OK, seasoned iPad veterans look away – this is another iPad Basics tip, for those who are newer to iPad and iOS.
I was recently asked by a reader how he could archive apps that are not used regularly on his iPad. As in, he wanted to be able to delete some rarely used apps on the iPad itself in order to save storage space and clutter on home screens, without losing those apps forever.
And happily the answer is that iTunes has us well covered in this area.
iTunes does the ‘archiving’ for us. You can happily delete apps from the iPad itself but the record of your purchase remains on iTunes so at any point that you want to reinstall them it recognizes that you have already purchased them. They also remain in iTunes on the PC as long as you don’t delete them there.
One important thing to be aware of when deleting an app that does not sync its data with a desktop or online partner, is that its data will also be deleted. The same goes for games. This is a good reason to look for apps that have a good sync setup.
In iOS 4.3.5 and iOS 5, which should be released in the next few weeks, there is a new Purchased tab in the App Store on the iPad, which makes all of this even easier. There’s even a section for ‘Not on this iPad’ that shows you only apps you have purchased but do not currently have installed. And of course it’s just a single tap to reinstall any of them from there.
This is another in our occasional iPad Basics tips series – so if you’re a veteran iPad user you’ll want to skip this as you’re very likely to already know this stuff.
For those who are newer to the iPad, or who just haven’t had a need to know this before, this very quick tip let’s you know how to take a screenshot (an image that captures what is currently on the screen) on the iPad and iPad 2.
And happily, it’s very easy to do. You just press the Power (or sleep/wake) button at the top right of the iPad app and the Home button at the same time for just a quick second. When you do you’ll see the screen flash white for a moment and you’ll hear the camera shutter sound.
That’s it. Once you’ve done that, you can go to the Photos app and see your screenshot in the Camera Roll album.
You can do this when the iPad is in portrait or landscape mode, the method is always the same.
One more quick tip on putting screenshots to use on the iPad: you can open an existing photo in your Camera Roll, pinch to zoom to blow up the best portion of the image, then take a screenshot. That will create a new image in the Camera Roll. This can often be a nice way to quickly improve an existing image or just create a nice extra close-up shot.
Those of you who have used an iPad for a while will want to look away from this post, as it’s a very basic tip. For those of you who are newer users, I hope it will prove useful.
If you have a website you visit often and enjoy reading, say for instance a lovely iPad-focused site such as this one, and you’d like to add a shortcut to it to your home screen, it’s very easy to do.
[click to continue reading…]
For many users, the iPad lives up to its description as an ‘intimate’ device – getting used often when laying around on a couch and similar. There are a number of situations – not least when playing games – when you will not want the iPad to continue its normal habit of flipping screen orientations as you shift it around; when you’ll want it to just stay fixed in landscape or portrait mode.
Happily, this is easy to do on the iPad. Here’s how:
– Double-tap on the Home button to bring up the iPad’s Multitasking Bar. This will show you all your recently used apps.
– Swipe to the right in the bar, in order to show the items at the far left of the bar. You should see the built-in iPod’s app icon, controls for the iPod, a brightness control slider, and the Orientation Lock control at the far left of the bar.
– You simply tap on the Orientation Lock to toggle orientation locking on and off (in whichever mode it is currently in).
That’s it. Another very basic but very handy iPad tip – hopefully helpful for those of you who are new to the iPad.
This is another very basic tip for iOS 4.2 users on the iPad – so if you’re a savvy veteran user it’s best to move along now. 
One of the nice smaller features we gained with the 4.2 software update is the ability to change the font in the built-in Notes app. Doing so is super easy as long as you know where to go.
You cannot make the change within the app itself. You just need to go to the Settings app, and tap on Notes in the sections pane on the left (just below Photos and above Store). Once you do, you’ll see the three current font choices shown in the right pane. Just tap on Helvetica your preferred font and you’re good to go.
