Setting You Straight on Settings - The Undiscovered iPad - iPad For Dummies, 8th Edition (2016)

iPad For Dummies, 8th Edition (2016)

Part V. The Undiscovered iPad

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webextra Find out what other content you can download to your iPad at www.dummies.com/extras/ipad.

In this part …

check.png Explore every single iPad setting that’s not discussed in depth elsewhere in the book. By the time you finish reading Chapter 15, you’ll know how to customize every part of your iPad that can be customized.

check.png Peruse our comprehensive guide to troubleshooting the iPad, which details what to do when almost anything goes wrong, complete with step-by-step instructions for specific situations.

check.png Gaze longingly at some of the iPad accessories we use and recommend, including carrying cases, physical keyboards, earphones and headphones, and speakers. No, this stuff’s not included with your iPad, but we consider most of it essential just the same.

Chapter 15. Setting You Straight on Settings

In This Chapter

arrow Getting the lowdown on Settings

arrow Taking off in airplane mode

arrow Preparing networks

arrow Brushing up on Bluetooth

arrow Uncovering usage statistics

arrow Setting up notifications

arrow Figuring out your location

arrow Seeking sensible sounds and screen brightness

arrow Keeping the clan together through Family Sharing

arrow Finding a lost iPad

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Do you consider yourself a control freak? The type of person who has to have it your way? Boy, have you landed in the right chapter.

Settings is kind of the makeover factory for the iPad. You open Settings by tapping its Home screen icon; from there, you can do things such as change the tablet’s background or wallpaper and specify the search engine of choice. You can also alter security settings in Safari, tailor email to your liking (among other modifications), and get a handle on how to fetch or push new data.

tip The Settings area on the iPad is roughly analogous to System Preferences on a Mac or the Control Panel in Windows, with a hearty serving of app preferences thrown in for good measure.

But you won’t have to visit Settings in every case because Control Center grants you immediate access to some settings and controls that used to require a separate visit to the Settings complex, including airplane mode and display brightness, which we address in this chapter. But even with Control Center, expect to make some tweaks in Settings from time to time. Because we cover some settings elsewhere in this book, we don’t dwell on every setting here. (Nor do we describe every setting in the order in which Apple lists them.) But you still have plenty to digest to help you make the iPad your own.

Checking Out the Settings Screen

When you first open Settings, you see a display that looks something like Figure 15-1, with a scrollable list on the left side of the screen and a pane on the right that corresponds to whichever setting is highlighted in blue. We say “something like” because Settings on your iPad may differ slightly from what is shown here.

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Figure 15-1: Your list of settings.

You must scroll down to see the entire list. Also, if you see a greater-than symbol (>) to the right of a listing, the listing has a bunch of options. Throughout this chapter, you tap the > symbol to check out those options.

As you scroll to the bottom of the list on the left, you come to all the settings that pertain to some of the specific third-party apps you’ve added to the iPad. (See Chapter 11.) These settings aren’t visible in Figure 15-1. Everybody has a different collection of apps on his or her iPad, so settings related to those programs will also be different.

Flying with Sky-High Settings

Your iPad offers settings to keep you on the good side of air-traffic communications systems. No matter which iPad you have — Wi-Fi only or a model with cellular — you have airplane mode.

Using a cellular radio on an airplane is a no-no. Wi-Fi is too, some of the time. But nothing is verboten about using an iPad on a plane to listen to music, watch videos, and peek at pictures. So how do you take advantage of the iPad’s built-in music player (among other capabilities) at 30,000 feet, while temporarily turning off your wireless gateway to email and Internet functions? By turning on airplane mode.

To do so, merely tap Airplane Mode on the Settings screen to enable the setting. You’ll know it’s on rather than off when you see green instead of gray on the switch.

That act disables each of the iPad’s wireless radios: Wi-Fi, cellular, and Bluetooth (depending on the model). While your iPad is in airplane mode, you can’t surf the web, get a map location, send or receive emails, sync through iCloud, use the iTunes or App Store, or do anything else that requires an Internet connection. If a silver lining exists here, it’s that the iPad’s long-lasting battery ought to last even longer — good news if the flight you’re on is taking you halfway around the planet.

image The appearance of a tiny airplane icon on the status bar at the upper-left corner of the screen reminds you that airplane mode is turned on. Just remember to turn it off when you’re back on the ground.

tip If in-flight Wi-Fi is available on your flight, which is increasingly the case, you can turn on Wi-Fi independently, leaving the rest of your iPad’s wireless radio safely disabled. And it’s a breeze to do by toggling the setting in Control Center.

Controlling Wi-Fi Connections

Wi-Fi is typically the fastest wireless network that you can use to surf the web, send email, and perform other Internet tricks on the iPad. You use the Wi-Fi setting to determine which Wi-Fi networks are available to you and which one to exploit based on its signal.

Tap Wi-Fi so that the setting is on, and all Wi-Fi networks in range are displayed, as shown in Figure 15-2.

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Figure 15-2: Check out your Wi-Fi options.

tip Tap the Wi-Fi switch off (gray) whenever you don’t have access to a network and don’t want to drain the battery. You can easily toggle Wi-Fi on and off in Control Center.

A signal-strength indicator can help you choose the network to connect to if more than one is listed; tap the appropriate Wi-Fi network when you reach a decision. If a network is password-protected, you see a lock icon and need the passcode to access it.

warning When you are in a hotel, an airport, or at another location, you might still have to enter a password after joining even if the lock link is not present. And make sure you know where a network comes from before joining.

You can also turn the Ask to Join Networks setting on or off. Networks that the iPad is already familiar with are joined automatically, regardless of which one you choose. If the Ask feature is off and no known networks are available, you have to select a new network manually. If the Ask feature is on, you’re asked before joining a new network. Either way, you see a list with the same Wi-Fi networks in range.

The iPad can also remember passwords for frequently used networks.

tip If you used a particular network automatically in the past but you no longer want your iPad to join it, tap the i-in-a-circle next to the network in question (in Wi-Fi settings) and then tap Forget This Network. The iPad develops a quick case of selective amnesia.

technicalstuff In some instances, you have to supply other technical information about a network you hope to glom on to. You encounter a bunch of nasty-sounding terms: DHCP, BootP, Static, IP Address, Subnet Mask, Router, DNS, Search Domains, Client ID, HTTP Proxy, and Renew Lease. (At least this last one has nothing to do with renting an apartment or the vehicle you’re driving.) Chances are none of this info is on the tip of your tongue — but that’s okay. For one thing, it’s a good bet that you’ll never need to know this stuff. What’s more, even if you dohave to fill in or adjust these settings, a network administrator or techie friend can probably help you.

Sometimes you may want to connect to a network that’s closed and not shown on the Wi-Fi list. If that’s the case, tap Other and use the keyboard to enter the network name. Then tap to choose the type of security setting the network is using (if any). Your choices are WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPA Enterprise, and WPA2 Enterprise. Again, the terminology isn’t the friendliest in the world, but we figure that someone nearby can lend a hand.

remember If no Wi-Fi network is available, you have to rely on a cellular connection if you have capable models. If you don’t — or you’re out of reach of a cellular network — you can’t rocket into cyberspace until you regain access to a network.

Getting Fired Up over Bluetooth

Of all the peculiar terms you may encounter in techdom, Bluetooth is one of our favorites. The name is derived from Harald Blåtand, a tenth-century Danish monarch, who, the story goes, helped unite warring factions. And, we’re told, Blåtand translates to Bluetooth in English. (Bluetooth is all about collaboration between different types of devices — get it?)

Blåtand was obviously ahead of his time. Although we can’t imagine that he ever used a tablet computer, he now has an entire short-range wireless technology named in his honor. On the iPad, you can use Bluetooth to communicate wirelessly with a compatible Bluetooth headset or to use an optional wireless keyboard. Such accessories are made by Apple and many others.

To ensure that the iPad works with a device, it typically has to be wirelessly paired, or coupled, with the chosen device. If you’re using a third-party accessory, follow the instructions that came with that headset or keyboard so that it becomes discoverable, or ready to be paired with your iPad. Then turn on Bluetooth (on the Settings screen) so that the iPad can find such nearby devices and the device can find the iPad.

In Figure 15-3, an Apple wireless keyboard and the iPad are successfully paired when you enter a designated passkey on the keyboard. You won’t need a passkey to pair every kind of device, though. You can’t, for example, enter a passkey when pairing the iPad with a wireless speaker. Bluetooth works up to a range of about 30 feet and doesn’t require a line of sight.

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Figure 15-3: Pairing an Apple wireless keyboard with the iPad.

image You know Bluetooth is turned on when the Bluetooth icon (shown in the margin) is on the status bar. If the symbol is white, the iPad is communicating wirelessly with a connected device. If it’s gray, Bluetooth is turned on in the iPad, but a paired device isn’t nearby or isn’t turned on. If you don’t see a Bluetooth icon, the setting is turned off.

To unpair a device, select it from the device list and tap Forget This Device. We guess breaking up isnt hard to do.

The iPad supports stereo Bluetooth headphones, letting you stream stereo audio from the iPad to those devices.

The iPad can tap into Bluetooth in other ways. One is through peer-to-peer connectivity, so you can engage in multiplayer games with other nearby iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch users. You can also do such things as exchange business cards, share pictures, and send short notes. In addition, you don’t even have to pair the devices as you do with a headset or wireless keyboard.

technicalstuff You can’t use Bluetooth to exchange files or sync between an iPad and a computer. Nor can you use it to print stuff from the iPad on a Bluetooth printer (although the AirPrint feature handles that chore in some instances). That’s because the iPad doesn’t support any of the Bluetooth profiles (or specifications) required to allow such wireless stunts to take place — at least not as of this writing. We think that’s a shame.

You may also see devices that communicate with the iPad through a flavor of Bluetooth called Bluetooth Low Energy or sometimes Bluetooth Smart or Bluetooth Smart Ready.

You can wirelessly share files also through AirDrop, as noted in Chapter 13 and elsewhere in this book.

Roaming among Cellular Data Options

You see another set of settings only if you have a cellular model iPad. The options appear on the right pane of the Settings screen when you highlight Cellular Data on the left:

· Cellular Data: If you know you don’t need the cellular network when you’re out and about or are in an area where you don’t have access to the network, turn it off. Your battery will thank you later. But even if you have access to a speedy cellular network, be prudent; in a 4G environment where you can easily consume gobs of data, your data allowance may run out all too quickly.

· Enable LTE: LTE stands for Long Term Evolution. What it really stands for is speed. Turn Enable LTE on for the fastest possible cellular data connection if you’re in range. The biggest disadvantage is that you can eat up data awfully fast.

· Data Roaming: You may unwittingly rack up lofty roaming fees when exchanging email, surfing with Safari, or engaging in other data-heavy activities while traveling abroad. Turn off Data Roaming to avoid such potential charges.

· tip Account Information: Tap View Account to see or edit your account information or to add more data.

· Add a SIM PIN: The tiny SIM, or Subscriber Identity Module, card inside your iPad with cellular holds important data about your account. To add a PIN or a passcode to lock your SIM card, tap SIM PIN. That way, if someone gets hold of your SIM, he or she can’t use it in another iPad without the passcode.

remember If you assign a PIN to your SIM, you have to enter it to turn the iPad on or off, which some might consider a minor hassle. And be aware that the SIM PIN is different from and may be in addition to any passcode you set for the iPad, as described later in this chapter.

· Use Cellular Data For: You can use your cellular connection for iCloud documents, iTunes, a Safari reading list, and certain third-party apps. You can see just how much data you’re using on your apps and, if need be, shut down an app that’s sucking up way too much. You can also decide whether or not to use cellular connections for FaceTime or for such system services as networking and Siri. Use the setting at the bottom of the Cellular Data panel to turn on the Wi-Fi Assist switch, which lets you automatically employ cellular data when your Wi-Fi connection is poor.

· Cellular Data Usage: This lists how much cellular data you’ve consumed for the current period. You also can see whether you’re using up data while roaming. Overall, you’ll know if you’re closing in on your monthly data allowance.

An additional setting, Personal Hotspot, has been moved from the right pane to the left. Tap Personal Hotspot to share your iPad’s data connection with any other devices you carry: perhaps a computer or smartphone. Just know that extra charges may apply and even if it doesn’t you will rack up that much extra data. You or the owner of the device piggybacking on your Internet connection have to enter the designated password generated by the iPad for the Hotspot connection to make nice. You can use the hotspot feature via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or by connecting a USB cable. See Chapter 13 to find out how to use Personal Hotspot.

Managing Notifications

Through Apple’s Push Notification service, app developers can send you alerts related to programs you’ve installed on your iPad. Such alerts are typically in text form but may include sounds as well. The idea is that you’ll receive notifications even when the app they apply to isn’t running. Notifications may also appear as numbered badges on their corresponding Home screen icon.

The downside to keeping push notifications turned on is that they can curtail battery life (although honestly, we’ve been pretty satisfied with the iPad’s staying power, even when push notifications are active). And you may find notifications distracting at times.

You manage notifications on an app-by-app basis. To do so, tap Notifications on the left side of the Settings screen, as shown in Figure 15-4, and then tap the app you want to manage. All installed apps that take advantage of Notification Center (see Chapter 13) appear on the right side of the panel, as shown in Figure 15-4, with the enabled apps displayed in the upper section (Include) and disabled apps in the lower section (Do Not Include; not shown).

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Figure 15-4: Notify the iPad of your notification intentions.

Tap any app to adjust its settings. Figure 15-5 shows notification settings for the Mail app (more specifically, Gmail). Some apps offer other options, including sound alerts, and other apps may offer fewer options, but we think you’ll figure it out.

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Figure 15-5: Notification settings for the Mail app.

To help you get started, here’s a rundown of the options shown in Figure 15-5, starting at the top:

· Show in Notification Center: Enable or disable notifications for this app in Notification Center. Straightforward enough.

· Sounds: Choose the sound that accompanies notifications of new mail messages. (The Ding sound is selected in Figure 15-5.) You can choose from a lengthy list of sound and ringtone alternatives and tap each possible choice to hear it. Or select None if you’re in the mood for quiet.

· Badge App Icon: Display the number of pending alerts on the app’s icon on your Home screen.

· Show on Lock Screen: See notifications for this app when your iPad screen is locked.

· Alert Style: Select the style of alert you want to see:

· None: Notifications won’t appear spontaneously. They’ll still be available in Notification Center (swipe down from the top of the screen; see Chapter 13) but won’t interrupt your work (or play).

· Banners: Display alerts as banners at the top of the screen and have them go away automatically.

· Alerts: Display alerts that require action before proceeding.

· Show Previews: See the first part of the mail or iMessage as part of the notification in Notification Center.

Apps that don’t take advantage of Notification Center can still offer notifications, but you’ll have to scroll down to the Apps section on the left side of Settings and tap the app you want to alter. Note that the app you hope to fiddle with doesn’t always appear in the Apps section of Settings. For that matter, many of the apps that do appear in the list don’t offer notifications anyway.

The broader point we’re trying to make is that we urge you to check out the settings for all the apps you see in this list. You’ll never know about many useful options if you don’t.

tip If you find you went overboard with notifications at first to the point where they become annoying or distracting, don’t fret. You can always go back and redo any notifications you’ve set up.

Many of the notifications delivered in iOS 8 and iOS 9 are interactive, so you can respond to them on the spot. For example, you can reply to an incoming email or message without having to drop by the underlying app.

Here in Settings, you can also determine whether to sort notifications manually, sort them by the order in which they arrive, or group them by app. You can also choose whether to view Notification Center on the lock screen; to act upon your preference, you have to go to the Touch ID & Passcode or Passcode settings, which we get to shortly.

In iOS 8 and iOS 9, you can make a lot of modifications directly in Notification Center without paying a separate visit to Settings. In the today summary view, you get to choose whether to display traffic conditions, your calendar, reminders, and the tomorrow summary. You also have the capability to display compatible third-party widgets for apps you’ve installed on your iPad. To make such determinations, make sure the Today tab in Notification Center is highlighted and then tap Edit.

Apple understands that sometimes you don’t want to be bothered by notifications or other distractions, no matter how unobtrusive they might be. The result is a feature aptly named Do Not Disturb. Flip the switch so the setting is turned on (green), and a moon icon appears in the status bar. Then you can rest assured that your alerts are silenced until you turn the setting off. Of course, it’s even easier to turn this setting on or off in Control Center.

Controlling Control Center

We've already sung the praises of Control Center, the convenient utility that is no farther away than an upward swipe from the bottom of the screen. In Settings, you get to decide whether to make Control Center accessible from the lock screen and whether you can access it within apps. The switches for making these determinations are pretty straightforward.

Location, Location, Location Services

By using the onboard Maps or Camera apps (or any number of third-party apps), the iPad makes good use of knowing where you are. With Location Services turned on, your iPad has the capability to deliver traffic information and suggest popular destinations in your vicinity. And at your discretion, you can share your location with others.

iPads with cellular exploit built-in GPS to help determine your location. The Wi-Fi–only iPad can find your general whereabouts (by triangulating signals from Wi-Fi base stations and cellular towers).

If such statements creep you out a little, don’t fret. To protect your right to privacy, individual apps pop up quick messages (similar to the warning presented by Maps, shown in Figure 15-6) asking whether you want them to use your current location. You can also turn off Location Services in Settings: Tap Privacy and then tap Locations Services to turn off the setting. Not only is your privacy shielded, but you also keep your iPad battery juiced a little longer.

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Figure 15-6: Maps wants to know where you are.

Be aware as well that some apps will ask for access when you’re in the midst of using them. Consider the request carefully before allowing such access.

While visiting the Privacy setting, you may want to consult the privacy listings for individual apps and functions on your iPad: Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Photos, Bluetooth Sharing, Camera, Microphone, and HomeKit. If any third-party apps request access to these apps, they show up here.

You can also choose to share your location with family members and friends in the Messages and Find My Friends apps, and as part of Family Sharing.

From time to time on the iPad, you can land in the same destination multiple ways. For example, you can access the same privacy settings via the restrictions settings that we address later in this chapter.

Settings for Your Senses

A number of settings control what the iPad looks like and sounds like.

Display & Brightness

The brightness slider shown in Figure 15-7 appears when the Display & Brightness setting is highlighted. Who doesn’t want a bright, vibrant screen? Alas, the brightest screens exact a trade-off: Before you drag the control to the max, remember that brighter screens sap the life from your battery more quickly.

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Figure 15-7: Sliding this control adjusts screen brightness.

tip That’s why we recommend tapping the Auto-Brightness switch so that it’s on. The switch automatically adjusts the screen according to the lighting environment in which you’re using the iPad — while at the same time being considerate of your battery. And the Auto-Brightness control is one reason to adjust the brightness here, as opposed to Control Center: Auto Brightness is not available in Control Center.

If the app you’re spending time in supports dynamic type, you can adjust the type size by dragging a slider. Under Display & Brightness, you’ll also find a switch for making text bold. If you choose to apply the Bold Text setting, you’ll have to restart your iPad. You’ll see similar options in the “Accessibility” section, later in this chapter.

Wallpaper

Choosing wallpaper is a neat way to dress up the iPad according to your aesthetic preferences. You’ll find colorful dynamic animated wallpapers with floating bubbles that add a subtle dizzying effect. But stunning as they are, these images may not hold a candle to the masterpieces in your own photo albums (more about those in Chapter 9). And animations consume more power.

You can sample the pretty patterns and dynamic designs that the iPad has already chosen for you, as follows:

1. Tap Wallpaper and then tap Choose a New Wallpaper.

A list of your photo albums appears, along with Apple’s own wallpaper.

2. Tap Apple Wallpaper (Dynamic or Stills) or one of your own photo albums in the list.

We chose Stills to bring up the thumbnails shown in Figure 15-8 (left).

3. Tap a thumbnail image.

That image fills the screen, as shown in Figure 15-8 (right).

4. When an image is full-screen, choose among the following options, which appear at the bottom of the screen:

· Set Lock Screen: Your selected image is the wallpaper of choice when the iPad is locked.

· Set Home Screen: The wallpaper decorates only your Home screen.

· Set Both: Your image is the wallpaper for both the lock screen and the Home screen.

· Perspective Zoom: Turn this motion effect on or off.

· Cancel: Return to the thumbnail page without changing your Home or lock screen.

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Figure 15-8: Choosing a majestic background.

Sounds

Consider the Sounds settings area the iPad’s soundstage. There, you can turn audio alerts on or off for a variety of functions: ringtones, text tones, new email, sent mail, calendar and reminder alerts, Facebook posts, tweets, and AirDrop. You can also decide whether you want to hear lock sounds and keyboard clicks.

You can alter the ringtone you hear for FaceTime calls and the text tones you hear for iMessages, and visit the iTunes Store to buy more text tones or ringtones, typically for $0.99 and $1.29 a pop, if you’re not satisfied with those that Apple supplies. (Mac owners can create their own by using GarageBand, as can folks who use GarageBand on an iPad. And the app is now free for folks who purchase the latest iOS devices.) To set a custom tone for individuals in the Contacts app, tap the Edit button and then tap either the Ringtone or the Text Tone option.

To raise the decibel level of alerts, drag the ringer and alerts volume slider to the right. Drag in the opposite direction to bring down the noise. An alternative way to adjust sound levels is to use the physical volume buttons on the side of the iPad, as long as you’re not already using the iPad’s iMusic or Videos player to listen to music or watch video, respectively.

You can enable and disable the use of physical buttons to alter the volume by using the Change with Buttons switch, below the volume slider.

Exploring Settings in General

Certain miscellaneous settings are difficult to pigeonhole. Apple wisely lumped these under the General settings moniker. Here’s a closer look at your options.

About About

You aren’t seeing double. This section, as shown in Figure 15-9, is all about the About setting. And About is full of trivial (and not-so-trivial) information about the device. What you find here is straightforward:

· Network you use (cellular models only): AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon in the United States.

· Number of songs stored on the device

· Number of videos

· Number of photos

· Number of apps

· Storage capacity used and available: Because of the way the device is formatted, you always have a little less storage than the advertised amount of flash memory.

· Software version: As this book goes to press, we’re up to version 9.1. But as the software is tweaked and updated, your device takes on a new build identifier, indicating that it’s just a little bit further along than some previous build. In parentheses next to the version number, a string of numbers and letters, such as 13B143, tells you more precisely what software version you have. The number/letter string changes whenever the iPad’s software is updated and is potentially useful to some tech-support person who might need to know the precise version.

· Carrier (Wi-Fi + cellular versions only): That’s AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon in the United States.

· Serial and model numbers

· Cellular Data Number: For billing purposes only.

· Wi-Fi address

· Bluetooth address: See the earlier section to find out more about this wireless feature.

· IMEI, ICCID, and MEID: These stand for International Mobile Equipment Identifier, International Circuit Card Identifier, and Mobile Equipment Identifier, respectively. They live up to their geeky acronyms by helping to identify your specific device.

· Modern Firmware: The version of your iPad’s firmware, which is a combination of hardware and software that helps your iPad function as an iPad.

· Legal Notices, License, Warranty, Regulatory RF Exposure, and Trusted Store: You had to know that the lawyers would get in their two cents somehow. You find all the fine print here. And fine print it is because you can’t unpinch to enlarge the text as you can elsewhere on the iPad (not that we can imagine more than a handful will bother to read this legal mumbo jumbo).

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Figure 15-9: You find info about your iPad under About.

Software Update

The Software Update section is self-explanatory. When Apple unleashes an update, such as the ones that moved the device from iOS 7 to iOS 8 to iOS 9, you can find it here.

Siri

We love that Siri, the chatty personal digital assistant who can remind you whether to take an umbrella or clue you in on how the Giants are faring in the NFL, has found her way to the iPad from her original hangout spot on the iPhone 4s. You can talk to Siri by pressing and holding down the Home button and speaking out loud. Siri will talk back.

If your iPad is connected to power and running iOS 8 or iOS 9, you can also summon Siri without pressing the Home button. Instead, you can bark out the command, “Hey Siri.” On the iPad Pro, you can summon Siri in this manner without connecting to power.

But sometimes, well — there’s no way to say this kindly — you want Siri to shut up. To do that, just turn the Siri setting from on (green) to off. If you do disable Siri, be aware that the information she uses to respond to your requests is removed from Apple’s servers. So if you call Siri back into duty later, it may take a little bit of time for the feature to resend information. Don’t fret if you don’t remember any of this. Apple reminds you ahead of your silencing Siri.

Other Siri settings to note:

· Default language: You can choose the language in which she will speak to you. The default is U.S. English.

· Voice gender: You can switch from a female to a male voice or vice versa.

· Voice feedback: You can select whether to always get voice feedback from Siri, as opposed to only when you’re in a hands-free situation.

· Your info: And you can let Siri know who you are by choosing your name (if not already shown) in the My Info section of Siri settings. If for some reason you want to choose another name, you can do so from your list of contacts.

Spotlight Search

In Spotlight Search, you tell the iPad the apps that you want to search by flipping the switch for each one. There’s also a switch here to turn on Siri Suggestions, a list of apps, people, locations, and such that would appear before you even enter a search query.

We address Search in Chapter 2 and Siri in Chapter 14. As a reminder, you can initiate a search on the iPad by dragging down from near the top of the screen. Such an action surfaces not only a search box but also any of the suggestions that Siri might supply.

Handoff & Suggested Apps

The Handoff feature lets you start a task (such as typing an email) on your iPad, on another iOS 8 or iOS 9 device, or on a Mac computer running OS X Yosemite or OS X El Capitan, and resume the task on another iPad, iOS 8 or iOS 9 device, or Mac. All the devices have to be running the identical iCloud account. On the tablet, you’ll be able to resume with the app from your lock screen or app switcher. On a Mac, you’ll see the appropriate app on the dock.

In the Suggested Apps section, you can flip on a setting to showcase installed apps or App Store suggestions relevant to your current location or based on your prior usage or both. Such suggestions appear on the lock screen and in the app switcher.

Multitasking

Three settings are found under Multitasking. Enable the Gestures option if you want to use four or five fingers to

· Pinch to the Home screen.

· Swipe up to the app switcher.

· Swipe left or right to switch among open apps.

tip By all means, enable this option if it isn’t enabled. The gestures improve the multitasking experience, and we recommend that you give them a try. If you hate them, you know where to go to turn them off.

You’ll also find a Multitasking setting to Allow Multiple Apps. Choose this to swipe from the right edge of the screen and pull in a temporary overlay of another app.

Another setting found here, called Persistent Video Overlay, enables you to continue to play a video in an overlay even after you press the Home button.

Accessibility

The Accessibility or Universal Access Features tools on your iPad are targeted at helping people with certain disabilities, but we encourage you to explore the various choices on your own, especially if you or a loved one have a particular area of need.

VoiceOver

The VoiceOver screen reader describes aloud what’s on the screen. It can read email messages, web pages, and more. With VoiceOver active, you tap an item on the screen to select it. VoiceOver places a black rectangle around the item and either speaks the name or describes an item. For example, if you tap Display & Brightness, the VoiceOver voice speaks the words “Display and brightness button.” VoiceOver even lets you know when you position the iPad in landscape or portrait mode and when your screen is locked or unlocked.

Within the VoiceOver setting, you have several options. For instance, if you turn on Speak Hints, VoiceOver may provide instructions on what to do next, along the lines of “Double-tap to open.” You can drag a Speaking Rate slider to speed up or slow down the speech. You can also determine the kind of typing feedback you get: characters, words, characters and words, or no feedback. Additional switches let you turn on sound effects, change the pitch, and choose the default speech dialect. For example, you can choose an English dialect common to Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, or South Africa, along with, of course, the United States. You have additional speech choices from within these countries.

remember The voice you hear speaks in the language you specified in Language & Region settings, which we explain later.

You have to know a new set of finger gestures when VoiceOver is on, which may seem difficult, especially when you first start using VoiceOver. When you stop to think about it, this requirement makes a lot of sense because you want to be able to hear descriptions on the screen before you activate buttons. Different VoiceOver gestures use different numbers of fingers, and Apple recommends that you experiment with different techniques to see what works best for you. A VoiceOver Practice button is provided for this purpose.

Here are a few key gestures:

· Tap: Select the item.

· Rotate two fingers: This gesture has multiple outcomes that depend on how you set the rotor control gesture. To select your options, head to Settings⇒General⇒Accessibility⇒VoiceOver⇒Rotor. The rotor control gesture is similar to turning a dial: You rotate two fingertips on the screen. The purpose is to switch to a different set of commands or features. Suppose you’re reading text in an email. By alternately spinning the rotor, you can switch between hearing the body of a message read aloud word by word or character by character. After you set the parameters, flick up or down to hear stuff read back. When you type an email, the flicking up and down gestures serve a different purpose: The gestures move the cursor left or right within the text.

· Two-finger tap: Stop speaking.

· Two-finger swipe up: Read everything from the top of the screen.

· Two-finger swipe down: Read everything from your current position on the screen.

· Three-finger swipe up or down: Scroll a page.

· Three-finger swipe right or left: Go to the next or previous page, respectively.

· Three-finger tap: Lets you know which page or rows are on the screen.

· Four-finger flick up or down: Go to the first or last part of the page, respectively.

· Four-finger flick right or left: Go to the next or previous section, respectively.

· Double-tap: Activate a selected icon or button to launch an app, turn a switch from on to off, and more.

· Split tap: For this gesture, you touch an item with one finger and tap the screen with another. When you touch an item, a voice identifies what you touched (for example, “Safari button” or “Notifications on button”). A tap with the second finger selects whatever was identified with the first finger (that is, “Safari button selected” or “Notifications on button selected”). Now you can double-tap to launch the button or whatever else was selected.

· Double-tap, hold down for a second, and then add a standard gesture: Tell the iPad to go back to using standard gestures for your next move. You can also use standard gestures with VoiceOver by double-tapping and holding down on the screen. You hear tones that remind you that standard gestures are now in effect. They stay that way until you lift your finger.

· Two-finger double-tap: Play or pause. You use the double-tap in the Music, YouTube, and Photos apps.

· Three-finger double-tap: Mute or unmute the voice.

· Three-finger triple-tap: Turn the display on or off.

Zoom

The Zoom feature offers a screen magnifier for those who are visually challenged. To zoom by 200 percent, double-tap the screen with three fingers. Drag three fingers to move around the screen. To increase magnification, use three fingers to tap and drag up. Tap with three fingers and drag down to decrease magnification.

You can tap a Zoom Controller switch for quick access to zoom controls.

The Zoom feature does have a downside: When magnified, the characters on the screen aren’t as crisp (although the Retina display is still pretty sharp), and you can’t display as much in a single view. You can also choose to zoom full screen or zoom only a window. And you can drag a slider to choose your maximum zoom level.

Larger Text

You can make text larger in the Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Messages, and Notes apps. Drag the slider from left to right or from the small A toward the larger A. You can turn on a Larger Accessibility Sizes switch to enlarge the text even more in certain supported apps. (You may recall the Text Size option we mention earlier when describing the Display & Brightness setting.)

Bold Text

Bold Text is another setting you first met in Display & Brightness. If you don’t think the text on your iPad is bold or bright enough, turn on the Bold Text switch. As we noted, doing so (or turning it off again) requires that you restart your iPad.

Button Shapes

Turn the Button Shapes setting on, and the left-pointing arrow at the top-left corner of the Settings pane (next to General) disappears and the word General appears inside a pencil-shaped button.

Increase Contrast

The Increase Contrast setting is another effort to bolster legibility. You can reduce the transparency of the screen to improve the contrast on some backgrounds. You can darken colors. And you can reduce the intensity of bright colors. Play around with these options to see whether they make a difference.

Invert Colors

The colors on the iPad can be reversed to provide a higher contrast for people with poor eyesight. The screen resembles a film negative. (You remember, film, right?)

Grayscale

With the Grayscale setting, you can eliminate color and go gray.

Hearing Aids

The iPad can communicate with hearing aids through Bluetooth. And Apple has designed a Bluetooth technology for use with custom iPad hearing aids.

Subtitles and Captioning

Aimed at people who are deaf or hard of hearing, the Subtitles and Captioning setting lets you turn on a Closed Captions + SDH switch to summon closed-captioning or subtitles. You can also choose and preview the style for the subtitles and create your own subtitle style.

Audio Descriptions

Toggling the Audio Descriptions switch enables the iPad to automatically play audio descriptions when available.

Mono Audio

If you suffer hearing loss in one ear, the iPad’s Mono Audio setting can combine the right and left audio channels so that both channels can be heard in either earbud of any headset you plug in. A slider control can adjust how much audio is combined and to which ear it is directed.

remember The iPad, unlike its cousins the iPhone and the iPod touch, doesn’t come with earbuds or headphones. You have to supply your own.

Speak Selection

When the Speak Selection setting is on, the iPad speaks any text you select. You also find a slider control to adjust the speaking rate. And you can highlight words as they are spoken. You find this option under Speech, along with a Speak Screen button that when enabled lets you swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen to hear the screen's content.

Speak Auto-Text

The Speak Auto-Text setting is also found under Speech. When this setting is on, the iPad automatically speaks autocorrections and capitalizations.

Reduce Motion

We think the parallax effect of icons and alerts is cool, but your neighbor may not agree. By turning on the Reduce Motion switch, you can reduce the parallax effect and be fairly confident that your wallpaper will remain still.

On/Off Labels

Throughout this book, you read that when certain switches are on, green appears. If you turn on the On/Off Labels switch, you’ll still see green, but you’ll also see a nerdy 1 when the setting or switch is turned on or a little 0 when the switch is off.

Guided Access

Parents of autistic kids know how challenging it can be to keep their child focused on a given task. The Guided Access setting can limit iPad usage to a single app and also restrict touch input on certain areas of the screen.

Switch Control

Several controls are represented under the Switch Control setting. The general idea is that you can use a single switch or multiple switches to select text, tap, drag, type, and perform other functions. However, turning on Switch Control changes the gestures you use to control your tablet and are presumably already familiar with. Switch Control makes use of different techniques. For example, the iPad can scan by or highlight items on the screen until you select one. Or you can choose to take advantage of scanning crosshairs to select a location on the screen. You can also manually move from item to item by using multiple switches, with each switch set to handle a specific action. We recommend poking around this setting to examine these and other options.

AssistiveTouch

Turn on the AssistiveTouch setting if you need to use an adaptive accessory, such as a joystick, because of difficulties touching the screen. When this setting is on, a movable dot appears; tap the dot to access certain features, such as Notification Center or Home. You can also create custom gestures through AssistiveTouch.

Touch Accommodations

new Touch Accommodations, an iOS 9 addition, lets you customize the touch sensitivity of your iPad. For example, you can change the amount of time you must touch the screen before your touch is recognized. You can also change the duration in which the tablet treats multiple touches as a single touch. And you can enable a Tap Assistance option to allow any single finger gesture to perform a tap before a timeout period, which you can customize, expires.

Home-Click Speed

Tap the Home Button setting to choose a home-click speed. You can slow down the speed required to double or triple-click the Home button, which is next on the list of Accessibility options.

Accessibility Shortcut

Double-clicking the Home button launches multitasking. But you can set up the iPad so that triple-clicking the button (clicking three times really fast) turns on certain accessibility features. (This tool used to be called Triple-Click Home.) By doing so, you can turn on or off VoiceOver, Invert Colors, Grayscale, Zoom, Switch Control, and AssistiveTouch.

Storage & iCloud Usage

The About setting (covered earlier) gives you a lot of information about your device. But after you back out of About and return to the main General settings, you can find other settings for statistics on iPad usage under the Storage & iCloud Usage section:

· Battery: You almost always see a little battery meter in the upper-right corner of the screen, except for certain instances, such as when you watch videos and the top bar disappears. If you also want to see your battery life presented in percentage terms, make sure that the Battery Percentage setting is on. You can also see how much usage and standby time you’ve consumed since your last full charge. Usage (by percentage of battery used) can be displayed by app for the past 24 hours or the past 7 days.

· iCloud: This setting shows the amount of total and available storage. Tap Manage Storage to, well, manage your iCloud storage, taking note of all your iOS backups. If need be, you can buy more storage. Tap Change Storage Plan to get started. Under the pricing that was current at the time this book was written, you can pay $0.99 a month for 50GB, $2.99 a month for 200GB, or $9.99 a month for 1TB. You can also downgrade to a free 5GB plan.

· Storage (for the device): This option is found under iCloud settings. You can check out which apps on your iPad are hogging the most storage and delete those (from here) that you’re no longer using.

Background App Refresh

Some apps continue to run in the background even when you’re not actively engaged with them. If you flip the Background App Refresh switch (found under General settings) so that green is showing, you can allow such apps to update content when an active Wi-Fi or cellular connection is available. The potential downside to leaving this switch turned on is a hit on battery life.

As it turns out, your iPad is pretty smart about when to refresh apps. iOS detects patterns based on how you use your iPad. It learns when your tablet is typically inactive — at night perhaps when you’re in slumberland. And in some cases, apps are refreshed when you enter a particular location.

You can also turn on or off Background App Refresh for any individual app listed under this setting. Flip the switch to make the determination for each given app.

Auto-Lock

Tap Auto-Lock in the General settings pane, and you can set the amount of time that elapses before the iPad automatically locks or turns off the display. Your choices are 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, or 2 minutes. Or you can set it so that the iPad never locks automatically.

tip If you work for a company that insists on a passcode (see the next section), the Never Auto-Lock option isn’t in the list that your iPad displays.

Don’t worry about whether the iPad is locked. You can still receive notification alerts and adjust the volume.

Restrictions

Parents and bosses may love the Restrictions tools, but kids and employees usually think otherwise. You can clamp down, er, provide proper parental guidance to your children or managerial guidance to your staff by preventing them (at least some of the time) from using the Safari browser, Camera, Siri & Dictation, FaceTime, AirDrop, iTunes Store, Apple Music Connect, iBooks Store, Podcasts, News, or Game Center. Or you might not let them install new apps or make purchases inside the apps you do allow — or (conversely) let them delete apps. When restrictions are in place, icons for off-limit functions can no longer be seen. Tap Enable Restrictions, set or enter your passcode — you have to enter it twice if you are setting up the passcode — and tap the switch next to each item in the Allow or Allowed Content lists that you plan to restrict. Their corresponding settings should be off (gray is showing rather than green).

You can also restrict the use of explicit language when you dictate text. An asterisk (*) replaces a naughty word.

Moreover, parents have more controls to work with. For instance, you can allow Junior to watch a movie on the iPad but prevent him from watching a flick that carries an R, NC-17, or some other rating. You can also restrict access to certain TV shows, explicit songs and podcasts, and apps based on age-appropriate ratings. In Game Center, you can decide whether your kid can play a multiplayer game or add friends. Apple lets you choose whether to let the kids read books with explicit sexual content. You can also restrict access to websites that have adult content.

Stop feeling guilty: You have your users’ best interests at heart.

If guilt gets the better of you, you can turn off restrictions. Open the Restrictions setting by again typing your passcode. Then switch the setting on for each item you are freeing up. Tap Disable Restrictions. You have to enter your passcode one more time before your kids and office underlings return you to their good graces.

Under Restrictions settings, you’ll find privacy controls as well. For example, you can impose restrictions on the use of Location Services, as well as Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Photos, Bluetooth sharing, and more. (For these and additional privacy controls, visit the dedicated Privacy setting.)

And in this area, you can allow or restrict changes made to your accounts, cellular use, background app refreshes, even volume limits.

There’s a lot here, and even if you’re liberal about policing your kids’ activities, we recommend you poke around and consider all your options.

Lock/Unlock

Use the Lock/Unlock setting to automatically lock and unlock your iPad when you close and open the clever iPad Smart Cover, Apple’s Smart Case, or some other covers. If you set a passcode, you still have to enter it to wake the iPad from siesta-land.

Use Side Switch

You can use the Use Side Switch setting for one of two purposes: You can lock the rotation so that the screen orientation doesn’t change when you turn the iPad to the side, or you can mute certain sounds. You get to make that choice through the Side Switch setting.

remember You won’t see this setting on the iPad Pro since it doesn’t have the side switch.

Date & Time

In our neck of the woods, the time is reported as 11:32 p.m. (or whatever time it happens to be). But in some circles, it’s reported as 23:32. If you prefer the latter format on the iPad’s status bar, tap the 24-Hour Time setting (under Date & Time) so that it’s on (green).

This setting is just one that you can adjust under Date & Time. You can also have the iPad set the time in your time zone. Here’s how:

1. Tap Date & Time.

You see fields for setting the time zone and the date and time.

2. Tap the Time Zone field and make sure Set Automatically is turned off.

The current time zone and virtual keyboard are shown.

3. Tap X to remove the city currently shown in the Time Zone field, and tap the letters of the city or country whose time zone you want to enter until the one you have in mind appears. Then tap the name of that city or country.

The Time Zone field is automatically filled in for that city.

4. Tap the Set Date & Time field so that the time is shown; then roll the carousel controls until the proper time displays.

5. Roll the carousel controls to choose the proper month, day, and year until the correct date appears.

6. Tap General to return to the main Date & Time settings screen.

You can also dispense with these settings and just have the iPad set the time automatically, based on its knowledge of where you happen to be. Just make sure to turn on the Set Automatically option.

Keyboard

Under Keyboard settings, you have the following options:

· Auto-Capitalization: Automatically capitalize the first letter of the first word you type after ending the preceding sentence with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point. Auto-capitalization is on by default.

· Auto-Correction: The iPad takes a stab at what it thinks you meant to type.

· Check Spelling: The keyboard checks spelling while you type.

· Enable Caps Lock: All letters are uppercased LIKE THIS if you double-tap the shift key. (The shift key is the one with the arrow pointing up.) Tap shift again to exit caps lock.

· Shortcuts: By enabling this setting, the iPad’s virtual keyboard will display a shortcut bar with controls to copy and paste the text you’ve selected text, or to make that text bold, italic, or underline. Don’t confuse this Shortcuts setting with the “.” Shortcut setting described later.

· Predictive: When enabled, the iPad keyboard will suggest certain words that you might want to type next. Tap a suggested word to accept it. You can also flip the Predictive switch on or off right from the keyboard itself.

· “.” Shortcut: A period is inserted followed by a space when you double-tap the space bar. This setting is turned on by default; if you’ve never tried it, give it a shot.

tip You’ll see another type of shortcut option, called Text Replacement, in which the keyboard presents a full phrase when you type a few letters. For example, typing the letters omw yields On my way! Tap the + under the Text Replacement setting to add a new phrase and the optional shortcut for that phrase. Saving a few letters is economical, don’t you think?

You can choose to use an international keyboard (as we discuss in Chapter 2), which you enable from Keyboard settings. You can also enable the Split Keyboard option if you’d like to take advantage of this feature.

Apple gives you the power to substitute the default keyboard on your iPad for a custom alternative. Among the choices that you might consider are Swype, SwiftKey, Fleksy, and Adaptxt. For more on adding a third-party keyboard, consult Chapter 2.

Language & Region

The iPad is an international sensation. In the Language & Region section, you can set the language in which the iPad displays text, plus the date and time format for the region in question. You can choose a Gregorian, Japanese, or Buddhist calendar, too.

iTunes Wi-Fi Sync

We spend an entire chapter (Chapter 3, to be precise) on syncing. Just know that if you want to sync with iTunes on your computer when you’re plugged into power and tapped into Wi-Fi, you can do it here.

VPN

After you tap VPN on the General settings screen, you see a control for VPN.

technicalstuff A virtual private network, or VPN, is a way for you to securely access your company’s network behind the firewall — using an encrypted Internet connection that acts as a secure tunnel for data.

You can configure a VPN on the iPad by following these steps:

1. Tap Settings⇒General⇒VPN⇒Add VPN Configuration.

2. Tap one of the protocol options.

The iPad software supports the protocols IKEv2 (Internet Key Exchange) L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol), PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol), and IPSec, which apparently provides the kind of security that satisfies network administrators.

3. Using configuration settings provided by your company, fill in the appropriate server information, account, password, and other information.

4. Choose whether to turn on RSA SecurID authentication.

Better yet, lend your iPad to the techies where you work and let them fill in the blanks on your behalf.

After you configure your iPad for VPN usage, you can turn that capability on or off by tapping (yep) the VPN switch in Settings.

Reset

As little kids playing sports, we ended an argument by agreeing to a do-over. Well, the Reset settings on the iPad are one big do-over. Now that you’re (presumably) grown up, think long and hard about the consequences before implementing do-over settings. Regardless, you may encounter good reasons for starting over; some of these are addressed in Chapter 16.

Here are your reset options:

· Reset All Settings: Resets all settings, but no data or media is deleted.

· Erase All Content and Settings: Resets all settings and wipes out all your data.

· Reset Network Settings: Deletes the current network settings and restores them to their factory defaults.

· Subscriber Services: Reprovisions (or refreshes) your account and resets your authentication code. It will not show up on all models.

· Reset Keyboard Dictionary: Removes added words from the dictionary. Remember that the iPad keyboard is intelligent. One reason why it’s so smart is that it learns from you. So when you reject words that the iPad keyboard suggests, it figures that the words you specifically banged out ought to be added to the keyboard dictionary.

· Reset Home Screen Layout: Reverts all icons to the way they were at the factory.

· Reset Location & Privacy: Restores factory defaults.

Touch ID & Passcode

If you want to prevent others from using your iPad, you can set a passcode by tapping Touch ID & Passcode (or just Passcode on models without Touch ID) and then tapping Turn Passcode On. By default, you use the virtual keypad to enter and confirm a four-digit passcode. If you’d prefer a longer, stronger passcode, tap Change Passcode, and type your current passcode. Then tap Passcode Options, followed by Custom Alphanumeric Code, Custom Numeric Code, or 6-Digit Numeric Code. Now enter and confirm your new passcode, which can be almost any combination of the letters, numbers, and symbols available on the standard virtual keyboard. You’ll also be presented with the option to use your new passcode as your iCloud security code, which is used to protect the passwords you’ve stored in iCloud Keychain.

You can also determine whether a passcode is required immediately, after 1 minute, after 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, or 4 hours. Shorter times are more secure, of course. On the topic of security, the iPad can be set to automatically erase your data if someone makes ten failed passcode attempts.

You can also change the passcode or turn it off later (unless your employer dictates otherwise), but you need to know the present passcode to apply any changes. If you forget the passcode, you have to restore the iPad software, as we describe in Chapter 16.

From the Touch ID & Passcode setting, you can determine whether to allow access to the today view, the notifications view, or Siri when the iPad is locked.

If you have an iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, or iPad Pro, we strongly recommend that you at least try Touch ID, the clever fingerprint authentication scheme that not only lets you bypass the lock screen by pressing your thumb or another finger against the Home button, but also lets you purchase stuff in iTunes, the App Store, and the iBooks Store. You can also take advantage of the nascent Apple Pay mobile payments system but (as of this writing) only for certain online transactions — not physical retail stores as is possible with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 6s Plus.

You can store up to five fingerprints (yours and people you trust with whom you share the iPad). Tap Add a Fingerprint and go through the training session that you likely encountered back when you set up your iPad (consult Chapter 2 for details). If the iPad doesn’t recognize your finger, you see Try Again at the top of the screen. You get three wrong tries before you’re forced to use a traditional passcode instead, at least for this session.

As an added security measure, a regular passcode is required the first time you try to get past a lock screen after restarting the tablet.

If you want to delete an authorized fingerprint, tap the listing for the finger in question, and then tap Delete Fingerprint. Excuse our French, but you’ve just given the finger to the finger.

Promoting Harmony through Family Sharing

Earlier under Restrictions, we show you how to impose an iron fist when it comes to permitting iPad usage at home. Now we’re going to try and make everybody in the clan happy again. Visit iCloud settings and consider setting up Family Sharing with up to six members of your family. Adults and kids can partake, but one grown-up must take charge as the family organizer. We figure it might as well be you, the person reading this book. You’ll be the person presenting your iCloud Apple ID username and password, and the one on the hook for paying for iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases. As the family organizer, you can turn on Ask to Buy so that you can approve (or deny) purchases or download requests from other members of your clan.

When Family Sharing has been implemented, you can all share a calendar, photos, reminders, and your respective locations. Family Sharing may also help find a missing device through the important Find My iPad feature, which we describe at the end of this chapter.

warning Should you leave Family Sharing, your account is removed from the group and you can no longer share content with everybody else. You won’t be able to use DRM-protected music, movies, TV shows, books, or apps that another member purchased. And you won’t be able to access the family calendar, reminders, or photos.

Family Sharing works with iOS 8 and iOS 9 devices, OS X Yosemite or OS X El Capitan on a Mac, and Find My Friends 3.0, Find My iPhone 3.1, and iCloud for Windows 4.0.

Settings for Social Media

Much as we all use our iPads to consume content, we also use it to exchange our own content — ideas, pictures and the like — with close intimates, colleagues, and yes, in some instances, people with whom we are trying to wield influence. The next set of settings is all about managing some of the most popular social networks and the people in our Contacts.

Twitter

In Twitter settings, you can add a new Twitter account and update your contacts so that Twitter uses their email addresses and phone numbers to automatically add their Twitter handles and photos. You also can choose yay or nay on whether you can use various apps with Twitter.

Facebook

Most of us know Facebook as a great service to help us stay in touch with relatives, associates, and old pals, rekindle relationships, and make new friends. But some people collect Facebook friends like baseball cards. If it seems like you’re acquainted with all 1.49 billion-and-counting members of the mammoth social network, we know what you mean.

Fortunately, Apple kindly organizes your Facebook relationships on the iPad. If you turn on the Calendar and Contacts switches under Facebook settings on the iPad, your Facebook friends automatically populate your contacts list, complete with profile pictures as well as email addresses and phone numbers (if they made them public on Facebook). Birthdays and calendar appointments appropriately turn up in the Calendar app.

Think of these Facebook entries as live synced contact entries. If a person changes his or her phone number and email address on Facebook, that change will be reflected on your iPad, provided you have Wi-Fi or cellular coverage or the next time you do have coverage. And if your friends de-friend you — how cruel is that? — their contact info will disappear.

If the iPad can correctly match a Facebook friend entry with an existing contact entry, it will try to unify that contact under a single view. The Update All Contacts option under Facebook settings on the iPad serves a slightly different purpose. It tries to add Facebook profile information to contacts who are on Facebook but are not among your Facebook friends.

Flickr, Vimeo, Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo

Yes, Flickr (online photo sharing), Vimeo (online video sharing), and Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo (Chinese social networks if you’ve enabled a Chinese keyboard) get dedicated Settings areas from which you can enter your sign-in credentials to such services.

Sorting and displaying contacts

Do you think of us as Ed and Bob or Baig and LeVitus? The answer to that question will probably determine whether you choose to sort your contacts list alphabetically by last name or first name.

Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars; scroll down to the Contacts section; and peek at Sort Order. Then tap Last, First or First, Last. You can determine whether you want to display a first name or last name first by tapping Display Order and then choosing First, Last or Last, First. You can also go with a short name to fit more names on the screen. You can choose a first name and last initial, first initial and last name, first name only, or last name only. If you prefer nicknames, you can choose those instead, when available.

In My Info, make sure your own name is chosen so that Siri knows where you live, among other reasons.

Find My iPad

We hope you never have to use the Find My iPad feature — though we have to say that it’s darn cool. If you inadvertently leave your iPad in a taxi or restaurant, Find My iPad may just help you retrieve it. You need a free iCloud account and your iPad must be connected to a network of some kind.

Well, that’s almost all you need. You’ll have to turn on your account, so tap Settings⇒Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and then tap your iCloud account. Or tap Settings⇒iCloud. Either way, make sure Find My iPad is switched on.

Now, suppose you lost your tablet — and we can only assume that you’re beside yourself. Follow these steps to see whether the Find My iPad feature can help you:

1. Log on to your iCloud account at www.icloud.com from any browser on your computer.

2. Click the Find My iPhone icon.

If you don’t see it, click the icon with a cloud in it that appears in the upper-left corner of the iCloud site. You see a panel with icons that are tied to various iCloud services, including Find My iPhone. (Yes, even though the feature is Find My iPad on the iPad, it shows up as Find My iPhone on the iCloud site. Don’t worry; it’ll still locate your iPad — and, for that matter, a lost iPhone or iPod touch, and even a Mac computer too.)

Assuming that your tablet is turned on and in the coverage area, its general whereabouts turn up on a map (as shown in Figure 15-10) in standard or satellite view, or a hybrid of the two. In our tests, Find My iPad found our iPads quickly.

Even seeing your iPad on a map may not help you much, especially if the device is lost somewhere in midtown Manhattan. Take heart.

3. At the iCloud site, click the Lost Mode button.

4. Type a phone number at which you can be reached, as well as a plea to the Good Samaritan who (you hope) picked up your iPad.

Apple has already prepared a simple message indicating that the iPad is lost, but you can change or remove the message and substitute your own plea for the return of your tablet.

The message appears on the lost iPad’s screen, as shown in Figure 15-11.

tip To get someone’s attention, you can also sound an alarm that plays for two minutes, even if the volume is off. Tap Play Sound to make it happen. Hey, that alarm may come in handy if the iPad turns up under a couch in your house. Stranger things have happened.

image

Figure 15-10: Locate a lost iPad.

image

Figure 15-11: An appeal to return the iPad.

We also recommend turning on the Send Last Location setting in Find My iPad because it automatically sends the tablet’s location to Apple when the device’s battery is critically low. That way, you still have a puncher’s chance of getting back a lost iPad even when the battery is knocked out.

tip Find My iPhone (which finds any iOS device) is now available as a free app. Another free app called Find My Friends will locate your friends on a map. Just hope that when you find a particular pal, he or she is not the one who snatched your missing iPad.

After all this labor, if the iPad is seemingly gone for good, click Erase iPad at the iCloud site to delete your personal data from afar and return the iPad to its factory settings. (A somewhat less drastic measure is to remotely lock your iPad by using a four-digit passcode.)

Meanwhile, the person who found (or possibly stole) your iPad cannot reactivate the device to use as his or her own, or to peddle, unless he or she successfully types in your Apple ID.

Even if you choose to erase the device remotely, it can still display a custom message with the information needed for someone to return it to you. If, indeed, you ever get your iPad back, you can always restore the information from an iTunes backup on your Mac or PC or iCloud.

We authors love a happy ending.