Posted Apr 8th 2010 12:15PM by Erica Sadun

Filed under: iPad

When TUAW reader Gregory P. wrote to us yesterday, claiming his "Not charging" iPad was, in fact, charging, I admit I was pretty skeptical. After all, the new iPads have been widely reported to be incompatible with USB hubs and lower-power USB ports. Gregory claimed to have charged up his new iPad even when the device reported that it wasn't charging.

Gregory writes that he plugged in his 63% iPad into his Lenovo T61, where it reported itself to be "Not charging." Several hours later, the iPad reported an 87% battery level. As I've been plugging directly into A/C power or using a dedicated onboard port on one of my desktop because of those reports, I decided to give Gregory's suggestion a real world try.

Last night, I plugged in my 83% iPad into one of my USB hubs. The unit reported "Not charging", as expected. Regardless, I left it plugged in and revisited it this morning. Sure enough, my battery was completely 100% charged. As Gregory wrote in his letter, "Maybe when it says it's not charging it is just charging slower due to less voltage or something, but it is actually charging!"

It worked for me. Results may not be typical, so make sure to chime in below in the comments to let us know if it worked for you too.

Tags: battery, battery life, BatteryLife, charging, chime, desktop, hubs, iPad, not-charging, onboard, port, recharging, skeptical, usb