Dan's Tech Tips: Rest Of The IPad And IPhone Tips TIP 13: How to Get Tabbed Browsing You can have up to nine pages open at a time in Safari running on the iOS version 4, and you need to flip between a large full page and small tiled pages. It's certainly not so convenient as tabbed browsing. If tabbed browsing is your preference, then try other free browsers such as Terra Browser. With this alternate browser, you can switch between tabs as easily as you do with most desktop browsers. Among other features such as bookmarks support, you can touch and hold a web link to copy, open in the current page, in a new tab or in the background. TIP 14: How to Add Mail Accounts, Sync Notes and Calendars The iPad allows for adding multiple mail accounts including GMail, Yahoo, Exchange and others. To set up a mail account is straightforward especially for this example GMail. Open the app Settings and select "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" on the left panel. Tap "Add Account...", select GMail, then enter name, address and password. Tap "Next" for verifying. Leave the sync settings "On" for Mail, Calendars and Notes, tap "Save" to finish. After this setting, you can then open the app Mail to send an email and check incoming mails, check and edit entries in the apps Notes and Calendar, which are automatically synced with your GMail account over the air. How to Change Mail Signature and Notes Font Each time you send out an email using the Mail app, it adds a signature "Sent from my iPad". If you dislike this signature, clear or replace it with your own. Open Settings, select "Mail, Contacts, Calendars", and tap "Signature" on the right panel. Clear the signature "Sent from my iPad", or replace it with your signature or name. Tab the "Mail, Contacts..." button when done. Likewise, you can change the font in the Notes app easily. Go to Settings > Notes > Font, tick "Helvetica" if you prefer a widely used sans-serif typeface easier for reading and editing than Noteworthy and Marker Felt. Sync Contacts using PC-based iTunes With PC-based iTunes, you can sync your Contacts on your iPad with a sync provider. After connecting your iPad to your PC, open up iTunes manually if it's not set to auto start, then select the iPad item under "Devices". Click "Info" next to "Summary" in iTunes. Tick "Sync Contacts with", select a sync provider, e.g. Google Contacts, and configure your ID and password. Click the "Sync" button. Open the app Contacts on your iPad, and check if the contacts are synced with your GMail contacts, for example. See also: How to Sync iPad with PC-based iTunes. TIP 15: How to Turn your iPad into a Digital Photo Frame With the default Photos app, you can easily slideshow your collection of photos, with options for transition effects and music. But even before you unlock your device, you can turn your iPad into a digital photo frame, just tap the "Picture Frame" icon. Can you show each photo faster or slower? Yes. Open the app Settings, select "Picture Frame" on the left panel, then on the right panel, select a time interval you need. You can also choose a transition effect, select zoom, shuffle and albums. TIP 16: How to Download PDFs to iBooks via Browser The app iBooks developed by Apple is free to install and it supports PDF format. When you download and read a PDF file in a browser such as Safari, you can also transfer the PDF file to the library for reading in iBooks anytime anywhere. In Safari on your iPad, tap a PDF download, e.g. "9 Great Freeware Programs that Should be on Every PC", the browser then displays the PDF content after download. Touch the screen, and tap the "Open in iBooks" button at the top. When opening up in iBooks, the PDF file is automatically added to the library for you. How to Sync iPad with PC-based iTunes Syncing iPad with your PC-based iTunes provides a backup copy of your apps, music, videos and other data files on your PC. In case you've accidentally deleted some files from your iPad, you can restore them back with syncing. It's also a way to get apps, songs and videos from your PC to your iPad, besides getting them directly with the App Store and iTunes apps on your device. To get this to work, iTunes is required on your PC. If you've not installed it, you can get it here, then follow these steps for syncing your iPad with the PC-based iTunes: Connect your iPad to your PC using the cable provided. iTunes should open up on your PC and sync your iPad automatically based on the settings. Otherwise launch the iTunes manually on your PC, select the iPad item under "Devices" (see the screenshot) and click the "Sync" button for syncing. Click the Apply button to sync again if you've changed any options in the settings. Click the Eject button in the iTunes to disconnect it from your iPad when finished. TIP 17: How to Lock your iPad Don't like your kids to mess with your device or someone to read your emails on your iPad? Lock it with a password. Open the app Settings and select "General" on the left panel. Select "Passcode Lock" on the right panel. Tap "Turn Passcode On". Enter a 4-digit passcode, and the same again to confirm. Each time when your iPad is turned on, you'll have to enter the 4-digit passcode to access your iPad. How to Find Your iPad Is there a way to locate your iPad if it gets lost or stolen? Yes. Not only possibly can you locate it, but you can display a message or play a sound on your iPad, lock it using its existing passcode, or even erase all data on your device remotely, with help of the feature "Find my iPad" that can be enabled on your device. Open Settings app, select "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" and check that "Fetch New Data" is set to Push. Select "Add Account...", choose MobileMe, then enter your Apple ID and password. When prompted, click "OK" to allow MobileMe to use the location of your iPad. Keep the setting "Find My iPad" on and tap "Save". Then try to find your iPad: Sign in with your Apple ID at me.com using a PC web browser, or another device installed with Find My iPhone. Once your device's location is updated on a Google map, click the right-angle or info button next to the device name. Click "Display Message or Play Sound", "Lock..." or "Wipe..." as you need to. TIP 18: How to Reboot the System In the event your iPad apps freeze or the system becomes unresponsive, you can try to reboot the system as follows: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button at the top right corner of your iPad until a red slider appears. Slide your finger across the slider and the system will turn off. (Alternatively, press and hold down the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time until the system turns off.) Turn the system on by pressing and holding the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears. How to Get iPad User Guide In addition to these tips and tricks covering some quick and easy points, if you wish to read a full manual on iPad features, controls and the built-in apps, you can get a free copy of the iPad User Guide from Apple here in PDF format or here in a handy eBook format. If you've installed the free app iBooks on your iPad, open the app, tap the "Store" button and search for "iPad User Guide", you can then download the Guide directly into your iBooks for reading. If you have any questions about the tips posted in Dan's Tech tips, please contact Dan at the following email address: dthompson5@xxxxxxxxx _________________________ Robert Acosta, President Helping Hands for the Blind Email: boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx Web Site: www.helpinghands4theblind.org You can assist Helping Hands for the Blind by donating your used computers to us. If you have a blind friend in need of a computer, please mail us at the above address.