Using The Hard Buttons On The Next3

Your Next3 has three hard buttons. The power button and the up and down arrows. The power button is located on the bottom of the right side of the screen. It is slightly recessed The up and down arrows are located on the right side of the device one on top of the other. All three hard buttons have two uses.

The first function of the power button is to turn the unit on. Press it firmly, make sure you feel a click. You may have to hold the power button for up to 10 seconds before you see the screen come on. As soon as the screen comes on release the power button.

The second function of the power button is to wake the tablet up from sleep. You can set your sleep settings in the unit by taping on the third icon, at the very center bottom of your screen. It is the "Settings" icon. When you get to the settings menu, tap "Sound & display settings". The last line on that page says "Screen timeout". Tap that line to set how long the screen should stay on before the Next3 goes to sleep. You can choose an interval as short as 15 seconds or tell it to never sleep. The longer the sleep interval the more battery power you will use. To wake the unit, quickly depress and release the power button. Your screen should come right back on. It should be instant.

You can use the arrow keys to turn the page of the book you are reading in the installed eReader, from Borders, on the Next3. Many apps will also allow you to use those buttons for navigation in the app. In most cases, to use the arrows after you get into the app, you will have enable them in your settings. To access the settings, tap the app. While you are in the app, tap the menu icon in the very top, right corner of the screen. Choose "Settings" from the menu app. (If there are a lot of choices you may have to tap "more" in the lower-right hand corner of the app settings menu to get to more options.) Once you are in the settings you can choose what you want the buttons to do while you are using that particular app. If you decide not to change anything just tap the back arrow at the top of your screen.

If you are in an app that is full-screen and/or has no on-screen controls. You can access the Next3 status bar at the top of the screen or the app menu at the bottom of the screen by doing a hard press on the down arrow. This will give you access to the menu, at the bottom of the page andr the home button, the back button, Wi-Fi indicator, battery status, time and menu symbol at the top of the page. The controls will stay active long enough for you to release the button and pick a control.

If you are in an app and you want to go directly back to the home screen of the Next3, where your wallpaper and weather app are, do a hard press on the up arrow.

When you press both arrows, for this navigation make sure you feel them click and hold them until you see what you are looking for come up. You should not have to hold the button for more than two or three seconds if the buttons are firmly pressed.

If you find any other uses for these hard buttons, please post them!