Apple ipad Tips and Tricks.

1) How to Backup your iPad using iCloud: Using the iOS 5 or 6, you can back up your data, such as photos and videos in the Camera Roll, app data, home screen, device settings and messages on your iPad, to the online iCloud storage up to 5 GB for free.

* Go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup.
* Turn "iCloud Backup" on if it's switched off.
* Backup is then done automatically to the iCloud storage when your iPad is plugged in to a power source, screen locked and connected to Wi-Fi. Or you get it done immediately by tapping "Back Up Now".

If you opt for iCloud Backup, it will turn off automatic backups to your PC when you sync with iTunes. But you still can do a manual backup—just connect your iPad to iTunes, then in iTunes, right-click the iPad device on the left panel and select "Back Up" from the context menu.

When you need to restore your iPad or set up a new device, you can have an option "Restore from iCloud Backup" with this online service, besides an opportunity to restore from iTunes.

2) How to Get iPad User Guide: In addition to these tips and tricks covering some quick and easy points, if you wish to read a full manual on iPad features, controls and the built-in apps, you can get a free copy of the iPad User Guide from Apple here in PDF format or here in a handy eBook format. If you've installed the free app iBooks on your iPad, open the app, tap the "Store" button and search for "iPad User Guide", you can then download the Guide directly into your iBooks for reading.

3) How to Sync iPad with PC-based iTunes: Syncing iPad with your PC-based iTunes provides a backup copy of your apps, music, videos and other data files on your PC. In case you've accidentally deleted some files from your iPad, you can restore them back with syncing. It's also a way to get apps, songs and videos from your PC to your iPad, besides getting them directly with the App Store and iTunes apps on your device.
To get this to work, iTunes is required on your PC. If you've not installed it, you can get it here, then follow these steps for syncing your iPad with the PC-based iTunes.

Syncing your iPad using a cable:

* Launch iTunes and connect your iPad to your PC using a cable.
* Select the iPad device on the left panel in iTunes and click the "Sync" button for syncing.
* Click the Apply button to sync again if you've changed any options in the settings.
* Click the Eject button in the iTunes to disconnect it from your iPad when finished.

Syncing your iPad via Wi-Fi:

The iOS 5 and 6 add an option to allow you to sync your iPad over Wi-Fi. You can enable this feature by the steps below.
* Launch iTunes and connect your iPad to the PC using a cable.
* Select the iPad device on the left panel in iTunes.
* Scroll to the bottom of the "Summary" view, check "Sync with this iPad over Wi-Fi" and click "Apply".

Disconnect the cable, restart your computer and iTunes, check if your iPad device is shown up in iTunes for
syncing when your iPad is plugged in to power and connected to the same Wi-Fi network with your PC.

4) How to Setup Mail Accounts and Sync Options: The iPad allows for adding multiple mail accounts including GMail, iCloud (in iOS 5 & 6), Exchange, Yahoo, Hotmail and others. To set up a mail account is straightforward especially for this example, GMail.

* Open the app Settings and select "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" on the left panel.
* Tap "Add Account...", select GMail, then enter name, address and password.
* Tap "Next" for verifying.
* Leave the sync settings "On" for Mail, Calendars and Notes, tap "Save" to finish.

After this setting, you can then open the app Mail to send emails and read incoming mails, check and edit entries in the apps Notes and Calendar, which are automatically synced with your GMail account over the air.

5) How to Select Wallpapers for your iPad: You can easily select a wallpaper from a collection of a few in your system and set it as your Home and/or Lock Screen.

* Open the app Settings and select "Brightness & Wallpaper" on the left panel.
* Choose the Wallpaper box twice and select a wallpaper.
* Tap "Set Home Screen", "Set Lock Screen" or "Set Both".

You can also select a picture from the Camera Roll or Photo Library, but in some cases it might not fit into the iPad screen which has a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.

Ideally, since the iPad screen can be orientated in portrait (768 W x 1024 H) or landscape view (1024 W x 768 H), this type of wallpapers is more suitable—a square image of 1024x1024 pixels, with the significant part visible in the central area of 768x768 pixels so that it won't be cropped away when your iPad is held in either view, as illustrated on the right.

6) How to Type Special Characters: If you often need to switch between the on-screen Alphabet and Number keyboards just to type quotation marks in a sentence, then why not check out below to find out more?

While on the Alphabet keyboard:

* ' (single quotation mark) => touch and hold the Comma key (,)
* " (double quotation mark) => touch and hold the Full-stop key (.)
& Turn caps lock on/off => double-tap the Shift key to lock, single-tap to unlock.
* Special letters not on the keyboard? => touch and hold a key, then slide to choose a variation. (See the
screenshot).
* Need just a digit or symbol from the Number keyboard? => touch the .?123 key and slide to a digit or
symbol key, and you're back to the Alphabet keyboard automatically.

While on the Number keyboard:

* Symbols not on the keyboard? => touch and hold a key, then slide to choose a variation, or tap the #+= key to find out more.
* Often type an equation? => touch and hold the #+= key, tap a sign and you're back to the Number
keyboard when you release the #+= key.
* Need just a letter from the Alphabet keyboard? => touch the ABC key and slide to a letter key, and you're back to the Number keyboard automatically.

7) How to Type Smiley or Emoji Characters: Now you don't need to rely on third party software to type smiley or emoji characters as the iOS 5 and 6 include a built-in Emoji keyboard.

To type a smiley or emoji character, tap the "International" key on the keyboard (or touch and hold the key, then slide to Emoji), a plethora of emoji characters are then at your fingertips.

On my device upgraded to the iOS 6, the Emoji keyboard is enabled by default. In the iOS 5, you can enable it in a few steps:

* Go to Settings > General > Keyboard.
* Tap "International Keyboards" and "Add New Keyboard..."
* Select "Emoji".