Apple launched their new iPad tablet as a sort of lightweight “living room computer” to replace that bulky laptop and one-up your small smartphone. Like all computers, though, the iPad is subject to temperature extremes that could put its delicate internal components at risk of being damaged. And, like a computer, it can overheat. When that happens, the tablet will shut itself down and display a temperature warning. Apple has apparently built in safeguards to prevent it’s latest gadget from running its overheating processor into a messy puddle of silicon and molten metal.
Should you leave your iPad out in the or absent-mindedly slide the tablet into your oven, the device will protect itself by refusing to boot up. Rather than let you continue to overheat the internal circuitry, it’ll display the temperature warning screen and notify you that the “iPad needs to cool down before you can use it.”
For the uninformed, the official operating temperature range for the Apple tablet falls between freezing and “hella hot” – in other words, you should keep your iPad between 32F and 95F. Apple says that the iPad isn’t designed to survive temperatures below -4F and above 113F, even when turned off.
Reports of overheating iPads are starting to hit the web, and could add fuel to discussions about the iPad being a bit buggy out of the gate. We’ve already heard users complain that their PC and USB hubs aren’t capable of charging the device. There are those that are complaining of crappy WiFi reception. Now, it seems the shiny new tablet can’t stand up to a brief jaunt in the sun.
But, for the sake of fairness, we’d rather have our iPad refuse to boot due to high temps than recklessly allow us to run the processor so hot that it bakes itself into oblivion. $500 is cheap for an Apple computing device, but it’s not that cheap.
[Via: Ubergizmo]