The Verge’s Ellis Hamburger has published a sweet review of several iPad styluses and created a nice video summary review to go along with it. He tested the styluses while using the new Paper iPad note-taking app.
His top picks are the Wacom Bamboo Stylus ($30) and the Adonit Jot Pro ($30), but cautions that no stylus offers a great experience, just mediocre in general, as writing on glass with a pen just wasn’t meant to be.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed the LTE connectivity of the new iPad and basically loved everything about it. The speed, the ease of use, all great. I especially loved how the Personal Hotspot was free (after you purchase the data plan, that is). But since writing that review, I found something that I don’t love about the Personal Hotspot feature: the fact that it automatically shuts off when the connection is not being used. A good Wi-Fi network this does not make.
Here’s the problem in a little more detail. If you turn on the iPad’s Personal Hotspot feature, you have around 90 seconds to connect a device to it before it stops broadcasting itself as a Wi-Fi network. Once you do connect a device like an iPhone and start listening to, say, the Pandora Radio app, you have to keep streaming data and never ever stop or else, after a few minutes, the iPad will shut off the Wi-Fi network, and won’t let you reconnect.
Basically, if you stop using the Personal Hotspot for only a few minutes, you have to go through annoying steps to reactivate it. You have to grab your iPad, open up the iPad’s Settings, swipe the Personal Hotspot tab to Off, then swipe it to On again. Each time. Annoying.
The only solution is to continually download data. I found that a radio app with a low-bandwidth radio stream works nicely. For example, a 32 kbps streaming radio stream uses only 14 MB per hour. Still, that adds up over time. If someone knows of apps that sip small chunks of data continually over time and that work in the background, leave a note in the comments.
What’s the reasoning behind making it work this way? From Apple’s perspective, you could argue that it’s battery life, but Anandtech’s tests show that the new iPad can last 25 hours as a Personal LTE Hotspot, probably a lot longer if it is simply in a broadcast mode and not downloading data. It’s more likely that Verizon wants to prevent congestion on their new LTE network. By limiting its functionality, Verizon keeps people from using it like a regular old Wi-Fi network/router. But still, we paid for the 2 GB of bandwidth, we should be able to use it how we want.
Multitasking gestures are a relatively new iOS feature (introduced in iOS 4.3) that currently work only on the iPad due to its larger screen. Once activated, multitasking gestures allow you to use four- or five-finger swipes to quickly switch between apps and thus improve your multitasking performance on the iPad.
Note that these gestures will not work on the first-gen iPad, only the iPad 2, iPad 3, and newer.
To activate multitasking gestures, go into the iPad’s Settings–>General and slide the Multitasking Gestures to On.
Swipe Left. While in an app, swipe to the left with four fingers and the entire screen will slide over, switching to the second most recently used app. Keep swiping to the left, and you’ll cycle through your most recently used apps.
Then Swipe Right. After four-finger swiping to the left, you can then swipe to the right and you’ll cycle the other way through your apps.
One thing to note is that once you switch to another app using a four-finger swipe and use that app, you can once again swipe left or right again; however, if you switch to another app without using multitasking gestures, you’ll no longer be able to four-finger swipe to the right until your first swipe left—in other words, the recently-used-app-order resets itself with your current app at the front of the line.
Swipe Up. Swipe up with four fingers and you’ll bring up the task bar, just like double-clicking the home button.
Swipe Down. After swiping up to bring up the task bar, you can swipe down to close. Easy peasy.
Pinch. While in an app, if you pinch the screen with four or five fingers, you’ll “close” the app and be taken to the home screen. A four-finger pinch has the same effect as a single-click of the home button.
We don’t talk about jailbreaking much on this site, but the above video is a good primer on some of the more interesting things that can be done with a jailbroken iPhone. Jailbreaking your iPhone is legal, and it’s easy to do, but it can be a pain to maintain over time. Plus, if something goes wrong with your jailbroken iPhone, Apple can refuse to fix it.
As for this video, what’s with the random girl in her underwear at the end?
It’s that time of year again, the crack of the bat, the smell of freshly cut grass, the steroid-powered home runs. Yes, it’s baseball season again. If you’d like to add your favorite team’s schedule to your iPhone’s calendar, the following are instructions on how to do so. (Also check out my article on how to quickly add Holidays as well).
1. Open your iPhone’s browser and go to http://www.mysportscal.com/mlb.html
2. Important, Read Carefully: Find your favorite team’s iCal icon and hold your finger on it until a pop-up menu appears, DO NOT tap the icon (adding the schedule that way is quicker but has repercussions. See Notes below).
3. Tap Copy (this will copy the team calendar’s link):
4. Press the home button and open Settings:
5. Scroll down and tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars:
6. Tap Add Account:
7. Scroll down and tap Other:
8. Tap Add Subscribed Calendar:
9. In the field next to Server, paste in your iCal link (to paste, hold your finger down in the field until a pop-up box appears with the paste option):
10. Tap Next:
11. Tap Save:
And that’s it, you’ve added your team’s schedule to Calendar. Tap a game and check it out. It shows the game’s start time, probable pitchers, and even a link to the game on mlb.com. You also may note that your calendar is all clogged up with baseball games. Read on for how to quickly hide all those games (and bring them back).
You may quickly notice that all those games clutter up your calendar. You can quickly hide/show the games with the method below:
1. In the Calendar app, tap Calendars:
2. Scroll down and uncheck the subscribed team’s calendar by tapping it:
Bam, all the games are now gone from Calendar. Repeat the process to bring them back. You can also completely delete the calendar by going to Settings–>Mail, Contacts, Calendar–>Subscribed Calendars–>Tap the calendar–>Tap Delete Account.
Notes:
If you see a picture you like while browsing the Internet on your iPhone, you can easily save those photos to your iPhone’s Camera Roll. Here’s how.
While using the iPhone’s web browser, you can save a photo simply by holding your finger on the photo for a few seconds. A pop-up box will appear with a few options, one of which will read Save Image, as seen below:
To save the photo, tap Save Image. It will be saved to the iPhone’s Camera Roll alongside your other photos.
Endnotes:
If you’ve ever received an email from someone with an iPhone, you may have seen it. Sent from my iPhone, it reads. Some find it annoying, like the person is bragging about their fancy smancy iPhone. Others, like me, think it gives the email context, as in: I sent this while on the go so please excuse the short response and my touchscreen-keyboard spelling errors. In any case, you can either delete or change that message to read however you like. Here’s how.
Step-by-step instructions:
1. Open Settings:
2. Scroll down and tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars:
3. Scroll down and tap Signature:
4. Tap Clear, or change the text to whatever you want:
5. When finished, simply press the iPhone’s home button.
Have you ever “lost” your iPhone in between the couch cushions or in the tangle of sheets on your bed? Then you should know that Find My iPhone can help you find it by forcing your iPhone to emit a beeping sound, allowing you to track down your iPhone in your home.
But what if you’re like me and keep the iPhone’s ringer switch on mute most of the time? No worries, Find My iPhone will still force your iPhone to make a beeping noise, even with the ringer switch on mute.
Want to know what other sounds the ringer switch doesn’t mute. Check out my article titled What Does the iPhone Ringer Switch Mute (And Not Mute)?
Although the Retina Display has deservedly received most of the attention for the new iPad, LTE is, to me, an almost-as-exciting addition to Apple’s growing tech arsenal. Apple’s introduction of LTE has implications not only for current new iPad owners but possibly for inclusion in the next iPhone as well, assuming Apple can improve battery performance enough. The sheer speed of LTE could change the way people use bandwidth-intensive services like streaming video that currently choke and sputter on 3G networks.
I’ve been giving the new iPad with Verizon LTE a spin the fast few days, and below are my observations and notes about LTE performance and the iPad’s Personal Hotspot feature that allows you to share that bountiful LTE bandwidth with others.
When it comes to advertising the speeds of their networks, the wireless carriers like to either be vague or exaggerate about the speed of their networks. Well, the good news for Verizon LTE is that, here in Chicago at least, I’ve been averaging 10 Mbps. This is the fastest Internet connection I’ve ever had, and I’ve been using Clear’s 4G WiMax technology in Chicago the past two years, which sporadically gives me a disappointing 1-3 Mbps connection. Verizon’s LTE is, as you can see in the image above, much faster.
CNET, who tested both the AT&T and Verizon LTE iPads in San Francisco, found even faster speeds than I did.
Upload speeds have been more erratic, ranging from a poor 0.5 Mbps up to 2.6 Mbps. My tests were conducted both in central downtown Chicago (aka, the Loop), and in Wicker Park, a residental area just northwest of the city.
Overall, LTE is a huge step up in performance over not only 3G wireless networks, but also over most home wire-based Internet services. Granted, my tests are only for one city, and those speeds could change once LTE networks become more clogged with, say, the introduction of an LTE iPhone. But for now, the speeds are smoking fast.
The Personal Hotspot feature allows the new iPad to share its LTE/3G Internet connection wirelessly over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or via the iPad’s USB cord. But wireless carriers have to allow it. In the US, currently only Verizon allows the iPad to function as a Personal Hotspot (AT&T is still “considering” it).
Verizon offers the Personal Hotspot feature for free—with free meaning at no additional cost over the basic data plan fee. This was a nice surprise given that, for their iPhone data plans, Verizon charges an extra $20 to turn on Personal Hotspot.
Here are a few things I observed about Personal Hotspot:
Easy Setup. Getting the Personal Hotspot setup is a breeze. In the Cellular Data settings, you simply slide the Personal Hotspot switch to On, and that’s it. The iPad will supply you with a default network password to give to others in order to sign in. You can also create your own password.
Connecting to the iPad’s Personal Hotspot feature works just like connecting to any Wi-Fi network. For example, with my iPhone I went into Settings–>Wi-Fi and tapped on Alan’s iPad, which was the name Personal Hotspot assigned. I typed in the password and was connected.
Multiple Connections. I had 5 Wi-Fi devices simultaneously connected to the new iPad before I ran out of devices, so I can’t confirm the limit, nor could I find any documentation about a maximum amount of connections. But 5 is pretty good.
A Big Downside. One of the problems with using the iPad 3 as a hotspot is that you have to maintain an active connection with another device or else the hotspot will shut off. For example, if you’re using the iPad’s LTE connection to listen to online radio on your iPhone but you stop for 5 minutes and your iPhone goes to sleep, the personal hotspot will shut off. You must then go to your iPad and turn it off and on again. A huge annoyance. This means you can’t, say, turn on the hotspot, put it in your bag, then walk around and use the hotspot off and on throughout the day. Every time you stop using it, you must restart the hotspot.
Verizon also sells portable LTE hotspot devices called MiFi’s (or Jetpacks). MiFi’s run around $269 without a contract (or free with 2-year contract). I don’t own and have never tested a MiFi, but a little research shows that iPad does have a few advantages over the MiFi:
Better battery life. The guts of the iPad are mostly battery, so you’re looking at around 8-9 hours of LTE web browsing (Update: Website AnandTech discovered the iPad’s battery will last approximately 25.3 hours while functioning as an LTE HotSpot), while the Mi-Fi offers around 4 hours.
Cheaper data plans. Verizon’s iPad LTE plans start off cheaper than the MiFi, with a $20 for 1 GB/month plan and $30 for 2 GB plan. After that, the iPad and Mi-Fi plans match: $50 for 5 GB and $80 for 10 GB.
The main advantage of owning a MiFi over the new iPad is that the MiFi can fit into a shirt pocket. The 10-inch iPad, not so much.
I’m a longtime AT&T Wireless customer, but I went with the Verizon iPad because their LTE network is currently more widespread and mature. The Verizon iPad’s other advantages are that there is no fee to use the iPad’s Personal Hotspot feature (heck, AT&T doesn’t even allow the Personal Hotspot feature yet) and the fact that an AT&T sim card can fit into the Verizon iPad and allow it to connect to AT&T’s 3G service.
The AT&T iPad does have one advantage over the Verizon version: cheaper data plans and better value on a per-gigabyte basis.
Below is a table showing the new iPad’s LTE data plans for both Verizon and AT&T (pulled from Apple.com).
While the iPad’s LTE data plans are too expensive on a per-gigabyte basis for LTE to be used for regular home Internet purposes like Netflix and YouTube, the speeds, which averaged over 10 Mbps in Chicago, are pretty much as advertised: fast. This makes the LTE iPad perfect for small bursts of Internet usage, say, if your regular Internet goes down or you’re a traveler.
This was my first experience with LTE, and it’s definitely made me hungry for an LTE iPhone. If LTE can maintain these speeds with tens of millions of iPhones connecting to it, and the carriers make LTE data cheaper on a per-gigabyte basis, then the iPhone, iPad, and the mobile universe in general can be taken to the next level. Let’s just hope that an LTE iPhone won’t destroy network performance. I could get used to these 10 Mbps speeds.
Note: Updated article 4/9 with details about how the personal hotspot shuts itself off after a few minutes if not being used.
Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times recently published a nice roundup of recommended wireless keyboards for the iPad. Although he breaks his recommendations down into some pretty vague categories (see below), his top recommendation seems to be the Apple Wireless Keyboard, which I also reviewed for this site and can recommend. The Amazon Basics keyboard is also interesting as a cheaper clone of the Apple Wireless, in case you wanted to save $30.
Ihnatko’s list:
Gallery:
