By Prince Osuagwu

It’s possible you may have used your new iPad, popularly known as the iPad3 for almost one year now. But the truth is that there are still many possibilities you can turn on using some of the great features available.

Most of these features are so prominent that you glance over them on daily basis but the irony is that most of the tasks you desperately needed to carry out but could not, are dependent on them without your knowing it.

Now, take the advantage:

Conserve your battery

The priority desire of almost every iPad user is to conserve the battery. This is mostly because the device is mainly used on the go. Although the new iPad has pretty impressive battery life: 10 hours between charges, if you are on a very long-haul flight, however, or you need to conserve battery for some other reason, there are a few things you can do.

Turning down the brightness (found in the Settings menu) will help, as will switching off 3G, or even going to Airplane mode completely when you don’t need any connectivity. You can also conserve battery energy by closing opened applications

Get reminded of appointments with Siri

Another very innovative application on the New iPad is the Siri app. This is Apple’s intelligent voice assistant, which comes to the iPad with the latest software update, iOS 6. Siri can do all kinds of things, including opening apps, retrieving sports results and taking dictation.

iPad

To use it, simply turn it on in the Settings, General menu and then hold down the Home button for two seconds to activate. Then, talk to Siri about your appointment and ask it to remind you. At the exact time, Siri will turn itself on to remind you of the appointment It needs an internet connection to work, though.

How to make use of Find My iPad app

Apple’s Find My iPad works for all iCloud users. Access the Settings, go to the iCloud, enter your Apple ID and then turn Find My iPad on near the bottom of the screen. Now if you lose your iPad, you can go to icloud.com or use Find My iPhone on another device to locate the iPad.

How to get your data wiped if device is stolen

If you’ have sensitive data on your iPad and is afraid that when it gets lost some of those date may get into wrong hands, there is just about one sure way to put your mind at rest- enable a feature that will erase all the data on the device if someone inputs the incorrect passcode 10 times. To do that, navigate to Settings, click on General, locate Passcode Lock and turn Erase Data on.

Screen shots.

Taking a screenshot is quick and easy. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button on the top corner of the iPad and then push the Home button. A screenshot will be added to your camera roll, ready to be emailed, tweeted or just saved for posterity.

Multi-tasking

Ordinarily, the iPad is designed in such a way that most of the gestures are easily picked up within a few minutes of using the gadget. Swiping, tapping and pinching are all easily discovered after a little trial and error. There are a few controls that most people miss, however, but which can be useful. Turn on Multi-Tasking Gestures in Settings, General and then try the following:

•Swipe upwards with four fingers to reveal the multi-tasking bar; swipe down again to close.

– Swipe left or right with four fingers to switch to the previous or next app.

– Pinch four fingers together to close the current app.

Easy typing shortcuts

Typing on the iPad’s glass screen can be frustrating for long periods but you can use shortcuts to make it easier. Try the following:

•Tap and hold the exclamation mark for a shortcut to the apostrophe; do the same with the question mark to quickly enter speech marks.

•Place two fingers near the centre of the keyboard and drag them apart to split the keyboard into two. This can make typing easier on the larger screen of an iPad.

– Turn on Caps Lock in Settings, General, Keyboard and from then on a double-tap on the Shift key will apply Caps Lock.

Copy and Paste

To copy and paste text, first highlight it by tapping and holding your finger on the word you want to copy. If you want to copy more than one word, then wait for the word to highlight and drag the bars at each end so that everything you want to copy is highlighted. Then tap copy. Go to the place you want to paste to then tap and hold and choose paste.

Find text

On a computer CTRL+F is a handy way to find a word or phrase in a document. You can do the same thing on an iPad. Type the word or phrase you are looking for into the search box in the top and if it appears on the page then you will see an ‘On This Page’ section in the search results. Tap that to see the word highlighted on the page.

Parental Controls

If your iPad is going to be used by the younger members of your family then you should enable Parental Controls. It’s useful not only for preventing unexpected bills when the little ones figure out how to purchase apps but also for restricting access to unsuitable content. Go to Settings, General, Restrictions to turn Restrictions on and choose which of the iPad’s features to limit. From then on, Restrictions will be accessible only to those who know the PIN.