INTRO

I have never owned an Apple product and the last Apple computer I programmed was an Apple II in high school about 25 years ago. The last Apple product I ever used was a desktop computer I had at work 15 years ago when I worked for SAIC. I am not an Apple fanboy, but I am not an Apple basher either. More like a neutral observer trying to figure out what all the hype is about. My company gave me an iPad to use for work, so I got a fresh Apple experience.

OUT OF THE BOX

When I got it home and took it out of the box it was more solid than I expected. The weight, fit & finish and overall quality are high. There is no instruction manual, other than a piece of paper about the size of a business card with red fine print in about 4 different languages. So I found the black on/off switch and pushed it. The screen lit up for a few seconds then went black. I could not turn it on and play with it. At first I thought, "Mike you are overthinking this. People who don't know anything about computers love Apple products. This has to be simple." But I discovered that the iPad is simply a brick and cannot be used out of the box. Before it can do anything you must:

It seems a bit strange to me that somebody who just spent $500 - $1000 on a new toy, can't use that toy and must perform all of the above steps, including giving his credit card number, even if he doesn't plan to buy anything? If any company other than Apple did this, they would be ridiculed and demonized.

As I observed the plethora of annoying ads that appear in the iTunes store, I pondered whether Apple could give these things away for free and still make money.

SO WHAT DOES IT DO

Now that my iPad was functional, it was time to see what it could do. Out of the box, there is a contacts/calendar/email app that can sync with POP3 and Exchange servers. It has a book reader too. I had the perfect PDF file to test with it. It's an FAA document I've been studying for IFR certification, about 100 MB in size with lots of complex, detailed diagrams. Some of the pages crash my Kindle, others take > 5 minutes to render. I wonder how the iPad does on this app?

First, I had to figure out how to get the doc into the iPad.

WHERE'S THE FILE SYSTEM?

When I connected the iPad to my computer and iTunes popped up, there was no obvious way to get data into it. I found the interface downright confusing, and I design and build software for a living! Problem was my expectations. I expected the iPad to be like any other device I connect to my computer - whether another computer, external drive, Kindle, MP3 player, etc. They all show up with a filesystem you can read & write. Not so on the iPad. There is no common file system you can access. You can't simply drop files on it (whether PDF, MP3, TXT, MOBI, EPUB or whatever). Everything in the iPad is sandboxed - each app has its own sandbox. You can only drop files into specific applications, and most of the time you can't even do that, because it only works with the tiny subset of applications that support this feature.

BACK TO THE STORE

So I started reading about this more. I discovered that are a few basic utility apps any iPad owner needs to get in order to do anything useful with it. One of those apps is "GoodReader". So I plinked down my $1 and bought this app. Now, I could connect my iPad to my computer, drop my 100 MB PDF file onto the GoodReader app, and read it. I was pleasantly surprised to see this huge and highly complex PDF worked MUCH better than my Kindle. Even the most complex screens rendered in a few seconds and it looked gorgeous on the iPad screen. Pinch zoom, panning, etc. was a superb interface. Very nice!

MORE ON SANDBOXING

I thought about how inherently inefficient and generally bogus sandboxing really is. Suppose I have a file that I use in 2 different applications, say one to edit and the other to present it. I have to load two separate copies of the file into the iPad, doubling the amount of precious & expensive memory it consumes. Worse, the 2 copies of the file are not synced so anything I edit does not appear in the presentation. The iPad alone couldn't even do that. It would require a separate computer. Edit in iPad app A, connect to computer, copy to computer, copy from computer to iPad app B. This horrible user experience reminds me of swapping files around on 360k floppy disks in the 1980s.

Apple, are you actually serious? But it gets even better!

IPAD SYNCHRONIZING

The iPad plays music and has very good sound quality. So I dropped a bunch of my own MP3 files on it. These are my own high bit rate MP3s from my own high quality recordings. In the iTunes app, with the iPad connected, there are several different places the files can be dropped. I tried a few to no avail, until I discovered that dropping each folder of MP3 files as a playlist worked.

I still don't know what is happening when I drop the files on the other locations in iTunes. It accepts the files but they never show up on the iPad or anywhere else. At least I got it working, but it sure seemed more confusing and complex than it needs to be, and certainly more so than any other device I've used. If everyone thinks this is intuitive and simple, I suppose my brain just works differently from most people. My wife would certainly agree with that.

Then, I went to a different computer that had a few more of my own MP3 files. The moment I hooked up the iPad to this computer, the iTunes app asked if I wanted to sync. If I did, it would slick the entire iPad and sync with this computer. "No," I thought, "I don't want to slick my entire iPad. All I want to do is add a few more MP3 files to it."

Apparently, this simple task is totally impossible. Or, at least I can't figure it out. It seems one has to sync the iPad with one and only one dedicated computer. You can't simply add files to it, or to any app on it, from multiple computers.

Apple, are you actually serious? But it gets even better!

THE APPLE STORE

One day, I noticed a strange $1.41 charge on my credit card from the iTunes store. It says, "California Gurls Snoop Dogg". "What the heck is this?" I wonder. If you know me then you know that I had never until then heard of Snoop Dogg. The music I listen to is mainly written by white guys who wore wigs and died over 100 years ago. I receive an email confirmation of this charge, click the "report a problem" and send Apple this message:
I did not purchase this or any other song. Please cancel and rescind charges. Thank you."
Three days later (?!), I receive a reply saying the charges were canceled.

So the iTunes store mistakenly (fraudulently?) charged my card for something I never bought and Apple took several days to respond and correct it. But they did correct it, right? So all's well that ends well?
Not quite.

WHY IS MY ACCOUNT DISABLED?

Turns out that in addition to canceling the charges, Apple also did me the favor of disabling my iTunes account. Anyone who has an iPhone or iPad knows what a pain this is, because when your iTunes account is disabled your ability to use your device is very limited. One more email to Apple support, and my account is re-enabled. So far so good, right?
Not quite.

WHY IS MY CREDIT CARD BANNED FROM THE APPLE STORE?

I went to the Apple store to download a free iPad app, and it refused saying my credit card was invalid.
My first question was, "Why does it need a credit card to download a free app?"
My next question was, "Why is my credit card banned from the Apple store?"
I sent another email to Apple tech support. Couple days go by, no reponse, so I ping them again. Couple more days go by and I finally get a response. They say any card that has had unauthorized charges is permanently banned from the Apple store.

I reply to explain that this card never had any unauthorized activity until the Apple store itself created that unauthorized activity. Apple has fixed that problem and I continue to use the card. There is no identity theft, I've changed my password and there are no other unauthorized charges.

Reply from Apple store is, card is banned, that's corporate policy.

I reply to clarify and make sure I understand:
iTunes store initiates or allows unauthorized activity on my account.
Apple responds by banning my credit card from use in the store.
I change my account password and my credit card shows no other unauthorized charges.
Presumably, Apple has investigated and fixed the iTunes issue that caused this problem.
Despite the problem being resolved, Apple continues to ban my credit card and will not reinstate it.
Please let me know: has Apple identified & fixed the problem that caused this?
If so, the original card is safe to use.
If not, then no card is safe to use.

End result, no change in status. All I can do is give Apple feedback and gape at their abject stupidity. It shows a company whose employees are not empowered and who blindly follow rigid bureaucratic processes. It's short sighted and bad business. Fortunately, my company gave me this iPad. If I had paid $500 or more for this thing I would be getting a refund or selling it on eBay.

I am left wondering if this is the same Apple that so many people find trendy and cool, that has such great marketing, easy-to-use products and great customer support. If any other company treated their customers like this they would quickly go out of business.

CONCLUSIONS

The iPad is a neat device. But it is sandboxed and quirky, making it more limited in functionality and difficult to use than it should be. And Apple has horrible customer service.