Good to hear from you. You’ll find a whole bunch of iPad enthusiasts in this Forum who are only too willing to help other iPad owners and to hear of their experiences. Don’t be afraid to post any questions you may have or use the ‘Search’ button near the top of the Forum web page. I usually find I discover one new interesting and useful piece of information about my iPad every day - and often not even what I was looking for!!
I noticed the problem you reported with your iPad2 and the Smart Cover.
What happens if you remove the Smart Cover completely - i.e. don't use it at all - and power the iPad up using the Power switch. Do you get the same problem then? The iPad has an ambient light sensor too that measures how bright it is where the iPad is being used - it turns up the screen brightness when it's bright to make the screen easier to read and turns down the brightness when it's dark, so that it doesn't blind you. Sometimes the light sensor can be inadvertently covered which can cause it to appear to malfunction.
Anyway, let us know what happens when you operate the iPad without the Smart Cover and then we can give you some more suggestions.
Hope to hear from you soon with your thoughts about the iPad.
Have fun and enjoy your iPad
Also the iPad2 manual is available at
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/ipad_2_user_guide.pdf
It’s free too.
Tim
Scotland