Apple Ipad 3 WoW (at first, but then)

Edit: IPad can be a problem in multiple hotspot locations. On your next hotel stay, your iPad may be a $500 paper weight unless you understand a few things.

I will try to explain this:
IPad has a weak radio compared to most notebooks or phones. On Windows all radios are listed and you can just pick one even though it is a weak signal. Apple will list also but the list has fewer items due to the weaker radio and will not list these weak signals. Also if iPad has once tried to connect to a stronger signal it will want to return to that signal and chances of listing a weaker signal is even more remote. Removing my case didn't seem to help reception.

Physically go to where you may receive a stronger signal from the weaker access point. This may be as simple as stepping into the hallway. If the additional locations are listed fine. If not, go to "wifi" and "forget" the current location the go to "settings" "general" "reset" and reset the network. Hopefully IPad will now list the new location as an option. Once you connect successfully it should be remembered and you can go back to you room and still have connection.

Just to clarify, you may have connected through the access point last night in the hotel, but this morning that access point is bonkers. iPad will insist that that access point is the only one available and you will need to beat it into submission ... is that clear?

To check if something was totally trashed with the iPad, I set up a virtual hotspot with my Win7 notebook and iPad connected to that just fine. So we need a Windows notebook to use iPad in hotel rooms? At times the answer could be yes. This is not outrageous if one person has a notebook and the other only has an iPad. Hey, at least it works. This can be handy also if one notebook connects to the router but another can't. It may be able to connect to the virtual hotspot. Now you are both happy.

This network connection weakness may be less irritating when I get accustomed to babysitting but it is a weakness in the iPad. Will this keep me from buying a third iPad? Maybe. In the end I could be wrong about this whole thing but so far this has been my experience.

..........

All my tablet agonizing is finally over. I had finally decided to get a Nexus 7 Tegra 3 if I had to have a tablet, or maybe wait for a Nexus 10 if there ever is one, but my children gave me an iPad 3 for my birthday. I would never have purchased an iPad because of my disdain and revulsion to all things Apple, which I will forego denouncing here for lack of space and time. Well, you just can't take a gift back so I'm an iPad man.

Not that you could rip it out of my hands, mind you. The iPad is one slick machine. My phones are Android which is getting better with each new version, but iPad does everything so seamlessly and intuitively. Now I understand why everyone is so in love with Apple. (You will still never get me away from PC and I will have an Android tablet someday.) Honestly, I never believed I would be so impressed with a tablet. My wife has wanted a tablet and I, of course, could not decide what to get her. When I first got the iPad, I told her she could have it because I really had no use for a tablet anyway. Guess again. I will now need to buy my Wife an iPad.

The iPad starts almost immediately and navigation innovations are slick once you discover them (can you say five fingers?) . It has dual GHz wifi so it connects to either 2.4 or 5. The speaker is room filling and better than most laptops. This is hard to explain. I am not talking quality but several people sitting in a room can hear the iPad better than laptop speakers but I don't know why. Of course the screen is wonderful but all that is standard iPad bragging.

I did not expect Google information to be so seamlessly integratable with iPad. Setting up a Microsoft Exchange server to Gmail is easy so the native iPad apps for mail, contacts and every other app that uses your contact list work flawlessly. Google makes a search app for iPad that runs other Google apps, such as Google Docs, that is easier to use than accessing Google Docs on Android. What a trip. And the free Dragon dictation app is shockingly accurate. Just talk up an email message in Dragon and send it from the contact list that Dragon grabs from the exchange server. Dragon even got "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" to the admiration of us all.

Would I rather use a "real computer"? Yes, but the portability and instant on of the iPad, without sacrificing functionality completely, does have it's application. No, I will not be doing a spreadsheet, but I can edit one. I will not be creating complex graphics, but I can take and construct some quick snapshot presentations. And all ordinary surfing, reading and entertaining is a walk in the park. We should expect all that. What I didn't expect is how everything works so extremely well.

The original gift was an iPad 2 x 16 because that was available but I grabbed an iPad 3 x16 to compare and decide. I am keeping v3 just for kicks and because I hate returning things. If the screen brightness is cranked up the battery drops faster but it is gorgeous. You don't need the screen turned up but it is nice to have if you want it. The v2 is lighter and felt as responsive as v3. We are keeping v2 also. If I were to buy again I'm not certain which I would get. I think I may save the $100 and go with v2.

iPad does not really multitask in the traditional sense. I like to listen to things while reading and this is inconvenient. Some apps will play in the background, Spotify, Tunein Radio. I would jail break the thing but don't want the hassle of finding old iTunes and not upgrading. I'm sure to find other hateful big brother Apple hairy handedness.

Downloading podcasts and finding them is a hide and seek adventure. They do not show up in "podcasts" "downloads" or "purchases". Video podcasts are in "videos" and audio podcasts are in "music" under "more". Eventually they may show up in "library" but maybe not, jury is still out. Library tab may not be available tab until things have been downloaded in iTunes.

The good news is that audio podcasts being played on iTunes will play in the background while you do other things. Just play and press the bottom button to close the program and iTunes will keep playing. I was trying this with a video podcast and the audio would not continue.

I like to listen to streaming audio while reading other material. Some third party application audio will contuse to play in the background, Tunein Radio for example will play, but some apps will not. The lack of true multitasking (whatever that really means) makes this all feel clumsy.

I may return to express some further ideas about my iPad. But for now I am pleasantly surprised that despite being a Windows/Android user, I feel that I gave up nothing having an iPad and actually gained something by having an Apple device. Maybe I should give iTunes another try? That would be going to far.

Stuff I need:
A stylus would be nice.
A case is a must.
Goodreader (I hate buying software, how Android of me.) Got it and works great to transfer files wirelessly to the iPad and read various file types.