mr. ed wrote:
Ihave an ipad Air tablet, purchased earlier this year. I'm curious about the cord that runs from the charger to the ipad. One end of the cord is a standard USB plug. I've never tried plugging it into my laptop out of concern I might damage something. Can this cord be safely inserted into the USB port on my laptop, and for what purpose? Thank you for your assistance.
if it is the cord that came with your iPad you can use that cord to charge or sync the iPad to iTunes. to charge, plug the standard USB connector into a USB2 or newer port on your PC or MAC or get a standard USB-to-AC outlet adapter and charge that way. periodically syncing your iPad to iTunes on your PC or MAC will ensure that you can always restore your iPad should something go poof in the night.