I have a new lucky number. Two hundred and twenty six (226), which I cannot play in the Lotto with but it has suddenly got a lot more meaning to me.
On Women’s day something rather peculiar happened, which made my new lucky number come to prominence. Regular readers will know that I own an Apple iPad 2. Using an iPad (1st or second generation) is largely based on apps. Simple things like a notepad in which to write notes in or catching up with news through the New York Times is all done through apps. The process is quite simple; you go to the App store and either search or go to the popular apps tab and browse for a potential acquisition. Select and download it onto your device.
Needless to say, I did everything just like I do normally, picked an app, selected it and waited for the download to start. Normally, when this happens the app is “taken” to a new page (of which there can ONLY be 11) and the progress bar is shown over the app while it downloads. But alas that did not happen. Immediately I thought I did something wrong and that the Apple appstore gremlins have made an appearance.
As a child of the Internet, I did the next logical thing (which I think most Internet users do) and opened a new tab in Firefox and fired a search on Google for this “dilemma”. The solution was found on page one which led me to learn that all iPad 2 devices are limited to showing 226 apps on the device. Only 20 apps are shown per page on 11 pages (plus a maximum of 6 apps in the dock). If you then continue to download apps they are only able to be opened by using the search function in Spotlight (as seen below). Which for the record is very difficult to do, as you will then have to remember which apps you have downloaded.
The solution as mentioned in an Apple forum is quite simple.Select an App (by holding your selection of app for 3 counts) and then you will see a cross appearing on the top left hand side of the App. Simple.
Then move the app on top of another and then a folder will be created with the name of the merged app’s category. Repeat until you have either created enough space for new apps or finish by until you have put all your apps categorised as you see fit. (The space I refer to is not storage but rather display space. This may seem like a very laborious process but it does make things more efficient (at least for me) as potentially similar apps are grouped together.
