iPad Air and iPad Air 2 buyers and owners (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

Mark,Thanks for the suggestion. I did check that. I also went into settings to see if the side switch was set to audio mute or rotation lock. It's set to audio mute. I'll check them again when I get home tonight.

 

[McPaul]

I never thought about the compass since it's an iPad, but downloaded a third party compass app and calibrated that. Didn't seem to work. Thanks though!

 

[DaveF]

An interesting comparison of the iPad Air 2 and the Nexus tablet
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/11/11/nexus-9-vs-ipad-air-2-a-mostly-subjective-comparison/

It's a good and interesting comparison. The one funny bit to me -- and maybe because I'm no longer in junior high where my personal identify was wrapped up in whether I bought a C64 or an Atari 800 -- is this "con" for the iPad:

[*]Is an iPad, will result in some people thinking you're an Apple sycophant / the kind of person who lingers at coffee shops for 8 hours a day.
[/list]

Never in the past ten years have I been using a tech gadget in an airport or Starbucks and felt uncomfortable over the prospect that a stranger was judging me as Corporate sycophant.

 

[Carlo_M]

Dave - actually if you go to a place where the hipster coffee shops have a strong presence (Los Angeles, is one and Intelligentsia is the biggest here with four locations) the place can look like an Apple Store advertisement. And I'm guilty as charged, I'm one of them, though about 1-2 hours is my usual length of stay. At the Venice Beach Intelligentsia there's a back row where people sit on stools at a bar, and almost every time I walk in there's an armada of Macbook Air/Pros lined up back there. Several times I've done an environmental scan, and if there are 15 laptops in the store, no more than 2 are non-Apple notebooks, and most days it's one or zero.

 

[DaveF]

I guess it's that whole blogger lifestyle, "renting" office space at a Starbucks for a $5 cappuccino. I've seen the wall of MacBooks at DuPont Circle here in DC.

Out in the 'burbs, Panera is the unofficial Homework and Tutoring location. I often seen teens, maybe college students, doing homework. I've also seen group projects going on and what seemed to be tutoring sessions. I'm not sure how Panera became the place.

But it's the "result in some people thinking you're a .. sycophant" aspect of that review that's puzzling to me. It says more about the reviewer and his audience than the product.

I'm wondering if a Honda site would review a BMW and note that the downside of buying one is the risk of everyone thinking you're a mid-career engineer going through a midlife crisis?

 

[Nelson Au]

Guys,I have an update on my iPad Air screen rotation problem. My appointment with the Genius Bar was at 11:30 this morning and surprisingly, it wasn't a mad house there. The store is the usual busy place. The Genius signed me in and wrapped up with the earlier customer and at 11:30 he took care of me, I told him about the rotation not working and that I restarted and also reset the iPad, and I updated to iOS 8 and that I did a complete restore. He said I did all the trouble shooting he was going to do. Looked it over and checked my serial numbers and determined that my iPad was 2 weeks past the warranty. But he went ahead and gave me a new iPad Air! That was great news! I asked him if it was a refurb, since the replacement unit was in a plain brown box. He said they technically can't give me a refurb. It's new, with a new battery and skin and display, camera, etc. maybe the buttons are reused. I guess it's just the wording. My iPad was a 128gb unit. When I was setting up the new iPad, it said it has 115gb with 114gb available. Where did the 13gb go? The iOS took it up? I noticed in the past the capacity is never exactly the figure, but this seems really off. I didn't check my old one. Well, I'll see how it works out, it's currently synching up from iTunes my content. I elected to set it up as a new iPad rather then restore from the back up because the last back up is iOS 8 and I wanted to stay in iOS 7 a little while longer. So I'll have to see how I can bring the old bookmarks over. Maybe I can do it via Bluetooth from my iPad mini. Or I just start over. I do like iOS 8 on my iPhone 6, but I'm still holding off a bit on the iPad because the old iPad I exchanged was slow to wake up when I opened the case cover. Bottom line is Apple took great care of me and I am very happy about that! Now I can delay upgrading to an iPad Air 2 or wait for another year.

 

[Nelson Au]

Okay, I'm back in business on the newly replaced iPad Air. I realized I mentioned above how I would get my bookmarks over and forgot that I can do it via the cloud. It's not something I have setup. I tried it to synch up the reminders list and Notes and contacts. But it never seemed to work between iPhone and iPads for the Reminders list. Plus I didn't have it backing up photos either. Maybe I haven't got it set up right. Nice to be back on an iPad Air with the rotation working again. I am amazed each time it happens.And one more thing. I got an email from Apple for the visit to the Genius Bar. It is a work authorization document and describes the problem and resolution and cost to repair. It says it would have cost $299.00 to repair it!

 

[DaveF]

My iPad was a 128gb unit. When I was setting up the new iPad, it said it has 115gb with 114gb available. Where did the 13gb go? The iOS took it up? I noticed in the past the capacity is never exactly the figure, but this seems really off. I didn't check my old one.

That's normal. It's the conversion factor from base-2 and base-10 capacity numbers, couple with room required for iOS 8 and Apple's apps. Every device will show a similar 'deficiency' in available storage vs marketing numbers. And every hard drive you've ever bought would have the same deal.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Dave, you're right. I sort of figured that was the case. My hard drive capacities are never what they say they are! The iPhone 6 also says 114 gb. Thanks again to everyone who chimed into my question with things to try and suggestions to go to the Genius Bar. It's nice to have my rotation back on the replacement iPad.On another topic, I'm curious. When I did update my old iPad to iOS 8 just prior to bringing it to the Genius Bar as part of the troubleshooting, I noticed the iPad was sluggish to wake up when the Smart Cover is opened. All my past iPads all wake up instantly and are fully lit up before the cover is fully open. With iOS 8, my old iPad Air suddenly slowed down and took about a second and a half to 2 seconds to wake up and fully light up when the Smart Cover is opened. That's counting one thousand one. I wondered if that was due to the problems the iPad hardware was having or it's just part of iOS 8. Thanks!

 

[Ahab]

Been having trouble with the ipad air 2 randomly freezing up. Never saw this on previous ipads I owned. The only way to get it working again is to do a hard reset.
Tried googling this and found a number of other people complaining but no real fix.

Have the 128gb model with latest software on board.

 

[Pawl]

Ahab, I had the same problem with mine. I think the iOS 8 is a little buggy.

 

[DaveF]

Been having trouble with the ipad air 2 randomly freezing up. Never saw this on previous ipads I owned. The only way to get it working again is to do a hard reset.
Tried googling this and found a number of other people complaining but no real fix.

Have the 128gb model with latest software on board.

I had a serious freeze up; I replaced it.

I've had a few of the iOS 7/8 soft reboots lately. But nothing terribly terrible since the replacement.

 

[DaveF]

On another topic, I'm curious. When I did update my old iPad to iOS 8 just prior to bringing it to the Genius Bar as part of the troubleshooting, I noticed the iPad was sluggish to wake up when the Smart Cover is opened. All my past iPads all wake up instantly and are fully lit up before the cover is fully open. With iOS 8, my old iPad Air suddenly slowed down and took about a second and a half to 2 seconds to wake up and fully light up when the Smart Cover is opened. That's counting one thousand one. I wondered if that was due to the problems the iPad hardware was having or it's just part of iOS 8. Thanks!

My iPad Air 2 and iPad 3 have a perceptible pause, but under a second.

 

[Sam Posten]

Mine are lit before the cover is an inch away from the glass, imperceptible.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Dave, Sam. The replacement iPad Air has no delay in iOS 7. So when I do update it to iOS 8 I hope it's as fast as yours during wake-up.