-What's up?
Welcome to The Apple Byte.
I'm Brian Tong, your loyal and trusted guy for all things good, and bad, inside the world of Apple.
This week, it's all about iOS 4.2 for the iPad.
Apple recently released the beta to developers and we put our lab rat on it to show you some of the good stuff.
-Hey guys, Brian Tong here with CNET.com and Apple's iOS 4.2 beta that's specific to the iPad was recently released so we wanted to show off some of the major improvements
and some of the more subtle ones as well.
The biggest addition is multitasking and it works just like it has on an iPhone.
Double click the home button and you'll see apps that are currently running.
In portrait mode, you'll see six apps at a time and in landscape mode, you'll see seven.
Now, what's great about this is that I've been dying for Pandora to have multitasking on the iPad and it looks like the Apple was built already with that in mind so it works like a charm.
I can listen to my Pandora stream while checking out a recipe for dinner or surfing the web.
Now, just like in iOS 4.1, once you've accessed the multitasking feature,
you can swipe to the right to reveal the music controls and more.
A new change is that the screen orientation lock is now accessible here so you can lock the iPad to portrait or landscape mode.
The physical button on the right hand side that used to be the screen lock is now a mute switch but I'm not sure if I like that change yet, and the biggest addition that I love, the ability to control the brightness of the screen with this slider without jumping into the preferences.
Thank you.
Now, folders is here on the iPad and you can put up to 20 icons per folder compared to only 12 on the iPhone.
AirPrint makes it debut and the wireless printing option is integrated into the apps so if I'm in the mail app, it will show up here and I'll be able to select a printer and choose how many copies I want.
You'll also find printing in the photo app and Safari.
AirPlay is Apple's wireless streaming feature that streams the new Apple TV or other compatible devices.
You'll be able to access it in the iPad app, Movie app, and YouTube app.
Now, let's show you a few other features in 4.2.
Game Center is here on the iPad and it's pretty much what we've seen in iOS 4.1.
MailNow!
has a unified mailbox for your multiple accounts and you can also organize your e-mails by threads, which I love.
Safari has an updated icon that now shows you how many Safari pages you have open in the background and closing them feels snappier than before.
Now, all of you fans of the notes app will now be getting a few other fonts that you can change in the settings instead of just MarkerFelt so you guys can rejoice, and if you're using the iPad 3G with a cellular data option turned on, you now have the ability to toggle between 3G and Edge if you wanna reduce the drain on your battery even if it means slower download speeds.
I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com and remember this is the beta and there are sure to be more improvements on the way before its November release but we wanted to give you a sneak peek at iOS 4.2 in action.
-Thanks for that, Mr.
Tong.
Did they give that guy a raise yet?
He's really good.
Now, with the new iPad OS coming soon, the big A is also preparing to launch newspaper subscription plans according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Publishers hope it will provide a new revenue stream that they desperately need even if it means Apple will potentially take a 30% cut of all subscriptions and 40% of the ad revenue.
In more iPad stuff, Apple's selling an estimated 2 million units per month, but with the holiday season coming up, it's time to ramp up.
DIGITIMES reports Taiwan-based Cando will be manufacturing iPad screens with a monthly capacity of about 1 million units per month.
That's 3 million iPads being pumped out like hotcakes for the holiday season.
Now, there's no doubt that a future iPad will have a front facing camera but they don't need to put one in it right now, and all of you that keep on asking me if a new one is coming for the holidays,
it's still the same story, they don't need to do it right now, but look for at least an announcement some time around January next year.
Alright, let's check out our App of the Week.
If you like custom ringtones, check out the Ringtones app.
It's $1.99 and it lets you take your music from your iPhone that has no DRM on it and allows you to create up to a 30-second ringtone directly on the phone.
Now, to use these ringtones, you'll still have to syn your phone to iTunes and in the app section, go to file sharing,
drag and drop your created ringtone to your desktop and then bring it back into your iTunes library to add it as a ringtone.
If you guys have your phone set to sync with your ringtones, you'll find them on your phone and you can assign that song to a special someone.
Hey girl.
No, no-- Yeah.
I'm in a shoot right now.
Okay.
No, I'll call you back.
Okay.
I'll talk to you later, baby, okay?
Bye.
Yeah, guys, that was a girl, but let's get to some quick bytes.
There's been a hot trend of instant searches as you type, thanks to Google, but 15-year-old Stephen Ou, who is 10 times as smart as me, has brought it to iTunes.
Check out iTunes Instant at this address, type in your search and results will instantly pop up character by character, and, Stephen, don't take my job from me because I heard CNET is looking.
Now, the iPod Nano is probably my least favorite update to the entire line thanks to its iPod Shuffle with a touchscreen design that loses features and has a clumsier OS,
but maybe people realize what this really is, an iPod Nano watch.
Now, check out a few of these case ideas and designs.
My advice, don't use this as a way to talk to girls.
And here's a story that shows how desperate people are to get Apple in news.
According to multiple reports, Steve Jobs allegedly tried to sneak ninja stars on to his private plan while he was in Japan and was stopped by officials.
Thanks to our friends at NMA TV, we got to see what might have possibly happened.
Apple PR called the story "pure fiction" but do you really wanna work for a guy like that?
Alright.
That's gonna do it for this week's show.
Send me your e-mails to theapplebyte@cnet.com.
I'm Brian Tong, thanks for watching, and we'll see you next week for another Byte of the Apple.
-Hey, baby.
No-- yeah.
Can we pick up where we left off?
Okay, yeah, the Showtime package.
Yeah.
Can you fill that in?
Alright.
Nice.
