Back from the Apple store. The very patient lady at the Genius bar sorted out my hardware problems with the iPad 3G (failure to sync correctly and failure to recognize the full memory available) as being a bad USB cable. I'd been using my existing iPhone cable, but somewhere along the line I'd crimped it at the head. When we used a clean, new cable, that set of issues vanished. Very simple fix that I should have thought of myself, as component swaps are troubleshooting 101. Apple win, with a side of user error.

The problem of iTunes not recognizing the newly configured iPad when it is plugged in for the second time is apparently a feature, not a bug. iTunes does in fact recognize the iPad, but the dialog box is misleading. Seems nutty to me, but it's also a one-time thing, so I'll get over it. Minor Apple fail, resolved.

AT&T fail continues in full cry. I will be pursuing it as time and energy permit.

Two more points, for now. This thing really is very cool, but man do I wish it had tabbed browsing. The iPhone's browser model is tolerable if disappointing on a phone, but for the iPad to really live up to its promise for me, more normal web browser behavior is critical.

Also, I owe a post expressing my depth of gratitude to the shadowy consortium of friends, fans and a few kind strangers who chipped in to buy me this thing. You guys are awesome beyond words.

And yes, I'm making this post from the iPad.