Table of contents for Issue 55 in iPad User Magazine

Few announcements from Apple have made me as happy as the reveal that the iPad is getting its own operating system: iPadOS. Now admittedly it might largely be iOS 13 wearing a fake moustache and top hat to disguise itself (and I would expect the majority of updates to iOS to be shared with iPadOS in the future), but I still think it’s a really big and positive sign. Given that the 10th anniversary of the iPad is coming next year (really!), it feels like the tablet should be further along than it is for offering advanced new ways to work (and play). It always seemed that resources were stretched, so some years the iPad got improvements, and some years the iPhone was the focus. But with the iPad having…

1 Check how you’re billed Not sure whether you pay for a subscription through your Apple ID? The first place to look is Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store. Tap your Apple ID there, then View Apple ID. Scroll down to and tap Subscriptions. 2 Manage Apple subs The subscriptions you’re most likely to see on this page are those for Apple’s own services, specifically Music and News+. Tap a service to (where applicable) adjust your price tier, or to cancel the service if it’s no longer needed. 3 App subscriptions Third-party apps can offer various kinds of service as a sub – Dropbox, say. If you set up one within its app originally, not on its website, it should be listed here – and can be…

IT WILL TAKE 40 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to set up a template with replaceable preset content YOU’LL NEED An iPad with iOS 11 or later, Pages 5.0 or later The updates to Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iOS that were announced at the end of March added the ability to save  templates, plus more related features. You still can’t create the text placeholders that you find in Apple’s own templates – which can be tapped once to type over – but you can now set images as placeholders. You can already tap any image, tap the brush icon in the toolbar at the top right, go to the Image tab and tap Replace to place a new image file within the same box. When you set an image…

1 Pick your folder Here’s a typical mail folder, full of lots of different messages from lots of different people. Any filters you create are folder-specific, so you can set different criteria for different folders. 2 Start filtering Tap on the little filter icon at the very bottom-left of the window and you’ll see any unread messages disappear. You’ll also see ‘Filtered by: unread’ at the bottom of the sidebar. Tap it. 3 Add more criteria If a simple unread mail filter isn’t enough, you can add more criteria here. Selecting ‘To: Me’ in the Addressed section can help you to screen out mailing lists, group emails and marketing. 4 Make it VIP Here’s another useful filtering option: you can get Mail to filter messages so you only see the…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to cut out a subject and combine objects using layers YOU’LL NEED Bazaart, some photos Bazaart enables you to combine photos to create cut out style collages or creative composites. You can kick off by exploring a collection of multi-layered templates to get to grips with the app. Each object in a template can be scaled, moved and adjusted to create a new look. You can also replace any of a template’s components with your own photos to create your own art. In this walkthrough we’ll show you how to create a surreal scene from scratch using your own photos. You’ll learn how to import a picture, cut out a person’s image from their original surroundings, and place them into one…

1 Choose a poster frame Open Typorama and tap Presets. Various options are available, spanning social media, iPhone wallpaper, different aspect ratios (choose 4:3 or 3:4 for your iPad background), and three paper sizes: A3, A4 and A5. 2 Select a style Next, choose your text style by swiping through the list of 60 (around 40 are free). Tap one to select it and see how it looks. Tap the style again to cycle through its variations or switch to another style instead. 3 Edit text Double-tap the text box to type your text. It’ll be fitted automatically to the chosen style unless you flick the ‘Manual line breaks’ switch to insert your own. Tap Done and the style will pick a variation to suit the text. 4 Tweak text…

More like a proper computer in its own right There’s been speculation for years about Apple unifying its desktop and mobile operating systems. After all, iOS is based on macOS, and today’s iPhones and iPads are powerful enough to run similar software to Macs. Then again, using an iPhone is inevitably a very different experience from using a Mac. The iPad, though, lies somewhere in between, and at WWDC 2019, Craig Federighi announced that it would finally have its own operating system, logically if cumbersomely known as iPadOS. It’s iOS 13 with some extra bits, but the extra bits should make using an iPad for proper work feel less compromised. iPadOS focuses on making use of the bigger screen, working in more than one app or on more than one…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to adjust iPhone or iPad behaviours for a better experience YOU’LL NEED An iOS 12 device (some features work on older versions) iOS can help you identify long-term drains on your mobile data allowance Your iPad (or iPhone) arrives with sensible settings that will suit most people, but it’s wise to check the Settings app for  behaviours you might want to tweak. From increasing the privacy of notifications on the Lock screen to improving familiar features like Look Up and Siri, we’ll help you get a running start by highlighting some of the most important settings to check out. Those people with 4G iPads and data plans should definitely pay special attention to steps 4 and 5 on the next page.…

1 Make a blank document In Pages’ template chooser, tap Create Document and choose Blank. Tap More (…) > Document Setup > Document Setup icon (top right). To use page layout mode, turn off Document Body. Turn off Header and Footer. 2 Set your margins Setting page margins here should help make a neat layout. Oddly, in page layout mode, Pages ignores them. We’ll work around that. Tap the + icon, pick a square from the shapes tab and resize it to fit the margins. 3 Position a text box It snaps to the margins (if not, turn on all in More > Guides). Tap the brush icon and, on the Style tab, set no fill or border. Click Done. On your page, try adding a text box. You can…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to store useful information with photos YOU’LL NEED The Magpie - Photos & Notes app Magpie is the kind of app you didn’t know you needed, and then can’t imagine living without. It’s a kind of notes app, but instead of storing scribbles it’s all about photos. Whether it’s a wedding dress or a wonderful meal, a book or a brilliant beach, a hotel or a hotdog stand… Magpie enables you to snap it all, store it, and find it again later. You can use Magpie in all kinds of ways: as a kind of Pinterest to store things you like the look of, as a way to organise and share collaborations ranging from birthday gifts to building project ideas, or…

1 Import assets Tap on Projects. Tap the + icon to start a project from scratch. Browse to tap on a portrait in your Photos app and import it into your project. Tap Background and choose a colourful scene from the Nature category. Tap Done. 2 Change shape Tap the Change Size icon at the top to access a range of preset shapes and sizes suitable for various social media destinations. We chose Landscape. Tap to select the portrait and pinch to scale it down. Slide it to the left. Tap Done. 3 Isolate the subject Tap on the portrait. Tap Edit. Swipe right to the Cutout section. Tap on Magic. This tool analyses the layer for people and automatically removes the background. Tap the Zoom icon and pinch to…

iZotope Spire Studio ★★★★★ £260 izotope.com For musicians, the ability to record whenever inspiration strikes is a game-changer. This portable gadget has multi-track recording built in without connecting to any other devices, so you could lay down an entire layered song if you want. The top features a touch-sensitive circular LED pad that serves as a VU (volume unit) meter, a guide to the amount of tracks used, and as a means for changing the monitoring levels in your headphones. It has an omni-directional condenser mic built into the front, and there are other professional XLR inputs. You can output recordings to your iPad wirelessly using the companion app after. AirPods 2nd Gen ★★★★★ £159 apple.com/uk The new version Apple’s wildly popular true wireless headphones are very much an incremental…

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to set up and manage Apple Music, Family Sharing and app subscriptions YOU’LL NEED An Apple ID, iOS 12 (some features work in earlier versions) It’s easy to lose track of what you’re paying for and by what means Love them or loathe them, subs to digital services – music and TV streaming, but also apps – are becoming more common. Already, you might have several of them that you use only on your iOS devices: extra iCloud storage, Apple Music, and recurring payments for third-party apps you need. What’s worrying about them is that it’s easy to lose track of what you’re paying for and by what means. Apple’s platform doesn’t send you a single itemised bill each month that…

1 Prevent uninvited access You may want to limit access to some features unless your device recognises you’re in control. In Settings > Touch/Face ID & Passcode, look under ‘Allow access when locked’. You won’t want a stranger to control your HomeKit accessories! 2 Guard your privacy Review whether apps can track your real-world position in Settings > Privacy > Location Services: always, never or only when you’re using the app. One level up, check you haven’t unduly granted access to other personal things, like your photos. 3 Stop info leaking out In Settings > Notifications, set Show Previews to When Unlocked so detailed info isn’t shown on the Lock screen until you use Touch/Face ID. If you prefer, limit this to specific apps in the list below; each has…

IT WILL TAKE Five minutes YOU WILL LEARN how to quickly filter your messages YOU’LL NEED An active email account Email is a damn useful thing, but it can also be overwhelming sometimes: if you’ve ever looked at a groaning inbox and felt like  deleting the lot, you’re definitely not alone. Rather than take such dramatic action, though, there’s a much simpler and equally effective way to make your mail more manageable in iOS: the Mail app’s filters. The little filter icon sits at the bottom left of the sidebar and can be used in any folder; you can have different filters for different folders, and the filtering remains in place until/unless you turn it off again. Read or unread The simplest form of filtering is the default: tap on…

1 Make a list Magpie revolves around lists, so to do anything you’ll need to begin by creating a new list. Give it a meaningful name but don’t worry too much: you can always change it later. Tap Create to continue. 2 Add an item Here you see the main interface: the list(s) in the panel at the left, and their contents in the larger panel. Our new list doesn’t have any content yet, so we’ll choose to add a photo from our iOS Photos library. 3 Add some detail It’s a good idea to add some context so you remember what you’re looking at – in this case a possible expensive toy purchase, where recording the price and where to buy it is going to help us later. 4…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to design and share posters YOU’LL NEED iOS 9.0 or later, Typorama app Jealous of those eye-catching billboards advertising gourmet burgers and the latest fashions? Don’t be: Typorama gives you the ability to create your own with the minimum of effort. But while the app may be simple to use, it’s in no way simplistic. Typorama offers all the tools you need to fine-tune your design to deliver genuinely eye-catching results again and again. You can share your results on social media, create images large enough for A3 printouts or simply create a new background image for your iPad. The free version of Typorama provides all the basic functionality you need, but you can’t save projects to reuse or adapt. For…