On Monday , Apple exhaust Io 4.2 , a free software update that fetch the features of iOS 4 — including multitasking , fast app switching , and a unified chain armor inbox — to the iPad for the first clock time . We had a chance to use the update , which also contribute the new AirPrint and AirPlay feature to all compatible devices , for a few days : here ’s a first look .
How to update
iOS 4.2 is compatible with all existing iOS gimmick except the original iPhone and first - genesis iPod touch . However , some features ( such as multitasking ) wo n’t work on sometime machine , including the iPhone 3 universal gravitational constant and the second - generation iPod touch . ( you’re able to read ourfirst look at the 4.2 betafor a plenty more detail . )
Users of compatible devices can update by bond a equipment to a Mac or PC , choose it in the iTunes germ leaning , and cluck the Check For Update button . ( It ’s always a wise idea to let iTunes back up your equipment before running an iOS update , in case there ’s an error that forces you to wipe out it . ) One bit of trivia : the iOS update being released Monday for iPadis in reality version 4.2.1 , since version 4.2 proper was replaced as a part of this firing ’s development cycle .
What’s new for everyone
Asannounced on Sept. 1 by Apple CEO Steve Jobs , iOS 4.2 introduces AirPlay , an updated version of Apple ’s AirTunes feature that allows iTunes 10 and iOS devices running iOS 4.2 to teem picture to a boob tube via the new Apple TV . ( For more details , read our men - on look at AirPlay . )
Print Center runs in the fast - app switch strip and keeps racecourse of your print line of work . The other big feature in 4.2 is AirPrint , which lets iOS devices print right away and wirelessly to a handful of HP ePrint printer . unluckily , one of the features originally promised for AirPrint — the power to use a Mac or PC as an intermediator to publish to a wider ambit of printers — does not seem in the software program releases happen Monday .
WhenMacworldasked Apple about that missing functionality , a society example would not comment about the thing straight . Instead , he sound out : “ There are still great features available through apps that allow you to accomplish [ some of ] that capacity . For now , AirPrint is for AirPrint - enabled printer . ” ( There are numerous iOS apps that enable print separate from AirPrint ; there are also several new Mac apps , includingFingerprintandPrintopia , which work as wholesaler between an iOS gadget and a printer . )
Print Center runs in the fast-app switching strip and keeps track of your print jobs.
What’s new for iPad users
Despite the presence of AirTunes and AirPrint , the big taradiddle of iOS 4.2 is really that it bestow the feature of iOS 4 to the iPad for the first sentence . The iPad shipped on April 3 , but onlyfive day laterApple harbinger iOS 4.0 , which ship two months later . For the intervening five calendar month , the iPad has been a full step behind the rest of Apple ’s iOS devices . On Monday , that end , and the iPad and iPhone will be start the same version of iOS for the very first time .
folder . The iPad has them.iOS 4 ’s multitasking features are very nice on the iPhone , but they ’re a divine revelation on the iPad . With this one free software program update , all existing iPads get a immense productiveness boost . When we talk iOS multitasking , it ’s important to observe that we ’re actually speak about several dissimilar lineament : the power for apps to move parcel of themselves in the background while other apps are in the foreground , the ability for apps to pick off right where you left them when you switch back to them , and the Modern “ profligate app switcher ” interface that appears when you double - tap the abode button .
When you put these three features together , you get multitasking , Io 4 style . And on the iPad , which is in general populated by more complex apps than the iPhone , it really shines . In my testing , I was able-bodied to flip chop-chop between Mail , a Twitter customer , and a school text editor program . three-fold - tapping the plate button and using the fast app whipper cursorily became a substance abuse , and because iOS 4 - savvy apps pick up in good order where you leave behind off , switching into an app no longer becomes a speed bump that requires you to sail back to where you were before . you’re able to get in a real vallecula once you get the hang of it . It ’s not quite the same as run several programs on a Mac or PC — you are , after all , only take to the woods one app in the foreground at a time — but it ’s a much more productive environment than prior to the OS 4.2 update .
Print Center runs in the fast-app switching strip and keeps track of your print jobs.
The background processing will also be a welcome addition for iPad users . Yes , you’re able to now launch the Pandora app and then play medicine in the background while you do other things . And perhaps theexcellent NPR iPad appwill get an update to support iOS 4.2 briefly , so user can hear to the radio set stories they ’ve queue up up while running other apps .
The fresh control control board features ( left to right ) an orientation course lock , brightness level background , playback controls ( admit AirPlay and volume ) , and an indicator of which app is currently playing sound or television in the desktop .
iOS 4.2 ’s debauched app whipper also contain another small productivity rise : a quick swipe from left to right hand brings up a controller panel sport a brightness skidder , so you could align screen smartness without launching the options app . There ’s also an orientation - lock chamber button , because with this vent Apple has changed the behaviour of the switch just above the iPad ’s hardware volume buttons . antecedently , that switch lock the iPad ’s orientation , so you could hold the iPad in uneven positions without the table of contents of the cover automatically rotating . Now that shift is a mute switch , which silences notifications ( but not all noise ) coming from the iPad .
Folders. The iPad has them.
WhenMacworldasked Apple about the reason for this switch , which some users have decried , a company representative suggest that it was made to provide consistence between the mute switch on the iPhone and iPod touch .
Unified inboxes!Another big productivity encouragement for iPad user in iOS 4.2 comes from the Mail program program ’s new co-ordinated inbox . If you see yourself using more than one account ( for example , one for personal ring armor , another for workplace ring mail ) , you ’re probably familiar with the four taps that are ask so as to switch from one inbox to another . With iOS 4.2 , Apple ’s reduce that to no tap — there ’s a unified view that stitch all inboxes together . ( If you would rather keep your tocopherol - post lives separate , you’re able to still do that , too . )
In addition , conversation in iPad ring armor are now threaded . No longer will you reply to a message only to see that an hour later someone else respond with the same reply — now all subject matter in a answer chemical chain will appear grouped together in a submenu of the mailbox in question .
The new control panel features (left to right) an orientation lock, brightness setting, playback controls (including AirPlay and volume), and an indicator of which app is currently playing audio or video in the background.
Also , the ability to set up multiple Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync invoice intend that iPad drug user can now wirelessly synchronise both a workplace calendar running on an Exchange server and a personal Google calendar , for example .
And the gain of pamphlet to the iPad ’s dwelling screen means the iPad can now nurse a ridiculous act of apps — and more significantly , users can now engineer their apps better and across few Sir Frederick Handley Page of the home screenland .
Other updates
As a part of the AirTunes roll - out , the second - generation Apple TVwill see its onboard software updated to edition 4.1 . This update adds AirTunes support as well as a unexampled VoiceOver accessibility feature film .
[ Jason Snell is Macworld ’s editorial director . ]
iOS 4.2
Unified inboxes!
