Chapter 9
Expanding Your iPad Horizons with Apps
Get ready to . . .
Explore Senior-Recommended Apps
Get Applications from the App Store
Organize Your Applications on Home Screens
Delete Applications You No Longer Need
Some apps (short for applications) come preinstalled on your iPad, such as Contacts and Videos. But there’s a world of other apps out there that you can get for your iPad, some for free (such as iBooks) and some for a price (typically, from 99 cents to about $10 though some can top out at $90 or more).
Apps range from games to financial tools and productivity applications, such as the iPad version of Pages, the Apple software for word processing and page layout.
In this chapter, I suggest some apps you might want to check out and explain how to use the App Store feature of iPad to find, purchase, and download apps.
Explore Senior-Recommended Apps
As I write this book, apps are being furiously created for iPad, so there will be many more apps available that could fit your needs by the time you have this book in your hands. Still, to get you exploring what’s available, I want to provide a quick list of apps that might whet your appetite.
Access the App Store by tapping the App Store icon on the Home screen. Then check out an app by typing its name in the Search box and tapping the Search key on the onscreen keyboard. Here are some interesting apps to explore:
Sudoku Daily (Free; see Figure 9-1): If you like this mental math puzzle in print, try it out on your iPad. It has three lessons and several levels ranging from easiest to nightmare, making it a great way to make time fly by in the doctor’s or dentist’s waiting room.
Figure 9-1
Stocks Portfolio for iPad ($9.99): Keep track of your investments with this app on your iPad. You can use the app to create a watch list and record your stock performance.
Price Grabber iPad Edition (Free): Use this app to find low prices on just about everything. Read product reviews and compare list prices.
Flickr (Free): If you use the Flickr photo-sharing service on your computer, why not bring the same features to your iPad? This app is useful for sharing images with family and friends.
Paint Studio ($1.99): Get creative! You can use this powerful app to draw, add color, and even create special effects. If you don’t need all these features, try Paint Studio Jr.
GarageBand ($4.99): If you love to make music, you’ll love this app, which has been part of the Mac stable for several years. Play piano, guitar, or a variety of other virtual musical instruments.
Mediquations Medical Calculator ($4.99): Use this handy utility to help calculate medications with built-in formulas and read scores for various medications. Check with your physician before using!
iBooks is the outstanding, free e-reader app that opens up a world of reading on your iPad. See Chapter 10 for details about using iBooks.
Most iPhone apps will work on your iPad, so if you own the mobile phone and have favorite apps on it, sync them to your iPad!
Search the App Store
1. Tap the App Store icon on the Home screen. The site shown in Figure 9-2 appears.
Figure 9-2
2. At this point, you have several options for finding apps:
• Tap in the Search field, enter a search term, and tap the Search button on the onscreen keyboard to see results.
• Tap either the Previous or Next arrow to see more selections, or tap the See All link to display all selections.
• Tap the New, What’s Hot, or Release Date tab at the top of the screen to see that category of apps.
• Tap the Top Charts button at the bottom of the screen to see which free and paid apps other people are downloading most.
• Tap the Categories button to search by type of app, as shown in Figure 9-3.
Figure 9-3
Get Applications from the App Store
1. Buying apps requires that you have an iTunes account, which I cover in Chapter 3. After you have an account, you can use the saved payment information there to buy apps in a few simple steps or download free apps. I strongly recommend that you install the free iBooks app, so in this task I walk you through the steps for getting it. With the App Store open, tap in the Search field, enter iBooks and then tap the Search button on the onscreen keyboard.
2. Tap on the Free button for iBooks in the results that appear, as shown in Figure 9-4. (To get a paid app, you tap the same button, which would be labeled with a price.)
Figure 9-4
3. The Free button changes to read Install App (or, in the case of a paid app, the button changes to read Buy App). Tap the button; you may be asked to enter your iTunes password and tap the OK button to proceed.
4. The app downloads; if you purchase an app that isn’t free, at this point your credit card or gift card allowance is charged for the purchase price.
Out of the box, only preinstalled apps are located on the first iPad Home screen. Apps you download are placed on additional Home screens and you have to scroll to view and use them, which is covered later in this chapter. See the next task for help in finding your newly downloaded apps using multiple Home screens.
If you have opened an iCloud account then anything you purchase on your iPad can be set up to automatically be pushed to other Apple iOS devices. See Chapter 3 for more about iCloud.
Organize Your Applications on Home Screens
1. iPad can display up to 11 Home screens. By default, the first contains preinstalled apps; other screens are created to contain any apps you download or sync to your iPad. At the bottom of any iPad Home screen (just above the Dock), a magnifying-glass icon represents the Search screen to the left of the primary Home screen; dots that appear to the right of the magnifying-glass icon indicate the number of Home screens; and a solid dot specifies which Home screen you’re on now, as shown in Figure 9-5. Tap the Home button to open the last displayed Home screen.
Figure 9-5
2. Flick your finger from right to left to move to the next Home screen. To move back, flick from left to right.
3. To reorganize apps on a Home screen, press and hold any app on that page. The app icons begin to jiggle (see Figure 9-6) and any apps you installed will sport a Delete button (a black circle with a white X on it).
Figure 9-6
4. Press, hold, and drag an app icon to another location on the screen to move it.
5. Tap the Home button to stop all those icons from jiggling!
To move an app from one page to another, while the apps are jiggling, you can press, hold, and drag an app to the left or right to move it to the next Home screen. You can also manage what app resides on what Home screen from iTunes when you’ve connected iPad to iTunes via a cable or wireless sync.
Organize Apps in Folders
As with iPhone, iPad lets you organize apps in folders. The process is simple (and specific to each device):
1. Tap and hold an app until all apps do their jiggle dance.
2. Drag an app on top of another app. A bar appears across the screen, showing the two apps and a file with a placeholder name (see Figure 9-7).
Figure 9-7
3. To change the name, tap in the field at the end of the placeholder name and the keyboard appears.
4. Press the Delete key to delete the placeholder name and type one of your own.
5. Tap anywhere outside the bar to save the name.
6. Tap the Home key to stop the icons from dancing around and you’ll see your folder appear on the Home screen where you began this process.
Delete Applications You No Longer Need
1. When you no longer need an app you have installed, it’s time to get rid of it. (You can’t delete apps that are preinstalled on the iPad.) If you use iCloud to push content across all Apple iOS devices, note that deleting an app on your iPad won’t affect that app on other devices. Display the Home screen that contains the app you want to delete.
2. Press and hold the app until all apps begin to jiggle.
3. Tap the Delete button for the app you want to delete (see Figure 9-8).
Figure 9-8
4. A confirmation like the one shown in Figure 9-9 appears. Tap OK to proceed with the deletion.
Figure 9-9
5. A dialog asking you to rate an app before deleting it appears after Step 4; you can tap the Rate button to rate it or tap No Thanks to opt out of the survey.
Don’t worry about wiping out several apps at once by deleting a folder. When you delete a folder, the apps that were contained within the folder are placed back on the Home screen.
Update Apps
1. App developers update their apps all the time so you might want to check for those updates. Assuming Notification is set up to alert you to updates, the App Store icon on the Home screen will display the number of available updates. If you have turned this setting off, tap the App Store icon on the Home Screen. At the bottom right of the App Store screen is an Updates icon which will indicate the number of updates available in a red circle.
2. Tap the Updates icon to access the Updates screen (see Figure 9-10) and then tap any item you want to update. To update all tap the Update All button.
Figure 9-10
3. On the app screen that appears, tap Update. You may be asked to confirm that you want to update, or to enter your Apple ID Password and then tap OK to proceed. You may also be asked to confirm that you are over a certain age or agree to terms and conditions; if so, scroll down the terms dialog and at the bottom, tap Agree.
In iOS 5 Apple introduced the capability to download multiple apps at once. If you choose more than one app to update instead of them downloading sequentially, all items will download simultaneously.
If you have an iCloud account and update an app on your iPad it will also be updated on any other Apple iOS devices automatically and vice-versa.