Apple iPad Problems Stacking Up

Problems with the new iPad just seem to keep popping up in the news

Since the release of the latest Apple iPad, it seems that one problem after another has been reported and is not looking good for Apple. In some respects, it reminds one of problems when companies push something out too quickly and then have to spend time cleaning up the problems. That is in the the public eye and Apple historically has delivered very good hardware and software which has become the standard for many in the industry. Could it be that the are losing that stature?

Heating iPads

One of the more publicized problems with the iPad has been the heat which it generates. The reports are many and one of the most damming is one from Consumer Reports where they found the new iPad operating at temperatures of up to 116 degrees while playing games. This is in direct opposition to statements by Apple. Those statements, as reported by All Things D, have Apple saying that the iPad is "Operating well within our thermal specifications". Whether 116 degrees is operating within "thermal specifications" is for others to speak to. But with that heat, you do feel it if it is on your lap. While it may not be much worse than some laptops, coming from Apple is a surprise.

Not Charging While Playing Games

There are reports where the iPad is not charging when playing games and it is really much bigger than that. It appears that any CPU intensive app which is running, including most games, will not continue to charge the iPad while the CPU intensive processes are going on. During those time, the battery is being drained just as fast as it is being charged. Thus a stalemate and the status quo of the battery remains as is. It could be worse and the battery continues to drain, but the issue of having a charger attached and not having the battery life increasing is a concern.

Other Battery Replated Items

From Information Week comes reports of problems with charging the battery on the new iPad. One item says that if the iPad is connected to a USB 2.0 port, it will not charge. If you are using your new iPad while the charger is plugged in, it charges very slowly if at all.

In another report from 9 to 5 Mac, they are reporting problems with the charging of the battery. It appears that after the battery indicator shows 100%, that the iPad continues to charge the battery. According to the article, once you see the 100% indicator, it takes another hour to completely charge the iPad. Could this be due to the much larger battery?

WiFi Problems

There are reports of WiFi problems on the latest iPad as well. Complaints about WiFi issues have been growing and were also part of issues with the iPad 2. It seems that the connectivity issues this time around are worse than with previous models. While the iPhone 4S is not having these issues, the new iPad is. This is primarily related to signal strength and the dropping of signals. Either of these make it problematic to use.

LTE And Excessive Data Usage

While not directly an Apple problem, there are growing complaints of people exceeding their data plans while using the iPad's 4G LTE data connection. Streaming comes with almost no effort and in a matter of days, you can use up an entire months worth of your data plan. These reports are growing, but the big one is going to be when owners get their wireless bills. That is when many are going to find out about overage charges on the new tiered data plans which AT&T and Verizon are offering. That is going to become the big store by the end of May.

In Summary

While some issues can be fixed with software updates, some of these cannot. The one item which is not easily fixed is that of reputation. While having a great reputation for releasing quality products, the latest iPad product is threatening Apple's long standing reputation. There are other complaints related to the iPad and some not directly impacting the iPad but part of bigger issues. The latest one is iTunes downloads where anything larger than 15 MB is resulting in an error. It is the growing list of issues which really seems to indicate that Apple released this product before it was ready.

What do you think?