Two Weeks With Padge

It has been two weeks since I bought the iPad. For a while, I was happy downloading apps from the Apps Store, free and paid. It is so easy to get apps! I went through a similar experience before when I got hooked on the iTunes Music Store. Ninety-cent a pop, almost every song I could think of. I had an iTouch before but the tiny screen did not entice me to buy apps and such right off of it. Instead, I bought everything for the iTouch via iTunes on the PowerBook.

Size really matters with the iPad. I bought a few apps even though most of them cost more than the typical 99-cent iPhone app. Of course I would buy from the Apps Store, directly from the iPad, only when it has a WiFi connection. (My iPad has 3G but I am not ready to spend more money on it.). The iPad is an Internet appliance, is it too much to ask that its Net connection is reliable? Apparently it was. I heard about the WiFi issue with the iPad before but decided to take a chance with it. And lost. While WiFi worked, it worked sporadically. Somehow it couldn't remember the long password and often asked for it. At some point I was confident that I got the long password memorized and entered it, but alas some character was wrong and the connection couldn't be made. I had to reset network settings to at least be prompted for the password again, otherwise nothing would work. I thought I figured it out by always making sure under Preferences to have WiFi connected first, but that didn't do it either. The list of suggestions as provided by Apple was pretty pathetic. I felt like I was dealing with a Windoze machine. I thought about returning the iPad. Best Buy has a decent 14-day period during which I could have exchanged the thing or return it, I thought.

Luckily, I didn't have to travel down that road. iPad OS 3.2.1 came out a day before Day 14 arrived. The installation was not smooth, as the iPad froze during the process. I had to reboot it then wait for the OS to be restored, then my various apps, music, and photo. Some two hours later the iPad was functional again and boy, does that WiFi fly! All is well in Apple Land again!