Anyone able to recommend a good written tutorial (I'm deaf) for someone who can find their way around a PC but has been lent an iPad and has zero experience of Apple stuff. So no manual or quick start guide.
I can't even turn the 'b' thing off at the moment! I've managed to connect it to my WiFi, but haven't got much further.
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this should help...
www.dummies.com/how-to/consumer-electronics/iPad.html
Not the best laid out site, but pretty much everything you want to know is there. Coffee, biscuits and a bit of peace and you should find everything.
Do ask if there is anything specific.
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Thanks. The button that should be the power button does nothing, except once. I reckon somebody has set it up to do something other than the default, but I've not found out what. With a start up screen, it switches, but as soon as you get an app list, you can't go back, and can't turn off! Can't work out what I did the one time it worked!
Tablet has been lent to me by the local NHS Trust to see if it will help my communication problems as I'm both deaf, and have great difficulty speaking.
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You need to forget about turning it off. There is no need, and little point. When not in use the screen goes off and it stops doing anything, including using its battery to any extent.
Turning off is something you do either because you won't use it for a long time, or to solve a problem.
I'm not quite sure what your difficulty is with the app list. Can you explain a bit more?
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Out of interest, how might it help with communication difficulties? (I mean beyond being a modern pencil and paper).
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We use this sometimes with my father who is deaf. There are a couple of acceptable speech recognition apps.
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The app list isn't giving me a problem as such. When the device is woken, the power button works rather as one expects, but the start screen says 'slide to view' or some such thing and the moment one does, the power button appears not to do anything.
The possible help the iPad gives with communication is there are two text to speech programs on it. One types, then gets the device to speak the text. I've also found an app for the PC that does this, and it works pretty well, although one has to pay to get an English accent. No idea what the Apple apps sound like, but my plan was to test them on both my brother and an obliging neighbour (I know he'll want to see the iPad anyway!).
The idea though of getting an iPad is it's a bit more easily carried. Laptop could be used, but it's not so convenient being larger and not an almost instant start the iPad gives.
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I'm not at home, when I am and have the iPad in front of me I'll experiment.
However, from memory the power button only works if you press and hold for sometime - like 10 seconds or something.
Other than that, it is simply working to wake up the iPad.
So, to start using press the power button or the home button and slide.
To stop using, just stop using.
Forget the idea of on and off.
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Slidingpillar,
All the 'power' button on the top edge of the iPad (and iPhone or iPod - they all work the same) does is start the device up or prompt it to shut down.
When its off completely, press and hold the power button and it'll come on.
When its on, press and hold the power button and it'll give the "swipe to switch off" message on-screen. This is handy - it means you can't turn it off by mistake by pressing the power button.
To wake up the device once its on, just press the menu button on the front face. That'll give you the "swipe to unlock" message. Again, you can't unlock it by mistake, and it means each button on the iPad does just one job at a time.
Don't worry, you'll get the knack of the iPad very very quickly - they really are intuitive.
Also, if it works for you, bear in mind the iPhone, iPad mini and iPod all run the same apps which allows you choose between how big a device you want to carry around vs. how big an on-screen keyboard you have. You also have the option of external keyboards for all of them, afaik.
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Speaking of power button
When its on, press and hold the power button and it'll give the "swipe to switch off" message on-screen. This is handy - it means you can't turn it off by mistake by pressing the power button.
I've got that understanding from other sites too. However, the power button on the iPad I've got doesn't work that way. Button will only blank display from start up screen and the moment you slide to view apps, the power button is rather like wheels on a fish - not very useful. I tried holding it pressed for at least 10 seconds - but nothing happened.
However, from casting around, the screen lock time had been much more generously set for a device like this. I've reset it to 5 minutes as I think this will be a better choice for me. Need to figure out now how to persuade Safari to remember the password for my webmail as it's a right old mix of numbers, letter, cases of letters etc. Not the sort of thing one wants to type in every time.
I'd guess this one is suffering a bit from having been lent out, I'm not the first, and some rather strange preferences have been made.
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IIRC
If you hold down the Home button and the Power button until the screen goes blank and the Apple logo appears, that does a reset, which should restore all the settings.
The "iPad for Dummies" book from the public library is probably a good borrow.
Last edited by: Duncan on Thu 3 Apr 14 at 16:31
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>> If you hold down the Home button and the Power button until the screen goes
>> blank and the Apple logo appears, that does a reset, which should restore all the
>> settings.
Not quite. All that does is the same as rebooting your PC. It doesn't affect any of the settings whatsoever. For that you need to go into the Settings menu > General > Reset, and then choose what specifically what you want to reset, beit "all settings" "erase all content and settings" "reset network settings" etc.
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>> Speaking of power button
>> When its on, press and hold the power button and it'll give the "swipe to
>> switch off" message on-screen. This is handy - it means you can't turn it off
>> by mistake by pressing the power button.
Sounds to me like you have your "home" button and your "power" button confused. As mark says, You never need to turn it off, there is no way to reprogram the power button.
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>> I can't even turn the 'b' thing off at the moment!
I'm guessing it's the same as an iPhone. Just hold down the power button for a couple of seconds until you see a message on the screen that says "slide to power off"
>> no manual or quick start guide
There should be a bookmark in the favourites listings that will take you to the manuals.
Alternately - support.apple.com/manuals/
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 3 Apr 14 at 14:01
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There are also £10 magazines in the relevant shelves at WHS which are available for all Apple devices. My iphone4 turned up with a leaflet saying 1, Charge phone 2, Insert micro simcard 3. You are up and running! Well, not really! The appropriate 100+ page magazine was most helpful.
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IIRC there was a free iPad user guide in iBooks.
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Thanks all who've supplied ideas etc.
If my neighbour is willing, I'll try both text to speech programs on him tomorrow, and then my brother. Should give an idea of the practicalities.
iPad has now been update to the latest software, and has 100% battery charge. We'll see how much is left when I next use it.
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How are you getting on SP?
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I've tried two text to speech programs (apps?) on it, and one , 'Verbally' does look to be useful. However, there's a serious flaw, it's too quiet! My neighbour remarked on this, and as far as I know, he doesn't have a hearing problem.
The next step is to repeat the tests with my brother as the hearing person, which will be this afternoon. However the Googling of the issue suggests it to be a common problem. One of 'answers' given on one website was to use an extension speaker, but that defeats the whole object really since the idea is to have something easily carried place to place.
So the answer may still be a tablet, but non an iPad. However, I'm a bit hamstrung as only the iPad was available to borrow.
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All Ipads, Tablets and phones (except the hutchinson) are quiet, its a function of speaker size, and miniaturisation / power saving of amplifiers.
However, Asuuming you use hearing aids that are induction loop equipped, how about one of these
www.amazon.co.uk/Conversor-inductive-loop-hearing-iPhone/dp/B00C3LR3RW
for more money you can get cordless bluetooth ones.
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Zero
I'm completely deaf - so no hearing aids. The volume issue though is the perception of my neighbour.
From googling, suggests this is a fairly common complaint.
More playing this afternoon with my brother listening, and if the battery has not gone flat, I'll see what dB(A) the sound level produces. I've a sound level measurer, cheap and cheerful but is not far of the readings produced by the proper professional one as it has been compared thanks to a helpful motorsport noise scrutineer.
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Ok so you want someone else to hear what is being said. Given as I explained that its not just an IPad issue but a generic pad/table/phone issue I use one of these.
A veho 360
www.amazon.co.uk/Veho-VSS-006-360BT-Portable-Bluetooth-Netbooks/dp/B004A91D94
Cheap, rechargeable, small (slightly larger than a cotton reel) versatile and good clear sound quality.
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>> All Ipads, Tablets and phones (except the hutchinson) are quiet, its a function of speaker size,
The HTC One phone (and the new One M8) have loud speakers. But that's an Android phone and it might be smaller than you want. Might be worth exploring. You'd not need the volume high on an HTC One for someone to hear it.
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As a rule, the bigger the keyboard, the easier I find it to write. Don't really want smaller than the iPad I've borrowed.
We've also found another use, speech to text, ie the other way around. My brother was getting quite adept at talking to the Dragon app and passing the unit displaying the text to me.
So the revised impressions are with Zero's suggestion of a little external speaker it ought to be a useful device.
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Still waiting on the Speech Therapist to visit me.
However, although when I pull the iPad out of its soft case, it is always 'off' or sleeping, does it wake up from time to time and interrogate its web connection?
Evidence suggests it does as I've just looked over the routers log and the thing has connected several times today - and hasn't been used since yesterday.
Thought I had a naughty neighbour at first and was trying to think how to pipe dancing badgers to a bandwidth thief!
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On an Android it wakes up to sync email and similar on whatever schedule or frequency has been set. I'd assume it was the same.
An iPad may well do the same.
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>> However, although when I pull the iPad out of its soft case, it is always
>> 'off' or sleeping, does it wake up from time to time and interrogate its web
>> connection?
It'll communicate with the web while it's "asleep". Push notifications, App updates, location services, and the like. It'll only be very small packets of data though, and you should be able to check in the settings menu of the pad as to what's been accessing the net.
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Ah! Thanks.
It was connected when I wrote earlier but is not now. I need to explore the setting menu further anyway as I've been trying to fiddle with text size for someone else.
Router only logs connections and not disconnections, nor the amount of data.
Last edited by: Slidingpillar on Mon 21 Apr 14 at 21:49
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So, how's it been going? Did you get an external speaker in the end?
Do you have to pay for this thing? If so, do explore any Android options available, they are frequently cheaper. Also I find them more flexible and intuitive to use, although many others would disagree.
On my android phone I have an App as standard which can be used for translating spoken/written Spanish/English to spoken/written Spanish/English. It works very well. I'd guess English/English must therefore be available. I find it very useful sometimes.
My Spanish is pretty good, but not even slightly as good as my English (obviously). I find it very frustrating not to be able to deal with situations as effortlessly and effectively in Spanish as I do in English.
I cannot even begin to understand how frustrating it must be for you. No point to make really, just wanted to say I kind of got a bit of it.
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It's jolly good. Used when another heathcare professional visited as well last week. I'll find out the options early in May as that is when the issuing therapist visits here.
Haven't got an extension speaker yet, as I need to have a permanent iPad first and there is a possibility that the NHS will pick up the bill for the speaker too.
There are two apps that do text to speech and as luck would have it, the one that is quieter, is easier to use. Both apps are the demo version, if one pays, you get more facilities and nicer accents but what's free is not too bad.
I must admit, I never thought there was even the remotest chance of being bought one, but we'll see! I actually am seeing the lady for quite another reason too.
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Google's Android offers a very efficient speech to text feature (top of the home page) as does the Skyvi app, whether either involves dictating or listening to messages, texts or whatever.
Have you tried headphones, whether the in-ear type or the over ears type, to listen to the output?
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Stuart
As I said earlier in the thread:
I'm completely deaf - so no hearing aids.
So no point in headphones at all.
The idea of using a bluetooth loudspeaker seems ideal as I can place the speaker in one place, and the iPad can move around. Only reason I've not bought one yet is the fact that the NHS might pay for it. It is true my ownership would be a VAT exemption but very few retailers can handle it, and those that do, are often more than 20% higher priced anyway.
If I was paying, I would have bought the kit by now, just holding off as somebody else might.
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iPad - No FM2R
