One of the biggest selling points of the iPad is the large
ecosystem of apps and accessories that make so many things possible, from
watching TV on your iPad to watching your iPad on your TV. This list of fun
iPad tricks will not only help you out with those two features, but give you
some more ideas on how you can stun and amaze your friends, or at the very
least, get the most out of your iPad.
Connect the iPad to your TV
Did you know you can get your iPad to output its display to
your HDTV? There are actually a few ways to accomplish this trick, the easiest
of which is to buy Apple's Digital
AV Adapter. This adapter lets you plug your iPad into the HDMI input of
your TV, and if you own an iPad 2, the TV will mirror the iPad's display. You
can also accomplish this without the wires if you own AppleTV by
letting AirPlay do
the work.
Use Home Sharing to stream your music and movies
There's no need to load your complete music and movie collections
onto your iPad. Instead of taking of valuable storage space, you can use iTunes
Home Sharing to stream your music and movies from your PC to your iPad. Home
Sharing will work on both Macs and Windows-based PCs, and because your PC
probably has a lot more storage space, it can hold a lot more music and movies.
You can even combine this with the first trick and stream movies from your PC
to your iPad to your HDTV.
Watch TV on your iPad
There are a lot of great apps for viewing movies on your
iPad, but what about watching cable television? There are a few ways you can
get your favorite TV stations on your iPad, the best of which include the SlingPlayer and
the Vulkano
Flow. Both of these devices actually hook into your Cable TV, capture the
video and sound and 'sling' it to your iPad via WiFi or 3G. Slingbox's
SlingPlayer has a few more features, but the Vulkano Flow is the lightest on
the wallet.
Use your iPad as a second monitor
This is a really neat trick. The iDisplay app
will actually let you use your iPad as a second monitor for your Mac or
Windows-based PC. Now, you aren't exactly going to be playing Call of Duty:
Modern Warfare 3 using your iPad's display, but you can use it to browse the
web or do less graphic-intensive. And the $5 the app will cost you beats the
price of any monitor.
Plug your guitar into your iPad
The iRig and Gibson's GuitarConnect cable are both great
ways to get hooked up, but once you've plugged your guitar into your iPad,
you'll want to do something with it. The iShredLive app works great alongside
the GuitarConnect cable, and it even works with Gibson's
Stompbox, which lets you control which effects are active via a footpedal.
But the Stompbox isn't quite as great as it seems, and another solid way to get
plugged in is through theiRig
and IK Multimedia's AmpliTube.
And while you won't exactly be throwing out that Boss
multi-effects package or junking all of your foot pedals, the sound you get out
of these apps is actually pretty good, if not quite stage-ready.
Print from your iPad
The iPad has a number of great productivity applications,
from word processors to spreadsheets to photo editing software. But what good
would they be without the ability to print? AirPrint was added to iOS's
capabilities with the 4.2 update, and it allows you to print to a growing number
of compatible printers.
Don't have an AirPrint-compatible printer? If you own a
wireless printer, you may still be able to print to it. A number of printer
manufacturers have added apps to the Apple App Store that allow pictures and
documents to be sent to the printer.
Control your cable TV
Everyone's worst nightmare: losing the cable remote. Okay,
not everyone is quite as tied to cable TV, but I lost my remote briefly this
summer. Instead of panicking, I just downloadedVerizon's FiOS Mobile from the app store. It's
actually a pretty neat app that is useful even if you haven't lost your remote.
Comcast customers can get in on the action as well with theXfinity TV app, and Time Warner customers can not only
change channels with the TWCable TVapp, they can actually watch some stations on it.
Don't fret, DirectTV customers. You have similar capabilities with the DirecTV app.
Make your iPad act like an Xbox 360 Kinect
While it's hard to recommend Fuego's River Adventure as a serious game, it does
have one amazing thing going for it: the controller. Instead of on-screen
controls, the game uses the front-facing camera to create an interface similar
to the Xbox 360's Kinect. Standing about 4 feet away from the iPad, you control
the game by moving to the left or to the right.
The game itself isn't all that amazing, but the end result
is pretty neat. Worth the $1.99 price tag? That'll be something you have to
judge, but I'd pay two bucks to watch my friends dance back and forth. I can
just imagine the laughs when I post a video of it on Facebook.
by Daniel Nations
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