When you buy a new gadget or device you try to buy the latest with new technologies for enjoying with the latest/newest. In this new era, everyone is trying to make their products or everything better, advance and much reliable. iPad is no different, but as it’s capable of so much it can be difficult to know where to start.
Below ten tips and tricks focus on how to get your iPad set up if you’ve never used or owned one before.
Changing Wallpaper
A really easy way to make your iPad your own is to use a custom wallpaper for either the Lock Screen, the Home Screen (with all your apps on it), or both. Setting up wallpaper is very easy. Open the Settings app, choose Brightness & Wallpaper from the left-hand menu and click on the big Wallpaper button to choose from the preset options or your camera roll. You can set both the Lock and Home screens independently of each other.
Set up your email account
The chances are you’ve already got an email account that you’d like to be able to access on your iPad. Fortunately this is very easy to do. Open the Settings app and choose the Mail, Contacts, Calendars item from the menu. Under Add Account, choose the type of account you have from the list, and add your username and password. If you use iCloud, Exchange or Gmail it will also sync your contacts and calendars automatically!
Save battery power
Sometimes it’s difficult to recharge your battery – especially if you’re doing it from the USB connection of your computer, so it’s useful to reduce the amount of power your iPad uses to make the battery last longer. A quick way to do this is to make sure Bluetooth is turned off in Settings>General. You can also reduce the screen brightness under Settings>Brightness & Wallpaper. Finally, if you’re not using Wi-Fi or 3G, turn on Airplane mode at the top of the Settings app to save even more power. Doing this will prevent you from connecting to the internet.
Make your iPad a picture frame
The iPad has a gorgeous screen that makes it an ideal device for showing off your photos and videos. There’s a special function that can turn your iPad into a photo frame when you’re not using it, so it will cycle through your photos automatically. To activate this, lock your iPad by pressing the power button once, then press the home button, and tap the flower icon next to Slide to Unlock.
Set up FaceTime
One of the nicest features of the new iPad and iPad 2 is the ability to use FaceTime to video conference with other people. You need to turn this feature on before you can use it, however. Open Settings and choose FaceTime from the menu. Tap the button to execute/turn FaceTime on, and enter your Apple ID details to log into the service. If you don’t have an Apple ID, you can create one from here too!
Control notifications
Once you’ve got a few apps installed, you can be overcome with system notifications from all the different apps competing for your attention. You can easily turn these off, or control which should appear by choosing Settings>Notifications. Each individual app can be set to appear in Notification Center and you can control the style of notification too, allowing you to mute annoying repetitive app notifications while still seeing easily when an email comes in.
Back up and sync your photos
If you’ve got more than one iOS device, it can be tricky to keep all your devices in sync with each. Fortunately there’s an easy way to back up and sync your photos across all your iOS devices – simply open the Settings app and choose the Photos option. Switch on Photo Stream, and your iPad will save the 1,000 most recent images you’ve taken on iCloud.
Download content
The iPad is a wonderful device, but it’s nothing without the apps and content you use it for! You can download directly on the iPad through four different Apple stores: iTunes, the App Store, iBooks and Podcasts. All the stores work in the same way, and are accessed through their respective apps. So if you want a book, for example, open the iBooks app, then click on the Store button to browse and buy.
Update your apps
Apps are being updated all the time, so to make it easy to keep them up to date on your iPad, each time an app developer publishes a new version of the software, the App Store app will let you know by adding a red badge to its icon. To update, simply tap on the App Store button, and then select the Updates tab. A list of all available updates will be shown, with a simple tap being all that’s required to download.
Lock your iPad
If you’ve got children around, or want to prevent un-authorized access to your iPad, you’ll need to lock it down with a passcode lock. Open the Settings app, then choose General>Passcode Lock. You can choose between a simple PIN, or a more complex password. It’s also possible to allow the Picture Frame to work even while your iPad is locked, making it safe to share photos.
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