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13 tips every iPad owner should know

Get up and running with your new iPad with this collection of tips and tricks.

Matt Elliott
Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
Matt Elliott
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1 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Check yourself

iOS 10.3 added a new profile section at the top of Settings that rounds up all your account information. It provides convenient access to your iCloud, iTunes, App Store and Family Sharing information along with a list of all the Apple devices you've linked to these accounts.

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2 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Root out outdated apps

Head to Settings > General > About > Applications and if you see a ">" next to the number of apps you have installed on the Applications line, then you know you've got at least one app that's outdated and could potentially slow down your phone. Tap on each app to check for updates.

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3 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Weather in Maps

Apple Maps has added a tiny weather bug to the bottom-right corner of the screen to show current weather conditions. You can 3D Touch the weather bug to view a small pop-up of the hourly forecast, and if you continue to hold, it'll pop you out to the Weather app for the location.

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4 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Unlock without pressing Home button

Slide to Unlock is no longer, leaving you two ways to unlock your iPad with iOS 10. You can press the home button to unlock your iPad or just by resting your finger on the button. For the latter, head to Settings > General > Accessibility > Home Button and tap the toggle switch to turn on Rest Finger to Open.

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5 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Slide it on over

Swipe from the right edge of the screen to call up the Slide Over panel, which lets you access a second app in the narrow Slide Over panel without leaving the current app.

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6 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Swipe to switch apps

Instead of double-tapping the Home button and scrolling through the app switcher, a faster way is to just swipe sideways with four fingers to switch apps on an iPad. To enable this gesture, go to Settings > General > Multitasking and toggle on Gestures.

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7 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Hidden Control Center panel

You likely know that you can swipe up from the bottom edge of your iPad to call up the Control Center, where you can adjust Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings, turn on the flashlight, set a timer or alarm, among other common settings and features. But did you know that you can swipe to the left when viewing the Control Center to access its second panel of playback controls for music or podcasts?

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8 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

iPad read aloud

There are two ways your iPad will read aloud to you. Swipe down with two fingers from the top edge and it will read whatever text is on the screen. Or you can select text and then tap Speak from the menu. Both settings can be enabled in Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech.

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9 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Split keyboard

Stop stretching your thumbs to reach the keys in the middle of the iPad keyboard and swipe both thumbs outward to split the keyboard into two for a more comfortable typing experience.

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10 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

iPad as magnifying glass

You can use your iPad's camera as a magnifying glass. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on Magnifier, which lets you triple-click the Home button to use the camera to zoom in on small details. Use the Filter button to enhance the image, and the shutter button to freeze and unfreeze it.

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11 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Lock screen limits

Your iPad can show a lot of information on the lock screen, which is convenient for quickly glancing at calendar appointments, messages and more. You may, however, want to restrict what types of information can be accessed from your iPad without your passcode. Head to Settings > Passcode and disable Siri, notifications, message replies and more from showing up on your lock screen.

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12 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Time for bed

You no longer need to turn on your alarm each night before bed. Instead, use the Bedtime alarm to wake you up each morning -- or only weekday mornings. It reminds you when to go to bed so you get enough sleep and wakes you up with a gentle sound that gradually increases in volume. You can set your Bedtime alarm preferences in the Clock app.

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13 of 13 Matt Elliott/CNET

Working the Night Shift

Reduce eye strain at night by warming up the colors of your iPad with Night Shift. You can schedule the hours it's enabled each day in Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift.

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