Backgrounder, the popular hack that brought multitasking to iOS 3.x devices and now allows you to take control of how apps run in the background on iOS 4, has been updated to support iOS 4.2.1.
Compatibility with the latest OS aside, version svn.r558-1, adds bug fixes and comes with a new installation method for iOS versions that don’t support Backgrounder.
Backgrounder is available for free in BigBoss’ repository.
Air Video is one of our favorite iOS apps here at MacStories. Not only does the app come with a nice icon and polished interface, the real deal’s about the functionality: Air Video allows you to effortlessly stream any video from your computer to the iPhone or iPad – even with live conversion. No matter the format, no matter how big the file is (seriously, you can try with music videos or 3GB movie files), Air Video will stream to iOS just fine.
An update to the app was released yesterday, and it’s a pretty sweet update: Air Video 2.4.2 now comes with Retina Display-ready graphics, support for iOS 4.2 multitasking, performance improvements and enhanced file sorting capabilities.
An already must-have app basically got a lot better with these new features, so if you still don’t own Air Video, go buy it right now in the App Store at $2.99. Also, check out a video below of Erica Sadun from TUAW demoing a custom version of Air Video with AirPlay support. We can’t wait for Apple to open up its APIs and allow third-party apps like Air Video to stream to the Apple TV. Read more
With iOS 4.2 coming in a few hours, iPad owners will surely have a great time today trying to figure out how the new operating system works, what’s the best way to arrange folders and what’s the deal with those widget controls in the multitasking bar. For all things new in iOS 4.2, make sure you don’t miss our huge walkthrough.
When a new OS is released, though, users come to the point where they want to try apps that support the new features introduced by Apple and its engineering team. Developers have been playing around with the OS for quite some time, there should be some apps already updated for iOS 4.2 in the App Store, right?
In this post we’ve collected the best 10 iPad apps that were updated in the past weeks to support iOS 4.2. Some great gems are in there, so read on past the break, and get your iTunes library ready before iOS 4.2 drops. Read more
App Switcher Brightness is a simple tweak available in the Cydia Store which lets you control your iPhone’s brightness from the multitasking tray. Once you download the tweak, available at $0.99, you’ll be able to adjust brightness through a slider placed right below the iPhone’s widget controls.
Neat.
OmniFocus, my GTD app of choice on OS X and iOS, is now compatible with multitasking on the iPad. Although iOS 4.2 isn’t officially out and it looks like it won’t be at least until sometime next week, users running the latest iOS 4.2 GM can enjoy fast app switching, background sync and local notifications in OmniFocus for iPad.
The latest 1.2 update, released a few minutes ago in iTunes, adds a bunch of new features and lots of improvements, too. The changelog is really huge, so I suggest you go check it out below. Notable new features include the possibility to receive local notifications without the need of a sync server, seven new languages, a revamped editing panel and more geolocation functionalities.
Seriously, great update. The one users already on iOS 4.2 have been waiting for. Go get it. Then read why we love OmniFocus. Read more
My good friend @kenyarmosh tweeted about this app a few hours ago and it immediately caught my attention: a process management app for iOS, like the ones seen on Android and, yes, the dekstop? How’s that even possible without breaking Apple’s ban of usage of private APIs?
AppSwitch, available at an introductory price of $0.99 in the App Store, monitors and provides detailed information about the apps running in the background on your iPhone. As a matter of fact, AppSwitch can monitor both running apps and background system processes, something that I haven’t seen in any other App Store app before - mainly because Apple doesn’t want users to know which system processes are running. With AppSwitch you can keep an eye on your iPhone memory usage (with an interface similar to the Mac’s Activity Monitor) and see which apps are actually multitasking and which are not, with the possibility to quickly jump to another app or to an app’s specific feature. Read more
I’ve been thinking about this for some months now: what could be the right way to “multitask” on the iPad? Some say we humans can’t really multitask. For the sake of the argument, let’s just say that we want to argue on whether Apple’s way to switch between paused apps on the iPad could be better or not. I think that, with a few tweaks, iOS 4.2 could bring a deeply different experience from the iPhone on the iPad. Read more
Courtesy of AppAdvice and Engadget, two videos to get a quick overview of what using iOS 4 on the iPad feels like. I have it, and it’s great: apps already updated for the new APIs on the iPhone are working fine on the iPad, some of them (e.g. non-universal apps) are having some issues.
Anyway, iOS 4.2 really manages to make the iPad feel like a new device. And it’s just the first beta. Read more
