The iPad works thrillingly as soon as you take it out of the box, but if you want to get the best out of it and customise it fully, you'll need to become an expert in the Settings app. Here's how...
Perhaps you're only interested in the jaw-dropping apps on your iPad - whiz-bang games and apps such as Mail and Safari that work just like on a desktop computer. But if you want to know what the iPad is really capable of, you'll have to dig deep into its real workhorse app: Settings.
Settings is where the magic happens, where you can do things beyond the capability of even the most powerful third-party iPad app. Ifyou want to put your personal stamp on your iPad and delve into its cleverest capabilities, then Settings is your friend. Ofcourse, if you're familiar with the iPhone or iPod touch, you'll find the iPad experience similar- it's running a very similar operating system after all. We took a stroll through the Settings app on the iPad to see how it differs and what's new.
Split personality
First, the interface. Settings uses the split-pane view that's
become so familiar to iPad users, from Mail and Notes. In Settings' left pane, you'll find a list of the different categories of system settings and settings forapps (both built-in and third-party). On the right are the contents ofwhatever section you're currently viewing.
As with Mail, this change represents a big improvement over the corresponding iPhone app. To access some of the iPhone's settings, you
have to drill down many levels and then head all the way back up again. On the iPad, having the top level of navigation always available is great for jumping back and forth.
Having the top level of navigation always available is great for jumping back and forth
Picture Perfect The iPad can serve as a digital photo frame, and you can configure it for that role here. Try the jazzy new Origami transition.
What's new
The iPad's not the iPhone, so there are plenty of new options
as well as a few missing features. And there are obviously some differences between the WiFi-only and the 3G iPad models.
A brand new top-level section, Picture Frame, lets you set up the iPad's digital photo Frame Feature, which you can access from the device's lock screen. You can choose between two transitions - the classic Dissolve and a nifty folding Origami effect-and select whether you want the slideshow to use all of your photos, or just certain albums or events.
You also have the option to shuffle your photos, and, if you've picked the Dissolve transition, you can choose to have the photos zoomed in on detected Faces {which is occasionally amusing, given Apple's sometimes shaky face-detection technology). The Origami transition automatically frames shots on faces, which is a cool touch.
As mentioned above, Brightness 6t Wallpaper combines two sections from the iPhone's Settings app. But what's really new here is that you can choose a background not only for the iPad's lock screen, but also for your home screen.
Mail, Contacts, and Calendars are virtually identical on the iPhone and iPad, although the WiFi-only iPad obviously doesn't allow you to import contacts From a SIM card.
Safari's preferences now have a toggle switch to always show the browser's Bookmarks Bar. Strangely, the Plug-Ins slider from the iPhone has disappeared.
Under iPod settings, you won't find the iPhone's Shake to Shuffle feature, and the iPad has broken out the video preferences to a separate Video section, though it contains the same functions.
The transition choices that appear in the iPhone's Photos settings have moved to the iPad's much more capable Photos app.
General contains the iPad's system-wide settings. The WiFi-only model
lacks the iPhone's Usage sub-menu, but it adds the Sounds subsection, which itself loses phone-related features such as Vibrate, Ringtone, New Text Message, NewVoicemail, and so on.
Under the Network subsection, you'll find the iPad has the same VPN and WiFi menus as the iPhone, and of course the WiFi-only model doesn't have either the iPhone 3GS's Enable 3G or Data Roaming toggles. Ifyou have set up a VPN connection, you'll be able to toggle it on or off from the top-level Settings list in the left-hand pane.
The Auto-Lock options have changed slightly, as befits the iPad's more capacious battery: instead of the iPhone's never and one to five minute options, the iPad starts at two minutes, with options for five, 10 or 15 minutes, in addition to never locking.
Under Passcode, you'll mainly find the same options as on the iPhone, minus the 3GS's Voice Dial option and with a new slider to turn the Picture Frame feature on or off.
The Home button options are slightly altered from the iPhone: you can't set double-clicking the Home button to Phone Favorites or Camera, naturally, but otherwise they're identical.
Under Date & Time, the WiFi-only iPad doesn't let you set the time automatically, though this might be possible in the 3G version.
The Keyboard options have been rearranged slightly: there's now a sub-option under International Keyboards to change the keyboard layout for both the software and hardware keyboards. With the English keyboard,
TV times To hook your iPad up to a UK television set to watch videos, you'll need to set the iPad to PAL output.
Hidden features Can't find a setting on an app you're using? It might have its settings hidden in the Settings app - check your Apps list here.
On Safari The Safari web browser is much richer than it first appears, and you have plenty of scope for customising your browsing in the Safari settings.
you can change the layout from the default QWERTY to AZERTY or OWERTZ, and you can have the hardware keyboard set up as US, Dvorak, US Internationa!-PC, US Extended, British, French, German,Spanish - ISO, Italian, Dutch, and Belgian.
The iPad's international keyboard options are far more limited than the iPhone's, with only 12 choices in addition to the US layout: Chinese (Simplified} Handwriting, Chinese (Simplified) Pinyin, Dutch, English (UK), Flemish, French, French (Canada), German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. However, when you add those additional keyboards, you oFten have the choice of several different hardware and software keyboard layouts. For example, under Russian you can set the hardware keyboard layout to Russian - PC, Russian, and Russian - Phonetic.
The iPad lacks the iPhone 3GS's Voice Control feature, so it's no surprise the Voice Control language options are missing under the International section. And if you want to change your iPad's whole interface to a different language, you'll find considerably fewer options than on the iPhone: the iPad only offers English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Russian. Expect these choices to increase as the iPad is released in more and more markets.
Accessibility is pretty similar to the 3GS, though the VoiceOver section adds options for using phonetics and pitch change.
And the iPad also has the same toggle to show the battery percentage monitor as the iPhone 3GS does; you'll find it under the General section.
Set it and forget it
There aren't any particularly earth-shaking surprises in the
iPad's Settings app, though expect it to change as the operating system gets updated and Apple brings new features to the iPad. For now, the addition ofthe split-pane interface makes Settings much easier to navigate, especially when it comes to making quick changes on the move.
No comments:
Post a Comment