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Apple sold me a *DEMO* iPad 2 unit

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M

modul8tr

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 18, 2002
229
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So I picked up an iPad 2 today. This one was meant as a gift for my father.


I surprised him with it tonight and he was ELATED.


While I was helping him to set it up, I noticed a bit of weirdness. We kept getting a sync message from Mobile Me asking to merge 188 contacts with the computer. I clicked "show details" and found a slew of apple.com contacts, as well as asian contacts written in what I believe are Chinese characters. While investigating this, the iPad switched over to screensaver mode, and displayed an iPad 2 promotional screensaver advertising all of its features. The photos app was full of Apple promotional photos, and on pages 2 and 3 the iPad had a bunch of apps/content loaded like Molecules, Tron, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, books, music, videos etc.

I just checked his box against mine and noticed his says Ipad Wi-Fi 16GB Black DEMO, and even has a different model number.


Since these things are in short supply, I'd hate to have to take it away from him and return it when new ones arrive. I wonder if he should keep it? If there are any internal differences between demo and retail units? Obviously the pro-loaded apps won't be in sync with his iTunes account and won't update. And I don't know if we can delete them (haven't tried). Then there's that iPad 2 promotional screensaver to deal with....


Has this happened to anyone else?
 
If restoring it via iTunes makes it work normally I'd keep it, it makes your iPad unique,
 
I may try the restore. Hopefully it runs the same firmware as a retail unit and won't freak out.


Aside from not wanting to take it away from my father for what could be 3 weeks or more, I feel that it should be on Apple to contact *me* when *they* get a new shipment. I shouldn't have to return it and check in on a daily basis to see when they're getting new stock. If was enough effort to get this one.
 
OP, if you take it back I am sure Apple would give you a new unit. As there are no refurb units yet, Apple keeps a certain stock of all iPads to give out a replacements. I am almost positive they would offer you one of those for your trouble.
 
This is a first. Haven't heard of this happening before. Is it a wifi model? Wondering how it would be if it were 3G. There would be no ejector hole for the sim.
 
gdjsnyder said:
OP, if you take it back I am sure Apple would give you a new unit. As there are no refurb units yet, Apple keeps a certain stock of all iPads to give out a replacements. I am almost positive they would offer you one of those for your trouble.
Click to expand...

That would be cool, I hope so.

Otherwise, I'm going to keep it throughout the 14 day return window, and let them know that I think *they* should hold an iPad for *me* when they receive replacement stock. I'm not getting back into a queue.

Of course, if a restore works, and they assure me it's functionally identical to a retail iPad, then maybe he'll get to keep it and I won't have to go through any hassle.
 
vincenz said:
This is a first. Haven't heard of this happening before. Is it a wifi model? Wondering how it would be if it were 3G. There would be no ejector hole for the sim.
Click to expand...

It's a wi-fi model.

@ mystikal


There's no demo.app that's visible.
 
Demo units are different at the software level, they cannot be restored in the normal way. I think they may have made a bit of a mistake.

Our demo units are similarly marked, when Apple release a software update for them we need to restore from a three-part image that has to be done on a separate account.

There is a "Demo iPad Unlocking" utility for when the time comes that we can sell them that turns them into regular iPads.

I'd take it back and get them to swap it out.
 
I'd talk to them either in person or on the phone. I'm sure they will replace it and you might even get alittle extra for your trouble.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

Thanks for the info Chundles!

That's what I was looking for. So I will return it then. Hopefully they can swap it. If not, I'd like to let him play with it for as long as he can until they get replacement stock. And I feel they should contact ME when they do. It was really crazy trying to get one of these.
 
Admit it, you actually stole the iPad from the Apple store and gave it to your Dad. You should be ashamed.
 
Last edited:
gdjsnyder said:
OP, if you take it back I am sure Apple would give you a new unit. As there are no refurb units yet, Apple keeps a certain stock of all iPads to give out a replacements. I am almost positive they would offer you one of those for your trouble.
Click to expand...

not true. i was given my money back on a gift card for my defective unit... so i have to fight everyone for an ipad again.
 
Those DEMO units are the same units that you get when you purchase it at your favorite store. The only difference is on software side BUT the DEMO units CAN BE restored via the same iOS that everyone is getting.

So, you shouldn't be worried about that, the firmware is exactly the same...
 
The reason I would replace it would be because if you ever need to take it in for service you'll get a bunch of skeptical looks. There was a problem with demo iPad 1's being stolen and resold.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

Yikes! ^^

I had someone call Apple for me (while I deal with business) and I'm told they said not to restore the device as it would permanently damage it.

Still waiting to hear what the plan will be regarding returning it.
 
I would think Demo units are not to be sold (esp as full price).

I would demand a non-demo unit. No way would they give a refurb, you bought it new, they gave you the wrong item basically.
 
If u restore the ipad in iTunes it will become a regular ipad 2 u may have to do it twice but afterwards u will have a perfect ipad 2 and all ur dads apps can b restored thru his opacity in app store under purchase
 
mcgeneus said:
If u restore the ipad in iTunes it will become a regular ipad 2 u may have to do it twice but afterwards u will have a perfect ipad 2 and all ur dads apps can b restored thru his opacity in app store under purchase
Click to expand...

pay attention to dates!!! You posted to a 2 year old thread. probably does not even have the ipad anymore.
 
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