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COMPARING WI-FI, 4G, LTE, 3G, GPRS, AND EDGE
Wireless (that is, cellular) carriers may offer one of three data networks relevant to the iPad as of this writing. For now anyway, only the third-generation and later iPads can take advantage of the speediest 4G or LTE networks, which carriers are rolling out as fast as they can. The second-fastest network is called 3G, and there are older, even slower data networks called EDGE and GPRS. Your iPad starts by trying to connect to the fastest network it supports. If it makes a connection, you see the 4G or 3G icon on the status bar. If it can’t connect to a 4G or 3G network, it tries to connect to a slower EDGE or GPRS network, and you see EDGE or GPRS icons on the status bar.
Most Wi-Fi networks, however, are faster than even the fastest 4G cellular data network – and much faster than 3G, EDGE, or GPRS. So, because all iPads can connect to a Wi-Fi network if one is available, they do so, even when a 4G, 3G, GPRS, or EDGE network is also available.
Last but not least, if you don’t see one of these icons – 4G, 3G, GPRS, EDGE, or Wi-Fi – you don’t currently have Internet access. Chapter 4 offers more details about these different networks.
Discovering the Delectable Home Screen and Dock Icons
The iPad Home screen and dock display 20 icons, with each icon representing a different built-in app or function. Because the rest of the book covers each and every one of these babies in full and loving detail, we merely provide brief descriptions here.
To get to your Home screen, tap the Home button. If your iPad is asleep when you tap, the unlock screen appears. After your iPad is unlocked, you see whichever page was on the screen when it went to sleep. If that happens to have been the Home screen, you’re golden. If it wasn’t, merely tap the Home button again to summon your iPad’s Home screen.
In the following sections, we tell you briefly about the icons preloaded on your iPad’s first Home screen page, as well as the icons you find on the dock that are always accessible from each Home screen.
Home is where the screen is
If you haven’t rearranged your icons, you see the following apps on the first Home screen, starting at the top left:
✓ FaceTime: Use this app to participate in FaceTime video chats, as you discover in Chapter 8.
✓ Calendar: No matter what calendar program you prefer on your Mac or PC (as long as it’s iCal, Calendar, Microsoft Entourage, or Microsoft Outlook or online calendars such as Google or iCloud), you can synchronize events and alerts between your computer and your iPad. Create an event on one device, and the event is automatically synchronized with the other device the next time the two devices are connected. Neat stuff.
✓ Photos: This app is the iPad’s terrific photo manager, which just keeps getting better. It lets you view pictures from a camera or SD card (using the optional camera connection kit), screen shots of your iPad screen, photos synced from your computer, saved from an email or web page, or saved from one of the myriad third-party apps that let you save your handiwork in the Photos app. You can zoom in or out, create slideshows, email photos to friends, crop, do a bit of image editing, and much more. And it’s where you’ll find the Camera Roll album with photos and videos you’ve taken with your iPad. To get started, see Chapter 9.
✓ Camera: You use this app to shoot pictures or videos with your iPad’s front- or rear-facing camera. You find out more in Chapters 8 (videos) and