Apple Details Features in iOS 4.2 for iPad

[nelmat]

because i'd rather rent music for $50 a year than buy it. at almost 100GB it's too much to listen to all of it anyway.

the ipad is a $500 to $1000 computer. the $299 toshiba laptop i bought as a gift for someone a few months ago can do a lot of things the iPad can't. and apple is taking way too long to release updates

Nope, apple are taking their time with updates and not increasing rapid updates that would damage sales and devalue people's investment in hardware.

The iPad is a $489 - $899 tablet device which marks a departure from 'traditional' computers that uses a lot of new hardware and is brand new out of the block, it's price will decrease and/or new features and functionality will be added. The $299 toshiba laptop you bought will be dead inside 12 months, and I think you sort of know it. If you want a device that does more than the iPad, then don't buy the iPad.

It isn't for you and that's fine.

re. your music. Itunes != Having to buy your music through iTunes. I for one don't mind paying for content that people have produced and i think the music, video and books available from itunes and other itunes compatible sources are reasonably priced and I value the work of those who created it. I want to support media creators and publishers so they can continue to invest in new work. If we all took the $50 a year route, the music industry would collapse - and that's no good for anyone. Also remember it's not apple who don't want to rent you content, it's the studios. The ongoing push being made by apple toward studios is very public, much as Apple's work to remove DRM from the iTunes store, which was there at the insistence of the publishers, not Apple.

So, each to their own, but I bought a device for a specific function, which is performs admirably (how's the 10 hour battery life on that laptop by the way?) and I'm a happy customer. Along with (it seems) 6 - 8 million others currently.

 

[Markus1982]

No seperate accounts = fail.

What's that honey? You want to check your mail? Sorry the mail app is only configured for my account...

I know, that's not really a solution and I want accounts as bad as you do, but you know that you can set up as many mail-accounts as you want? I have 4 on my iPad and iPhone.

 

[newdeal]

...

Why? You don't own one, so you don't know what it can do - you just have perceptions. What will jailbreaking bring you that could possible prevent you from buying the device until it is 'hacked'?

I do own one, it's on 3.2.1 and I will upgrade as soon as its jail broken because proswitcher is way better than apples implementation of multitasking and infinidock is a must for me,also jail breaking will allow more apps per folder. The only thing 4.2 has that I would want is unified inbox really and game center

 

[nelmat]

netflix does this already

Netflix make a personal portable device that you can capture, create or stream content from? Wow, I didn't know...

 

[nelmat]

No seperate accounts = fail.

What's that honey? You want to check your mail? Sorry the mail app is only configured for my account...

So set up her account as well, mail can handle multiple accounts.

 

[nelmat]

I do own one, it's on 3.2.1 and I will upgrade as soon as its jail broken because proswitcher is way better than apples implementation of multitasking and infinidock is a must for me,also jail breaking will allow more apps per folder. The only thing 4.2 has that I would want is unified inbox really and game center

Soooo - why say you won't buy one until it's jailbroken if you already own one - seems an odd statement? Seems to me you already have experience of the device in a jailbroken state - so what exactly is your point?

EDIT: my mistake, i misread earlier - thought you said you wouldn't buy one until it was jailbroken, rather than upgrading until a jailbreak was available for 4.2. Sorry!

 

[pondosinatra]

So set up her account as well, mail can handle multiple accounts.

Multiple accounts yes. But not multiple accounts of the same type - ie. no two POP3 accounts.

 

[tivoboy]

wireless printing

Wireless printing is great, but only really good if one has a wireless printer or a network printer and is on the same network of course,

but, why couldn't apple just enable the camera connection kit, with USB to be able to print OUT to a USB printer? It would probably only require a couple of printer drivers to be loaded, and IF the printer driver wasn't loaded it could probably download it in realtime from the interwebs.

 

[Surely]

Atomic Browser does these features to a degree, but only half way. Indeed it Tabs, and will open many pages, which you can come back to instead of the reload of Safari, but exit the Atomic Browser app and all is gone. One must reload all pages and tabs all over again.

Not very good...

All is not gone. You can customize it so that AB opens all of your tabs on start up, a homepage, or a blank page. Sure, when you first start AB it has to load those pages, but at least it remembers them. I can deal with the five seconds it takes to load on start up (like almost any other app when you think about it) in exchange for the convenience of use while I'm using it.

I have a feeling that once multitasking is here for the iPad, we won't have to deal with the initial loading anymore. It doesn't happen on the iPhone.

 

[Markus1982]

Multiple accounts yes. But not multiple accounts of the same type - ie. no two POP3 accounts.

Ähm, not sure what you mean. I have 4 IMAP accounts on my iPad/iPhone. Doesn't this count as the same type?

 

[notabadname]

because i'd rather rent music for $50 a year than buy it. at almost 100GB it's too much to listen to all of it anyway.

the ipad is a $500 to $1000 computer. the $299 toshiba laptop i bought as a gift for someone a few months ago can do a lot of things the iPad can't. and apple is taking way too long to release updates

Actually $500-$830. I think the list of things the iPad can do well surpasses that of a netbook. I traveled with a MBP for years. No contest on overall function or features. Sure, the iPad may not run Office, but I have had no problem with document creation in Pages. The interface of the iPad, battery life and countless Apps trumps my laptop experience in every way. I compared performance with a friend and his netbook last week and he is getting an iPad now. In an airport, balancing his netbook on his lap, manipulating the little trackpad, his pace was lethargic as we bounced from task to task. Tasks such as, sending each other an email with a photo attached, pulling up CNN's home page, accessing music, starting a movie for viewing, opening a document and editing it. The iPad completely smoked his efforts in every task. The best one was simply powering down fully, as on an aircraft, then restarting and loading a document. He was still in the Windows splash screen while I had my Pages document already open. Sure a netbook costs less, but you get what you pay for. My friend sees the value and functional improvement, but if you want, I can send you the link to buy his netbook when it appears on eBay.

Oh, and the major IOS update will have been provided, for free, after a half year wait for most buyers. How long was the wait from Vista to Windows 7 on your netbook? And how long till windows 8? And how much? iPad wins there too. In a May, 41% of iPad buyers said their purchase was to replace a netbook or notebook. I doubt they are paying more because they found it to be so much worse than a netbook.

 

[koach]

All is not gone. You can customize it so that AB opens all of your tabs on start up, a homepage, or a blank page. Sure, when you first start AB it has to load those pages, but at least it remembers them. I can deal with the five seconds it takes to load on start up (like almost any other app when you think about it) in exchange for the convenience of use while I'm using it.

I have a feeling that once multitasking is here for the iPad, we won't have to deal with the initial loading anymore. It doesn't happen on the iPhone.

I have AB on both my iPhone and iPad. On my iPhone with iOS4 it saves the state when you close out of the browser. So yes, reopening AB shows you all the open pages exactly where you left off - no need to reload them all. once the iPad has iOS4 it will work the same.

The biggest issue with AB is still the small amount of RAM and lack of a page file. If you open too many tabs AB will crash because it can't fit them all in memory. Apple really needs to implement a page file, at the very least just for browser sessions. There's no reason why the web browser can't page the site out to disk rather than crashing the browser. Every desktop OS in the last 10+ years has a page file and does just this. Not sure if Android, WebOS, or Windows Phone 7 support page files.

I absolutely love my iPad but this one issue accounts for so much frustration on it. It makes heavy web browsing (lots of tabs) near impossible.

 

[koach]

Multiple accounts yes. But not multiple accounts of the same type - ie. no two POP3 accounts.

Wrong. iOS can do multiple POP3 accounts. I know when Exchange support came out it couldn't do multiple Exchange accounts, but not sure if that still exists or has been fixed in a newer release.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Normally, I'd agree, but I've noticed a pattern with Apple iOS releases usually followed by a revised hardware release which makes me think iPad 2.0 will be available sooner rather than later.

Especially after all the complaints Apple will get about 4.0.2 making their iPads really slow

The pattern is as it's always been though. Major iOS announcement in 1Q followed by iPhone in 2Q. iPad was added last year, so iPad in 1Q, but with older iOS version. iOS 4.x on the iPad was just delayed b/c Apple kept the entire project walled off from the iOS 4 coders. Once iOS 4.2 is release expect iPad and iPhone version of iOS update releases to be more in sync.

Bottom line, nothing has changed regarding iOS updates. Major, once a year, with point updates throughout the year.

 

[alent1234]

Netflix make a personal portable device that you can capture, create or stream content from? Wow, I didn't know...

if you stream via netflix it will remember where you left off. doesn't matter if you watched it on an internet enabled TV, idevice, x-box, playstation, etc

 

[pondosinatra]

Ähm, not sure what you mean. I have 4 IMAP accounts on my iPad/iPhone. Doesn't this count as the same type?

Everything I've read says it can't be done.....maybe the last update fixed it?

Essentially you have two people both using the same POP3 server - server.company.domain - because both point to the same server address it doesn't know which one to use

 

[canyonblue737]

For all those folks guessing an iPad 2.0 is right around the corner think again. Apple has just now caught up to demand, is selling as many as they can make, and there is no realistic competitor due until perhaps late this year or even later. The iOS 4.2 update will really freshen up the iPad and make it continue to stand head and shoulders above other tablets coming on the market in the near future.

We *will* likely see a 2nd generation iPad in the first half of 2011, it will of course have a front facing camera for Facetime, a large increase in RAM, and perhaps a processor bump in speed. I doubt the form will change much at all and besides the camera it will "look" identical. Apple usually makes only makes big hardware changes to these devices every 2 years and so next year you can expect refinement, not revolution.

 

[nelmat]

if you stream via netflix it will remember where you left off. doesn't matter if you watched it on an internet enabled TV, idevice, x-box, playstation, etc

That's great for those of you in the US. There is not netflix, hulu etc outside of the US. And that has everything to do with the studios and nothing to do with Apple - I really don't envy Apple it's current uphill battle. I remember the early days with music and this is going to be much harder...

 

[alent1234]

That's great for those of you in the US. There is not netflix, hulu etc outside of the US. And that has everything to do with the studios and nothing to do with Apple - I really don't envy Apple it's current uphill battle. I remember the early days with music and this is going to be much harder...

i'm shocked

i was always told that the US is a technological backwater and how the rest of the world is more advanced with cool things like paying for a Coke with a cell phone

 

[coolwater]

When Jobs first said FALL, I expected September. Hey, why not December?

 

[LeoCastillo]

Atomic Browser does these features to a degree, but only half way. Indeed it Tabs, and will open many pages, which you can come back to instead of the reload of Safari, but exit the Atomic Browser app and all is gone. One must reload all pages and tabs all over again.

Not very good...

I guess this where MultiTasking for iOS 4 comes in.

 

[Chas2010]

Will the iPhone be able to print as well, and to all printers?

Yes, this is my question as well, since all signs seem to only call out printing on the iPad...

 

[Surely]

I have AB on both my iPhone and iPad. On my iPhone with iOS4 it saves the state when you close out of the browser. So yes, reopening AB shows you all the open pages exactly where you left off - no need to reload them all. once the iPad has iOS4 it will work the same.

The biggest issue with AB is still the small amount of RAM and lack of a page file. If you open too many tabs AB will crash because it can't fit them all in memory. Apple really needs to implement a page file, at the very least just for browser sessions. There's no reason why the web browser can't page the site out to disk rather than crashing the browser. Every desktop OS in the last 10+ years has a page file and does just this. Not sure if Android, WebOS, or Windows Phone 7 support page files.

I absolutely love my iPad but this one issue accounts for so much frustration on it. It makes heavy web browsing (lots of tabs) near impossible.

I agree..... page file implementation would be fantastic.

I don't normally have more than 5-6 tabs open at the same time, so I don't experience crashing. As you were implying, the crashing is more of an OS issue than an App issue. The only time I've ever crashed the browser was when I opened 10-11 tabs, just to see what would happen.

 

[LeoCastillo]

Wrong. iOS can do multiple POP3 accounts. I know when Exchange support came out it couldn't do multiple Exchange accounts, but not sure if that still exists or has been fixed in a newer release.

Yup, I can attest to this. I have three POP (and three IMAP) accounts set up on my iPad.

Leo

 

[nelmat]

I see what you're saying. I'm just bringing up that I think it has so much more potential, do you agree? Do you agree the interface currently on display is the best use of the space?

I was expecting first 6 months to carry same layout to attract people, then upgrade it. Give it the bells and whistles. Shine it up to compete.

I do agree there is more potential - there is always more a device at it's inception can do - that's why the world of consumer electronics is so exciting.

But you can't deliver everything on day one, even if the technology is in place to deliver it - that makes no economic sense, it pushes up price points and all-in-one devices are notoriously cr*p, a good showman always leaves you wanting more...

You have to begin somewhere and the sensible thing to do is have a specific target audience, focus on their needs and deliver a device with clear purpose.

That is what apple have always done.

That is why this device is so successful.

More will come, but in time through a mixture of new hardware and new software. Just because you 'can' do something, doesn't mean you should...

The iPad has already exceeded everyone's expectations in terms of functionality and sales. We can all see the future potential, we all have a wish list of things we'd like to be able to do with it....

...but those criticising this device for not being all things to all users and saying that Apple have created something flawed are, frankly, talking *********.