iPad Instructions: Destroy the Myth That You Can’t Learn Everything About Your iPad

The second generation iPad was recently released in the spring of 2011. But what? No instruction manual? That’s why you need Instructions for your iPad: to uncover any thoughts that you may not know everything about it.

Steve Jobs says it’s so intuitive you don’t need the manual. We think maybe some instructions would be helpful to get the most out of your investment. The new iPad certainly has new features; slimmer styling, new cover design, and many new capabilities.

At the time of writing this article, more than 7 million have been sold. That without counting the first generation, which adds another 6 million to the figure. We’re guessing that maybe a couple million users could really benefit from some simple instructions.

For example, one feature you would like to know 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. You may want to keep everything private, especially if the iPad is lost.

iPad can be set to automatically lock after a few minutes. This prevents it from wearing out with involuntary touches on the screen or application buttons.

You can adjust the time before it automatically locks, or you can simply disable this feature, 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 that will open a window with options like “2 minutes, 5 minutes” etc. and also “Never”. It never turns off Auto-Lock.

Then when the home screen opens and you get the “slide to unlock” prompt at the bottom of the screen, push the button to the right and a little number pad will appear. This is when you will need to enter your password to unlock your iPad.

To set it up, go to the General Settings screen and tap Passcode Lock.

The little number pad will appear there; enter an access code and then enter again for security purposes. From there, you can enter a time for the iPad to sit idle before the passcode is required. This is a great feature – you can set it for one minute, one hour, or four hours, depending on your convenience.

Shorter times are safer. You can change it with circumstances very quickly.

There are also other settings, such as “Clear data”. What this option does is erase everything on your iPad(!) if someone tries to enter the wrong passcode 10 times.

You’d have to be secret agent 007 or something to have such sensitive data on your iPad, but we’re glad to know that the folks at Apple try to please everyone.

If your iPad looks like a beautiful Chinese puzzle box, charming on the outside but with some unrevealed secrets on the inside, then you’ll need help unlocking all those secrets.

And why shouldn’t you know everything about it?

It’s certainly more than just an expensive way to store images and check email.

Plus, wouldn’t it be fun to go and show your tech friends something they didn’t know? I bet you would.