- The iPad is available in two variants as of July 2011: "Wi-Fi" and "3G Plus Wi-Fi." AT&T and Verizon Wireless are the two carriers that provide 3G cellular data service, which is sold separately from the device. Although 3G iPads are capable of accessing the Internet using a wireless connection just as Wi-Fi iPads are, you must be subscribed to a 3G service plan in order to have the Internet be "always on" -- and if you choose AT&T as your carrier, whose mobile devices use GSM technology, this 3G service requires a SIM card.
- Unlike the majority of devices AT&T sells, however, the iPad doesn't use a standard-sized SIM. Rather, it uses a "Micro" SIM that is around 50 percent the size of a normal SIM card. Functionally speaking, a Micro SIM works exactly the same as an ordinary-sized one. The primary advantage of the Micro SIM, from a design perspective, is that the SIM tray is smaller and less conspicuous. The size of an iPad's SIM card is .5 by .6 inches as opposed to the traditional SIM card, which is .6 x 1 inch.
- As of July 2011, the only other Apple device that uses a Micro SIM is the iPhone 4, a device AT&T also sells and services. Although it is technically possible to insert the iPhone 4's SIM card into the iPad, doing so is obviously not sustainable if you plan to use the iPhone 4 with any regularity -- if its Micro SIM is inserted into the iPad, you can't use the iPhone 4 for anything but Wi-Fi.
- Although neither Apple nor AT&T encourage it in any way, it is technically possible to "trim down" a regular SIM card to a micro size. This owes to the fact that of the five "bars" that exist on a SIM's chip, only the middle three are essential to its function. Since the iPad isn't sold locked to any carrier like an iPhone, it is theoretically possible to trim any carrier's SIM down and insert it into the iPad, so long as you have the option of purchasing a monthly cellular data plan.
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