How to Work the ipad Buttons Using the Apple ipad is pretty intuitive but to save time, have a look at these ipad buttons that you'll use frequently. They'll make your new ipad even simpler. The On/Off, Sleep/Wake button: This button is on the top of your ipad, and you use it to put your ipad's screen to sleep or wake it up. Home button: No matter what you're doing, you can press the Home button at any time to display the Home screen on your ipad. Application icons: Each icon shown on the touchscreen launches an ipad application. Twenty apps come with your ipad, and you can add more by downloading them from the App Store. Volume Up/Down control: The upper part of the button increases the volume; the lower part decreases it. Mute switch: When the switch is set to Silent mode the down position, with an orange dot visible on the switch your ipad doesn't make any sound when you receive new mail or an alert pops up on the screen. Note that the Mute switch doesn't silence what you think of as "expected" sounds, which are sounds you expect to hear in a particular app. Therefore, it doesn't silence the itunes or Videos apps, nor will it mute games and other apps that emit noises. About the only thing the Mute switch mutes are "unexpected" sounds, such as those associated with notifications from apps or the ipad operating system (ios). If the switch doesn't mute your notification sounds when engaged (that is, you can see the little orange dot on the switch), look for a little No Rotation icon to the left of the Battery icon near the top of your screen. If you see this icon when you flick the Mute switch, there are two possible reasons. Reason 1: Your ipad is running an older version (version 3) of ios. Reason 2: Your ipad is running version 4 or higher of ios and you have selected the Lock Rotation option in the Settings app's General pane. Reason 1 occurs because ios 3 treats the switch as a rotation lock, period, with no option for you to use it as a Mute switch. If that's the case, connect your ipad to your computer and use itunes to upgrade your ipad to the current version by clicking the Check for Updates button on the Summary tab and following the instructions for updating your ipad. The current version of ios (5.1) treats it as a Mute switch by default, but you can change it to a Rotation Lock in the Settings app's General pane.
How to Master the ipad Multitouch Screen To move around on your Apple ipad, use the multitouch screen. The ipad has no mouse and no physical keyboard or keypad buttons; the multitouch screen displays virtual versions of buttons and controls as required for the tasks at hand. Prep your fingers for the following: Flick a finger on the ipad screen to scroll through music, pictures, e-mails, contacts, and more. Tap against the ipad screen to open applications, play songs, choose photos, and so on. Pinch and unpinch to enlarge web pages and pictures, or to make them smaller. To pinch or unpinch using multitouch, place your thumb and index finger against the ipad screen. Then keeping the thumb in place, drag your index finger to pinch or unpinch accordingly. Trust the ipad virtual keyboard. It makes suggestions and corrects mistakes on the fly. Though it may not look like it, your ipad is a multitasking marvel. While you can have only one app on your screen at a time, you can swipe left or right with four or five fingers to switch between recently used apps. Or double-tap the Home button to see the icons of recently used apps. Correct errors in a note or e-mail by holding your fingers against the ipad screen to bring up a magnifying glass that lets you position the pointer in the precise spot that needs to be edited. Five Things to Try When Your ipad Acts Up Most of the time, your ipad behaves itself, but every so often it doesn't. Here's a quick review of things you can try if your ipad isn't working the way you expect: 1. Restart your ipad. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button, and then slide the red slider to turn it off. Wait a few seconds. Press the Sleep/Wake button to turn on the ipad again. 2. Force any frozen applications to quit. Press and hold the Home button on the front of the ipad for 6 to 10 seconds. Then restart it (see Step 1). 3. Reset your ipad. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button while you press and hold the Home button at the same time. This forces your ipad to restart.
4. Reset ipad settings. Tap the Settings icon on your Home screen, and then tap General Reset Reset All Settings. Resetting ipad settings won't erase your data, but you'll probably have to redo some settings afterwards. 5. Restore your ipad. Connect your ipad to your computer as though you were about to sync. Then select the ipad in the itunes sidebar and click the Restore button on the Summary tab. Restoring your ipad erases all your data and media, and resets all your settings. Because your data and media (except contacts, calendar events, and playlists you've created or modified on your ipad since your last sync) still exist on your computer, you shouldn't lose anything. Your next sync will take longer, and you will have to reset any settings you've changed since you got your ipad. But your media and data files shouldn't be affected. How to Adjust Network Settings on Your ipad There are a few ipad settings you can customize for your networks, whether you're hopping into the Internet or accessing your company's intranet. Under the ipad's General settings, you'll find options for virtual private networks, for Wi-Fi networks, and for 3G networks. Accessing a VPN A virtual private network (VPN) allows you to access a private network, such as one at your office, over the Internet. A VPN lets you make such a connection securely, and your ipad allows you to adjust settings for activating your connection. In Settings you can do two things: turn VPN on or off, and configure a VPN network. To turn VPN on, follow these steps: 1. Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen.
2. Tap General and then tap Network. 3. Tap VPN and, in the following dialog, tap the Off button and slide it to the left till it reads On. Note that if you haven't yet configured your VPN, an Add Configuration dialog appears. Tweaking Wi-Fi settings The Wi-Fi settings include simply turning Wi-Fi on or off, choosing which network to connect to, and activating a feature that joins recognized networks automatically. To adjust Wi-Fi settings, follow these steps: 1. Tap the Settings icon on the Home screen. 2. Tap General and then tap Network. 3. Tap Wi-Fi and you see settings. Here, you can do the following: Tap the Off button and slide it to turn Wi-Fi on or off. Tap the arrow on a listed network to see its details. Because you are connecting with a network set up on another device, you can't edit this information from your ipad.
Tap the Ask to Join Networks button and slide it to turn this feature on or off. If you turn it off, ipad won't join available networks automatically. If you have the Ask to Join Networks feature turned on and there are no known networks out there, ipad will ask you whether you want to join any new networks that surface.
Going 3G Let's not forget 3G. If you have a 3G ipad, you can change some settings for your 3G connections through the General settings, including Turning a data network on or off: If you don't want to connect to your data provider, turn this setting off. Turning data roaming on or off: If you don't want to allow your ipad to use roaming signals, which might cost you more, turn this one off. Viewing your account information: You can both view and change your 3G account information from your ipad. Adding a SIM PIN: To protect the data on your ipad's micro-sim card, you might want to add a PIN (personal identification number) to it. If somebody doesn't have the PIN, the SIM card stays locked so nobody can hack it to get to your data. Note that if you have a Wi-Fi + 3G model of ipad, you can also use Airplane mode settings to turn your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals off when in flight, and quickly turn them back on again later. On a Wi-Fi-only device, you won't see the Airplane mode feature under Settings. How to Surf the Internet on Your ipad 2 Your ipad 2 comes equipped with Safari, a web browser for surfing the Internet. If you've never used Safari, here's a quick rundown of how it works on your ipad 2. It offers all the typical browser tools, but an important ipad twist is how you can use gestures on the touchscreen to manipulate pages and navigate the web. Though Safari is a fine browser, you aren't limited to it. You can download other browsers to ipad, such as Atomic Web Browser and Duo Browser. After you connected to a network, tap the Safari icon on the Home screen. Safari opens, probably displaying the Apple ipad home page the first time you go online.
Use the following methods to move around the page: Enlarge the view (zoom in): Put two fingers together on the screen and drag them apart. Shrink the view (zoom out): Put two fingers some distance apart on the screen and drag them together.
Restore screen size: Double-tap the screen with a single finger to restore the default screen size. Scroll down the page: Put your finger on the screen and flick upward to scroll down the page. Return to the top of the web page: Put your finger on the screen and drag downward, or tap the Status bar at the top of the screen. Using the pinch method to enlarge or reduce the size of a web page on your screen allows you to enlarge or reduce the screen to various sizes, giving you more flexibility and control than the double-tap method. When you enlarge the display, you gain more control using two fingers to drag from left to right or from top to bottom on the screen. On a reduced display, one finger works fine for making these gestures. These actions help you navigate among pages: Tap in the Address field to display the onscreen keyboard. To clear the field, press the Delete key on the keyboard. Enter a web address, using the.com key to make entry faster. Hold down the.com key to get access to options like.edu,.gov, and.net. Tap the Go key on the keyboard to display the website. If, for some reason, a page doesn't display, tap the Reload icon on the end of the Address field.
If Safari is loading a web page and you change your mind about viewing the page, you can tap the Cancel icon (the X) that appears at the end of the Address field during this process to stop loading the page. Tap the Previous arrow to go backward to the last page Safari displayed. Tap the Next arrow to go forward to the page you just came from by tapping Previous. To follow a link to another web page, tap the link with your finger. To view the destination web address of the link before you tap it, just touch and hold the link, and a menu appears that displays the address at the top. By default, AutoFill is turned on in ipad, causing entries you make in fields such as the address field to automatically display possible matching entries. You can turn off AutoFill in ipad Settings