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My iPad 3g landed at the Apple store yesterday after a solid 10 day wait.

After having a day to play with it, here are my first impressions:

• You have to sync with iTunes before you can use your device. Enough has been said on this elsewhere, but it is just not good form.
• Initial setup/syncing takes forever. I got a 64GB model. I thought syncing my 32GB iPhone 3Gs took a long time. The iPad now has the distinction of sucking more of my life away due to wasted time syncing than any other device I currently own.
• iPhone OS 3.2 is not fully baked. There are many times where I’m moving a particular application and/or set up applications around and the SpringBoard does not re-spring properly. iTunes will show the correct number of pages/apps, but the iPad doesn’t. Only a reboot sets things right.
• Configuration of mail takes forever. I have eight email accounts. Apple should offer a way to export specific application configurations. I know I can do a full restore from a previous iPhone backup, but this is a new device. I want to set it up as a new device.
• iBooks. If you manually sync your books, there doesn’t appear to be a way to get them off of your iPad and on to your PC. What’s that? Just select the box to sync your books you say? Ah, then I can’t manually manage music or movies. Stupid.
• iPhone apps on the iPad are useless. The fact that Apple has touted this as a feature is horrible. It seems to me that it is more of a bug. Pixel doubling? Horrendous. Even the hacks available through jailbreaking (e.g. FullForce) don’t alleviate the pain.
• App crashes in Apples’s own Apps. The App store has crashed on me at least 3 times. A reboot seems to be the only thing that can bring it back.
• Battery life is amazing. Based on my current usage, I’ll be able to make it a full day on a charge.
• Document syncing through iTunes should never have been built. Whatever happened to the great idea of the iPhone 3.2. OS allowing for mounting a “Shared Documents” directory?

All in all it seems that I have a lot of complaints. All of them are centered around the software experience and can be fixed.

All-in-all, I love the device so far. It fills a need for me as a media consumption device rungs above any other. 1 day into it and I’m using my iPhone less. Now that is saying something.

Just kidding. iTunes is still on my list of most hated pieces of software due to the results such as the following:

If only I could find a way to buy apps when my iPhone is dead and I don’t want to wait to download them. It would be better yet if my iPhone could make it through a full day of use without needing a recharge.

iTunes 8.1 has hit the interwebs.

From Software Update:

iTunes 8.1 is now faster and more responsive. You will enjoy noticeable improvements when working with large libraries, browsing the iTunes Store, preparing to sync with iPod or iPhone, and optimizing photos for syncing.

In addition, iTunes 8.1 provides many other improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Supports syncing with iPod shuffle (3rd generation).
• Allows friends to request songs for iTunes DJ.
• Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows.
• Improves performance when downloading iTunes Plus songs.
• Provides AutoFill for manually managed iPods.
• Allows CDs to be imported at the same sound quality as iTunes Plus.
• Includes many accessibility improvements.
• Allows iTunes U and the iTunes Store to be disabled separately using Parental Controls.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Due to a technical glitch in my life (the wife factor), I was recently convinced to update the name of several of the Airport Express routers I have throughout my house.  After renaming all of the access points (you can use Airport Utility to do this), the speaker names were still not correct in iTunes. After a reboot and some other monkeying around, I found the solution.

In Airport Utility, manually update your access point’s configuration, and then select the Music tab. On this tab, you can set the name of your remote speakers. After your Airport restarts, you will see the new remote speaker name appear in iTunes.