[Hands0n]

At long last Apple's iOS 4.2.1 is out for download into the iPhone and iPad devices. So, is it any good? This is a first impression from me.

I have read the documents on Apple's and other websites advising what is in 4.2.1. There are a ton of security updates, which is good to see on a mobile device - I think these are all too often ignored. Then there are a few new features (see the full details here http://www.apple.com/ios/ ), most of which I could care less about.

But there is one single thing about iOS 4.2.1 on the iPhone that has be grinning from ear to ear. It is fast, and I mean damned fast. Faster than a whippet out of the traps.

Generally this fastness is not immediately apparent. But a major source of frustration for me in iOS 4.1 on the iPhone was when it came to entering in data into the eMail addressee fields. When creating a new eMail the screen would pop up, then there would be a period of anything up to fifteen seconds of finger prodding before the field would become responsive and allow the entry of characters. After that all was okay. But it was very laggy in that respect - a lot like some early Android versions behaved.

Now, in iOS 4.2.1 that is all gone. Hit the Create New button and up pops the new eMail form. Instantly, then, you are able to start entering in the addressees. The lookups from Contacts is instantaneous too.

The same goes for Contacts - start the app and you can immediately start entering a string of contact name to find in the Search box.

This is all very good stuff indeed. I was getting quite irritated with my iPhone on 4.1 but that is all behind me now.

Thank you Apple. Don't do that to me again!!

[DBMandrake]

At long last Apple's iOS 4.2.2 is out for download into the iPhone and iPad devices. So, is it any good? This is a first impression from me.

Unless you're writing this through a time warp from the future, I presume you mean 4.2.1 ? :D


Generally this fastness is not immediately apparent. But a major source of frustration for me in iOS 4.1 on the iPhone was when it came to entering in data into the eMail addressee fields. When creating a new eMail the screen would pop up, then there would be a period of anything up to fifteen seconds of finger prodding before the field would become responsive and allow the entry of characters. After that all was okay. But it was very laggy in that respect - a lot like some early Android versions behaved.

Very odd - I've never experienced that in 4.0 / 4.1 on the 3GS - creating a new email and entering an email address was always instantaneous for me. Do you use an Exchange account perhaps ? I wonder if it was stalling on doing a directory search or something like that ?


Now, in iOS 4.2.2 that is all gone. Hit the Create New button and up pops the new eMail form. Instantly, then, you are able to start entering in the addressees. The lookups from Contacts is instantaneous too.

The same goes for Contacts - start the app and you can immediately start entering a string of contact name to find in the Search box.

Again - I've never seen a delay like this in contacts on my 3GS - more or less instantaneous on every version I've run. I sync my contact list with Mobileme and have 107 contacts and 4 groups...

[Hands0n]

Nope. I've only ever used Google Mail and MobileMe on the iPhone. I do have Exchange mail on the iPad and that works really well.

It was as if mail.app was having to pre-load the Contacts into the app before allowing me to enter any text in the To: field. I've seen it before in earlier versions of iOS (before it was called iOS). It seemed to be back in 4.1 - I can't believe just for my benefit :)

Oh, and yes, I did mean 4.2.1 - no doubt 4.2.2 was a preminitionary statement. :D

[Ben]

Hmm, no, I didn't experience that lag in 4.1 either.

Well, I've managed to get the update downloading... I'll try and install it on my precious iPhone 4 shortly!