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iPad Mini Apps
- Thread starter Gala
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Apps on the Mini
It will run iPad and iPhone apps just like the full-size iPad does now. All indications are that the mini will be a shrunk-down iPad 2 with basically the same components to keep the price down due to economy of scale. The exception being the new Lightning connector. We'll know soon, for sure!
It will run iPad and iPhone apps just like the full-size iPad does now. All indications are that the mini will be a shrunk-down iPad 2 with basically the same components to keep the price down due to economy of scale. The exception being the new Lightning connector. We'll know soon, for sure!
some guy that knows a guy that met a guy that sat next to a guy that was on drugs said that he knows for SURE that an iPad mini is coming. Basically, rumor until announced as usual.
An iPad with a 7.85" 1024x768 display will be able to display iPad apps at native non-retina resolution while making the standard UI elements the exact same physical size as those on the iPhone and iPod touch.
It's possible that apps that do not conform to the iPad interface guidelines will need to be updated, but most should be just fine.
This is because the iPad UI uses the same pixel size for its elements as the iPhone UI. Here's a screenshot of the iPhone mail app overlaid on the iPad mail app, pixel-for-pixel with no scaling done:
The rumored screen size would give the iPad Mini the same pixel density as the pre-retina iPhone, so buttons and other UI elements should be the same physical size as on the iPhone. On the current iPads, those standard UI elements are physically larger than on the iPhone.
It's possible that apps that do not conform to the iPad interface guidelines will need to be updated, but most should be just fine.
This is because the iPad UI uses the same pixel size for its elements as the iPhone UI. Here's a screenshot of the iPhone mail app overlaid on the iPad mail app, pixel-for-pixel with no scaling done:
The rumored screen size would give the iPad Mini the same pixel density as the pre-retina iPhone, so buttons and other UI elements should be the same physical size as on the iPhone. On the current iPads, those standard UI elements are physically larger than on the iPhone.
If the buttons are the same size as the iPhone then will they look like most Android tablet apps? Meaning, those Android Apps look like a tiny app blown up? The best part about iPad apps is that they fit the screen properly, at least that is what they showed off as the "difference maker" during the New iPad Keynote.
I am thinking if iPad mini is nothing but just a shrinked iPad 2, then there is no wow factor at all. It is still good for the stock and consumer market, but nothing to excite people in the event.
Probably Apple has something more under their sleeves, e.g. a retina display, an A6 chip? But that would push the production cost up by a lot, which means higher price. Doesn't seem to make sense either, considering that iPad mini is aimed at the price sensitive sector of the market. So maybe not.
I am smelling that Apple is gonna have another mediocre event (after the one for iPhone 5 and iOS 6), but still good profit eventually.
Probably Apple has something more under their sleeves, e.g. a retina display, an A6 chip? But that would push the production cost up by a lot, which means higher price. Doesn't seem to make sense either, considering that iPad mini is aimed at the price sensitive sector of the market. So maybe not.
I am smelling that Apple is gonna have another mediocre event (after the one for iPhone 5 and iOS 6), but still good profit eventually.
If you have a look at split keyboard on current iPad it has much smaller touch targets. About the size you'd expect for iPad mini. The smaller targets work with split keyboard as your holding the device then thumb tapping. So you can be more accurate. Without holding the device with the typing hand like the normal iPad keyboard you need bigger targets so you can see the targets that could be moving around.
The suggested size two thumbs could cover most of the screen while your fingers cradle the device. So pulling the tap targets to the same size as the iPhone which is the one handed version of the thumb tap.
To me that's why it'll be just iPad apps.
The suggested size two thumbs could cover most of the screen while your fingers cradle the device. So pulling the tap targets to the same size as the iPhone which is the one handed version of the thumb tap.
To me that's why it'll be just iPad apps.
Those Android apps are phone apps blown up. The rumored Mini would run full size iPad apps, just at a slightly higher DPI. My point above was that those full sized iPad apps would still be perfectly usable at the smaller physical size because of the way the iPad's UI was designed.
Buttons in an iPad app on the current iPad are physically larger than similar buttons on an iPhone. An iPad app running on an iPad Mini would have buttons the same physical size as buttons on the iPhone, but still using the full iPad app interface.
Assuming the iPad Mini exists, I'm almost certain Apple will do it this way:
1) Yes. All iPads do this already. iPhone/iPod apps run either enlarged or at their normal resolution surrounded by black.
2) Yes. Smaller iPad apps (1024x768) are already the same resolution used by the iPad and iPad 2.
3) Yes. Developers making new apps will design them for all iPads or risk losing revenue and market share.
yep
a question remain, is that practically going to be so easy, and in the long term, not change the apps landscape on the 9.7", as we can ask how apps designed for a 7.85" screen are gonna look like on the 50% larger surface of the 9.7".
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=15505561#post15505561
Why assume that? That would actually be so un-Apple to pursue price as the main feature of a new product. They can't compete on price with a product (like the Kindle Fire) that is subsidised to promote the content Amazon is selling (which is where they make their money, not off the hardware).
Imagine for a moment they pursue a market that wants a smaller full-featured, with latest technology, product where price is largely irrelevant. Doesn't that sound more like Apple, rather than their pursuing a price-sensitive market?
The first thing that would probably happen in a price-sensitive market is the competition lowers their price, and Apple just looks like a company offering old technology at an inflated price. I don't see this scenario happening.
Keep in mind every iPad model except the iPad 3 is 1024x768, and they are still selling new iPad 2's. I don't think 1024x768 as an iPad resolution is going to be obsolete any time soon, especially if the iPad Mini is 1024x768.
Furthermore, people seem to make desktop applications for every resolution and aspect ratio under the sun, so I'm not too worried about it.
I also bet, if the iPad Mini exists, that iPad Mini 2 will go retina.
I would predict that probably 90% of apps won't have to change to work well on the iPad Mini because of the DPI situation I've tried to explain above.
And? What is it answering to?
You can't exactly compare the situation between OS X app development, and iPad (+ mini) app development.
There is no resolution independance on OS X, but every category of Mac's screen is in a range of pixel density relative to distance they are used at (~130 ppi ultrabook, ~110 notebooks, ~100 desktop, and same kind of standard for pixel size on 3rd party screens in general), making everything on screen appear to the user at an equivalent [range of] size
On the iPad, we are talking about constrained full screen apps to 1024x768 pixels (and 2x if retina). If you change the pixel density of the screen only (because apps aren't able to adapt to different resolutions), you force a change in the way the device is used as physical size of everything on screen change.
In general, I don't expect to have the same quantity of datas displayed on a smaller screen. Now, with the rumored mini iPad, we're in a situation comparable with the 13" MBA and the 15" MBP: same resolution, same quantity of datas displayed on 2 different sizes of screen. I'm not sure of the result as we directly interact with the screen not only with eyes but fingers too. Compared with the iPad, I don't particularly find the interaction with an iPhone screen really much comfortable, but that's a pocket device, and as small as expected, so no complains of course. I still often miss a tap or two, although I hold it closer to me than my iPad and my thumb is easily accurate on the small iPhone screen. I don't expect that kind of experience on a tablet, I'd prefer a mini as comfortable to use as the original.
As Apple is likely going to the 1024x768 7.85" route, that's also my bet, and maybe as soon as spring 2013, who knows.
read the linked topic.
FUD, my ass
Or only people blindly applauding are right to talk?
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FUD, my ass
I don't appreciate that last part, as I never said that.
As for the first part, it has been my observation that it is trivially easy to state that the expected specs of the Mini make it unusable without backing up the argument at all. DPI is too high! iPad Apps weren't designed for that! Can't use it! That is FUD or at best an uneducated opinion.
This has actually been examined very, very well. The expected size, DPI, and resolution of the iPad Mini will work just as well as current Apple products.
Stetrain, the person I was responding to provided a specific example of why people saying the DPI/resolution won't work are completely wrong, but his argument gets drowned out or ignored. He was not "blindly applauding", he provided analysis that checks out.
People saying the opposite have the right to say so. I NEVER SAID OTHERWISE, and I don't appreciate you implying that I did. I consider it FUD because, well, I believe it to be wrong. See the article. It is very well balanced, the author even explains a few circumstances were the Mini's DPI/resolution will be a problem, but they are rare.
Yeah, i know that article/link you give.
If you did read the topic I mentioned before, you'd have seen I make reference of this exact same article in the flickr page I linked there in the first post i sent in.
My last line on my last post was answering to what I considered directed at me. You were quoting Stetrain answering to me. Call me now uneducated if you want, that is not elevating the debate.
If you did read the topic I mentioned before, you'd have seen I make reference of this exact same article in the flickr page I linked there in the first post i sent in.
My last line on my last post was answering to what I considered directed at me. You were quoting Stetrain answering to me. Call me now uneducated if you want, that is not elevating the debate.
I did.
I think that you're thinking of it as the current iPad apps being displayed at 100% size, and that the iPad Mini would display those apps at ~80% size.
If you inspect Apple's interface guidelines, as well as the UIs of all of the built in apps and the standard iOS UI components, you would find that that actually isn't the case.
If you take the UI scale of the first iOS device, the non-retina iPhone (163ppi), to be 100%, the first iPad (131ppi) actually displayed the standard iOS UI elements at ~120% size because of its lower PPI display. The same display scale ratio was maintained with the retina versions of each device because they were perfect doublings of the previous ppi.
That makes sense for a touch interface. On a larger touch screen, larger UI elements can help with accuracy and ease of use. A 9.7" iPad full of iPhone-sized buttons would work but it would probably seem cluttered and feel like you needed more concentration to hit targets.
A 7.85" iPad Mini with a 1024x768 resolution (163ppi) will display those iOS UI elements at 100% size, the same as the original size of those elements on the iPhone.
If you look at it that way, the iPad Mini will not display things slightly scaled down, rather the original iPad displayed things slightly scaled up.
Of course there will be some exceptions in apps that did not follow Apple's example and made iPad apps with UI elements smaller than the recommended sizes, but I suspect that those are fairly rare.
81% vs 100% or 100% vs 123% nothing wrong in that ... that's simple mathsthe iPad Mini will not display things slightly scaled down, rather the original iPad displayed things slightly scaled up.
but
I don't follow the logic. I consider the mini iPad as a tablet, with a screen closer in size to an iPad than an iPhone, and probably used at a closer distance to the distance an iPad is used than an iPhone.
But then, wouldn't you lose accuracy and ease of use going to 163 ppi as you just said?
Your "100%" discussion is all relative. For a pocket device, 44px@163ppi is fine, for a tablet 44px@132ppi is better. We're talking about tablets here with iPads. My 100% reference will be the iPad.
Yes I'm also sure of that.
But UI elements aren't only in the shape of buttons and tap targets. The screen and what it dispalys is an interface between an app & its functionnalities and the user's eyes. Any text or symbol displayed to give information to the user are also UI elements, but if you want, with only passive interaction - users only read them, no direct interaction with fingers.
I don't know if using an app on a larger screen than a phone, used farther than a phone, everything appearing at 20% smaller size than the original version on the iPad, including any content displayed by the app, would be always a pleasant experience.
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Yes, somewhere in between would probably be optimal, but just like the iPhone makes a tradeoff to be portable, so would an iPad Mini. If you find the larger size more comfortable there is always the full sized iPad.
I don't think that the slight improvement from completely custom-made apps would be as beneficial as having full access to the existing library of thousands of iPad apps. I would assume that developers could always tweak their apps for the smaller screen if they feel that their interface it too cluttered or clumsy at the smaller size.