Your iPad can be in one of three states: on, off, or sleep. If you have the 3G model that can connect to a cellular phone network, you can also put your iPad in airplane mode. By learning the advantages of each state, you'll know when and why to use them.

When your iPad is on, you can use it. When your iPad is in sleep mode, you'll conserve its battery power while keeping it ready to start up right away. Sleep mode is best when you are not using your iPad but plan to return to it soon.

Airplane mode turns off your iPad's ability to access email or surf the Web through a 3G cellular phone network. This essentially cuts off your iPad from the rest of the world while letting you do most other tasks, such as play music, read books, check your calendar, or browse your list of contacts. As its name suggests, airplane mode is perfect for when you're in an airplane and can't risk having your iPad interfere with the airplane's navigation systems.

If you know you won't need to use your iPad any time soon, you might as well turn it off to keep it from running down its battery.

In this chapter you'll learn how to turn on your iPad, put it to sleep, put it in airplane mode, and shut it off completely.