As Yogi Berra would say, "It was déjà vu all over again": Front-page treatment, top billing on network TV and cable, and diehards lining up days in advance to ensure landing a highly lusted-after product from Apple. Only the product generating the remarkable buzz this time around wasn't the iPhone but the iPad. But we trust you didn't pick up this book to read yet another account about how the iPad launch was an epochal event. We trust you did buy the book to find out how to get the very most out of your remarkable device. Our goal is to deliver that information in a light and breezy fashion. We expect you to have fun using your iPad. We equally hope that you have fun spending time with us.
Let's get one thing out of the way right from the get-go. We think you're pretty darn smart for buying a For Dummies book. That says to us that you have the confidence and intelligence to know what you don't know. The For Dummies franchise is built around the core notion that all of us feel insecure about certain topics when tackling them for the first time, especially when those topics have to do with technology.
As with most Apple products, the iPad is beautifully designed and intuitive to use. And though our editors may not want us to reveal this dirty little secret (especially on the first page, for goodness sake), the truth is you'll get pretty far just by exploring the iPad's many functions and features on your own, without the help of this (or any other) book.
Okay, now that we spilled the beans, we'll tell you why you shouldn't run back to the bookstore and request a refund. This book is chock-full of useful tips, advice, and other nuggets that should make your iPad experience all the more pleasurable. We'd even go so far as to say you wouldn't find some of these nuggets anywhere else. So keep this book nearby and consult it often.
First, we want to tell you how we go about our business. iPad For Dummies makes generous use of numbered steps, bullet lists, and pictures. Web addresses are shown in a special monofont typeface, like this.
We also include a few sidebars with information that is not required reading (not that any of this book is) but that we hope will provide a richer understanding of certain subjects. Overall, we aim to keep technical jargon to a minimum, under the guiding principle that with rare exceptions, you need not know what any of it really means.
Here's something we imagine you've heard before: Most books have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and you do well to adhere to that linear structure — unless you're one of those knuckleheads out to ruin it for the rest of us by revealing that the butler did it.
Fortunately, there is no ending to spoil in a For Dummies book. So although you may want to digest this book from start to finish — and we hope you do — we won't penalize you for skipping ahead or jumping around. Having said that, we organized iPad For Dummies in an order that we think makes the most sense, as follows.
Part I: Getting to Know Your iPad
In the introductory chapters of Part I, you tour the iPad inside and out, find out what all those buttons and other nonvirtual doodads do, as well as get some hands-on (or, more precisely, fingers-on) experience with the iPad's unique virtual multitouch display.
Part II: The Internet iPad
Part II is all about getting connected with your iPad. Along the way, you discover how to surf the Web with the Safari Web browser; set up mail accounts; send and receive mail; work with maps, YouTube, and social media apps; and buy and use apps from the iTunes App Store.
Part III: The iPad at Work and Play
Part III is where the fun truly begins as well as where we show you how to get serious about using your iPad for work. You discover how to use your iPad for music, video, movies, and photos, as well as how to buy and read iBooks from the iBook Store. You also spend quality time with your Calendar and Contacts apps and find out just a bit about Apple's (optional) productivity iWork apps — Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.
Little round pictures (icons) appear in the left margins throughout this book. Consider these icons as miniature road signs, telling you something extra about the topic at hand or hammering a point home.
Here's what the four icons used in this book look like and mean.
Tip
These are the juicy morsels, shortcuts, and recommendations that might make the task at hand faster or easier.
Note
This icon emphasizes the stuff we think you ought to retain. You may even jot down a note to yourself in the iPad.
Note
Put on your propeller beanie hat and pocket protector; this text includes the truly geeky stuff. You can safely ignore this material, but if it weren't interesting or informative, we wouldn't have bothered to write it.
Warning
You wouldn't intentionally run a stop sign, would you? In the same fashion, ignoring warnings may be hazardous to your iPad and (by extension) your wallet. There, you now know how these warning icons work, for you have just received your very first warning!
Why straight to Chapter 1, of course (without passing Go).
In all seriousness, we wrote this book for you, so please let us know what you think. If we screwed up, confused you, left something out, or — heaven forbid — made you angry, drop us a note. And if we hit you with one pun too many, it helps to know that as well.
Because writers are people too (believe it or not), we also encourage positive feedback if you think it's warranted. So kindly send e-mail to Ed at [email protected] and to Bob at [email protected]. We'll do our best to respond to reasonably polite e-mail in a timely fashion.
Most of all, we want to thank you for buying our book. Please enjoy it along with your new iPad.
Note: At the time we wrote this book, all the information it contained was accurate for the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G iPads, version 3.2 of the iPhone Operating System used by the iPad, and version 9.1 of iTunes. Apple is likely to introduce new iPad models and new versions of the iPhone OS and iTunes between book editions. If you've bought a new iPad and its hardware, user interface, or the version of iTunes on your computer looks a little different, be sure to check out what Apple has to say at www.apple.com/iPad. You'll no doubt find updates on the company's latest releases. When a change is very substantial, we may add an update or bonus information that you can download at this book's companion Web site, www.dummies.com/go/ipadfd.