Did you miss the few basic steps to perform with your new iPad?
I’ve noticed that many folks have purchased iPads but weren’t instructed on a few basic principles. In this article I hope to explain some basics and provide steps to do some productive things that you might not have considered.
Is your iPad and island?
“What is she thinking?” you may say. In my opinion, just connecting to the Internet and getting you email on this great little computing device is not really being connected.
Today, connectivity means connecting to and sharing your photos, email, contacts, documents, books, music and more among your computer, iPad, iPhone or other devices you own.
Example Number 1:
I just took a photo at the park using my iPhone. I get home and want to access it from my iMac to save it to iPhoto, crop it and send it to my friend via email.
Yes, there is a camera roll on the iPhone and yes, I can edit and email it direct from my phone. Then when I sync my phone to iTunes on my iMac, it will be in iPhoto. But it won’t be on my iPad when I want to show it to someone later.
Wouldn’t it be really great if when I shot that photo, it uploaded immediately to my other devices?
Yeah, cool. Thats called Photo Stream and iCloud can do that for you.
Example Number 2:
I wrote an amazing article on my iPad and I want to edit it and add some snazzy graphics while at my iMac before uploading it to the website. Same situation. It would be nice to be able to access it in its latest form from all my devices. iCloud can do that.
Example Number 3:
I have a few web pages open in tabs in Safari on my iMac. I need to run to an appointment then stop at a coffee shop and finish looking at those web pages from my iPad. iCloud can do that.
I think you are getting it by now. The idea is to have all your contacts, calendar, safari bookmarks and more – accessible from any of your devices.
You can do most of this if you have OS X Lion or Mountain Lion installed on your Mac and the latest iOS 5 on your iPad. Look for more features when iOS 6 comes out in September.
What do you need to do to keep your iPad from being an island?
Make sure you are running the latest software on it- the iOS (operating system software that runs your iPad- if you don’t have the new third generation iPad, your iPad needs to upgrade by connecting it to your computer using the latest version of the iTunes software. This will allow your iPad to make a backup of anything you have purchased and downloaded such as apps and music. This is where you apply the update to iOS 5.
Once you are running iOS 5, you can set your iPad to sync to iTunes on your computer via WiFi if you have WiFi in your home. You can also set it to back up to iCloud. In addition, your Mac running OS X Lion or Mountain Lion can be set to turn on Photo Stream from within iPhoto.
Now iOS software upgrades can be downloaded directly at your iPad without having to connect it to your computer. This is cutting the cord. The costs of upgrading your iPad or iPhone is zero.
I hope this helped to explain there is no need to keep your iPad isolated from the rest of your computing devices.
Here are some basic things to know when just getting started with an iPad:
Connect to iTunes on Your Computer
The first thing to do when setting up a new iPad is to make sure that you have the most recent version of iTunes on your computer, plug the iPad and its connector into the USB port of the computer and do an initial sync. This is a good time to choose which music from your iTunes library you’d like to have on your iPad.
Enable Wi-Fi
To enable the iPad’s Wi-Fi connection, first press the Home button and tap the Settings icon. Tap the Wi-Fi option in the list of settings and then drag the Wi-Fi slide bar to the On position. Then choose the network you want to join and enter the network’s password.
Use iCloud
Apple’s iCloud service is free and provides you with 5 Gigabytes of storage space. If you need more, you can upgrade the service.
Configuring iCloud synchronization is easy. On the iPad, tap Settings, tap iCloud, enter your Apple ID and password, and then tap Sign In. Then you can choose the features you want to synchronize to the iCloud.
In order to use iCloud on your Mac, you’ll need to have OS X Lion or Mountain Lion.
Use Airplane Mode
Put your iPad into Airplane Mode while flying. To do so, tap the Settings button (on the Home screen) and then move the Airplane Mode slide bar to the On position. This setting is helpful when you are not in a wifi hotspot or cellular tower, so that your iPad’s battery doesn’t drain looking for a connection.
Perform a Search to Quickly get to an App
The iPad’s Home screen can span several screens, depending on how many apps you’ve installed. You can flick the screen to the left or right to access pages of icons. As you do, a series of dots near the bottom of the screen will show you which page you are on.
If you want to do a search to find an app or other type of content, just go to the main Home screen (the first page of icons) and then flick the screen to the left. This will take you to the iPad’s Search screen.
Set Notifications
This one is often overlooked but its important. In the Settings, there is a Notifications area. choose that and you can choose which apps are allowed to notify you of events and choose how you see those notifications. Perhaps you want to see email notifications with the first two lines of an email on your locked screen so you know when to check email. Or perhaps you hear strange beeps and they end up being a game that is beeping every time someone you know is playing that game (ughhh).
Get Apps
What’s an iPad without about a hundred apps? (Says the App Addict) It’s fun to try the free apps out. For important tasks, you will want to spend a little money for high quality applications that are feature-rich.
I recommend:
- Pages and Keynote if you use then on your Mac. I love this writing app called Writings. Its distraction free and has some cool writer’s tools with an extra toolbar for common punctuation if you are using the built-in tap keyboard. No fancy formatting, made for production.
- Productivity Apps. There are so many that are great. Just shop to find what you need. I like Omnifocus, Evernote and Notability.
- Netflix, Hulu Plus, Crackle, Livestream, Justin.tv and more for live video streaming.
- Talkatone for being able to make free phone calls and send free text messages. It helps to have a google account and especially google voice. Skype is popular although I don’t use it.
- Games. Of course! I keep my mind sharp with the Big Sudoku Book for iPad (it’s gorgeous), Words with Friends and Scrabble.
- Weather apps are great. Most are free and you can see live radar for precipitation as well a weather news videos.
- Facebook has a new iPad app for a better experience on the iPad. There’s also a separate app called Messenger that is just for your Facebook messages. Google Plus and Google Hangouts now have apps. If you enjoy social networks, try Flipboard. It puts all your social networks updates in a magazine format that is nice to peruse.
For more tips and how-to’s, stay tuned here. You can also contact us for help and coaching on using your iPad to the max.
What are your tips to share with other iPad users? What are your must-have apps?
Please comment below!
About Jacqueline Monroe
Jacqueline is the founder of www.applejuicesupport.com, www.applejuiceacademy.com and macJuicy news. Her clients use their Macs with less fuss. For a wham-biz whack-a-mole solution to calm your computing nerves, set up an on-your-Mac remote consultation with the amazing Jacqueline. She creates online learning content for Applejuice Academy that helps people cut learning time and get to the 'doing' on their Macs.