The Apple Experience

My mother had her new iPad shipped to our house for me to play with and set up. So far it’s been a horrible experience.

  1. After charging via wall outlet for a few hours, I powered it on and was presented with a picture of a USB cable pointing to an icon reading “iTunes”. I read the ~50 words of printed material that came with the product which indicated the set up process for it involves syncing to iTunes. Okay, so already I have a device I cannot do anything with until I hook it to a computer, install software on the computer, and mate the two together. What if I wanted to power the unit on, configure the Wi-Fi and surf the net?
  2. I downloaded and installed the latest version of iTunes for 64-bit Windows. It required a reboot.
  3. After rebooting, I hooked the iPad up to my PC via USB cable.
  4. iTunes opened up automatically then proceeded to do nothing but show me a “busy” mouse pointer for over a minute.
  5. iTunes then showed me the standard iTunes store. Let me read that ~50 word card again… “follow the on-screen instructions in iTunes”
  6. Looking through the iTunes application menus, I cannot find anything indicating a way to query for a new device, sync a device (greyed out disabled option), etc. I closed iTunes.
  7. I uninstalled iTunes completely and rebooted.
  8. I reinstalled iTunes completely and rebooted.
  9. I hooked the iPad up to a USB port again.
  10. iTunes loaded automatically, and again proceeded to do nothing whatsoever for over a minute, then showed me the iTunes store. I closed iTunes.
  11. I held the iPad power button down which brought up a screen allowing me to power the device off entirely. I did that. I then turned the iPad back on and waited.
  12. iTunes automatically ran on the PC, did nothing for over a minute, then showed me the iTunes Store.
  13. Searching around on the net, I found forums filled with people bitching about iTunes syncing problems with all manner of Apple products hooked to Apple computers as well as Windows-running PCs, yet none indicating any real solution so far.

I have seen the future. It looks just like Windows circa 1998.

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