The Welcome to iPad screen appears.
15. Tap Get Started and let the fun begin.
Your iPad’s Home screen appears in all its glory.
If you’re using the iPad, the setup story ends here. Instead of using iTunes on your Mac or PC as described in Chapter 3, you have to make do with the available options in specific apps and in the Settings app (covered extensively in Chapter 15).
POINTING A FINGER AT TOUCH ID
Apple wants you to give the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, or either iPad Pro model the finger. But only in a good way. All five devices are equipped with Touch ID, a fingerprint scanner cleverly embedded in the Home button. With a gentle press of any designated finger, you bypass your passcode. (Setting up passcode safeguards is a good idea, and it’s something we also touch on in the chapter on Settings, Chapter 15.)
What’s more, you can use your own digit (not the numerical kind) to authenticate iTunes and App Store purchases. (Go to Settings ⇒ Touch ID & Passcode and make sure that the iTunes & App Store switch is turned on.)
On the iPhone or Apple Watch you get another benefit through Touch ID: the capability to purchase stuff in physical retail stores by using a payment technology known as Apple Pay. But Apple Pay on the iPad works only through participating online merchants, at least as of this writing.
To set up Touch ID, you must first let your compatible iPad get chummy with at least one of your fingers, though the system can handle up to five individual fingers, yours or anyone else’s with whom you share the tablet.
The iPad instructs you to press and lift your finger against the Home button repeatedly and from different orientations. Red lines fill an animated drawing of a generic fingerprint on the screen, giving you a sense of how far along you are. The process doesn’t take long, and if all goes smoothly, the iPad will soon enough declare your efforts to be a success.
What could go wrong? Well, your designated digit must be dry. The iPad needs to see your entire fingerprint, so don’t try this with a bandaged finger or one that has open wounds.
To add fingers after the initial setup, tap Settings ⇒ Touch ID & Passcode. Type your passcode, and then tap Add a Fingerprint. Then repeat the setup drill we just described.
Whether you choose to set up fingerprint authentication now, later, or not at all, you should still establish an old-fashioned four-digit (or longer) passcode as well. In fact, if you do opt to go with Touch ID, you must set up a passcode as a backup should the iPad fail to recognize your paw three times in a row. Hey, it happens. Maybe you’re sweating profusely, or you have a cut in the wrong place, or you’re wearing gloves.
Locking the iPad
We can think of several sound reasons for locking your iPad:
✓ You won’t inadvertently turn it on.
✓ You keep prying eyes at bay.
✓ You have a persistently inquisitive child.
✓ You spare the battery some juice.
Apple makes locking the iPad a cinch.
Can’t wait? To lock the iPad immediately, press the sleep/wake button.
Unlocking the iPad is easy, too. Here’s how:
1. Press the sleep/wake button, or press the Home button on the front of the screen.
2. Press Home again.
3. Enter a passcode, or press the Home button on a Touch ID-capable iPad if you need to.
See Chapter 15 to find out how to password-protect your iPad.
Mastering the Multitouch Interface
The iPad, like the iPhone, dispenses with a physical mouse and keyboard, in favor of a virtual keyboard – a step that seemed revolutionary just a few years ago. Nowadays, a virtual keyboard doesn’t seem as novel.
Neither does the fact that the designers of the iPad (and iPhone and iPod touch) removed the usual physical buttons in favor of a multitouch display. This beautiful and responsive finger-controlled screen is at the heart of the many things you do on the iPad.
In the following sections, you discover how to move around the multitouch interface with ease. Later, we home in on how to make the most of the keyboard.
Training your digits
Rice Krispies have Snap! Crackle! Pop! Apple’s response for the iPad is Tap! Flick! Pinch! Oh yeah, and Drag!
Fortunately, tapping, flicking, pinching, and dragging are not challenging gestures, so you can master many of the iPad’s features in no time:
✓ Tap: Tapping serves multiple purposes. Tap an icon to open an app from the Home screen. Tap to start playing a song or to choose the photo album you want to look through. Sometimes, you double-tap (tapping twice in rapid succession), which has the effect of zooming in (or out) of web pages, maps, and emails.
✓ Flick: Flicking is just what it sounds like. A flick of the finger on the screen lets you quickly scroll through lists of songs, emails, and picture thumbnails. Tap the screen to stop scrolling, or merely wait for the scrolling list to stop.
✓ Pinch/spread: Place two fingers on a web page, map, or picture, and then spread your fingers apart to enlarge the images. Or pinch your fingers together to make the map or picture smaller. Pinching and spreading (or what we call unpinching) are cool gestures that are easy to master and sure to wow an audience.
✓ Drag: Here’s where you slowly press your finger against the touchscreen without lifting it. You might drag to move around a web page or map that’s too large for the iPad’s display area.
✓ Drag downward from the top of the screen: This special gesture displays Notification Center (which you find out about in Chapter 13). Press your finger at the very top of the screen and drag downward.
✓ Drag downward from any screen without starting at the very top of the screen: This action summons Spotlight search, a discussion for later in this chapter.
✓ Drag from left to right from the first Home screen: You are summoning the Today screen, which was once part of Notification Center but as of the iOS 10 upgrade was split off and elevated to solo status. You’ll see the appointments and reminders you have coming