It’s been a couple of days since Apple seeded iOS 4.2 beta 2 to developers and we here are Touch Reviews Towers have been putting it through its paces on our iPads (no iPhone testing yet) ever since.
A few points from the release notes with a couple of things we’ve noticed thrown in for good measure:
- Build 8C5101c – 521MB for the iPad.
- New HP Printers supported including: HP Photosmart Premium Fax e-All-in-One Printer – C410, HP Photosmart Premium e-All-in-One Printer series – C310 and HP Photosmart Plus e-All-in-One Printer series – B210.
- New YouTube upload options on the iPhone – sharing can now be set to Public, Unlisted and Private.
- iTunes icon changed – when restoring, the ‘connect to iTunes’ logo is now the new iTunes icon. Bye bye CD!
- New iPad multitastking animation – has anyone tested this on an iPhone? Let us know if the animation has changed!
The whole iPad feels much faster. App switching is smoother, the multitasking tray is faster and the whole iPad is noticeably more responsive running iOS 4.2 beta 2. The reason for this, according to macstories.net is how the new OS manages memory when both idle, and during intensive video decoding. That’s got to have a positive affect on battery life also!
Another interesting feature was recently uncovered by 9to5Mac. They posted a screenshot of the settings menu in iPad 3G running iOS 4.2 beta 2 where the cellular data menu has new fields for internet tethering settings. However, they noted that this only showed up on an iPad 3G running on 3’s network in Europe and could not be replicated with an iPad 3G on AT&T.
If seems that internet tethering on iPad 3G might be available for users only if the network provider allows it.
All in all, a worthwhile update from beta 1. Keep up the good work chaps!
iOS 4.2 Beta 2 New Animation
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq0ohBU6imY]