**************Intro;**************
There are mistakes that I see iPad owners making time and time again when it comes to
their devices, and so in this video, I’m going to talk about 10 of those mistakes,
and give you my advice about what I think you should be doing instead.
OK, let’s get into it.
**1) Not enabling protection**
Every new iPad that you purchase today comes with some form of protection included, to
stop anyone other than you from being able to use the device.
The Pro models feature Face ID, while all other models incorporate Touch ID into the
power button.
Face ID is without a doubt, the most secure and convenient method of protecting your device,
with Apple claiming that there’s around a 1 in a million chance of someone being able
to pick up your iPad Pro, and use their face to unlock it.
With Touch ID, the level of protection is less, but still impressive, around 1 in 50,000,
and it means you don’t have to constantly input a 6 digit PIN.
When you consider that you most likely leave your iPad lying around your house or office
quite often, I think securing it is really important.
To enable either Touch ID or Face ID, whichever your device supports, open Settings, then
scroll down the left hand side until you see either Touch ID & Passcode, or Face ID & Passcode.
Input your passcode, then choose to enable whichever is relevant for you, and you can
be specific about what you want to use it for, whether that’s unlocking your device,
using Apple Pay, inputting passwords or a combination of all those things.
**2) Letting your iPad automatically download apps**
There’s a feature on iPad which drives me nuts, and I think it’s set to be on by default.
If you go into Settings, then App Store, here under automatic downloads, make sure that
App Downloads is toggled off.
Let’s say that you leave this toggled on, and you’ve also got an iPhone connected
to the same Apple ID as your iPad.
Each time you download an app from the app store on your phone, your iPad will automatically
look to see if there’s an iPad version of the same app, and will download and install
it on your tablet automatically, in the background.
Now I understand the concept here, if you enjoy the app on iPhone, you might enjoy it
on the iPad too, but I’d rather make that decision for myself personally, plus if you
don’t have a lot of space on your iPad, that’s dead apps that you’re downloading
that are taking up space.
So yeah, in my opinion, toggle this one off.
**Paperlike Integration;**
Before we go any further, I wanted to take a moment to mention the sponsor of today’s
video, Paperlike.
Your iPad’s screen is amazing, and if you’re anything like me, you’re going to want to
keep it amazing, and that’s where a high quality screen protector comes in, like the
brand new Paperlike 2.1 that I’ve got installed on mine.
Essentially, alongside giving your iPad’s screen extra protection from smudges and fingerprints,
the composite materials used in the creation of Paperlike 2.1 means an exceptional level
of visibility and clarity during use.
Let’s face it, a screen protector is no good if it makes the screen hard to see, or
takes away any of the display’s vibrance in the process.
But what really sets this apart from anything else on the market, is the way in which it
makes your iPad’s screen feel more like you’re writing on paper, hence the name,
Paperlike.
I’m sure you know how it feels to open up a notepad and write, or grab a sketchbook
and draw, and there’s something about that familiarity that means that once you’ve
installed Paperlike 2.1 on your iPad, it feels like a whole new writing and drawing experience,
whether you’re quickly jotting out a note, sketching out an idea, annotating a PDF, or
whatever you might be doing.
Oh and as I make this video, for a limited time Paperlike have some fantastic Black Friday
deals running on their website, including 15% off the Paperlike Pro Bundle, as well
as 15% off accessories like their Pencil Grips and this awesome Screen Cleaning Tool.
If you’d like one for yourself, check out the link which you’ll find in the description
of this video.
**3) Making poor purchase decisions**
This mistake isn’t actually to do with the way that people use their iPads, rather it’s
to do with how they buy them in the first place.
The iPad range is extremely confusing nowadays, but in general, Apple have been following
a certain trend over the last few years.
The latest tech comes to the iPad Pro models first, then slowly begins to drip it’s way
down the line, first to the Air, before finally ending up in the regular iPad a couple of
year’s later.
As such, the Pro is by far the most expensive iPad option available, but it’s also the
most feature-rich, and so a lot of people tend to assume that this is the iPad everyone
who can afford should buy.
But some of the features in the iPad Pro range are either complete overkill, or things that
a lot of people really won’t care about.
For example, the latest iPad Pro features an M2 chip, making it as powerful as the latest
MacBook Air.
But most people who buy an iPad simply don’t need that amount of power, and to be honest,
the iPad is still missing a lot of pro-grade software to truly make use of all that power.
It has Pro Motion technology in the display, which essentially make the animations on the
iPad Pro screen look amazing, but I reckon a lot of typical iPad owners just aren’t
going to care about it.
The full list of ‘pro’ features on the iPad Pros is extensive, but again, for the
average user, there are huge savings to be made if you’ll consider a tradeoff, and
pick up something like an iPad Air instead.
In fact, I reckon that for 9 out of 10 people, the regular iPad is more than enough, especially
if all you want is a second screen for when you’re sitting on the sofa, and maybe something
to let you do a little bit of light work when you’re on the go.
**4) Leaving it where you shouldn’t**
You’ve always got your phone with you, probably in your pocket right now or in your bag or
next to you at your desk, and your laptop is the kind of product that I think most people
are consciously aware of the importance of either leaving at their desk, or putting it
safely away in a bag and storing that somewhere sensible.
But your iPad, by nature of what it is and how you use it, is the most likely item I
think to get left in places where it shouldn’t.
Essentially, like any electronic device, you want to keep your iPad out of direct sunlight,
extreme heat and extreme cold for prolonged periods of time.
Extreme heat could be leaving it on a sun-lounger, or in your car, and to be fair here in the
UK, leaving it in your car could also be a source of extreme cold, especially in the
winter.
While extreme heat and cold in short bursts isn’t too bad for your electronic devices,
prolonged exposure is really bad for them, especially for the health of your battery.
Your iPad is essentially a massive phone, or a small laptop, depending on how you choose
to look at it, so try and treat is as such, and make sure you give it the care that it
needs.
5) **Not making use of the cloud**
This suggestion always gets a bit of a mixed reaction, there are a lot of people out there
who really don’t trust putting anything at all into the cloud, but I think you’re
making a mistake if you don’t make use of reliable cloud storage, especially when it
comes to the iPad.
Apple have started this really odd trend on their more budget iPads in recent years.
If you take a look at the iPad 10th Gen, and the current iPad Mini, the base price is for
the wifi only model, which is fine, but with only 64gb of storage.
The next storage level up on both models quadruples that storage space to 256gb, which I think
is overkill for most people, but also massively increases the price in the process.
So, do you buy at a sensible price, and potentially not have enough space, or do you spend more
than you want to, and have more space than you’ll likely use?
This is why I think the cloud is so important.
If you subscribe to iCloud, your iPad has a range of features built-in that will look
to offload files wherever possible to the cloud, only downloading content to your device
when you actually need it.
This can help with large emails, or photos and videos in your photo library, and it does
actually mean that you could quite feasibly get away with a base model iPad, without feeling
like your experience is being degraded in any way.
Obviously the cloud service provider you use is up to you, I do personally recommend iCloud,
this isn’t a sponsored mention or anything like that, I just genuinely use the service
myself, it works really well, and I do trust Apple with my data.
If you’re not currently sure about how much cloud storage you have, or what you’re using
it for, head to Settings, tap on your name up here at the top left, then tap on iCloud,
and you can see all of that information in here.
**6) Not performing regular storage audits**
I reckon that your iPad, possibly more so than your iPhone, is likely to get clogged
up with stuff that you don’t need or use.
You use your iPhone all the time, whereas most people use their iPad a bit less frequently.
You probably take your iPad on holiday with you, and a lot of people will do things like
downloading content from Netflix or Disney so that they can use their iPads on flights
for example, but how good are you at getting rid of all that large data when you get home?
Performing a storage audit sounds way more complicated than it actually is, and it’s
definitely worth you doing once in a while.
Open Settings, then go to General, and choose iPad Storage.
There’s two things to do here.
First, scroll down the list of apps, and be brutal, see if there are any here that you
simply don’t use any more, that you could get rid of and free up some space in the process.
Second, look to use any prompts that your iPad shows up, to help you get rid of some
data.
You can see that my iPad is suggesting to me that I can get rid of around 40gb of video,
which as you can see would free up a tonne of space.
**Proper Weekly**
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link in the description of this video.
**7) Not using Assisted Access**
Parents and Grandparents watching, answer me this - have you ever handed your iPad to
your toddler or young child, to keep them entertained while you’re doing something?
Look, no judgement, looking after kids is difficult and I get that kids love tablets,
but when you hand them your iPad, do you ensure that Guided Access is enabled?
If your answer to that question was, ‘what’s guided access?’, we need to talk.
Open Settings, head to Accessibility, then scroll down to Guided Access.
Tap into it, then enable it.
You’ll want to tap into Passcode Settings and I would recommend enabling Touch ID or
Face ID if you have that option, but you’re also going to need to input a 6 digit passcode.
It’s really important that you’re going to remember this, and that your kid won’t
guess it, so consider that.
Then, open an app you want to let your kids use.
Let’s open Disney Plus.
Then triple tap on the top button of your iPad, and choose Guided Access.
The options button in the lower left lets you decide what you want Guided Access to
be able to control.
This is a little confusing, basically if you leave something toggled off, the user can’t
change that particular thing.
So volume for example, you might not want your kids playing Monsters Inc at full volume
while you’re on a flight, so you could set it quiet, and then toggle volume off, and
once guided access is working, the volume buttons of your iPad won’t work.
Toggling off top button means that your kids won’t be able lock the iPad, motion means
they won’t be able to change it from landscape to portrait for example, touch would mean
that any touches on the screen won’t work, but in a bit of a change to how this works,
you have to toggle ‘on’ time limit, where you can set a time limit, and after that,
the iPad will lock.
You can obviously choose whatever makes sense for your needs, but the beauty of this is
that whatever you choose, the iPad will lock itself into the app that you’ve set it to,
so even if your kids try hand gestures to get back to the Home screen, they won’t
work, they’re stuck in this app.
And let’s face it, making it harder for your kids to purchase stuff of Amazon, or
send all your colleagues an embarrassing email has got to be a good thing.
**8) Not making use of Siri**
This mistake is one that I make all the time, and am currently trying to rectify, and that’s
forgetting that Siri exists on the iPad.
I use Siri all the time on my iPhone and Watch, and I use it frequently on Apple TV and on
my Mac, yet for whatever reason I never use it on iPad.
And my experience in testing, is that Siri here can do pretty much everything that it
can do over on my iPhone.
And it’s useful, because if you use Siri as a kind of second screen device, there are
lots of situations where it’s probably easier to call up Apple’s voice assistant on your
tablet, and have it answer a question or perform an action for you.
So, as a reminder, here on the iPad you could use Siri for any of the following;
Say ‘set a 20 minute timer’, and your iPad will set a timer for you, great if you’ve
maybe put something in the oven while you’re watching the TV.
Say ‘remind me to call John tomorrow’ if you know you’ve got an important call
you need to make.
Say ‘convert 1000 us dollars to pounds’ if you want to quickly perform a currency
conversion.
Ask ‘how old is Paul Rudd’ while you’re watching a movie, to be reminded of Mr Rudd’s
seemingly endless youthfulness.
There are loads more that you can use, in fact I’d suggest that you check out my videos
on using Siri on the iPhone, because as I say, so far everything that I’ve been able
to use Siri for on the iPhone has worked over here on the iPad too.
**9) Buying it to replace a Mac**
Now look, I’ll caveat this point by saying that there are absolutely some people out
there who have been able to use an iPad so effectively, that they do all of their work
on it, and to those people I would say bravo.
But for most people, buying an iPad instead of a Mac is a mistake, in my opinion.
An iPad, for those who can afford it, is something I would buy to use alongside a Mac.
The workflow on the iPad is great, better than it’s ever been, but it’s still nowhere
near as slick or as intuitive as it is on Mac for getting things done.
Simple things like file management and multitasking do, in general, run better on the Mac, and
there are still huge gaps in the iPad’s range of pro software, even from Apple.
You can run a version of GarageBand for example, but no Logic Pro, so that’s a bummer for
music producers.
And if you use other software like Reason, or Ableton, those are still fundamentally
Mac only.
You can run a version of iMovie, but no Final Cut Pro, which if you’re a video producer
like me is kind of a deal breaker.
Adobe Premiere is Mac only, although Davinci are bringing a version of Resolve to the iPad
Pros, which is no doubt an exciting look at things to come, although until some video
editors can really spend time with it, I’ll hold my judgement.
iPads are amazing, especially for people like graphic designers who, along with the pencil,
can use their iPads in ways they could only imagine a few years back.
But in general, the iPad is a tool that compliments a work setup that most likely revolves around
a Mac as it’s core computing experience.
**10) Not using it as an extended display**
This function won’t work on every iPad out there, but there’s a good chance that it
might work on your’s, especially if you’ve bought it in the last 2 or 3 years.
If you own a Mac and an iPad, you might be able to make use of one of a couple of technologies,
that allow you to use your iPad, as a second display for your Mac.
The first of the two technologies is undoubtedly the best, it’s called Universal Control.
With Universal Control, you use the trackpad and keyboard on your Mac laptop, or your mouse
and keyboard if you’ve got one connected, to control the cursor on your iPad.
You can therefore control everything in relation to your iPad without having to take your fingers
off of your Mac keyboard which is super helpful, but you can also drag and drop things from
one device to another.
To enable it, here on my Mac, I would go to System Settings, then Displays, and then choose
Advanced.
I need to make sure that all of these 3 options are enabled.
Then, over on my iPad, I would go to Settings, then General, then Airplay & Handoff, and
ensure that this Cursor and Keyboard option is toggled on.
Then, back on the settings for my Mac, I can use Arrange to ensure that the iPad is positioned
where you’d like it.
And on top of Universal Control, you’ve also got Screen Mirroring, which has been
referred to as Sidecar in the past.
Here on my Macbook for example, when using something like Final Cut Pro, I could enable
Screen mirroring, and then wirelessly use my iPad as a second display.
You would do that by heading up to Control Centre up here, and enabling screen mirroring,
choosing your iPad as the device to mirror to.
Then in Final Cut Pro, you’re looking for this button, and you can choose what you’d
like to display in the second screen.
******End******
So there you go, 10 mistakes that I see people making with their iPads, and my suggestions
for what to do instead.
What about you?
Anything you disagree with, or anything that you would have included in this list?
Drop me a comment and let me know.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like, and
subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.