I am thinking about buying an iPad. I live in Germany.
From a past job, I have a gift card with Amazon USA. I would like to buy the iPad from there.
Customs issues aside, is the pre-installed iOS on an US-bought iPad capable of switching its language to German?
Are there other localization issues I need to be aware of? The most obvious one, the keyboard, isn't present in this case. Are there any other other possible problems I might run into?
Just to add to the above answers, you can check the available languages on the tech specs page of the product.
Language support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Catalan, and Vietnamese
Keyboard support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French (France), French (Canadian), French (Switzerland), German, Traditional Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin, Zhuyin, Cangjie, Wubihua), Simplified Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin, Wubihua), Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese (Romaji, Ten Key), Japanese (Kana), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Estonian, Hungarian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Flemish, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Bulgarian, Serbian (Cyrillic/Latin), Catalan, Vietnamese, Tibetan, Macedonian, and Cherokee
Dictionary support (enables predictive text and autocorrect) for English (U.S.), English (UK), French, German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese (Romaji), Japanese (Kana), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Flemish, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malaysian, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Catalan, Vietnamese, and Cherokee
I'm sure you'll find the one you want :)
On the iPad itself, every difference is purely software and customizable exactly as Mark said.
The US charger works fine anywhere, you'll just need a specific power adapter.
If you have an iPod/iPhone/MacBook charger lying around, just switch the adapter (the part that plugs on the wall). If you don't have one, they can be purchased. Just search for "europe adapter for iPad charger".
Pekka, it might also help you to know that the iPad hardware and software installation are the same, everywhere. The iPad you buy from Amazon will be identical to one that you would buy in Germany (or wherever). You can fully localize the iPad by selecting your preferred language, as a Preference setting. All Apple supplied software is localized to every supported language.
iPad with 3G uses micro-SIM card format, which is not available on all mobile operators in the world. That could influence your ability to use iPad 3G connection in some places.
You can manually cut regular SIM card to micro-SIM card, but it's a bit hacky.
Also, bear in mind that iPad 2 3G sold in the USA comes in two versions - for AT&T and Verizon. The latter is working only on CDMA mobile network, which is less widespread around the world. Version for AT&T is working on GSM networks which is much more widespread.
