iOS 10 has brought in some changes when it comes to using it on our iPads. Although most of the look and feel on the iPad is pretty similar to iOS 9.3, there is a bit of learning to do since we are so accustomed to our old ways of doing things on the iPad. In this post, we will walk you through some of the basic changes as it pertains to using iOS 10, especially places where your muscle memory needs to be adjusted.
Overall based on our experience, iOS 10 is not really a game changer for iPads. Hopefully we will see more features that are targeted specifically for the newer iPad Pros in the subsequent releases of iOS 10. As of testing the public beta, we have not seen any issues with the Wi-fi or Bluetooth. Battery performance seems to be ok and hopefully will get better with the non-beta release in Fall.
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Cannot Unlock my iPad on iOS 10
This is probably the most fundamental of the changes that has transpired. On the old iOS , you were used to seeing the “Slide to Unlock”. As soon as you swiped left and entered your passcode you were all set to go. Things have changed around this function and it takes a little while to get used to the new way of doing things.
In the new iOS 10, Press the Home key to access your iPad unlock screen. Pressing the home key brings up the passcode screen. Enter your passcode and you are in.
There is no more “Slide to unlock” feature in iOS 10. If you slide on the lock screen on your iPad, you will see two choices depending upon the direction of slide. When you slide right, your iPad brings up the “Widgets” screen, which in itself is a new & improved feature in that you can customize your widget screen to show your preferred information. More on that later! If you slide the screen left, you can easily access the camera feature on your iPad.
Wait what?? Isn’t it unsafe that you can access the camera without entering the passcode? That was one of our first thought as well. It’s just the camera app and not your photos that can be accessed.
The same is true for Widgets in iOS 10. You can adjust the information that shows up here. In order to make any changes to the widgets, you will need to unlock using your passcode.
Much like in iOS 9, You can still drag down from the top of the screen and access your notifications here. Similarly, swiping up from the bottom will show you the new control center in iOS 10. The control center really looks nice and has better features on iOS 10.
Privacy Issue with these Widgets, How can I manage ?
With convenience come customization options. Although the newly redesigned widget screen can put information on the fingertips, it is important that you make sure that the information shows up on the right fingertips!
When you swipe right on your iPad, it shows you the widget screen along with all relevant information such as your meeting notices, reminders etc. This information is accessible without entering passcode. You may want to make sure that you are not showing information that is private on this screen.
You can manage the widgets that show up on the lock screen by adding or removing the widgets and changing settings to manage what shows up here.
Tap on the Edit button at the bottom of the screen. It will show you the widget control screen where you can delete widgets, change their positions and add new widgets.
In order to delete a widget, simply click on the red – button to the left of the widget and then tap on “Remove”. If you want to rearrange the order in which these widgets are displayed, tap and hold on the right most icon of the existing widget and then you can drag and drop to control the order of the widget.
Similarly adding widgets is very simple as well. All the widgets that are not there on your lock screen can be found under the “More Widgets” section. Simple Tap on the green + button next to the widget and it automatically moves to the bottom of the list of widgets that will now appear on your lock screen.
If you do not like the widget central feature and would like to completely disable it, you can do so by going to Settings > Passcode > Allow Access when Locked > and Toggle Today to OFF.
This will completely remove the widgets from your lock screen. You can also control your Notifications view from this same place by turning it on or off in the setting.
If you are having issues with your widgets not working or showing blank on you rock screen, you can check our tips on making it do its thing.
How Do I Manage the Apple Apps on my iPad
As you already know by now, iOS 10 allows you to delete some of the stock Apps out from your device. Deleting this stock apps is easy and is same as prior iOS versions. Press and hold till you see wiggling apps and then delete much like you do on older iOS.
Once having deleted a few apps, if you changed your mind, you can easily recover these apps back by going to the app store and tapping on the download/cloud button.
Be Mindful about the New iMessage
The iMessage in iOS 10 has been updated to keep up with the times. You will find a lot of new features, extensive emojification and other media access. With new features and the ability to embed new media, iMessage can consume a lot of space on your iPhone and iPad. it may be worthwhile to keep an eye on it by checking your Storage in the Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage section. If you notice that your Message app is consuming more space, you can check your message retention settings. Tap on Settings >Message > Scroll down and locate Keep Messages on the right hand pane. You can choose between 30 days/ 1 year and Forever. Depending upon your needs and the amount of storage consumed, you may want to switch to 30 days. This is especially important if your iDevice has less available storage space.
iPad Slow on iOS 10
If you downloaded the new iOS 10 onto one of your older iPads, it may appear sluggish on some screens. One workaround is to try to switch off the multitasking gestures in the general tab of settings ( general > gestures> off) and also switch off the indexing on spotlight search. Also check your accessibility settings for reduce motion and increasing contrast. You can read about more tips on speeding up your iPad following an iOS upgrade on our site.
If you decide on sticking with the iOS 9 as a personal preference, please check the downgrade post here for a step by step guide to help you do that.
As we make progress on more testing with the iOS 10 on the various idevice, we will keep you posted with various tutorials and best practices.
What are some of the iOS 10 features that you like and some that drives you crazy on your iPad?
