Got my iPad Friday noon, did what most people would do, unboxed, synced, charged and activated my Verizon prepaid LTE. Signals at home were ok, not really good or bad, but just ok, getting the advertised 5-12Mbps download speeds.
Went to a different part of the city by dinner time, was inside a 1930's brick building, sat beside the window, got good signals. Got great speeds! Around 20Mbps down/15Mbps up. After about 3-4 hours, I suddenly notice my Verizon LTE signals going on and off, so I was thinking, maybe it's just bad inside the building so I turned LTE off, used Verizon 3G. Then all of a sudden, it just keeps on searching and searching and searching for signal. My AT&T iPhone4S had full bars, and my friend's Verizon iPhone4S had full bars too. Then, every 3-5 mins when it can't find a signal, the iPad will reboot itself.
So, I tried to reset the Network Settings of the iPad, Reprovision the Verizon Service, and iPad restarted, still didn't work. Tried to re-seat the sim card, same thing. So I decided to back it up, then restored it, worked perfectly... for about 2-3 hours.
I ended doing the same thing on my last paragraph and after the 2nd restore, it worked perfectly... again for about 2-3 hours. So I tried to restore it, again for the 3rd time, but now, it gave me an error and just won't restore and just stays in recovery mode every restart. Repeated restoring it to no avail.
It's really pissing me off that my 1st-ever iPad probably has a defect, so I made an appointment at the Apple Store at 230pm that afternoon after using it overnight for some documents I need the next morning.
Got a few hours sleep, woke up and went to the Apple Store. Of course the store was crowded with new iPad buyers and there were Specialists stationed in front to screen everyone who tried to get in the store. Of course I got in without a hitch as I told them I had a Genius bar appointment. So, I spoke to the Genius guy and explained to him what was happening. As soon as I finished explaining, he told me, he'll replace my iPad and just wait for him where I was standing.
After about 45 mins, he came out with the iPad replacement still with the original box plastic wrap. He explained to me, why it took him a while to get me one as he needed to at least troubleshoot the problem, and he did tell me he wasn't able to restore the iPad at all so he secured a replacement for me. One thing he needed to do was log and report the problem to Corporate and Engineering as it was a newly launched product and they need to gather all the first-model issues they can gather so they can fix those issues.
So I ended up inserting my current sim card and logged in for my Verizon activated prepaid account, it was working perfectly. I was thinking, it was like when I had my 1st one so I'll just wait a few more hours and see if it'll replicate the problem I had.
And now, after 32 hours, my iPad is working perfectly... well, besides the usual complaint I'm reading here, longer charging, too hot in the lower-left side, etc, etc. But after 2 days of having the iPad, I think I made the right decision in waiting for the 3rd-gen iPad. And besides, who would've thought that as a 1st-time iPad buyer, I've already had 2 iPads in less than 48 hours. lol
Went to a different part of the city by dinner time, was inside a 1930's brick building, sat beside the window, got good signals. Got great speeds! Around 20Mbps down/15Mbps up. After about 3-4 hours, I suddenly notice my Verizon LTE signals going on and off, so I was thinking, maybe it's just bad inside the building so I turned LTE off, used Verizon 3G. Then all of a sudden, it just keeps on searching and searching and searching for signal. My AT&T iPhone4S had full bars, and my friend's Verizon iPhone4S had full bars too. Then, every 3-5 mins when it can't find a signal, the iPad will reboot itself.
So, I tried to reset the Network Settings of the iPad, Reprovision the Verizon Service, and iPad restarted, still didn't work. Tried to re-seat the sim card, same thing. So I decided to back it up, then restored it, worked perfectly... for about 2-3 hours.
I ended doing the same thing on my last paragraph and after the 2nd restore, it worked perfectly... again for about 2-3 hours. So I tried to restore it, again for the 3rd time, but now, it gave me an error and just won't restore and just stays in recovery mode every restart. Repeated restoring it to no avail.
It's really pissing me off that my 1st-ever iPad probably has a defect, so I made an appointment at the Apple Store at 230pm that afternoon after using it overnight for some documents I need the next morning.
Got a few hours sleep, woke up and went to the Apple Store. Of course the store was crowded with new iPad buyers and there were Specialists stationed in front to screen everyone who tried to get in the store. Of course I got in without a hitch as I told them I had a Genius bar appointment. So, I spoke to the Genius guy and explained to him what was happening. As soon as I finished explaining, he told me, he'll replace my iPad and just wait for him where I was standing.
After about 45 mins, he came out with the iPad replacement still with the original box plastic wrap. He explained to me, why it took him a while to get me one as he needed to at least troubleshoot the problem, and he did tell me he wasn't able to restore the iPad at all so he secured a replacement for me. One thing he needed to do was log and report the problem to Corporate and Engineering as it was a newly launched product and they need to gather all the first-model issues they can gather so they can fix those issues.
So I ended up inserting my current sim card and logged in for my Verizon activated prepaid account, it was working perfectly. I was thinking, it was like when I had my 1st one so I'll just wait a few more hours and see if it'll replicate the problem I had.
And now, after 32 hours, my iPad is working perfectly... well, besides the usual complaint I'm reading here, longer charging, too hot in the lower-left side, etc, etc. But after 2 days of having the iPad, I think I made the right decision in waiting for the 3rd-gen iPad. And besides, who would've thought that as a 1st-time iPad buyer, I've already had 2 iPads in less than 48 hours. lol