JessicaBlack

Technology is now a part of our life more then ever – so why not make the most of it and personalize it to our own unique style. I love the Apple products because you can do just that.

I recently purchased my first iPad2 and I have had a lot of fun organizing and decoration it to my liking. I plan on taking my new iPad2 with me as I travel Europe in the Fall. Unlike a lot of Americans, I have never been a huge Apple fan. I dedicated myself to HP; but, recently I have become fond of iPods, iPhones, and now iPads. They are quite handy.

Module Objectives:
1. You will know how to; set a personalized background on your Home Screen and your Lock Screen,
2. You will know how to brighten and lighten your background,
3. You will realize the importance of personalizing your hand held devices.

Tools needed:
1. iPad2 – If you have a iPad or an iPad3 you can still follow these steps but know that they might differ a small bit here and there,
2. a picture that you love (Internet if wanting to get one from Pinterest or Google),
3. and a sense of adventure with some strong fingers built for pressing and sliding.

Apple is a multinational corporation that sells consumer electronics, personal computers, and consumer software since 1976 in California, created by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. There most profitable Software is the Macrosoft line of computers – this is where the iPad, iPhone, and iPods come from. The iPad, a media tablet, was introduced to the public on January 27th 2010. Since then they have made two more versions with faster processors and new features to keep up with the want and need of the consumers (Wiki). Since I have a iPad2, all of my pictures and instructions come from that version.

Apple is just growing in popularity; it is not faulting. When asked about the increase in sales of iPads Tim Cook, CEO of Apple replied “To put it in context, It took us 22 years to sell 55 million Macs, … It took us about 5 years to sell 22 million iPods, and it took us about 3 years to sell that many iPhones. And so, this thing is, on a trajectory that’s off the charts” this shocked the readers of the article Apple: 316 Million iOS (iPhone, iPad) Devices Sold in 2011

Even though I am not talking about buying or using applications in this module I want to mention the huge increase in their development. There is a huge social trend for applications that are easily down-loadable to your mobile device; whether a iPad or iPhone or a lot of other devices as well. There is a huge demand for Social Networking Applications, such as Facebook and Twitter. An article called IPad Social Networking Apps: Trends Show Use Huge Demand , says that “all these applications carry a lot of importance as these have opened a new dimension of communication” (Williams, 2012). This connects with the fact that our decade has been transformed into a technology obsessive culture and each human being wants to old that technology in the palm of their hand. In the same article they give a fantastic quote about applications and their impact on our minds, “reaches out to your minds and create nerve wrecking, heart wrenching and mind boggling games and other social networking apps that will keep you enticed anytime of the day, craving for more of that scintillating experience” (William, 2012).

I agree with everything written above. People like to be with people so social networking apps – especially Facebook – tend to be very popular. I am not going to lie, I love Facebook just as much as the next person; might even say I am addicted – so the Facebook app is definitely one of my top picks. When it comes down to the iPad2 that I have now there was no real desire for me to get one at first. My mom really wanted one and my roommate had one but I never felt a real want to own one. That all changed when I was accepted into my Study Abroad program and realized I was going to be walking to school 30 minutes to an hour everyday. I needed something light and that would work for my needs. I started thinking about the iPad because it is very trendy and sleek but also because it works just like my iPhone which I seemed to have down pretty well. There would be no learning needed when I bought this bigger version of my phone, this was my logic, I was wrong. It is a lot different, so I have a lot to learn before I make it my singular computer around the world. So, I am starting here. The place where everyone starts when they first get something new and exciting – they personalize it. So I am learning as well as teaching how to personalize and organize the desktop of the iPad2.

Personalizing your iPad2 Step by Step —

1. When personalizing your iPad2 the first step is to turn it on. You can find your on switch if you turn it over, it is on the back on the top (black arrow). The volume buttons are back there as well(pink arrow).

The back view of the iPad2

2. On the front of your iPad2  you have the home button (red arrow); no matter where you are in your iPad all you have to do is push the home button and you go straight home. There is also the spot where you plug in your charger (Orange arrow).

Showing front image of iPad2

3. On my iPad2 I have already personalized it to my liking – as you can see with the adorable smiley faces . Here you can see the sliding locking mechanism (pink arrow). All you have to do to unlock your iPad is slide that arrow to the right. This screen is called your Home Screen (remember that for later).

Lock Screen

4. Once you have unlocked your iPad2 it’s time to change your back ground image for both your Lock Screen and your Home Screen. Here is my Home Screen already personalized with an image of my favorite animal. The red arrow is pointing towards what is called your Shelf; this is a place where you put your most used applications, such as, Facebook, E-mail and Internet. The green arrow is showing you where your Settings is. You will be continually using this to change almost everything you want to customize on your iPad.

Home Screen

5. Open your settings using the tip of your finger and tapping it. Once opened this is what you will see (down below). There are a lot of things you can do through settings but we will just focus on the wallpaper aspect of it. Click on Brightness and Wallpaper (purple arrow).

Main screen of settings

6. You will be given the choice to either brighten your screen (yellow arrow) or change your wallpaper(maroon arrow). Changing the brightness is pretty much self explanatory so I am not going to go into detail about that. Click on Wallpaper.

Changing brightness or wallpaper

7. Then you are of course given another set of options; you can either choose an image for your wallpaper from a set of pictures that came with the iPad2(maroon arrow) or choose from your Camera Roll (pictures you have taken with the iPad2 or saved from other sources (blue arrow). For this purpose – since my background that I want is in my Camera Roll – we will choose that option.

Options on where to get wallpaper

8. Once you have chosen Camera Roll it will take you into your library of photos. I have a bunch of pictures for this Module so they are not all that interesting. I have decided to use my adorable little fuzzies for my new wallpaper (yellow arrow).

What picture to choose??

9. After clicking the perfect picture for your wallpaper it will show up big, kind of like a pre-visual of what it will look like. Then at the top it will ask you if you want this image to be your Lock Screen background(red arrow), your Home Screen background (blue arrow), or both (yellow arrow).

Where would you like this background image?

10. If you are satisfied by the way the image looks in its larger state, you have chosen how you want this image to lay as your wallpaper, and where to put this new wallpaper, then it will take you back to the Camera Roll after you click which ever one you prefer. I chose Set Home Screen. Now, simply push the home button at the bottom of your iPad2 and it will take you back to your Home Screen with your new wall paper. Here is my new Home Screen.

New Wallpaper for Home Screen

Congratulations! You have made step to having your iPad2 fit your style and personality! You can repeat these steps with different preferences as well. Such as, if you want to pick a photo from the sample wallpapers instead of your camera role, or if you want to set your lock screen instead of your home screen.

Thank you for participating and I hope you get everything out of your iPad2 that you want and need.

One last thing, I added some Youtube.com videos for you to watch if you would like some extra knowledge on this subject. They are in a page connected to this one on the panel to the left.

Thank you!