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Track an iPad from Shenzhen to you
There's a fun post at Silicon Alley Insider today that traces an iPad's journey from China to the customer's home. By monitoring Twitter and tracking reports, Nick Saint has assembled an iPad's typical journey to the US. It starts at the infamous Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China. That's the "iPad nursery," if you will. From there, iPads destined for the USA fly to Anchorage, Alaska, a journey that Google Maps struggled with (38 days by car? Oh, it'd be much shorter by car). From there, the iPad that Nick was tracking went to Louisville, Kentucky, where it will remain (UPS shipping calls it "UPS Internal Activity") until it's set free on Saturday. Many TUAW readers wrote in to say they've received shipment notifications, so we can assume that your precious is somewhere along this route. In the meantime, why not install a package tracking app on your iPhone (you remember your iPhone, right)?
Don't panic over these iPad delivery exceptions
Lots of TUAW readers have written in today, worried about their iPad deliveries. Since they received shipment notices, many folks have been tracking their progress, and are now seeing messages like: UPS INTERNAL ACTIVITY. SHIPMENT IS HELD TO VERIFY COMMODITY DESCRIPTION WITH THE CUSTOMER FOR CORRECT CLASSIFICATION "Your package has experienced an exception" If you received one of these notices, you are not alone. Apple has taken similar measures in the past to make sure that deliveries do not arrive before the official release date. In fact, Boy Genius Report suggests that Apple is purposefully withholding clearance papers for the iPads to make sure that they are not delivered early. As anxious as these next few days of waiting will be, and as nerve-racking as it is when this is your iPad, I fully expect that 99.99% of the iPads scheduled for delivery on Saturday will be delivered on Saturday. We've also heard directly from someone who works "for a certain shipping company" who reports that they will have double the number of drivers out in their particular delivery area on Saturday, due to the increased traffic. I would expect that other areas would see similar increases. Nobody who works for a shipping company wants to have to go back to Apple and explain why they couldn't meet delivery needs. That being said, the same source does not expect exceptions to be made for areas without Saturday delivery, so you may have to wait until Monday for your iPad to be delivered. Don't panic -- we're sure UPS will do everything it can to get your iPad to you on time. If you're not sure about the delivery policy in your area, you may want to contact UPS to verify. Image via UPS.com. Please note, this man is not actually delivering an iPad. If you see him, do not try to wrest it from his hand.
