In Depth: 50 really useful iPad tips and tricks: "
Unbox the Apple iPad and, after you shield your eyes from the glorious glow and pay homage to the Cupertino gods, you'll discover a powerful computing appliance, one that does not emit an effervescent aura but does provide some handy tools for getting your work done, watching TV shows, browsing the web, and chatting over instant message with your friends.
Beyond the basic email and photo viewing, here are 50 tips to get more from your iPad and make your life fully fulfilled.
1. Use a custom wallpaper
Like the iPhone, you can use a custom wallpaper. First, use Safari to find the image you want. (Try Interfacelift.com, which has iPad-sized images.)
View the image, then press and hold on the screen and select Save Image. Now, go to Settings, Brightness & Wallpaper. Flick to the right, go to Saved Photos, and select the image. Press the Set Lock Screen or Set Home Screen option, or Both.
2. Control iPad notifications
Have you ever played Tap Tap Revenge on the iPhone? Good, then you know how annoying notifications can be. These messages pop up on the iPad as well. but you can control them. Go to Settings, Notifications, and configure which alerts (and accompanying sounds) will appear.
3. Read iPad books in portrait
You may be tempted to read e-books in landscape mode -- with the Apple iBooks app, you'll have a few more on-screen aids and a book spine. The spine, though, has this fuzzy pattern that actually draws your eyes away from the words and ruins the immersion of the e-book. Go portrait instead.
4. Make use of the dock
The iPad ships with just a few apps on the dock, but you can have up to six. Just press and hold down on an app and drag it into position on the dock. To remove one, press and drag away.
5. Password protection
You can password-protect apps like iTunes so that a family member can't buy every U2 record with your credit card. Go to Settings, then General, then Restrictions. Press Enable Restrictions and type a password, then turn on the restrictions you want for the apps available. Note that this password is different from your iTunes password - you'll need to tap in both.
6. Keep a cloth handy
Unlike the iPhone, the iPad does not use the oleophobic coating to keep smudges from accumulating on the screen. (Our guess: it would cost too much on the 9.7-inch screen.) Second best option: keep a cloth handy to wipe off grime, or use a kit like the one from Griffin.
7. Charge at night
It might seem obvious, but the best way to charge the iPad is overnight -- it takes a good four to five hours for a full charge from near empty.
8. Use the Kindle reader
Amazon offers the free Kindle reader for iPad, and it is a welcome addition. All of your Amazon e-book purchases will be available immediately, and Amazon prices are much better than iBooks.
9. Use an Apple keyboard
Any Apple Wireless Keyboard will work with the iPad. In fact, you can prop up the device without the expensive dock, use the Pages app to type up long documents, or reply to emails.
10. Shake Facebook
The Facebook app loads in a 1/8 view, which is lame. But, it works the same as it does on the iPhone: you can shake the iPad (gently) to reload your Facebook page quickly.
11. Go full-screen with ABC
It might not seem possible at first, but the ABC Player app -- which lets you watch TV shows on the iPad, but only from that network -- starts in a vertical view. Once you play a show, though, you can turn the iPad horizontally and the show will play in full-screen landscape mode.
12. Touch differently
For those used to the iPhone, there is a new art to using the iPad. With the Photos app, for example, you can control your shots in new ways - try pressing with two fingers in the all photos view. You can then spin the photo and slide it around. (This works exactly like a Microsoft Surface table.)
13. Expand your Home
There are 11 home screens available, and you can drag icons to the right of the main Home screen at anytime, not just when you load new apps.
14. Re-install deleted apps
Once you buy an app, you can always re-install it even if you delete it from your device. Just go to the App Store and buy the app again. You will see a prompt that you have already bought this app and an option to re-install it without having to pay for it again.
15. Drag sites to the Home screen
Like the iPhone, you can add as many web sites to the Home screens as you want. Just go to the site you want, then click the Plus sign next to the URL. Press on the Add to Home Screen option.
16. Connect to an HD
You can connect the iPad to your television. You'll need the Apple iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter, which connects to the 30-pin port on the iPad and to the VGA port on your HD.
17. Use 802.11a for reliable streaming
If you want the most reliable Wi-Fi signal for streaming videos from, say, YouTube.com, use a router that supports 802.11a, which does not have the best range but does not conflict with the 802.11g signal used by microwave ovens, baby monitors, and other wireless devices.
18. Set your EQ
Be sure to set the EQ for the iPad, which makes the sound quality much more listenable. Go to Settings, then iPod, then EQ. Select the style of music you listen to most often.
19. Switch search engines
You do not have to use Google for searching from the Safari browser. To switch to Yahoo, go to Settings, Safari, Search Engine, and then select Yahoo.
20. Adjust your email signature
Using the default 'sent from my iPad' signature line for every email makes you look cool, but also tells your e-mail recipients that you do not know how to change it. Go to Settings, then Mail, Contacts and Calendars and select Signature. Type in any text you want.
21. Groups your icons
Savvy iPhone users have learned to group icons according to categories - business apps, video and music, games, etc. On the iPad, this is even more important because the screen is much larger and it is easier to get lost in app confusion. You can even group icons in their own screen.
22. Shuffle your slides
The iPad is a great picture frame, although we're still waiting for an app that streams live pictures from, say Flickr. For now, you can easily shuffle your photos when you use the slideshow mode in the Photos app. Go to Settings, Picture Frame, and enable the Shuffle option.
23. Go VPN
The iPad supports a VPN connection. To configure it, go to Settings, then General, Network. Select the VPN and move the slider to On, then add a VPN configuration with your server and account details.
24. Use widescreen for some movies
Depending on the movie you watch, widescreen mode might work better. To use it, go to Settings, Video, and enable the Widescreen option.
25. Get free e-books
The iPad supports the ePub format, and you can load these books simply by e-mailing them to yourself. Search on the Web for 'epub' to find book collections. Some libraries let you check out ePub books.
26. Mute the device
iPhone users know you can press the volume button to mute an incoming call. But there are no incoming calls on the iPad. You can still mute the device by pressing a holding the volume down button for about two seconds.
27. Type fast
The soft keyboard on the iPad does not work like the inaccurate keypads on a smartphone. You may be tempted to type slow and methodically, but no worries: you can actually type your normal speed and the iPad, using its Apple A4 processor, keeps up rather nicely.
28. Start a slide show while locked
Once you save your first photo to the device, you will see an option on the unlock screen to start a slideshow. Just click it and the slideshow will start. Under Settings, you can adjust slide timing.
29. Download podcasts
You can search for and subscribe to podcasts so they are downloaded automatically to your iPad. Go to iTunes, then click Podcasts at the bottom of the screen. Search for the one you want and select it, then select Free next to the episodes you want. Note: to subscribe to podcasts, you need to use a PC and sync with the iPad. Why this is true we have no idea.
30. Quick browser scroll
You can scroll to the top of any web site by double-tapping on the top of the title window.
31. Copy and Paste
You can quickly copy and paste text by holding down, then tapping Copy, then going to a different window, and holding down and tapping Paste. To select a paragraph of text tap four times.
32. Turn off email alert chimes
You can turn off the chime for new e-mails. Go to Settings, then General, then Sounds and disable the chimes. You can also adjust the sound level here.
33. Perform a hard reboot
You can reboot the iPad by holding down both the Home and Power button for a few seconds until the device reboots.
34. Take an iPad screenshot
Like the iPhone, you can take a screenshot by pressing Home and then the power button. Images are saved automatically in the Photos gallery. Here, you can view or email them.
35. Increase iPad battery life
The iPad battery can last for up to 10 hours, but you can squeak out a bit more usage. Drag the brightness slider (under Settings, Brightness) as low as you can stand, turn off both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (under Settings), don't play and videos or music, and avoid gaming apps.
36. Save space for more music
When you connect your iPad to iTunes, there's an option under summary that, when enabled, will automatically convert all songs to 128 kbps, which will save space on the device.
37. Turn off duplicate names for Wi-Fi nets
The iPad has problems if you use a dual-channel router (one that supports both 802.11a and 802.11n at the same time) if the networks use the same name. Change the SSID to different names.
38. Avoid USB docks
The iPad does not charge when you connect it to some USB docks. Instead, plug in the cord directly to a USB port. Note that, on some PCs, USB port son the front of the computer may not work either (these are considered part of a USB dock) so you will need to plug into one on the back.
39. Look for dead pixels
When you first buy an iPad, make sure you look closely for any dead pixels. You can run iBooks and flip to an empty page to help. Dead pixels are tiny dots in white or black. If you find one, be sure to go back to your retailer and exchange it for one without dead pixels.
40. Use a protective cover
The iPad does not scratch easily, but it still scratches. Apple offers an iPad case to protect the device, as does Tom Bihn and iLuv.
41. Connect the audio
The iPad has great audio quality - if you use earbuds. The speaker is not exactly robust, but you can connect the iPad to a stereo using a 3.5mm mini-to-mini cable.
42. Search with Spotlight
If you flip to the left of the Home screen, you can quickly search for music, movies, apps, and just about any text. Just type in what you want and tap on the item you want in the results.
43. Replace a word
When you hold down on a word to copy it, you will see a new option: replace. Here, you can paste in a word (one you copied before) that replaces the currently selected word.
44. Get even more dim
You can lower the brightness setting down to a low level using the Brightness option under Settings. But the iBooks app has its own brightness slider, which you can use to lower the level down even more.
45. Watch web video full screen
You can watch web videos in full screen. Just flick with two fingers. Flick back to return to browsing.
46. Zoom in on web sites
You can zoom in on any web site by flicking out with two fingers on the screen. This also makes it easier to select words and tap links. To zoom out again, just spread out two fingers.
47. Watch the heat
Despite what we hear from Apple, the iPad does get quite hot after long periods of watching a movie or playing games. Grab a magazine as a buffer tray between your lap and the device.
48. Remove The Elements
Here is one quick way to save tons of space: if you bought The Elements app, you can save about 1.5GB of space by removing the app. It also makes iPad back-ups when you connect to iTunes takes forever.
49. Watch HTML5 videos
You can watch videos in the Safari browser, once companies start supporting HTML5. The first rumor: CBS is already prepping a service that will make it possible from a web page.
50. Access the iPod
Like the iPhone, you can access an iPod pop-up by double-pressing on the Home button.
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