iPad™ For Dummies®

Chapter 2. iPad Basic Training

In This Chapter

• Getting going

• Turning the device on and off

• Locking your iPad

• Mastering multitouch

• Cutting, copying, and pasting

• Spotlighting search

By now you know that the iPad is very different from other computers. You also know that this slate-style machine is rewriting the rulebook for mainstream computing. How so? For starters, it doesn't have a mouse or any other kind of pointing device. It lacks traditional computing ports or connectors such as USB. And it has no physical or built-in keyboard.

It even differs from other so-called tablet PCs, some of which feature a pen or stylus and let you write in digital ink. As we point out (pun intended) in Chapter 1, the iPad relies on an input device that you always have with you: your fingers.

Tablet computers of one form or another have actually been around since the last century. They just never captured the fancy of Main Street. Apple's very own Newton, an ill-fated 1990s personal digital assistant, was among the machines that barely made a dent in the market.

What's past is past, of course, and technology, not to mention Apple itself, has come a long way since the Newton. And suffice it to say that tablets moving forward, led by the iPad brigade of course, promise to enjoy a much rosier outlook.

If you got caught up in the initial mania surrounding the iPad, you probably plotted for weeks about how to land ...