Bluetooth battery: This icon displays the battery level of supported Bluetooth devices (while connected). Only certain devices — mostly headsets and speakers — support this feature. If you see this icon in your status bar, it’s telling you the approximate battery level of whichever supported device is currently connected with your iPad.
Battery: This icon shows the level of your battery’s charge and also indicates when your device is connected to a power source. It’s completely filled when your device isn’t connected to a power source and is fully charged. It then empties as the battery becomes depleted. You see an on-screen message when the charge drops to 20 percent or below, and another when it reaches 10 percent.
Exploring the Home Screen and Dock
The iPad Home screen refers to the screen you see when your iPad is unlocked and you're not working in an app. The Home screen is divided into multiple pages; you scroll to the next page by swiping your finger to the left on the screen and you scroll to the previous page by swiping right. With the exception of the first page, which contains a mixture of widgets and app icons, each Home screen page can hold up to 30 icons, with each icon representing a different built-in app or function.
Each Home screen page also displays the dock, which is a strip that runs along the bottom of the page. The dock can store up to 15 app icons, depending on your iPad model.
How you display the Home screen depends on your iPad model:
If your iPad has a Home button: Press the Home button. If your iPad was asleep, you see the unlock screen, so you need to press the Home button again. After you unlock your iPad, you see whichever app or page was on the screen when it went to sleep. If you see the Home screen page you want, you’re golden. If not, press the Home button to summon your iPad’s Home screen.
If your iPad doesn't have a Home button: If your iPad is asleep, tap the screen to display the unlock screen. Now use a finger to swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen. With your iPad unlocked, you see the app or page that was displayed when the tablet went into sleep mode. To get to the Home screen (if it's not displayed already, that is), swipe up from the bottom of the screen again.
In the following sections, I tell you briefly about the icons preloaded on your iPad’s Home screen pages, as well as the icons you find on the dock. Because the rest of the book covers most of these babies in full and loving detail, I provide only brief descriptions here.
Exploring the Home screen
As shown in Figure 1-5, the first page of the iPad Home screen is divided into three sections:
Widgets: These items appear in the top half of the screen in landscape mode and include the following default widgets: Clock, Notes, Calendar, Photos, and Weather. See Chapter 10 to learn how to customize your widgets.
App icons: These items represent (mostly) apps that you can launch with a tap of your finger.FIGURE 1-5: The iPad's first Home screen page.
Dock: This area also contains (mostly) app icons, but the dock appears on every Home screen page, so you always have quick access to these apps.
If you haven’t rearranged your icons, you see the following apps on the first Home screen page, starting on the left side of the first row of apps:
FaceTime: Participate in FaceTime video chats, as you discover in Chapter 8.
Files: View and work with the files you’ve saved to your iCloud Drive. Apple apps as well as many third-party apps know how to use the Files app to store documents.
Reminders: Display alerts that remind you to perform some task. You can think of Reminders as a kind of fancy-schmancy to-do list. If you ask Siri to remind you, it’s added as a reminder in this app, too. You can do both location- and time-based reminders, which will be synced to your other Apple devices. Learn more about reminders in Chapter 12.
Maps: View street maps, satellite imagery, transit information, and more for locations around the globe. Or ask for directions, traffic conditions, or the location of a nearby pizza joint. I show you more about Maps in Chapter 13.
Home: Access and control your HomeKit smart home devices. Almost like a sci-fi movie, you can control lights, appliances, and surveillance cameras from an app or with your voice using Siri. You’ll read much more about this great app, but you have to wait until Chapter 12.
Camera: Shoot pictures or videos with your iPad’s front- or rear-facing camera. You find out more in Chapters 8 (videos) and 9 (camera).
App Store: Search for iPad apps you can purchase or download for free. Chapter 10 is your guide to buying and using apps from the App Store.
Books: Read e-books, which you can buy in the Book Store. I discuss the Books app more deeply in Chapter 7.
Podcasts: Subscribe and listen to your favorite podcasts.
TV: Watch and manage your movies, TV shows, and music videos. You add videos via Finder in recent versions of macOS or iTunes on older Macs or on PCs or by purchasing them directly in the TV app or the iTunes Store app. Check out Chapter 8 to find out more.
News: Read the latest news from magazines, newspapers, and websites, and subscribe to Apple News+ for access to paid content from many mainstream sources. You read more about News in Chapter 7.
Settings: Customize your iPad and apps by modifying their settings. With so many options in the Settings app, you’ll be happy to hear that Chapter 14 is dedicated exclusively to Settings.
The second Home screen page (swipe your finger left on the screen to get there) contains the following default apps:
Photo Booth: Take fun selfies with your iPad's front camera. Chapter 9 explains how.