Table of contents for Issue 77 in iPad User Magazine

In this issue of iPad User we’ve decided to take a look at all the great software you can get for you iPad that won’t cost you a thing. You’ve already paid quite a bit to get an iPad, so the news that there are so many excellent, and free, apps is a very welcome thing. Of course, discoverability is a problem with iPad apps - it’s hard to know which ones to go for. So, we’ve put together a guide to 32 of the best free iPad apps. These are the ones we use every day and we think you should too. Of course, if you’re feeling flush with cash after the holiday season then now is the perfect time to buy an iPad. Check out our buying guide…

Yahoo Weather From mobile.yahoo.com/weather Available on iOS, iPadOS Apple’s own weather app had a huge update on iPhone recently; on iPad the weather widget takes you to weather.com. Yahoo’s weather app remains one of our favourites with hourly and long-range forecasts, all kinds of info and some nice location-aware photos too. An Otter RSS Reader From anotterrss.com Available on Mac, iOS, iPadOS Promising to be ‘the most okayest and minimalist RSS reader on iOS and macOS’, this is a simpler, more visually appealing alternative to the likes of NetNewsWire for RSS feeds. You don’t get the power-user features of rival readers, but An Otter does the basics brilliantly. NetNewsWire From netnewswire.com Available on Mac, iOS, iPadOS NetNewsWire does for reading what Overcast does for podcasts. It enables you to subscribe…

You often hear about iPads rivalling laptops. But to do so, they need a handful of accessories to complement their power and portability. Luckily there is a raft of Apple-made and third-party peripherals that are worthy of your consideration. Apple Pencil (2nd gen) £119/$129 The 2nd gen Apple Pencil is perfect for those creatives looking to sketch, colour, take notes, mark up emails and much more. For those compatible iPads, it attaches magnetically for automatic charging and pairing. Smart Keyboard for iPad From £159/$179 The Smart Keyboard combines advanced technologies to create a keyboard like no other. It’s comfortable, fully portable, and connects with the Smart Connector. It doubles as a protective case when not in use. HomePod mini £89/$99 The HomePod mini continues to go from strength to strength,…

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN Everything you need to know about Files YOU’LL NEED iOS 11 or later, or iPadOS 13 or later Before iOS 11 came along, file management on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch was a real pain – and something that  meant spending far too much time swearing at iTunes. And then Apple released Files, which made it easy not just to access the files on your device, but to access cloud services and iCloud Drive too. In its current incarnation Files is very like Finder, and it has extra powers beyond just organising and displaying files. You can use it to scan documents with your iPad’s camera, to annotate PDF files with Markup, to play music files including high quality FLAC files…

1 Pull it apart When iPadOS’s keyboard is displayed, you can split the keys by pressing and holding your thumbs on it and pulling it apart into halves. You can reverse the process too. 2 Access more options You can discover more options relating to the keyboard by pressing and holding on the ‘hide keyboard’ button. This will display a small menu of options, including the former. 3 Undock the keyboard Choosing the ‘Undock’ option from the menu will mean that the keyboard is no longer stuck to the bottom of the screen. Swipe up or down on the same button to move it. 4 Make it float If you choose the ‘Floating’ option then the size of the keyboard will be greatly reduced, and you can press and hold…

Studying is a great way to learn new skills, change your career, and broaden your knowledge base. And as iPads and apps become ever more important, the ways we go about studying are changing all the time. That’s great news whether you’re a full-time college student or learning at home in your spare time. With a few well-chosen apps, you can now make learning easier and more efficient than it has ever been. We’ve trawled the App Store to find what we think are the best apps for studying. From planners and organisers to document editors and revision aids, these six apps will help you breeze through your studies. Check them out and head to the top of the class. Forest – Your Focus Motivation £1.79 NEEDS iPad, iPhone Concentration…

Pages, Numbers and Keynote From apple.com/uk Available on Mac, iOS, iPadOS Chances are the best office apps for you are already on your device. The recently updated Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps are Microsoft Office compatible (including change tracking and comments in Word documents) but do their thing with a distinctly Apple sensibility. Pages doubles as a pretty great desktop publishing program, the mobile versions are fantastic and fast, and the apps all integrate brilliantly with your Photos library too. Spark From sparkmailapp.com Available on Mac, iOS, iPadOS Spark is like the standard Mail app with superpowers. It offers a smart inbox and smart search, email snoozing and mail templates, shared composition, email scheduling, follow-up reminders and excellent notifications. The free version has up to 5GB of shared file storage…

The new iPad Pros have been with us for more than six months now. Here’s what Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said when the new iPad Pro was first announced. “The revolutionary M1 chip has been a breakthrough for the Mac, and we’re incredibly excited to bring it to iPad Pro,” he said. “With M1’s huge jump in performance, a groundbreaking extreme dynamic range experience on the 12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR display, up to 2TB of high-speed storage, Thunderbolt expansion, a four-speaker audio system, pro cameras with LiDAR Scanner, blazing-fast 5G connectivity, an amazing video-calling experience with Centre Stage – combined with the advanced features of iPadOS and a powerful pro app ecosystem all in a device users can hold in one hand – there’s nothing…

Apple’s budget iPad has undergone some big changes under its hood that might be easily missed if you just go on looks. That’s because this year’s model of what Apple simply calls ‘iPad’ looks identical to last year’s. That means bigger bezels at the top and a Home button incorporating Touch ID at the bottom. So while this iPad isn’t going to win any design awards, its real-world performance has actually been somewhat turbocharged. For starters, there’s now an A13 Bionic chip powering the tablet, which Apple says is 20% quicker and more responsive. It’s running iPadOS 15 too, so the software is as up-to-date as possible, and performance is optimised accordingly. The iPad also comes with 64GB of storage as standard, compared to the previous model’s 32GB mark. On…

1 Connect the cloud The first time you use Files, it’ll ask you which cloud services to connect to; not just iCloud, but third-party services such as Dropbox too. You can show or hide these in Files’ sidebar by tapping the ‘…’ icon and then Edit Sidebar. 2 Change the view Use the icon at the top right of the Files window to switch between different views. Just like Finder you can have a list view, an icon view or a column view, and you can sort the current folder by name, kind, date, size or tags. 3 Share a file If you long-press on a file or folder you’ll see a pop-up menu. The available options will depend on what apps you have installed, but they’ll include one to…

IT WILL TAKE 3 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to play games using the Netflix app YOU’LL NEED A Netflix account and the Netflix app Netflix is now looking to attract and retain subscribers by offering games via its apps for iPad  and iPhone. It intends to build a sizeable gaming library in the coming months and years. So long as you have a Netflix account, all of the titles are free to play. Many of the games will be available to play offline and Netflix promises to tap into a wide range of gaming genres that will appeal to players of all experience. It is also bringing Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story to the service – a game that costs £8.09 for PC and Switch players. With…

GarageBand From apple.com/uk Available on Mac, iOS, iPadOS GarageBand is an extraordinary app for making all kinds of music and other audio. And for many musicians and podcasters it’s all the software you could ever need. It’s essentially a friendlier, simpler version of the mighty Logic Pro X, and its selection of auto-playing instruments means you don’t have to know how to play in order to make something magical. It also includes some superb artist lessons to help inspire you. Spotify From spotify.com Available on Mac, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS If you don’t already have a streaming music subscription then Spotify offers a very good experience without too many adverts. You don’t get Spotify Connect, Spotify Radio or the highest quality audio on the free tier so this isn’t one for…

Khan Academy From khanacademy.org Available on iOS, iPadOS The Khan Academy is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to providing free, world-class education to anybody anywhere, and its app is packed with knowledge. Although it’s a little US-focused the information here is universal, and it’s particularly strong on maths and science topics. Sumdog From sumdog.com Available on iOS, iPadOS If your child is attending a UK primary school, you should be able to get this excellent educational app for free – each school has a login code. It’s a bright, friendly and fun collection of game-style tasks that are more fun than anything in a textbook. Duolingo From duolingo.com Available on iOS, iPadOS, iMessage Duolingo can help you to learn new languages or brush up on the ones you already know. It’s a friendly…

IT WILL TAKE 12 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to get more out of the iPad’s on-screen keyboard YOU’LL NEED An iPad and some text to type While many people choose to use external keyboards when working on an iPad, there are plenty of hidden  options and tricks for the default iPadOS on-screen keyboard that you need to be aware of. The iPad keyboard is full of features, like not having to press the shift button to type common symbols, such as ‘@’ and ‘&’. Then there’s the way in which you can move the keyboard to a new position on the screen, or reduce it down to a mini floating keyboard, more akin to the one on your iPhone, where you can employ iOS’s nifty ‘slide to type’ feature…

1 Go to your profile After opening the Netflix app, go the profile that you use to watch TV shows and films. Don’t make use of a kid’s profile because games are not currently available in those. 2 Find the games Scroll down, past a few film and TV categories, and you will soon come to a row called ‘Games’. There aren’t many games right now, but swipe left and right through them. 3 Select a title Once you have decided there’s a game you’d like to play – all of them are entirely free and included in your Netflix membership – you can just tap the relevant icon. 4 Check the details The description page for each game includes brief details, some screenshots and a preview video. If you…