Plenty of us have bought (or won) iPads so I thought I'd put some tips here to help you get the most out of them.

Access your running apps
Double clicking the home button shows you all the apps that are currently running on your iPad. You can swipe left or right to navigate through these apps.  Tap on any one to switch to that app or swipe upwards to close it.

Quick controls
Swipe up from the very bottom of the screen and you will open the control centre. From here you can quickly switch on and off airplane mode, bluetooth, wifi, do not disturb and orientation lock. Control the brightness of the screen and the iPod app. Use the torch, camera, timer and calculator.

Open new Safari tabs
To open links in a new tab, just press and hold the link and a menu will pop up allowing you to open in the same or a new tab.

Gestures
Use 4 fingers to swipe left or right to cycle through your open apps.  Use a grabbing motion to go back to the home page (same effect as pressing the home button)

Tell Siri your relationships
Hold the home button to activate Siri, then say Joe Bloggs is my husband. From then on you can say to Siri things like 'Text my husband' and it will know who to contact.

Custom vibrations
Want to know who's calling without taking your phone out of your pocket? Set up a custom vibration - go to contacts, find the one you want and edit.  Scroll down until you find the vibration field and tap the arrow to change it or set up a new one.

Highlighting text
I'm sure you all know to tap a word to highlight it for copying, but did you know if you tap with two fingers it will highlight either the whole line or paragraph instead.

Screenshot
Press and hold the sleep/wake button on the top of the iPad and the Home button at the same time.

Fast charge
Put your device into airplane mode and it will charge much quicker

Turn off in-app purchases
Kids use your iPad? Go to settings, general, restrictions and scroll down to disable in-app purchases.


Note: Most of these tips work on the iPhone too

If you have any useful tips you'd like to share, please post them in the comments.

Here's the promised blog post about how to edit the magazine (or any other) Yahoo! database.

1. Follow the previous instruction to get to the database page of the Yahoo! groups site.

2. Click on the Edit Table button (see Figure 1).  NB: There is no point searching first because when you click this button it 'helpfully' reloads the page.

3. Use the search box to find the row you want, if you are adding a new row you do not need to search first.  Refer to my previous blog post on searching for help.

4. When you mouse over the row you will see a trash can and a plus sign in the last column.  I can't show a picture of this as they disappear when you move the mouse from them.

5. To delete a row from the database, click on the trash can icon for that row.  You will then see a confirmation window (see Figure 2).  At this point you can press the Delete Record button to confirm or the Cancel button if you clicked in error. 

6. To add a row to the database, click on the plus sign icon for any row.  You will then see a blank row where you can type into each box (see Figure 3).

7. To edit a row, just type over the details that are already there.

8. Once you have deleted, added or edited a row you MUST click the Save button or you will lose your changes (see Figure 4).

9. If at any point you are not happy with your changes or you think you've really mucked it up, just click on the Cancel button next to the Save button and all your changes (up to the last point you saved) will be undone.

 

I thought I'd start a list here of free mags containing comps that can be downloaded.  Here's a few to get you started:

Morrisons
Odeon
Metro
Sport
Tesco
Specsavers
Tesco Technology & Entertainment

Please add any more you think of to the comments.

Are you one of the unfortunate people who've had their email account hacked?  No, well how about taking some steps to make sure you're not.  The fact that we've had some many hacked members says to me that your passwords are too simple.

Did you know that most of us use simple passwords, that are easily susceptible to a 'brute force' hack for lots of the same sites.  I'm guilty of it myself to a certain extent as I use the same password for lots of sites where you have to register to enter comps.  However, when it comes to emails, banking, etc. I'm much more careful and have a different and complicated password for each site.

Here are a few ways you can create a strong password;

1. Use a password generator like 1Password or Last Pass.  They will create and remember secure passwords for you.  The downside of this is that they will be something that you'll never remember, so you will need the software installed on all PCs and devices you use.

2. Think of a memorable phrase or your favourite line from a film.  Eg: These's aren't the droids you're looking for.  Then take the first letter of each word, add some upper/lower case, add a number and special character and you get something like Tatdyl4! this is hard to guess but easy to remember.

3. Same as above except take all the vowels out Eg. Thsrntthdrdsyrlkng4!  That makes a nice long and secure password

4. Choose two words that mean something to you and combine their letters to create the password, choosing one letter of the first word and one letter of the second word, and repeating this until you get to the last letter of each word. Eg: Words: house & plane become password: Hpolu4snee! (if you include the case, number & special character)

5. As above choose 2 words, then reverse them, then add the case, number & special character. Eg. 'Scarlet Pickles' becomes selkciPtelracS when reversed, then selkciPtelr4cS! for the password

4. Use any of the above as a 'base' password, then add a prefix or suffix that means something to the site you're using.  This is an easy way of using the same-ish password for several sites.  Eg.
for the bank; Tatdyl4!bank
for yahoo; emailTatdyl4!
for amazon; Tatdyl4!books


There are plenty of ways to create a more secure password and if you don't like any of those let me know and I'll find something else for you.

So think about your current email password, is it too simple?  If so, why not change it before you get hacked!

Just recently I have twice been in the great position of being able to let another member know that her name was on a winners list - and she knew nothing about it!  (Actually it was the same member both times which I think is really odd!)   And I think this is what happens!

I receive loads of emails every day - and I suspect most of you do as well.  Many of these are 'junk' mail (actually MOST of these are junk mail) and I quickly read the first couple of lines, decide whether they are just a newsletter or sales blurb, then delete them without opening them.

Bad idea!

I've now realised that many of those 'junk/sales newsletters', are being made personal further into the body of the email.

And that is where they say, "Dear (add your own name here!), CONGRATULATIONS etc, etc, etc".

I now make sure I open and read each email I receive.

Obviously I don't open any attachments within the email (which would leave me open to viruses etc) unless I'm sure I know what it is (not just where it comes from - but an attachment that I am expecting) and the majority of mail is perfectly safe to 'read', then delete or keep as required.

So, look out for those daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly newsletters, ladies and gentlemen - your winning name may be in one of them any day now!!

Good luck.  Penny Harper

Here's a handy way to tell quickly if your email account has been hacked (via Lifehacker )

Setup an account or two in your contact list that's AAAA@aaaaaaa.com or something similar, so when the virus sends out mail, you get the notification of a failed mail attempt and you can change your password and run a virus scan.

Or do you have a better way?  Let