iPad and Mini settings for a better user experience

Settings you can make on your iPad, iPad Air or Mini will help you get a better user experience

One of the most critical aspects of iOS received from users (and non-users), Jailbreak apart, is its tightness and little facility for customization of the devices that integrate it . Perhaps, they could have been right in the past, but, with each new delivery of the operating system, we can affirm that this is no longer the case, at least to a great extent.

This is probably why there will be settings that we don’t know very well what they are for or that we haven’t repaired by navigating through the different configuration screens. If this is your case, please sit down for a few minutes with your device because we are going to share with you some settings that you may not know about.

As always, before you make any changes, back up what might happen. If you think it’s an unnecessary step you can skip it, for those who don’t, keep reading. Connect your iPad, iPad Air or Mini to your computer using the USB cable, run iTunes and click on iPad, either in the top right corner (as in the picture) or in the left sidebar (if it’s not activated, Display – Show sidebar ). On the screen Summary and within the section Backup of the tablet screen, click on the button Make a copy now .

When we’re done, we’ll start changing the configuration according to our taste, always entering the application Settings .

No more asking when connecting to WiFi networks

When we are in a place where we have a good number of WiFi networks within reach, the iPad will ask us if we want to connect to them, which is quite annoying. To disable this function, go to Wi-Fi and disable the Ask When Connecting button . This will stop our device from asking us in the future.

Change your Internet sharing name and password

Those of you who can enjoy the iPad WiFi+Cellular model have the option of sharing that data connection with other devices . First of all, it would be convenient if your iPad had a more recognizable name , if it doesn’t already have one. To do this, we’ll access General – Information – Name and put in a new one.

Now, to change the password, we go to Internet Sharing – Wi-Fi Password and put one that is easy enough to remember but hard to figure out. If we activate the Internet Share button, our connection will be visible like any other WiFi network.

Change notification settings

If we want to see the Notification Center and be able to take a quick look at all the information, will slide from anywhere on the top edge of the screen down . By default, iOS 7 is configured to display a number of notifications that may not be to our liking.

To change any parameter, go to Notification Center . This will show a screen like the one in the image where we can turn on or off, show the n notifications, show today’s notifications, show the reminders, show them manually or chronologically, and include or not include the applications we want in the notifications. Clicking on each of them will allow us to choose more in-depth parameters such as the visual style of the alerts , the sounds, whether we see them in the Notification Center or in the screen for blocking, repeating, etc .

For security reasons, deactivate the Control Center on the lock screen

The Control Center allows us to quickly activate or deactivate various functions (WiFi, Bluetooth, airplane mode), operate the music player, the brightness or take a photo, among other things. It is accessed as with the Notification Center, but this time, by sliding from the bottom edge up . To change your settings we go to Control Center where we’ll be shown two options.

The first one allows us to deactivate it from the lock screen , avoiding the access of strangers to the parameters I referred to before, when the device is locked. And with the second one we can avoid activating it by mistake within an application or game in which we frequently use the lower part of the screen.

Set Do not disturb to work or rest quietly

Surely it has happened to all of you more than once to receive unwanted calls depending on the place where you meet as meetings, ceremonies or, also, the bed and sofa. To avoid this, click on Do not disturb .

The first two options allow us to manually deactivate all calls and alerts by selecting manual (the icon of a moon will be shown in the status bar) and also to program the silence in a time interval, determining the start and end time, if we select Programmed .

If we click on Allow calls from , we can select who can communicate with us : Nobody, Everybody, Favorites or All Contacts.

If we change the parameter Repeated calls , we will allow people to make a second call .

And finally, in Silence , we can make the iPad go into that mode always or only with the iPad locked .

Naturally, the calling options are restricted to the iPhone and Facetime for the iPad.

Let Siri be your friend

Some people don’t quite see it, but Siri is still improving and can be very useful for certain tasks. You can activate it in General – Siri .

There, you can also configure it in a basic way:

• Language: we can change to any language we want from those available.
• Spoken responses: we can choose to have you speak to us always or only when we use Hands-free.
• My details: we allow Siri to enter our contacts so that she knows whose iPad it is.

Disable moving wallpaper to prevent dizziness

Some users have reported nausea and dizziness when having the moving wallpaper and the Parallax effect activated (a 3D depth and feel simulation). Others, have not experienced any of that, but have it turned off, they just find it annoying and don’t waste resources.

To remove the Parallax effect (and make iOS 7 transitions smoother as well), go to Settings – Accessibility – Reduce Motion and activate it.

If we want to deactivate the dynamic wallpaper , we will have to go to Wallpaper and brightness – Select wallpaper and choose between the still images provided by Apple or one of the albums on the reel, never from the Dynamic option.

Making the iPad sound the way you want it to

Facetime calls, appointments and emails are some of the situations where the iPad will notify us with a sound. To define what or sounds will be associated with certain events we go to Sounds .

The first thing we see above is the setting of Ringtones and Alerts . While we use the physical volume buttons to manage the music, videos and volume of the applications, here we do it with Ringtones and Alerts with the slider. Also, with Adjust with buttons, we put everything in the same group and it will be the physical buttons that control the volume of the whole device. This option is not very advisable, since, for example, if we turn down the volume a lot while playing music, we may miss a sound alert of any event.

In the section Sounds we handle the sounds of various notifications. Select any of them and enter the Ringtone screen. Here we will choose the most appropriate tone for the type of notification. Be careful where you do it because when you click on any tone, it sounds!

At the bottom we have Lock , to turn on or off the sound the iPad makes when we turn the screen off with the button onoff ; and Keyboard clicks , where we control whether or not the keys should make sound when typing.

Using a complex password to increase security

Whether we use the iPad professionally or privately, we always want to keep our device out of the reach of prying eyes . To do this, we’ll need to access General – Code Lock – Activate Code (or Change Code ) and enter a 4-digit password (Simple Code). So, when we slide to unlock the iPad, it will ask for these numbers.

If you click on Request , you will define when you will be asked for the password , from immediately to after 4 hours.

With Simple code , we can make the password much more secure , because if we deactivate it, we have the option of entering a alphanumeric code of more than 4 digits when we define or change the lock code.

With the button Siri , we will allow or not the access to the assistant from the lock screen.

And finally, the button Wipe data , if activated, will automatically wipe our device after 10 failed attempts at entering the code.

Backup to iCloud or computer via WiFi

I’m sure you know that saying from “you remember Santa Barbara when she thunders” . Well, that’s what happens when for some reason we lose data or for doing what we shouldn’t and fiddling around too much, our iPad won’t start. Yes, we should have backed up last week, we should have synchronized yesterday.

I admit that it has happened to me before, but let’s think that the iPad does this task easily and lightly and can even do it wirelessly (except for the first time) without the need to connect it to the computer or we can dump our data directly to iCloud .

First we activate the backup in iCloud – Storage and Copy – Backup in iCloud . If this is the first time, it will be off. If we set the switch to green it will ask for confirmation to start the backup immediately. If you have made a copy before you will have another option below called Make copy now and an informative text with the last time you did it.

Now connect the iPad to the computer (always, if it is the first time) to synchronize with iTunes (see the beginning of the article) click on iPad and in the Summary screen and in the Options section check the second, Synchronize with this iPad via WiFi . You can now dispense with the USB cable, but we must be connected to the same WiFi network as the computer where we run iTunes, as we are reminded from GottabeMobile.

Did you know about all these adjustments? Have you had any use for them?

(This article is based on iOS 7.0.4, if you have a different version of iOS 7 some screens or menus may be slightly different)