AS YOU MAY RECALL, you met the iPad’s round Home button () back in Chapter 1, when you set up your slab. But how the Home button behaves really depends on what screen you’re on—and how many times you press it:

THE BUTTONS ON THE right edge of every iPad control the audio for movies, music, and apps that make noise. Here they are, from top to bottom:

WHILE THE IPAD’S INNARDS are full of state-of-the-art electronics, the outside isn’t complex at all—just four buttons (On/Off-Sleep/Wake; Volume; Side Switch; and, discussed on Use the Home Button, the Home button). The outside of the iPad sports two jacks so you can plug in cords. Here’s what you do with ’em:

WANT TO LISTEN PRIVATELY on your iPad? Back in the old days, the only headphones you could get came with a cord attached, and those still work just fine. But if you want to free yourself from wires while you lay back, relax, and listen to a Bach cello suite, get a pair of Bluetooth stereo headphones that connect wirelessly to the Bluetooth chip inside your iPad. Then, your only entanglement will be mind with music.

Here’s how you get either type of headphone to work on the iPad:

ONCE YOU ACTIVATE YOUR iPad, you’ll see 20 icons waiting for you in neat rows on the Home screen. They’re the programs that come free with your new iPad. These two pages tell you what each one does—and where you can find out more about it. So, using Apple’s standard placement, and starting at the top-left corner, here’s what you’ll see:

Messages. Use the Messages app to send free text messages to others using iOS 5 or later on their iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches. Get details on Send Messages.

Calendar. As you may suspect, this is the app to tap when you need to check your schedule, make an appointment, or look up a date. Get the lowdown on Set Up Your Calendars.

Notes. This app serves as the iPad’s electronic scratch pad for jotting down quick thoughts or even full-blown ideas. And unlike a paper pad, you can email your notes right from the tablet. See Take Notes.

Reminders. Have a nagging feeling you need to do something or want to make sure you don’t forget a chore? Keep track of all your tasks on the iPad’s handy to-do list. Use Reminders has more.

Maps. When you need driving directions from Philadelphia to Provincetown—or you just want to look up an address—Maps is the app for you. Find Your Way with Maps tells you how to use this electronic atlas.

Clock. In iOS 6, the Clock app replaces YouTube on the iPad’s Home screen, letting users check time instead of killing it. As Track Time With the iPad’s Clock explains, you get not one clock, but four.

Videos. This app organizes and plays all your iPad’s movies, TV shows, and other videos. Chapter 15 is all about keeping yourself visually entertained.

Contacts. This app serves as your iPad’s address book—and it can even pull in the contacts file on your desktop computer so you don’t have to retype everything. See Maintain Contacts for details.

Game Center. Since it arrived in 2010, the iPad has become a popular videogame console, but you don’t have to play alone; tap Game Center to find games and friends. See Chapter 10 for lots more.

iTunes. Tap this shiny purple icon, and your iPad transports you right into Apple’s online emporium for all kinds of digital entertainment, including music, videos, games, and books. See The iTunes Store.

App Store. When the time comes to get yourself some cool new apps for your iPad, tap this bright blue beacon to go directly to Apple’s App Store and start shopping. See Chapter 8 for details.

Newsstand. Scores of magazines and newspapers come in digital editions just for the iPad. The Newsstand app keeps them all organized. See Use Newsstand for Your ePeriodicals for instructions.

FaceTime. Want to make a video call just like they do on the bridge of the USS Enterprise? The FaceTime app lets you videochat with pals on iOS devices. Make Video Calls with FaceTime explains how.

Camera. Both the newest iPad and the 2011 iPad 2 include a pair of cameras, and this app controls both. See Take Photos With the iPad’s Camera for info on taking still photos, and Shoot Your Own Videos for instructions on shooting videos.

Photo Booth. If you need a quick profile picture for your Facebook or LinkedIn page—or need to entertain the kids for an hour—tap open Photo Booth to snap creative self-portraits. See Take Portraits with Photo Booth for more.

Settings. Tap here to go to the controls that let you customize and adjust your iPad. This book discusses app settings when it describes the programs, but you can also get full descriptions in Appendix A.

Safari. When you feel like doing a little old-fashioned online surfing, tap here to fire up Safari, the iPad’s window to the Web. Chapter 5 is all about Safari.

Mail. Set up one email account—or several—and keep connected with your correspondents right on your iPad. Find out how to configure and use the Mail app in Chapter 6.

Photos. The iPad (especially the latest big models with the high- definition Retina display) is great for showing off your digital pictures. This app keeps them organized, as Chapter 16 explains.

Music. After Mac computers, Apple is best known for its iPod players, and the Music app turns your iPad into the biggest, flattest iPod yet. Chapter 14 tells you how to get your tunes cranking.

WHEN YOU GET FAMILIAR with all the built-in apps that come with your iPad, you may find yourself wishing you could put them in custom formation so you could, for example, find your most-used apps more quickly.

Luckily, Apple makes it easy to rearrange the icons right on your iPad. (You can also shift icons around in iTunes, as Sync and Organize Apps in iTunes explains). Here’s what you do:

Once you press the Home button, your apps settle into their new locations. When you feel like moving things around again, just repeat these steps.

ONCE YOU START ADDING apps to your iPad, you may find the Home screen getting a little crowded. Fortunately, the iPad lets you have more than one of ‘em—in fact, you can have 11.

To navigate among Home screens, flick your finger across the iPad’s surface. The small white dots at the bottom of the screen (circled above) indicate how many Home screens you have and which one you’re on.

Once you start buying apps, you may find yourself filling up those 11 screens pretty quickly. If you don’t want to delete any apps, you can put them in folders. Turn the page to find out how.

EVEN WITH A GENEROUS 11 Home screens, some app-loving folk can quickly fill them all with icons. In addition, some people might prefer a tidier way to group their apps, rather than dragging them around to different pages.

That’s where Home screen folders can make everything better. You can group up to 20 apps in a single folder—which looks like an icon with little icons nestled inside it (right). Putting apps in folders saves screen space and keeps common ones corralled.

To create a folder, press and hold an icon until it wiggles, and then drag it on top of another icon that you want in the same folder. A box appears with a generic name for the folder, like “Games” (see below). You can keep this name or replace it with one of your own, like “1980s Arcade Games.” Once you set up a folder, you can drag up to 18 more apps into it. Tap the screen to close the folder.

To get to an app inside a folder, tap the folder to open it, and then tap the app. If you change your mind and want to pull an app out of a folder, press and hold its icon to start the Wiggle Dance. Now you can drag the app out of the folder and back to its place on the Home screen proper.

To get rid of a folder altogether, press an icon to get all the icons wiggling. Drag all the apps out of the folder and back to the Home screen. When you take out the last app, the folder disappears.

PUTTING APPS IN FOLDERS helps organize your iPad, but it doesn’t save you a lot of time when you’re in the middle of one app and want to switch over to another one real quick—like if you’re reading your email and want to nip out and turn on the Pandora radio app while you shovel out your Inbox. Who wants to go all the way out to the Home screen for that?

Fortunately, the iPad has a shortcut: Click the Home button twice. When you do, a row of icons sprouts from the bottom of your screen (below).

This row represents the apps you’ve recently used. Tap one to quickly switch back to it. Turn on Pandora, check your sports scores, or whatever. When you finish, double-click the Home button again. When the row of icons appears, tap the one for the app you began with to get back to it.

If the app you want isn’t in this initial row, flick the icons from right to left until you find it—all your recently used apps should be there.

Try to weed out apps you haven’t used in forever because their icons take up memory and consume power. To do the ditch, press down on an icon until the symbol appears. Tap the symbol to remove the app from the recently used list—but not from the iPad itself. Press the Home button when you finish. If your iPad is acting sluggish, forcibly closing a ton of apps you’re not using may help.

In addition to displaying your most recent apps, the Home button double-click offers another time-saver. Instead of flicking right to left to see recently used apps, flick left to right to find the music playback controls. This saves you the trouble of going out to the Music app’s Now Playing screen to skip a track in a playlist. The controls for streaming a file with AirPlay (Stream and Mirror Files with AirPlay) are here, too.

If you opted to make the iPad’s side switch a Mute button (Use the Mute/Lock and Volume Buttons) but get agitated when the screen reorients itself as you read an ebook in bed, swipe left and tap the first icon, the circular arrow in the left corner (right). That locks the iPad into its current orientation—until you tap the icon again to unlock the screen.

NOW THAT YOU’VE HAD your iPad tour, you probably realize that there’s one part of the gadget that’s very, very important to the whole tablet-computing experience.

Yes, like the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad and iPad Mini’s glass touchscreen is the main way you communicate with the slab. Each time you surf the Web or send some email, your fingers tap, slide, and flick across its smooth surface. Do this sort of thing on a normal piece of glass and you end up with a smudged and sticky window, gunked up from finger grease, moisturizer, and whatever else you have on your hands.

Thanks to a special coating (explained in the Note on the opposite page), the iPad’s screen tries to repel fingerprints. But with enough use, even that has its limits; your screen begins to look like a small child has been eating glazed doughnuts and touching your iPad repeatedly—with both hands. Here’s what you should—and shouldn’t—do to keep your iPad screen fresh and clean.

Protecting the iPad’s Screen

The iPad screen is scratch-resistant, but it could break if you accidentally bounce the tablet off a concrete floor or have some other gravity-related mishap. If disaster strikes and you crack or chip the screen, don’t use the iPad or try to pry out the broken glass. Put it in a box or wrap it up to prevent glass shards from falling out, then take it to your nearest Apple Store or authorized Apple service provider for repair. Appendix B has more on iPad care and repair.

To protect your iPad as much as possible, both from accidental drops or even bouncing around in your shoulder bag alongside house keys, sunglasses, and loose credit cards, consider a case for it. Accessory makers have come up with a huge selection, from stately leather portfolio models to neon-colored rubber shells meant to jazz up your iPad or Mini while helping you keep a firm grip on the thing.

When considering a case, think about how you plan to carry and use your iPad. If it’s going to ride along in a backpack, a sturdy padded pouch may be more protective than a thin leather binder-type cover. Protect Your iPad has tips on the type of cases available and where to buy them.

Note

Apple describes the iPad’s screen as having a “fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating,” which makes it sound like the device has some sort of psychiatric condition or a fear of butter substitutes (known as oleomargarine back in the day). Not to worry! Oleo, from the Latin oleum, just means “oil”—like the natural oils from your fingertips when you slide them around the iPad’s glossy screen. The oleophobic coating is just a plastic polymer applied to the iPad’s glass that’s supposed to cut down on smeary paw prints.