So I was at Wal-Mart with the lady, and she said we should buy something crazy (tax return). After a single day I decided it wasn’t worth keeping it, returned it, and decided to just say fuck it and buy an Android instead. Here’s why I returned it:

The Wi-Fi Issue:

For a wireless device, it seems to have a real nasty problem with connectivity. You’ll find many frustrated users who’ve ended up returning it because they couldn’t get help from Apple. I called them up and they said it “must be my router”. I tried three different ones and it still was either sluggish or didn’t connect well. iPods connect fine to the routers (neighborhood kids use the wifi) so why not the iPad? One quick fix I found was to flash the iPad, but this only worked so long. Something about Angry Birds or any app being installed kills connectivity. Go figure.

Interface Brick Wall:

While it may have been funny to watch my girlfriend try and get out of the settings menu for the first five minutes of using it, I hate the interface. Are you supposed to hit the home button for every function, or what? So simple, a six year old can’t figure out how to use it!

Okay What Now?

Once we figured out what the hell we were doing, I couldn’t think of a use for it beyond Angry Birds or reading ebooks. As the Kindle Wifi is only running $139, I can’t justify a $600+ purchase to read a book or play some fun games. Maybe in the future there will be more stuff you can do with it out of the box.

Can I Hack it?

Since I’ve been using Windows and Linux run machines for so long, I was pretty frustrated about how locked down Apple products are (yeah, yeah, I know it’s a lifestyle product) and that getting it hacked to do some novel stuff wasn’t simple unless you’re a tethering ninja.

All in all, the iPad wasn’t for me. Maybe once all the kinks are worked out in the next version, I can try it again.

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