Problems with Apple's new iPad 3

Apple could be facing yet another problem with one of its devices. I was going to say PR disaster, but people seem to buy Apple kit despite there being problems and bad press doesn't appear to affect sales much, if at all.

Remember the iPhone's death grip antenna problem? It didn't stop people buying it and millions have been sold in spite of this problem.

This time there are three causes for worry, at least if you read the reports and blogs around the web. The first is the heat problem. The iPad 3 gets hotter than the iPad 2 and temperatures of up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit have been recorded when playing graphics and CPU intensive games. To put this in perspective, I have several desktop computers and I've seen temperatures of 150F or 65C. One PC had a broken fan and ran at 65-70C all the time. It ran for years like this. Chips can run very hot and I've seen reports that they can cope with temperatures of up to 90C or 194F before they risk failure.

From a reliability point of view, the iPad 3's temperature is not a problem, but this is a hand held device and comfort is an issue. Is it comfortable to hold when it is being used? I've not heard anyone say that it isn't, so I guess it is OK, but it's worth bearing in mind. Laptops can burn your lap they get so hot, but I've not heard of the iPad 3 getting this hot.

The second iPad 3 problem I read about recently was that someone watched two hours of basketball and then found it had used up nearly all of his total monthly bandwidth allowance. Sorry, but this is a user problem and not an iPad fault. Never watch streaming video over a 3G/4G connection because it just eats up the bandwidth. Only lightweight applications should be used and even then you need to keep an eye on the data usage. Streaming video and even music, which uses less bandwidth, should only be used on a WiFi connection. Never ever watch anything when you are abroad. The data charges are eye-watering!

The third iPad problem is with the WiFi. Some people, but not everyone, has experienced very poor WiFi connections with their tablet. Connections are fine with the Mac and iPhone, but the iPad 3 either has a very low signal strength or can't connect. The thread on the Apple Support Community runs to 19 pages, maybe more by the time you read this. It sounds a lot, but with three million units sold, it isn't actually a large number so the problem isn't widespread.

It does appear to be a real fault with some iPads, compared to the heat and bandwidth non-issues. It's not clear whether this is a hardware fault or whether a software update can fix it. We'll have to wait and see what response we get from Apple. The company is sometimes very slow to even acknowledge problems, never mind fix them, so don't expect a response any time soon.