An iPad is a device similar to the iPhone that serves as a touch screen laptop. iPads are very sleek and portable, allowing the user to take the device virtually anywhere he/she goes. They include features from a wide variety of other Apple products such as iTunes, iBooks, and the Safari web browser. Because iPads are new to the market, many users are overwhelmed and do not understand the full functionality of the device they have purchased. In order to facilitate the user’s understanding of the iPad, several of the iPad’s most misunderstood features are listed below.

 

Browser Dashboard

The iPad Browser Dashboard is a Safari web browser feature that allows users to open multiple pages simultaneously. Unlike other web browsers that display multiple pages as tabs, Safari opens up a dashboard that displays all webpages that the user currently has open as thumbnail images and allows users to open or close each page by tapping the appropriate thumbnail.

 

Mail

Mail is the iPad’s default email client that allows users to download messages from their online mailboxes from a wide variety of email services such as Yahoo, Gmail, and MSN and send messages to their friends, relatives, and co-workers. Unlike other email clients, Mail contains a feature known as “Smart Links” that is able to recognize names, addresses, and other information in the user’s messages and display relative information. For example, by clicking a name in a message, users are able to display information from their address book for that person. Likewise, clicking an address causes a map and directions to that location to be displayed.

 

Photo Sorting

Photo Sorting is an Apple iPad feature that is able to recognize faces in the user’s pictures and organize pictures based on who is in them. Because the iPad has a built-in camera, Photo Sorting is also able to sort pictures based on the time or place they were taken and even display a map of the location for reference purposes.

 

YouTube App

Despite the iPad’s inability to process YouTube or flash videos directly, it includes a YouTube application that is able to capture YouTube videos and convert them into other video formats, such as MP4, and display them to the user as if he/she were visiting the real YouTube website. Like the real YouTube website, users are able to comment on and rate videos they watch and are also able to display videos in full screen by turning the iPad on its side.