OMG: Apple iOS 4.2 officially available at last!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 23 November 2010 10:33

Your IT - Mobility

After the original iPad launched some several million years ago, the ultra-long-awaited iOS 4.2 has finally arrived for Apple's trio of terrific iPlatforms, the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, putting Apple's iPad even further ahead of its Android tablet competitors!

It has taken what seems like aeons to arrive, especially given iPhone and iPod Touch users have had iOS 4.x for some time, but finally, thank Jobs, it is here.

Yes, the great heavenly iJobs has opened up his iServers after much prayer from his iFollowers, ready to follow the 20 sacred iOS 4.2 iCommandments written upon the Jobsian JesusPad.

Although Apple's third gold master was listed as iOS 4.2.1, Apple's press release makes no mention of the 4.2.1 designation. My own iOS 4.2 iPad update is downloading as we speak - it still has two hours to go as I type, so it'll be a little while before I'll be able to personally verify the version number.

For now, however, that is of little consequence - the big news is that iOS 4.2 is finally here.

The High Lord of the Crunch, Apple iCEO Steve Jobs himself, was quick to send a verbal neutron bomb right into the heart of the Android and other OS tableterati, stating that: 'iOS 4.2 makes the iPad a completely new product, just in time for the holiday season. Once again, the iPad with iOS 4.2 will define the target that other tablets will aspire to, but very few, if any, will ever be able to hit.'

Of course, Steve Jobs is not only well versed in the art of iHyperbole, he practically invented it, but given the current state of competing tablets complete with non-tablet-optimised operating systems, iJobs has an iPoint.

One of the most-awaited features for the iPad is multitasking. Yes, it is more 'limited' a form of multitasking than you'll find on your regular PC or an Android 'tablet', but Apple's multitasking delivers most of the multiple benefits multitasking brings, but without the battery-killing side-effects traditional multitasking devices suffer, with Apple naturally happily bragging about the iPad's 'legendary battery life'.

The long-awaited folders have also arrived, as has the Unified Inbox, something that makes managing the 40,000 iPad apps now available a much easier affair, especially if you have a lots of those iPad apps already installed. 

Gamers will enjoy the new Game Center app, letting iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users play against each other, while the much hyped AirPlay and AirPrint let you send music, photo, video and documents wirelessly to an Apple TV or select HP printers (with a 'hack' available for Mac OS X to enable wireless printing to a larger variety of shared printers).

iContinued on page two, please iRead on!