Chapter 15
In This Chapter
Getting the lowdown on Settings
Taking off in airplane mode
Preparing networks
Brushing up on Bluetooth
Uncovering usage statistics
Setting up notifications
Figuring out your location
Seeking sensible sounds and screen brightness
Keeping the clan together through Family Sharing
Finding a lost iPad
Do you consider yourself a control freak? The type of person who has to have it your way? Boy, have you landed in the right chapter.
Settings is kind of the makeover factory for the iPad. You open Settings by tapping its Home screen icon; from there, you can do things such as change the tablet’s background or wallpaper and specify the search engine of choice. You can also alter security settings in Safari, tailor email to your liking (among other modifications), and get a handle on how to fetch or push new data.
But you won’t have to visit Settings in every case because Control Center grants you immediate access to some settings and controls that used to require a separate visit to the Settings complex, including airplane mode and display brightness, which we address in this chapter. But even with Control Center, expect to make some tweaks in Settings from time to time. Because we cover some settings elsewhere in this book, we don’t dwell on every setting here. But you still have plenty to digest to help you make the iPad your own.
When you first open Settings, you see a display that looks something like Figure 15-1, with a scrollable list on the left side of the screen and a pane on the right that corresponds to whichever setting is highlighted in blue. We say “something like” because Settings on your iPad may differ slightly from what is shown here.
You must scroll down to see the entire list. Also, if you see a greater-than symbol (>) to the right of a listing, the listing has a bunch of options. Throughout this chapter, you tap the > symbol to check out those options.
As you scroll to the bottom of the list on the left, you come to all the settings that pertain to some of the specific third-party apps you’ve added to the iPad. (See Chapter 11.) These settings aren’t visible in Figure 15-1. Everybody has a different collection of apps on his or her iPad, so settings related to those programs will also be different.
Your iPad offers settings to keep you on the good side of air-traffic communications systems. No matter which iPad you have — Wi-Fi only or a model with cellular — you have airplane mode.
Using a cellular radio on an airplane is a no-no. Wi-Fi is too, some of the time. But nothing is verboten about using an iPad on a plane to listen to music, watch videos, and peek at pictures. So how do you take advantage of the iPad’s built-in music player (among other capabilities) at 30,000 feet, while temporarily turning off your wireless gateway to email and Internet functions? By turning on airplane mode.
To do so, merely tap Airplane Mode on the Settings screen to enable the setting. You’ll know it’s on rather than off when you see green instead of gray on the switch.
That act disables each of the iPad’s wireless radios: Wi-Fi, cellular, and Bluetooth (depending on the model). While your iPad is in airplane mode, you can’t surf the web, get a map location, send or receive emails, sync through iCloud, use the iTunes or App Store, or do anything else that requires an Internet connection. If a silver lining exists here, it’s that the iPad’s long-lasting battery ought to last even longer — good news if the flight you’re on is taking you halfway around the planet.
As we mention in Chapter 4, Wi-Fi is typically the fastest wireless network that you can use to surf the web, send email, and perform other Internet tricks on the iPad. You use the Wi-Fi setting to determine which Wi-Fi networks are available to you and which one to exploit based on its signal.
Tap Wi-Fi so that the setting is on, and all Wi-Fi networks in range are displayed, as shown in Figure 15-2.
A signal-strength indicator can help you choose the network to connect to if more than one is listed; tap the appropriate Wi-Fi network when you reach a decision. If a network is password-protected, you see a lock icon and need the passcode to access it.
You can also turn the Ask to Join Networks setting on or off. Networks that the iPad is already familiar with are joined automatically, regardless of which one you choose. If the Ask feature is off and no known networks are available, you have to select a new network manually. If the Ask feature is on, you’re asked before joining a new network. Either way, you see a list with the same Wi-Fi networks in range.
The iPad can also remember passwords for frequently used networks.
Sometimes you may want to connect to a network that’s closed and not shown on the Wi-Fi list. If that’s the case, tap Other and use the keyboard to enter the network name. Then tap to choose the type of security setting the network is using (if any). Your choices are WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPA Enterprise, and WPA2 Enterprise. Again, the terminology isn’t the friendliest in the world, but we figure that someone nearby can lend a hand.
Of all the peculiar terms you may encounter in techdom, Bluetooth is one of our favorites. The name is derived from Harald Blåtand, a tenth-century Danish monarch, who, the story goes, helped unite warring factions. And, we’re told, Blåtand translates to Bluetooth in English. (Bluetooth is all about collaboration between different types of devices — get it?)
Blåtand was obviously ahead of his time. Although we can’t imagine that he ever used a tablet computer, he now has an entire short-range wireless technology named in his honor. On the iPad, you can use Bluetooth to communicate wirelessly with a compatible Bluetooth headset or to use an optional wireless keyboard. Such accessories are made by Apple and many others.
To ensure that the iPad works with a device, it typically has to be wirelessly paired, or coupled, with the chosen device. If you’re using a third-party accessory, follow the instructions that came with that headset or keyboard so that it becomes discoverable, or ready to be paired with your iPad. Then turn on Bluetooth (on the Settings screen) so that the iPad can find such nearby devices and the device can find the iPad.
In Figure 15-3, an Apple wireless keyboard and the iPad are successfully paired when you enter a designated passkey on the keyboard. You won’t need a passkey to pair every kind of device, though. You can’t, for example, enter a passkey when pairing the iPad with a wireless speaker. Bluetooth works up to a range of about 30 feet.
To unpair a device, select it from the device list and tap Forget This Device. We guess breaking up isn’t hard to do.
The iPad supports stereo Bluetooth headphones, letting you stream stereo audio from the iPad to those devices.
The iPad can tap into Bluetooth in other ways. One is through peer-to-peer connectivity, so you can engage in multiplayer games with other nearby iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch users. You can also do such things as exchange business cards, share pictures, and send short notes. In addition, you don’t even have to pair the devices as you do with a headset or wireless keyboard.
You may also see devices that communicate with the iPad through a newer flavor of Bluetooth called Bluetooth Low Energy or sometimes Bluetooth Smart or Bluetooth Smart Ready.
You can wirelessly share files also through AirDrop, as noted in Chapter 13 and elsewhere in this book.
You see another set of settings only if you have a cellular model iPad. The options appear on the right pane of the Settings screen when you highlight Cellular Data on the left:
If you assign a PIN to your SIM, you have to enter it to turn the iPad on or off, which some might consider a minor hassle. And be aware that the SIM PIN is different from and may be in addition to any passcode you set for the iPad, as described later in this chapter.
Through Apple’s Push Notification service, app developers can send you alerts related to programs you’ve installed on your iPad. Such alerts are typically in text form but may include sounds as well. The idea is that you’ll receive notifications even when the app they apply to isn’t running. Notifications may also appear as numbered badges on their corresponding Home screen icon.
The downside to keeping push notifications turned on is that they can curtail battery life (although honestly, we’ve been pretty satisfied with the iPad’s staying power, even when push notifications are active). And you may find notifications distracting at times.
You manage notifications on an app-by-app basis. To do so, tap Notification Center on the left side of the Settings screen, as shown in Figure 15-4, and then tap the app you want to manage. All installed apps that take advantage of Notification Center (see Chapter 13) appear on the right side of the panel, as shown in Figure 15-4, with the enabled apps displayed in the upper section (Include) and disabled apps in the lower section (Do Not Include; not shown).
Tap any app to adjust its settings. Figure 15-5 shows notification settings for the Mail app (more specifically, Gmail). Some apps offer other options, including sound alerts, and other apps may offer fewer options, but we think you’ll figure it out.
To help you get started, here’s a rundown of the options shown in Figure 15-5, starting at the top:
Apps that don’t take advantage of Notification Center can still offer notifications, but you’ll have to scroll down to the Apps section on the left side of Settings and tap the app you want to alter. Note that the app you hope to fiddle with doesn’t always appear in the Apps section of Settings. For that matter, many of the apps that do appear in the list don’t offer notifications anyway.
The broader point we’re trying to make is that we urge you to check out the settings for all the apps you see in this list. You’ll never know about many useful options if you don’t.
Many of the notifications delivered in iOS 8 are interactive, so you can respond to them on the spot. For example, you can reply to an incoming email or message without having to drop by the underlying app.
Here in Settings, you can determine whether to view Notification Center on the lock screen.
Apple understands that sometimes you don’t want to be bothered by notifications or other distractions, no matter how unobtrusive they might be. The result is a feature aptly named Do Not Disturb. Flip the switch so the setting is turned on (green), and a moon icon appears in the status bar. Then you can rest assured that your alerts are silenced until you turn the setting off. Of course, it’s even easier to turn this setting on or off in Control Center.
We’ve already sung the praises of Control Center, the convenient utility that is no farther away than an upward swipe from the bottom of the screen. In Settings, you get to decide whether to make Control Center accessible from the lock screen and whether you can access it within apps. The switches for making these determinations are pretty straightforward.
By using the onboard Maps or Camera apps (or any number of third-party apps), the iPad makes good use of knowing where you are. With Location Services turned on, your iPad has the capability to deliver traffic information and suggest popular destinations in your vicinity. And at your discretion, you can share your location with others.
iPads with cellular exploit built-in GPS to help determine your location. The Wi-Fi–only iPad can find your general whereabouts (by triangulating signals from Wi-Fi base stations and cellular towers).
If such statements creep you out a little, don’t fret. To protect your right to privacy, individual apps pop up quick messages (similar to the warning presented by Maps, shown in Figure 15-6) asking whether you want them to use your current location. You can also turn off Location Services in Settings: Tap Privacy and then tap Locations Services to turn off the setting. Not only is your privacy shielded, but you also keep your iPad battery juiced a little longer.
While visiting the Privacy setting, you may want to consult the privacy listings for individual apps on your iPad: Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Photos, Bluetooth Sharing, and Microphone. If any third-party apps request access to these apps, they show up here.
From time to time on the iPad, you can land in the same destination multiple ways. For example, you can access the same privacy settings via the restrictions settings that we address later in this chapter.
A number of settings control what the iPad looks like and sounds like.
The brightness slider shown in Figure 15-7 appears when the Display & Brightness setting is highlighted. Who doesn’t want a bright, vibrant screen? Alas, the brightest screens exact a trade-off: Before you drag the control to the max, remember that brighter screens sap the life from your battery more quickly.
Choosing wallpaper is a neat way to dress up the iPad according to your aesthetic preferences. iOS 7 and iOS 8 include colorful dynamic animated wallpapers with floating bubbles that add a subtle dizzying effect. But stunning as they are, these images may not hold a candle to the masterpieces in your own photo albums (more about those in Chapter 9).
You can sample the pretty patterns and dynamic designs that the iPad has already chosen for you, as follows:
A list of your photo albums appears, along with Apple’s own wallpaper.
We chose Stills to bring up the thumbnails shown in Figure 15-8 (left).
That image fills the screen, as shown in Figure 15-8 (right).
Consider the Sounds settings area the iPad’s soundstage. There, you can turn audio alerts on or off for a variety of functions: ringtones, text tones, new email, sent mail, calendar and reminder alerts, Facebook posts, tweets, and AirDrop. You can also decide whether you want to hear lock sounds and keyboard clicks.
You can alter the ringtone you hear for FaceTime calls and the text tones you hear for iMessages, and visit the iTunes Store to buy more text tones or ringtones, typically for $0.99 and $1.29 a pop, if you’re not satisfied with those that Apple supplies. (Mac owners can create their own by using GarageBand, as can folks who use GarageBand on an iPad. And the app is now free for folks who purchase new iOS 7 or iOS 8 devices.) To set a custom tone for individuals in the Contacts app, tap the Edit button and then tap either the Ringtone or the Text Tone option.
To raise the decibel level of alerts, drag the volume slider to the right. Drag in the opposite direction to bring down the noise. An alternative way to adjust sound levels is to use the physical volume buttons on the side of the iPad, as long as you’re not already using the iPad’s iMusic or Videos player to listen to music or watch video, respectively.
You can enable and disable the use of physical buttons to alter the volume by using the Change with Buttons switch, below the volume slider.
Certain miscellaneous settings are difficult to pigeonhole. Apple wisely lumped these under the General settings moniker. Here’s a closer look at your options.
You aren’t seeing double. This section, as shown in Figure 15-9, is all about the About setting. And About is full of trivial (and not-so-trivial) information about the device. What you find here is straightforward:
The Software Update section is self-explanatory. When Apple unleashes an update, such as the one that moved the device from iOS 7 to iOS 8, you can find it here.
We love that Siri, the chatty personal digital assistant who can remind you whether to take an umbrella or clue you in on how the Giants are faring in the NFL, has found her way to the iPad from her original hangout spot on the iPhone 4s. You can talk to Siri by pressing and holding down the Home button and speaking out loud. Siri will talk back.
If your iPad is connected to power and running iOS 8, you can also summon Siri without pressing the Home button. Instead, you can bark out the command, “Hey Siri.”
But sometimes, well — there’s no way to say this kindly — you want Siri to shut up. To do that, just turn the Siri setting from on (green) to off. If you do disable Siri, be aware that the information she uses to respond to your requests is removed from Apple’s servers. So if you call Siri back into duty later, it may take a little bit of time for the feature to resend information. Don’t fret if you don’t remember any of this. Apple reminds you ahead of your silencing Siri.
Other Siri settings to note:
Tell the iPad the apps that you want to search. Touch the three horizontal lines next to an app that you want to include in your search and drag up or down to rearrange the search order.
In the Suggested Apps section, you can flip on a setting to showcase installed apps or App Store suggestions relevant to your current location. Such suggestions appear on the lock screen and in the app switcher.
The Accessibility or Universal Access Features tools on your iPad are targeted at helping people with certain disabilities. The following sections explain many of these options.
The VoiceOver screen reader describes aloud what’s on the screen. It can read email messages, web pages, and more. With VoiceOver active, you tap an item on the screen to select it. VoiceOver places a black rectangle around the item and either speaks the name or describes an item. For example, if you tap Display & Brightness, the VoiceOver voice speaks the words “Display and brightness button.” VoiceOver even lets you know when you position the iPad in landscape or portrait mode and when your screen is locked or unlocked.
Within the VoiceOver setting, you have several options. For instance, if you turn on Speak Hints, VoiceOver may provide instructions on what to do next, along the lines of “Double-tap to open.” You can drag a Speaking Rate slider to speed up or slow down the speech. You can also determine the kind of typing feedback you get: characters, words, characters and words, or no feedback. Additional switches let you turn on sound effects, change the pitch, and choose the default dialect. For example, you can choose an English dialect common to Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, or South Africa, along with, of course, the United States.
You have to know a new set of finger gestures when VoiceOver is on, which may seem difficult, especially when you first start using VoiceOver. When you stop to think about it, this requirement makes a lot of sense because you want to be able to hear descriptions on the screen before you activate buttons. Different VoiceOver gestures use different numbers of fingers, and Apple recommends that you experiment with different techniques to see what works best for you. A VoiceOver Practice button is provided for this purpose.
Here’s a rundown of many of these gestures:
The Zoom feature offers a screen magnifier for those who are visually challenged. To zoom by 200 percent, double-tap the screen with three fingers. Drag three fingers to move around the screen. To increase magnification, use three fingers to tap and drag up. Tap with three fingers and drag down to decrease magnification.
The Zoom feature does have a downside: When magnified, the characters on the screen aren’t as crisp (although the Retina display is still pretty sharp), and you can’t display as much in a single view. You can also choose to zoom full screen or zoom only a window. And you can drag a slider to choose your maximum zoom level.
You can make text larger in the Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Messages, and Notes apps. Drag the slider from left to right or from the small A toward the larger A. You can turn on a Larger Accessibility Sizes switch to enlarge the text even more in certain supported apps. (You may recall the Text Size option we mention earlier when describing the Display & Brightness setting.)
Bold Text is another setting you first met in Display & Brightness. Not everyone took kindly to the design changes brought by iOS 7. Some people didn’t think the text was bold or bright enough. If you still feel that way after migrating to iOS 8, consider turning on the Bold Text switch. As we note earlier, doing so (or turning it off again) requires that you restart your iPad.
Turn the Button Shapes setting on, and the left-pointing arrow at the top-left corner of the Settings pane (next to General) disappears and the word General appears inside a pencil-shaped button.
The Increase Contrast setting is another effort to bolster legibility. You can reduce the transparency of the screen to improve the contrast on some backgrounds. You can darken colors. And you can reduce the intensity of bright colors. Play around with these options to see whether they make a difference.
The colors on the iPad can be reversed to provide a higher contrast for people with poor eyesight. The screen resembles a film negative. (You remember, film, right?)
The iPad can communicate with hearing aids through Bluetooth. And Apple has designed a new Bluetooth technology for use with custom iPad hearing aids.
Aimed at people who are deaf or hard of hearing, the Subtitles and Captioning setting lets you turn on a Closed Captions + SDH switch to summon closed-captioning or subtitles. You can also choose and preview the style for the subtitles and create your own subtitle style.
Toggling the Video Descriptions switch enables the iPad to automatically play video descriptions when available.
If you suffer hearing loss in one ear, the iPad’s Mono Audio setting can combine the right and left audio channels so that both channels can be heard in either earbud of any headset you plug in. A slider control can adjust how much audio is combined and to which ear it is directed.
When the Speak Selection setting is on, the iPad speaks any text you select. You also find a slider control to adjust the speaking rate. And you can highlight words as they are spoken.
When the Speak Auto-Text setting is on, the iPad automatically speaks autocorrections and capitalizations.
We think the parallax effect of icons and alerts added with iOS 7 (and still around in iOS 8) is cool, but your neighbor may not agree. By turning on the Reduce Motion switch, you can reduce the parallax effect and be fairly confident that your wallpaper will remain still.
Throughout this book, you read that when certain switches are on, green appears. If you turn on the On/Off Labels switch, you’ll still see green, but you’ll also see a nerdy 1 when the setting or switch is turned on or a little 0 when the switch is off.
Parents of autistic kids know how challenging it can be to keep their child focused on a given task. The Guided Access setting can limit iPad usage to a single app and also restrict touch input on certain areas of the screen.
Several controls are represented under the Switch Control setting. The general idea is that you can use a single switch or multiple switches to select text, tap, drag, type, and perform other functions. However, turning on Switch Control changes the gestures you use to control your tablet and are presumably already familiar with. Switch Control makes use of different techniques. For example, the iPad can scan by or highlight items on the screen until you select one. Or you can choose to take advantage of scanning crosshairs to select a location on the screen. You can also manually move from item to item by using multiple switches, with each switch set to handle a specific action. We recommend poking around this setting to examine these and other options.
Turn on the AssistiveTouch setting if you need to use an adaptive accessory, such as a joystick, because of difficulties touching the screen. When this setting is on, a movable dot appears; tap the dot to access certain features, such as Notification Center or Home. You can also create custom gestures through AssistiveTouch.
With the Home-Click Speed setting, you can slow down the speed required to double or triple-click the Home button, which is next on the list of Accessibility options.
Double-clicking the Home button launches multitasking. But you can set up the iPad so that triple-clicking the button (clicking three times really fast) turns on certain accessibility features. (This tool used to be called Triple-Click Home.) By doing so, you can turn on or off VoiceOver, Invert Colors, Grayscale, Zoom, Switch Control, and AssistiveTouch.
To turn on closed captioning or subtitles for a movie or video in which they’re available, tap the Subtitles & Captioning setting. You can also choose a style for your subtitles.
Enable the Multitasking Gestures option if you want to use four or five fingers to
The About setting (covered earlier) gives you a lot of information about your device. But after you back out of About and return to the main General settings, you can find other settings for statistics on iPad usage:
Some apps continue to run in the background even when you’re not actively engaged with them. If you flip the Background App Refresh switch so that green is showing, you can allow such apps to update content when an active Wi-Fi or cellular connection is available. The potential downside to leaving this switch turned on is a hit on battery life.
As it turns out, your iPad is pretty smart about when to refresh apps. iOS detects patterns based on how you use your iPad. It learns when your tablet is typically inactive — at night perhaps when you’re in slumberland. And in some cases, apps are refreshed when you enter a particular location.
You can also turn on or off Background App Refresh for any individual app listed under this setting. Flip the switch to make the determination for each given app.
Tap Auto-Lock in the General settings pane, and you can set the amount of time that elapses before the iPad automatically locks or turns off the display. Your choices are 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, or 2 minutes. Or you can set it so that the iPad never locks automatically.
Don’t worry about whether the iPad is locked. You can still receive notification alerts and adjust the volume.
If you want to prevent others from using your iPad, you can set a passcode by tapping Touch ID & Passcode (or just Passcode on models without Touch ID) and then tapping Turn Passcode On. By default, you use the virtual keypad to enter and confirm a four-digit passcode. If you’d prefer a longer, stronger passcode, tap the Simple Passcode switch to turn it off. Now provide your current passcode, and then enter and confirm your new passcode, which can be almost any combination of the letters, numbers, and symbols available on the standard virtual keyboard.
You can also determine whether a passcode is required immediately, after 1 minute, after 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, or 4 hours. Shorter times are more secure, of course. On the topic of security, the iPad can be set to automatically erase your data if someone makes ten failed passcode attempts.
You can also change the passcode or turn it off later (unless your employer dictates otherwise), but you need to know the present passcode to apply any changes. If you forget the passcode, you have to restore the iPad software, as we describe in Chapter 16.
From the Touch ID & Passcode setting, you can determine whether to allow access to the today view, the notifications view, or Siri when the iPad is locked.
If you have an iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3, we strongly recommend that you at least try Touch ID, the clever fingerprint authentication scheme that not only lets you bypass the lock screen by pressing your thumb or another finger against the Home button, but also lets you purchase stuff in iTunes, the App Store, and the iBooks Store. You can also take advantage of the nascent Apple Pay mobile payments system but (as of this writing) only for certain online transactions — not physical retail stores as is possible with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
You can store up to five fingerprints (yours and people you trust with whom you share the iPad). Tap Add a Fingerprint and go through the training session that you likely encountered back when you set up your iPad (consult Chapter 2 for details). If the iPad doesn’t recognize your finger, you see Try Again at the top of the screen. You get three wrong tries before you’re forced to use a traditional passcode instead, at least for this session.
As an added security measure, a regular passcode is required the first time you try to get past a lock screen after restarting the tablet.
If you want to delete an authorized fingerprint, tap the listing for the finger in question, and then tap Delete Fingerprint. Excuse our French, but you’ve just given the finger to the finger.
In Twitter settings, you can add a new Twitter account and update your contacts so that Twitter uses their email addresses and phone numbers to automatically add their Twitter handles and photos. You also can choose yay or nay on whether you can use various apps with Twitter.
Most of us know Facebook as a great service to help us stay in touch with relatives, associates, and old pals, rekindle relationships, and make new friends. But some people collect Facebook friends like baseball cards. If it seems like you’re acquainted with all 1.3 billion-and-counting members of the mammoth social network, we know what you mean.
Fortunately, Apple kindly organizes your Facebook relationships on the iPad. If you turn on the Calendar and Contacts switches under Facebook settings on the iPad, your Facebook friends automatically populate your contacts list, complete with profile pictures as well as email addresses and phone numbers (if they made them public on Facebook). Birthdays and calendar appointments appropriately turn up in the Calendar app.
Think of these Facebook entries as live synced contact entries. If a person changes his or her phone number and email address on Facebook, that change will be reflected on your iPad, provided you have Wi-Fi or cellular coverage or the next time you do have coverage. And if your friends de-friend you — how cruel is that? — their contact info will disappear.
If the iPad can correctly match a Facebook friend entry with an existing contact entry, it will try to unify that contact under a single view. The Update All Contacts option under Facebook settings on the iPad serves a slightly different purpose. It tries to add Facebook profile information to contacts who are on Facebook but are not among your Facebook friends.
Do you think of us as Ed and Bob or Baig and LeVitus? The answer to that question will probably determine whether you choose to sort your contacts list alphabetically by last name or first name.
Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars; scroll down to the Contacts section; and peek at Sort Order. Then tap Last, First or First, Last. You can determine whether you want to display a first name or last name first by tapping Display Order and then choosing First, Last or Last, First. You can also go with a short name to fit more names on the screen. You can choose a first name and last initial, first initial and last name, first name only, or last name only. If you prefer nicknames, you can choose those instead, when available.
In My Info, make sure your own name is chosen so that Siri knows where you live, among other reasons.
Parents and bosses may love the Restrictions tools, but kids and employees usually think otherwise. You can clamp down, er, provide proper parental guidance to your children or managerial guidance to your staff by preventing them (at least some of the time) from using the Safari browser, Camera, FaceTime, iTunes Store, iBooks Store, Siri, AirDrop, or Game Center. Or you might not let them install new apps or make purchases inside the apps you do allow — or (conversely) let them delete apps. When restrictions are in place, icons for off-limit functions can no longer be seen. Tap Enable Restrictions, set or enter your passcode — you have to enter it twice if you are setting up the passcode — and tap the switch next to each item in the Allow or Allowed Content lists that you plan to restrict. Their corresponding settings should be off (gray is showing rather than green).
You can also restrict the use of explicit language when you dictate text. An asterisk (*) replaces a naughty word.
Moreover, parents have more controls to work with. For instance, you can allow Junior to watch a movie on the iPad but prevent him from watching a flick that carries an R or NC-17 rating. You can also restrict access to certain TV shows, explicit songs and podcasts, and apps based on age-appropriate ratings. In Game Center, you can decide whether your kid can play a multiplayer game or add friends. Apple lets you choose whether to let the kids read books with explicit sexual content. You can also restrict access to websites that have adult content.
Stop feeling guilty: You have your users’ best interests at heart.
If guilt gets the better of you, you can turn off restrictions. Open the Restrictions setting by again typing your passcode. Then switch the setting on for each item you are freeing up. Tap Disable Restrictions. You have to enter your passcode one more time before your kids and office underlings return you to their good graces.
Under Restrictions settings, you’ll find privacy controls as well. For example, you can impose restrictions on the use of Location Services, as well as Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Photos, Bluetooth sharing, and more. (For these and additional privacy controls, visit the dedicated Privacy setting.)
And in this area, you can allow or restrict changes made to your accounts, Find My Friends, cellular use, background app refreshes, even volume limits.
There’s a lot here, and even if you’re liberal about policing your kids’ activities, we recommend you poke around and consider all your options.
When Family Sharing has been implemented, you can all share a calendar, photos, reminders, and your respective locations. Family Sharing may also help find a missing device through the important Find My iPad feature, which we describe at the end of this chapter.
Family Sharing works with iOS 8 devices, OS X Yosemite on a Mac, and Find My Friends 3.0, Find My iPhone 3.1, and iCloud for Windows 4.0.
Use the Cover Lock/Unlock setting to automatically lock and unlock your iPad when you close and open the clever iPad smart cover, Apple’s smart case, or some other covers. If you set a passcode, you still have to enter it to wake the iPad from siesta-land.
You can use the side switch for one of two purposes: You can lock the rotation so that the screen orientation doesn’t change when you turn the iPad to the side, or you can mute certain sounds. You get to make that choice through the Side Switch setting.
In our neck of the woods, the time is reported as 11:32 p.m. (or whatever time it happens to be). But in some circles, it’s reported as 23:32. If you prefer the latter format on the iPad’s status bar, tap the 24-Hour Time setting (under Date & Time) so that it’s on (green).
This setting is just one that you can adjust under Date & Time. You can also have the iPad set the time in your time zone. Here’s how:
You see fields for setting the time zone and the date and time.
The current time zone and virtual keyboard are shown.
The Time Zone field is automatically filled in for that city.
You can also dispense with these settings and just have the iPad set the time automatically, based on its knowledge of where you happen to be. Just make sure to turn on the Set Automatically option.
Under Keyboard settings, you have the following options:
A little lower down under Keyboard settings, you’ll see another type of shortcut option: having the keyboard type a full phrase when you type a few letters. For example, typing the letters omw yields On my way! Tap Add New Shortcut to do just that, and then enter the phrase and the shortcut that will lead to that phrase. Saving a few letters is economical, don’t you think?
You can choose to use an international keyboard (as we discuss in Chapter 2), which you enable from Keyboard settings.
The iPad is an international sensation. In the Language & Region section, you can set the language in which the iPad displays text, plus the date and time format for the region in question. You can choose a Gregorian, Japanese, or Buddhist calendar, too.
We spend an entire chapter (Chapter 3, to be precise) on syncing. Just know that if you want to sync with iTunes on your computer when you’re plugged into power and tapped into Wi-Fi, you can do it here.
After you tap VPN on the General settings screen, you see a control for VPN.
You can configure a VPN on the iPad by following these steps:
The iPad software supports the protocols L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol), PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol), and IPSec, which apparently provides the kind of security that satisfies network administrators.
Better yet, lend your iPad to the techies where you work and let them fill in the blanks on your behalf.
After you configure your iPad for VPN usage, you can turn that capability on or off by tapping (yep) the VPN switch in Settings.
As little kids playing sports, we ended an argument by agreeing to a do-over. Well, the Reset settings on the iPad are one big do-over. Now that you’re (presumably) grown up, think long and hard about the consequences before implementing do-over settings. Regardless, you may encounter good reasons for starting over; some of these are addressed in Chapter 16.
Here are your reset options:
We hope you never have to use the Find My iPad feature — though we have to say that it’s darn cool. If you inadvertently leave your iPad in a taxi or restaurant, Find My iPad may just help you retrieve it. All you need is a free iCloud account.
Well, that’s almost all you need. You’ll have to turn on your account, so tap Settings⇒Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and then tap your iCloud account. Or tap Settings⇒iCloud. Either way, make sure Find My iPad is switched on.
Now, suppose you lost your tablet — and we can only assume that you’re beside yourself. Follow these steps to see whether the Find My iPad feature can help you:
If you don’t see it, click the icon with a cloud in it that appears in the upper-left corner of the iCloud site. You see a panel with icons that are tied to various iCloud services, including Find My iPhone. (Yes, even though the feature is Find My iPad on the iPad, it shows up as Find My iPhone on the iCloud site. Don’t worry; it’ll still locate your iPad — and, for that matter, a lost iPhone or iPod touch, and even a Mac computer too.)
Assuming that your tablet is turned on and in the coverage area, its general whereabouts turn up on a map (as shown in Figure 15-10) in standard or satellite view, or a hybrid of the two. In our tests, Find My iPad found our iPads quickly.
Even seeing your iPad on a map may not help you much, especially if the device is lost somewhere in midtown Manhattan. Take heart.
Apple has already prepared a simple message indicating that the iPad is lost, but you can change or remove the message and substitute your own plea for the return of your tablet.
The message appears on the lost iPad’s screen, as shown in Figure 15-11.
To get someone’s attention, you can also sound an alarm that plays for two minutes, even if the volume is off. Tap Play Sound to make it happen. Hey, that alarm may come in handy if the iPad turns up under a couch in your house. Stranger things have happened.
After all this labor, if the iPad is seemingly gone for good, click Erase iPad at the iCloud site to delete your personal data from afar and return the iPad to its factory settings. (A somewhat less drastic measure is to remotely lock your iPad by using a four-digit passcode.)
Meanwhile, the person who found (or possibly stole) your iPad cannot reactivate the device to use as his or her own, or to peddle, unless he or she successfully types in your Apple ID.
Even if you choose to erase the device remotely, it can still display a custom message with the information needed for someone to return it to you. If, indeed, you ever get your iPad back, you can always restore the information from an iTunes backup on your Mac or PC or iCloud.
We authors are always seeking a happy ending.