So today is the day that we finally get the general release of iOS 4.2. After what seems to have been a last minute hitch last week requiring a 4.2.1 GM update Apple has still managed to stick to its original target of a November release. From the perspective of a developer I think it is great that we now have a unified OS common across both the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad.

It is interesting to note that this version is compatible with the iPhone 3G and the 2nd generation of the iPod Touch. Another surprise is that Apple is making the Find My iPhone feature of MobileMe free to all iPhone 4, iPad and 4th generation iPod Touch users. I can only assume that Apple has not made it free for older devices as an extra incentive to upgrade.

The Find My iPhone feature was one of the few reasons I paid for MobileMe. Now it is free I see even less incentive to use it over a rival service such as Dropbox. It is true that for $99/year you get 20GB of storage with MobileMe. If you can live with 2GB of storage it seems to be a no brainer to use the free Dropbox account. The cheapest paid option with Dropbox is $119.88 ($9.99/month) for 50GB which compares well with the $99 MobileMe cost.

Unfortunately I have just renewed my MobileMe account for another year so not much I can do now but I wonder if Apple should not just make a basic 2GB version free with all new devices and be done with it.