When Apple announced the iPad 2, Steve Jobs noted that this accessory was developed alongside the iPad 2 ("...think of them as one device"), and made it out to be an absolute necessity.

We played around with it and it seems to function very nicely with the new iPad 2. But "how does it work?" we wondered...

We were also curious to see if Apple used magnets with special properties -- such as the awesome correlated magnets developed by CMR -- for the Smart Cover. Correlated magnets have multiple poles that could be contributing to the unique functionality of this cover.