HomeHere we present the best 15 really useful iPad tips and tricks. They cover everything from extending iPad battery life to locking and finding your iPad, from Home Sharing to streaming movies, photos, music and much more, which would be very helpful especially when you've just got an iPad in your hand.
iPad Tips and Tricks #1: improve iPad Battery Life
It‘s claimed that iPad‘s battery life can support “up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music”. Here are some useful but not happy tips to help you use your iPad a lot longer without having to plug in all the time.
- Turn off all apps and functions you don‘t use.
A lot of functions are turned on by default, so go to your settings and turn off everything you don‘t really use.
- Live streaming and downloads
Live streaming videos like YouTube and download stuff from sites will significantly drain your battery power. Wait until you can get to a place where you can plug in to do those
- Screen Brightness
Turn down your screen brightness and lights. To do so go to Settings > Brightness & Wallpapers > Then drag the slide to the left.
- Stay away from games
Don‘t play games if you know you‘re going to use your iPad battery power for something else more important. That‘s a battery killer.
- Emails and Social Networks
You can check that Facebook & Twitter page later on your desktop or laptop. Oh, the emails. Do you have to check that now?
- Disable Wi-Fi
Turn off Wi-Fi when not needed. To disable it, go to Settings > Wi-Fi and set the slider to off. Turn it back on when you want get online.
- Turn off Bluetooth when you aren't using Bluetooth devices
Unless you are typing away in front of your iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard, it's highly likely that you can do without Bluetooth for a time. Go to Settings > General and Bluetooth will be the fourth item listed. Set the slider to Off.
But, no game, no Youtube, no Facebook, no Twitter, no email, why I use iPad?
iPad Tips and Tricks #2: Show Movies On a Bigger Screen
The iPad can send its display to a larger screen just like a computer can. But only certain apps take advantage of this feature. The Video app does so long as you are obeying the DRM rules. It is a pain, but if the video has DRM it won‘t work usually. But if you have a home movie loaded or some DVD you have ripped, it should work. You will need the Dock-to-VGA adapter.
Other apps that allow for showing content trough the adapter are Netflix, Keynote and Photos. If you want to show off a web page, then get the Expedition app.
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.
iPad Tips and Tricks #3: Home Sharing
First, turn on Home Sharing in iTunes (Advanced menu) and on your iPad (Settings > Music/Video and enter your Apple ID). Next, launch the Music or Video app on your iPad. In the Music app, tap the "More" button at the bottom, find the little house with "Shared" next to it. Tap on that and then on one of the Shared Libraries. It might take a few seconds to update, but then you can listen to all of that Library's media on your iPad. For video, tap the Shared tab at the top of the screen.
iPad Tips and Tricks #4: AirPlay: Stream movies, photos and music
Whenever you see the AirPlay icon on your iPad it means you can stream whatever media you're viewing to your Apple TV, which is usually connected to your living room TV. All you need to do is tap the AirPlay icon (which looks like a rectangle with a triangle in it) and it starts playing automatically – it's so simple!
iPad Tips and Tricks #5: Backup your iPad using iCloud (iOS 5 only)
Using the iOS 5, you can back up your data, such as photos and videos in the Camera Roll, app data, home screen, device settings and messages on your iPad, to the online iCloud storage up to 5 GB for free.
1. Go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup
2. Turn "iCloud Backup" on if it's switched off
3. Backup is then done automatically to the iCloud storage when your iPad is plugged in to a power source, screen locked and connected to Wi-Fi. Or you get it done immediately by tapping "Back Up Now".
If you opt for iCloud Backup, it will turn off automatic backups to your PC when you sync with iTunes. But you still can do a manual backup—just connect your iPad to iTunes, then in iTunes, right-click the iPad device on the left panel and select "Back Up" from the context menu.
When you need to restore your iPad or set up a new device, you can have an option "Restore from iCloud Backup" with this online service, besides an opportunity to restore from iTunes.
iPad Tips and Tricks #6: Send Instant Messages (iOS 5 only)
Becoming a competitor to BlackBerry Messenger, iMessages developed by Apple gives you a real-time instant messaging service via Wi-Fi or 3G for all iOS 5 users. To use this service and send an instant message from your iPad is pretty straightforward.
1. Tap the Messages app icon.
2. Tap the plus sign and add a contact, who will be identified by the service if running the same app.
3. Add text, photos or videos and tap the Send button.
The service supports group messaging, tracking with delivery receipts and encryption of messages.
iPad Tips and Tricks #7: Lock your iPad
Don't like your kids to mess with your device or someone to read your emails on your iPad? Lock it with a password.
1. Open the app Settings and select "General" on the left panel.
2. Select "Passcode Lock" on the right panel.
3. Tap "Turn Passcode On".
4. Enter a 4-digit passcode, and the same again to confirm.
Each time when your iPad is turned on, you'll have to enter the 4-digit passcode to access your iPad.
iPad Tips and Tricks #8: Find Your iPad (Migrated to iCloud in iOS 5)
Is there a way to locate your iPad if it gets lost or stolen? Yes. Not only possibly can you locate it, but you can display a message or play a sound on your iPad, lock it using its existing passcode, or even erase all data on your device remotely, with help of the feature "Find my iPad" that can be enabled on your device.
1. Open Settings app, select "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" and check that "Fetch New Data" is set to Push.
2. Select "Add Account...", choose iCloud (or MobileMe in iOS 4), then enter your Apple ID and password.
3. When prompted, click "OK" to allow the service to use the location of your iPad.
4. Keep the setting "Find My iPad" on and tap "Save".
Then try to find your iPad:
1. Sign in with your Apple ID at icloud.com (or me.com for iOS 4 users) using a PC web browser, or another device installed with Find My iPhone.
2. Once your device's location is updated on a Google map, click the right-angle or info button next to the device name.
3. Click "Play Sound or Send Message", "Remote Lock" or "Remote Wipe" as you need to.
iPad Tips and Tricks #9: Use a custom wallpaper
Like the iPhone, you can use custom wallpaper. First, use Safari to find the image you want.
(Try Free iPad wallpapers, 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.
iPad Tips and Tricks #10: Sign into the App Store using a different account
It can be useful to have a UK and a US account for the App Store, since it gives you access to apps (like the BBC News app) that aren't available in your country yet. To sign in using a different account tap on Settings, then Store and Sign Out. You can now log in again.
To get a US iTunes account the easiest way is to open the iTunes Store on a PC or Mac and change the country to US (at the bottom of the screen). Then buy an app that is free and set up a new account. You will need a US address for this.
iPad Tips and Tricks #11: Sign in to YouTube
You get so much more out of the iPad's YouTube app if you sign in with your YouTube account - these are free, but you have to register via the YouTube.com web page. In the app just click on Favorites to get the sign-in options. Once you're signed in you can now see your Favorites, Subscriptions and videos you've uploaded right in the app. The History button is also great for quickly finding videos you've already watched.
iPad Tips and Tricks #12: Go full screen in YouTube
When you're watching a YouTube video in portrait orientation, the iPad displays the video in the top half of the screen, with information about it underneath. You probably already know that if you turn your iPad into landscape orientation you get a full screen video, but it doesn't fill the iPad's screen - usually there are black spaces at the top and bottom of the screen. However, if you tap the double-tap the video it will zoom to fit the whole iPad screen.
iPad Tips and Tricks #13: Clear browsing history in Safari
Need to cover your tracks online? You can delete your Safari browsers history in a flash. Just
open the Settings app, then tap Safari and tap on Clear History. Note you can also wipe your
Cookies and clear your Cache here too.
iPad Tips and Tricks #14: Open Safari links in a new page
You can open links in a new Safari window, rather than always opening them in the current one. Just click and hold on the link and a pop-over menu appears giving you the option to open the link in a new page.
iPad Tips and Tricks #15: Copy and Paste Text from One App to Another
Just tap and hold a word, then use your finger to drag to select more text, and then Copy it. Go to the other application, tap and hold in the input box, and then use Paste. Easy!
Want to select a whole paragraph the easy way? Just tap it 4 times to highlight the entire paragraph, then use Copy.
Additional Information:
Pavtube Studio unveiled a column called iPad Video Specials to help beginners enjoy movies and TV shows on iPad, iPad 2 and the new iPad 3. This column explains how to use iPad to watch movies online, how to transfer local movies to iPad for watching, how to encode MKV/AVI/WMV to iPad compatible video, how to turn DVD and Blu-ray into iPad movies, as well as how to access iPad Video Mirroring and Streaming .
Free Trial Blu-ray to iPad/Apple Converter
