iPad Pro for Beginners: The Unofficial Guide to Using the iPad Pro (4 page)

As you can see, there’s a lot to do in iOS 9, but there’s not so much that you’ll be left confused and frustrated. Apple products “just work”—this is truer than ever with iOS 9. Don’t be afraid to play around with the phone; there’s nothing you can do to the OS to destroy it. The blue screens of death you might have once scene on old PC is not something you’ll ever see on iOS. If you ever delete something on accident, it’s easy to get back. Don’t worry! You can do your phone no harm!

Show you upgrade to iOS if you have the older version? Absolutely! “Some” apps may not work after the upgrade—this is the only downside. As with any software update, it’s up to the developers to make sure their apps are compatible—some simply do not. Major apps (like Kindle, Evernote, Dropbox) do. If you do upgrade, there is no going back! You cannot downgrade back. I recommend backing up your device before installing the update on any device.

So now that you’ve seen what’s new, let’s see how to use it!

So how exactly do you use the iPad Pro? If you have an iPad (or even an iPhone), then you will be quite comfortable navigating around; but I will still cover all the basics—you might be surprised at what you don’t already know.

Very quickly, let’s first take a moment and look at your tablet. There’s not a lot to it—just a handful of buttons and two cameras.

On the top of the tablet is the Sleep / Wake button. Don’t think of it like a power button, because you don’t need to turn your iPad on and off—it’s always one. If you
have
to turn your tablet off, then you will hold down on the Sleep / Wake button until the tablet says “Slide to Power Off.” On the bottom of the tablet is your dock connector. You will use that to charge your tablet or plug in any extra accessories (like an iHome dock). On the left side of the tablet is the volume up / down button.

On the front of the tablet, right at the bottom, is the Home button. That’s the button you’ll use the most, and this book will reference frequently to it. This button minimizes apps and gets you to the home screen.

There are two cameras on the iPad; one on the front (on the top center); and one in the back. The front facing camera is primarily used for Facetime and self portraits; the back camera is usually used to take videos and photos.

Finally, on the side of the tablet are three small round shapes; this is where the companion keyboard (sold separately) will be plugged into.

So now that you know how the outside of the tablet works, let’s look at the meat of the iPad: the software.

The first thing you will probably want to know is how to change the icons around and add your own wallpaper, so that’s where we’ll start. Before I show you any of this, remember,
you cannot break the iPad software!
This isn’t like old Windows computers—erase the wrong file and there goes your computer!

Move your finger on top of any icon, and tap
and
hold it; keep it there about three seconds until the icons start shaking and an “x” appear in the upper left corner of all the apps.

Some icons cannot be deleted; these are the apps that came with the iPad and they have to stay on your tablet (even if you aren’t using them). The ones with the “x” can be deleted by tapping on the “x.” A confirmation message will appear if you delete it on accident, so don’t worry about pushing the wrong button (even if you did download it, a copy of the app is stored for you, so you can re-download it again and again).

If you want to move the icons around, simply tap and hold and then drag the icon to the position you want it to be it—if you drag it all the way to the side and then keep going (like you are dragging it off the scree), a new screen appears. When you are happy with where your apps are positioned, press the Home button (remember, it’s on the bottom, front, of the tablet—the only button on the front of the tablet). If you happened to move an icon to a new screen, you can now get to that screen by swiping or flicking your finger to the right or left (depending on where you put it).

You can also put icons into folders; this handy if you have, for instance, several game apps or reference apps; why not group them in one place? Doing so is simple. Tap and hold an app like you did before, and then wait for them to start shaking. When you see the little “x” you are ready to go; tap and hold the app you want to put into a folder, and then move it on top of the app you want to group it with—if it’s on another screen, just drag the icon to the edge of the screen and wait for that screen to appear. You can add more icons to that group by moving them on top of the folder. When you are done, press the Home screen one time.

Now that you have your icons situated, let’s change the background image on the iPad. You can do this one of two ways:

1. Take a picture and make it your background.
   
2. Find a background that you like on the Internet.
   

Because I am going to talk about how to use the camera app later, let’s assume you want to get a photo from the Internet. I’m going to use
www.google.com/images
-- a popular website for finding photos.

Open the Safari browser (hint: it’s on your Home screen); this is the app you will use whenever you go on the Internet.

Now that it’s open, tap one time on the Address Bar (the long bar at the very top of the screen) and hit the “x” button one time. Now type in
google.com/images
(notice how I don’t type “www”? There’s a reason—you don’t need to; the iPad is smart enough to know that you are going to a website, so it will add it in for you). When you have it type, press “Go” on the keyboard, and the page will begin loading.

Google Images should now be on your screen. Type in something you’d want as your background (hint: tap the search bar right below the Google logo—it’s a bit hard to see). I’ll type in “adorable puppies” because who doesn’t love adorable puppies?

Now just find the image you want as your background (don’t worry, you can change it later!) and tap it one time. When the bigger image has loaded, tap and hold the image; this brings up an option to save or copy the image. Tap the save button.

Your photo has now been saved in the Photos app. This is the same place an app is stored when you take a picture on your camera.

Next, press the Home button on the front of your tablet to minimize (notice I say minimize? Technically the app is still opened in the background so you can go back into it with the multitasking feature—I’ll go over that later).

From the Home screen, tap the Photos icon; this will launch your photo album. From here tap the image you want to make your background. Once it’s opened, tap the button on the lower left corner with the arrow coming out of it.

This is going to bring up several options. The one we are using here is “Use as Wallpaper.”