New iPad 3 user - the most frustrating 7 hours of my life.......

[af847]

I too, am having problems figuring out this Ipad stuff. I've been googling certain things to find answers and posting on the forum here. I know Ipad is supposed to be easy to use and learn, but finding it not quite as simple as everyone says it is. Anything new takes time to learn. I myself only know how to get music and apps on Itunes, but other than that, I find it very vague on transferring docs or files. Have no clue how to do it. Might hve to check that app for tips and tricks.

 

[twerppoet]

Apps. The key is the apps. Go to the App Store (or search here) to find the apps that do what you want to do with the documents you want to transfer. The how will generally be in the description: words like DropBox, wi-fi sync, iTunes File Sharing, etc.

Other than iTunes media the iPad does not offer a lot of obvious ways to transfer documents, because it does not come with the software to use them. Until you have that software any attempt to copy those documents over is pretty much a waste of time. Because there in no general file area, you don't even have a place to put those documents until you have an app that will use them.

 

[Jez EMIN]

.......Might hve to check that app for tips and tricks.

Don't 'might' about it.... unless you seriously want to waste a big bunch of time.

It cost £0.69 (what's that, $1) ??

Trust me, go get it - it has over 100 pages and you'll save yourself lots of time and lots of frustration.

The iPad (new user here) is like a magic device - and we all know it can do fantastic things, but until you know how to get to the magic, it is very frustrating.

I'll give you a couple of little examples (remember I'm new to iPad, though I am computer literate and also am used to Android devices);

1) How do you shut down apps on an iPad ?? Until I knew the answer to that one I thought the iPad took care of it. When I did find out, I had about 40 apps open......

2) How do you delete emails without reading them ?? (i.e. you've seen the header and you know it's junk/spam)

3) How do you 'switch' between open apps ??

Trust me, go get that $1 app (you can thank me later ......

 

[twerppoet]

1) How do you shut down apps on an iPad ?? Until I knew the answer to that one I thought the iPad took care of it. When I did find out, I had about 40 apps open......

No, no, no, and again, no. You can not possibly have 40 apps open on an iPad. You don't have the RAM for it.

Every app you open will show up on that list and stay there for eternity unless you remove it; whether it is running, frozen in RAM, or nothing but an icon you can tap. There are valid reasons for manually shutting down apps (actually just removing them from RAM mostly) but the iPad normally does a fine job of managing memory without help. In some ways the difference is not vital, but you'll better understand how to manage your iPad if you understand why and when you should shut down, instead of slavishly (and most often pointlessly) removing apps from the multitasking list.

Here is more info on the subject.

Fraser Speirs - Blog - Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking
Fraser Speirs - Blog - iOS Multitasking in Detail

 

[zphone]

Amen brother - I spent 2 hours on the phone with Apple support just to get the thing to not keep telling me I was entering the wrong password. Then I spent about 3 hours on the phone with Amazon/Kindle support getting to a point where I could download and read a book. When I regain my strength and sanity I'm going to tackle emails next. After college I worked for IBM for a year, then entered grad school. I paid my way through grad school working part-time as a programmer in the registrar's office. Things have changed since then but I still thought I was pretty good with computers. However nothing in my past has prepared me for the challenge of the ipad. The only thing that keeps me from returning it is the knowledge that millions of people use it or its predecessors and I must be as smart as at least a couple of them.

You see, the problem is not that you don't understand IOS but that you understand computers - or how they have always worked. This knowledge gets in the way of using the device the way it was meant to be used. It's my problem with apple devices also. And this is why there are millions of people successfully using iPads, because they are not asking the questions that you are asking.

Not saying there is no light at the end of this tunnel, but you will have to start looking at things with fresh eyes if you want to be happy with it.

 

[Jez EMIN]

No, no, no, and again, no. You can not possibly have 40 apps open on an iPad. You don't have the RAM for it.

Every app you open will show up on that list and stay there for eternity unless you remove it; whether it is running, frozen in RAM, or nothing but an icon you can tap. There are valid reasons for manually shutting down apps (actually just removing them from RAM mostly) but the iPad normally does a fine job of managing memory without help. In some ways the difference is not vital, but you'll better understand how to manage your iPad if you understand why and when you should shut down, instead of slavishly (and most often pointlessly) removing apps from the multitasking list.

Here is more info on the subject.

Fraser Speirs - Blog - Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking
Fraser Speirs - Blog - iOS Multitasking in Detail

Yes, you're right, it wasn't 40 exactly but somewhere in the region of about 30.......... (don't have exact number but imagine 3 days of opening apps and not closing a single one)

Still, I was going off the advice the Tips and tricks app I mentioned - to close unnecessary apps and I personally wanted to do that (for example, sometimes I don't want to open a web browser only to find it still open at the last page I was viewing)

 

[twerppoet]

Yes, you're right, it wasn't 40 exactly but somewhere in the region of about 30.......... (don't have exact number but imagine 3 days of opening apps and not closing a single one)

Still, I was going off the advice the Tips and tricks app I mentioned - to close unnecessary apps and I personally wanted to do that (for example, sometimes I don't want to open a web browser only to find it still open at the last page I was viewing)

Makes no difference. It might have shown 40. The point is that this does not mean that 40 apps are open. The list shows all the apps you've used with the most recent first. They don't drop off the list, ever. Not unless you manually remove them, or restore the device. If you restart your iPad every single app will be removed from RAM. They are still on the list when you start the iPad up again. They are in no sense open just because they are on this list.

In the normal course of things the iPad will close older apps whenever you open a new one that needs more RAM than is available. Recent apps that are not on the screen are almost always frozen in RAM (using no CPU). Only a few types of background tasks are allowed in iOS.

Poorly written apps may cause problems. Because the iPad 1 has so little RAM (comparatively) it is more likely to experience problems when trying to play the RAM shuffle when loading very large apps. These are good reasons to manually shut apps down. Otherwise you're just doing the iPads job for it.

BTW, Safari will open on the last viewed page, even if you've closed the app out of RAM. The only way to stop it is to close all the tabs before exiting the app.

I close apps when I have a problem with them. This forces them to start over fresh. Very rarely I will clear all apps when I'm having problems with a very large app running properly. On the iPad 1, this sometimes (not always helped). I've never had it make a difference on the iPad 2. Haven't had the iPad 3 long enough to know, but with twice the RAM of the iPad 2 I kind of doubt I'll have reason to shut down an app unless it is misbehaving.

 

[Sweetchinmusic]

Lol I had 7 hours of bliss (when I got it), I pretty much have mastered this iPad.

 

[twerppoet]

@ Jez EMIN,

Please understand I'm not specifically trying to make you uncomfortable, and I certainly don't want you to think I'm attacking you. It's just that this misconception of apps open and running in the background is wrong. Worse, more and more seemingly authoritative sources are either spreading it, or poorly explaining it.

If no one says anything this kind of misinformation gets so imbedded in what everyone 'just knows' that it's un-killable. Look at how many years we've spent stuck with people convinced that every time a battery goes bad it's a 'memory' issue. Something that has not been true since the early days of Ni-Cad batteries.

Unfortunately I'm thinking it's already too late for this meme. Even Apple Geniuses have been caught taking the easy (mostly placebo) approach to this issue.

 

[zphone]

@ Jez EMIN,

Please understand I'm not specifically trying to make you uncomfortable, and I certainly don't want you to think I'm attacking you. It's just that this misconception of apps open and running in the background is wrong. Worse, more and more seemingly authoritative sources are either spreading it, or poorly explaining it.

If no one says anything this kind of misinformation gets so imbedded in what everyone 'just knows' that it's un-killable. Look at how many years we've spent stuck with people convinced that every time a battery goes bad it's a 'memory' issue. Something that has not been true since the early days of Ni-Cad batteries.

Unfortunately I'm thinking it's already too late for this meme. Even Apple Geniuses have been caught taking the easy (mostly placebo) approach to this issue.

True! The only time you ever ever need to 'kill' an app off the task at is when it's not responding or misbehaving badly.

 

[Midranger4]

While policing active tasks is not required clearing them has been known to resolve many "failure to launch" type issues where memory intensive apps cannot allocate the necessary RAM to launch and subsequently quit back to the desktop without any type of diagnostic message. These same memory intensive apps when closed but left in the active task bar while not causing an error per se can cause noticeable performance loss.

In short iOS multitasking is as imperfect as that of any other operating system. Resources are finite and whether negligible or not background apps consume resources.

My general rule of thumb is I leave commonly used apps to reside in the active task bar, otherwise they get the boot upon closing. It is habit for me to double tap the home button after exiting any app so to review and manage it.

The battery issue is the larger one and is described below, credit MacWorld.





From Macworld:


On other occasions, though, you may want to close apps that are still (quietly) running. Ever since iOS 4’s introduction of multitasking, some of your apps can keep on running in the background, even after you’ve closed them. Generally, that’s fine; the iPad does a great job of killing apps when memory limits require it. Some apps, however—particularly GPS and VoIP apps—can eat up quite a bit of memory and battery life if they remain open when you no longer need them.

To make sure power-hungry apps that you don’t need don’t gobble your battery, you can force them to quit: double-tap the Home button to bring up the multitasking bar. Then, press and hold on any one app until all the apps start jiggling. Tap the red circle on the running apps in your multitasking bar that you’d like to quit.

 

[zphone]

True also! I also kill off GPS apps and radio apps for the reasons stated by Macworld. And when I notice battery is draining quicker than it used to, apps get the boot and so does the IOS.

 

[twerppoet]

I have no problem with informed choices. Just the always kill 'all' those open/running apps because they are ruining your iPad's performance; along with the OMG look at all the apps I have open/running!

Information, the correct information, is key to making smart choices.

Thank you for adding to that information.

 

[Jez EMIN]

I have no problem with informed choices. Just the always kill 'all' those open/running apps because they are ruining your iPad's performance; along with the OMG look at all the apps I have open/running!

Information, the correct information, is key to making smart choices.

Thank you for adding to that information.

Thanks twerppost, I certainly wasn't offended. What you made me do was to go back and read the Tips and Tricks app multitasking page, to reread the iPad User guide and to play a bit more with what closing down apps actually does (rather than appears to do) and see that yes, I was making a knee jerk reaction and wasn't being 100% accurate.

So, alls-well and i am now better informed, thanks to you !

I can also say that, yes, after those frustrating hours i experienced at the beginning, I too am now enjoying the magic of this amazing device (though I say that right now because I've put all my things I need so far on to my iPad, iTunes on my pc is being very problematic unfortunately - doesn't open on first click and takes a looooong time to finally open up).

So, here I am typing this reply to you , able to touch type rather than finger type via my smartphone and seeing the great benefits of such a tool for educational purposes (played with the iPad and my 8year old son yesterday .....guess what he'll be getting for Christmas ?!)

Quick question..... The iPad keyboard has a backspace button, but doesn't appear to have any up/down/left/right arrows which would be very useful. Any ideas ??

Kind regards,

Jez

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[Jez EMIN]

Lol I had 7 hours of bliss (when I got it), I pretty much have mastered this iPad.

Yes, I am now also in bliss, but your message made me realise that perhaps the opening and playing of my new toy wasnt best timed in my my case - I had a lot of work needed doing but found the new iPad that was next to me too tempting to not play with !

A lesson there me thinks !!!

Sent from my iPad using iPF