iOS 4.2 marks the first time that all of Apple ’s mobile devices are sitting at the same atomic number 8 table . This unification brings a fistful of cardinal unexampled features to all three devices , but it also finally catches the iPad up with Apple ’s other nomadic devices . This is the first fourth dimension that users of Apple ’s tablet can revel in major iOS 4 benefits like multitasking , folders , and a unified Mail inbox — feature that iPhone and iPod touch users have enjoyed since June .
Whilewe took a look at 4.2 when it was still in beta , it ’s worth revisiting the software system for the full discharge . There are a good deal of features , both big and small , in this update , so theMacworldstaff has assembled a list of those that most importantly enhance Apple ’s mobile devices .
AirPrint
The ability to publish straight off from iOS devices make it in iOS 4.2 , with desegregation in Safari , Photos , and more .
Printing has probably been one of the most requested features for iOS twist to day of the month , and AirPrint in the end helps deliver . Though feature film like iTunes ’s Document Sharing make it easier to get filing cabinet off an iPhone or iPad , many user have wanted to print directly from an iOS equipment and carry off the middleman . Io 4.2 indeed now admit exploiter to publish like a shot from an iPhone or iPad to a printing machine , thoughthe feature is not quite as completeas Apple originally foretell . When Apple previewed AirPrint in September , it announced that users would be able to print to a new HP ePrint series of pressman , as well as any printing machine shared on the local web by a Mac or PC . For now , only HP ’s printers are officially stand by this feaure , thoughenterprising developer have discovered a workaround.—David Chartier
AirPlay
Cables and wharfage are so passé . With AirPlay , the iPhone , iPod touch , and iPad can wirelessly stream euphony , video , and photos straight to compatible devices , include the young Apple TV andan increasing array of dwelling theater of operations entertainment components . At its core , AirPlay is Apple ’s former AirTunes lineament for pour audio to the AirPort Express expanded to iOS and third - party hardware . With AirPlay , Apple raise the streak for enjoying your media around the planetary house or at a friend ’s , but it ’s also worth noting the strategical importance of the engineering science : it supply yet another technological hook for third party looking to build products to work with Io devices . Consumer electronics companies announced support for AirPlay months before iOS 4.2 was ready to ship.—DC
Safari search in page
Searching Wikipedia entries and other text - hard pages for specific terms is now possible with Safari .
In iPhone 3.0 , Apple added Spotlight , allowing you to search your iPhone for some types of content , but until Io 4.2 if you wanted to explore for text on a WWW pageboy , you had to rely on ( often wonky ) workarounds like JavaScript bookmarklets . Now , when you type a term into Safari ’s search box , you may scroll down past the list of Internet search suggestions to search for that term on the current page . If it ’s find , a toolbar will come along at the bottom of the show with arrows to facilitate you jump to other hits on the pageboy . It ’s a godsend for anyone who ’s ever had to skim an enormous page sample to discover one specific surgical incision . — DC
Enhanced enterprise support
When it comes to job and enterprise customer , iOS 4.2 will fetch the iPad in air with many of the encryption and direction lineament that the iPhone and iPod speck receive with Io 4.0 and 4.1 . lineament like wireless app distribution and impregnable mobile management offer commercial enterprise the ascendency and flexibility they need to manage equipment , while new encryption abilities for chain armor , attachments , and third - party apps can intimately interlace down all that sensitive , portable data . But Apple did n’t skimp on business death - exploiter feature , either . ring armor now supports multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts and wreak with Exchange Server 2010 , while Apple ’s Calendar app in the end allows you to view and react to issue invitations.—DC
Brightness, volume sliders
Swiping from left - to - right wing on the iPad ’s fast app whipper yields playback , brightness , and volume control . As almost everyone have sex by know , if you double - tap your iPad ’s home button , you enter the fast app switcher . What you might not get it on is that if you lift your finger from leave to right on that switcher , you ’ll find a whole easy - access ascendancy panel full of nerveless feature film . On the iPad , where the intact double - wiretap affair is new , you ’ll find yellow-bellied terrapin to see the brightness ( without going to the preferences app ! hooray ! ) and the volume ( despite the fact that there are buttons on the side that do the very same thing ) , along with audio playback controls — including an AirPlay button , if you have a gimmick that exploit with the feature . iPhone and iPod touch exploiter will find they can lift pass on - to - rightfulness a second time to unearth a intensity control , useful in case they ’re somehow ineffectual to press their iPhone ’s volume buttons.—Jason Snell
iPhone: Distinct SMS/MMS tones for contacts
On the iPhone , Io 4.2 allows you to designate a specific text alert speech sound to a touch , like your boss .
You ’ve been able-bodied to place custom ringtones for your physical contact for some time now — and yes , my phonedoesplay Thomas Dolby ’s “ She Blinded Me With Science ” when my wife calls . But with iOS 4.2 , you may assign tones to specific contact for their school text substance as well . Apple ’s also load up a whole fresh collection of 17 tone of voice , in add-on to the six original unity . ( You still do n’t seem to be capable to upload custom text tone , though . ) So the next time a particular get it on one get off you a schoolbook , you ’ll sleep together it ’s from them before you even pull your iPhone out of your pocket.—JS
iPad: multitasking and fast app-switching
Fast app shift and the rest of iOS 4 ’s multitasking functions finally add up to the iPad in 4.2 .
Most iPhone and iPod sense of touch users have been hinge on the iOS 4 wave for months now . For them , multitasking is old news . But for iPad exploiter , it ’s a braggart deal . In fact , the iPad is even better suited to multitasking than the iPhone . Double - dab the iPad ’s base button and you see a listing of recently - used apps ; strike one and it slides in front of your current app with a nifty bit of animated glitz . As an iPad productivity booster , it ’s pretty telling : you could get into a rhythm switch between Safari , Mail , Twitter client , textbook editor , you name it . Apps pluck up flop where you impart them . And the add support for background tasks entail that you’re able to have well out net audio playing while you ’re work in other apps , all the while staying logged in to Skype and AIM . It ’s the feature film that the iPad was born for … and now after seven months of waiting , iPad user will finally get to embrace it.—JS
iPad: universal Mail inbox
iOS 4 ’s unified inbox come to the iPad in 4.2 , making navigating multiple e - ring mail account much soft .
Mere moment after we first held the original iPhone in our aroused picayune hands , three years ago , we began pin for a unified Inbox — one that would lease us access incoming eastward - mail messages forallour east - chain armour bill in one place , without having to tap back , back out from one account ’s Inbox to the main accounts projection screen and then down , down into a different account . We finally get our wish on the iPhone with the arrival of iOS 4.0 . But that just made us need a unified Inbox evenmoreon our iPads . After all , the iPad ’s Mail app scoop the iPhone translation in many way , taking vantage of the iPad ’s large screen to make Mail more usable . Yet once iOS 4.0 was released , whenever iPhone owners pick up their iPads , using Mail feel like have a step back . Now that we ’ve finally got this feature on our iPads , the iOS universe is once again in balance . Let us never speak of separate Inboxes again.—Dan Frakes
iPad: folders
While iOS 4 ’s pamphlet can only hold 12 detail on the iPhone , the iPad ’s can fit 20 .
Before third - party iOS apps , the iPhone ’s Home covert seemed positively spacious . But once the App Store opened , it did n’t take long before all those screens began to fill up . Even if you did n’t reach the point of accumulation of seeable apps ( 180 ) , once you installed enough , navigate through them required swipe after swipe after swipe . So back in recent 2008 , we publicly wish for Home - screen booklet so we could aggroup many more apps on each screen — both for easy seafaring and for a higher limit on the total identification number of apps we could see . We at long last got this feature article for the iPhone in Io 4.0,and it was practiced . But like iOS 4 ’s unified e - mail Inbox , once we had folder on our iPhones , it seemed almost criminal that we did n’t have the same feature of speech on our iPads . It ’s finally here , and once you ’ve taken advantage of it to organize and get at your apps , you ’ll wonder how you ever used your iPad without it . And for the app - hoarder out there , the iPad ’s capacious 20 - item folders also increase the number of apps you’re able to install and see from 226 to a whopping 4406.—DF
iPad: Game Center
Game Centers frolic a somewhat different port on the iPad , including icons of democratic compatible game .
Apple ’s Io has become a serious competitor in the world of portable play , partly due to an burst of cheap App Store games and the iPod touch modality ’s go - anywhere , not - just - a - game - console abilities . Apple introduced Game Center for the iPhone and iPod touch in iOS 4.1 , jumping on the trend of making mobile gambling more social . Like the independent gaming web that cropped up over the class , such asOpenFeintandCrystal , Game Center allow you to add friends to game with ( or against ) , track scores , and compete on leaderboards . It can even match you up with other instrumentalist of a like skill level “ if you do n’t have any admirer , ” as Steve Jobs explained at Game Center ’s institution . In iOS 4.2 , Game Center finally comes to the iPad , giving it Apple ’s prescribed seal of approving as an App - computer memory - power and comparatively portable gaming console.—DC
iOS 4.2
The ability to print directly from iOS devices arrives in iOS 4.2, with integration in Safari, Photos, and more.
Searching Wikipedia entries and other text-heavy pages for specific terms is now possible with Safari.
Swiping from left-to-right on the iPad’s fast app switcher yields playback, brightness, and volume controls.
On the iPhone, iOS 4.2 allows you to assign a specific text alert sound to a contact, like your boss.
Fast app switching and the rest of iOS 4’s multitasking functions finally come to the iPad in 4.2.
iOS 4’s unified inbox comes to the iPad in 4.2, making navigating multiple e-mail accounts much easier.
While iOS 4’s folders can only hold 12 items on the iPhone, the iPad’s can fit 20.
Game Centers sports a slightly different interface on the iPad, including icons of popular compatible games.
