iPad Got my first ever iPad. Overall good experiences with some oddities

[GentlyJohnny]

Hello everyone. A longtime lurker here finally had an Apple product. While I have experiences with iphone, I myself was never an iphone or ipad owner.

I got the ipad 9th wifi+cellular last week, so far I love it. I picked it for its good value, i.e. reasonable price with a large enough screen and a 3.5mm headphone jack. A13 is more than enough to handle my needs as I use it for reading comics and books, browsing websites, listening to music, checking emails etc.

The overall experience is great really, but have noticed the following oddities.

1. The shortcut functions are unstable. For one The Speak Body of Article shortcut spoke only with siri voice even though I downloaded and picked another voice in both voiceover and spoken content; it would quit working out of the blue, i.e. when I pressed it from within the safari, it did nothing. For two the Top News homescreen shortcut also just quit out of the blue, it did nothing when I pressed it, yet if I pressed it from within the shortcut icon, it worked.

2. iPad lost cellular signal randomly. The cellular data icon just disappeared from the top right and the data was cut even though in settings it showed the mobile newtwork operator name and its connection was there.

3. The screen occasionally refused to time-out. The low/saving battery mode is always on so the time out is 30 seconds, and even if it wasn't the case, the maximum timeout would be 2 minutes. But I noticed that, when I was away and back, occasionally the screen didn't timeout even after 10 or 15 minutes, and the screen wasn't even dimmed.

I use the ipad as it is, meaning I use only safari as the browser, book for reading, mail for emails. The only apps I downloaded from appstore are Documents and Adguard. I use less than 18GB out of 64GB storage.

All of the above can be solved by turning off and on the ipad, and so far I am not going crazy over them. Yet if there are explanations or solutions for the above I welcome them.

 

[spiderman0616]

I have some goofiness sometimes with shortcuts too. I think there are several things that affect those--like if the app providing the service has been updated and needs you to log in again, or maybe a policy changed somewhere, or some IoT thing in my house isn't communicating properly at that moment. It's a crap shoot and is hard to remedy when it isn't persistently an issue.

It becomes kind of a mess once the shortcut is pointing to things that weren't made by Apple. For example, about every other night, I have to tell Siri to set our security system for the night a second time because the first time she often says "Uh oh, there was a problem."

My opinion: there is work for Apple still to do on whatever API that is that allows shortcuts to run for 3rd parties.

 

[rui no onna]

Was the iPad set up as new, not restored from an iPhone backup or something?

Frequent cellular dropout and the screen timeout issue aren't normal (unless you're using an app that circumvents screen timeout). I'd try erase and setup as new on the iPad. If the issues persist, I recommend returning/exchanging the iPad while you still can.

 

[GentlyJohnny]

Was the iPad set up as new, not restored from an iPhone backup or something?

Frequent cellular dropout and the screen timeout issue aren't normal (unless you're using an app that circumvents screen timeout). I'd try erase and setup as new on the iPad. If the issues persist, I recommend returning/exchanging the iPad while you still can.

Yea it’s brand new, nothing was restored as it’s my first apple products.

I didn’t install any apps related to screen timeout.

I will first keep an eye on these issues for the few days, and see if they get worse to the point I have to return it. If not, but the issues still happen from time to time I will erase and reset the iPad when the next iOS update comes up to have a fresh start.

 

[Fravin]

You have to mind that iPads only works with “data only” plans. If you try to use a “voice + data“ plan, it won’t work. It’s not Apple’s fault, is carrier’s. It keeps dropping the connection trying to stabilish a voice plan. And iPad’s modem is data only.

 

[GentlyJohnny]

You have to mind that iPads only works with “data only” plans. If you try to use a “voice + data“ plan, it won’t work. It’s not Apple’s fault, is carrier’s. It keeps dropping the connection trying to stabilish a voice plan. And iPad’s modem is data only.

That’s a very good point that I didn’t at all think of. I was aware that iPad is data only but thought using “voice + data” plan on it simply meant wasteful of voice service. The impact on connection is news to me. Thank you.

 

[rui no onna]

You have to mind that iPads only works with “data only” plans. If you try to use a “voice + data“ plan, it won’t work. It’s not Apple’s fault, is carrier’s. It keeps dropping the connection trying to stabilish a voice plan. And iPad’s modem is data only.

I think this is only an issue in the US. I use Philippine voice+data prepaid SIMs on the iPad when I vacation and those work just fine.

 

[Fravin]

@rui no onna I think you are correct. It will vary from the carrier. Most of them blocks the use of celular plans in data only devices. The reffered symptons does look like the carrier is trying to validate the voice option.

 

[jdb8167]

I didn’t install any apps related to screen timeout.

I'm pretty sure that some apps just prolong the timeout. For example, I think that the Books app does this.

Edit: My Lock Screen is set to 2 minutes. I'm on minute 4 with Apple Books open to a page in a book I'm reading. Still on, no dimming and no automatic lock. There doesn't seem to be a setting for this. Books is just extending the screen on time without any notice.

Edit2: Just turned off. It dimmed at about 8 minutes and 30 seconds later turned itself off. This is an iPad mini 6 on battery with the battery nearly full. I'm not sure if any of that makes a difference.

 

[asleep]

I don't use shortcuts, have not had any of your other issues on my 9th gen. I'm into double digits on the number of iPads I've had. I have 5 in the house now, but the 10.5 Pro will be returning to Apple soon as trade in for the Air 5 I'm about to unbox.

I'm impressed with the 9th gen, it delivers a lot for the money.