14 DAY TRIAL // Early iPad adopters have reported problems with recharging their iPads on Windows-based PCs, or using Apple wired keyboards, but most complaints are related to the device’s wireless abilities. In fact, it’s the iPad’s inability to keep a strong Wi-Fi signal that is upsetting buyers, with complaints piling up on Apple’s Discussions forums as you are reading these lines.
"Wifi reception seems weak with slow downloads," thread starter ‘Dr. JB’ writes. "Getting one bar while my MBP getting a strong signal. I have an airport extreme base station (latest generation, firmware up to date)," he explains and asks fellow posters to share their own experience.
"Signal is weak, downloading anything is painfully slow and it will drop the signal and go offline every 5-10 minutes," a user identified as ‘mbell75’ chimes in. "Pretty annoying."
"It will work fine for a while, but show a low signal. Then, after a few minutes of use, my connection will drop completely and I will have to reset my wi-fi radio," another disappointed iPad owner says.
"My wifi went down to 1 bar after working great for a few hours," ‘syunker’ shares his experience. "My download speeds started to crawl, I couldn't even surf the web. I rebooted my router and it didn't help."
"In our living room where laptops get a full signal, my iPad gets a very poor signal which is so bad that it even cuts completely out sometimes," ‘Panjandrum’ complains. "I had to walk the iPad into the same room as my router to get a movie rental to download," he adds.
"Same here," a poster going by the screen name of ‘dkab’ chimes in. "Weak Wi-fi that constantly goes from three down to one bar. Hope this is a software issue and not crappy wifi antenna," he writes.
Although we have no knowledge as to why the iPad’s WiFi capabilities seem poor, customers should rest assured knowing that such problems are generally remedied via simple firmware updates. An iPhone OS 3.2.1 update should appear in these users’ iTunes window in the following days, should Apple acknowledge these issues. Apple usually waits to confirm that an issue is widespread, before testing, bundling a patch, and sending it out to customers as a firmware fix. Given the circumstances (the high number of complaints), Apple should act fast.