What's that you say? You've already logged 10 hours on your iPad and wanted to charge the battery? Well, let's just plug it into that free USB port on your 16 port USB hub and you'll be back up and running in no... Oh.
Engadget reports that a large number of iPad owners are complaining of being unable to charge their shiny new toys via the same USB ports they've used to juice up there iPods and iPhones for years. Now before all you anti-iPad types out there start in with the high-fives, we have to point out that this failure to charge is not a glitch or, as you're no doubt hoping, the first of many soon to be discovered fatal design flaws.
According to Apple's support site, it's a simple matter of your USB ports not providing enough power to recharge the tablet. The iPad ships with a 10W USB power adapter, 10 watts being the optimum amount of juice to charge of your tablet's internal battery. iPhones and iPods? They draw significantly less power, and as such, will power up via most USB ports, even if those ports are low-powered, as is the case with many older computers.
There are instances, however, where USB will do you just fine. Sort of.
If you have a newer Mac boasting high-powered USB ports, your iPad will charge up when connected, but at a significantly slower rate than if it were plugged into the tablet's wall charger. It's also worth bearing in mind that in addition to the slower charge rate you'll be enjoying, once your Mac goes to sleep or shuts down, your iPad won't see any recharging at all and, as it'll be drawing power from its internal battery once again, will continue to drain. Fail.
In short, For feast, consistent charging every time, you're better off using the power adapter that came with your iPad.
