Whether you just picked a brand new iPad Air 2, or the latest Android tablet from Samsung, you are going to want to be able to get the most from your investment. If you don’t, you will find that you don’t use your tablet as much as you probably could and you definitely won’t use it enough to justify the high price that it cost to bring that shiny new piece of mobile technology inside your home.
However, it is not as hard as you think to truly dive in and begin using your tablet in place of your old computer desktop or laptop for many tasks that you use every day. In fact, you can easily use your tablet as an almost complete replacement for your laptop if you want to. At the very least, it can be a viable replacement when you are traveling so you don’t have to carry that heavy laptop with you just to get a little work done.
Today, I bring you 6 tips to help you get the most from your tablet so each time you use it you have an enjoyable experience that is both fun and productive. These tips will easily help you get the most from your tablet so you begin to use it more for many tasks that you never thought were possible before. In time, I believe you will find that you are actually using your tablet more than you actually use your laptop, at least when it comes to some of your most common tasks.
So let’s get started with our list. Remember, using this list can help you get more out of your tablet, but sometimes you will need a traditional computer to get your work done, and that is ok too. This list is designed to help you learn how to use your tablet in a way that makes it more fun and more productive for you at the same time.
1. Mind Your Battery
Nothing can interrupt your workflow faster than running out of battery life. When using your tablet, there are several things you can do to improve the battery life so you get more out of your tablet between charges. Simple little things like closing apps that you aren’t using anymore, turning off notifications and even disabling hardware that you don’t need will go a long way toward improving your time between charges so you never have to worry about running out of battery life when you may need it the most. While the batteries in tablets are far larger and last much longer compared to their smartphone siblings, you can still push the battery to its limits if you don’t take a moment to deal with what is and is not running on your tablet. Remember, if you need any of the features you turn off later, they are just a tap away from being active again.
2. Buy the Right Accessories
There are literally thousands of accessories available for your tablet, regardless which tablet you chose to buy. With so many choices, it can be hard to figure out which ones will actually help you and which ones won’t. A few accessories that you should consider if you want to turn your tablet into a true mobile workstation are a case, keyboard and maybe even a stylus. A portable charger that will plug into your car isn’t a bad choice either if you plan on traveling a lot with it. When making your choices, only choose those accessories that will protect your tablet while you are on the go and ones that could make your work that much easier to do. Otherwise, you could find yourself wasting money on accessories that you simply won’t use.
3. Choose the Right Apps
No matter what tablet platform you choose, one visit to their respective app stores will reveal a host of apps for you to choose from. There are literally thousands, if not millions of apps that are available for your tablet. Of course, not every app is equal. Some are great, providing hours of entertainment or providing a suite of productivity tools that allow you to get work done while you are on the go. Others, unfortunately, aren’t all that great. These apps take up space and simply don’t work as intended. Some could even install unwanted viruses as well. When deciding on what apps to buy and download, take time to read the reviews about an app. Look for apps from the leading application developers to find the right tools for whatever you are trying to accomplish. Never just blindly download without knowing at least a little about what you are getting. If you do, you could find you have an app that just takes up space and never helps you accomplish your goals.
4. Consider the Cloud
One of the easiest ways to free up space and ensure that you have access to your files from anywhere is by making use the cloud. There are many free cloud storage services from vendors such as Dropbox and Google that will allow you to store your files on the cloud and easily access them from your tablet. Almost all of these cloud services have apps you can install to easily sync your data without ever having to think about it. Using the cloud is a good way to free up space on your tablet while at the same time guaranteeing you can access your files from anywhere without having to take the time to physically move the files around yourself every time you want to take something with you. These services are also regularly backed up as well, meaning you won’t have to worry about losing any of your files along the way.
5. Watch Your Notifications
It seems like every app today has the power to send you a notification about what is going on with it. While that may sound like a good thing, do you really need your weather app telling you when the temperature outside changes by one or two degrees? No. All this does is clutter up your notification screen making it take longer for you to go through all the notifications. In reality when you have so many notifications, are you really going to take the time to read them? Probably not. In most cases you will begin to swipe them away and you may even miss an important notification along the way. And this doesn’t even include the drain notifications are on your battery life. You can easily disable notifications for apps that you don’t need from the settings of your tablet. Whenever you install a new app, it is best to decide right then if you need or want to see the notifications and disable them as you go. If you find you need one later, it is easy to turn that feature back on for each individual app.
6. Delete Unwanted Data
Unless you invest big bucks into a tablet with a huge amount of storage, you will probably run out of space, especially if you choose to keep all your photos, videos and music on your tablet. Tablets aren’t like computers with giant sized hard drives. Once you receive data on your tablet, it is a good practice to delete it if you really don’t need it anymore. Backup your music libraries and pictures to your computer so you can keep them without taking up too much space on your tablet. If you use your tablet for texting, remember that any picture you receive through a text message takes up space as well, so download them or delete them as you receive them. If you don’t, you could find you are out of space when you need it most.
Bonus Tip
For years security wasn’t much of a concern on tablets. However, things have changed. Today you can even find viruses floating around the mobile world as well. So, one app that I suggest you download for your tablet is an antivirus or security app. These apps run in the background and help shield you from the attacks of these newer breeds of viruses that can infect your tablet and even steal your personal data.
Conclusion
As you can see, it is easier than you think to get a little more out of your tablet. By simply making the right app decisions and taking a few minutes to customize your experience, your tablet can become a truly mobile workspace or even a way for you to game on the go. Taking just a little time to configure each app and how you receive updates from these apps can go a long way to helping you be more productive and save you quite a bit of annoyance along the way. At the same time, making sure you properly care for your tablet will help it stay in the best shape possible so it provides the fastest speeds with hardware that is as good a shape today as it was when you first brought it home.
With just a little care both inside and out, your tablet can easily become one of the most useful tools in your technology arsenal, and it will be one that you find you are turning to more and more each day instead of that big, bulky desktop or laptop sitting on your desk in another room.