"All of us have phrases we use frequently when writing. For example, I often type "iPad Academy" or "Thanks for contacting me" in my email messages. If you have phrases you type repeatedly, you can create shortcuts (abbreviations) for these phrases. The shortcut, composed of a few characters, automatically expands to become the phrase it represents."
"Virtually anyone from hardcore geeks to orangutans (no, really) can simply pick up an iPad and start using it immediately. But apparently that's not good enough for Apple, because iOS (and especially the new version, iOS 5) offers a number of shortcuts to make any iPad user into a power user."
"One of the most frustrating things to type on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch keyboards is an email address. Typing out a name, then tapping the ".?123″ button to access special characters and numbers, then tapping it again to type more letters, than tapping it yet again to type a period, and again to finish off an email address, by the time you're done you've shifted between the touch keyboards half a billion times. Instead of repeating that process over and over again, do yourself a favor and create a keyboard shortcut for your email address."
"None of us enjoy typing out our email address, especially if we have to do it a number of times a day on an iOS device. But thanks to the new Shortcuts feature in iOS 5, we don't have to. Here's how to setup a shortcut that will save you from typing out your email address forever!"
For those of you who are super-confident about your iPad knowledge, I'd like to propose a challenge. Go through and see how many features and shortcuts you didn't know about, leave a comment with the number at the bottom of the post - and be honest!
"The Settings app is probably one that you use all the time without even thinking about it. A lot of the tools that help you to make iOS more in tune with your personal preferences are managed through Settings. But even with the best-designed interface in the world, the complexity of iOS means that some things get a bit buried. "