Do most apps need real time connection to be fully functional?

For the most part, the apps are fully downloaded and require no connection for basic function. They work pretty much independently. Pages for instance only requires a connection for exporting or importing documents. You can save all the documents you're working on on your iPad. With Mail, you can read, write and send to your outbox, ready to send when connected later. However larger attachments and really long messages that have partially been downloaded will not be available when offline. Safari is of course useless without a connection. Maps, YouTube, iTunes and the App Store all require a connection to work. Contacts and Calendar don't.

I think the determining factor is how you work. If you work fine with a laptop that only connects when you're near wifi, then you don't really need 3G. If you don't have a smartphone and need apps like Facebook and messaging or depend on sending and receive email constantly, then you'd get your moneys worth out of 3G.

Common sense should be sufficient. Is the game listed as multi-player? If so you'd need an Internet connection to play in multi-player mode (unless it is like Scrabble and has a pass-around mode). Is the program one that gets external data like a browser or news aggregator? Then you need a connection to access new data but they should work to allow you to read old data. Of all the apps I have on my iPhone and iPad the only ones that are totally kaput when I don't have access to the net are Safari, Twitter and Words with Friends and all are obviously in that category.

I ordered a 3G iPad as a couple of my friends already regret not waiting for the 3G version as they wanted to be one of the first to have one. Now they are debating to return it and eat the restocking fees or try to sell it on Ebay or CL.

If you plan to use your iPad anywhere but at home/work/store with wifi, go for the 3G as it will work way more places.

I'm kind of regretting not having the 3G version... but not very much. For me, the iPad just isn't the kind of device that I take with me when I leave the house. I just bring my iPhone - yeah, its smaller but that makes it more portable (no duh!) and it has 3G.

But I can see where I would want to bring the iPad on a vacation.

The news apps generally benefit from internet access. It would be a hassle to have to launch each app to make sure stories are up to date before you leave the house. Again, its just easier to grab your iPhone and go.

As far as games - almost none of them REQUIRE internet. yeah there are some that benefit from it, but I don't play any multiplayer-only games on the iPad (or iPhone).

For me its really just email thats a problem.

Hi Colleen,

There's no easy way to tell if an app relies on wifi, as far as I can tell. Quite a few do. Some, like the Wall Street Journal app, require wifi to download the daily paper, but then it's available without wifi after that. No idea how many other media apps do that too. The iphone-only app for the NY Times also behaves that way. Others, like Art Authority, which is a really neat application BTW, require wifi every time they run. That wifi requirement for Art Authority was only alluded to in the App Store description of it, never stated specifically. Since I know of no way to get a refund from the App Store after you hit that "Buy" button, knowing these things beforehand, I agree, would be nice.

But for the most part, it's fairly obvious what apps are going to rely on Internet access. What's not obvious is whether or not they'll run at all without it.

Also, in the store, by the price of the app, if there's a plus sign next to it, it means the app has been optimized to run on the iPad but is the same app (that is, not a separate, iPad only app) as the iPhone one, it just operates differently depending on the platform it's run on. That means if you bought it for your iPhone, you get it free for your iPad and it runs differently (better) on your iPad. Just download it again on your iPad.

Steve