Discover the Cool Bells and Whistles of Your iPad

The iPad is one of the latest gadgets every Apple lover has got to have. This electronic device has a lot of cool bells and whistles, similar to the iTouch or iPhone, only in a larger size.

Even though the iPad is pretty simple to use, there are a few tricks that may not be intuitive for someone new to the Apple kingdom. These are just a few of the extra functions and options you may not be aware of.

There are times you may want the simple turn off the volume. iPad comes with an easy mute function that allows you to automatically turn the volume off.

For two seconds, press the volume button down and you'll have peace and quiet back.

Even though you may prefer quiet at times, the iPad gives you an opportunity to play background music. This function works even while you search the web or using any of Apple's apps. All the while, you can have music continuously playing in the background.

You never know when you may need to know the meaning of a word. In an instant, you can pull out your iPad and find the meaning of a word using either the word processor or the iBooks application.  This may also come in handy if you get stuck in a concept while you read Apple's massive collection of eBooks.

This is a handy setting for people who frequently use the device in different lighting conditions.  The developers of iPad added a built in function to adjust its brightness according to specific environments to make eye strain less of an issue for users. However, there is some difficulty looking at text and images in the sunlight.

The old Reset standby is still a great function to have on any electronic device!  In case your iPad’s system freezes, there is always the consolation in its Soft Reset function.

This can be accomplished by holding the top or power button simultaneously with the front or Home button for a couple of seconds. This will force your device to restart.

You can also “force quit” by holding the Home button the same way, this time without holding the power button, and the device will exit any running app.

The Home screen, is without a doubt among the most versatile features of the iPad. The Home screen not only gives users a place to display shortcuts to specific applications, it also displays their bookmarked websites.

This means that you can go straight to your favorite websites with just one touch of the bookmarked websites icon.

Just like the capability of a laptop or desktop Internet browser, the dashboard view allows the opening of multiple web pages.  The difference is that with iPad's browser, Safari, the open websites are shown as thumbnail images. This allows for simple switching between websites with just a single tap.

Depending on your preference, switching between a real keyboard and virtual keyboards is a snap.  By hitting the eject key on the physical keyboard, you can bring up the virtual keyboard.

Without a mouse, it can sometimes be a bit more challenging to copy long texts with a touch screen. The iPad developers created a comfortable solution that allows you to copy an entire paragraph without dragging the blue knobs that appear on the screen.

To accomplish this, tap any text four times and this will highlight the entire paragraph. The only catch is that it only works with editable text.

While the iPad includes very intuitive functions that most people can figure out, these bells and whistles make using the iPad easy even for someone brand new to touch technology.