Table of contents for Issue 84 in iPad User Magazine

Apple’s iPad line up used to be pretty simple to understand, but these days its anything but! Not only did Apple throw a couple of new iPads into the mix this month (reviewed on pages 4-7 this issue) but it also changed the prices on some of the existing models by quite significant amounts. So, now we have some iPads with the new M1 or M2 processors and some with the older processors going back to the A13. Not to mention different quality screens, screen sizes and amounts of RAM inside. It’s almost too much to think about! My advice for which iPad you should buy is always the same - just buy the most expensive one you can afford. The thing is, all iPads will do whatever it is…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to play Google games YOU’LL NEED Google Arts & Culture There are two aspects to this fun experiment by Google Arts & Culture. On the one hand, you’re effectively playing a game of Pictionary in which a machine learning robot seeks to guess what you are sketching. On the other, you’re able to use this as a jumping point to explore Arts & Culture’s rich pot of paintings. You can try this out via the Google Arts & Culture app or via the website at artsandculture.google.com. Either download the app on to your iPad or enter the URL into your browser, then tap ‘Play’ in the menu and look for Guess The Line (there are other games there too!). You’re now…

Watch SE REVIEWS The Apple Watch SE seems to come from the idea that the original Apple Watch SE wasn’t broke, so it didn’t need fixing. Instead, Apple’s polished it, giving it a lighter-weight body, a new processor, new colours, and a price drop. If you want to know whether it’s worth upgrading from the original Apple Watch SE, the answer is no. You don’t get any big new features here – the most notable is Crash Detection, but we don’t think many people will pay £259 for that. If you’re wondering whether you should go for the new Apple Watch SE or the Apple Watch Series 8, that comes down to the features you may want, and what you’re willing to pay for them. The Series 8 has an…

Apple has upgraded its base-model iPad with a striking new design. The single biggest difference between the previous base iPad model and this iPad 10.9 (2022) is the design. It’s an all-new chassis that owes most, but not all elements to the iPad Air Fifth generation. The aluminium enclosure is, at first glance, virtually indistinguishable from the Air’s, but there are crucial differences. Display For the iPad 10.9 (2022) display, Apple has essentially adopted the iPad Air’s LED-backlit Liquid Retina display. At 2360 x 1640 pixels (264ppi), it’s a nice upgrade from the iPad 9th gen’s 10.2-inch 2160 x 1620 screen. Interestingly, the 264ppi is the same. Also the same are the 500 nits (good enough for decent if not totally sun-beating outdoor viewing), and the TrueTone display, which adjusts…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use the Weather app YOU’LL NEED iPadOS 16 Thanks to iPadOS 16 the Weather app comes to the iPad for the very first time as well. Now you can see what’s happening in your vicinity right now without looking out of the window. More usefully, you can also see what weather you should expect over the coming hours and days, as well as bags of information about air quality, air speeds, expected rain, humidity and much more. To get this app, you simply need to upgrade your iPad to iPadOS 16 – it comes baked into the latest operating system. It’s sure to become one of your most used apps because its dashboard is so user-friendly and the data is…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use Visual Lookup YOU’LL NEED An iPad, iOS 15 or later With iPadOS 15, Apple introduced Visual Lookup which recognised different objects in your photographs, from flowers and pets to art and landmarks. It let you view details about these items and check out similar images. But with the new iPadOS 16, it’s been improved and you are now able to do the same with birds, insects and statues, too. You can also lift a subject from the background. It’s mightily impressive and works within seconds, letting you copy, share or drop the subject within multiple apps. It really needs to be tried to be believed: the image and annotations to the right only go some way towards preparing you…

REVIEWS Watch Series 8 The Apple Watch Series 8 feels like the slightly forgotten middle sibling in a family of three – sandwiched being the flashy new Apple Watch Ultra (see p24) with its rugged design, Action button and dual-channel GPS, and the Apple Watch SE (see p27), which shares many features with the Apple Watch Series 8, but at £259 for 40mm and £299 for the 44mm, costs up to £160 less. The Apple Watch Series 8 is also practically identical to last year’s Apple Watch Series 7 – it shares the same rounded-corner case design with an edge-to-edge Always-On Retina display in 41mm and 45mm case sizes, is still dust-resistant to IP6X and water-resistant up to 50m – and offers identical battery life of up to 18 hours…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to set up the Apple News app YOU’LL NEED iPadOS 16 Sports fans looking for the latest news and scores have many options, from newspaper websites to dedicated apps such as LiveScore. But now you have another way of staying up to date with the sports and teams you love: the My Sports section in the News app created for iPadOS 16. As with the news, it draws upon multiple sources for the ultimate sports offering. Expanding on the previous sports offering, My Sports allows you to select what you’re interested in and make use of a dedicated section. Available in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, you’ll get live score updates, be directed to any live TV streams and have…

When it comes to great-sounding wireless earbuds, the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) have knocked it out of the park. Designed to work seamlessly across your Apple devices, they offer fast pairing, useful features and incredible sound for the money, despite costing £249. The changes Apple has made don’t look radical on the outside – the earbuds and case look largely the same as the previous generation – but there are differences. For one, Apple has changed the position of the external microphones, so they now take up two separate housings on the outside of the earbuds. This, Apple says, enables them to deliver 2x better Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) than before. The new AirPods Pro also feature touch-based volume controls on each stem. This is in addition to the Force…

The news is just a tap away, but it can feel overwhelming with so many websites and newspapers vying for attention. Instead of floundering in a sea of screaming headlines, you can cut through the chaff with our carefully compiled roundup of news apps. They’ll help you get to the real story. And one of the best apps to get all the latest info is one that’s likely already on your iPad, as you’ll see. Apple News Free (IAPs) FROM apple.com NEEDS iPadOS 13 or later Use it a few times and Apple’s News app quickly learns the topics and providers you enjoy reading and suggests more of the same. You can save news channels, hide stories and outlets you don’t like, and follow your favourite sports teams. Apple News…