I recently purchased an iPad. Very happy with it and in the interest of staying current, I immediately uploaded the new iOS7 as soon as the option for it showed up on my iPad. I hadn’t really paid any attention to the buzz and announcements on what was coming up so I didn’t know what to expect. I immediately attempted using the iPad with the familiar tapping actions and it wasn’t working. Lots of frustration set in.
(To watch, click on arrow on the far left below the video.)
My exploration for answers, as well as questions others were having, led to this blog post. The answers were so simple!! With the previous operations, “tapping” is the action that causes results. With iOS7 it is “swiping“. This post addresses a few of the most used activities on our devices and the actions for managing them.
In the above video on “How to Use iOS7 on the iPad” you’ll see the ease of the “swiping” motions that I discuss. Below you’ll see individual explanations.
1 – CLOSING OPEN PROGRAMS – To extend your battery life, be sure to regularly close applications you are not using. In the earlier systems, double clicking on the home button brings up all your open programs in a row at the bottom of your device. Tapping on one brings up minus signs in the upper left corner of each icon. A single tap on that mark closes the program/window. 
Now, in iOS7, when double clicking on the home button, we see the icons for all the open programs. Plus we see the full the page images reduced. We can quickly find the one we want by swiping to our right, or left, once we’ve started.
In the iOS7 system, the magical thing for closing the application is to simply put a finger or thumb on the window and swipe it up, out of the way. It disappears almost instantly!
2 – Searching within Your iPad or iPhone – This was my biggest frustration. The system I was using on my iPhone to get to Search just wasn’t working and I couldn’t find the answer. When pointing out my discoveries to my new friend Jim Bitz when I was in Tampa, Fl, this weekend, it became a mutual sharing of our learnings. He hadn’t yet realized some of what I had discovered. On the other hand he had found the SEARCH. Thank you, Jim.
To do so yourself, simply place a finger anywhere on the home page and SWIPE DOWN on the full screen. The “Search iPad” (or iPhone) space opens. To CLOSE simply swipe the page down OR up!
3 – TRANSLUCENT CALENDAR OVERLAY – Those who use the calendar function are likely to find this new feature quite helpful. Grab on at the very top of ANY of the pages and PULL DOWN – Your calendar will appear on top of whatever is behind it. With that open, you can SWIPE DOWN again and get the date, local weather and details of the event.
To close, simply swipe up on the centered slightly angled line at the very bottom of the page.
4 – New Control Center for VOLUME AND BRIGHTNESS CONTROLS – I found this to be slightly more of a challenge to open. Along the very bottom of your home page, or any other similar, “grab on” and pull upward. The new bar, as seen below, will open with controls (on the left) for your music and for volume in any of your sound operations. On the right is the monitor brightness control.
On the iPhone, in addition to what’s mentioned above, other controls include the icons for flashlight and camera. To close this control center, simply swipe down on the angled line at the top of it.
5 – Lastly for this post, THE CAMERA – As mentioned above, one of the main reasons the new look and operating system was so hugely frustrating for me was that I could NOT do a video. Once I figured it, out I saw how easy it is! You simply swipe up or down to choose video, photo, or square, to photograph in a square format. And it’s a tap for HDR off or on.
The center button turns red when we’re in video mode.
Now, I’m so enjoying the new look and options on my iPad, I’m intent on deleting a lot of videos and photos on my iPhone to make the required available space I need there for the new system.
REQUEST – Please share your own experiences with iOS7 in the “Leave a Reply” section below and/or post your questions there. If there are challenges you are having, you may also send them to easyseniortechnology@gmail.com. I love searching for answers.
Leaving your with an IMPORTANT REMINDER – Before installing any operating system software updates be sure to back-up what’s currently on your iPad or iPhone.
Thank you Sheila, another so helpful post and so timely surrounding the buzz of iOS7.0! I have not ventured out to install it but your post motivates me to do so.
Again, you explain it so well and demonstrate the issues you had to figure out to make it easier for us.
I know I would have struggled quite a bit and be frustrated.
Again, thank you Sheila for sharing, making it easier for us and encouraging us to venture into the newest technology update so many rave about.
Thanks so much, Ute. I appreciate your acknowledgement and sharing. To make it even easier to actually “see” the swiping, I added the video I did almost right away. AND, I needed to figure out how to add titles in iMovie.
Still need to work on editing for future videos AND I’m striving to be satisfied with “not perfect.”
Great article! I updated and felt stuck, but in one quick read, I’m back on track again! Appreciate your help!
Thanks so much, Wendy. I appreciate your letting me know this post made a difference for you!