It appears that Apple has a Wi Fi problem with their new iPads with the company ordering stores in Australia to “capture’ units if a customer complains.A leaked memo seen by 9to5Mac confirms the problem with the Company moving to quietly replace faulty units which appear to be slow or drop out intermittently.

The company’s AppleCare support service has been told to replace affected units, according to the leaked memo.

The leaked memo claims that Apple is ‘actively investigating’ problems including an inability to connect to nearby networks and slow speeds.

Last week SmartHouse lost a network connection several times with one of the new iPads.

The memo obtained by 9to5Mac highlights complaints made by users of the new tablet, who have flocked to Apple’s forums to complain about questionable Wi-Fi speeds.

It instructs Apple staff to ‘capture’ affected units and return them to engineers for inspection.

The memo seems to be specific to Wi-Fi only models; however SmartHouse has been told that the 3G version defaults to the SIM broadband connection when a Wi Fi connection drops out.

Threads about the problem on Apple’s official forums read as follows.

“This is a problem Apple – you need to fix it,” says one user.

‘I am in a hotel with my laptop and new iPad” began another. “The laptop WiFi reception is as strong as it gets, but the iPad only registers a weak signal. Anyone else having similar problems? Any suggestions?”