The iPad second generation was recently released in the spring of 2011. But what? No Instruction Manual? This is why you need Instruction for your iPad – to blow the lid off any idea that you can’t know every little thing about it.
Steve Jobs says it is so intuitive you don’t need the manual. We think maybe some instruction would be useful to get the most from your investment. The new iPad certainly has new features; slimmer styling, new cover design and many new capabilities.
At the time of this writing, over 7 million have been sold. That’s not counting the first generation, which adds another 6 million to the figure. We’re guessing maybe a couple million users could really benefit from some easy instruction.
For instance, one feature you would want to learn about is how to protect your iPad data with a passcode. There may be times when you want to require a passcode to unlock your iPad. Maybe you want to keep everything private, especially if the iPad gets lost.
The iPad can be set to automatically lock after a few minutes. This keeps you from wearing the thing out with unintentional taps on the screen or on the app buttons.
You can adjust the time before it auto-locks, or you can simply turn this feature off – just go to Settings from the Home screen. There you will see several options; About, Usage, Sounds and more. Look down a bit for “Auto-Lock”. Tapping on that will open a window with options like, “2 minutes, 5 minutes” etc. and also “Never”. Never turns the Auto-Lock off.
Then, when the home screen opens, and you get the “slide to unlock” message at the bottom of the screen, you push the button to the right and a little number pad will pop up. This is when you will have to enter your passcode to unlock your iPad.
To set it up go to your General Settings screen and tap on Passcode Lock.
The little number pad will pop up there; you enter a passcode, and then enter again for security purposes. From there you can enter a time for the iPad to remain idle before the passcode is required. This is a great feature – you can set it for a minute or an hour or four hours, for your convenience.
Shorter times are more secure. You can change it with the circumstances very quickly.
There are other settings, too, such as “Erase Data”. What this option does is erase everything on your iPad (!) if someone tries to enter the wrong passcode 10 times.
You would have to be a 007 Secret Agent or something to have data this sensitive on your iPad, but we like knowing the folks at Apple try to please everyone.
If your iPad seems like a beautiful Chinese puzzle box – lovely on the outside but with some untold secrets inside – then you are going to need some help unlocking all those secrets.
And why shouldn’t you know everything about it?
It is certainly more than an expensive way to store pictures and check email.
Besides, wouldn’t it be fun to go and show your tech-y friends something they didn’t know? You bet it would.
iPad Instructions for Dummies 