iPad mini For Dummies (2013)
Part V. The Undiscovered iPad mini
This part is where we show you what’s under the hood and how to configure your iPad mini to your liking. Then we look at the things to do if your iPad ever becomes recalcitrant.
In Chapter 15, we explore every single iPad setting that’s not discussed in depth elsewhere in the book. The iPad offers dozens of different preferences and settings to make your iPad your very own; by the time you finish with Chapter 15, you’ll know how to customize every part of your iPad that can be customized.
iPads are well-behaved little beasts for the most part, except when they’re not. Like the little girl with the little curl, when they’re good, they’re very, very good, but when they’re bad, they’re horrid. So Chapter 16 is your comprehensive guide to troubleshooting the iPad. It details what to do when almost anything goes wrong, offering step-by-step instructions for specific situations as well as describing a plethora of tips and techniques you can try if something else goes awry. You may never need Chapter 16 (and we hope you won’t), but you’ll be very glad we put it here if your iPad ever goes wonky on you.
Finally, in Chapter 17, we take a look at some iPad accessories that we use and recommend including carrying cases, physical keyboards, earphones and headphones, speakers, and more. 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
Getting the lowdown on Settings
Taking off in Airplane mode
Preparing networks
Brushing up on Bluetooth
Uncovering usage statistics
Setting up notifications
Figuring out your location
Seeking sensible sounds and screen brightness
Finding a lost iPad
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 mini. You open Settings by tapping its Home screen icon, and from there you can do things like change the tablet’s background or wallpaper and specify Google, Yahoo!, or Bing as the search engine of choice. You can also alter security settings in Safari, tailor e-mail to your liking (among other modifications), and get a handle on how to fetch or push new data.
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 application preferences thrown in for good measure.
Because we cover some settings elsewhere in this book, we don’t dwell on every setting here. 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 this” because the Settings on your iPad may differ slightly from those of your neighbor’s.
Figure 15-1: Your list of settings.
One other general thought to keep in mind: If you see a greater-than symbol (>) appear 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). Everybody has a different collection of apps on his iPad, so any settings related to those programs will also obviously be different.
Flying with Sky-High Settings
Your iPad offers settings to keep you on the good side of air-traffic communications systems. However, the settings for the iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular models differ from those of the Wi-Fi–only model. 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 — at least, after the craft has reached cruising altitude.
So how do you take advantage of the iPad’s built-in iPod (among other capabilities) at 30,000 feet, while temporarily turning off your wireless gateway to e-mail and Internet functions? The answer is that you turn on Airplane mode.
To do so, merely tap Airplane Mode on the Settings screen to display On (rather than Off).
That act disables each of the iPad’s wireless radios (depending on the model): Wi-Fi, cellular, and Bluetooth. While your iPad is in Airplane mode, you can’t surf the web, get a map location, send or receive e-mails, sync through iCloud, use iTunes or the App Store, take advantage of Siri or dictation 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.
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.
If in-flight Wi-Fi is available on your flight, you can turn on Wi-Fi independently, leaving the rest of your iPad’s wireless radio safely disabled.
Controlling Wi-Fi Connections
As we mention in Chapter 4, Wi-Fi is typically the fastest wireless network that you can use to surf the web, send e-mail, 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 display, as shown in Figure 15-2.
Tap the Wi-Fi switch to Off whenever you don’t have access to a network and don’t want to drain the battery.
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 you need the passcode to access it.
Figure 15-2: Check out your Wi-Fi options.
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 manually select a new network. 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.
If you used a particular network automatically in the past but you no longer want your iPad to join it, tap the > symbol next to the network in question (within Wi-Fi settings) and then tap Forget This Network. The iPad develops a quick case of selective amnesia.
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 good that 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 do have 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, it’s not exactly the friendliest terminology in the world, but we figure that someone nearby can lend a hand.
If no Wi-Fi network is available, you have to rely on 4G, 3G, or a slower 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 has to be wirelessly paired, or coupled, with the chosen device. If you’re using a third-party accessory, follow the instructions supplied 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. Bluetooth works to a range of about 30 feet.
Figure 15-3: Pairing an Apple Wireless Keyboard with the iPad.
You know Bluetooth is turned on when you see the Bluetooth icon on the status bar. If the symbol is white, the iPad is communicating wirelessly with a connected device. If the symbol is 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 Unpair. We guess breaking up isn’t hard to do.
The iPad supports stereo Bluetooth headphones, so you can now 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. And you don’t even have to pair the devices as you do with a headset or wireless keyboard.
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 (though the AirPrint feature added 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.
Roaming among Cellular Data Options
You see another set of settings only if you have the Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad. These options appear on the right pane of the Settings screen when you highlight Cellular Data on the left:
Data Roaming: You may unwittingly rack up lofty roaming fees when exchanging e-mail, surfing with Safari, or engaging in other data-heavy activities while traveling abroad. Turn off Data Roaming to avoid these potential charges.
Cellular Data: If you know you don’t need the cellular network when you’re out and about or you’re 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, the charges can rack up fast.
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 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, she can’t use it in another iPad without the passcode.
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.
Personal Hotspot: 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 apply. Either you, or the owner of the device that’s piggybacking on your Internet connection, have to enter the designated password generated by the iPad for the Hotspot connection to work. 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.
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 downside is, you can eat up your data allocation awfully fast.
Use Cellular Data For: Use your cellular connection for iCloud documents, iTunes, or a Safari Reading List.
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 icons.
The downside to keeping push notifications turned on is that they can curtail battery life (though, 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.
There’s no global On/Off switch for notifications; iOS 6 requires you to manage them 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.
Figure 15-4: Notify the iPad of your notification intentions.
All installed apps that take advantage of Notification Center (see Chapter 13) appear on the right side of the Notification Settings panel, as shown in Figure 15-4, with the enabled apps displayed in the upper section (In Notification Center) and disabled apps in the lower section (Not in Notification Center).
Tap any app to adjust its settings, as shown in Figure 15-5.
Figure 15-5 shows the Notification settings for the Mail app and, 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. To help you get started, here’s a rundown of the options shown in Figure 15-5, starting at the top:
Figure 15-5: The Notification settings for the Mail app.
Notification Center: Tap the switch to enable or disable notifications for this app.
Alert Style: Tap to select the style of alert you want to see:
• None: Choose None, and notifications won’t appear spontaneously. They’ll still be available in the Notification Center (swipe down from the top of the screen; see Chapter 13) but won’t interrupt your work (or play).
• Banners: Choose Banners to display alerts as banners at the top of the screen and have them go away automatically, as opposed to . . .
• Alerts: Choose Alerts to display alerts that require action before proceeding.
Badge App Icon: Enable this to display the number of pending alerts on the app’s icon on your Home screen.
New Mail Sound: Tap this setting to choose the sound that accompanies notifications of new mail messages. The Ding sound is selected earlier, in Figure 15-5. But you can pick from a lengthy list of sound and ringtone alternatives and tap each possible choice to hear what the sound snippet sounds like. Or select None if you’re in the mood for total quiet.
Show Preview: Enable this to see the first part of the mail or iMessage as part of the notification.
View in Lock Screen: Enable this option if you want to see notifications for this app when your iPad screen is locked.
Apps that don’t take advantage of the iOS 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 appear in the list don’t offer notifications anyway.
On the other hand, many apps do. One that has a broad variety of notification options is Facebook. You can choose to have the giant social network push notifications related to Wall or Timeline posts, friend requests, photo tags, events, and more. Or choose not to be notified about any or all of these.
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.
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 some or all of the notifications that you’ve set up.
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 global setting is turned to On and a Moon icon appears to the left of the clock in the status bar. And rest assured, your alerts are silenced until you turn the setting back to the Off position. Under the Notifications setting, you can refine the Do Not Disturb option to your liking, by scheduling when the feature is enabled, defining who can get in touch via FaceTime and so on.
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. The iPads with 3G or 4G cellular exploit built-in GPS. The Wi-Fi–only iPad can find your general whereabouts (by triangulating signals from Wi-Fi base stations and cellular towers).
If that statement creeps you out a little, don’t fret. To protect your right to privacy, individual apps pop up quick messages (similar to the one shown in Figure 15-6) asking whether you want them to use your current location. But you can also turn off Location Services in Settings. Tap Privacy and then tap Locations Services to turn the setting off. Not only is your privacy shielded, but you also keep your iPad battery juiced a little longer.
Figure 15-6: The iHeartRadio app wants to know where you are.
While visiting the Privacy setting, you may want to consult the Privacy listings for individual apps on your iPad — Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, and Photos. If any third-party apps request access to these apps, they show up here.
From time to time on the iPad, you can land in the same destination in multiple ways. So you can access the same Privacy settings via the Restrictions settings that we address later in this chapter.
Settings for Your Senses
The next bunch of settings control what the iPad looks like and sounds like.
Brightening your day
Who doesn’t want a bright, vibrant screen? Alas, the brightest screens exact a trade-off: Before you drag the Brightness slider (shown in Figure 15-7) to the max, remember that brighter screens sap the life from your battery more quickly. The control appears when Brightness & Wallpaper is highlighted.
Figure 15-7: Sliding this control adjusts screen brightness.
That’s why we recommend tapping the Auto-Brightness control so that it’s on. The control automatically adjusts the screen according to the lighting environment in which you’re using the iPad while being considerate of your battery.
Wallpaper
Choosing wallpaper is a neat way to dress up the iPad according to your aesthetic preferences. You can sample the pretty patterns and designs that the iPad has already chosen for you as follows:
1. Tap Brightness & Wallpaper and then tap the two iPads below the word Wallpaper.
A list of photo albums appears with Wallpaper, a photo album of lovely images included with your iPad, as shown in Figure 15-8.
Figure 15-8: Choosing a majestic background.
2. Tap Wallpaper or one of your own photo albums in the list.
Thumbnails of the images in that album appear (refer to Figure 15-8).
3. Tap a thumbnail image.
That image fills the screen.
4. When an image is full-screen, choose one of the options that appear at the top of the screen:
• Set Lock Screen makes your selected image the wallpaper of choice when the iPad is locked.
• Set Home Screen makes the wallpaper decorate only your Home screen.
• Set Both makes your image the wallpaper for locked and Home screens.
• Cancel takes you back to the thumbnail page without changing your Home screen or Lock screen.
From Settings, you can also turn your iPad into an animated picture frame. See Chapter 9 for more on the Picture Frame feature and the settings to make it look just the way you like it.
Sounds
Consider the Sounds settings area the iPad’s soundstage. There, you can turn audio alerts on or off for a variety of functions: new e-mail, sent mail, calendar and reminder alerts, Facebook posts, and tweets. You can also decide whether you want to hear lock sounds and keyboard clicks.
You can also alter the ringtone you hear for FaceTime calls and the text tones you hear for iMessages, and tap a button and visit the iTunes store to buy more text tones or ringtones if you’re not satisfied with those that Apple supplies, for 99 cents and $1.29 a pop, respectively. (Mac owners can create their own by using GarageBand. Other third-party options are available for folks with Macs or PCs.) To set a custom tone for individuals in the Contacts app, tap the Edit button and then either the Ringtone or Text Tone option.
To raise the decibel level of alerts, drag the 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 for this purpose, as long as you’re not already using the iPad’s iPod to listen to music or watch video.
You can enable and disable this feature with the Change with Buttons switch, right 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.
Figure 15-9: You find info about your iPad under About.
What you find there is straightforward:
Network you use (Cellular model only): AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon
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 6.0. 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 a previous build. So you see, in parentheses next to the version number, a string of numbers and letters that looks like 10A406 and 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 the tech support person who might need to know the precise version you’re working with.
Carrier and cellular data (Wi-Fi + Cellular versions only): Yep, that’s AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon in the United States.
Serial and model numbers
Cellular data number
Wi-Fi address
Bluetooth address: See the earlier section “Getting Fired Up over Bluetooth” to find out more about Bluetooth.
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.
Advertising: You get to choose whether to limit ad tracking.
Diagnostics & Usage: Choose whether to automatically send diagnostic data to Apple.
Legal Notices, License, Warranty, Regulatory and RF Exposure: 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 (not that we can imagine more than a handful will bother to read this legal mumbo-jumbo).
Usage settings
The About setting we cover in the preceding section 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:
Battery percentage: You almost always see a little battery meter in the upper-right corner of the screen, except in those instances when you watch videos and the whole top bar disappears. If you also want to see your iPad mini’s battery life presented in percentage terms, make sure that the Battery Percentage setting is turned on.
Cellular usage (Cellular models only): This setting showing the amount of network data you sent and received over the AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon network appears only if you have a Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad. You can reset these statistics by tapping the Reset Statistics button.
The Cellular Usage option is where you find out how close you are to using up your monthly data allotment.
iCloud: See the amount of total and available storage. Tap Manage Storage to, well, manage your iCloud storage, and (if need be) to buy more storage. The 20GB, $40-a-year plan gives you 25GB of storage; the 50GB, $100-a-year plan gives you 55GB. You can also downgrade to a free 5GB plan or pay $20 a year for a 15GB plan.
Storage (for the device): Lets you check out which apps on your iPad are hogging the most storage.
Siri
We love knowing 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 mini from the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and the most recent, larger iPads, too. You can talk to her by pressing and holding the Home button and speaking out loud. She will talk back.
But sometimes, well — there’s no way to say this kindly — you want to shut her up. To do that, just turn the Siri setting from On to Off. If you disable Siri, be aware that the information she uses to respond to your requests is removed from Apple’s servers. So if you call her back into duty later, it may take a little bit of time for her to resend information. Don’t fret if you don’t remember any of this. Apple reminds you before you silence Siri.
Other Siri settings to take note of:
Default language: You can choose the language in which she speaks to you. The default is U.S. English.
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 it’s not already shown) in the My Info section of Siri settings. If for some reason you want to pick another name, you can do so from your list of Contacts.
VPN settings
After you tap Network on the General settings screen, you see a control for VPN.
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 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 On or Off switch inside Settings.
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 tapping into Wi-Fi, you can do it there.
Spotlight search
Tell the iPad the apps that you want to search. Touch the three horizontal lines next to an app that you want to include in your search, and drag it up or down to rearrange the search order.
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 before, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, or 2 minutes. Or you can set it so that the iPad never locks automatically.
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 shows you.
Don’t worry about whether the iPad is locked. You can still receive notification alerts and adjust the volume.
Passcode Lock
If you want to prevent others from using your iPad, you can set a passcode by tapping Passcode Lock and then tapping Turn Passcode On. By default, you use the virtual keypad to enter and confirm a four-digit passcode. If you prefer a longer, stronger passcode, tap the Simple Passcode switch to Off. Now provide your current passcode, and then enter and confirm your new passcode, which can be almost any combination of the letters, numbers, and symbols that are available on the standard virtual keyboard.
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.
On a lighter note, you can choose to turn the Picture Frame setting on or off. Find out how to turn your iPad into a picture frame in Chapter 9.
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.
Cover Lock/Unlock
The iPad mini gives you the choice to automatically lock and unlock your iPad when you close and open the clever iPad mini Smart Cover, or other covers. If you set a passcode, you still have to enter it to wake the iPad from siesta-land.
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 by preventing them, at least some of the time, from using the Safari browser, Camera, FaceTime, iTunes, Ping, iBookstore, Siri, or Game Center. Or you might not let them install new apps or make purchases inside the apps you do allow. Or, conversely, 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 button next to each item in the Allow or Allowed Content lists that you plan to restrict. Their corresponding settings show Off.
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 or NC-17 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. And Apple lets you choose whether to let the kids read books with explicit sexual 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 On/Off setting back to On for each setting you free 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.
Side Switch
You can use the side switch for one of two purposes: Lock the rotation so that the screen orientation doesn’t change when you turn the iPad to the side, or mute certain sounds. Here’s where you get to make that choice.
Multitasking gestures
Enable this option if you want to use four or five fingers to
Pinch to the Home screen
Swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar
Swipe left or right to switch among open apps
By all means, enable this option if it isn’t enabled. The gestures truly improve the multitasking experience, and we recommend you give them a try. If, for some reason, you hate them, you know where to go to turn them off.
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.
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 that’s showing, 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 bicycle-lock-like controls until the proper time displays.
5. Tap the date that’s shown so that the bicycle-lock-like controls pop up for the date; then roll the wheels for the month, day, and year until the correct date appears.
6. Tap the Set Date & Time button 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. Make sure the Set Automatically option is set to On.
Keyboard
Under Keyboard settings, you have the following options:
Auto-Capitalization: You can turn Auto-Capitalization on or off.
Auto-Capitalization, which the iPad turns on by default, capitalizes 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-Correction: When turned on, the iPad takes a stab at what it thinks you meant to type.
Check Spelling: When on, the keyboard can check spelling while you type.
Caps Lock: If Caps Lock is enabled, 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.
“.” Shortcut: You can also turn on this keyboard setting, which inserts a period followed by a space when you double-tap the spacebar. This setting is turned on by default, so if you’ve never tried it, give it a shot.
You can choose to use an international keyboard (as we discuss in Chapter 2), which you choose from Keyboard settings or the International setting — the next setting after Keyboard in the General settings area.
International
The iPad is an international sensation just as it is in the United States. In the International section, you can set the language you type (by using a custom virtual keyboard), the language in which the iPad displays text, and the date, time, and telephone format for the region in question. You can choose a Gregorian, Japanese, or Buddhist calendar, too.
Accessibility
The Accessibility or Universal Access Features tools on your iPad are targeted at helping people with certain disabilities. The following sections explain each one in turn.
VoiceOver
This screen reader describes aloud what’s on the screen. It can read e-mail messages, web pages, and more. With VoiceOver active, you tap an item on the screen to select it. VoiceOver places a black rectangle around it and either speaks the name or describes an item. If you tap, say, Brightness & Wallpaper, the VoiceOver voice speaks the words “Brightness & Wallpaper button.” VoiceOver even lets you know when you alternately position the iPad in landscape or portrait mode or 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, from among characters, words, characters and words, or no feedback. Additional controls let you turn on Phonetics and Pitch Change and choose the voice.
The voice you hear speaks in the language you specified in International settings, which we explain earlier.
You have to know a whole 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 makes a lot of sense. You want to be able to hear descriptions on the screen before you activate buttons. Different VoiceOver gestures use different numbers of fingers. Here’s a rundown on many of these:
Tap: Speak the item.
Flick right or left: Select the next or previous item.
Flick up or down: This gesture has multiple outcomes that depend on how you set the so-called “rotor control” gesture. Think of the rotor control as you think about turning a dial: You rotate two fingers on the screen. The purpose is to switch to a different set of commands or features. This leads us back to the flick up or down gestures. Say that you’re reading text in an e-mail. 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. The flicking up or down gestures serve a different purpose when you type an e-mail: The gestures move the cursor left or right within the text.
Two-finger tap: Stop speaking.
Two-finger flick up: Read everything from the top of the screen.
Two-finger flick down: Read everything from your current position on the screen.
Three-finger flick up or down: Scroll a page.
Three-finger flick right or left: Go to the next or previous page.
Three-finger tap: 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.
Four-finger flick right or left: Go to the next or previous section.
Double-tap: Activate a selected icon or button to launch an app, turn a switch from On to Off, and more.
Touch an item with one finger and tap the screen with another: Otherwise known as split-tapping, 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 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 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.
Apple lets you use VoiceOver in Maps, Assistive Touch, and Zoom.
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.
The Zoom feature does have a downside: When magnified, the characters on the screen aren’t as crisp (though the Retina display on the third-generation iPad is still pretty sharp), and you can’t display as much in a single view.
Large Text
You can make text larger in the Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Messages, and Notes apps. You have the choice of six point sizes (from 20pt to 56pt) in addition to the default, which is Off.
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.
Mono Audio
If you suffer hearing loss in one ear, the iPad 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.
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 this 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.
Speak Auto-Text
When this setting is on, the iPad automatically speaks auto-corrections and capitalizations.
Guided Access
Parents of autistic kids know how challenging it can be to keep the 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. You can turn the feature on or off by employing Triple-Click Home, the very next setting.
Triple-Click Home
Set the Triple-Click Home feature to summon the following accessibility tools. Clicking Home three times rapidly can be used to toggle VoiceOver on or off, toggle Invert Colors on or off, or toggle Zoom on or off. You can also set up a prompt to be asked which of these functions you want to accomplish.
In addition, Triple-Click Home can be used to summon Assistive Touch, which lends an assist to people who rely on a joystick or another adaptive accessory because they have difficulty touching the screen.
Still another Accessibility setting in iOS 6 lets you change the home-click speed for activating Double and Triple-Click Home. You can stick with the default or choose a Slow or Slowest setting.
Closed Captioning
To turn on closed captioning subtitles for a movie or video in which they’re available, tap Videos Settings and turn on the feature.
Brief diversion: While you’re in the Videos Settings area, incidentally, you can also turn on Home Sharing by entering your Apple ID and password. With this feature enabled, you can play movies, TV shows, or music on your iPad that are housed in the iTunes Library on your Mac or PC. You need to be connected to Wi-Fi and be on the same home network.
Reset
As little kids playing sports, we often 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: Provides options to reprovision your account and reset your authentication code.
Reset Keyboard Dictionary: Removes added words from the dictionary. Remember that the iPad keyboard is intelligent. And, one reason 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.
Find My iPad
We hope you never have to use the Find My iPad feature — though we have to say that it’s pretty darn cool. If you inadvertently leave your iPad in a taxi or restaurant, Find My iPad may just help you retrieve it. All it takes is a free iCloud account.
Well, that’s almost all it takes. You’ll have to turn it on, though, 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 to On.
Now suppose that 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 https://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 Mac — or a lost iPhone or iPod touch.)
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 Satellite view, or a hybrid of the two. In our tests, Find My iPad found our iPads quickly.
The truth is that even seeing your iPad on a map may not help you much, especially if the device is lost somewhere in midtown Manhattan. Take heart.
Figure 15-10: Locate a lost iPad.
3. At the iCloud site, click the Play Sound button or Lost Mode button (or both).
4. (Optional) Enter a phone number where the good samaritan who picked up your iPad (you hope) can find you, and type a message to ask for the return of the device.
The message appears on the lost iPad’s screen, as shown in Figure 15-11.
Figure 15-11: An appeal to return the iPad.
To get someone’s attention, you can also sound an alarm that plays for two minutes, even if the volume is off. Hey, that alarm may come in handy if the iPad turns up under a couch in your house. Stranger things have happened.
Find My iPhone (which finds any iOS device and Macs too) is now available as a free app in the App Store. Another free app, Find My Friends, as the name suggests, locates your friends on a map. Just hope when you find a particular pal that he’s not the one who snatched your missing iPad.
After all this labor, if the iPad is seemingly gone for good, click Wipe 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.) And if you ever get your iPad back, you can always restore the information from an iTunes backup on your Mac or PC or iCloud.