The iPad is sleek and shiny, a fantastic example of industrial design that packs a host of cutting-edge technologies into a thin, responsive tablet. Aside from holding it in your hand, however, your time spent using the iPad will be focused almost entirely on its software.
The core apps that ship with the iPad are useful, but those are just the beginning. More than 150,000 (at this writing) programs are available from the App Store—so many that Apple’s marketing tagline, “There’s an app for that,” has become part of current popular culture.
With a few taps (and often just a few dollars), you can locate, purchase, and download apps that do nearly anything you can think of. In this chapter, I tell you how to find and install apps, and also how you can share them with friends.
Quick, jump in the car, let’s go app shopping!
Or don’t. In the case of most software, buying new programs means going to a store in the mall, or buying a box from an online retailer, or even downloading it from the developer directly. But that’s not the case with iPad apps.
The only outlet to get apps is Apple’s App Store, available on the iPad itself or from within iTunes. Pricing varies among apps, naturally, but most cost less than $15—in many cases, far less, with many apps available for free.
The App Store does not offer demo or shareware versions of apps, so it’s difficult to evaluate an app before purchasing it. It’s not impossible, though: Many vendors offer free “light” versions of their apps, which are limited in scope but give you a sense of what the paid version can do. Other apps may cost as little as $0.99 and offer just a handful of features, with the option to unlock others if you pony up some more cash.
Tap the App Store icon on the Home screen to launch the App Store. Since it’s a storefront, you’ll see many new and featured titles, including apps that are designed specifically for the iPad (Figure 2.1).
The screen is broken up into several areas. The In the Spotlight section at top provides a Cover Flow view of featured apps. Flick left and right to bring the apps to the front of the view and tap one that interests you. The boxed New and Noteworthy section reveals more showcase items.
In an odd interface discrepancy, you must tap the arrow buttons at the edges of the boxed areas to view more items, instead of swiping left or right as in the Spotlight area at the top of the page.
The first three buttons at the bottom of the screen let you view featured apps, consult lists of the most popular paid and free apps in Top Charts, or browse by category. (See “Update Apps,” later in this chapter, for more about the Updates button.) If you already know what you’re looking for, enter its name into the Search field in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Apple’s Web site shows a fifth button, Genius, which recommends apps you might like based on the apps you already own. That feature does not appear to be implemented as of the first revision (version 3.2) of the iPad’s operating system.
To view more information about an app, including screenshots and customer reviews, tap its icon.
It’s sometimes difficult to get a sense of what an app offers by looking solely at screenshots, so be sure to tap the link that takes you to a developer’s Web site for more information. Often companies will include video of how the app operates.
If you decide your life isn’t complete without the app, tap the button that displays the price. The button changes to read “Buy App”; if the app is free, you’ll see “Install App” (Figure 2.2). Tap it again to purchase, or tap anywhere outside the button to switch back to the price.
After you enter your iTunes Store account password, the app downloads and is installed in the first open space on the Home screen (Figure 2.3).
If you’re connected to the Internet using 3G, large apps—over 20 MB—won’t be downloaded. Connect to a Wi-Fi network or use iTunes on your computer and try the purchase again.
It may be more convenient to browse and purchase apps on your computer and then sync them to the iPad later. Fire up iTunes and click the iTunes Store item in the sidebar, and then click the App Store heading at the top.
As with the App Store on the iPad, you can browse featured and best-selling apps, poke through the categories, and search for specific titles. However, an extra step is required when buying apps in iTunes. After clicking the Buy App button, the app is downloaded and added to iTunes. When you next perform a sync, the app is automatically transferred to the iPad and appears on the Home screen.
You’ll find apps that are written specifically for the iPad, but it can also run apps written for both the iPhone and iPod touch. In some cases, a single app can run on both devices—the developer includes the resources that take advantage of the iPad when run there, and ignores them when run on an iPhone or iPod touch.
Apps that have not been adapted to the iPad also work in one of two ways: either at their actual size centered in the screen, or enlarged to fill the screen (Figure 2.4).
Tap the 2x button in the bottom-right corner to scale the app to fill the screen, or tap the 1x button to return to the original size.
When developers update their software, they submit changed versions to the App Store, where Apple approves the update and makes it available. Because everything goes through the App Store, your iPad can check for updates so you don’t have to go searching for them online.
A numbered badge appears on the App Store icon in the Home screen indicating how many updates are ready to be downloaded. In iTunes, the badge appears on the Apps item in the sidebar (Figure 2.5).
You don’t have to wait for the iPad or iTunes to communicate with the Apple mothership. In the App Store app, tap the Updates button to trigger a check for new versions. In iTunes, select the Apps item in the sidebar and then click the Check for Updates button at the lower-right corner of the window.
To install the updates on the iPad, do the following:
Or, tap the Update All button at the top of the screen to download and install all updates at once.
A scary-looking dialog may appear before the download begins, warning you that an app may contain material inappropriate for children. Apple is strict about the type of content that’s accepted into the App Store, so you shouldn’t find anything too suggestive, and certainly nothing explicit. However, Apple can’t control all content, especially for apps that fetch data from the Web, so the company throws up this disclaimer.
As you download more apps—and I predict you will—you’re going to find that some don’t hold the allure they once did, or you discover a new app that does something better than the first one you downloaded. You can remove the app on the iPad itself, or disable it from syncing within iTunes.
The original apps that ship with the iPad cannot be removed. If they’re in your way, consider moving them to another Home screen (described in “Customize the Home Screen,” coming up).
Apps you’ve downloaded can be loaded onto any other iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch that you sync with your computer. But what you may not know is that you can share apps with up to five other computers (including friends’ computers) using the Home Sharing feature of iTunes.
For example, let’s say I want to play a game of Scrabble for iPad with my wife. I’ve purchased the app, but she doesn’t want to buy a new copy because she may not want to play it often. Here’s how to get the app onto another device.
Because your friend didn’t purchase the app originally, she needs to enter your iTunes password to update the app. If you trust your friend enough to give her your password, that’s not a problem, but it also means she can buy anything from the iTunes Store on your dime.
Every app has its own settings, but finding them can be scattershot. Many apps include preferences within the app itself, so you can do everything in one place. Apple’s recommended (and awkward, in my opinion) method is to put preferences within the Settings app (Figure 2.9). Scroll to the bottom of the Settings screen to view apps, then tap an app’s name to access its preferences.
Some apps can take advantage of push notification, which is a way for data to arrive even when the iPad is in its sleep mode. For example, I use an app called Boxcar (boxcar.io) to notify me when someone sends a direct message via Twitter using a text alert, a sound, a badge, or all three.
The built-in Mail app also uses push notifications—notifying you when new email messages arrive—but is configured elsewhere; see Chapter 4. The steps here apply to third-party apps that support notifications.
I introduced the Home screen in Chapter 1 and mentioned how you can swipe each screenful of apps to find what you’re looking for. What I didn’t mention was that you can move the apps between screens, so you don’t have to swipe several times to get a frequently-used app—very helpful since the iPad can have as many as 11 Home screens. It’s also possible to change the background image to personalize your iPad.
After a moment, the screen advances and you still have control over positioning the app.
The apps in the Dock at the bottom of each Home screen remain the same, no matter which screen you’re viewing. Put your most frequently used apps there.
You can also drag an entire Home screen in that column to a different location. This is great if, for example, you keep games on one screen and business apps on another.
The iPad includes many alternate Home screen images, or you can use one of your own photos as the background. You can also set the Lock Screen image.
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