I just got an SMS from SoftBank – their preferred way of pushing us short bubbles of information – strongly encouraging us iPhone users to upgrade to iOS 4.2. This follows on an email from Apple four days ago, also extolling the virtues of the new software update. This is new – at least for me. Have people in other countries or other carriers gotten emails before this update?

iOS 4.2 seems pretty pointless for me. I have an iPhone, which means I’ve already had folders and multitasking; I don’t have an AirPrint-enabled printer, and don’t produce much more than photos on my iPhone (which would just be a waste of expensive printer ink) anyway; I don’t have an Apple TV, so won’t be able to make use of AirPlay; and I don’t have an iPad or iPhone 4, which means I can’t use Find My iPhone. Being able to search text in Safari is maybe the only feature I want from the new update (oh my god, new text tones!). iPad users even lose the hardware orientation lock above the volume rocker, instead having to click-click-swipe-tap to make use of the software lock button in the multitasking dock. It isn’t even that the new update is really, really jailbreak-resistant, and thus Apple and SoftBank want us to update so that we’ll accidentally not be able to break out of the walled garden. It certainly isn’t the super-awesome cross-platform new-feature-laden major update that might prompt both the software platform producer and the carrier to send out messages reminding us to update our iPhones.

[I wonder if Softbank iPad users got messages from SoftBank too - that would make more sense, considering the content of this update.]