Chapter 2: Android Tablet On and Off
2. Tap the Power Off item
If a confirmation message appears, tap the OK button. The Android tablet turns itself off.
The tablet doesn’t run when it’s off, so it doesn’t remind you of appointments and doesn’t collect email, nor do you hear any alarms you’ve set. The tablet isn’t angry with you for turning it off, though you may sense some resent- ment when you turn it on again.
✓Varieties of the Device Options menu on various Android tablets include the Restart command as well as commands to silence the speakers or control vibration. I’ve also seen a Kid Mode command on some tablets.
✓Samsung tablets sport a Restart command on the Device Options menu.
To restart other Android tablets, you need to turn the device off and then on again, as described in this chapter.
✓The tablet can be charged while it’s off.
✓Keep your tablet in a safe place while it’s turned off. Chapter 1 offers some suggestions.
Figure 2-3: The Device Options menu.
How Android Tablets Work
In This Chapter
▶Working the touchscreen
▶Changing the volume
▶Getting around the Home screen
▶Checking notifications
▶Using Quick Settings
▶Running apps
▶Accessing recently used apps
▶Exploring common icons
It used to be that you could judge how advanced something was by how many buttons it had. Starting with the dress shirt and pro-
gressing to the first computer, more buttons meant fancier technology. Your Android tablet tosses that rule right out the window. Beyond the Power/Lock key and the volume key, the device is shamefully bereft of buttons.
My point is that in order to use your tablet, you have to understand how a touchscreen works.
That touchscreen is the tablet’s main input device — the gizmo you use to do all sorts of won- drous and useful things. Using a touchscreen may be a new experience for you, so this chapter pro- vides a general orientation to the touchscreen and how an Android tablet works.
Basic Operations
Your Android tablet’s ability to frustrate you is only as powerful as your fear of the touchscreen and how it works. After you clear that hurdle, as well as understand some other basic operations, you’ll be on your way toward mobile device contentment.
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30 Part I: Getting Started with Android Tablets
Touching the touchscreen
Minus any buttons and knobs, the way you control an Android tablet is to manipulate things on the touchscreen with one or two fingers. It doesn’t matter which fingers you use, and you should feel free to experiment with other body parts as well, although I find fingers to be handy.
Here are some of the common ways to manipulate the touchscreen:
Tap: The basic touchscreen technique is to touch it. You tap an object, an icon, a control, a menu item, a doodad, and so on. The tap operation is similar to a mouse click on a computer. It may also be referred to as a touch or a press.
Double‐tap: Tap the screen twice in the same location. Double‐tapping can be used to zoom in on an image or a map, but it can also zoom out.
Because of the double‐tap’s dual nature, I recommend using the pinch or spread operation to zoom.
Long‐press: Tap part of the screen and keep your finger down. Depending on what you’re doing, a pop‐up menu may appear, or the item you’re long‐pressing may get “picked up” so that you can drag (move) it around. Long‐press might also be referred to as touch and hold.
Swipe: To swipe, you tap your finger on one spot and then move your finger to another spot. Swipes can go up, down, left, or right; the touch- screen content moves in the direction in which you swipe your finger.
A swipe can be fast or slow. It’s also called a flick or slide.
Drag: A combination of long‐press and then swipe, the drag operation moves items on the screen.
Pinch: A pinch involves two fingers, which start out separated and then are brought together. The effect is used to zoom out, to reduce the size of an image or to see more of a map.
Spread: The opposite of pinch is spread. You start out with your fin- gers together and then spread them. The spread is used to zoom in, to enlarge an image or see more detail on a map.
Rotate: A few apps let you rotate an image on the screen by touching with two fingers and twisting them around a center point. If you have trouble with this operation, pretend that you’re turning the dial on a safe.
You can’t manipulate the touchscreen while wearing gloves unless the gloves are specially designed for using electronic touchscreens, such as the gloves that Batman wears.
Using the navigation icons
Below the touchscreen dwell three icons. They can appear as part of the touchscreen itself; or, on some tablets, they may be part of the bezel or may
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