For everyone who owns an iPad and an iPhone, the past months must have been a pain. While the iPhone has all the goodies, like multitasking and folders, the iPad suffered with an old, encumbering OS. Now, however, Apple has released iOS 4.2, which brings everything to the iPad, plus (and more importantly), unifies the iOS platform, bringing the same version of the OS to all devices. And there are also some new features like AirPlay for those who own AppleTV devices.
So, for everyone familiar with iOS 4, using the new OS is the same thing. Double tap the Home button for the open apps list, click to switch to that app:
The taskbar also has an iPod controller and the orientation-lock button, like on the iPhone, plus a brightness controller. The old orientation-lock switch on the right side acts now as a mute button, as on the iPhone.
You can also create folders, like on the iPhone, but with 20 apps in each (vs. 12 apps on the iPhone). Creating folders works in the same way as in previous iOS 4 releases: just drag an app and drop on top of another to group them in a folder.
Another big feature is AirPrint. You can now print documents wirelessly using any printer in you networks, including those connected to a Mac or a Windows PC. However, Apple disabled the feature on the final release of 10.6.5, so if you want the feature, you’ll need to hack your CUPS files a bit. No Windows support for now too.
iOS 4.2 also brings AirPlay to the iPad, so you can stream videos, music and photos to AppleTV and also stream music to AirPlay speakers/receivers. Unfortunately, I don’t have AppleTV, so I can’t test that.
As for minor features, you’ll find everything you had on your iPhone here:
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Mail: threads, open attachments in 3rd-party apps.
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Safari: pages button shows the number of open pages, search text on webpages.
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Game Center is available.
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Better security features for enterprise users.
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Several accessibility enhancements.
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Better Spotlight customization.
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Better restrictions control.
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Turn on/off spell checking.
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Notes preferences pane
Must have upgrade, this makes the iPad a more useful tool. It was really complicated using it with iOS 3.2, but now it’s like a breeze. Multitasking, better Mail and new enterprise-friendly features makes it a good productivity tool and I actually use it instead of a laptop on several occasions. For leisure, it’s nice to be able to switch between your favorite magazine/newspaper and your IM/Twitter client back and forth. However, multitasking has given me some low memory warnings every now and then, but I’m a heavy user. Let’s see how people fare with this.
One under-the-hood feature that no one is talking about is that Apple added a MIDI API in iOS 4.2. This means that iPhones/iPads could become also studio tools for musicians. I’m looking forward to see new apps exploiting the new API.
Does iOS 4.2 makes it a permanent replacement for a laptop? No, I don’t think so. And for those worried about productivity, the obvious choice now is the 11” MacBook Air anyway. This is still a 3rd mobile device some people will have and love, but most people won’t need.
I could also write a review for the iPhone, but it would be just a revival of this. AirPrint and AirPlay are the big new features and it seems to fix performance issues on the 3G model. On the iPhone 4, I haven’t noticed anything that is worth mentioning.