News: Apple Offers Free iPad with New Battery

What happens when your iPad’s battery runs out? You get a new iPad, apparently.

According to Apple’s own support documents, if an iPad loses its charge, all you need to do is send in your flat unit, plus a little service fee of $US105, and they’ll send back an entirely new unit within a week.

However, you won’t be getting a new unit if your iPad’s bust, as the replacement service doesn’t cover “accident, liquid contact, disassembly, unauthorized service or unauthorized modifications, or if the product is not operating correctly as a result of a component failure.”

According to Steve Jobs (and he should know), the device runs for 10 hours surfing the net on Wi-Fi or playing video, but it should be able to play 140 hours of music so long the screen is off.

The replacement service is being coordinated via Apple’s retail outlets or service providers. It’s unclear as to whether the replacement service will work the same way, but you’ll know as soon as we do.