In 2003, a California company called Android began to invent a smart operating system for cell phones. In 2005, Google bought that company, called the operating system “Android”, and began improving it.

 

Each version of Android has a code name. The code names are in alphabetical order. The first experimental version was called “Astro”; the next was called “Bender”. Those versions were unappetizing; later versions were named after desserts:

At Google’s headquarters (called the Googleplex), Building 44’s front lawn has colorful statues of all those desserts, to make Google a mouth-watering place to work!

What’s popular?

Android keeps evolving:

Manufacturers

The most fascinating manufacturers of Android tablets & phones are:

This chapter

This chapter explains the cheapest tablet manufactured by Best Buy. It’s called Model NS-P08A7100. It’s also called the Insignia Flex 8" Android Tablet. It’s manufactured in China for Best Buy, which sells it in Best Buy stores.

It’s a good deal, because it costs just $70 and includes:

It uses standard, pure Android, as invented by Google (unlike Samsung’s Android, which Samsung modified heavily and is explained in the next chapter).

So here’s how to use Model NS-P08A7100.…

 

The tablet comes in a blue-and-white cardboard box. Open the box and put the contents on your desk (or table).

The box contains 3 electronic devices:

The tablet itself comes in a white plastic bag, which you can throw away. You can also peel off the clear plastic screen protector that cover’s the tablet’s front.

The box also contains a quick-setup guide and a pamphlet (about safety, troubleshooting, specifications, legal notices, and warranty).

Position the tablet

The tablet’s backside says “INSIGNIA”. The tablet’s
front side is a black screen, surrounded by a black border.

Lay the tablet on your desk so the tablet lies on its backside and its front side is facing up at you.

On the front side’s border, you see a tiny circle, which is actually a camera. (The backside includes a camera also.) Position the tablet so the front side’s camera (circle) is far from your tummy.

The tablet’s top edge is the edge that’s near the circle. The opposite edge is called the bottom edge.

Charge the battery

Before using the device, charge its battery. Here’s how.

Plug the USB cable’s small end into the tablet’s top edge. Plug the cable’s other end into the charger. Plug the charger into your home’s electrical outlet.

If the tablet hasn’t been used before, wait 3½ hours to make sure the battery gets fully charged before first using the tablet.

Then unplug the tablet (because it works better while unplugged).

Try this experiment:

Turn on the tablet

Sticking out of the tablet’s right-hand edge, you see two long buttons. The button closest to the top edge is the Power button.

Press the Power button until you see something light up. Then release the Power button.

If this is the first time the tablet is being used, it does this
setup procedure:

If the tablet was set up before, it does this procedure instead:

When the tablet is turned on and acting normally (unlocked), here’s what you see:

That row of 3 buttons is called the System Bar.

See the Home screen

Tap the Home button (which is at the screen’s bottom, in the System Bar, and is a circle).

That makes sure the tablet shows you the Home screen, which shows icons (little pictures) for many choices. You typically see these 11 icons:

See the Apps screen

Your tablet can run many application programs (apps). Here’s how to see a list of all the apps.

Tap the Apps icon. (It’s at the screen’s bottom, just above the Home button. It’s a white circle containing 6 dots.)

That makes the computer show you the Apps screen, which shows these 26 apps in alphabetical order:

If you want to return to the Home screen, tap the Home button (the circle on the System Bar).

Blackout

If you don’t touch the tablet for 2 minutes, the screen will go black, to save electricity and prevent your enemies from peeking at what you were doing.

If the screen’s gone black, here’s how to make it return to normal:

If the screen is on and you want the screen to go black, you can use 3 methods:

The hold method is the only one that turns the tablet off completely, so it uses no electricity. The other methods just put the tablet into sleep mode, which means the tablet is consuming a little electricity while waiting for you to press the Power button again to reactivate the screen and resume your work where you left off.

You might get angry when the tablet automatically blackens after 2 minutes. Here’s how to pick a longer time than “2 minutes”:

Time zone

Fix the time zone, by doing this:

Calendar

To use the tablet’s built-in calendar, tap “Calendar” (which is on the Apps screen).

To make sure the calendar is normal, do this:

Tap “TODAY”. You see a calendar of the current month. Today’s date is in boldface, with a white background.

When you finish using the calendar, tap the Home button, so you see the Home screen again.

Tricks

The tablet can do tricks.

Back Locate the Back button. It’s near the screen’s bottom-left corner and shows a triangle pointing back toward the left.

Tapping the Back button makes the tablet try to go back to the previous screen or menu. So if you regret your last tap, try tapping the Back button.

The Back button doesn’t work while you’re already seeing the Home screen.

Recent Apps The System Bar’s third button (which is to the right of the Home button) is the Recent Apps button (which looks like a box).

If you tap that button, the screen’s left edge shows a list of apps you ran recently. To run one of those apps again, tap its tile (miniature picture of itself).

Landscape mode The tablet can do a trick called rotate.

Try this experiment. While using the Calendar app, lift the tablet’s top edge off the desk, until the tablet is vertical instead of horizontal. Then rotate the tablet clockwise, 90 degrees, so the tablet looks wider and not as tall. Then the tiny circle (which is the camera) is at the right instead of the top.

When you do that, all writing on the screen rotates 90 degrees counterclockwise to compensate, so you can still read what’s on the screen without turning your head.

When the tablet is wider than its height, you’re in landscape mode; the orientation is landscape (and good for viewing a landscape painting or a typical video). In landscape mode, the keyboard’s keys are wider, so you can type on them more easily (but less space remains on the screen to show what you’ve typed).

To return to normal (which is called portrait mode), lift the tablet’s top edge off the desk again then rotate the device counterclockwise, 90 degrees. Then the device is taller than it is wide; you’re in portrait mode; the orientation is portrait (and good for viewing a portrait of a person).

 

To use the tablet’s built-in calculator, tap “Calculator” (which is on the Apps screen).

The calculator includes 32 keys. In portrait mode, they’re arranged like this:

(In landscape mode, you see the same keys, but rearranged.)

To compute 42+5, tap the calculator’s 4 key, then tap 2, then +, then 5. The screen shows what you’ve typed (42+5).

If you make a mistake, tap the DEL key, which deletes your last tap. The DEL key acts as a backspace key.

Below your typing, you immediately see the answer (47). To hide your typing and see just the answer, tap =.

If you tapped =, the DEL key temporarily becomes a CLR key. Tapping the CLR key erases the answer, so you can start fresh on the next calculation. You must tap the CLR key if the next calculation begins with a minus sign.

Order of operations

The calculator does operations in the order used by mathematicians & scientists. For example, if you type “2+3´4”, the calculator will assume you mean “2 plus three fours”, which is “2+12”, which is 14, so the calculator will say the answer is 14 (not 20). Here’s the rule: the calculator does multiplication & division before doing addition & subtraction.

Advanced math

Here’s how to compute 2³ (which means “2 times 2 times 2”). Tap 2 then the ^ key then 3, so you’ve typed “2^3”. The screen will show the answer, 8.

Here’s how to compute “4!” (which is pronounced “4 factorial” and means “1 times 2 times 3 times 4”). Tap 4 then the “!” key, so you’ve typed “4!”. The screen will show the answer, 24.

When doing advanced math, be careful:

Return to Home

When you finish doing your calculations, tap the Home button, so you see the Home screen again.

 

Here’s how to make the tablet imitate an Alarm clock, to warn you when it’s time to get out of bed or go to a meeting or end a meeting.

On the Apps screen, tap “Clock”.

You see the current time, in a big font. You also see the current date.

Tap the Set-alarm button (which is at the screen’s top-left corner and looks like a ringing alarm clock).

For what time do you want to set the alarm?

Then tap the Home button and run any other apps you wish.

At the time you requested, the alarm will suddenly ring (if the tablet is turned on or in sleep mode but not totally turned off). The alarm will keep ringing until you turn it off (or 10 minutes have elapsed).

To turn it off, tap “DISMISS” (to turn it off completely) or “SNOOZE” (which postpones the alarm for another 10 minutes). If you see a ringing-alarm icon instead, because the computer was sleeping, put your finger on that icon and swipe right (to dismiss) or left (to snooze).

Near the tablet’s top edge are some holes. Two of them are the device’s cameras. They work best when you lift the tablet off your desk and hold it in front of your face, so the screen faces you, like a mirror.

Each camera’s resolution is 2 megapixels. The back camera has automatic focus, so it can take better pictures than the front camera.

Starting

To start the Camera app, choose one of these methods:

If the tablet asks “Allow Camera to access this device’s location?” tap “ALLOW” then “NEXT”.

Go to landscape mode properly (by lifting the tablet’s top edge off the desk then rotating the device clockwise, 90 degrees).

Pick up the tablet and put it in front of your face, as if the device were a mirror.

To switch between using the front camera and the back camera, do this:

If the screen is dark, it’s probably because your hand or desk is blocking the camera’s lens.

To zoom in, put two fingers on the screen then stretch (slide your fingers apart).

Simple photo

Here’s how to create a simple photo.

At the screen’s right edge, make sure you see the Photo Camera icon. If you see the Movie Camera icon instead, do this:

When you’re ready to take your shot, tap the Photo Camera icon. That tap makes the camera snap the photo.

If you want to take another shot, tap the Photo Camera icon again.

View To see the most recent shot you made, put your finger in the screen’s middle and flick toward the left.

To see earlier shots, keep flicking toward the left. To return to newer shots, flick to the right.

To enlarge a photo slightly, double-tap it. To enlarge it even more, put 2 fingers where you want to zoom in, then stretch (slide your fingers apart). To return to normal size, put 2 fingers near the photo’s middle then pinch your fingers together.

To delete the shot you’re looking at, tap the shot then the trash can (which is at the screen’s bottom).

To return to making new photos, keep flicking to the right until you see the photo-making screen again.

Movie

Here’s how to create a movie.

At the screen’s right edge, make sure you see the Movie Camera icon. If you see the Photo Camera icon instead, do this:

When you’re ready to record your movie, tap the Movie Camera icon. That tap makes the camera start recording the movie (with sound), and the Movie Camera icon becomes a white square. To stop recording (end the movie), tap the white square.

View To watch the movie you just made, put your finger in the screen’s middle and flick to the left. You see the movie’s first frame. In the frame’s middle, you see a white triangle. To watch the whole movie, tap the triangle. If the screen says “Open with”, tap “Video” then “ALWAYS”.

The movie will play. When it finishes, it will automatically repeat, again and again, forever, or until you do this:

To raise a movie’s volume (so you can hear the movie’s sounds better), press the Volume button (which is next to the Power button) at the end closest to the Power button.

To see earlier movies (and photos), keep flicking to the left. To return to newer movies, flick to the right.

To return to recording new movies, keep flicking to the right until you see the movie-making screen again.

System Bar shrunk

The System Bar is a row of 3 buttons at the screen’s bottom:

Usually those buttons have cute icons on them; but while you’re using the Camera app, those buttons shrink, so each button becomes just a light-gray dot, and the System Bar becomes just 3 light-gray dots. The middle dot is the Home button; tap it whenever you tire of the Camera app and want to return to the Home screen.

 

Your tablet can access the Web.

Go to the Web

To access the Web, run Chrome (the Web browser invented by Google), by using one of these methods:

If the screen says “Welcome to Chrome”, tap “ACCEPT & CONTINUE” and then, for the moment, tap “NO THANKS”.

Go to a Web page

Near the screen’s top, you should see a star. (If you don’t see the star yet, make it appear by doing this: put your finger in the screen’s middle and flick your finger down toward the screen’s bottom.)

Left of the star, you see some text. (For example, you might see “Search or type URL” or “www”.) Tap that text. A keyboard appears.

Using the keyboard, type the Web address you want to visit. For example, if you want to visit www.yahoo.com, type:

To type the “.com” part, tap the “.com” key (which is at the keyboard’s bottom-right corner).

At the end of your typing, tap the Enter key, which is also called the Go key. (It’s a green circle at the keyboard’s right edge and shows a right-arrow).

To switch to a different Web page, repeat that procedure: make sure you see a star, tap the Web address that’s left of the star, then type the new Web address you want to visit, such as:

While typing, here’s how to type a number:

Magnify

To magnify the Web page (so you can read it more easily), you can try these techniques:

Those techniques work on some Web pages but not others. They work usually.

Flick up

If a Web page is too tall to fit on the screen, here’s how to see the page’s bottom. Put your finger in the screen’s middle, then slide up (or, to move faster, flick your finger up, as if you were flicking an insect off your screen). To return to the Web page’s top, slide down or flick your finger down.

Back

After viewing several Web pages, you can go back to the previous Web page by tapping a Back button.

Forward

After going back to the previous Web page, here’s how to go forward (undo the “back”): tap the Forward button (the right-arrow near the screen’s top-left corner).

Bookmarks

If you find a Web page you like a lot, do this while you’re viewing it: tap the star. That makes the star turn blue.

In the future, whenever you’re using the Internet and want to return to that Web page, tap the Menu button (which is at the screen’s right edge, near the top, and looks like a vertical column of 3 dots) then tap “Bookmarks”. (If the screen says “Sync your bookmarks”, for now tap “NO, THANKS”.) You see a list of Web pages you bookmarked. Tap the Web page you want.

To delete a bad Web page from the list of bookmarks, get the list on the screen then hold your finger down on the bad Web page’s name awhile, until you see a blue bar. Tap the trash can (which is at the blue bar’s right edge.)

Return to Home

When you finish using the Internet, tap the Home button (at the screen’s bottom), so you see the Home screen again.

 

To send and receive email messages on your tablet, use Google’s e-mail system (called Gmail).

To use Gmail, tap the red “M” (which is on the Home screen).

Setup

If your tablet hasn’t been set up properly for e-mail yet, here’s what happens.

The tablet says “New in Gmail”. Tap “GOT IT”.

Tap “Add an email address”. The tablet says “Set up email”.

What email address have you been using on your other computers?

If it ends in “@gmail”, do this:

If it doesn’t end in “@gmail”, do this:

 

If you want to invent a new “@gmail” account, do this:

Read

Look at the screen’s top-left corner. Make sure it says “Primary” or “Inbox” (or “Priority Inbox” or “All inboxes”). If that corner has a left-arrow instead, tap it.

Then you see a list of messages that came in.

To read a message, do this:

To double-check whether any new messages came in during the last few minutes, do this:

Write

Here’s how to write an email message to a friend.

Tap the white pencil in a red circle (which is at the screen’s bottom-right corner).

A keyboard appears. The computer says “To”. Using the keyboard, type your friend’s email address (or, to experiment, send a message to yourself by typing your own email address). At the end of your typing, tap the Enter key (green circle containing a white checkmark).

Invent a subject for your message. Type it.

Tap “Compose email”.

Type the message. To do that, tap the alphabetic keys (or type a number by tapping the “?123” key then the number then the “ABC” key). At the end of each paragraph, twice tap the Enter key (the green circle containing “8  ”).

When you’ve finished typing the whole message, tap the
Send button (which is at the screen’s top and looks like a paper airplane). The computer will send the message to your friend.

Dictation

Instead of typing on the keyboard, you can dictate the document by speaking into the microphone. Here’s how.

Look at the screen’s right edge, above the keyboard. You see a picture of a microphone; tap it.

You see a green circle (containing a picture of a microphone). If you tap the green circle, it turns white. If you tap it again, it turns green again.

While the circle is green, speak the English words you want the device to type. Speak clearly, like a newscaster on American TV. (Foreign accents confuse it.) Your tablet will analyze your speech and figure out how to type it in English. The tablet will type the words after you say them (and after a delay).

At the end of each sentence, say “period” or “question mark” or “exclamation mark”. The tablet also understands “comma” and “colon” but just if you say them immediately after the preceding word, without pause.

The tablet understands “exclamation mark” but not “exclamation point”. The tablet doesn’t understand “quotation mark”.

The microphone is a tiny pinhole in the top edge.

If you tap the green circle (or pause awhile on the phone), the circle turns white and the computer stops listening to you. To resume, tap the circle so it turns green again, then start speaking again.

When you finish speaking, tap the X. Then you see the keyboard again.

If your speech is long, do this:

If the voice system made a typing mistake, edit it.

Manipulate

While you’re reading an e-mail message you received, you can manipulate it. Here’s how.

If you want to reply to the message, do this:

If you want to forward the message to another friend, do this:

If you want to delete the message, tap the trash can (which is at the screen’s top). That moves the message to the trash folder for 30 days, after which the message will vanish.

Here’s another way to delete a message:

Finish

When you finish dealing with Gmail, tap the Home button.

 

To get a version of YouTube, customized for display on the Android screen, tap the YouTube icon (which is at the Home screen’s bottom and shows a white triangle in a red box).

Go to YouTube’s home

Stop any videos in progress:

At the screen’s top-left corner, you should see “Home” and a white house. (If you see a black house instead, tap it to make it white and make “Home” appear.)

Near the screen’s top-left corner, make sure you see YouTube’s Home button (a house). If you don’t see it yet, put your finger on the screen’s middle and swipe down.

Tap that house. (That makes sure the house is white, not black, and the screen’s top-left corner says “Home”.)

Discover a video

At the screen’s left edge, you see this topic:

To see more topics, put your finger in the screen’s middle and swipe up, so you see topics below. The topics you see depend on what you previously chose.

Below each topic, you see 3 videos about that topic. To see more videos about that topic, tap the topic’s name (such as “Trending”), then put your finger in the screen’s middle and swipe up.

Which of those videos would you like to watch? Tap the video you want — or get a more specialized list of videos by doing this:

To return to the previous screenful, tap a Back button (the left-pointing triangle at the screen’s bottom-left corner or the left-arrow at the screen’s top-left corner).

Play a video

When you find a video you like, tap it. Then the video starts playing (usually preceded by an ad). Enjoy the show!

Adjust the volume

Find the Volume button. It’s the longest black button sticking out of the tablet’s right edge, near the Power button.

While the video plays, increase the volume by pressing the Volume button’s top; decrease the volume by pressing the Volume button’s bottom.

Enlarge the video

To make the video look slightly bigger, switch to landscape mode. Then to make the video consume the whole screen, tap the video’s middle then the Full Screen button (the burst square in the video’s bottom-right corner).

Ending

If you want to switch back to the previous screen (because the video has ended or you’re tired of watching it), tap the System Bar’s Back button. To return to the Home screen, tap the Home button. (To make those buttons appear, go to portrait mode or tap the video’s middle.)

 

To copy programs and data from the Internet to your computer, tap “Play Store” (which is on the Home screen).

Google Account

If the screen says “Add your account”, you must establish a Google Account. Here’s how.

If you established a Google Account on another device, remind the computer by doing this:

If you did NOT establish a Google Account on another device, invent a new Google Account by doing this:

Explore the choices

The screen’s top-left corner should say “Google Play”. (If that corner doesn’t say “Google Play” yet, make “Google Play” appear by tapping any left-arrow there (or the System Bar’s Back button) repeatedly.

Use landscape mode.

You can see 2 choices:

(If you don’t see those 2 choices yet, try making them appear by doing this: put your finger in the screen’s middle and swipe down.)

Tap either of those 2 choices. If you tap “APPS & GAMES”, you see 6 choices:

If you tap “MOVIES, MUSIC, BOOKS”, you see 4 choices:

Go explore! To see more choices, swipe up. If you see an interesting choice, swipe to the left to see similar choices. If you see an interesting category, tap its name to see more choices in that category.

For example, if you tap “APPS & GAMES” then “CATEGORIES”, you can see these 36 subcategories:

(To see them all, put your finger in the screen’s middle and swipe up.) Similarly, if you tap “MOVIES & TV” then “GENRES”, you can see these 20 genres:

If you tap “MUSIC” then “GENRES”, you can see these 22 genres:

If you tap “BOOKS” then “GENRES”, you can see these 27 genres:

If you tap “NEWSSTAND” then “CATEGORIES”, you see these 10 categories:

When you find a particular item you like, notice its price. (Some items are free.) Then tap it.

Explore it. (If you change your mind, press the System Bar’s Back button.)

What happens next depends on which of the 5 categories you’re in: apps (including games), movies (including TV), music, books, or newsstand.

Apps (including games)

Try to download the app that interests you (copy it from the Internet), by doing this:

Google will check whether you have a valid credit card (even if the book is free). If the screen says “needs access”, tap “ACCEPT”.

The app will be copied to your tablet. Use landscape mode. Tap “OPEN”. Then you’re running the app!

When you tire of the app, put your finger on the screen’s bottom edge and swipe up. Then you see the Home button; tap it.

The app’s icon is in the Apps screen (where all the apps are in alphabetical order). To use the app again, tap its icon.

Books

Before installing any books, you must install the “Google Play Books” app (which is temporarily the first item in the “BOOKS” category), by tapping it. That makes the “Play Books” app appear on the Apps screen.

Then to use books easily, do this: on the Apps screen, tap the “Play Books” app.

Look at the library Make sure the screen’s top-left corner says “Search Google Play Books”. If you don’t see “Search Google Play Books” yet, make that appear by doing this:

Tap “º” (which is in the screen’s top-left corner) then “My library”.

You start seeing the books that are in your tablet’s library. (If the library has more than 6 books, see the rest by doing this: put your finger in the screen’s middle and swipe to the left.)

That library includes these 3 free books —

plus any other books that you acquired.

Open a book Tap the book you want to read. (I recommend you start with “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” because it’s the easiest.)

Make sure you’re in portrait mode.

Turn the pages If you’ve read the book before, you see the page where you left off. If you haven’t read the book before, you see its first main page (which is mainly a chapter title).

Do tricks While you’re reading the book, try tapping the screen’s middle (or top or bottom). That makes the page shrink. Then you can perform these tricks:

Stop To stop reading that book, tap the screen’s middle then the System Bar’s Back button.

Again you see a list of books you can read. Tap one of those other books — or tap again the book you were reading (to continue on the page where you left off) — or tap the Home button (to return to the Home screen) — or get more books to read by doing the following procedure.…

How to get more books While you see “My library”, tap the “º” (which is at the screen’s top-left corner, left of “My library”) then “Shop”.

Near the screen’s top, you can see these choices:

(To see all those choices, put your finger in that list’s middle and flick to the left, so you’re scrolling to the right.)

If you tap one of those choices, you see a list of books — except that if you tap “GENRES”, you see the list of 27 book genres instead, and you can tap your favorite genre.

If you want to find a particular kind of book instead, tap the magnifying glass (at the screen’s top-right corner) then type what interests you (such as a particular title or author or subject) then tap the Enter key (a green circle containing a magnifying glass).

To see more books, scroll down (by swiping up) or scroll to the right (by swiping left).

Tap the book that interests you. You see the book’s description, reviews, and price (which might be “FREE”).

Here’s how to finally get the book:

Google will check whether you have a valid credit card (even if the book is free). Then the book will be copied to your tablet’s library. To read the book, tap the Home button then the Apps icon then “Play Books” then the book’s cover.

Movies (including TV)

Find a likeable movie (or TV show) in the Play Store and tap it.

Trailer If you see a white triangle (in a black circle in the screen’s upper half), that’s the movie’s trailer (free ad). Go watch it, by tapping the triangle. (The trailer will automatically switch to landscape mode.)

If you tap a movie in the Play Store, you typically see this menu:

A few movies cost more or less than that. To find movies and TV shows that are free, do this:

Exact price If you tap “RENT FROM $2.99”, you see this menu:

If you tap “BUY FROM $9.99”, you see this menu instead:

If you tap a TV show instead, you typically can buy 1 episode for $1.99 or a whole season (a year of episodes) for $14.99.

Finalize your decision Choose one of these actions:

Confirm your purchase and answer any questions about how you’ll pay.

Your tablet will automatically go to landscape mode, and you’ll see the whole movie.

While watching the movie (or TV show), use these techniques:

If you want to see the movie again (before any rental period expires), do this:

Music

Before dealing with music, try apps, books, and movies, which are simpler to buy (or get free) and manage.

In the Play Store, tap the music you want to acquire. No song is free, though some radio stations are. You’ll be asked to buy whole albums and monthly subscriptions.

To hear again the music you bought, go to the “Play Music” app, which is on the Apps screen.

Newsstand

Before installing any newspapers or magazines, you must install the “Google Play Newsstand” app (which is the first item in the “NEWSSTAND” category), by tapping it (then tap “INSTALL”). That makes the “Play Newsstand” app appear on the Apps screen.

Then to use newspapers & magazines easily, do this:
on the Apps screen, tap the “Play Newsstand” app. Then tap “Library” (which is at the screen’s bottom).

The library includes these 6 topics:

It also includes these 3 publications:

To add more publications to your library, tap “Add more”.

Here’s how to customize your tablet easily, so it fits your personal needs. (If you share the tablet with your friends, get their permission before you customize.)

Mute

If you want to mute the volume (so the tablet is silent), do this:

To return to normal volume, hold down the Power button again until you see “Silent mode: Sound is OFF”. Tap that. That switches the sound back on.

Close all apps

When you tap an app, the tablet starts running that app. Pressing the Home button does not make the tablet stop running the app; it just makes the tablet hide the app.

To make the tablet act better, stop (“close”) all the apps you’re not using at the moment. Here’s how:

Copy to the Home screen

You can copy your favorite app to the Home screen, so you can access that app more easily. Here’s how:

If you change your mind, do this:

Uninstall

You can’t erase the apps that came with your tablet; they stay on your tablet permanently. But if you installed an extra app, you can erase it (so it no longer clutters your tablet’s screen, memory, and attention), by doing this:

Bypass the Lock screen

Here’s how to change the tablet, so when you turn it on you can use it immediately, without have to see the Lock screen first.

If you change your mind and want to have a Lock screen again, repeat that procedure but instead of “None” choose “Swipe”.

 

For free help using your tablet, you can phone me at 603-666-6644 (day or night, I’m usually in).

Best Buy’s free 61-page manual about that tablet (the Insignia Flex NS-P08A7100) is at: