How to Connect Your iPad With a Bluetooth Headset

Your iPad is configured to utilize a wireless technology called Bluetooth, which enables you to make wireless connections to other Bluetooth compatible devices. Most laptop computers come with Bluetooth built in to the system as well as most cell phones. The Bluetooth device allows your iPad to connect with any Bluetooth compatible device such as keyboard or mouse, cell phone, digital camera, printer, headset etc. Bluetooth technology is for short range use therefore 33 feet is the maximum distance two Bluetooth devices should be apart from each other.

Configuring and connecting any two Bluetooth devices is very simple and can be broken into two distinct phases: Discoverable and Pairing.

Bluetooth devices only broadcast their availability when you want them to. This is called making your device "discoverable". For privacy and functionality, many Bluetooth devices need to be paired with another device before the connection is established. "Pairing" or "to pair" or "paired" is simply the technical language on making a permanent connection between two Bluetooth devices. This is useful because once two devices are paired; you never have to configure the devices again. Just turn them on and two devices will automatically connect to each other even in a room full of other Bluetooth devices. All Bluetooth devices can be "un-paired," meaning you can break the connection and pair with another Bluetooth device.

To Pair a device, you must first make it discoverable, connect to the device of your choosing, and enter a multi-digit (usually four) pass code or PIN. Pairing devices such as your cell phone with your iPad will allow you to choose a unique pass code. For other devices such as Bluetooth headset, the headset comes with a default passkey that you enter in your iPad during the pairing process. (Notes: Even though most headsets default passkey is 0000, your connection will be secure with your iPad.)

How to connect your iPad with a Bluetooth headset

Connecting your iPad with a Bluetooth headset:

1. Turn on your Bluetooth receiver in your iPad. If your iPad already has the Bluetooth receiver on you will see a Bluetooth logo in the status bar next to the battery status icon.

2. Touch "Settings" on the Home screen.

3. Touch "General" in the Settings screen.

4. Touch "Bluetooth" in the General Screen and turn the Bluetooth on.

5. Turn on the Bluetooth headset and make it discoverable. Follow the directions of the manufacture to make your device discoverable. For example, Jawbone headsets require pressing and holding both device buttons till the signal light flashes red and white.

6. Your iPad should now display the name of your Bluetooth headset. Touch the name of the Bluetooth headset. Your iPad should pair with the headset and prompt for the passkey.

7. Enter the headset passkey in the iPad PIN box. (The default key is often 0000 but check the manufacturer instructions)

How to use your Bluetooth headset to listen to music

After you've paired a headset, your iPad should make your headset the "default output audio device." Follow the steps below if this does not happen"

1. Touch "iPod" on the Home Screen to load the iPod app.

2. Once the iPod app loads check to see what icon is at the top left corner of the screen. If you a speaker icon that means the iPad is using your built in speakers as the default output audio device.

3. At the bottom of the screen you will see the status bar. Touch the Bluetooth icon.

4. Touch your paired Bluetooth headset.

5. You should now hear your song playing through the Bluetooth headset instead of the system speakers.

Bluetooth2 How to connect your iPad with a Bluetooth headset

How to Unpair your Bluetooth headset

If you no longer plan to use a headset with your iPad, you can unpair the devices by following these steps:

1. Touch "Settings" on the Home Screen. The Settings screen should pop up.

2. Touch "General". The General screen displays.

3. Touch "Bluetooth". The Bluetooth screen displays.

4. Touch the name of the Bluetooth headset.

5. Touch "Forget this Device". Your iPad unpairs the Bluetooth headset.

John Noel has been a Apple user and technology expert for over a decade. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley holding a Masters in Computer Science. Come visit his website at http://www.myappworld.com/ which helps people use their iPad with tutorials and "how to guides" such as connecting ipad bluetooth headset as well as the latest Apple products, apps, and iPad accessories.

iPad and iPad 2 - How to Connect It For the First Time

The first time it's turned on, the iPad will ask you to connect to iTunes. Do this using the USB cable that came with the device. You can connect your iPad or iPad to any computer and it doesn't matter whether it is a PC or a Mac. You must make sure that you have iTunes downloaded on this computer before connecting your iPad to it via the USB cord. iTunes can be easily downloaded from the iTunes website.

Start out by entering the details of your iTunes account (username and password) into your iTunes app on the iPad. This is required regardless of what you plan to use your iPad for. For iTunes first-timers, be aware that you need to create a new iTunes account, which is a fairly simple process. It just takes a little bit of personal information and a valid form of payment (usually credit card).

If you bought an iPad that has 3G or Wi-Fi capabilities, you will be forced to indicate what data plan you would like to purchase for your new device. Look over the options and choose the plan that best suits your needs.

You are now ready to sync your iPad or iPad 2 with your computer for the very first time! Your iTunes account should automatically recognize your iPad, as long as it is connected to the computer via the USB cord. You will see a screen within the iTunes program that has a multitude of tabs running across the top. This is your "sync" dashboard and you will being seeing it often. You can go through the tabs yourself and explore. You will see syncing options that you may or may not want to activate. The choice is totally yours.

How and why do you force a sync?

You will always want to initiate a "forced sync" after you have made changes to your sync dashboard. Syncing after making changes will apply these changes to your device and make the necessary moves to update you iPad. You can do this two different ways. The fist way to cause a "forced sync" is to click on the "Apply" button at the bottom of any of the tabbed pages. This will cause iTunes to apply the changes you made to your iPad or iPad 2. If this is working or you just prefer to sync another way, you can always click the button that reads "Sync" on the bottom right-hand side of your iTunes window.

Syncing your iPad to a computer is one of the first things you need to do after buying your iPad or iPad 2. The second thing you need, which may be even more important for the safety of your device, is an iPad or iPad 2 case. To see if certain iPad 2 cases in stock, check out this list which is always being updated!

Media - Connect DLNA App For iPad

I've had quite a few questions regarding DLNA setup for iPad since my last article on the topic. My apologies to faithful readers for not writing on matter sooner but my reason was there wasn't much to write about. The iPad can run all iPhone DLNA apps but native iPad DLNA apps have been slow to release. I've tested quite a few DLNA apps on my iPhone and this is media:connect is one of my favorites. The basic player is 99 cents, and you can upgrade to the premium app for $7.99.

Over the weekend I tested media:connect on my iPad and can report back that it works on the iPad even without native support. Media:connect for iPad is one of the easiest to use DLNA application in the iTunes store. Media:connect Advanced edition packages a media player, server, and controller into one powerful app. I can download music and videos on my iPad, and play them on my Media PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.

Standard Edition

The standard edition is available for 99 cents and includes the audio player with Twitter capabilities. This edition is designed to allow you to try out their software, and you can choose to upgrade to the Advanced Edition later on. It only allows you to play music on compatible digital media servers such as Windows 7 and any DLNA certified NAS device. I've only tested the app using a Windows 7 Media server but media:connect also supports Twonky Media or TVersity if you use those systems. For those who just want to listen to music from your iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad on your home theater system, the standard edition is all you need.

Advanced Edition

The advanced edition costs $7.99 and allows you to play DRM-free video and images as well as audio. When streaming your music, video, and image files from your iPad to your DLNA network devices, you are limited to file types the iPad supports. An example of what this means is flash video can't be played from on your TV if it's streamed from your iPad. This is an iPad issue and not a media:connect issue, so whatever DLNA app you buy for iPad will have this limitation. The Advanced Edition also includes a controller that allows you to control remotely digital media renderers such as your Xbox 360 Media Center and Extender, XBMC (for MAC and Linux), as well as Windows Media Player 12 for Windows 7. This effectively turns your iPad/iPhone into a remote control as you don't have to leave the couch to put in a new movie if you have digitized your video collection. In addition to having a media player and media controller, the advanced edition incorporates a digital media server which allows all your other home devices to access content from your iPad. If you want to watch content offline or away from your home network, media:connect allows you to download content from your iPad to other devices and vice versa.

In conclusion, media:connect offers a working and stable DLNA player for your iPad. Hopefully the developer of this app releases a native application soon to take advantage of the larger screen size, but if you can deal with an iPhone size controls, you can't go wrong with this app for your iPad.

John Noel has been a Apple user and technology expert for over a decade. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley holding a Masters in Computer Science. Come visit his website at http://www.myappworld.com/ which helps people find the best iPad apps such as DLNA for iPad as well as the latest Apple products and the best iPad accessories.