Archive for February, 2011

Tips And Tricks For Your iPad

Monday, February 28th, 2011


Anyone with half a brain can use iPad at its basic level. Well, iPad, in fact, is very basic, even 2-year old kids can work well with it. There’s no such thing as learning curve, and definitely, if you have used an iPhone before, using an iPad for the first time is a day at the beach. It is made to be that way.



But still, even when things have already been simplified by Apple for you, there are still some things about iPad use that may take time before you know. Here are a few.



Soft Reset


Apple’s iPad does not necessarily come with an insurance that it will perform the same way it did the first time you bought it. Although there are no moving parts in the device, which generally means the device deteriorates very slowly if at all. There are still some risks though that some of its parts may not function in the long run. In case something goes awry with iPad, you can always find consolation in its Soft Reset function.



Soft Reset comes in very handy when the system freezes. It can be performed by just holding the top or power button simultaneously with the front or Home button for a couple of seconds. This will force your device to restart. Not happy with how an app is working and want to force quit it? Hold the Home button the same way, this time without holding the power button, and the device will exit any running app.


Cut- and Copy-Pasting


It’s a pain to copy long texts on iPad so Apple created an easy solution that will let you copy an entire paragraph without necessary stretching the blue knobs that appear on your screen. To do this, tap any text four times and this will highlight the entire paragraph. This trick can be done only though if you are copying an editable text. Otherwise, you’re stumped.



Importing Free eBooks


There are still some free things in this world. Free eBooks on Apple’s iBooks for example. If you want to download old books that have fallen out of copyright, you’ll find that there is an extensive collection of free eBooks downloadable on iPad. So long as you stick to the classics, you’re a happy man with iBooks.



Easy Mute


When embarrassing moments are on the horizon because you frequently forget to turn off the volume of your multimedia device, you’ll find that iPad gives you a break. It has an easy mute function that allows you to automatically turn the volume off. For two seconds, press the volume down and you’ll have peace and quiet back.



Supersized Screenshots


Now the screenshot of your driving simulator would look more like a windshield than a tiny keyhole. Take giant screenshots on your iPad by holding the power and home buttons simultaneously for half a second.



Bringing the Virtual Keyboard Back


Switching between keyboards – real and virtual keyboards – is not as hard as many people confess. You only have to hit the eject key on the real, physical keyboard to bring the virtual one up.

4 Reasons Why Some People Aren’t Crazy About iPad

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Many waited in line for the release of Apple’s ‘revolutionary’ tablet PC, the iPad. But many, too, shrugged their shoulders with indifference and dissatisfaction over the fact that this almighty device would not deliver on its promise. Well, these two opposing views clearly show how polarized people are with iPad. Let us take a look at a few things that make iPad a not-so-hot item for some.

iPad 2.0 will be available soon, so why bother?

This is a big issue. The currently released iPad is a big disappointment for many and that doesn’t help much with Apple’s efforts to make its newest tablet PC a big hit. Whether the disappointments of the general public – techies, mostly – are justified or not, it still hurts Apple’s sales. It still, in many ways, discouraged quite a huge number of people from buying the product.

But on top of this issue is the expectation that Apple will release a new, upgraded version soon. (Maybe this time, iPad will come with a built-in camera.) People would rather wait for the upgraded version, which many expect will offer a substantially improved version of its predecessor. Following this line of thinking, people would rather wait for one full year or two than dole out their more than $500 on a device that will soon be replaced.

It doesn’t support Flash.

Ok, big deal. Apple seems to have a thing for Adobe’s Flash, a standard on the web. Flash is what most websites and rich media are built with. It’s the program that runs videos, audios and games that have saturated the online world. But Apple seem not to like it. The company prefers a more stable, less vulnerable to hack platform. It prefers its own HTML5. It only makes perfect sense that all Apple’s products – iPad included – runs on this platform and not on Flash.

What most people don’t quite get though is that nearly all websites on the internet use Adobe Flash. For the end users, this means that when visiting websites using iPad’s browser, Safari – glorious and beautiful as it is – there would still be some problems that may be encountered. Big problems. No Hulu and HBO for now, buddy.

No built-in camera. Na ah.

Before Steve Jobs formally presented iPad to the public, everyone thought it’s a no-brainer that Apple will attach a camera to the device. Apparently, iPad doesn’t carry one and there seems to be no clear indication that iPad 2.0 will have one. For now, iPad can’t be used for taking snapshots of yourself or for making video calls over Skype or YM.

You only get to multitask when running Apple’s native applications.

iPad runs on iPhone’s OS, fine. What is not okay though is that the same limitations on iPhone are experienced with the iPad. Say goodbye to multitasking.

If you are a regular user and if you see iPad as nothing more than a sophisticated, multifunctioning multimedia player/toy/laptop hybrid, it won’t be much of a problem. But if you live your life online, you’ll be stumped. There is no way you can listen to iTunes while making a video call using Skype.