iOS 4.2 For iPad, iPhone Potentially DelayediOS 4.2 For iPad, iPhone Potentially Delayed

According to numerous postings on Apple's discussion forums and the discussion forums of MacRumors.com, developers have found a serious problem with Wi-Fi performance running on iPads with the iOS 4.2 Golden Master installed.

MacStories reports, "Even if the iPad manages to successfully connect to a local network, the connection is lost after a few minutes. This seems to be the most common problem among users, although some can’t simply use Safari at all. The bug has been reported to Apple, and they apparently decided to delay the release of iOS 4.2 to fix the bug."

The Golden Master of iOS 4.2 was released on November 1. Apple generally follows with a wide-scale release to end users within two weeks of the Golden Master's appearance. Apple often does not provide specific dates and times for iPhone and iPad software updates.

Despite the lack of official word from Apple, a number of sites predicted that the iOS 4.2 software update would become available to Apple's "i" devices as early as today, November 12.

The length of the reported delay ranges between four days and two weeks. Apple will need to provide iTunes 10.1 to end users first, and it has yet to do that.

It's possible Apple will release a second Golden Master for developers to test as soon as today, though Apple has not confirmed any of this.

The iPad experienced Wi-Fi problems when it was first released, prompting Apple to provide a minor update to its software. There's no word if this new bug is related to the old one.

One of the many features included in iOS 4.2 is the ability to print from the iPad to select printers via Wi-Fi. There's no word if this new software plays any role in the Wi-Fi problem of the iOS 4.2 Golden Master.