iPad - beginner's guides, tips, tricks and tweaks?

Thirith

I just got an iPad 3, wifi only. First-time user and new to Apple. What I'm looking for (and I hope this is the right forum - if not, please feel free to move or delete) is a beginner's guide, tips, tricks, tweaks, that sort of thing. I'm not planning to jailbreak it (at least not for the moment), I'm mainly looking for the sort of things that aren't readily apparent to those new to the device, e.g. settings that are important in terms of privacy but that you need to be told about, things that keep the batteries running for longer, the sort of thing that as a computer user for 20+ years you simply know, but not when it comes to systems you're not used to. Any pointers would be much appreciated!

Allforce

All I can say is to jailbreak it. And not on some "stick it to the man and be a filthy pirate" reasoning, but because it's literally the ONLY way to add all the customization you want to do that Apple won't let you, and you still can buy all the apps you want.

I got an Ipad 2 in the same boat as you, never messed with an Apple product and was extremely annoyed after only 2 days that I couldn't do basic shit like change icon sizes or layouts, quickly pull up settings, etc. After googling all this and the answer quickly becoming clear that "you can't, gotta jailbreak", I went ahead and did it (took exactly 30 seconds) haven't looked back.

GnomeTank

You also lose the ability to update the OS (because Apple always patches the jailbreak holes, requiring new ones to be found), and you run the risk of getting your device banned off the Apple store (it's rare, but it happens).

I'd think long and hard before you jailbroke your iPad. I'm all open and customizable platforms, but after two years with an iPad, I've never felt the need to put my iPad at risk by jailbreaking it.

Thirith

Thanks for that info! Since the iPad is half paid for by my office, I definitely won't be doing any jailbreaking at the moment. Even if the risk isn't that big, I wouldn't want to have to tell them if anything goes wrong...

syndalis

Thirith wrote: »

Thanks for that info! Since the iPad is half paid for by my office, I definitely won't be doing any jailbreaking at the moment. Even if the risk isn't that big, I wouldn't want to have to tell them if anything goes wrong...

Okay, here's some good shit then.

Goodreader for all your PDF needs. Seriously, best PDF app period.

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery is a fucking amazing experience on the iPad. Play it with headphones on.

First two suggestions off the top of my head.

Abracadaniel

Dropbox, since it's the glue that ties a bunch of apps together.

Pages and Numbers are pretty good for word processing and spreadsheets, but getting documents into/out of them is cumbersome but has been improved by iCloud.

If you're looking for a plain text editor, Byword, Nebulous Notes, and Elements are all solid editors, with Dropbox and TextExpander support.

Brett Terpstra created this insane interactive chart of various editors where you can isolate ones that have feature sets you need/like http://brettterpstra.com/ios-text-editors/

Tweetbot is a great twitter client for iPad

PDFPen is another excellent pdf editor/annotator that's a little less fiddly than GoodReader, which can be good or bad, depending. They recently added Dropbox support too.

Textastic is probably the closest thing to a good text editor with various code language syntax highlighting

Chrome for iOS is worth checking out if you use/like Chrome for your desktop.

Flipboard is great for social content consumption, turns things like your Facebook timeline and Twitter feed into a nicely laid out book, as well as curated 'sections' for a variety of topics like Tech, Fashion, Design, News, etc.

GnomeTank

I'll second Flipbook and Chrome for sure.

There is also the Twitch.tv app if you're in to watching vidya games at all. SC2Casts if you're in to watching StarCraft 2 specifically. Netflix if you have a sub for that.

If you like Magic the Gathering, Magic 2013 is free on the iPad and comes with like three decks unlocked, which is more than enough to play some casual games of Magic with a friend.

I really need to get GoodReader. I'm hoping it can handle the Pathfinder RPG rulebooks better than iBooks can, which has ridiculous lag when turning pages.

Abracadaniel

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GnomeTank wrote: »

I'll second Flipbook and Chrome for sure.

There is also the Twitch.tv app if you're in to watching vidya games at all. SC2Casts if you're in to watching StarCraft 2 specifically. Netflix if you have a sub for that.

If you like Magic the Gathering, Magic 2013 is free on the iPad and comes with like three decks unlocked, which is more than enough to play some casual games of Magic with a friend.

I really need to get GoodReader. I'm hoping it can handle the Pathfinder RPG rulebooks better than iBooks can, which has ridiculous lag when turning pages.

It was able to handle the GURPs Hellboy sourcebook pretty well, so I should think so.

Thirith

Do I understand correctly that Dropbox would basically be the best option for moving files between my iPad and PCs that I use?

syndalis

Thirith wrote: »

Do I understand correctly that Dropbox would basically be the best option for moving files between my iPad and PCs that I use?

yes.

Eventually iCloud will get there, I'm sure... but until such a day... dropbox all the way. It is supported in almost everything.