Chapter 2
In This Chapter
Getting going
Setting up the iPad
Locking your iPad
Mastering multitouch
Cutting, copying, and pasting
Multitasking with your iPad
Spotlighting search
By now you know that the iPad you hold in your hands is very different from other computers.
You also know that these slate-style machines are rewriting the rule book for mainstream computing. How so? For starters, iPads don’t come with a mouse or any other kind of pointing device. They lack traditional computing ports or connectors, such as USB. And they have no physical or built-in keyboard.
iPads even differ from other so-called tablet PCs, some of which feature a pen or stylus and let you write in digital ink. As we point out (pun intended) in Chapter 1, the iPad relies on an input device that you always have with you: your finger.
Tablet computers of one form or another have actually been around since the last century. They just never captured the fancy of Main Street. Apple’s very own Newton, an ill-fated 1990s personal digital assistant, was among the machines that barely made a dent in the market.
What’s past is past, of course, and technology — not to mention Apple itself — has come a long way since Newton. And suffice it to say that in the future, tablets — led by the iPad brigade, of course — promise to enjoy a much rosier outlook. Indeed, since the iPad burst onto the scene, numerous tech titans (as well as smaller companies) have introduced their own touch-enabled tablets; many rely on the Google Android mobile operating system, some on versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, and a few on other operating systems. Some solid machines are among them, but the iPad remains the market leader and a true pioneer in the space.
If you were caught up in the initial mania surrounding the iPad, you probably plotted for weeks about how to land one. After all, the iPad, like its close cousin the iPhone, rapidly emerged as the hippest computer you could find. (We consider you hip just because you’re reading this book.) You had to plot to get subsequent versions as well.
Speaking of the iPhone, if you own one or its close relative, the Apple iPod touch, you already have a gigantic start in figuring out how to master the iPad multitouch method of navigating the interface with your fingers. If you’ve been using iOS 8 on those devices, you have an even bigger head start. You have our permission to skim the rest of this chapter, but we urge you to stick around anyway because some things on the iPad work in subtly different ways than on the iPhone or iPod touch. If you’re a total novice, don’t fret. Nothing about multitouch is painful.
We’ve always said that you needed the following four things to enjoy your new iPad, but starting with iOS 5, you don’t need a computer (and the connection to iTunes and whatever program you use to store your contacts) to use an iPad. You see, iOS 5 was the first operating system to allow you to activate, set up, and apply iOS updates to an iPad wirelessly, without having to connect it to a computer. And iOS 6, iOS 7, and iOS 8 continue the tradition. We show you how to get your iPad set up without a computer in the next section; in Chapter 3, we show you how to set up your iPad with your computer.
Because even though you don’t need a computer, we think you’ll prefer using your iPad with one rather than without one.
Now, here are those four things you need to use your iPad:
The iCloud service has higher requirements: Mac OS X Mountain Lion, Lion (10.7), Mavericks, Yosemite, or higher for Macs; or Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 for PCs. Flip to Chapter 3 for details about iCloud.
Apple constantly tweaks iTunes to make it better. You can go to www.itunes.com/download to fetch a copy. Or launch your current version of iTunes and then choose iTunes (Help in Windows)⇒Check for Updates.
The uninitiated might want to know that iTunes is the nifty Apple jukebox software that owners of iPods and iPhones, not to mention PCs and Macs, use to manage music, videos, apps, and more. iTunes is at the core of the iPad as well, because an iPod is built into the iPad. You can use iTunes to synchronize a bunch of stuff from your Mac or PC to and from an iPad, including (but not limited to) apps, photos, movies, TV shows, podcasts, iTunes U lectures, and of course, music.
Syncing is such a vital part of this process that we devote an entire chapter (Chapter 3) to the topic.
At press time, 3G (third-generation) and 4G (fourth-generation) wireless data connections were available from many carriers in countries too numerous to mention; in the United States, you can choose among AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile. Those wireless carriers are pretty far along building the zippier 4G (fourth-generation) networks across the United States, with Verizon in the lead rolling out the fastest variety, called LTE (Long Term Evolution). While the others play catch-up on LTE, the latest iPad on AT&T and T-Mobile makes nice with other pretty fast networks, including something known as HSPA+.
Unlike with the cellphone contract you may have with your cellular carrier, no long-term service commitment is required to connect your iPad to the network.
As this book goes to press, data rates (no contract required) are reasonably priced as long as you don’t stream or download a lot of movies or watch tons of videos while connected over 3G or 4G. For as little as $5 in some instances, you can purchase a day pass for data instead of opting for a monthly plan.
And T-Mobile, a latecomer as far as selling Apple tablets, is even dishing out 200 megabytes (MB) of monthly LTE data gratis for people using an iPad. That amount of data translates to about 800 Instagram photos, more than 2,500 emails, or 200 minutes of streaming music. If you need a bigger allotment, you can pay — $20 for 1GB per month, $30 for 3GB, or $40 for 5GB, among other options. The following are plan highlights from other carriers (keep in mind that all the rate plans cited are subject to change and sometimes tied to family plans that include smartphones):
A friendly warning pops up on your iPad when you get close to your limit. At that point, you can pay more to add to your data bucket or start from scratch next month. Keep in mind that with 4G, you’re likely to consume more data in a hurry. And prices of course are subject to change.
Unless your iPad is brand-spanking new and fresh out of the box, chances are good that you’ve already performed the steps that follow. We cover them here because if you choose to use your iPad computer-free, these steps make up the entire setup process.
Apple has taken the time to partially charge your iPad, so you get some measure of instant gratification and can go ahead and set it up right away by following these steps:
An arrow appears near the bottom of the screen, alongside flashing messages in many languages. We’re pretty sure they all say, “Slide to Set Up,” because that’s what the English rendition says.
While you can skip this step by tapping the blue Next button without selecting a Wi-Fi network, we suggest that you select your network now if you can. (If you do wait to set up your Wi-Fi network, turn to Chapter 15 to find out how to do so via Settings.)
The Location Services screen appears.
Location Services is your iPad’s way of knowing where you are geographically. The Maps app, for example, relies on Location Services to determine where in the world you are.
Location Services can be turned on or off globally or for individual apps in Settings, as you discover in Chapter 15.
The Set Up iPad screen appears.
See Chapter 16 for the scoop on restoring from iCloud or iTunes backups. For these steps, tap Set Up as New. The Apple ID screen appears.
If you have an Apple ID, sign in with it here; if you don’t have one, tap the Create a Free Apple ID button. If you tap Skip This Step and proceed without supplying an Apple ID, you can’t take advantage of the myriad excellent and free features described in this and other chapters. Obtain an Apple ID if you don’t already have one because you need it to take advantage of iCloud. See the end of this chapter for an introduction to this service.
If you use a different Apple ID for iCloud than you do for iTunes, you can enter both at this stage.
Note that if you skip this step now, you can sign in later by tapping Settings⇒iCloud⇒Account.
The Terms and Conditions screen appears.
What happens if you disagree? You don’t want to know. And, of course, you won’t be able to use your iPad.
Find more info about iCloud at the end of this chapter, or tap the About iCloud link on this screen for the party line from Apple.
The iCloud screen appears.
The Find My iPad screen appears.
If you misplace your iPad, you can use Find My iPad to display its current location on a map. You can also choose to display a message or play a sound, lock the screen, or erase contents on your missing iPad.
Find My iPad won’t find your iPad if the battery is drained, the iPad is turned off, or a network connection (Wi-Fi or cellular) is not available. However, if you have iOS 8 software on your iPad, the machine can automatically make note of your last location before the battery pooped out, raising the odds of getting back a lost iPad.
The iMessage and FaceTime screen appears.
If phone numbers and email addresses are already selected, tap any that you want to deselect.
The Create a Passcode screen appears.
The Re-enter Your Passcode screen appears.
If you choose a commonly used passcode (such as 1111, 1234, 0000, or the like) before the Re-enter Your Passcode screen appears, your iPad will warn you that the code you typed can be easily guessed. You can either change it or use it anyway — it’s your choice. However, we suggest that you change it if you’re at all concerned about keeping what’s on your iPad safe from prying eyes. If you have an iPad Air 2, read the sidebar on using the Touch ID fingerprint scanner.
The iCloud Keychain screen appears.
iCloud Keychain is an iOS 7 (and later) feature that stores usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and other web data in the cloud. When you’ve finished deciding what to do with iCloud Keychain, you see the screen for Siri, the loquacious digital assistant living inside your iPad.
If your iPad is third generation or later, it offers the desirable option (at least in our humble opinion) of using your voice to control the device, as well as the capability to use dictation in any app that displays an on-screen keyboard.
You can find out more about using Siri and dictation in Chapter 14. For now, let us just say that we love this feature and use it when appropriate (which is often).
If you choose not to enable Siri at this time, you can switch on this feature later in the Settings app’s General pane.
The Diagnostics screen appears.
The Welcome to iPad screen appears.
Your iPad’s Home screen appears in all its glory.
If you’re using a computer-free iPad, the setup story ends here. Instead of using iTunes on your Mac or PC as described in Chapter 3, you have to make do with the available options in specific apps and in the Settings app (covered extensively in Chapter 15).
We can think of several sound reasons for locking your iPad:
Apple makes locking the iPad a cinch.
Can’t wait? To lock the iPad immediately, press the sleep/wake button.
Unlocking the iPad is easy, too. Here’s how:
Either way, the on-screen slider appears.
See Chapter 15 to find out how to password-protect your iPad.
The iPad, like the iPhone, dispenses with a physical mouse and keyboard, in favor of a virtual keyboard — a step that seemed revolutionary just a few years ago. Nowadays, a virtual keyboard doesn’t seem as novel.
Neither does the fact that the designers of the iPad (and iPhone and iPod touch) removed the usual physical buttons in favor of a multitouch display. This beautiful and responsive finger-controlled screen is at the heart of the many things you do on the iPad.
In the following sections, you discover how to move around the multitouch interface with ease. Later, we home in on how to make the most of the keyboard.
Rice Krispies have Snap! Crackle! Pop! Apple’s response for the iPad is Tap! Flick! Pinch! Oh yeah, and Drag!
Fortunately, tapping, flicking, pinching, and dragging are not challenging gestures, so you can master many of the iPad’s features in no time:
The Home screen, which we discuss in Chapter 1, is not the only screen of icons on your tablet. After you start adding apps from the iTunes App Store (which you discover in Chapter 11), you may see a row of two or more tiny dots just above the main apps parked at the bottom of the screen. Those dots denote additional Home screens each containing up to 20 additional icons, not counting the 4 to 6 separate icons docked at the bottom of each of these Home screens. You can have up to 15 Home screens. You can also have fewer docked icons at the bottom of the Home screen, but we can’t think of a decent reason why you’d want to ditch any of them. In any case, more on these in a moment.
Here’s what you need to know about navigating among the screens:
You can also drag your finger in either horizontal direction to see a different screen. Unlike flicking — you may prefer the term swiping — dragging your finger means keeping it pressed against the screen until you reach your desired page.
You can add one or two more icons to the dock. Or move one of the four default icons into the main area of the Home screen to make space for additional app icons you may use more often, as described later in this chapter.
Being able to select and then copy and paste from one place on a computer to another has seemingly been a divine right since Moses, and that’s the case on the Apple tablet as well. You can copy and paste (and cut) with pizzazz.
On the iPad, you might copy text or a URL from the web and paste it into an email or a note. Or you might copy a bunch of pictures or video into an email.
Suppose you’re in the Notes app, jotting down ideas that you’ll eventually copy to an email. Here’s how you would exploit the copy-and-paste feature:
You can also drag the blue grab points (handles) to select a larger block of text or to contract the text you’ve already selected, as shown in Figure 2-2. Dragging grab points may take a little practice.
Up pop the Select, Select All, Paste, Quote Level, and Insert Photo or Video commands, as shown in Figure 2-3. (We get to the last two options in Chapter 5.)
Here’s the pizzazz part. If you made a mistake when you were cutting, pasting, or typing, shake the iPad. Doing so undoes the last edit (provided that you tap the Undo Paste or Undo option when it appears).
You also see these options:
Multitasking on the iPad was introduced way back in iOS 4, and it has become better ever since, most dramatically with the iOS 7 and iOS 8 upgrades. Through multitasking, you can run numerous apps in the background simultaneously and easily switch from one app to another. The following examples illustrate what multitasking enables you to do on your iPad:
Multitasking couldn’t be easier — and it’s become pretty smart through the various iOS upgrades. Now your iPad can anticipate your needs. For example, if it detects, over time, that you tend to turn to your social networking apps around the same time every morning, it will make sure the feeds are ready for you.
Double-press (not double-tap) the Home button. You see preview pages with icons just below them for any open apps, as shown in Figure 2-4. Scroll to the right or left to see more apps. Tap the icon or preview screen for the app you want to switch to: The app remembers where you left off. (Scroll all the way to the left, and you’ll also see a preview screen for the last Home screen you opened.) If you hold the tablet sideways in landscape mode, the previews for your apps appear sideways, too.
Apple insists that multitasking will not overly tax the battery or exhaust system resources. The iPad conserves power and resources by putting apps in a state of suspended animation. And your iPad will schedule updates only during power-efficient times, such as when your device is connected to Wi-Fi.
Still, we think it’s a good idea to shut down apps you’re not using because you’ll see a battery hit over time. To remove an app from the multitasking rotation, swipe up the app’s preview. Poof — it’s gone.
Finding the single app that you want to use among apps spread out over 15 screens may seem like a daunting task. But Apple felt your pain and added a handy organizational tool: folders. The Folders feature lets you create folder icons, each containing apps that pertain to the name that Apple assigned or you gave to that folder.
To create a folder, follow these steps:
The two apps now share living quarters inside a newly created folder. Apple names the folder according to the category of apps inside the folder.
To launch an app inside a folder, tap that folder’s icon and then tap the icon for the app that you want to open.
You have plenty of room for all your apps. Indeed, you can stash up to 9 apps per page in a folder and have as many as 15 pages. That’s a grand total of 126 (more, we suspect, than you’d possibly ever want to tuck away in a folder).
When you drag all the apps from a folder, the folder automatically disappears. You can also drag apps on or off the dock.
Apple didn’t include built-in printer functionality with the original iPad. A variety of third-party apps helped fill the bill to some degree, but still the faithful waited for Apple to come up with a solution. The AirPrint feature that subsequently arrived provided just such a remedy — to a point. You can print wirelessly from the iPad to an AirPrint-capable printer. The first of these compatible features emerged on more than a dozen HP printers; now you have offerings from Epson, Canon, and others.
AirPrint works with Mail, Photos, Safari, and iBooks (PDF files). You can also print from apps in Apple’s iWork software suite, as well as third-party apps with built-in printing.
To print, follow these steps:
The icon is shown in the margin.
If you display the preview pages while a print job is underway, the Print Center icon appears with all your other recently used apps. A badge indicates how many documents are in the print queue, along with the currently printing document.
Using the Safari browser (see Chapter 4), you can search the web via Google, Yahoo!, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. If you’ve added a foreign language keyboard, other options may present themselves. For example, with a Chinese keyboard enabled, you can summon the Baidu search engine.
You can search also for people and programs across your iPad and within specific apps. We show you how to search within apps in the various chapters dedicated to Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Music.
Here’s how the search feature works:
A bar slides into view at the top of the screen.
The iPad spits out results the moment you type a single character; the list narrows as you type additional characters.
The results are pretty darn thorough. Say that you entered Ring as your search term, as shown in Figure 2-5. Contacts whose last names have Ring in them show up, along with friends who might do a trapeze act in the Ringling Bros. circus. All the songs on your iPad by Ringo Starr show up too, as do such song titles as Tony Bennett’s “When Do the Bells Ring for Me,” if that happens to be in your library. The same goes for apps, videos, audiobooks, events, and notes with the word Ring.
In Settings (see Chapter 15), you can specify the order of search results so that apps come first, contacts second, songs third, and so on.
As you know by now, instead of a physical keyboard, several soft, or virtual, English-language or (depending upon what you chose during setup) foreign-language keyboard layouts slide up from the bottom of the iPad screen, including variations on the alphabetical keyboard, the numeric and punctuation keyboard, and the more punctuation and symbols keyboard.
Indeed, the beauty of a software keyboard is that you see only the keys that are pertinent to the task at hand. The layout you see depends on the app. The keyboards in Safari differ from the keyboards in Mail. For example, in Mail, you’ll see a Return key. The similarly placed key in Safari is labeled Go. Figure 2-6 displays the difference between the Mail (top) and Safari (bottom) keyboards.
Before you consider how to actually use the keyboard, we want to share a bit of the philosophy behind its so-called intelligence. Knowing what makes this keyboard smart can help you make it even smarter when you use it. The keyboard
Decline incorrect suggestions (by tapping the characters you typed as opposed to the suggested words that appear below what you’ve typed). This extra step helps your intelligent keyboard become even smarter.
If you wanted to respond with something different than the three options presented by Apple, you’d just type your response with the regular QWERTY keys. As you type additional letters and words, the three suggested word choices above the keyboard change in real time. For instance, if you start by typing That is a in your message, the new trio of word choice buttons that show up might be good, great, and very.
Such QuickType keyboard predictions vary by app and even according to the person with whom you are communicating. So the predictive text choices that show up in Messages when you’re involved in an exchange with a friend are likely to be more casual than those in an email to your boss.
To exploit the predictive typing feature, make sure the Predictive setting is turned on (as it is by default). Go to Settings⇒General⇒Keyboard, and slide the Predictive switch to on.
Such suggestions don’t appear only in English. If you’re using an international keyboard, suggestions are presented in the appropriate language.
The iPad keyboard contains several keys that don’t actually type a character. Here’s the scoop on each of these keys:
When you use dictation, the things you say are recorded and sent to Apple, which converts your words into text. Just make sure to proofread what you’ve said because the process isn’t foolproof. Apple also collects other information, including your first name and nickname, the names and nicknames of folks in your Contacts list, song names in Music, and more. Apple says it does this to help the Dictation feature perform its duties. If any of this freaks you out, however, tap Settings⇒General⇒Keyboard and slide the Dictation switch to off. You can also restrict the use of dictation in Settings, as explained in Chapter 15.
After you’ve downloaded a keyboard, visit Settings⇒General⇒Keyboard⇒Keyboards⇒Add New Keyboard and select the keyboard of choice. Then press and hold down on the international keyboard key (globe icon) on the iPad’s own keyboard, and select your new keyboard from the list that appears. Alternatively, keep tapping the globe icon until the keyboard you want takes over.
The virtual keyboards in Apple’s multitouch interface just might be considered a stroke of genius. Or they just might drive you nuts.
If you’re patient and trusting, in a week or so, you’ll get the hang of finger-typing — which is vital to moving forward, of course, because you rely on a virtual keyboard to tap a text field, enter notes, type the names of new contacts, and so on.
As we note earlier in this chapter, Apple has built intelligence into its virtual keyboard, so it can correct typing mistakes on the fly or provide helpful word choices by predicting what you’re about to type next. The keyboard isn’t exactly Nostradamus, but it does an excellent job of coming up with the words you have in mind. We’ve found that tapping one of the predictive buttons appears to speed things up as well as bolster our typing accuracy.
Meanwhile, if you press and hold down the .? key in Safari, it offers you the choice of .us, .org, .edu, .com, or .net with additional options if you also use international keyboards. Pretty slick stuff, except we miss the dedicated .com key that was on the keyboard prior to iOS 7. You can bring the key back by holding down the period key and then releasing your finger when .com is highlighted.
If you don’t appreciate these features, you can turn off Auto-Correction and Predictive in Settings. See Chapter 15 for details. See Chapter 20 for autocorrection tricks.
We think typing with abandon, without getting hung up over mistyped characters, is a good idea. The self-correcting keyboard can fix many errors (and occasionally introduce errors of its own). That said, plenty of typos are likely to turn up, especially in the beginning, and you have to correct them manually.
And with that, you are hereby notified that you’ve survived basic training. The real fun is about to begin.