Just curious, for those who have the 3G iPad, how often do you use the 3G part of it?

And if you only have a wifi model, do you wish you had the 3G part of it?

Humm, good question John.

I don't have an iPad - However Jaz BF does.
He uses wifi constantly when he is here, we have Road Runner Turbo + airport base station and he is always impressed about the speed.

Now since the latest up date his wifi only iPad - can use (hot spots) via his iPhone 4.

I have no idea, how much he uses this hot spot - according to Jazz, he does use it.

Anyway - if you have a wifi only iPad + iPhone - you don't need to get a 3G iPad. Unless your into Face Time Video ? ? not sure how that would work.

I don't believe "hot spot" is free, at least with ATT.

Correct. It is an additional charge.
Isn't everything?

Right, John and Bear.

Even if I had an iPad - I certainly would NOT pay extra for a hot spot.

I am a firm believer in 2 rates - basic and ultimate. Sorta like a salad bar, you pay for the whole she bang - not this charge extra for tomatoes, cucumbers and dressing.

Rip offs. IMO

Yes and it's confusing to just what is included and how much. Talked to my Verizon store today about their Fivespot wifi gizmo. She didn't mention the exorbitant monthly cost.

Dave

Ok, so far no response to my question.

Well you sorta got half an answer.

Someone here who has an iPad, needs to answer more directly.

In fact who does have an iPad here ? I know Dave has one, I think Zwie too?

I have the 3G model. I don't use 3G around the house but I do use it sometimes when I'm out walking in our woods. We have a small tree farm. We use it when out and about in the car. I originally included the 3G option primarily for traveling and we use it frequently for that purpose. My wife has an iphone4 so we are currently exploring the hot spot option. All of our uses are tied together so that we don't have to maintain a monthly billing. Would I buy the 3G again? I think so unless the hot spot system proves to be affordable and more useful, that is, available when it's needed at a reasonable cost. What I don't like is having two separate blocks of data, one for the iphone and one for the ipad. If I can get one block that is larger than the sum of the current two for about the same cost and the connection speed is adequate, I will probably go to the hot spot route. The possibility of being independent of the iphone is significant to me. Even if I don't use 3G much, it is still valuable to me to have the option. Oops just noticed you've already taken the plunge. You're going to love it.

Hotspot via ATT is $45/month for 4GB of data. Ouch.

Indeed, but since you pay $25 a month already, it's really just $20 a month. Compare that to $15 for 200mb of data on the iPad and it's not looking that bad. Not to mention the extra $130 it costs to just get the radio in your iPad.

That's right. Add in the $15 for each month that I get a iPad data plan and the cost is even closer. I now only use the iPad data for 3-6 months per year so I'd have access to a far larger data plan for the whole year, for an additional $90 a year approximately. That leaves the connection speed as the largest unknown. In my situation, I live in the boondocks with only a crummy satellite internet access at $80/ month. If my hot spot connection could approach the internet connection I'd switch in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, at my home I also only have access to AT&T's EDGE network. Sigh. What to do. Anybody have info about hot spot connection speeds? Especially for more than one device simultaneously?

I don't pay $25/month... So not sure what you mean. I pay $15/month for the iPhone plan. With tethering, it would then be $60/month

With the 3G, the $130 is a one time fee

So, it would take about 7 months of the 1st year to pay for that chipset, then it's just 25/15 per month vs $45 per month

Oh, you are on the 200 plan. Yeah, that's a bit more of a difference, but where are you getting $60 from? If you are adding the $45 on top of your original $15 you don't need to. It's only $45 a month for 4GB of data AND tethering.

Still a lot, but if you only do it a couple months a year it'll easily save you money. Over the past year I have literally had no need for 3G on my iPad. I'll definitely be firing up the tethering plan once we head out on our next vacation though.

Ah ok, I thought it was in addition to your plan.

You do realize that apparently if you activate tethering while you have the unlimited plan, you will lose that unlimited plan.

Might want to call ATT and verify

Yup, that's what I've heard too.

The sales rep at ATT verified that you would lose the unlimited. I kept mine when I got the iPhone 4 because I thought it would come in handy when they added tethering. So much for that brilliant idea. I thought about adding the Hot Spot for the NCAA tournament since I don't have wireless at work.