An interesting iPad/Traveler situation this week

Had an interesting situation happen with an iPad this week that I wanted to share with the class.

A user brought our support team an iPad to set up for him.  Not a big deal, right?  Our team followed standard protocol for setting up the iPad, usually an extremely painless and quick process.  But after installing Traveler on the iPad, the device would not sync.  Thinking that an error had occurred during installation, they removed the Traveler account, I deleted the device on the server and they started over.  After another installation attempt, no go.  So to make sure that there was no problems with Traveler or his mail file, we used one of out test iPod Touch devices and set his account up on that.  No problem whatsoever.   Mail flow was fine. Calendar and contacts came down to the device also.  So it was back to head scratching time.  My advice was to have the user take the iPad to his home PC and with it connected, do a reset. in iTunes.  That usually wipes the device and resets everything back up.  That didn't help either.  We also noticed that even though nothing was syncing to the device, (no entries in the contacts, calendar or mail), that type ahead was bringing up some addresses in a new message.  Very odd since nothing was showing in the PIM apps.  I decided to hook up the iPad to my PC and use the iPhone Configuration Utility to look at the console of the iPad for anything weird.  I'm glad I did.  I started seeing a lot of weird errors like this:

Wed Jan  5 13:47:40 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd[265] <Notice>: terminate called after throwing an instance of '
Wed Jan  5 13:47:40 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd[265] <Notice>: NSException
Wed Jan  5 13:47:40 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd[265] <Notice>: '
Wed Jan  5 13:47:40 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad ReportCrash[268] <Notice>: Formulating crash report for process dataaccessd[265]
Wed Jan  5 13:47:40 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad ReportCrash[268] <Error>: Saved crashreport to /var/mobile/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/dataaccessd_2011-01-05-134740_UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad.plist usinguid: 0 gid: 0, synthetic_euid: 501 egid: 0
Wed Jan  5 13:47:41 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd[265]) <Warning>: (com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) Job appears to have crashed: Abort trap
Wed Jan  5 13:47:41 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) <Warning>: (com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
Wed Jan  5 13:47:41 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad kernel[0] <Debug>: launchd[265] Builtin profile: dataaccessd (sandbox)

So obviously there was a problem on the device.  Our support team shared this information with the user, and it was agreed to wipe the device completely and set it up with a new account.  Once that was complete, Traveler set up and worked without a problem.  

So, what was the problem? Not sure.  We figure that somehow his account on the device became corrupt.  We knew it wasn't Traveler since it worked fine on the iPod Touch.  Truly and odd situation that was pretty much out of our league.

But my take away for you, dear reader, is if you have a growing user base and support a lot of these devices, get the iPhone Configuration Utility and also talk management into buying you an iPod Touch to have around for troubleshooting.  It can really pay off in the end.

Apple fesses up on signal issue...kinda

In an open letter published by Apple today, they claim that their signal issues with the new iPhone is based on a bad algorithm and AT&T told them how to "fix" it. Ok, I might buy that, but, what about the signal strength on the upgraded iPod Touch? As I stated in my last post, since I had upgraded it to the new iOS 4, I can sit close to the access point and the signal indicator will still show low signal. I'll be curious to see if the patch is available for that device too when it's made available. Until then, I'm just going to keep playing with the iPad that I borrowed from work for the next week. In fact, I'm writing this blog entry on it right now. Of the iPad I can only say one thing. It's techno crack. I'm going to have a hard time giving it back when my week with it is done.

Why I now dislike the iPad

Like everyone else in the land of Geektopia yesterday, I was glued to my monitor as the live blog spewed forward information about the iPad event.  I was in awe and amazement of this wonder product that will liberate us from the doldrums of being stuck with outdated devices.  I mean this thing has it all for $499.  It makes my 3rd generation iPod look like a reel-to-reel tape player.  16GB of storage, Wifi, iTunes, Safari, ability to use iWorks productivity software, movies, e-reader.  The list goes on and on.
But after 24 hours, the buzz has worn off and the hangover has made me see more clearly now. 
Why would I want to buy a device like this?  Seriously.  I have an iPod Touch and LOVE the thing.  It has my music, movies, games, web browser and email courtesy to the awesomeness that is Lotus Traveler.  But for $499 for the low-end iPad, why wouldn't I want to take that money and buy a netbook?
I know last week in Orlando walking between sessions and hotels, that multi-pound brick in my backpack that consisted of my laptop with extended battery.  I would of loved to have something like a netbook that would have allowed me access to Lotus Notes and the Administration client along with VPN access to the corporate network.  Sure, it's Windows.  Sure, it's only 1 GB of RAM, but, it can do so much more then the iPad can.  And in some cases, about $100-150 less! (If not more if you shop around)  Plus, if I feel like I'm missing out on my iTunes...well, I can install the software and authorize the netbook.  Movies too. And, most netbooks have a webcam built in as well.  Something lacking from the iPad.  Oh...I forgot to mention that multitasking thing too.  But, since it's a Windows device, that's a given.
So, will I want to buy one of these devices?  Likely no.  I have the iPod Touch and that thing is 'da bomb.  If I had an extra couple hundred lying around, I would likely buy a netbook instead.  Or a Nikon.  Do I think that this device has opened up an entire new category of connected user, oh ya.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but it's safe to say that Apple is going to make a lot of money off of this thing.