Why The Home Button Is Essential To Apple iPad 2 And iPhone 5
There’s so much talk of Apple removing the home button from the iPad 2 and iPhone 5, see our earlier report here
Many users though are unaware of what the Home button does, apart from the obvious and return you to the Home Screen. It also has some quite hidden features. Find out more below.
Double Click Trick
By double-clicking the home button on your iPad it takes you to the Adjustment screen for your iPad. From here, if you scroll back once you will then see a similar screen to the above.
From this position, you can click the first icon on the left to lock the screen orientation, so the screen doesn’t keep moving around when you rotate the iPad.
The second icon allows you to adjust the brightness of the screen. This is a much easier way of adjusting the brightness than coming out of the app you are in and going to the Settings menu, then Brightness and Wallpaper and adjusting it there.
As a point of note though if you are reading a book from the iBooks app you can further adjust the brightness of the iPad within that. From the iBook menu it is possible to adjust the brightness to a very minimal level, allowing you to read a book without disturbing others around you.
Thirdly, the double click trick allows the user to play music/podcasts from the iPod facility, and forward or reverse to the next track.
Fourthly, the volume of the iPod can be adjusted and this also doubles up as a volume adjuster for other apps that you are currently using.
Triple Click Trick
Double clicking the Home button is just one trick but did you know that by triple clicking it you can specify specific settings for other users of the same iPad. Triple clicking the Home button allows access to the Accessibility Options. From there you Turn VoiceOver On, Turn Zoom On, Turn White on Black On.
The trick is that the Triple Click allows the Accessibility Options to return to default. So if you have a user in the house that prefers to view the iPad with Black On, any of the other functions, by clicking the home screen three times allows for automatically to reset it again.
This is a fantastic option for users that share an iPad, particularly with someone with disabilities.
With both the double click and the triple click tricks the user is accessing the Settings menu of the iPad but without physically having to exit the app they are in and then adjusting the Setting, then returning to the app.
Could we really manage without the Home Button on the iPad 2 and iPhone 5?
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
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Rob
Looks like a new iPad 2 case shows a place for the home button:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/18/exclusive_chinese_supplier_floating_ipad_2_case_with_possible_sd_card_and_mini_displayport.html
So we probably have at least another year until the home button goes away (if ever). Apple probably wants to see if people pick up on gestures (or at least train us to use gestures) before they go and remove the home button. If you wish you iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch didn’t have a home button because your kids press it all the time, get a BubCap.com home button cover!