Review: Apple iPad 3G

Like the iPhone before it, the iPad has the potential to change your life. No exaggeration: Once you live with one for a few weeks, you'll find it insinuating itself into your daily routine so much that you can't imagine living without it. (If you're a man, get used to wearing a murse.)

With more than a million of the devices sold to date, clearly something is clicking, and not just with 99-year-olds. But the 3G iPad, which went on sale Friday, is a weird mix of boon and bust. It's a fantastic piece of hardware that changes the way you think about mobile computing ... when it can actually pull in a signal.

During my first hours with the 3G iPad in San Francisco, where AT&T's network is notoriously overloaded by iPhone-toting hipsters, I couldn't get a connection — not even to set up an account so AT&T could take my money. After heading to a different neighborhood, I finally got a signal. Once online, speed tests on TestMyiPhone.com averaged 735 Kbps (download speed), which is respectable, but doesn't reflect the frequent frustration of trying to find a usable signal.

The iPad is unlocked, but it's only compatible with Micro SIM cards. Since AT&T is currently the sole U.S. carrier using Micro SIMs, that means we're still stuck with AT&T, and that's a huge minus.

You're also stuck with the App Store. With more than 185,000 apps (5,000 of which are iPad-specific) there are a lot of choices for adding capabilities to your iPad, but you are limited to what Apple approves. Whether that drives you up the wall or gives you a feeling of comfort and safety depends on your attitude and on what you're looking for. A compact replacement for your computer? This is not the device for you. A lap-sized television with 185,000 interactive channels? You will enjoy the iPad very, very much.

When it does work, this thing is an entertainment smorgasbord. Take, for example, my Sunday afternoon of media hedonism. I toted the 3G iPad to a hookah bar, plopped down on a couch with a pal, and started flipping through iPad comics, landing planes in Flight Control and watching Futurama between puffs of fruity smoke.

Add to that an impressively immersive web-browsing experience, excellent e-mail and calendar apps, and apps for playing music and looking at your photos, and it's clear that the iPad is doing a lot of things right. (See Wired writer Steven Levy's first look at the iPad for more on the iPad's hardware and basic apps.)

The 3G iPad is really part of a brand-new gadget category: devices that can bring you any kind of content, anywhere, at any time. Are you a student searching for research papers? Bam! Download a PDF and read it while you're eating at the cafeteria. PTA meeting putting you in a coma? Boom! Download an episode of Fringe. (Just don't forget the earbuds.) Niche areas have even more potential. Doctors could look at up-to-the-second patient info, architects might see 3-D models in the field, and the military could potentially use it to help eliminate friendly fire.

Do you need the 3G version? If you're a commuter or hope to use the iPad in a variety of locations, it's definitely worth the extra $130. If you're mostly going to be using it at home or at the office, get the Wi-Fi-only version. In either case, we recommend springing for the 32-GB version, as media-rich apps gobble up storage space quicker than you'd expect.

The hardware is on the right track. Now all we need is a mobile network that can really do this device justice.