Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
As this book goes to press, data rates (no contract required) are reasonably priced as long as
you don't stream or download a lot of movies or watch tons of videos while connected over
3G or 4G. For as little as $5 in some instances, you can buy a day pass for data instead of
getting a monthly plan.
And T-Mobile, a latecomer as far as selling Apple tablets, is even dishing out 200 megabytes
(MB) of monthly LTE data
gratis
— free! — for people using the iPad mini with the Retina
display (or the larger display iPad Air). That translates to about 800 Instagram photos, more
than2,500e-mails,or200minutesofmusicstreaming.Youcanstartpayingifyouneedmore.
The following plan highlights are from other carriers:
•
AT&T:
$14.99 a month for 250 megabytes (MB), 3GB for $30, and 5GB for $50
•
Sprint:
$14.99 a month for 300 megabytes (MB), 3GB for $34.99, and 6GB for
$49.99
•
Verizon:
$20 for 1GB, $30 a month for 2GB, $50 for 5GB, $80 for 10GB
A friendly warning pops up on your iPad when you get close to your limit. At that point, you
can pay more to add to your data bucket or start from scratch next month. Keep in mind that
with 4G, you're likely to use more data in a hurry.
Find a Wi-Fi network if you want to buy, rent, or watch movies.
Turning On and Setting Up the iPad mini
Apple has taken the time to partially charge your iPad mini, so you get some measure of instant grat-
ification. After taking your iPad out of the box, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button on the upper-
right edge. (See Chapter
1
for the location of all the buttons.) The first thing you likely see is the Set
Up iPad screen, though it's possible the iPad was set up on your behalf at the Apple Store instead —
and if you have the time when you make your purchase, by all means, take the folks in the store up
on the opportunity. You see the famous Apple logo, followed less than a minute or so later by the
word
Hello
spelled out in alternate screens in different languages. From then on, you proceed with
setup on your own, but don't worry; it's a simple process. On the next several screens, you get to
choose your language and country, select whether to enable location services, and select your wire-
less network: Wi-Fi or (depending on your model) Wi-Fi + Cellular.
You must choose one of these setups when you start:
Set up the tablet as a new iPad.
Restore it from either an iCloud Backup or iTunes Backup.
