Earlier this week, Apple finally released the highly anticipated iOS 4.2 for iPad, bringing a world of advanced features to the popular device.   Despite a few initial hiccups, I finally got the new OS installed yesterday, and have now had some time to tinker with many of its new features.  What follows are a few of my initial impressions of what I found.

Let’s start with the most highly anticipated feature coming out of Cupertino since cut and paste.  Of course, I am talking about multi-tasking.  as has been widely reported, this is not true multi-tasking, in that it does not truly allow you to work in two windows at the same time.  Instead, it is really multi-running-app.  What it allows is for apps to run in the background and perform background tasks while you work in another app.  So, for example, Pandora can keep playing while you surf the Internet.  However, it does not add the feature which is on top of my personal wish list, a drop down which could be access from any screen or with any app running which would display my task list, agenda, and email inbox.  I suspect I will be waiting for that one for a long time

Still, the new iOS upgrade does allow fast task switching, which is really nice.  In the past, iOS required you to exit out of one app before you could start another.  This was cumbersome and time consuming.  Not to mention the fact that you generally lost your place in the closed app.  With fast task switching, when you “close an app” it actually gives you the equivalent of minimizing it, placing the app into the task switching pane.  You can then access the task switching pane in order to switch back to any app, or fully close an app.  The nice thing here is that when you access an app from the task switching pane, it will immediately return to the exact spot where you left it.

Now, I will admit that I had a little trouble finding the task switching pane…some release notes or instructions might have been helpful.  A quick Google search, however, revealed what I am about to tell you.  In order to access the task switching pane, just double tap the home button.  As my friend Mike noted, this is going to significantly increase the wear on your home button, and will likely result in an awful lot of worn out home buttons.  I hope Apple is ready to offer a home-button replacement service.

Once you have accessed the task switching pane, you can swipe through all of your active apps by simply swiping to the right.  Tap on any to open it.  Tap and hold to reveal the close buttons.  Tap the close button (red minus sign) to remove it from the task switching pane and close the app.  Finally, swipe all the way to the left from the first task switching pane screen to access the new control screen.  From here, you can control your iPod, increase or decrease the volume and brightness of the screen, and even toggle the screen rotation lock.

Waitaminute…what is the screen rotation lock doing here?  Isn’t there a switch for that.  Well, yeah…which is to say, there was one.  The switch which used to lock the screen rotation is now a mute switch, instantly turning off the volume on your iPad.  Which is nice, but seems completely unnecessary since holding the volume button for a second or two already had this same effect.  To me, this seemed like a classic case of if it is not broken, fix it anyway.  The screen rotation lock button worked great.  There was no need to remap it, especially to remap it to add a completely redundant function.  Especially when this important feature is now hidden in a menu which requires multiple steps to access.  At the least, Apple could have included an option in the settings to toggle the functionality of this switch between the screen rotation lock and mute.

The second big-ticket item you will find are app folders.  Yes, Apple finally makes it easy to keep similarly categorized apps grouped together.  Again, a little instruction would have been helpful here, but I was able to figure this feature out through trial and error.  To create a new folder, just drag one app icon and drop it on top of another.  a new folder will then open, ready for you to name.  You can then drag and drop up to 20 apps into each folder.  I absolutely loved this feature.  It instantly decluttered my iPad home screen, taking it from nine screens down to three.

The only problem I had here was that the folder icons all look pretty much the same.  They are all a black background filled with miniature icons of the folder contents.  While it is pretty cool that each folder icon changes to show the contents, it would be nice if you could further change or customize these icons in order to differentiate them from one another.  Plus, the home screen looks a little more boring with nothing but these black folder icons all over it.

To access a folder’s content, just tap the folder and it will shoot open, displaying the contents of the folder.   You can launch apps directly from the folder, just as you would any other app on your device’s home screen. 

Did I mention I absolutely loved this feature?  Plus, not only does it bring a significant amount of organization and customization options, it also significantly increases the number of apps you can display on your home screen.  Now, instead of nine screens of 20 apps per screen, you could potentially have nine screens with 20 folders on each screen, and each folder storing 20 apps.  That increases the potential from 180 apps to 3600 apps.  Not too shabby.

Another big criticism of Apple has been the lack of ability to print natively from iOS devices.  With the iOS 4.2 upgrade, printing finally made it to the iPad in the form of AirPrint.  In theory, this is a fantastic feature, which allows you to print from your iPad directly to a connected printer on your wireless network.  In practice, however, it is just not that easy.  As soon as I started trying to use AirPrint, I noticed that it was never able to find my printer, despite the fact that every other device connected to the same network can see it.  Another quick Google search revealed the reason.  Air Print is limited only to certain features, primarily those manufactured by HP, which contain the eprint software.

In other words, unless you have one of the compatible printers, and the list is pretty small, then this feature will be all but useless to you.  This is especially frustrating, given the fact that I have used other printing apps on my iPad, such as Readdle’s Printer Pro, which have been able to find and utilize my printer with no problems.  Why Apple chose to intentionally cripple this feature, I cannot explain.

Obviously, this is not everything you will find in iOS 4.2.  There are plenty of other features, including the new gaming hub, GameCenter (above, review coming soon); Find My Phone (below, review coming soon), which allows you to message, lock, or wipe your phone remotely; enhanced email, which includes the much coveted threaded messages; and Air Play, which will allow you to stream any media content directly to Apple TV or Air Play enabled speakers…another feature which is useless without additional compatible hardware.   There are plenty of other enhancements and upgrades.  You can learn more about them by checking out www.apple.com/ios, or just poke around your iOS 4.2 enabled iPad and see what you can find.

I have to say that I have been anticipating this update pretty much since I bought my iPad, and I was not disappointed.  The feature I coveted most, folders for my apps, works great; and the multi-tasking and app switching is really fantastic as well.  I was disappointed to find that some features were would not work since I did not have additional required peripherals, such as apple TV or the correct printer, but many would say that is just typical Apple, giving with one hand and taking away with the other.  Those were minor annoyances, however, which were far outweighed by the incredible leaps in functionality offered by the new OS. 

Do you have iOS 4.2 running on your iPad or other iOS device?  Let us know what you think in the comments below.  What are your favorite/least favorite new features?

Find My Phone

GameCenter

Enhanced Email

Plenty More