The iPad, a Canadian perspective
As one of what I imagine is a minority of Canadians I thought I’d report my thought on this device.
I happen to have family in the US and I happened to have a visit planned there the week after the iPads launch so I took advantage of my family’s US address and pre-ordered a 64gb iPad from the Apple store.
The apple store let’s you have a different billing address from your shipping address otherwise this wouldn’t have worked.
I placed my order and sure enough the device showed up exactly on launch day as promised by Apple. Oddly enough about 48 hours after I placed my order Apple ran out off stock and further iPad shipments were delayed until a week after launch.
On initial brush the device was wholly underwhelming, to quote Steve Jobs “it just works”. It had to connect to iTunes to setup but then just worked on it’s own from there.
No wifi issues for me, I just started using it.
The one difficulty however was using the iTunes App store; unlike the Apple store, it insisted that I have a US based funding source, in other words I couldn’t use a credit card with a Canadian billing address. No luck with pay pal or cross border gift cards either. The only solution was to setup an iTunes account without a funding source and go buy iTunes gift cards from the local Best Buy.
About a month before international launch however the computer based iTunes app store now has iPad apps while the Canadian iPad based app store still won’t connect. In the end it was a pain to get apps but not impossible.
Loaded with an iPad under my arm I said my goodbyes and headed home. I was a bit nervous about crossing the border with the iPad but I thought I would only have to pay GST at worst. I declared the device and the customs agent simply waved me through, go figure.
A week later my appreciation of the iPads capabilities and the imagination and enthusiasm of iPad developers continues to impress me. As I learn how to use the device better each day, it becomes more powerful and useful to me.
I’m fairly certain it will replace my laptop shortly.
– Post From My iPad