But complaints of dropped connections and sluggish downloads persist

"Short version," writes an iPad owner who calls himself "batzgam" in the Apple (AAPL) discussion topic iPad 'not auto-connecting' solved! "Raise the screen brightness above the minimum setting -- wifi reappears!"

Like many early adopters, batzgam had a complaint about how his new iPad was communicating with his local Wi-Fi network.

How widespread these problems are is hard to say. As of Wednesday morning the most heavily tafficked complaint thread on Apple's discussion board -- Weak wifi -- had drawn more than 300 messages and 37,000 reads.

Batzgam's problem was a relatively minor one -- but frustrating nonetheless. Every time his iPad went to sleep, it forgot what Wi-Fi network it was using and had to be painstakingly reconnected. Apple took the complaint seriously enough to post several suggested fixes. But it was batzgam who seems to have nailed it. It turned out he had lowered his iPad's screen brightness setting. When he turned it back up, his Wi-Fi issue disappeared.

"Dude, you sir are a genius," wrote of the many users who said his trick solved their problem. "That is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. But thank you!"

The iPad's other Wi-Fi issues may not go away so easily. The chief complaints: dropped connections, weak signals, forgotten passwords and sluggish downloads.

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