Buying an iPad from the good ol' USA as a Brit

[MacMyDay]

I'm going to be in New York next weekend, so thought I'd go pick myself up an iPad. However, is there absolutely any reason I should wait for it to come out in Europe first, i.e. different power supplies (I believe it's just USB, so that shouldn't matter) or any likely differences in the device for the 3G SIM?

I read here:
http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2010/03/12/ipad-uk-how-to-get-yours-three-weeks-early/

That there's no import duty on it, so that would be quite impressive if actually true, so I won't have to declare it coming back and make it even more expensive.

Thanks

 

[Hmac]

The power supply, yes. It charges through the dock connector and wants 10 watts, so you may need a US->European adapter for the stock power supply. Later on you can buy a European iPad power supply. Some USB ports only put out 2.5 watts and I don't think they'll charge the thing. 5 watt USB ports such as on some Macs and other computer will likely be enough to charge the iPad, although slowly. I don't know if you can activate the device from a UK iTunes account. You might need to open a USA account there.

I don't think the whole story on the SIM is known yet. The USA iPad is unlocked, so no jailbreaking should be required. You should be able to just pop in a SIM from your own data carrier and good to go. Note that you will need to use a micro-SIM for it to fit in there. Maybe your carrier has those, or maybe you'll need to take a pair a scissors to your carrier's mini-SIM, but once you get it in there it should work. Not sure about the keyboard. Probably be USA but maybe you'll get a choice of keyboard.

 

[leomac08]

Go ahead and buy it!

USA FTW!

 

[MacMyDay]

Thanks for the replies. I'll give it a go then. Hopefully there are some actually left

 

[Baltika09]

Hassles will be your biggest enemy. The power cord will handle the different voltages/amp requirements, BUT the plug prongs, as I'm sure you're aware, will not fit in British electrical sockets. I am not certain, but I believe the plug portion of power cord can be popped off and replaced by a British plug head (I did this with my old iPod touch charger when I went to Europe. I purchased the European plug head off eBay, then just swapped them, once I got to Frankfurt. I assume you can find plug attachments for the British variant on eBay also). OR you can charge the device with an existing iPhone/iPod charger OR through the USB port on your computer, BUT this will take significantly longer than the native charger provided (the provided charger is indeed 10V, while the iPod charger is 5v I believe). You also cannot! use the device while it's charging and the screen should be off, this will allow the device to charge faster. So that of course is hassle number one, but if you have an iPod/iPhone charger it's not a huge deal unless you want fast charging.
Problem two would be the 3G issue, should you opt to purchase the 3G version of the iPad. The sim card is ejectable and the ejection tool is provided, if not a safety pin can be used. The device will come with an AT&T micro-sim card preinstalled, which you'll have to remove. You'll then have to wait until mobile carrier services in the UK begin offering iPad specific data plans, then go through the process of acquiring the service and micro-sim card. This will mostly likely be in the end of May.
Another issue will be availability of iPad specific apps in the UK iTunes store. Until the iPad is officially released in the UK, the UK iTunes store will only carry iPhone/iPod apps that I've been updated to include an iPad version built into the the iPhone/iPod version. you also will not be able to search for iPad specific apps until late May.
The keyboard isn't an issue, it's on screen and like all iPods/iPhones/iPads, can be changed to reflect region specific differences in the personal settings menus.

Hope this helps

 

[sassenach74]

Hassles will be your biggest enemy. The power cord will handle the different voltages/amp requirements, BUT the plug prongs, as I'm sure you're aware, will not fit in British electrical sockets. I am not certain, but I believe the plug portion of power cord can be popped off and replaced by a British plug head (I did this with my old iPod touch charger when I went to Europe. I purchased the European plug head off eBay, then just swapped them, once I got to Frankfurt. I assume you can find plug attachments for the British variant on eBay also). OR you can charge the device with an existing iPhone/iPod charger OR through the USB port on your computer, BUT this will take significantly longer than the native charger provided (the provided charger is indeed 10V, while the iPod charger is 5v I believe). You also cannot! use the device while it's charging and the screen should be off, this will allow the device to charge faster. So that of course is hassle number one, but if you have an iPod/iPhone charger it's not a huge deal unless you want fast charging.
Problem two would be the 3G issue, should you opt to purchase the 3G version of the iPad. The sim card is ejectable and the ejection tool is provided, if not a safety pin can be used. The device will come with an AT&T micro-sim card preinstalled, which you'll have to remove. You'll then have to wait until mobile carrier services in the UK begin offering iPad specific data plans, then go through the process of acquiring the service and micro-sim card. This will mostly likely be in the end of May.
Another issue will be availability of iPad specific apps in the UK iTunes store. Until the iPad is officially released in the UK, the UK iTunes store will only carry iPhone/iPod apps that I've been updated to include an iPad version buoy into the the iPhone/iPod version. you also will not be able to search for iPad specific apps until late May.
The keyboard isn't an issue, it's on screen and like all iPods/iPhones/iPads, can be changed to reflect region specific differences in the personal settings menus.

Hope this helps

The bolded part isn't true, you can in fact search for iPad apps on the UK store. I have downloaded quite a few in preparation myself.

 

[Baltika09]

Are you sure they are iPad specific apps? And not apps originally designed for the iPod/iPhone with updates including an iPad version? If so then you boys and girls in the UK lucked out, I have a German iTunes account as well as a US iTunes account and I can't fine any iPad specific apps in the German store, only updated iPod/iPhone ones. :-( I assumed it would be the same for all countries where the iPad hasn't been officially released. If you indeed have access to iPad only apps, that's great!

 

[chrissmash]

Nope...

Hey man, you won't have any problem, just buy a decent converted from 2 prong to 3 prong and you will be absolutely fine

 

[sassenach74]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Are you sure they are iPad specific apps? And not apps originally designed for the iPod/iPhone with updates including an iPad version? If so then you boys and girls in the UK lucked out, I have a German iTunes account as well as a US iTunes account and I can't fine any iPad specific apps in the German store, only updated iPod/iPhone ones. :-( I assumed it would be the same for all countries where the iPad hasn't been officially released. If you indeed have access to iPad only apps, that's great!

Both Universal and iPad specific apps are on the UK store. There isn't an iPad section, but simply typing 'iPad' in the store search brings them up.

 

[skubish]

I'm going to be in New York next weekend, so thought I'd go pick myself up an iPad. However, is there absolutely any reason I should wait for it to come out in Europe first, i.e. different power supplies (I believe it's just USB, so that shouldn't matter) or any likely differences in the device for the 3G SIM?

I read here:
http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2010/03/12/ipad-uk-how-to-get-yours-three-weeks-early/

That there's no import duty on it, so that would be quite impressive if actually true, so I won't have to declare it coming back and make it even more expensive.

Thanks

Pretty sure you still have to declare it and pay VAT. Even that link you posted says so.

 

[Detlev_73]

Just get rid of the packaging; no one will be any wiser.