iPad

What Does iPad Mean?

An iPad is a tablet PC designed by Apple Inc. The iPad features a 9.7-inch touch screen that users can interact with directly through finger strokes. This portable device can be used for browsing the Web, listening to music, watching movies, reading e-books and playing games, among other things.

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The most notable features of the iPad are its vibrant display, long battery life (it can play a 10-hour video nonstop), and massive number of applications. The device is also equipped with environmental sensors such as an accelerometer, an ambient light sensor and a magnetometer. iPad applications can be downloaded from the Apple App Store.

Techopedia Explains iPad

Like the Apple iPhone, interaction with the iPad is mainly done through its touch-sensitive screen. The 9.7-inch LCD screen, which features a 1024×768 resolution, is resistant to both fingerprints and scratches.

Web browsing is mainly carried out via the Safari Web browser. Since the iPad has an accelerometer, Web browsing – as well as other applications – can be done in either landscape or portrait mode.

Although practically all of the 350,000 apps designed for the iPhone can run on the iPad, there are thousands of apps designed specifically for it, including popular games and subcriptions.

The iPad runs the iOS mobile operating system, a Unix-like OS that is made up of four abstraction layers: the core OS layer, the core services layer, the media layer and the cocoa touch layer.

To install applications not available through the App Store, hackers use a method known as jailbreaking. Although jailbreaking is discouraged by Apple, it is considered legal in the U.S. Most owners of jailbroken iPads use an application known as Cydia to search and download unofficial applications.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…