It’s official. You’re a new iPad owner. Excited? Nervous? Don’t know where to start?
In this blog post I’ll walk you through the basics. Apple has always believed in simplicity and the iPad only has a few buttons and features on the exterior.
Depending on which model you purchased there could be slight variations of the buttons. In this blog post I’m going to walk you through the 7th generation iPad (Apple’s newest model).
When you first open the box, you’ll find the iPad, lightning cable and the A/C adapter.The iPad has a beautiful 10.2 inch Retina display with stereo speakers.
The easiest way to charge your device is to use the lightning cable connected to the A/C adapter, connected to the bottom of your iPad and plugged into the wall. This will give you the fastest charge. You can sync and charge to your PC or Mac but it’s not necessary.
Let’s take a look at the buttons and features on the exterior of the device.
These features play a vital role in using your iPad.
IPad Diagram: Learn the iPad’s Exterior Features
The iPad Home/Touch ID Sensor
What does the Home Button do? You can set it up to unlock your device using a fingerprint. You can also use it to close out an app and return you back to your home screen. Making it the button you’ll likely use most often!
Double-clicking on the Home Button brings up the app switcher, this is used to jump between programs and close the apps that are running in the background.
The Home Button can be set up to do other functions in the accessibility settings.
Power/Sleep/Wake Button
The Power/Sleep/Wake Button does exactly as it implies. You can put the device to sleep by just pushing once on the button or once to wake it up. To power the device off you must push and hold this button until a message appears telling you to slide to power off.
Volume Buttons
The volume buttons are on the upper right side of your. They have some other functions which we’ll go over in another post.
Lightning Connector
The connector can be used to plug the iPad into your computer, but that’s not really necessary. The iPad can function on its own without a computer, so the connector is basically for charging the device.
Headphone Jack
This 3.5 mm input will accept and output sound. So if you have a headset with a microphone it can be used for FaceTime calls, or just to listen to music.
Camera
The iPad has two cameras: a back-facing camera for taking pictures and video and a front-facing camera, for selfies and video conferencing. The FaceTime app can be used for video conferencing with family or friends who have an iPad 2 or newer or an iPhone.
Smart Connector
The newest generation iPads now have a smart connector that allows you to add Apple’s Smart Keyboard to your iPad.
The iPad Interface
There are two major parts to the iPad interface: The Home Screen, where you find the icons and folders, and the Dock, which provides quick access to your favorite apps. The primary difference between the two is that the home screen can be swiped from right to left to bring up more apps and from left to right to bring up the today view screen. You can also set up your iPad to view the today screen fixed on your Home Screen in landscape mode.
Conclusion
There you have it, a basic run through of your buttons and connectors on your new iPad. If you have any questions post them in the comment section below or reach out to me via email. I read and reply to every comment and email I receive.
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