Peter guides us through the essential basics

Brand new machine

If you have a brand new device, which perhaps you have just purchased or received in a present, you may well have no idea at all how to use it. Even getting it out of the box & unwrapping everything was a battle! (Believe me, I know what you're going through there!)

There are two different categories which all mobile devices belong to. The others are based on the same systems, so you must know which of the two your machine belongs to. The categories are either Apple or Windows/Andriod. iPhones & iPad's are part of the Apple gang, whilst all others belong to the Andriod family, which is part of the Windows gang, like Windows on a computer. So you need to be aware if your device is either Apple or Android/Windows. It's easier with bigger devices, like Laptops or desktop computers, as they will have their identity clearly marked on them. By the way, Althea, an Amazon Fire Kindle is an Android device.

Lesson number 1... Calm down! No matter what the problem is, you can beat it! It's easy to let it get the better of you, but it's just a machine, & it only takes your patience, with a little guidance from your friends, to master it. You'll soon have it dancing, & doing everything you want it to do. If it ever seems to be beating you & becoming too much, just stop. Sit back, relax, then go grab a cuppa, or take your mind of it for a while. Then come back here so we will get it sorted WITH you.

Lesson number 2... Getting it going. Any machine, be it a mobile phone (including an iPhone), a tablet (including an iPad), or a laptop of any kind, has a button hidden on it somewhere to start it up. Nowadays they try their best to "sink" them into the body of the machine making it as tricky as they can to find, & operate them. On a phone or tablet it's usually the bigger of the buttons on the side, probably closer to the top. Remember that on many modern tablets there will be a large "Home Button" on the front, that is always at the bottom, so that shows how to hold the thing up the right way. Many machines have hidden those buttons comletely & they only show up when the screen is on. Remember that your machine will need to have been charged (plugged into a power socket) for some time to have enough power to operate. If you come into the meeting we can give you access to a power socket, as long as you have your machine's charger with you.

A few power button (likely) locations NB: each image will open in new window
iPad power button	Standard (Android) Tablet Power Button
(Android) Smartphone Power Button	iPhone Power Button
Amazon Fire Tablet Buttons & Connections

Shutting it down again

Although you could just use the power button to turn your device off again when you're finished, that's never a good idea. All computers store information to help them run, & there are plenty of small things going on in the background to keep the machine's system running. Just think about things like the time. Your machine always know what day it is, & exactly what time it is. These kind of things are all running in the background whilst the device is on. If you turn it off abrubtly, all that information (What we refer to as Data) is lost forever. That is never legible again so leaves a pile of illegible data on your machine. We would then need to delete all of that data to free up the space again.

On a Windows PC (laptop etc) you will have an option in the "start menu" which allows you to turn the machine off safely. Then the Operating System (Windows) will delete all the data is has saved, before shutting itself down.

USB

The USB Sign

USB is simply a method of transferring information (we refer to as Data). (It stands for Universal Serial Bus, but that is irrelevant) All devices use USB to put things from one device to another. They all have small USB sockets somewhere on them, often more than one. Mobile phones also use them to plug in their charger. USB is often used to plug in a USB memory stick, which can be a real life-saver. There are a few different sizes of USB plug/socket but you can have either size on each end of a cable & they are all available.

Note that Apple use a different style of USB to Windows or Andriod, who both use the same.

NB: Never pull the USB cable out of your Windows device without first "ejecting it". In the File Explorer window it's easy to simply right-click on the USB drive & select "eject", which deletes all the information that Windows stores about reading the USB drive.

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Peter's list of what you can learn: (in the meetings)

You just need to ask Peter, or any of the tutors, at the meetings!