Please no laughing, I got this ipad out of the box, charged it, plugged it into th computer, and I have an itunes account. It does, and shows nothing but the connect cord, and thats it. I am not sure what to do now

It should be recognized when you fire up itunes.

If not, unplug it and try again.

Don't worry - that gets us all.

Before you can use the iPad it needs to be connected to your PC to initialise it. You need the latest version of iTunes on your PC first of all, which you can download from Apple for free if you don't have it. Then use the cable that came in the box to connect your iPad to your PC. iTunes will automatically start up and initialise the iPad and, if you want it to, it will automatically set up all your email accounts to be the same as on your PC, transfer all of your contacts, transfer all of your bookmarks, music, videos etc - or not, if you don't want it to.

It only takes a few minutes - unless you've got a whole load of stuff you want to transfer and then you're good to go.

Have fun and welcome to the Forum.

Tim