the text size and font it relatively standard, but for those with any type of vision problems this can be an issue. If this is the case it is best to maintain a san serif font that is easier to read on the iPad.
Though you can buy books from iBooks, and definitely get some of the free books that Apple offers, the iPad is also a serious e-book reader that allows you to import content independently in the same way that it does with audio and video. You can find e-books independently, but note that the iPad only supports the ePub format.
One of the large selling points for the iPad has been its use in looking at photos. It has the Photo features that are standard on the iPhone and iPod Touch, such as the slideshow. What makes the iPad even more accessible for these needs is the ability for you to turn it in to a digital photo frame. A digital photo frame often takes the appearance of a classic frame that you would insert a picture into, but instead has an LCD screen that shuffles through pictures that you attached on a digital storage device. When you first start up the iPad you will notice that there is a Photo button to the right of the Slide to Unlock opener. When you hit this a slideshow of your photos will begin in full screen. This is best done when the iPad is on its side and in an adjustable stand for easy viewing. If you want to adjust the speeds you can do this in the normal iPad Photo Settings area, which is mainly defined by selecting the speed you want the photos to go through.
Besides iBooks, iWork may be the other defining feature of the iPad. It is here that the actual laptop functions from Apple are being worked in, even if there are slight compared to a fully functional Macbook Pro. iWork, though very much simplified, can be a little involved for use on the iPad. The best way to approach this is with constant syncs to your home computer. Here you can arrange everything you need for presentation ahead of time and do not have to slide around the touch screen getting things ready. Some things are great to do on the iPad, such as adding video effects, but you want to make sure that anything that is to be used as part of a complete presentation is not arranged there exclusively. The best way this can be done is by using Keynote to import Power Point files. If a presentation is arranged on Power Point ahead of time you will have more control. You can also easily create presentation in Keynote from your iPad and send them off, especially as a PDF. This is not going to give you as much in depth control as with Power Point, but if you are already doing it on your iPad then that may not be what you're looking for.
iPad Tips & Tricks
The single most common thing people don't realize about the iPhone OS (from my experience) is how to perform a soft reset—which you'll find extremely useful in cases when the system freezes.
Just hold the top (power) and bottom front (home) button for a few seconds. Your iPad will restart. To force quit an application, just hold the home button by itself in a similar fashion.
Copying text is as easy as double tapping a word. But when you want to copy a whole paragraph, like for an address, you have to stretch those annoying little blue knobs...or do you?
Tap any editable text four times. You'll highlight the whole paragraph.
Import Your Own (Free) Books
Apple's iBooks app is your portal to reading and buying eBooks on the iPad—and it includes a section with a few free books. But don't forget, just like iTunes and the iPod can import and play music downloaded elsewhere, the iTunes and the iPad can import and display books downloaded elsewhere. Formats are limited, however. The iPad only supports ePub (with or without DRM).
Your local library may be a great source for free ePub checkouts. Also, Project Gutenberg has 30,000 free ePub books you can download, all of which have fallen out of copyright. There's lots of good stuff in this collection if you read classics, and the project even has an RSS list for new arrivals.
If you want to convert PDFs and other DRM-free formats to ePub, you can use Calibre.
Easy Mute
There you are, in the back row of a funeral just minding your own business when, oops, you forgot to mute those YouTube clips on your iPad! No worries. There's a quick way to cut the speaker.
Holding down the volume down button for about two seconds will mute your iPad.
Never Buy a Digital Photo Frame Again
You probably know by now that the iPad doubles as a digital picture frame. You can access this function a few ways, but the easiest way?
When you wake the iPad, look to the right of Slide to Unlock. You'll see a flower. Click it. The slideshow will begin after a moment. Toggle the speed in Settings—oh, and while you're at it, turn off "zoom in on faces"—it tends to just grain/muck up your photos.
Another oldie but goody that many that many people don't realize you can do in the iPhone OS: screenshot anything you're looking at. And keep in mind, when this happens on the iPad, it's at 768x1024 resolution—making it potentially a lot more useful in the full-sized monitor realm than iPhone screenshots.
Push the top (power) and home buttons at once for half a second. The photo will be stored in your photo library.
So you're all the way to the bottom of a blog when you realize that you want to read a story back at the top. Don't do the whole repeatedly drag your finger across the screen thing. That's a horrible method for covering a lot of real estate. Instead:
Tap the title bar once. WOOOOSSHHH. You're right back on top of the page. (Making "wooosh" noises doesn't expedite the process, but it does wonders for general effect.)
Did you know that you can set your mail to preview more than two lines? The iPhone has this option, too, but its smaller screen means that it's not so practical. On the iPad, however, I find the feature is pretty handy for skimming several emails without opening them.
Go to Settings -> Mail, Contacts and Calendars and select "5 lines" under Preview. Also, while you're at it, you might want to update your Push email from "Manual" if you like to have your messages waiting when you open the Mail app. Of course, this will drain power a bit more quickly.
When you have a Bluetooth keyboard connected to your iPad, the virtual keyboard will cease to appear. (This is a good thing.) However, what if, for some random reason, you needed that virtual keyboard? Don't unpair your Bluetooth. Just...
Hit the eject key on Apple's physical keyboard. It'll bring up the virtual one.
Downrez 1080P HD Videos...Or You Can't Watch Them
You may have 1080P videos on your computer, but the iPad can't play them—in fact, iTunes won't even let you copy them to the iPad! The easiest solution? Downrez them to 720P using an app like Handbrake.
Joel gives you a full tutorial on that here. You can also stream music and videos to the iPad with StreamToMe.
Just discovered at Gizmodo HQ—the iPhone and iPad default to hold 4 icons/apps in the bottom tray. But the iPad can store more!
By clicking and holding on any icon (just as you do to rearrange apps), you'll unlock each app's position. Then just drag any two additional apps into the bottom tray. Super handy.
Just hold the top (power) and bottom front (home) button for a few seconds. Your iPad will restart. To force quit an application, just hold the home button by itself in a similar fashion.
Copying text is as easy as double tapping a word. But when you want to copy a whole paragraph, like for an address, you have to stretch those annoying little blue knobs...or do you?
Tap any editable text four times. You'll highlight the whole paragraph.
Import Your Own (Free) Books
Apple's iBooks app is your portal to reading and buying eBooks on the iPad—and it includes a section with a few free books. But don't forget, just like iTunes and the iPod can import and play music downloaded elsewhere, the iTunes and the iPad can import and display books downloaded elsewhere. Formats are limited, however. The iPad only supports ePub (with or without DRM).
Your local library may be a great source for free ePub checkouts. Also, Project Gutenberg has 30,000 free ePub books you can download, all of which have fallen out of copyright. There's lots of good stuff in this collection if you read classics, and the project even has an RSS list for new arrivals.
If you want to convert PDFs and other DRM-free formats to ePub, you can use Calibre.
Easy Mute
There you are, in the back row of a funeral just minding your own business when, oops, you forgot to mute those YouTube clips on your iPad! No worries. There's a quick way to cut the speaker.
Holding down the volume down button for about two seconds will mute your iPad.
Never Buy a Digital Photo Frame Again
You probably know by now that the iPad doubles as a digital picture frame. You can access this function a few ways, but the easiest way?
When you wake the iPad, look to the right of Slide to Unlock. You'll see a flower. Click it. The slideshow will begin after a moment. Toggle the speed in Settings—oh, and while you're at it, turn off "zoom in on faces"—it tends to just grain/muck up your photos.
Another oldie but goody that many that many people don't realize you can do in the iPhone OS: screenshot anything you're looking at. And keep in mind, when this happens on the iPad, it's at 768x1024 resolution—making it potentially a lot more useful in the full-sized monitor realm than iPhone screenshots.
Push the top (power) and home buttons at once for half a second. The photo will be stored in your photo library.
So you're all the way to the bottom of a blog when you realize that you want to read a story back at the top. Don't do the whole repeatedly drag your finger across the screen thing. That's a horrible method for covering a lot of real estate. Instead:
Tap the title bar once. WOOOOSSHHH. You're right back on top of the page. (Making "wooosh" noises doesn't expedite the process, but it does wonders for general effect.)
Did you know that you can set your mail to preview more than two lines? The iPhone has this option, too, but its smaller screen means that it's not so practical. On the iPad, however, I find the feature is pretty handy for skimming several emails without opening them.
Go to Settings -> Mail, Contacts and Calendars and select "5 lines" under Preview. Also, while you're at it, you might want to update your Push email from "Manual" if you like to have your messages waiting when you open the Mail app. Of course, this will drain power a bit more quickly.
When you have a Bluetooth keyboard connected to your iPad, the virtual keyboard will cease to appear. (This is a good thing.) However, what if, for some random reason, you needed that virtual keyboard? Don't unpair your Bluetooth. Just...
Hit the eject key on Apple's physical keyboard. It'll bring up the virtual one.
Downrez 1080P HD Videos...Or You Can't Watch Them
You may have 1080P videos on your computer, but the iPad can't play them—in fact, iTunes won't even let you copy them to the iPad! The easiest solution? Downrez them to 720P using an app like Handbrake.
Joel gives you a full tutorial on that here. You can also stream music and videos to the iPad with StreamToMe.
Just discovered at Gizmodo HQ—the iPhone and iPad default to hold 4 icons/apps in the bottom tray. But the iPad can store more!
By clicking and holding on any icon (just as you do to rearrange apps), you'll unlock each app's position. Then just drag any two additional apps into the bottom tray. Super handy.
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