Gadgetory

if you have an iPad 2 you might have heard of the Smart Cover accessory which lets you lock and unlock your device using a simple magnet system bearing in mind that magnets were always known to break electronics this technology is actually pretty neat the only annoying thing is that the Smart Cover doesn't actually provide any protection you're stuck with choosing between convenience and durability I'm Sharon Vaknin frissina here to show you how to turn almost any iPad case into a functioning smart cover for this project you'll need a durable iPad case one that closes pretty snugly you'll also need some magnetic tape or some magnets and adhesive now before we get started let's talk a little bit about the iPads anatomy iFixit did a teardown and found out that one magnet activates the locking and unlocking here while several other magnets hold the Smart Cover in place here now that we know this let's take a look at how it works using this magnet I can lock and unlock the device like this if it's not working make sure I pad cover lock unlock is on in the settings with this in mind creating our own customized Smart Cover will be pretty simple just take the magnetic tape and align it with the side of the case that meets the magnetic side of the iPad if you don't have magnetic tape you can also use adhesive tape and magnets to create the same solution now when you close your ipad cover it will lock the device and when you open it it'll unlock it just like Apple Smart Cover send me a photo of your customized smart cover on Twitter and say hello to me on Facebook for cnet.com I'm Sharon Vaknin and I'll see you in the next how-to