# The SBHonline Community Daily > Digerati Discussions! >  >  iOS 4.2 today

## JEK

Apple today announced that iOS 4.2 will be released today for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, bringing iOS 4 features to the iPad for the first time.
Apple today announced that iOS 4.2, the latest version of the world's most advanced mobile operating system, is available today for download for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. iOS 4.2 brings over 100 new features from iOS 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 to iPad including Multitasking, Folders, Unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay and AirPrint. 

"iOS 4.2 makes the iPad a completely new product, just in time for the holiday season," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Once again, the iPad with iOS 4.2 will define the target that other tablets will aspire to, but very few, if any, will ever be able to hit."

Apple also announced that its Find My iPhone feature designed to assist users with locating lost iOS devices is now available to all users free of charge. The feature had previously required a paid MobileMe subscription.

iOS 4.2 has not yet appeared for download through iTunes, and Apple has not offered an exact time for the release.

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## andynap

Goody- let me know when it's time.

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## JEK

Find my phone feature will be available to all iOS users even if you don't have a MobileMe subscription.

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## andynap

MobileMe just loaded

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## Petri

It's out!  Downloading right now (for the iPad, no iPhones in this family..)

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## JEK

I have a couple and they are downloading :)

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## KevinS

I think I'll wait until I get home before I do the upgrade.  It's just not prudent to do an upgrade this far from my home PC.

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## Petri

> I have a couple and they are downloading :)



Steve needs to fix the iPad backuping.  Takes hours and the iPad isn't even half full..  I'll see in tomorrow morning if the 4.2 has been installed  :crazy:

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## JEK

I bought Printopia and am printing from all iOS devices. http://www.ecamm.com/mac/printopia/

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## JEK

You probably don't want to download 600MB on ADSL anyway :)

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## Petri

After 2+ hours..

 

I'll see how the printing goes tomorrow.

Wondering if there's an option to print directly to Dropbox from the iPad, without a Mac?  That would be very useful when travelling.

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## JEK

Don't think so. I found a couple of issues after I upgraded the phones and the touch - music and video was "empty" although the About showed the songs and videos. Another quick sync and they reappeared. The AirPlay with the ATV is cool - look at all the iPhone pics on the big screen.

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## JEK

Like the "print" to Dropbox feature as a quick way to sent a photo to the Mac.

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## Petri

Backuping up iPad..   ~8 hours and counting.

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## JEK

when was the last time you did a b/u? I find it works much faster if you b/u every time you sync and take apps in through iTunes not over the "air"

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## JEK

Just synced about 5 apps - b/u took a minute.

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## andynap

Is it ready for Touch yet

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## JEK

Yes, I put it on my Touch yesterday.

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## Petri

> when was the last time you did a b/u? I find it works much faster if you b/u every time you sync and take apps in through iTunes not over the "air"



Perhaps a few weeks ago, not sure.  The problem is that we have all our media on the Mini in the living room and the iPad is hardly ever there -- I buy most of the apps directly to the iPad and I don't use calendars or contacts on the iPad that need to be synced frequently.

I'm currently on the third try.  The first backup failed due lack of disk space (hello?  who wrotes backup code that doesn't check if there's enough space?!), the second looked it was stalling this morning so I clicked (x) to cancel it -- during the sync one can skip the backup part that way, didn't work for the update.  Even managed to get Windows-like error message, "iTunes could not back up the iPad "iPad" because the backup session failed.".

It's now half way with the 3rd backup.  I'm doing backup and sync first, then update.

The sync/backup code really suck, I need to write Steve about it  :Big Grin:   iStats shows very short disk i/o spikes, it's not using much cpu nor memory.  Just bad implementation.  And hellouw, it's 2010 and you still need USB cable to sync?!  Even the 3rd party folks have managed to get iTunes sync work over WiFi..  available to your jailbreaked devices.

Hopefully running 4.2 tonight.

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## JEK

Make sure your USB cable is pugged directly into the machine -- some hubs just say they are 2.0.

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## MIke R

I keep getting a message half way through the download that an error occured and to check the network connection????.

never happened with any other update on my MacBook  going to and for my iTouch

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## Petri

> Make sure your USB cable is pugged directly into the machine -- some hubs just say they are 2.0.



It is, it's in the living room so there are absolutely not a single extra cable or piece of tech anywhere ;-)  Even the new Apple TV is using wireless connection just to have one cable less..

I just sent e-mail to Steve about the issue and recommended he donates the current coder to Microsoft and hires a real software engineer to rewrite the code -- and add wi-fi syncing.  Perhaps one day Steve will reply and I can put the reply to my virgin white wall  :Big Grin:

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## andynap

I got it nevermind

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## andynap

I guess the big change is to the iPad- not much on the Touch- Game Center??

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## JEK

AirPlay and AirPrint support are big deals.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...?taxonomyId=15

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## andynap

I can't use Airprint

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## JEK

I think there is a PC based app you can use. My printers aren't supported, but I found Printopia that makes it work with any printer.

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## andynap

I have yet to create a document or need to send one from the Touch so it would be little used if at all.

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## JEK

Handy to print out emails and photos.

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## andynap

Yep but I am almost always near a laptop or PC.

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## JEK

Once this wireless printing gets really going you'll be able to print in Admirals Clubs, hotels etc. This is just the beginning.

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## andynap

Print to what- my printer?

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## JEK

Any driverless printer that you come across.  Think about being on the road and wanting to print out boarding passes or reservations.

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## andynap

Interesting. I know that wifi printers are around but how common?

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## Petri

About 10 hours and counting..  notice the disk i/o peaks, the wait between the peaks has been increasing during the backup process.

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## andynap

Step 1 of 5- you have a way to go

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## Petri

11.5 hours later, "iPad sync is complete!".  Finally!

Now I can finally push the Update button for 4.2..

iTunes is updating the software on this iPad.

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## Petri

4.2.1 is finally in.

iTunes is now saying "Backing up"...  haha.  This should be done in less than an hour, though.

Steve, please donate the folks who did the iTunes-iPad sync coding to Microsoft and hire some real software engineers.   Perhaps they'll get it working over WiFi as well, this is 2010 after all..

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## Petri

> I bought Printopia and am printing from all iOS devices. http://www.ecamm.com/mac/printopia/



Printopia looks like the best choice right now.

I did this free http://netputing.com/airprinthacktivator/ so now the iPad prints to my HP & Konica-Minolta just fine.  I'll wait a while for something better to arrive, I'd really like to have direct print to Dropbox from the iPad.

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## Petri

Haha, Steve rocks.

The iPad spent 11.5 hours backing up yesterday.  Then again at least an hour (I didn't check) after the 4.2.1 software installation.

Now I plugged it to the iTunes today before we started watching a movie.  The movie lasted over two hours.  It's still "backing up", about 3/4 through.

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## Petri

4 hours and counting.  It's different from yesterday, though.  Yesterday it was hardly any CPU activity, constant stream of i/o spikes.  Now it's rare i/o spikes and CPU activity.  It's really thinking hard what to backup..

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