If you don’t like using Numbers you might want to give it a try to Google Spreadsheets which as some of you may know would have to be the spreadsheet part of Google Docs. This is capable of importing & exporting Excel files but there is a loss of formatting as well as some features when you make the transfer. We should mention that by default, the spreadsheets are opened in list view so although you can add rows, modify values as well as change sort order, you cannot reorder or add columns, edit styles and formulas, or include graphical elements.

Once you tap on the bottom of the screen where it is the Go To Spreadsheet View link, Google Spreadsheets is going to provide you with the version of the file you would see while using the browser on your Mac, but due to the reason that the UI has been designed in order to be utilized with a mouse, on the tablet it will be quite difficult to resize rows and columns, select a range of cells or perform various other tasks that require dragging.

There is one thing that you can do as if you bypass Safari you can open Google’s Spreadsheets straight from several native applications designed for the iPad, such as Office2 HD, Sheet2 HD, Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite, along with Documents To Go. Speaking of Sheet2 HD and Office2 HD, the first one costs $6 while the latter is $8. Both of them offer capabilities for editing spreadsheets, and with Office2 HD you’re able to modify PowerPoint and Excel files as well. Both of these applications are offering a large number of the features that you would find on Excel for Mac but you might want to avoid them if you use a lot of complex charts in your spreadsheets as this is where both apps fail to deliver. Documents To Go along with Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite are able to open, edit and save a spreadsheet without having to strip down any type of formatting or data, despite the fact that these apps can’t display all the existing information. What this means is that unlike Numbers, the spreadsheets can be transferred from the iPad to a Mac and backwards without any loss of content. This is an ideal feature to have if you are using spreadsheets on various platforms. The Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite costs $10 and we like it due to the reason that it is quite finger-friendly since it has a big default font size and it is very easy to manage a range of cells. Documents To Go is also $10 but this one makes use of a smaller default font but on the other hand it has a better layout and it fits more info on the iPad’s screen. Both of these applications are very competent spreadsheet editors so keep them in mind if you’re looking for an application of this type. There’s also Mariner Calc for iPad, priced at $6.

This one delivers a wide array of basic spreadsheet functions and it can read & write Excel files, but only .xls ones. We have to warn you that it doesn’t support forms and charts, while the transferring process to and from a computer is done with the help of a built-in web server.

Despite the fact that you have the possibility to add a USB port to your tablet with the help of the iPad Camera Connection Kit, it will not work with your USB printer due to the reason that iOS does not know how to communicate with printers through USB. While some printers feature Wi-Fi, for most of the other ones you must have a computer which will serve as a conduit for print jobs. The iPad is going to connect wirelessly to your computer which in turn will link to the printer.

Aside from the hardware, you will also need software that will be able to know how the data has to be sent to the printer in the suitable format. Apple has introduced with iOS 4.2 printing support via a technology called AirPrint but the support is rather limited at the moment as most of the printers come from HP. If you have an iPad and one of those printers you can see it and print it without having to make any configurations. If you do not own such a printer don’t lose hope as you still can use AirPrint for most of printers out there as you will need a software which has to be installed on your Mac.

There are two applications available which you should consider. The first one is called Collobos Software FingerPrint and costs $8, while the other one is Ecamm Network Printopia which is $10. You can install either of these two apps, choose the printer that you would like your iOS device to use and after that you will be able to print to those printers from your tablet. With both applications you can print from the iPad to both local and network printers, plus you can also utilize the Print command for sending docs to Dropbox. We have to note that the aforementioned FingerPrint needs at least OS X 10.6 and it can print directly to iPhoto on Mac. As for Printopia, this needs OS X 10.5 or later and it will work with any printers and it is capable of sending files from the tablet to a PNG or PDF file on a Mac. An alternative to these two applications is AirPrint Activator developed by Netputing which is free but we should warn you that the setup process is quite tedious and you can’t print to a folder on a Mac or print to Dropbox. As far as the printing process is concerned, first you’ll have to find the Print command. The first time when you will use AirPrint you will have to tap on Select Printer and after that tap the name of the printer. After selecting the printer this will become the default one so you won’t have to take this step the next time when you want to print something. For changing the number of copies you’ll have to tap the minus and plus buttons.

If the document that you want to print has more than one page, you have the possibility to choose which pages to print by tapping on the Range button and after that entering the start & end page numbers. After you are done with this, you simply tap on Print and the document will start printing. During the printing process you might want to double tap on Home and after that tap on Print Center to look at the print jobs and manage them.

Aside from the huge improvement of the display, there are several other upgrades that are worth mentioning. First and foremost, the processor of the third generation is now an A5X. Just like the A5 CPU in the iPad 2, the one in the new iPad is still a dual core processor, while the “X” in the name refers to the fact that it packs a quad core graphics processor which was probably a must-have in order to face four times the pixels in comparison to the previous iPads. Anyway, what you need to remember is that graphics and games perform silky smooth.

Introduced last year on the iPhone 4S, Siri the “digital assistant” has not been brought entirely to the new iPad as you only get the voice-to-text dictation capability. While some may be disappointed that the new model doesn’t get the full-fledged Siri, others will still appreciate the inclusion of a voice dictation feature which can be of great use when writing fast e-mails or when searching for info online without having to use the virtual keyboard. However, the accuracy level is not impressive, and much like the autocorrected typing, it leaves a little to be desired.

We should also mention that the rear camera of the new iPad has been improved and Apple calls it the iSight camera. We’re dealing with a five megapixel unit as opposed to the iPad 2’s 0.7 mpx snapper. The quality of the photos taken by the new camera is great, probably the best we’ve seen from a tablet. Some people might consider that a camera on a tablet is pointless but once you look at that high-res display, you’ll begin to love taking pictures and recording videos. Aside from these upgrades, the new iPad comes with the same great features that we’ve seen on its predecessors, like the Apple-designed applications for maps, e-mail, web browsing, video, music, photo and YouTube as well. You can always install more apps by using the App Store or you might want to connect the tablet to iTunes via your PC by using the bundled cable. Needless to say, if you bought some apps for your iPod Touch or your iPhone, you can transfer them to the tablet.

When the first generation of the iPad came out back in 2010 it was running on iOS 3.2 which had several limitations, like the fact that the user was not able to bounce between applications. In addition, the apps could not be organized in folders, while support for AirPlay streaming of videos, music and photos, along with support for document printing became available only in November 2010. The third generation of the Apple iPad is running on iOS 5.1 and packs several new features such as Notifications, Newsstand, iMessage and Twitter integration, as well as support for the company’s online backup service - iCloud. One of the drawbacks would have to be the lack of Adobe Flash support in the Safari browser, something that all iPads lack. Even though the Safari web browser might not be the best one out there, especially since Google has recently updated its Chrome web browser for Android, thanks to the iPad’s gorgeous Retina display, the web browsing experience is much more satisfying on the new iPad due to the extremely sharp clarity and the vividness of the colors.

Even though the second generation of the Apple iPad is not as full featured as a desktop PC or a laptop, you should know that it has a couple of aces up its sleeve, and in this article you are about to find out some of them.

The first thing that you might want to do is download the iPad User’s Guide which you can get it for free. Why? Because certainly you have noticed that when you bought the tablet it did not come with a big printed manual. What you can do is head down to Apple’s website and download the PDF version of the User’s Guide. Another way to go would be to read it in iBooks.

You also might want to consider taking a free guide tour as Apple has created video tours for all of the preinstalled applications so you are able to find out how to benefit from what they have to offer. Don’t forget about the side switch for enabling or disabling audio alerts or for locking the orientation of the screen in either landscape or portrait mode. You have the possibility to toggle which of the functions is assigned to the side by going to the Settings menu, entering Home screen, selecting General, and then all you have to do is pick the function that you prefer where it says “Use Side Switch to”. iOS offers support for multitasking and you have the possibility to get a list of all the active applications by double clicking the iPad’s Home button. Remember that you also can swipe the multi-tasking bar left to right in order to gain fast access to the audio and video playback controls, volume controls and a shortcut to iTunes. You can speed up your sentences by choosing to double-tap the spacebar while you are typing a message as this will type a period and then the space. If AutoCorrect does not provide you with the suitable word, you have the possibility to reject it and type the word yourself and after that tap the suggestion. If you prefer using AutoCorrect’s choice, you’ll have to type a space or a punctuation mark or you can tap Return when it pops up. Securing your backups is very important so you can encrypt the backup data of your tablet in iTunes. In order to do this you have to open the iPad in iTunes and after that click on the Summary tab and there you will have to check “Encrypt iPad backup” which is located under the Options heading.

If for some reason you do not wish to synchronize the tablet when you connect it to your computer, you can prevent automatic sync once. To do this you’ll have to hold down Shift-Control in iTunes or Command-Option if you’re using a Mac, while you plugging in your iPad. Doing this will skip the automatic synchronization in iTunes just once. Keep in mind that you are able to safely interrupt the synchronization process if you drag the unlock slide while the table is mid-sync. The last tip that we would like to share in the first part of the article is about toggling data roaming. If you own a 3G iPad you are able to turn data roaming on if you go into the Settings menu, tap on the Cellular Data menu. If you want to check the data usage go to Settings > General > Usage.

Now that you have selected and synchronized your favorite media and applications, time has come to start using the tablet. The first thing that you got to do is go to the settings menu and choose a Wi-Fi connection. Under the section called Mail, Contacts, and Calendars you have the possibility to add an e-mail account. Keep in mind that there are several settings here that you should consider, like the possibility to preview up to 5 lines of e-mails in comparison to the regular 2.

You also have the possibility to pull your MobileMe info to the tablet by setting it up within the same settings menu we’ve mentioned. You will also find the Picture Frame mode which can be activated if you have purchased a dock and pressed on the Mario fire flower icon. It will then cycle through your Photo Roll, zoom in on faces and transition between shots. Moving on to the Brightness & Wallpaper section, this is the place where you can select a desired wallpaper and you can set it for the home screen, lock screen or even both.

Let’s move on to documents and mention that iBooks is excellent for reading what you have bought from Apple. You can also put on your iPad various other types of documents like Word docs, PDFs, spreadsheets with the help of GoodReader. If you want to access all of the running applications on your iPad you will have to double-click the Home button and it will show you all the apps that you have running on the tablet in a bar which will be located at the bottom of the screen. For switching to one of the running apps you simply tap on it, while if you want to remove the bar you must swipe the screen downwards. If you’re interested in home sharing, the first thing that you have to do is turn on Home Sharing in iTunes and also on your tablet in Settings > iPod and then enter your personal Apple ID. After doing this you must fire up the iPod application on the iPad and in the left column you will notice a little house while next to it is says Library. You’ll have to tap on that and after that on one of the Shared Libraries. Remember that it might take several minutes until the update process ends. Remember that you can use any Apple Wireless Keyboard on the tablet if you miss having a real keyboard. The iPad should be able to work with just about any type of Bluetooth keyboard. There are some iPad cases which feature a built-in keyboard that can be quite useful.

The tablet can be connected to an HDTV with the help of a Digital AV Adapter that will be connected from the iPad’s 30-pin Dock adaptor to the HDTV’s HDMI port. Needless to say, you can also use a regular Apple VGA adaptor, with both of them being available at the Apple Store. Starting with the second generation of the tablet, the iPad offers support for video mirroring so even your home screen will appear on the HDTV. What you might not know is that you can take a snapshot with your iPad by pressing the Home button and after that the Sleep/Wake button. Once you do this the tablet’s screen will flick and then you will hear a click that indicates that a snapshot has been taken. These snapshots are automatically saved in the Photos gallery.