The iOS 4.2 update is coming our way in this fall, Nov ’10. Although many of the features are already available on iPhone and iPod Touch. It will be a reborn experience for your favorite tablet device the iPad. The iOS 4.2 update will include:

Multitasking:
Thank you Steve Jobs. Don’t you want to run all your favorite apps and switch between them instantly without slowing down the performance of the foreground app or draining the battery unnecessarily. And most importantly jailbreaking?

Folders:
I have a confession to make. I’m free apps download junkie. I have about a gazillion apps on the iPad. It would be great to organize apps into folders with drag-and-drop simplicity. Get faster access to your favorites and browse and manage thousands of apps.

Printing:
I haven’t came across the need to print any document yet. But I guess it would be cool to print mail, photos, web pages, and more directly to a printer on a wireless network.

Airplay:
Now we are talking. If you have been converting DVDs to iPad, you know the process one goes through. It would be great to beam up video and audio to the iPad. Not only that but also wirelessly stream videos, music, and photos from iPad to the new Apple TV, and stream music to AirPlay speakers or receivers, including AirPort Express.

Other notable features:
Its promised that iOS 4.2 update will have more than 100 new features. Beyond the major ones mentioned above, I think the other notable features are:

• Game Center
• Better Email Support
• Enhanced enterprise support
• Accessibility enhancements
• Keyboard and dictionary enhancements

For any odd reason, you are still wondering what the fuss is all about the iPad. I seriously recommend you to get your hands on one of these magical machines now.

* images courtesy Apple.com

What are the benefits of jailbreaking?

People with jailbreak iPads can download apps which allow them to customize everything from homescreen images to icons. The most sought after feature “multitasking” running apps in the background, so you can enjoy browsing the web while listening to your favorite tunes. Once your iPad is jailbroken, Cydia, a jailbreak application store have apps that let you do pretty much anything. Usually, there are only one or two apps that make sense in jailbreaking. for some, its just the experiencing how to jailbroke your iDevice.

What I can run on Jailbroken iPad?

Cydia is the official underground app store, which gives you access to thousands of apps and hacks available for your iOS devices. Its best to download apps which are updated for iPad. Then there are apps, which run great on all devices. There are plenty of sites which keeps an updated list apps working on iPad. Here’s one from MacStories and similar thread on iPadForums.

So what is the downside of Jailbreaking?

According to Apple, Jailbreaking voids warranty. So if something goes wrong during your jailbreaking, which is unfixable (usually everything is), Apple won’t accept your claim. You can always restore your iPad to factory settings and there will be peace.

What happens to my App Store apps?

Don’t fret, all your iPad purchased apps will run just fine. And you can continue to get more apps from the App Store without any issues.

How to Jailbreak your iPad?

If you haven’t updated your iPad to the latest OS upgrade to 3.2.1 and still running 3.2, please visit this excellent article on how to Jailbreak your ipad.

For folks, like me who have upgraded their iPads to 3.2.1, the new web based Jailbreak.me solution is out. Read here about it.

So whats next?

If jailbreaking brings any value to you, go ahead give it a try (on your own risk). For me, I’m going to wait for the iOS 4 to be released for the iPad this fall.

With other platforms, it much easier for manufacturers to develop extensions. With Apple and its proprietary dock connector, manufacturers have a much harder challenge to create add-on for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. One of the first extension for the iDevices is the Square payment platform through the headphone jack. Working on the same concepts, a little known company called ThinkFlood has developed Redeye mini. If you’re not familiar with RedEye, it’s a small dongle, which plugs into your iDevice’s headphone jack and when paired with the RedEye application, turns your iDevice into the ultimate universal remote control.

From Thinkflood website:

RedEye hardware adds infrared capability to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad so that you can control thousands of devices, from TVs and cable boxes to lighting systems and air conditioners. Together with the RedEye application  you have complete control over your home theater and many other devices that use infrared signals. Create custom activities around the things you do most — listening to music, watching movies, channel surfing — so you can spend more time doing and less time punching buttons.

How it works:

• You download the free App from the App Store
• Plug in the RedEye mini to your headphone jack.
• The application gives you the ability to setup rooms, select manufacturers and train the app for your devices. (45,000 plus). You can also manually train the app for your device.
• You can define activities, which are bundled tasks that would have required 3 different remotes to do the task
• The best part about the RedEye solution is the endless customization options to choose from different button styles, re-arrange the layout, and even combine the buttons from different devices, all on the same screen.

Where to Buy:

The RedEye comes in two models, you can read a comparison about the products here on ThinkFlood site.

RedEye is a USB solution which sells for $171. Buy RedEye now from Amazon

RedEye mini connects with your iDevice through the headphone jack and sells for $49. Buy RedEye mini now from Amazon

The RedEye products are welcoming addition to the iDevice platform. Looking forward to more cool devices coming up for the platform.

Its remarkably easy to purchase and consume digital media on the iPad. In my usage I have no eye strain issues to report after reading over countless books and magazines since its launch. For me the weight of the device is not a  big issue. Outdoor reading is a real problem with the glare though, that can be reduced with the anti-glare screen protectors.

Every e-book platform comes in with its own DRM, which means if you buy a book on Kindle you can’t read it on iBooks and vice versa. But if you are going to remove the DRM’d from your ebooks, then its possible to move all your library into iBooks.

So here I’ll review the major ones available for iPad. The review only considers iPad versions of the apps, as many have iPhone editions also. Without further ado:

iBooks

iBooks by Apple is the most visually pleasing and closest to natural reading ebook reader available on any platform. Little effects like the page turning makes it a more engaging experience. With the 1.1 update (I wonder why would someone has not updated yet – its free) now you can read PDFs within iBooks as well. The book shelf interface is welcoming addition to interface design and it helps in assembling your reading list. iBooks will let you add notes to your books (PDFs don’t have this functionality at the time of writing this article).

With 5 of the 6 leading book publishers on board, the iBookstore since launched offers a considerable wide variety of books. But definitely Kindle has more to offer at the moment. I wish Apple would allow you to buy books from iTunes also, as at the moment you can purchase within the ibooks app only. iTunes link

Kindle

Before iPads launch, Amazon’s Kindle was The ereader of choice. Amazon is a smart company and they realize the power of monetizing their huge books inventory on every platform available. The ability to sync your books on the Kindle Hardware, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry and Android is just fantastic. The book reading experience is very easy. It allows you to add notes and sync them across all devices.

Like iBooks, you cannot load your own books. The Amazon Store is easy to use and purchase, but unlike iBooks app, you need to purchase from the site. On sync your latest purchase will be available for reading. iTunes Link

Barnes & Nobles

Barnes & Nobles launched Nook their ebook reader quite later than there competitor Amazon. The platform and the device have had fairly average success on the street. The app comes with all bells and whistles like notes, bookmarking, plus you can also Google your queries and see wikipedia results too. The app also offers the ability to customize it with themes.

The book selection, like the real Barnes & Nobles store is great. Like Kindle, you need to purchase your books on the web store. iTunes Link

Other notable book apps:

Stanza

Stanza is one of the must have books app on iPad. With this app you can side-load from variety of content sources. It lets you select from 50,000 free classics and many thousands more from paid partner stores. It sports features like notes etc.

For any book reader this is one app which is highly recommended as it offers the most versatile reading material. iTunes Link

Borders

In there own words “Borders eBooks gives you the freedom to buy and read eBooks anytime, anywhere on your iPhone. Suddenly craving the latest thriller or an exciting new bestseller at 3 in the morning? No problem. It takes just a minute to purchase whatever you’re in the mood for, and once you select the Buy button, your next great read will begin downloading instantly.” Borders is a well established brand and its the latest retailer to enter the ereader for iPhone and iPad. iTunes Link

Free Books

As the name suggest, its Free Books. And 23,469 off them available for you to read them to hearts desire. The ereader is a simple application, which lets you – read the books. It allows you to bookmark and when you open up the app again it saves your previous location. Downloading a book is easy from within the app. iTunes Link

Shakespeare

If you are a fan of the famous English writer, you are in luck. The complete works of William Shakespeare are    available in this one app; all the 40 plays, six poems, 154 sonnets etc. The content is art rich and resizable. It automatically remembers last page read. All text is searchable within the app. iTunes Link

Concluding:

Book reading is a very personal experience and requires a special environment to be in to enjoy the book. What iPad offers is a vast majority of the literate worlds treasure in one magical device where your consumption can needs can easily be fulfilled. Books is just one area, iPad is equally great with comics, children books, religious books and magazines. Talking about Magazines, the Wired app is a revolution in itself. Stay tuned for Magazine app round up.

Whats your favorite books app on the ipad?

• Open, copy, and save files directly from the iPad, iPhone, or iPod
• Access the device from other applications
• Browse the iPhone, iPad, or iPod through the Finder
• Mount multiple iPhones, iPods, or iPads at the same time
• Convenient menubar item to mount and unmount the devices
• Works without Jailbreak!

The best part is MacroPlant is giving this great app for free until September 1, 2010. So go ahead and grab yourself a copy of PhoneDisk. To use it for free, use the following registration code:

2H96A-QK7MX-8GEYK1V-ZR6S8

The usability factor is dead simple, launch PhoneDisk and mount your iDevice – for Finder its an external USB drive. There are plenty of reasons this application can be very useful.