Posted:
BY JAMEY TUCKER, CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY REPORTER
Christmas morning is frequently enough filled wiht excitement, but also frustration. That shiny new tablet, gaming console, or smart toy might look ready to go, but many popular gifts need some setup before they actually work.
Charging is the first step, of course. Some devices need hours to power up before they’ll even turn on. But charging is just the beginning. Increasingly, gifts also require activation, updates, and an internet connection before anyone can use them.
And Christmas morning is the absolute worst time to tackle all that.
Millions of families attempt to activate new devices concurrently each year. App stores slow to a crawl. Game downloads stall. Cloud services become sluggish, and customer service lines are wholly overwhelmed.
Companies like Apple, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have all experienced Christmas Day slowdowns as their servers are flooded with new devices trying to connect. It’s a predictable problem, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.
That’s why some gifts are better opened before the kids wake up.
Tablets are a prime example. iPads, Fire Tablets, and Android tablets all require charging, software updates, account logins, and app downloads. Apple devices frequently enough need an Apple ID and iCloud setup. Amazon