iPad Tips and Tricks

If you've been visiting iSmashPhone lately, you may have noticed that we've been running tons of posts geared towards people who are new to the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. This is because we are sure that there are plenty of those devices in the hands of new users today. With that, we are sure that there are plenty of questions to go along with those devices. We've covered some of the basic stuff, such as care and tips and tricks, but those were general iOS tips. Now, we're going to talk all about the iPad.

Hit the jump to learn a bit more about how to use your new iPad:

1) Open Multitask Pane
Just double-click the Home Button

2) Orientation Lock
Bring up the Multitask Pane and swipe it left to right. You will see a little circular arrow icon. Touch the icon and a lock will appear within the arrow. (More details here)

3) Connect to Wifi
From the homescreen, go to Settings > Wifi (found on the left column). Under wifi networks, make sure wifi is "On" and choose an available network from the list under "Choose a network..." Enter network password if applicable.


4) Read PDFs
    A) Download iBooks from the App Store (Free).
    B) Now, connect your device to the computer and launch iTunes (it may autolaunch depending on your settings).
    C) In iTunes, go to File > Add to Library, and choose the PDF you want to import onto your iPad. (Control + O on a PC / Cmd + O on a Mac will also Add to Library).
    D) When you have finished importing the PDF, you will sync the iPad once more.
    E) After Syncing, you can launch iBooks. From there you can look at your collections in the top left corner of the bookshelf and choose PDFs. This will take you to a bookshelf with all of your PDF files.

5) Connect Wireless Keyboard to iPad
You can connect an Apple Wireless Keyboard to your iPad.
    A) First off, if you have a wireless keyboard, it's probably connected to your Mac.
        a) Go to your Mac's preferences (under the Apple menu in the top left corner)
        b) Uncheck "Discoverable"
        c) Choose the keyboard from the menu and click on the little minus sign below
    B) On your iPad, go to Settings > General > Bluetooth > On
    C) Keyboard should show up.
    D) The iPad will ask you to enter a code.
    E) Your keyboard's name will show up and say "Connected." You can now type on your iPad using the wireless keyboard.
   A Few Notes on this: If you want to use your keyboard with your Mac again, you will have to disconnect from the iPad and reconnect to the computer.
Also, know that when you have a wireless keyboard connected to your iPad, the onscreen keyboard won't pop up. Don't forget to disable the external keyboard function on your iPad, or it won't use the popup screen keyboard.

6) How to Create a Folder
Hold your finger on an App icon until you see the iOS dance (you will see the icon enlarge slightly while the others jiggle), and drag it into a similar icon. This will automatically create a folder. iOS is also pretty smart with naming folders. For instance, if you join USA Today with the New York Times, it will automatically name it "News."


7) Add Apps to Tray
Hold the App icon as described above and when you see the iOS dance, simply drag the icon into the tray below (The tray is the bottom section with your email, Safari, Photos and iPod.
8) Search in iPad
This will save you time if you have tons of Apps and folders. Swipe your finger (left to right) on first page of the Home Screen, or just hit the Home Button once from that same page. This will bring up your spotlight search. Type in the name of the App, song or contact you're looking for. What's really cool is that this will even search through your recent emails (anything that's in the iPad's cache) as well as the internet and Wikipedia.
9) Get Free Books The Legal Way
eReader Apps such as Nook, Kindle, Google Books and iBooks are all available for free on the App Store. Each of them has its unique storefront and offers many of the classics for free. It's a good way to catch up on those books you chose to use Cliffs Notes on rather than read through in high school.



10) Sync iPad to Kindle
One very awesome thing about the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch is that their Kindle Apps can automatically sync to your Kindle. This means that if you were reading your book on one, you can hop back and forth between devices and start where you left off.
Simply hit the little "i" in the bottom right corner. Go to Settings within the popup menu. You will see an option allowing you to register the device. You link it to your Amazon account (as you did your Kindle) and now your various devices can be synced.


11) How to Turn off Autocorrect
Autocorrect can be a hassle across all iOS devices. It's the thing that changes the words you're trying to say and turns it into something completely different. To disable that, you can simply go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Auto-Correction > Off.

12) How to Delete Email
You may have noticed you can't delete email from the iPad's native email App. It only let's you archive by default. Let's fix that:
Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Email Account (in my case, Gmail) > Archive Message > Off

13) How to Set up Find my iPhone
It's called find my iPhone, but it works just as well for the iPad or any other current-gen iDevice. There are a few more steps involved in this one, but what this basically does is allow you to find your device should it become lost or stolen. You can also remotely wipe data if it comes down to that. We have a piece explaining how to set it up here.

Future iPad 2

iPad been the one of the hottest gadgets of the year 2010 by Apple. Rumors of the iPad 2 were started back like from January 2010. As you all know that iPad has no camera that the reason Apple start working on iPad 2 based on this point. GadgetVenue make a list of all rumors about size, screen, and etc. And also there were few release dates for iPad 2 and there are many more things as well.

Let what they say about iPad 2;

A lot of the rumors start with comparisons against the iPhone 4. This includes the Retina Display, front (and back) facing cameras as well as the flat back.

iPad 2 Retina Display Rumor

With the iPhone 4 getting the high pixel density Retina Display earlier this year, rumors point towards the next gen tablet getting this same technology. Apple created an amazing screen on the iPhone 4 which has a 326 ppi (pixels per inch) density. By increasing the density up to 326 PPI, it makes it very difficult to distinguish the pixels when holding the phone at the usual 1 to 2 feet away from your eyes. This in turn, makes text appear incredibly clear, even when the text is zoomed way out.

Could the Retina Display land on the tablet? Possibly, but keep in mind that it’s a 9.7 inch screen as opposed to just a 3.5 inch screen which essentially makes a heck of a lot of pixels. GDGT did some calculations on the Retina Display on a 9.7 inch screen, and with the pixel density of 326 (330 as GDGT referrers to it as) they calculated that a 9.7 inch iPad Retina Display would have 2560 x 1920 pixels. That seems like a lot, and it is. The iMac that I am using right now to write this on has a resolution of 2560 x 1440… this screen I use is 27 inches… cram the same amount of pixels across and more pixels down in to a 9.7 inch display and you have an incredible resolution.

Is it likely to happen? Possibly not (also think hardware requirements to run a screen of that resolution), but we suspect that they will go full HD as in 1920 x 1080 at a guess.

iPad 2 Gyro

One of the new sensors added to the iPhone 4 was the gyroscope. What this allows the iPhone 4 to do is achieve far more accuracy when detecting movement. Could this be included in the new tablet? We think it probably will be included and we don’t think this rumor is far fetched.

iPad 2 Dual Cameras for FaceTime Calling

When the iPhone 4 was announced, we heard about FaceTime. Apple said… “People have been dreaming about video calling for decades. iPhone 4 makes it a reality”. Although video calling has been around for several years in the UK and other countries, Apple were the first company who seemed to be able to push the service forwards due to their sheer amount of customers.

One problem with the original tablet is that it lacks camera(s), and thus, cannot be used for FaceTime. Apple is pushing FaceTime across devices and has since, added an application for download on the Mac so you can call from Mac to iPhone and vice-versa. Adding camera(s) to the second gen model would let Apple reach out even further.

Do we think FaceTime is coming to the iPad 2… yes we do. People have wanted cameras since the first model was announced, so it really does seem to make sense here.

iPad 2 Landscape Dock

Some patents were dug up a few months back that hint towards the iPad 2 getting a second dock connector on the long side. This would allow you to dock the device in either portrait or landscape mode.

Having a patent for something doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in a future model, but some people think the idea is great and would love for a second dock connector to be added. Personally, I don’t use a dock so for me it’s just another hole in the side of the iPad.

iPad 2 to Get USB Port and SD Card Slot

File this one under “probably not”. We heard rumors a few weeks back saying that the new model will get a USB port as well as an SD card slot (or microSD). This is a big move away for Apple from the traditional 30 pin dock connector although it could possibly happen due to regulations trying to push devices to a standard micro USB connector. As for the SD card slot, we doubt this one will happen either. Apple hasn’t gone down the route of expandable storage on any iOS device that we can remember, so we doubt they will change the model here.

iPad 2 to Come in Both 9.7 and 7 inch Models

The rumors of a tablet with a 7 inch display have been passed around for a few months now. Steve Jobs answered this in a Q&A at an event and basically said no, it wont happen. However, the rumor still wont die with some claims that an Apple tablet with a 7 inch display is currently being ordered by Apple.

Although Steve Jobs said no to it, this doesn’t mean it wont happen. We feel it is unlikely to happen although the 7 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab has been a popular device and has a screen size that many people prefer. It’s easy to carry around and a large enough size to browse comfortably on it. So, expect that Apple might announce a 7 inch iPad, but we are more like 40/60 on this in that it is less likely to happen.

New Form Factor – iPad 2 to Have Flat Back

A new rumor started just today indicates that the new iPad 2 will have a flat back like the iPhone 4. When we say like the iPhone 4, we could just mean in that it’s flat and not necessarily a large sheet of glass. Could Apple change the form factor already? We are inclined to think they will slim it down a little in the middle, but as for a complete smooth and flat back, we are not completely convinced yet of this one.

iPad 2 Technical Specs

We have heard that the second gen model will get a boost in technical specs. This is one we certainly believe. Apple will more than likely put a faster processor inside along with more RAM. Right now the iPad has 256MB RAM, expect this to double to 512MB or perhaps even bump up even higher if a high res screen is included. As for the processor, there have been rumors that the iPad 2 will get a 2GHz ARM Cortex A9 variant. When we say variant here, what we mean is that Apple will modify the ARM Cortex A9 to do what they want it to do which is how ARM processor work.

iPad 2 Release Date

Here is one for a bit of confusion. We’ve heard all sorts of dates as to when the iPad 2 release date will be with some hinting that it will be any time from now and the 1st Quarter of 2011. What we think is that Apple will announce the new iPad in March and will release it in April 2011 which is a year after the original launch. We don’t see any particular reason why Apple will try rush the next model out.