Apple releases iPhone, iPad iOS 4.2 Golden Master to developers

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Apple has released iOS 4.2 build 8C134 for both iPad and iPhone and iPod touch devices, indicating the company is close to public release of the new operating system, originally slated for delivery this month.



Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs demonstrated iOS 4.2 at the company's iPod event early in September, showing off new features such as AirPlay wireless streaming of audio, video and photos to the new Apple TV or other AirPlay-compliant devices, an expansion of the company's existing, audio-only AirTunes feature.



Jobs also introduced the company's entirely new AirPrint wireless printing architecture, designed to enable users to create hard copies of web pages, emails and photos managed through a new Print Center app.







New features given and taken away



The new update will also finally bring multitasking features and iOS Folders to the iPad, along with a variety of other features currently only available on the iPhone and iPod touch, such as support for multiple email aliases, a unified inbox, and messages organized by threads in Mail, and the ability to open attachments in third party apps.



New multitasking features will also incorporate the software orientation lock and music playback controls available on the iPhone running iOS 4, which are accessed via swiping to the left from the list of currently running apps. The iPad also presents a brightness control in this section (as depicted below).







The iPad will also lose its hardware toggle assigned to locking the screen orientation; the button will instead work to mute audio, just like the iPhone. This move has generated some controversy because Apple not only refuses to offer customers a choice of how their hardware buttons work, but has also duplicated mute functionality, as the audio down button already works as to rapidly mute audio playback.



New features for gamers and enterprise users



iOS 4.2 will also bring Game Center to the iPad, allowing players to invite friends or find new opponents online to play against, as well as track their own achievements and high scores.



Apple has also outlined enhanced enterprise support features in iOS 4.2, including new device management capabilities, the ability to lock down email account settings, and stronger security enhancements.



New language and accessibility



The update also brings support for more than 30 new languages in keyboards and dictionaries, including Arabic, Greek and Hebrew.



It also strengthens accessibility features including support for navigating VoiceOver using a wireless keyboard and a wide range of refreshable braille output displays in more than 25 languages. On the iPad, larger text options up to 56 point fonts can also be specified for use in Contacts, Mail, Messages and Notes.



Previously reported iOS 4.2 features



A general overview of major iOS 4.2 features was profiled in a First Look report following Apple's initial demonstration.



AppleInsider also noted in a report filed in September that iOS 4.2 also incorporates support for Google's revised YouTube voting, a direct link to launching a FaceTime video call from within the SMS messages interface, and new CoreMIDI music APIs for music-related apps.



A report on the third beta release of the iOS 4.2 software outed new support for SMS ringtones.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 49
    Can't wait until public release.
  • Reply 2 of 49
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    I'm really hoping for an iPad update in a couple of weeks with more memory to run 4.2. Yeah I know the big rev is next year but an A4 from iPhone 4 ought to do us nicely. The only concern really is that multitasking will impact performance as it pressures RAM.



    Dave
  • Reply 3 of 49
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    I'm really hoping for an iPad update in a couple of weeks with more memory to run 4.2. Yeah I know the big rev is next year but an A4 from iPhone 4 ought to do us nicely. The only concern really is that multitasking will impact performance as it pressures RAM.



    Dave



    While I agree more RAM would be nice as it would allow more pages cached in Safari and more programs opened at once when multitasking, I don't believe there will be any performance issues. Apple has been working on this update since really at least February. All recent reports have lauded its speed and smoothness, even noting an improvement in memory usage for default applications such as Safari. I'm really looking forward to this update.
  • Reply 4 of 49
    Actually I can live without a few more features if Apple could just make my proximity sensor work right. I am now on my fourth iPhone 4 (second one since the latest iOS release) and although it is better, it is still extremely frustrating to hang up on people in the middle of business calls.



    The only way I get decent performance is to physically lay the phone against the side of my head and get as much surface contact as possible. The seems to help.



    Is anyone else still having challenges with the prox sensor or is it just me?
  • Reply 5 of 49
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sky King View Post


    Actually I can live without a few more features if Apple could just make my proximity sensor work right. I am now on my fourth iPhone 4 (second one since the latest iOS release) and although it is better, it is still extremely frustrating to hang up on people in the middle of business calls.



    The only way I get decent performance is to physically lay the phone against the side of my head and get as much surface contact as possible. The seems to help.



    Is anyone else still having challenges with the prox sensor or is it just me?



    same here buddy... i love my iPhone 4 but i'm still having proximity sensor issue most of the time when i'm on call... i hope if there is some hidden fix inside 4.2 update...
  • Reply 6 of 49
    bugsnwbugsnw Posts: 717member
    An area for serious improvement is the keyboard layout. There is room for common characters such as hyphens, apostrophes, parentheses, and many symbols above and around the keyboard space. It dramatically slows down input to have to toggle between keyboards. Even a thinner 'row' above the QWERTY would be immensely helpful. For those that wanted to minimize keyboard space, they could have an option to turn off the extra row.



    Speaking of room for more stuff, the menu bar has room for calendar date, other system stats, or whatever else a user should be able to optionally view.



    I also hope that button on the side remains a screen orientation lock.



    Mail should be able to read text clippings.



    Looking forward to the multitasking!
  • Reply 7 of 49
    Except for the switch.



    Make the switch function switchable. It's incredibly useful as an orientation lock. Forced to do so through the UI will be maddening and waste time. We can choose the home button behavior, why not this?



    Did you learn nothing from the 4 button iPod?
  • Reply 8 of 49
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jpellino View Post


    Except for the switch.



    Make the switch function switchable. It's incredibly useful as an orientation lock. Forced to do so through the UI will be maddening and waste time. We can choose the home button behavior, why not this?



    I agree, I love the current orientation switch.



    Overall I have to say I'm a bit disappointed this update took so long to get to the iPad. I've been hearing about iOS4 for months now and I can't run it yet on my new device. Seems silly.
  • Reply 9 of 49
    Bring on the software orientation lock. With a few cases out there, the button is hard to use. The Belkin Grip Vue, is one of those cases, (awesome case).



    I like the continuity it'll bring to the table. On the iPhone, it's not that much more effort to lock the screen.



    My only gripe... WHY did it take THIS long to bring folders and multitasking to the iPad? Would it have been that hard to get iOS 4.1 on there? Sheesh.



    November? No excuse for that. No 'official' release date yet? C'mon.
  • Reply 10 of 49
    pt123pt123 Posts: 696member
    I have a ipod touch 2G and updated to 4.1 when I had to do a restore. I really wish I could go back to 3.1.3 because the battery life is terrible with 4.1.
  • Reply 11 of 49
    irelandireland Posts: 17,799member
    That mute switch is going to be a pain in the ass. FU Steve.
  • Reply 12 of 49
    irelandireland Posts: 17,799member
    Mobile Me for free, announcement soon?



    Mobile Me login now with Apple ID? With "Create Free Apple ID" button on Mobile Me Settings page. That Data Centre is making sense now. Please tell me my long, long wish is finally coming true?
  • Reply 13 of 49
    kibitzerkibitzer Posts: 1,114member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    That mute switch is going to be a pain in the ass. FU Steve.



    I agree with your point about the mute switch, but not the way you chose to express yourself. Was that really necessary?
  • Reply 14 of 49
    irelandireland Posts: 17,799member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kibitzer View Post


    I agree with your point about the mute switch, but not the way you chose to express yourself. Was that really necessary?



    Very.
  • Reply 15 of 49
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    That mute switch is going to be a pain in the ass. FU Steve.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kibitzer View Post


    I agree with your point about the mute switch, but not the way you chose to express yourself. Was that really necessary?



    Ignore him.



    He lost his credibility a while ago, with his childish spite and regular vitriol.
  • Reply 16 of 49
    irelandireland Posts: 17,799member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Ignore him.



    He lost his credibility a while ago, with his childish spite and regular vitriol.



    Good one. Jobs won't give us an option, the very idea of not having it as rotatation doesn't make sense. You think I care whether you think I have cred or not. I couldn't care less what you think. I'm pissed off about this for very good reason, and I know how touchy some of you get about El Jobso.



    Cred? Give me break while I go get a bucket. You don't have a clue.
  • Reply 17 of 49
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sky King View Post


    Actually I can live without a few more features if Apple could just make my proximity sensor work right. I am now on my fourth iPhone 4 (second one since the latest iOS release) and although it is better, it is still extremely frustrating to hang up on people in the middle of business calls.



    The only way I get decent performance is to physically lay the phone against the side of my head and get as much surface contact as possible. The seems to help.



    Is anyone else still having challenges with the prox sensor or is it just me?



    I have found the sweet spot of holding the phone. Its hard to explain but I hold the top back corner of the phone next to my ear--rather than the middle back of the phone (where the speaker is). The sound is fine and it seems to work wonders with the proximity sensor. Additionaly, I hold the front (mic) a few inches away from my mouth. If the proximity sensor still acts up, I can see the screen light up but the phone is too far away from my face to accidentally activate any buttons.



    I'm sure the trolls will have a field day with me--saying I am brainwashed by Uncle Steve and his cult--but a few small sacrifices for a phone as good as the iPhone 4 are no big deal to me.
  • Reply 18 of 49
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    Good one. Jobs won't give us an option, the very idea of not having it as rotatation doesn't make sense. You think I care whether you think I have cred or not. I couldn't care less what you think. I'm pissed off about this for very good reason, and I know how touchy some of you get about El Jobso.



    Cred? Give me break while I go get a bucket. You don't have a clue.



    No, you get a clue. Learn about substance versus style. Content versus form.



    People might actually pay attention to the substative content if you could learn to take a deep breath or two before you make a speech.



    But you're probably past caring at this point, and that's fine too. It's just a tad tiresome and somewhat sad, that's all.
  • Reply 19 of 49
    mr. kmr. k Posts: 115member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    I'm really hoping for an iPad update in a couple of weeks with more memory to run 4.2. Yeah I know the big rev is next year but an A4 from iPhone 4 ought to do us nicely. The only concern really is that multitasking will impact performance as it pressures RAM.



    Dave



    I've been running the 4.2 betas on my iPad. It handles multitasking pretty well, with very little slowdown. The only bad cases I've encountered have been where either the frontmost app wasn't well optimized to begin with or there were more than five relatively powerful apps open in the background.
  • Reply 20 of 49
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jpellino View Post


    Except for the switch.



    Make the switch function switchable. It's incredibly useful as an orientation lock. Forced to do so through the UI will be maddening and waste time. We can choose the home button behavior, why not this?iPod?



    This is a disappointment to me as well. I don?t mind the change, but I would have expected them to add a SW toggle switch to change how the HW toggle switch works.



    I?m still waiting for Safari for Mac to give me the option for tabs-on-top. In Apple?s defense, that was at least a beta release.
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