iOS 4.2 For iPad

The latest software update for the iPad is almost upon us, bringing multi-tasking, folders, air printing, game centre, unified inbox and more to the iPad.  It is currently in ‘Gold Master’ stage which is basically the final version that is released to developers a few weeks before the public.

You can download it from the links on this website – you will also need to download iTunes 10.1 Beta, again from the links on that site.

I’ve been running 4.2GM for most of the last week and it’s great – the iPad is finally more like the machine we knew it could be.

Most of the apps need to be updated by their developers to multi-task properly, but many already do and it makes content creation and manipulation much easier being able to flick from the Mail app to Safari to Twitter and on to Air Sketch for example.

Just like the iPhone you can now access music controls and the screen lock from the app-switching menu, just slide over to the right.  You can also change the volume and handily the screen brightness from this menu.

Folders are now available and can contain up to 20 Applications, this is a godsend, all my apps are now neatly organised on one page, rather than spread across 6 as they were before.

The unified inbox is here which makes reading and organising emails far easier.  And as part of this you can have as many Exchange accounts synced to your iPad as you like.  I find this most useful for my calendars.  I can now setup my personal Google account and my school Google Apps accounts as Exchange connections and hence import all of their calendars.  Previously I could only sync one calendar from each account.  I now have calendars galore:

This is a great update, hopefully the official version will be out soon and developers will update their apps promptly.