iOS 4.2 on the iPad and Netflix Streaming Subscription

It's finally here! Apple released the much awaited iOS 4.2 update on Monday, November 22nd, 2010 and I'm guessing everyone who owns an iPad must have scrambled to update their device. For those at work, the wait to get home and do the update must have been agonizing. But, was it worth all the "hype"? It was, and here's why.

iOS 4.2 brings folders among other things to the iPad

I have a 32GB iPad (wi-fi only) which has more than 150 apps on it. Apps ranging from additional web browsers like Atomic to addictive games like Angry Birds HD; I like every one of it. Having those many meant scrolling through countless pages of apps on the iPad. Sometimes finding an app would require using a spotlight search. Also, the old iOS 3.2 didn't have multitasking, something we've come to love on the iPhone 4. It's reasons like these that made wanting iOS 4.2 on the iPad even more meaningful.

I decided to do a complete erase on my iPad and do a fresh install of iOS 4.2. The reason for doing this was I've been experiencing frequent Safari crashes and iPad backups on iTunes that took forever. I've read forums that say the time-consuming backups may be due to errors in certain apps that have not been cleaned up. Since apps from Apple's app store don't require a repurchase to reinstall, unlike media (songs, movies, TV shows, etc.), all I had to do is take screenshots of my app pages so that I could repurchase the ones I wanted back. A full erase would also give me a chance to reinstall only the apps that I use currently. There are quite a few that I haven't used since purchase simply because I've found no real need for using them. For example, wallpaper apps which are free but I hardly ever use.

The whole erase, update to iOS 4.2, syncing with iTunes for the media and reinstalling apps took me about 6 hours in all. The iOS 4.2 update by itself took less than 10 minutes. During the 6 hours I did a complete backup of the iPad on my Mac Mini and it took about 5 minutes for that to get done. Hopefully future backups will be similar, time-wise.

My initial impressions of iOS 4.2 are great. I have put all my apps in folders and they now take only one page. I have over 20 games in two "Games" folders (there's a limit of 20 apps per folder on the iPad compared to 12 on the iPhone). It all looks neat now. I had to update the software on my 2nd generation Apple TV to get "AirPlay" to work and it works like a charm. It, however, only works on the Videos app and YouTube at the moment. AirPrint on the other hand is not very useful right now since only 11 new generation HP printers support it. I doubt other current wi-fi printers will support it in the near future. Maybe it's only a software update that's required to enable AirPrint on current printers. Oh well! Other striking features of iOS 4.2 include a unified mailbox, "Text Search" in Safari, added fonts in Notes, 99c TV rentals and Game Center. One thing I hope will come soon, if indeed it does, is a Netflix update that will allow to AirPlay movies from an iDevice directly to Apple TV.

I have to mention, however, that I don't like the fact that Apple has changed the functionality of the Screen Rotation Lock switch on the top right side to muting the iPad. I mean, the iPad still mutes if you hold down the "volume down" button. So now we essentially have two mute buttons on the iPad. The Screen Rotation Lock can be found by double-clicking the home button and swiping to the left, just like on an iPhone 4. Apart from this though, I must say again, iOS 4.2 on the iPad has been well worth the wait.

Now coming to Netflix. I found out earlier that they are now offering a "streaming only" plan for $7.99. For me this is a welcome change. I changed my plan as soon as I heard this. DVDs are kind of getting outdated now. The picture and audio quality is not like a Blu-ray disc. I have a nice little collection of my favorite movies on Blu-ray which will continue to grow because I love collecting them. I've used Netflix mainly to stream to my Apple TV, PS3 or iPad/iPhone. After calculating how much I had spent over the last few years for the number of movies I watched on DVD I realized that it wasn't really worth it. Almost $4 per movie on DVD alone. Throw in the movies and TV shows I've streamed and the average cost went down quite a bit which made me feel a lot better. I'm thinking of maybe getting RedBox rentals in case I feel like watching a movie that's not available for streaming. After all it's only a dollar a day!

I will post more updates on iOS 4.2 as I get to using it some more. So check back or follow me on Twitter @CRodBlogs for the latest. Thanks for reading.