If you are not currently surfing the web, checking your emails or browsing the iTunes Store (or anything else that requires an active internet connection), turning off wireless on your iPad is a great and easy way to save on battery life. Whether you are surfing or not, your iPad needs to regularly check the WiFi connection to make sure that it is still active, and obviously also uses power when you are receiving or sending information online. This tutorial explains how to quickly turn off WiFi on your iPad (temporarily disable your wireless in other words), and how to re-enable it later on.
Temporarily disable wireless on your iPad
Follow these steps to turn off the wireless radio and save power:
Click on the "Home" button, and flick through Home screens until you find the "Settings" icon: then tap on it.- Once the iPad Settings screen loads, tap on the "General" settings on the left (should be automatically selected).
- Choose "Network" preferences on the right, and then select "Wi-Fi". (Note that you can also access this same screen by tapping on "Wi-Fi" at the very top of the left column, how you get to that screen makes no difference.)
- The first option displayed is labeled "Wi-Fi", and includes an On/Off switch. The text on the switch indicates the current wireless state, not the one you'll end up with by pushing the switch. In other words, if the switch is blue and reads "On", it means that WiFi is currently running. In that case, tap on the switch, and you have turned off WiFi on your iPad.
When you manually disable wireless on your iPad, it will respect your decision regardless of needs: if an application needs internet access, you will generally get a notification of some kind, but applications won't re-enable WiFi automatically.
Manually re-enable WiFi on your iPad
To turn wireless back on for your iPad, simply follow the steps we outlined above: when you get to t "Wi-Fi Networks" screen, simply tap the "Wi-Fi" switch (which should read "Off" if wireless is turned off).