Apple iPad MC706LL/A (32GB, Wi-Fi, Black) NEWEST MODELBy Ron Cronovich, Still very happy after 5 weeks. Excellent battery life, and no heat problems as some have reported.
In case you're considering a 4G iPad with Verizon, you should know that Verizon offers two types of service plans. You should know the difference between them before you buy. I didn't, and it was a hassle and unnecessary expense. The two plans are "post-paid" and "pre-paid." Pre-paid has no activation fee. Post-paid has a $35 activation fee. The cheapest pre-paid plan is $20/month for 1 gig. The cheapest post-paid plan is $30/month for 2 gigs. So if you use wi-fi as much as possible and don't use 3G/4G a lot, you've got 2 reasons to choose pre-paid.
The pre-paid plan also has an option for 2 gigs for $30, same price as the post-paid plan, and you can pre-pay for larger amounts of data for the same prices you'd pay with the post-paid plan. So you really don't give up anything by choosing the pre-paid plan, as far as I can tell. You control the pre-paid plan from the ipad itself (under settings > cellular). You can easily set up the account, choose the option you want, buy more data if you need it, and do all this without any help from Verizon customer service. Furthermore, you can purchase data only when you'll need it, with no activation fees, ever.
You control the post-paid plan from the verizon website. You can "suspend" service when you don't need it, for a limited amount of time, and you won't be billed during this time. If you suspend it, better write down in your calendar when the suspension will end, because you'll start getting billed automatically on that date. I think there are restrictions on how many times per year you can suspend the service, and how long you can suspend it for. There are no such restrictions on the pre-paid plan. I bought my iPad at a Verizon store and, without explaining the differences between these plans, they set up my iPad for the post-paid plan before I left the store. I didn't find out about the different plans until a month later when I got my first bill and saw the $35 activation fee and the $30 charge for 2 gigs.
