6 hidden secrets every iPad user should know

Are you obsessed with your iPad? You might be, and it makes no difference if you got your first one last Christmas or you’ve been using one for years. There’s always more to learn. I’ve gathered a few cool tips you may not have found just yet:

Triple click

You knew you could tap the Home button once to get back to the main screen, and twice to bring up the multitasking view, but did you know about the triple click trick? This is enabled in Settings>General>Accessibility, scroll to the bottom of the page and select Accessibility Shortcut.

Tap this and choose your own triple-click trick, options include:

• VoiceOver
• Invert Colors (great for night reading)
• Grayscale
• Zoom
• Switch Control
• Assistive Touch

Choose one or more of these and next time you triple-click your Home button the effect will be applied, or, if you choose two or more options you’ll see an on-screen menu offering choices.    

Get Zoom

Out with your iOS device and forgot your specs? If you can squint your way through to Settings>General>Acessibility>Zoom (or set it as a triple click option) you may yet be able to read that essential Tweet.

When Zoom is active, a double tap with three fingers will activate a zoom window that you can move around the screen (or a full screen zoom you navigate with three fingers if “Full Screen Zoom” is active). Hit the Show Controller setting in Zoom and a small control button appears, while a tap on the small box at the bottom of the zoom window gives you other choices.

It takes getting used to, but helps those who (like me) must squint at the display.

Assisted living

Assistive Touch provides on-screen access to Notification Center, Favorites, Siri, Home, Control Center and Device settings (Lock, Rotate, Volume up/down and many more). When enabled it appears as a dark but transparent on-screen button (you can just see it above), press this and the virtual controls appear. These are incredibly handy if you’re working in the dark or your Home button becomes faulty and you just want to keep using your iPad until you get to the repair shop.

Multitouch Gestures

Your iPad understands many more gestures than you thought – switch them on in Settings>General and toggle Multitouch Gestures to on (green). When you do you’ll get these gestures to:

• Swipe four fingers up to open the multitasking bar (or swipe down to close it).
• Swipe left or right with four fingers to switch between apps
• My favourite: Pinch four fingers together to close the app you are in and return to the Home screen – do it slow for fun.

Siri Settings

When you are in an app, just hold down the Home button to invoke Siri and say “Settings.” Siri will immediately open the app’s settings for you.

Tap the title

Many folks don’t seem to have picked up that if you are the bottom of a long page (in Mail or Safari, for example) you don’t need to scroll all the way back to the top – just tap the title bar to shoot back up to the top.

Hidden Keys

When in an app that uses the keyboard, tap and hold the keyboard button (bottom right) until the Dock/Split command pops up, slide your finger to split to get to the split keyboard. Now try this: Tap just beside the T key and watch what happens – what should happen is you’ll find invisible keys that relate to the first key on the other side of the split keyboard, and vice versa. It’s a little hard to explain, but this image should give you the gist.

Google+? If you use social media and happen to be a Google+ user, why not join AppleHolic’s Kool Aid Corner community and join the conversation as we pursue the spirit of the New Model Apple?

Got a story? Drop me a line via Twitter or in comments below and let me know. I’d like it if you chose to follow me