How Do I Enhance My iPad Using Apps?

The iPad’s out-of-the-box collection of apps is pretty impressive, and most of us could happily while away our days playing around with nothing but the default apps. That, of course, would be silly. After all, when Apple announced the iPad in early 2010, it also announced that the App Store — the online marketplace of all things app — had more than 140,000 apps available. As I write this in early 2011, the App Store now offers more than 250,000 apps, so the total is no doubt significantly higher as you read this. Those are mind-boggling, eye-goggling numbers, and they mean that you’re bound to find fistfuls of apps that will make your life easier, cooler, more efficient, and more fun. Best of all, tons of the apps won’t cost you a dime, so you can bulk up your iPad without draining your bank account.

Apps and Your iPad

Accessing the App Store on Your Computer

Accessing the App Store on Your iPad

Syncing Your Apps

Multitasking Apps

Apps and Your iPad

You’ve seen that your iPad comes loaded with not only a basketful of terrific technology, but also a decent collection of truly amazing apps, all of which take advantage of the iPad’s special features. But it won’t escape your notice that the iPad’s suite of apps is, well, incomplete. Where are the news and sports headlines? Why isn’t there an easy way to post a short note to your blog or a link to your de.licio.us account? And why on earth isn’t there a clock or calculator in sight?

It’s possible to fill in these and many other gaping holes in the iPad app structure by using the App Store. Here you’ll find a raft of high-quality apps in categories such as business, education, social networking, games, and many more. As you see in Figure 13.1, when you open an iPhone app on

13.1 Open an iPhone app on your iPad, and at first you see the iPhone-sized version of the app.

your iPad, at first you see the app in its default iPhone size. The vast majority of these apps were created for the iPhone, but that’s okay because most of those apps run on the iPad, too.

Feel free to use the app like this, but it does seem odd to waste that big, beautiful iPad screen. Fortunately, you don’t have to. Tap the 2x button in the bottom-right corner, and your iPad automatically doubles the size of the app (an operation that Apple calls pixel doubling) so it takes up the entire iPad screen, as shown in Figure 13.2. The image is a bit fuzzier, and if you don’t like it, you can always tap the 1x button to return to the standard iPhone view.

13.2 Tap the 2x button to enjoy your app at a larger size.

Fortunately, you’re not stuck with using only iPhone apps on your iPad. Since the release of the iPad in the spring of 2010, software developers from all over the world have been busy either tweaking existing apps or cobbling together new apps expressly designed to take advantage of the iPad’s awesome screen. In fact, as I write this there are more than 40,000 apps designed specifically for the iPad, so you shouldn’t have to settle for an iPhone version of an app very often.

Accessing the App Store on Your Computer

Your one-stop source for iPad apps is the famous App Store, shown in Figure 13.3. In the same way that you use the iTunes Store to browse and purchase songs and albums, you use the App Store to browse and purchase apps (although many of them are free for the downloading). It’s done using the familiar iTunes software on your Mac or Windows PC. (You also can connect to the App Store directly from your iPad, which I explain later.)

13.3 The iPad version of the main App Store page is the start of your search for iPad apps.

To access the App Store on your computer, follow these steps:

1. Launch iTunes.

2. Click iTunes Store. The iTunes Store interface appears.

3. Click App Store. iTunes loads the main App Store page.

4. Click iPad. iTunes displays the iPad version of the App Store page.

From here, use the links to browse the apps, or use the iTunes Store search box to look for something specific.

Downloading free apps

Early in the development process of the App Store, Apple made a pledge to software developers: If you make your app free, then Apple will host it in the App Store without charging you a cent. Getting to show off your digital handiwork in front of a few million people is the dream of any developer, but to get that access for nothing is almost too good to be true. Almost. The App Store does, indeed, boast a large collection of apps that are free for the downloading.

Follow these steps to download and install a free app:

1. In iTunes, click the App Store link. Your computer opens the App Store for business.

2. Use the App Store interface to locate the app you want to download.

3. Click the app. The App Store displays a description of the app, along with its ratings, some screen shots, and some user reviews, as shown in Figure 13.4.

13.4 Click an app to see its details.

In most cases, you can’t tell just by looking whether an app is free. However, the App Store does have a handy Top Free Apps list on the right side (just below the Paid Apps list), so that’s often a good place to start if you’re looking for free stuff.

4. Click Free App. The App Store asks for your iTunes account password.

5. Type your password, and click Get. iTunes downloads the app and stores it in the Library’s Apps category.

Purchasing apps

Even software developers have to make a living, so giving away apps might make good marketing sense, but it doesn’t put Jolt Colas on the table in the short term. So, yes, many of the programs you see in the App Store will cost you a few dollars. That’s okay if the app is decent, and hopefully you’ll see a few reviews that let you know whether the app is worth shelling out the bucks.

Follow these steps to purchase and install a commercial App Store app:

1. In iTunes, click the App Store link. Your computer opens the App Store for business.

2. Use the App Store interface to locate the app you want to download.

3. Click the app. The App Store displays a description of the app. Pay particular attention to the app’s rating and to the reviews that users have submitted.

4. Click Buy App. The App Store asks for your iTunes account password.

5. Type your password, and click Buy. iTunes downloads the app and stores it in the Library’s Apps category.

Viewing and updating your apps

When you click Apps in the iTunes Library, you see a list of icons that represent all the apps you’ve downloaded from the App Store, as shown in Figure 13.5.

Notice that at the bottom of the screen, iTunes tells you how many updates are available. When the developer releases a new version of an app, the App Store compares the new version with what you have. If you have an earlier version, it offers to update the app for you (usually without charge). To see which apps need updating, click X Updates Available (where X is the number of updates). iTunes takes you to the App Store and displays the list of available updates, as shown in Figure 13.6. To update an app, click the app’s Get Update button, type your iTunes Store password and click Get.

13.5 In the iTunes Library, click the Apps category to see your downloaded apps.

13.6 To update an app, click its Get Update button.

Accessing the App Store on Your iPad

Getting apps synced to your iPad from iTunes is great, but what if you’re away from your desk and you hear about an amazing iPad game, or you realize that you forgot to download an important app using iTunes? This isn’t even remotely a problem because your iPad can establish a wireless connection to the App Store anywhere you have Wi-Fi access or a cellular signal (ideally 3G for faster downloads, assuming you have a 3G version of the iPad). You can browse and search the apps, check for updates, and purchase any app you want (unless it’s free, of course). The app downloads to your iPad and installs itself on the Home screen. You’re good to go!

To access the App Store on your iPad, follow these steps:

1. Tap the Home button to return to the Home screen.

2. Tap the App Store icon.

As you can see in Figure 13.7, your iPad organizes the App Store similar to the iTunes Store. That is, you get five browse buttons in the menu bar: Featured, Genius, Top Charts, Categories, and Updates. You use these buttons to navigate the App Store.

Here’s a summary of what each browse button does for you:

• Featured. Tap this button to display a list of apps picked by the App Store editors. The list shows each app’s name, icon, star rating, number of reviews, and price. Tap New to see the latest apps, tap What’s Hot to see the most popular items, and tap Release Date to see the apps sorted chronologically by the date of release.

• Genius. Tap this button to access the Genius feature, which gives you a list of apps that are similar to the ones already on your iPad.

• Top Charts. Tap this button to see a collection of charts, including the Top Paid apps, the Top Free apps, and the Top Grossing apps.

• Categories. Tap this button to see a list of app categories, such as Games and Business. Tap a category to see a list of the apps available.

• Updates. Tap this button to install updated versions of your apps.

Tap an app to get more detailed information about it. The Info screen that appears gives you a description of the app, shows a screen shot, and may even offer some user reviews.

13.7 Use the browse buttons in the App Store’s menu bar to locate and manage apps for your iPad.

When you’re perusing the apps, you’ll come across many where the price button or the FREE button has a little plus (+) in the top-left corner, as shown in Figure 13.8. This tells you that the app works with both the iPad and the iPhone.

13.8 A plus sign (+) in an app’s price or FREE icon tells you the app works with both the iPad and the iPhone.

When you wander around the App Store and you’re just not sure what you want, probably the best thing to do is tap Categories in the menu bar to display the Choose a Category screen shown in Figure 13.9. This can really help you narrow down your search and often help you find hidden gems.

Downloading free apps

Amazingly, quite a few of the App Store apps cost precisely nothing. Nada. Zip. You may think these freebies would be amateurish or too simple to be useful. It’s true that some of them are second rate, but a surprising number are full-fledged apps that are as polished and feature rich as the commercial apps.

In your iPad’s App Store, the free apps say FREE on the right side of the app link. If you’re looking for a good place to get your collection of free apps off the ground, tap Top Charts and then peruse the Top Free iPad Apps list.

Follow these steps to download and install a free app:

1. On the Home screen, tap App Store. Your iPad opens the App Store.

2. Locate the app you want to download, and tap it. The app’s Info screen appears.

13.9 Tap Categories and use the App Store’s 20 categories to find what you’re looking for, even if you didn’t know you were even looking for it.

3. Tap the FREE icon. The Free icon changes to the Install App icon.

4. Tap Install App. The App store asks for your iTunes account password.

5. Type your password, and tap OK. The App Store begins downloading the app. An icon for the app appears on the Home screen, and you see a progress bar that tracks the download and install process. (The icon title changes from Loading to Installing and finally to the name of the app itself.)

6. When the installation is complete, tap the new icon on the Home screen to start using your new app.

If the app is quite big and you’re surfing the Internet over a cellular connection — particularly an EDGE connection — your iPad may abort the installation and tell you that you need to connect to a Wi-Fi network to download the app.

Purchasing apps

Many of the iPad apps are extremely sophisticated, so it’s not surprising that some of them will set you back a few bucks. To make sure you don’t waste your money, read the description of the app, and be sure to read any reviews that other folks have submitted.

If a commercial app looks like something you want, follow these steps to purchase and install it:

1. On the Home screen, tap App Store. Your iPad connects to the App Store.

2. Locate the app you want to purchase, and tap it. The app’s Info screen appears.

3. Tap the price icon. The price changes to a Buy App icon.

4. Tap the Buy App icon. The App Store asks for your iTunes account password.

5. Tap the Password box, type your password, and tap OK. The App Store begins downloading the app. An icon for the app appears on the Home screen, and you see a progress bar that tracks the download and install process. (The icon title changes from Loading to Installing and finally to the name of the app itself.)

6. When the installation is complete, tap the new icon on the Home screen to launch the app.

The App Store may not let you download a huge app if you’re connected over a cellular signal. Instead of downloading the app, your iPad displays a message telling you to try again using a Wi-Fi connection.

Updating your apps

When you access the App Store with your iPad, look at the Updates browse button in the menu bar. If you see a red dot with a white number inside it superimposed over the Updates button, it means some of your installed apps have updated versions available. The number inside the dot tells you how many updates are waiting for you. It’s a good idea to update your apps whenever a new version becomes available. The new version usually fixes bugs, but it also may supply more features, give better performance, or beef up the app’s security.

Follow these steps to install an update:

1. On the Home screen, tap App Store. Your iPad connects to the App Store.

2. Tap the Updates button. Remember that you can tap this button only if you see the red dot with a number that indicates the available updates. You see the Updates screen.

3. Tap an update. The App Store displays a description of the update.

If you have multiple updates available, it can be a pain to update them one at a time because you have to repeat these steps for each app. To save time, tap the Updates button and then tap Update All.

4. Tap Free. The Free button changes to Install. (In the unlikely event that the update isn’t free, you’d tap the price instead, and then tap Buy App.)

5. Tap Install. Your iPad downloads and installs the app update.

Syncing Your Apps

After you download an app or two into iTunes, they won’t do you much good just sitting there. To actually use the apps, you need to get them on your iPad. Similarly, if you’ve grabbed an app or three on your iPad, it’s a good idea to back them up to your computer.

You can accomplish both goals by syncing apps between your computer and your iPad:

1. Connect your iPad to your computer. iTunes opens and accesses the iPad.

2. In iTunes, click your iPad in the Devices list.

3. Click the Apps tab.

4. Select the Sync Apps check box.

5. In the app list, select the check box beside each app that you want to sync, as shown in Figure 13.10.

6. To remove an app from the iPad, click the Home screen that contains the app, hover the mouse pointer over the app’s icon, and then click the X that appears in the upper-left corner of the icon.

7. Click Apply. iTunes syncs the iPad using your new app settings.

13.10 You can sync selected apps with your iPad.

Multitasking Apps

One of the welcome features on the iPad is multitasking, which enables you to use multiple apps at the same time. This is useful if, say, you’re playing a game and an e-mail message comes in because you can switch to the message to read and possibly respond to it and then switch back to your game and resume where you left off.

As its most basic, multitasking on the iPad means that whenever you run an app and then switch to another app, your iPad keeps the first app running in the background. In most cases, the first app does nothing while it’s in the background; it doesn’t take any processor time away from your current app, and it doesn’t use battery power. This means that you’re free to open as many apps as you like. However, if the first app is performing some task and you switch to another app, the first app will continue to perform the task in the background.

However, to get a firm grip on how iPad multitasking works, you need to understand the three different modes an app can have on the iPad:

• closed state. This mode means the app is completely shut down. If you reboot your iPad (by turning it off and then back on again), then all your apps are in the closed state.

• suspended state. If you launch an app, and then press the Home button to return to the Home screen, in most cases your iPad places the running app into the suspended state. This means the app remains loaded into memory, but it’s not running, it’s not using up processor time, and it’s not draining the battery. However, the app still maintains its current conditions, so that when you return to it, the app resumes where you left off.

• background state. If you launch an app, start some process such as playing music, and then press the Home button to return to the Home screen, your iPad puts the app into background state, which means it keeps the app’s process running in the background. When you return to the app, you’ll either see the process still running, or it will have been completed.

To help you navigate the list of running apps, shut down any apps you won’t be using for a while. Double-press the Home button to display the running app list, press and hold any app to put the icons into edit mode, and then tap the red Delete icon in the upper-left corner of any app you want to shut down. When you’ve finished, press the Home button to exit edit mode.

I should note, as well, that the vast majority of apps go into the suspended state when you switch to another app. However, if you launch an app and your iPad doesn’t have enough free memory available, the iPad starts putting suspended apps into the closed state to free up memory.

So how do you switch from one app to another? Double-press the Home button to reveal the list of running apps, as shown in Figure 13.11, flick left or right to bring the app icon into view, and then tap the app to switch to it.

13.11 Double-press the Home button to see the list of running apps.

As an added bonus, the app navigation list also includes a few useful iPad tools. Flick the app list to the right until you see the controls shown in Figure 13.12. Tap the Rotation Lock icon to prevent the iPad from rotating between portrait and landscape mode; use the Brightness slider to control the brightness of the iPad screen; and use the audio icons to control the playback of the most recently used audio app (as given by the icon on the right, which is the iPod icon in Figure 13.12).

13.12 Double-press the Home button and then flick right to see these iPad tools.

Note that instead of the Rotation Lock icon shown in Figure 13.12, you may see the Mute icon. Your iPad has a setting that toggles between the following two states:

• Rotation Lock. When the app navigation area displays the Rotation Lock icon, you can use the iPad’s side switch to lock and unlock the current orientation.

• Mute. When the app navigation area displays the Mute icon, you can use the iPad’s side switch to mute and unmute the sound.

To learn how to toggle between these two states, see “Configuring the side switch” in Chapter 3.