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4.2.1: Am I the only one.....

Syncing Folders

Created lots of folders on my ipad then synced to itunes. After sync all folders were gone & apps were all messed up. Tried again just creating one folder & then synced, after sync folder gone. Never had this happen with folders on my ipod.
 
Mixed bag

People here are saying they love this update - but I'm less than thrilled.

Yes, folders and app-switching are nice but there are problems and some omissions that are perplexing. :confused:

First of all the orientation-lock to mute switch change. A poor idea to begin with (why in earth do we need a switch for this, when holding volume-down key for 2 seconds already does it??). Secondly, and even more infuriating is that the "new" mute switch DOESN'T EVEN WORK. Try it - flick the switch. Is your volume muted? Nope.

Next - the mobile app store is STILL painful to use. "Genius" recommended apps all show up as 5-star rated. Laughable. "Not interested" button STILL does absolutely nothing. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to add apps to a wishlist from the mobile store? Maybe - but Apple apparently doesn't deem it useful.

The keyboard (groan). Ok Apple is touting that they included like a bazillion new keyboards in this release. That's great, but how bout something truly useful, like ARROW keys for cursor positioning. You know the deal - when you tap in the middle of the word somewhere to add or delete characters, and the device won't let you get there without a bunch of manual backspacing. Again, apparently not important from Apple's perspective.

Airprint. Apple decided to make deals with HP, to allow for limited functionality with specific printers only. Objective: added profits for Apple at the expense of the user. Enough said.

There are others, but these are the main issues I find so far. If you're fine with all these glaring issues, then enjoy the app-switching and the folders (2 of the 100+ added features touted by Apple that are actually worth the update).
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

The mute switch mutes system sounds and notifications only, so it does work as intended.
I completely agree about arrow keys: arrow keys make a huge difference to the usability of the iPad with an external keyboard and it would have been great to have them on the onscreen one.
AirPrint will become more and more useful as printer manufacturers add support, or you can use one of the hacks or apps to enable it through your PC. It's early days for AirPrint yet, but the idea of driverless printing from your device is brilliant and it works superbly
 
ipodtouch-user said:
People here are saying they love this update - but I'm less than thrilled.

Yes, folders and app-switching are nice but there are problems and some omissions that are perplexing. :confused:

First of all the orientation-lock to mute switch change. A poor idea to begin with (why in earth do we need a switch for this, when holding volume-down key for 2 seconds already does it??). Secondly, and even more infuriating is that the "new" mute switch DOESN'T EVEN WORK. Try it - flick the switch. Is your volume muted? Nope.

Next - the mobile app store is STILL painful to use. "Genius" recommended apps all show up as 5-star rated. Laughable. "Not interested" button STILL does absolutely nothing. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to add apps to a wishlist from the mobile store? Maybe - but Apple apparently doesn't deem it useful.

The keyboard (groan). Ok Apple is touting that they included like a bazillion new keyboards in this release. That's great, but how bout something truly useful, like ARROW keys for cursor positioning. You know the deal - when you tap in the middle of the word somewhere to add or delete characters, and the device won't let you get there without a bunch of manual backspacing. Again, apparently not important from Apple's perspective.

Airprint. Apple decided to make deals with HP, to allow for limited functionality with specific printers only. Objective: added profits for Apple at the expense of the user. Enough said.

There are others, but these are the main issues I find so far. If you're fine with all these glaring issues, then enjoy the app-switching and the folders (2 of the 100+ added features touted by Apple that are actually worth the update).
Click to expand...

I'm loving the update so far.

- Changing orientation lock to mute switch is stupid. Period. Bad idea, not a big problem, but it's just a bad idea. Certainly when holding down the volume down key is still muting the iPad. Still, it's nothing to really worry about as you can lock fast enough with the multitask menu.

- Never had any problems with the store myself. I just look up reviews on the internet. I recently got me a Galaxy S android phone and while it's a great phone, the Android market really is a mess. So it can always be worse :)

- If you want to add a word, just drag your cursor to where you want to insert it? Simple as that? cursors are meh. I rather have extra large buttons. Of course, Swype on the iPad would make it almost perfect ^^

- Havent used Airplay and Airprint yet (prolly never will) so i can't comment on those ones.

I must say, folders really is awesome. I can fit all my apps on one homescreen. And the multitasking is great. If i compair with my Android phone which has "full" multitasking, it's as cool and maybe better (because it has no effect on the battery). All in all, the iPad was a bit lacking without those features (swiping through a million of homescreens is no fun) but it really shines now :)
 
I upgraded from 3.2.1 to 4.2.1 and I'm quite impressed. It's more reposnvie and faster,multitasking and folders are great additions too. The app switching works flawlessly without any lags too.
Loving it so far :)
 
I love that you can go play a YouTube video, lock the device, go to the lock screen and then double tap, and voila, your YouTube video (audio) is playing -- and I noticed on my phone (I imagine its the same), you can use the left and right arrow buttons to go back and forwards between songs in my YouTube app's favourite list. You can also do the same thing in the iPad by going to your home screen and double tapping for the menu, and then swipe left and tap play.
 
still waiting

I'd love to try out some of these great features of 4.2 but I am still waiting for my iPad to sync with iTunes it has been almost 5 hours now.
sheeesh
has anyone else had this problem...does anyone have a solution?:confused:
and now it's made my iPad go bananas all the icons have disappeared and I have had to force quit itunes and restart my iPad
here I go again for another 5-10 hours
 
Last edited:
Folders? Fuss?

There's nothing new about folders. I bought my iPad back in June or July and had Apps folders on it from day one. In fact I only discovered it by accident when trying to rearrange my folders and one vanished inside another. The folders I was waiting for was document folders.
 
abriwin said:
There's nothing new about folders. I bought my iPad back in June or July and had Apps folders on it from day one. In fact I only discovered it by accident when trying to rearrange my folders and one vanished inside another.
Click to expand...

You bought an iPad with alpha release software on it? Dubious!
 
very happy

Unified inbox, search within Safari page, and folders make a big difference. Hardly ever used the rotation lock, so won't miss that. Haven't tried Airplay yet. No use for printing, do people still do that?
 
I sort of wish there was a gesture for invoking the multitasking drawer instead of the double click... Maybe like four finger swipe or something.
 
abriwin said:
There's nothing new about folders. I bought my iPad back in June or July and had Apps folders on it from day one. In fact I only discovered it by accident when trying to rearrange my folders and one vanished inside another. The folders I was waiting for was document folders.
Click to expand...

No you didn't.
 
ipodtouch-user said:
There are others, but these are the main issues I find so far. If you're fine with all these glaring issues, then enjoy the app-switching and the folders (2 of the 100+ added features touted by Apple that are actually worth the update).
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'd venture to guess that most users will utilize folders and multitasking far more than shopping in the app store, printing, and locking the orientation on their device. Thus, i can't see how the issues you describe are "glaring". This was a huge release jam packed with great updates, give it time and im sure apple will iron out some of the smaller details.
 
Text looks crisper with this update. Have they changed display settings somehow?
 
Upgrade went through OK but last few seconds took about 20 minutes!
Folders are great :)
Trying out Printopia for printing and works very well.
Never used the orientation lock so won't miss that. As others commented apps store seemed to have a few issues showing updates but I am guessing that may have been due to load as OK this morning.
Having a few wireless issues though, but had that since I put 3.2.2 on. Sometimes it says its connected but just refuses to do anything. Possibly my router though...
 
stix666 said:
Text looks crisper with this update. Have they changed display settings somehow?
Click to expand...


Funny. I could swear my display is a little better since the update. It seems to have slightly different colour/contrast maybe?

Very happy with the update overall, fast with no problems.

Hate the loss of the orientation switch tho' and sadly know apple too well to hold hope for any kind of option in the future.
 
I first didn't want to post this because i though I'm imagining things :D but my display(especially texts) look a little more crisper
 
ipodtouch-user said:
People here are saying they love this update - but I'm less than thrilled.

The keyboard (groan). Ok Apple is touting that they included like a bazillion new keyboards in this release. That's great, but how bout something truly useful, like ARROW keys for cursor positioning. You know the deal - when you tap in the middle of the word somewhere to add or delete characters, and the device won't let you get there without a bunch of manual backspacing. Again, apparently not important from Apple's perspective.
Click to expand...

The way to move around in text isn't arrow keys -- instead, tap and hold till the viewer shows the text in a little window. You can then slide forward or backward and put the cursor exactly where you want.

I'm not sure why Apple considers this a better approach than arrow keys, but it works as well as arrows would. iOS is different in lots of ways, and it really helps to learn how it does things.
 
mrboult said:
Funny. I could swear my display is a little better since the update. It seems to have slightly different colour/contrast maybe?

Very happy with the update overall, fast with no problems.

Hate the loss of the orientation switch tho' and sadly know apple too well to hold hope for any kind of option in the future.
Click to expand...

I agree, what the latest build has done is fix my backlight issue. I did have what I called footlights on the righthand side ( home button down). To minimise this I had to keep my brightness around 60% or more. It looked to me as if the backlight was not adjusted down with the brightness control. I had the first GM prior to the 4.2.1 and it was still a problem then. Either GM-b or 4.2.1 has fixed this for me. I'm typing this in a dark now with the brightness at minimum. No footlights! And with the display turned down no headaches!
Never had any wifi issues, miss the rotation lock but as I have said before it probably depends on what type of case you are using. Mines kept locked in landscape, home button on the left, because of my case.

All in all loving it.:cool:
 
still waiting

So the deal is I got to bed at 1:30 am after waiting almost 6 hours for my iPad to sync and the iOs update to load. I went to bed to leave the iPad to back up and install the software....it is now 7:34am and I discover that the back up froze at about 3/4's of the way through...so I stopped the process and ejected the iPad...and now I've had to start all over again. The iPad wont install the the update until it is backed up...but it wont back up...or takes far too long...why does this have to be so hard?:eek:
 
observer said:
The way to move around in text isn't arrow keys -- instead, tap and hold till the viewer shows the text in a little window. You can then slide forward or backward and put the cursor exactly where you want.

I'm not sure why Apple considers this a better approach than arrow keys, but it works as well as arrows would. iOS is different in lots of ways, and it really helps to learn how it does things.
Click to expand...

Doesn't always work so well. Sometimes you can't quite get to the point you want to.

I'm not loving it, but I was willing to trade orientation lock for folders. I just wish the folders would have a user selectable icon database, I hate the black button with the tiny pictures of the apps. However, I bet there are tons of people out there who love it.
 
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