Tag Archives: iPad

I just want to print from my iPad

Posted on by

These days printing has gotten much easier from an iPad or iPhone. Most printers that you would purchase today will support Apple Airprint. In the past, you had to be a little careful that you picked up AirPrint printer. Over the past few years, manufacturers have made the decision to add that as a standard feature. And most printers also are Wi-Fi compatible. They either have built-in Wi-Fi so that you can connect to your local network or they have ethernet connectivity that get you connected to the router. Either way, air print works just great once the printer is on the network.

Once you have the printer connected, and you have your iPad connected to your local network, how do I go about printing.

In the past, we’ve either used Mac or Windows computers. Fortunately both of those computers had a menu bar at the top of the screen with the file menu. In that file menu was always a print command. It really didn’t matter whether you were in photoshop or Safari, there was a file menu with a print command in it.  This made it extremely easy to figure out any applications printing capability. Unfortunately, Apple in iOS has not made it quite that simple. Nearly every application will provide you printing capability but how to get to it can often be different and somewhat confusing.

Let’s start off with Safari, Safari uses a small square box with an arrow pointing up at the top of the screen to get you to what they called the share sheet.

From that share sheet you can often send a link or a page to someone else by email or text but if you scroll down in that share sheet, you’ll find the print command. Once the print command is open, you will often have to find your printer for the first time but once that printer reset on your local network, it will typically come up and allow you to print. From there, you make typical setting changes such as color printing or black-and-white, number of copies, or some other specific command that might be related to printing in that application.

So obviously, Apple who strives to be so consistent with its applications would have that little square with the up arrow in every application to lead us to the share sheet and printing. But not so fast… Unfortunately Apple uses a few other things to define where you need to go to be able to find that print command. Once you’re in the print command, the settings are all consistent as you would expect but getting to that print command is not necessarily simple if you’re not looking in the right place. 

Apples on Mail application doesn’t follow that square with the up arrow consistent share sheet concept.

To be able to print and mail, you need to go to the curved arrow in the lower right corner of the email you’re looking at. This is the same location you would go to reply, or forward that email. Once they are, you’ll find the print command which one selected brings up the consistent print dialog box. But I cannot for the life of me understand why Apple used a curved arrow rather than the standard square with the arrow going up to denote the location to do sharing, or commands based upon the email that you’re in.

And to make it worse, Apple‘s other application such as Pages and Numbers and Keynote, all force you to go to a circle with three dots in the upper menu bar to find the print command. One would think, Apple, who forces uniformity and consistency would have thought enough to be able to use the same method to get people to be able to print their documents. But that’s not the case.

So the important thing to remember is often times printing is available in any application you want to find on the iPad or iPhone. You just have to look around to find where it is in that application, and then remember that’s the place to go to find that print command.

Which iPad is for me?

Posted on by

In the past couple weeks I’ve probably had four or five different folks asked me which iPad they should get. Apple provides a number of choices in iPads but a major part of the decision is based upon the size of the screen. The first thing I usually tell people to consider is the screen size. 

Originally, the iPad was a 9.7 inch device.  Apple has continued that size in its major consumer market device the six generation iPad. For most people that size is perfect. It’s larger than a phone but not so large that it’s hard to carry around with you.  But if 9.7 is not for you, Apple has other choices. 

The iPad mini with a 7.9 inch display is still available. I often caution people but the iPad mini has not been updated in quite a while so it’s performance is not the best. It also only comes in a 128 GB configuration. There are plenty of uses for devices that size, particularly in Home control. This iPad can be popular with women who want to be able to carry their iPad in their purse. 

If you’re interested in a larger screen size, you need to look to the iPad Pro models. iPad pros are available in 10.5 inch displays and in 12.9 inch displays. One interesting thing is that the 10.5 inch model is really not much larger than the 9.7 inch six generation. So size for carrying really doesn’t make much difference there. The largest iPad Pro is a mammoth. The display is it as large as many computer displays so an iPad of that size is sometimes a little hard to carry around.

Once you get an idea of what size screen you’re interested in the next thing to look at is the features of the device. Memory is one of the major things that differentiates cost in many of the iPads. A minimal amount of memory is 32 GB and that’s what Apple provides and it’s entry-level devices. The next step these days tends to be 128 GB and typically adds about $100 to the cost.  You can’t even get 256 GB in an iPad Pro if you have the need. For most people, 32 GB is plenty.  If you are a content creator or take a lot of pictures with your iPad, you probably should consider a larger size. But basically when looking at Apple’s lineup, the entry-level devices in each model typically provide a enough memory for the average user.

In addition to screen size differences, the iPad Pro models also provide extra functionality. They have the ability to add apples keyboard, which by the way doesn’t require batteries or Bluetooth pairing.  Until recently, the ability use an Apple Pencil with the iPad was one of the features the pro had that you could not get in a standard iPad. But Apple recently introduced it six generation that has Apple Pencil support so that’s really not a consideration any longer.

The iPad Pro models also have better displays. The displays are not just higher resolution. They also definitely have better color tone and less reflectivity. An iPad Pro Is significantly more expensive than the six generation iPad. While there are people who need this additional functionality and can make great use the device,  the average user is probably not in that category.

There also performance differences between the iPad Pro and six generation model but in my opinion these are pretty minor. Functionality within the operating system is just about the same between the two devices. Both of these devices are very fast. Unless you’re looking for the absolute top-of-the-line performance, I don’t think that performance differences make much of a difference in your choice.

For more information about the differences between these iPads, check out Apple‘s website to see a feature by feature comparison.

I typically use a 10.5” iPad Pro. With the advent of the six generation iPad the differentiation between the iPad Pro in the iPad is much less, at least for now. That being said, my recommendation is that most people seriously consider an entry-level six generation iPad for $329. 

The new six generation iPad is a great blend between performance, size, and functionality. Fortunately for all of us, because Apple is trying to get this device used in the education market, Apple has priced it at a reasonable cost.

But Apple never stops.  You can count on Apple revising the iPad Pro soon to better differentiate it from the sixth generation model.

If you’re really not sure about the differences between the devices, head out to a Best Buy where you can see them both side-by-side. But now that you know a little bit more about the differences, don’t let the Best Buy salesman upsell you to an iPad Pro if you really don’t need it.

Backing Up your iOS Device

Posted on by
iPhone BackupHow important is your data? Most of us realize that a good backup is worth it’s weight in gold. Many of us have backup methods are we back up our computer data and even sometimes take that data offsite. But more and more we are finding our most important computing device these days to be our smart phone or tablet. These devices are with us all the time. We store information in them that’s extremely personal to us but critical for us to have available. Having a good method to backup your handheld device is extremely important. If you have an iOS device, there are typically two methods to choose for backup. 

Backing up to iCloud

A wireless backup in the cloud. How perfect could that be. Seems like a no-brainer to use this method for backing up our device. There are problems associated with a cloud-based backup strategy. The biggest problem is the limited amount of storage space Apple provides us on iCloud. Sure iCloud is a free service and you can add additional storage space for a cost. Unfortunately these costs are not trivial. Many of us have iPhones or iPads with a relatively large storage capacity.

iCloud Storage OptionsWhen you sign up for iCloud, you automatically get 5GB of free storage. That may be plenty of room, particularly if you only have one device, because of the way iCloud stores your content. Your purchased music, movies, apps, books, and TV shows — as well as your Photo Stream — don’t count against your free storage. That 5GB goes a long way for your mail, documents, account information, settings, and other app data. And if you need more storage you can easily purchase an upgrade right from your device. But many people have a single issue that causes them to run out of space very quickly.

Photos you take on your device go into the Camera Roll. All these photos get backed up to iCloud and DO use part of the storage that iCloud provides you. People who routinely keep hundreds of photos in the camera roll will quickly exhaust the 5GB of space Apple provides and not realize why they have done so. If you sync your photos to your computer, or be sure you have saved them there from your Photo Stream, you should be able to remove these photos from the Camera Roll.

Many people believe they need to leave them there to keep them on the phone. But, you have to keep in mind that if you have Photo Stream turned on, they will be copied to the stream and available from that selection on your device.

Another way to deal with this is to sync your photos to your computer. This is in my opinion a preferred method for ensuring those photos are backed up. In general, I recommend people keep no more than 100 photos in the Camera Roll. With that many photos, a standard iCloud account should provide enough storage for two iOS devices.

Backing up to your computer

In the early days of iOS backing up your computer was the only option. Your computer typically has larger amounts of storage has the ability to keep copies of the backup. But even this can cause a space problem in the attic. If you have a new machine with an SSD drive, you may have limited storage space available. Backing up your device to your computer will make a copy of everything on it so it’s much larger than the storage space that iCloud uses for it’s backups. Since iCloud storage eliminates the need to copy anything you’ve purchased from Apple, it is able to store more information in a smaller space. When backing up to your computer though all information gets copied and takes much more space.

If you have storage space on your computer, backing up to get may be a good solution for you. By plugging your device into your computer, you not only can back it up, but you can download those photos out of the camera roll too.

But just like backing up to iCloud, there are things you need to be aware of when backing up to your computer. When you back up your computer it keeps a full copy of the device. If you change devices often, you may have full copies of older devices you no longer own still stored on your computer.

iOS Backups If you want to delete a backup created by iTunes, follow these steps:

  1. Open iTunes Preferences:
    • Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences
    • Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences
  2. Click Devices (the iOS device does not need to be connected).
  3. iTunes will show the phone number, IMEI, and serial number of the backed up iPhone when you position your mouse pointer over a backup (iTunes shows only the serial number for iPad and iPod touch). Use this to locate the backup for the iOS device you want to delete. Select the backup you want to remove and click Delete Backup.
  4. Confirm you wish to remove the selected backup by clicking Delete Backup.
  5. Click OK to close the iTunes Preferences Window.

Deleting extra copies of old devices can save significant storage on your computer.

George’s Recommendation

Because backing up is something that needs to be seamless, I recommend using iCloud is your main backup process. In doing this, you must keep in mind that you need to sync your photos once in a while to your computer to reduce the number of images that are stored in your camera roll. As long as you do that, iCloud storage is usually sufficient to be able to backup both your iPhone and your iPad if you have one.

[stextbox id=”info” caption=”Turning on iCloud for Backup”]

iCloud automatically backs up the most important data on your device using iOS 5 or later. After you have enabled Backup on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch in Settings > iCloud > Backup & Storage, it will run on a daily basis as long as your device is:

  • Connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi
  • Connected to a power source
  • Screen locked

You can also back up manually whenever your device is connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi by choosing Back Up Now from Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup

[/stextbox]