Just when I thought that my debacle with the iPad 2 order process couldn't get any worse - the early opening, the 3-5 day timeframe from the get go, the stupid lack of a real preorder....

At the time of my last post, I had ordered my new iPad - officially placed about 15 minutes prior to 4:00AM EST.  From staying up so late I had gotten my second wind, so despite laying down to sleep - I couldn't.  I tossed and turned for a little bit, and then I said heck with it, I'd check to see if the order status had magically changed around 5:30AM.

Now, when I ordered - I decided to use a gift card.  Apple's website has a great feature that I wish more sites had that allows you to split your payment across multiple credit cards.  Since most "real" gift cards nowdays are just credit cards - this gives you a chance to use a gift card to pay for part of your order.   I had a $200 AmEx gift card (courtesy of American Express' Rewards program) - so I was going to split $200 of my order onto the gift card and the remainder of the order would go on my standard AmEx green card.

Ordering was uneventful.  I told the order process to use two cards, I entered my Gift card number on the first card and entered $200 as the amount to put on this card.  When you enter a fixed amount on the first card, Apple's site automatically calculates the amount to go on the second card.  Perfect - all was well - or so I thought.

When I logged back into Apple's site at 5:30AM, I noticed that my order was flagged in yellow and said that it required attention.  Clicking the order, I waited for Apple's overloaded system to churn and churn and show my order detail - only to see it read "We are unable to process your credit card".

Now, for those of you familiar with AmEx Green cards - they have no limit - so I instantly knew the problem was the gift card.   I logged into AmEx's gift card website to check my balance and look at the activity.  I had already done this in the morning and KNEW that the card was never used and had $200 available - so what's the problem??

My order contained an iPad, a case, and the HDMI adapter.  When I looked at the gift card site, I noticed two charges for $41 and some change (which is the partial order cost of the case and the HDMI adapter.  Whats this, though - I see a third charge for $1?  WTF?  Are you kidding me - despite giving a hard $200 limit on the gift card - it appears that Apple had performed a pre-auth for $1 (most likely to validate that the card number is good).  On a normal credit card, this wouldn't be a problem because most credit card companies will allow you to over-auth a card (although with the new credit card regulations, this is changing).  Now - when they were trying to capture the remaining balance of the $200 - they would be authorizing a total of $201 on my gift card, which, of course, would cause it to decline.

I was more than pissed.  I picked up the phone to call Apple - guess what, the ordering started at 4AM (1AM PST), but there is no PHONE SUPPORT until 8AM (5AM PST).   Not only did I wait up all night to get a nice early order in - I was assured that this would completely hose my order and cause it to miss the first round of shipments.

8AM comes - I call Apple.  The gentleman I spoke to was nice, but he was asking me if I could "just add some extra funds to the card to make it go through".  I was like "Um, no.  This isn't a gas station, sir - I gave you a prescribed amount to put on the card - how is it my issue if your system wants to authorize $201 on a $200 hard limit?".  

So then he was like, "Well - you could always cancel and reorder".  Of course, working in eCommerce in the past, I knew this meant that they would simply cancel the order and allow the authorizations on my credit card to expire on their own.  This means that the authorizations Apple had placed on my gift card would remain for up to 7 days - clearly not a solution, either, especially since the lead time on new orders was now showing 2-3 weeks.

Long story short - by around 10:00 AM the order was in process.  I spent over an hour on the phone, and the gentleman had to call a manager at Apple.  I assume Apple uses an off-site call-center that really doesn't have the ability to change anything other than small order details, so he had to track down someone who could actually *really* fix this on Apple's campus.

This sucks.

First lesson learned - If you need to use a gift card on Apple's split-tender system, make sure you shave off a few bucks to ensure the frickin charge goes through when they overauth your card.

Second lesson learned - When you call Apple's Order Help number and the stupid ass computer answers the phone and says "Oh hai, I can understand full sentences, how can I help you?" there's an easy way to get to a representative - just say "Go F*ck Yourself" - it worked for me twice. 

Now to end the story - I wish I could say my iPad was now in transit to me.  It still shows 3-5 days until shipment with an estimated delivery day of 3/18-3/25.  Here's the shitter, though - one of my coworkers, who ordered his 1/2 hour after I did already shows "Prepared for Shipment".  Basically, despite staying up all night, despite getting my order in early - Apple's half-wit credit card handling process has now screwed the order priority I sought to attain.

Bah!

So, because I am above the age of 7, I truly don't enjoy waiting in lines to buy the latest gadgets.  That being said, I have always applauded Apple's pre-order process for newly announced products.  As I mentioned in my last post, the iPad 2 launch was quite surprising because there were many weird elements to it - including the omission of a proper pre-order.

So here it is, 4:14AM EST, and I have ordered my iPad 2.  What's the problem?  Well - firstly, the pre-order was slated to begin at 4:00AM and it began early.  No worries - I thought it might and I checked in around 3:40 and was able to order my iPad 2.  The problem is that right off the bat, the shipping estimates show 3-5 days before my iPad 2 will be in transit to my location.

What's with the delays?  I thought there were tons of these things waiting in the wings to be shipped to their new owners.  Perhaps the shipping estimates are bogus, and we'll be delighted to receive a mail (early) letting us know our product has shipped (this has happened before).

My estimation - this is a marketing tactic to simply drive hoards of people into the Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Retailers nationwide.  Perhaps Apple was not happy with the relatively lukewarm reception the Verizon iPhone generated?  I know that Verizon claims to have sold-out of pre-order phones, but not one Verizon retailer I passed on launch day had anything resembling a line of people waiting to grab the new device - and I know this was reflected in many news stories chuckling at the fact that the marveled new device wasn't lining the streets with people waving cash.

So... I'll sit and wait.  Hopefully, the estimates are conservative and I see my device working it's way to my location soon.  To those who abandoned the online process to purchase in-line tonight at 5PM, have fun waiting in line. 

So everything about this launch ofthe iPad 2 has been a little "hanky" for Apple.  First, the keynote occured on a Wednesday (usually, product launches are Tuesdays or Thursdays from what I can recall).  Secondly, there is effectively no pre-order.  I purchased the new iMac, the 17" MacBook Pro in 2009, the last three generations of iPod, and every iPhone released.  With the exception of the initial iPhone - everything has had a pre-order.

Now comes the biggest change.  The launch date and time.  It's no suprise to anyone that the launch date for the new iPad is March 11, 2011.   The interesting thing is that I have already heard of tons of people who plan to wait in line overnight to buy the iPad 2 as soon as the stores open in the morning.  What's the problem with this?  Well - if you read Apple's "How to Buy Page" (click here, or it's pictured below) - you will see that the stores will not start selling them until 5PM.

What?

How many people do you estimate will actually show up at the stores bright and early and wait in line overnight only to find out that they can't get the iPad 2 until after 5PM? 

So... there is obviously a lot of hubbub on the net as of late regarding the usefulness of flash and seemingly growing support of HTML5.  I, myself, agree with the HTML5 supporters.  Flash is not an open standard, and while a huge percentage of the web is using Flash right now - it's mostly for video or for annoying advertising.  The percentage of people actually using Flash to create a rich web experience is minimal.

That being said - we have all seen Steve Jobs' open letter about flash, Microsoft's view of flash, and now one of Opera Software's representatives have come out and spoken about flash.  While Steve's points are valid, he doesn't seem to credit Flash for being good for any purpose - only to defend why it won't be on his devices.  Microsoft and Opera appear to realize that Flash is a big part of today's web - but then also agree with Jobs that the future is in open web standards, not flash - especially where video is concerned.

I agree with all of the above.  I dont mind using a plugin to play with a hugely interactive web experience, fun flash games, or other flash specific content - but using a plugin to play a simple video or get bombarded by Advertisements is simply rediculous.

So then I asked myself - if I want to be objective, where can I see what the experience with HTML5 is going to be like?  The web is chock full of older HTML content - but 5 content is pretty sparse.  In steps the YouTube HTML5 beta.  Take a visit to http://www.youtube.com/html5 and then opt-in to the beta by clicking the link on the bottom of the page.

Opting in will store a cookie on your machine that states your preference of viewing HTML5 video (in BETA form).  Then simply browse YouTube.  For any non-ad supported video content, the HTML 5 player will be used in lieu of the standard flash player.

Oh, and YES, this does work on the iPad / iPhone / etc.  On the desktop PC, you need to be using Safari or Chrome (preferably) - or IE if you have the Google Chrome extensions installed.  Of course, there are some glitches - as this is a beta, but it will give you an idea of what the web will be like using HTML5 technology, and absent of flash.  I can't wait ;)

Check it out - not too bad for early testing.

So - being a developer of mobile apps (see my company's website or search for "GeekUtils" in the Apple App Store), I was pretty excited for the arrival of my new iPad on Saturday.  I must say that after watching Steve Jobs' keynote about this new device, I was initially less than impressed.  I found myself, at the end of the keynote, glad that the new device was coming but kind of "up in the air" about whether I saw the value.

Don't get me wrong, I thought the pricepoint was great - for all intents and purposes, the initial sticker price is actually lower than a similarly equipped iPhone purchased "out of contract".  So, with a screen that is 6" larger - that at least got my attention.  But I just didnt see enough "coolness" in the keynote to make me want to immediately jump up and wait for the preorder line to begin.

So, when the preorders started, after much deliberation, I decided to go ahead and pre-order the base model (16GB WiFi only).  I need the device for development, so it was a given that I would be buying one - but choosing the model was much more difficult.  I really didn't see the value in the 3G versions, because WiFi hotspots are all over and I really don't plan to travel much with it.  Despite the attractive form factor, I just don't imagine myself carrying around an iPad everywhere.

I chose the 16GB model because, in typical Apple style - I am sure there is going to be a refresh that includes more cool features - namingly, a camera.  So I placed my preorder and then anxiously awaited for the April 3 deadline.

So... this past weekend, it arrived.  I must say that I still now totally agree with my previous statement that Steve's keynote just didn't do the device justice.  It's pretty amazing.  Sure in hardware form it's just a big ass iPod Touch...  but if you go past the surface and actually use one - it's amazing.

If your main computing experience is to update blog posts, surf websites, and monitor twitter or other social networking sites - this device could clearly replace your computer.  It turns on instantly, the screen is beautiful, the apps that are coming out (Netflix streaming, ABC, CBS, Yahoo) are all amazing and the device runs quickly and smoothly through all of these mundane tasks that netbooks were "designed" for.

Only it does it better.  The screen is of usable resolution (1024x768 instead of the weird 1024x600 common on netbooks) - they keyboard on screen is usable, and, for those who update blogs or type alot - you can easily hook up your favorite bluetooth keyboard or even get the integrated dock/keyboard combo.

If you want to waste time playing great games - that's an option too.  Already, I've wasted too many hours playing Flight Control HD and Plants vs Zombies.  They look incredible and run so smoothly on this device.  The fun part is to use the iPad for a few hours and then go back to using my iPhone - holy crap does it look small :)

Now - where I am still on the fence is for usability as a book reader.  Sure, the Books application looks awesome.  The page turn animations and attention to detail make you almost feel like you're reading a paper book - except for one issue - you're not, and it's obvious.  I also own a Kindle DX and initially I was thinking that the iPad would out and out eliminate the Kindle.  I'm beginning to think differently - mainly because:

• The iPad has a beautiful glossy screen.... but that beautiful glossy screen looks absolutely horrible in direct sunlight, or in the glare from a bright window.  The kindle, on the other hand has a screen that looks beautiful for paper-type content like books, in any standard "reading" light condition.
• The iPad screen is backlit.  Sure - this means you can read in the dark, and they even include a brightness control right in the books app to let you adjust the brightness - but for some reason I still have trouble reading on backlit screens.  I hate reading on my computer screen - and this just feels too much like a computer screen.  The Kindle, on the other hand, looks like paper, and it just looks better for reading, to me.
• The iPad is solid.  While it comes in at right around lightweight 1.5 pounds and the Kindle DX isn't much lighter (only a few ounces) - the iPad just feels heavier.  When I am lying on my back holding the Kindle up in the air to read - it doesn't seem to strain my arms.  The iPad, on the other hand, gets tiresome to hold.  If you go from the original Kindle to the iPad, this difference is even more obvious.
• The iPad just doesn't like heat.  Last year, I visited Myrtle Beach and spent quite some time reading on my kindle on the beach in near 100 degree temperatures.  In April, in Texas, one user has already reported that a session of using his iPad out in the Texas sun caused it to shut off with an overheat warning after just an hour.  Seeing as how many people relax in the summer months outside reading a book - this just isn't good.