Man ‘Opens’ iPad 3G With Meat Cleaver

UK users have been shown how to make a traditional SIM card fit into an Apple iPad, after a man obtained an iPad 3G from the US, and trimmed down a conventional SIM card so it would fit the device’s micro-SIM slot.

Back in January this year, users learnt that Apple had opted for a micro-SIM slot for its iPad tablet device. The conventional SIM card currently found in most mobile phones measures 15 x 25mm, whereas a micro-SIM is something like 52 percent smaller, measuring just 12 x 15mm.

That decision means that users buying the iPad 3G, need to acquire a micro-SIM from Apple’s list of approved mobile operators, if they want to use mobile browsing.

A Man With A Plan

However, enterprising chap John Benson was not deterred, and purchased an iPad 3G 64GB from the United States. He then obtained a conventional SIM card from Vodafone, and used a chopping board, a meat cleaver and a pair of scissors to trim the card down to make it fit in the iPad. He even helpfully provided step by step instructions.

Apparently the conversion works just fine, as long as the clearly visible electronic element of a traditional SIM card is not compromised.

“Electronically, the SIM and MicroSIM are the same so we can cut the rest away and not worry (so long as we are careful),” Benson wrote.

Incidentally, Benson used the meat cleaver only to score a straight line on the SIM card, and he then used scissors to cut away the surrounding plastic to fashion a micro-SIM.

UK Arrival

The iPad is proving to be a hot seller for Apple. It launched the Wi-Fi version back in early April in the US, and only recently began selling the 3G version. It has already sold one million of the tablet devices.

Indeed, such has been the demand, that Apple was forced to delay the UK launch of the iPad by one month. UK users will now only be able to pre-order the device from 10 May, and the tablet will only hit UK shelves in late May. Both Vodafone and O2 said they would announce dedicated iPad price plans at the end of May.