Apple doesn’t include an instruction manual with iPhones or iPads, assuming that you’ll search the web to learn how to do anything you can’t easily figure out. That’s a pity, because it spells frustration for new users and means a great deal of your fancy device’s power may go unused. Glenn Fleishman is here to help with iPhone and iPad Basics, a friendly guide to all the information Apple never gave you.
Do you know the difference between the Lock Screen and the Home Screen? What Control Center is and how to customize it? How to use a share sheet? What to do when you get too many annoying notifications? How to find apps in a sea of icons? Ways to run multiple apps at the same time on an iPad? Those are just a few of the topics Glenn explains in detail.
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You’ll learn about:
- Terms and concepts: The names and meanings of important interface elements
- Hardware controls: What all the physical controls do, plus charging options and the StandBy feature for iPhones
- Cameras: Use the front- and rear-facing cameras on your iPhone or iPad
- Customization: Configure the Lock Screen, Home Screen, Dock, Control Center, and innumerable settings to your liking
- Apps: What all of Apple’s built-in apps do, how to add new apps, and how to switch between apps
- Finding stuff: Use Spotlight to find apps, files, contacts, and more
- Siri: How to use your voice to interact with your iPhone or iPad
- Keyboards: All the tricks of the on-screen keyboard, plus what you can do with an external keyboard
- Sharing: Share nearly any sort of information on your device with other people or services using the share sheet
- Focus settings: Avoiding distractions with enhanced “Do Not Disturb” features
- Special iPad features: How to multitask on an iPad and more
- Switching from Android: Tips for moving to an iPhone or iPad from an Android device
This book keeps its focus on basics, deliberately avoiding advanced topics. Rather than serving as a comprehensive reference guide, it helps you find your footing and helping you feel confident with the major capabilities of your iPhone or iPad.
Take Control Books Executive Editor Glenn Fleishman spent 30 years writing for publications like The Atlantic, Fast Company, The Economist, The New York Times, Macworld, and TidBITS. Glenn now focuses his time on Take Control Books, Six Colors (as a columnist), and his own micro-publishing endeavor, Aperiodical, where he writes books about type, printing, comics, and language history, like Six Centuries of Type & Printing and How Comics Are Made. You can find Glenn on Mastodon and Bluesky. Reach him by email at glenn@glennf.com.
What’s New in Version 2.1 and 2.1.1
This update includes changes Apple made in the November 2025 release of iOS 26.1 and iPadOS 26.1 and the December 2025 release of iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2.
For simplicity, this version assumes you have updated to iOS 26.2/iPadOS 26.2 and does not call out the changes in the text. However, here is a list of what’s changed:
- Liquid Glass tinting (iOS 26.1/iPadOS 26.1): You can now use a setting to reduce the transparency and increase the contrast in the new Liquid Glass interface. See “Reduce Liquid Glass Effects.”
- Liquid Glass Lock screen time control (iOS 26.2/iPadOS 26.2): The time display on the Lock Screen can now have its translucency adjusted with a slider or removed altogether. See “Customize Your Lock Screen.”
- iPad gets Slide Over back (iPadOS 26.1): Apple removed some of the ways app windows can appear on an iPad with iPadOS 26.0 as part of an overhaul. They restored one of them, Slide Over, in iPadOS 26.1. See “Tile Windows.”
- Drag windows in Slide Over (iPadOS 26.2): In this update, Apple lets you drag apps from the Dock, Spotlight, or App Library into an existing Slide Over window. See “Tile Windows.”
- Disable swipe to Camera from Lock screen (iOS 26.1/iPadOS 26.1): Apple added an option for Lock Screen Swipe to Open Camera to the Camera app settings that lets you disable this feature. See “Open Camera from the Lock Screen.”
- Reminder alarms (iOS 26.2/iPadOS 26.2): You can set a reminder with a date and time as Urgent, and your device alerts with a Clock-like alarm. See “Reminders.”
- AirDrop codes (iOS 26.2/iPadOS 26.2): For security and convenience, Apple now requires a code when using AirDrop to receive an item from someone who not in your contacts. See “Share Locally with AirDrop.” (Version 2.1.1 of this book fixed errors in the original description of this revised service.)
Previous versions of this book omitted Camera Control, a new button added to iPhone 16 models and found on all devices in the iPhone 17 series and the iPhone Air. See “Camera Control Button.”
What Was New in the Second Edition
Apple made dramatic changes to iOS and iPadOS with their new Liquid Glass interface, which is unified across all the operating systems the company makes. Most interactions remain the same: tapping buttons, making selections, dragging items, and more. However, the appearance and location of controls is significantly different.
As a result, this new edition updates all the screen captures and instructions for iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. If you’re using an iPhone or iPad with an earlier release—see Settings > General > About—you can download the previous version of this book, 1.1, which covers iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 and earlier, by following the link in Ebook Extras, near the end of the book.
If you’re new to an iPhone or iPad, Liquid Glass is just what their interfaces look like; if you’re existing user, you’ll need to relearn how to identify some elements.
Other changes worth noting are:
- Phone app: The Phone app, formerly available only for iPhone, can now be used on an iPad. Its design was significantly changed, too. See “Phone.”
- iPad windows and multitasking: Apple brought iPads much closer to Macs in how you manage windows and switch among apps. They also added menus to iPad apps. See “Multitask and Use Windows in iPadOS.”
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