iPad

Kathleen had an iPad and wants to know if she can use Dragon for dictation. Leo says that while Dragon is one of the best apps out there, Apple has come up with their own speech to text engine. And it's quite good. Can she then print it? Leo says you turn on Siri Dictation and it will turn it into text into Notes. It'll only do a paragraph at a time though. Then, you can edit and print it out. Most printers are wireless these days and you can connect wirelessly and select print from the share icon.

Jim's mother in law has an iPad and they use it to Facetime to her with auto answering. But they've been having trouble connecting lately. It connects intermittently. One new feature of Find My iPhone/iPad is you can see the battery life. Leo suspects that it may be off the wifi network, and as such, your Facetime account wouldn't see it. But it also has LTE. If you can get a nurse to turn off the iPad and then turn it back on, that will reset all the network settings. You need to do that from time to time. Also, check that it has the latest updates.

With schools closing and kids staying home, Lucas wants to have a way to set screen time on computers and iPad. Leo says that you can do that. What iPad should he get that supports pencil and keyboard? Leo says that the least expensive iPad doesn't support the Apple Pencil and keyboard. But there will be new iPad Pros coming really soon, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. But Apple has closed all stores due to the Coronavirus outbreak, but you can buy them online. But supplies may be limited due to shortages in manufacturing. Pencil 1 is better because it offers more pressure sensitivity. 

Frank has an iPad mini that he wants to connect to a computer monitor. Can he do that? Leo says that the iPad Mini only has a lightning connector. But you can get an HDMI to lightning adapter from Apple that will enable connecting to it. Look for an MFI certified adapter. It'll also have a lightning connector too so you can charge it as well. You can also Airplay to a TV which supports it. The iPad Pro, however, does support Type C, which connects to a monitor. Can he add a mouse? Leo says you can; it's in the accessibility settings. But it's really made to use touch.

Alex wants to do Facebook live by connecting a GoPro to his iPad. Leo recommends considering buying the MEVO camera. It is designed to stream live directly to Facebook, YouTube, etc. in 4K. If he streams in 1080p, it's like having 4 cameras at once. If going with the GoPro, then he'll need to use GoPro's software to do it. The challenge will be inputting the audio. The chatroom says he can use a USB-C mic adapter into the GoPro. GoPro has a 3.5mm adapter here.

Sundeep is trying to decide whether to get a Chromebook, a laptop, or an iPad for traveling. Leo says that for what Sundeep is needing, the Chromebook is probably out of contention. But the iPad is a great option. Because everyone has a mobile device now, Airlines no longer have entertainment systems onboard, choosing for streaming content via WiFi. You merely download the airline app, and you can watch movies, TVs, etc. That's where the iPad can shine.

Henry wants to save his Word documents to his iPad. Leo says that by default, Word saves to OneDrive. So you can open a file up using the One Drive app. You can even use DropBox. Saving to the cloud is much better. 

Dean is a pianist and teacher and he wants a large tablet that he can use for his sheet music. His friend has an iPad Pro, and he wonders if there's a PC version like the Onyx Book Pro. Leo says that the real key to using a tablet is that if it has the apps necessary to use digital sheet music. Leo says that the basic iPad is very good for this purpose and is very popular with musicians. Samsung has the Note Tablet as well. That runs Android. But for Leo's money, the iPad Pro is the ideal solution. It also has the Apple Pencil which allows you to annotate it. A good app is FORSTER

Tamar let her grandson use her iPad, and now there's a ton of games on them and she's concerned that there may have been a security issue. Leo says that Apple's app store is very safe, and as long as her credit card wasn't used, or as long as he hasn't made any in-app purchases, she's safe. And it's off by default. To delete, just press and hold until it jiggles and then select the little X to delete. She can also turn off In-App Purchases completely. Here's how.

Also, sit down and give the kid a little chat.

Octavio wants to make a switch to iOS, but he wants to know how he can do backup while on the road and not use iTunes? He wants to also backup his Windows machine with the same option. Leo says that if you want a "trust no one cloud backup" then there really isn't going to be a solution. But a local backup is your best bet for that, and that means a NAS (network-attached storage). Leo likes Synology. It'll backup every machine, except Octavio's iPad. Your only option there is to iCloud directly or through iTunes.