I thought that pressing the home button closes a app. But I notice when I double press the home button all the apps show as open. I read the manual but I don't get it???

when you see those apps, hold on to them until you see it wiggle with a "-" on the upper left of the app. hit those to completely close app.

Of course, only the first few of those apps are in memory, and unless they have a background task running, they aren't hurting anything. Deleting them is more cosmetic than anything. The memory they are using is supposed to free itself up as needed.

I will admit, that occasionally when things start acting slow I'll delete them all. I haven't satisfactorily proved to myself whether this helped, or whether it was just restarting the app I was in.

Do you have the most recent copy of the iPad User Guide? The most recent one covers all of the new features that were added with version 4.2.

I suggest you download a copy of the iPad User Guide. It is available for free in several different formats.

a) As a free PDF download from the Apple website --

Apple - Support - Manuals



This can (and should!) be saved on your computer and your iPad.

b) As a free iBook once you download the free iBook app from the iTunes App Store.

c) Online using the link provided in the Safari favorites on your iPad.

The answers to many questions, especially if this is your first Apple mobile "iDevice", can be answered by spending some quality time with this handy document.

Thanks guys. Yes I am new to Apple products. At least I know that I am doing it right. Downloaded the Guide thanks. Another question how can I check what is pulling the most from the battery? I notice now that I have my iPad for a few months an downloaded three pages of apps that my battery is getting sucked up faster.

Originally Posted by dgk

Another question how can I check what is pulling the most from the battery?

As far as I know, there is no way to tell. Maybe you are just using your iPad more!

Interactive apps that require your WiFi or 3g connection will run down the battery faster than apps that work alone on the iPad.

A battery monitoring app like that would need to run as a background service. No way a developer can make one of these without going the jailbreak route. Perversely, an app that monitor's how much juice apps are using would also use more juice, though a well designed one might not use much.

There are apps that will give you some system info and estimate how much battery life is left for each type of activity. I use SystemInfo, but there are lots of them. Just search for system info or system monitor. Take everything they tell you with a grain of salt, and the understanding that what would be bad on a computer is probably just normal for a mobile device. Memory is often full, or nearly full as apps wait around in case they are needed. They are automatically freed up if memory is needed. Usually.

Once every month or two it is a good idea to let your iPad run until it automatically shuts down. Then put it on a charger and leave it there until you have a 100% charge. This isn't like memory for the old Ni-cads. Instead it is a way for the iPad to reset its stats for the battery, and provide more accurate estimates.