Pitfalls of upgrading to iOS4.2

The decision to upgrade to iOS4.2 should not be taken without considering the following:

• once you upgrade you cannot easily downgrade to the previous OS (along with gnashing of teeth and muttering indelicate words, you will  probably need a previous version of iTunes (which is usually upgraded with each OS release), and the backup copy of your iPad OS (which, oddly, iTunes deletes once you upgrade))
• do the apps that you cannot absolutely live without, work with the new OS? (apps that have not been written properly just stop working and if it's an app you rely on daily, you either have to do without, find an alternative app or downgrade back to the previous OS-- see previous bullet point)
• do the new features of the OS outweigh the possible loss of some of your favourite apps?

Once the new OS is released (looks like I was wrong in my prediction of iOS being released this week; rumours say it will likely be next week) look at each app in the AppStore and see if iOS4.2 support is acknowledged and google for the app-name "iOS4.2" and "problems" to see if there are any issues.

I will not be upgrading immediately until at least 4.2.1 is released (my plan is to wait until January). I am certain the kids will be disappointed as some of their favourite games stop working when I upgrade.

I think Apple should allow the iPad/iPhone/iPod to be easily downgraded to a previous version of the OS. When iPhone3G users upgraded to iOS4, they found their phones slowing to a crawl and with no way to easily downgrade back to iOS3.x, it was very frustrating to use. Some conspiracy theorists postulated that it was Apple's way of forcing people to buy the iPhone4 which was plagued with its now famous antenna problems.