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Apple Prepping iPhone OS 4.0 Beta? SDK to Include Tablet 'Simulator' Tools?

This is why Apple kicks so much tail. Just look at the system they deploy to make a product. You think Bezos of Amazon goes through this type of process? Heck no! Most of the tech guys do nothing but roll out rebranded junk from Asia. Throw on some freaking version of windows and then pay Engadget to get some geek points. Apple builds it stuff from the ground up so they know everything about what they put on the market. The Kindle will be eaten up like a little fish and Jeff B won't know what to do. Hell, he doesn't know tech anyway. He just knows how to show up in some remote part of Antarctica with a box of books.
 
Ambrose Chapel said:
not that long. that time is for new iPhone hardware. i'd say the rumors that called for an early spring ship date are accurate.
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Changes are it has 3G connection and it might even be sold through carriers (with data plans and subsidized price) so it's not really that far from new iphone hardware.
 
Cander said:
Not necessarily. There could be a 'widget' mode for such apps.
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Yeah, but playing an iPhone-sized game in a window on a tablet doesn't sound very appealing. I want full-screen graphics, baby!

iOrlando said:
as steve would say: Change your apps resolution. Not that big of a deal.
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Kind of a big deal for developers if they have to redo all the graphics of all their apps. iPhone developers haven't been operating in a resolution-independent vector world; they have been designing things at a specific raster size. There's no way to keep simply "re-rendering" an existing iPhone app and slap it on anything up to a 1080P HDTV and have it look decent at every resolution. Rezzing up an app as-is from a 4-inch iPhone to 10-inch tablet would lose a lot of crispness as the anti-aliasing wreaked havoc on the appearance everything.

Or am I crazy here?
 
i'm just looking forward to steve telling me why i need this and how i will use it. and then i will give him some money to do exactly that.
 
TheSlush said:
Yeah, but playing an iPhone-sized game in a window on a tablet doesn't sound very appealing. I want full-screen graphics, baby!



Kind of a big deal for developers if they have to redo all the graphics of all their apps. iPhone developers haven't been operating in a resolution-independent vector world; they have been designing things at a specific raster size. There's no way to keep simply "re-rendering" an existing iPhone app and slap it on anything up to a 1080P HDTV and have it look decent at every resolution. Rezzing up an app as-is from a 4-inch iPhone to 10-inch tablet would lose a lot of crispness as the anti-aliasing wreaked havoc on the appearance everything.

Or am I crazy here?
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Not crazy.Apple has been telling devs to make their apps resolution independent for some time now.
 
TheSlush said:
Yeah, but playing an iPhone-sized game in a window on a tablet doesn't sound very appealing. I want full-screen graphics, baby!



Kind of a big deal for developers if they have to redo all the graphics of all their apps. iPhone developers haven't been operating in a resolution-independent vector world; they have been designing things at a specific raster size. There's no way to keep simply "re-rendering" an existing iPhone app and slap it on anything up to a 1080P HDTV and have it look decent at every resolution. Rezzing up an app as-is from a 4-inch iPhone to 10-inch tablet would lose a lot of crispness as the anti-aliasing wreaked havoc on the appearance everything.

Or am I crazy here?
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EDIT: Darn, Peace just beat me.

Not crazy, just slightly out of touch. Apple has been pushing developers for some time now to make their App Store apps resolution-independent (and the SDK allows for that). Many of the existing apps are not designed that way, but many are, and those will be ready to go on the tablet (although I suspect many of them should be tweaked for better aesthetics if not better usability).

jW
 
Steve Jobs via The Wall Street Journal: "much of [their] information is incorrect"
Article Link: Steve Jobs Almost Entirely Focused on Tablet Project?

Source via The New York Times: "You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet."
Article Link: Jobs "Extremely Happy" with Upcoming Apple Tablet and a Surprise?

Source via Mac4Ever: "Concerning MacTablet, it will indeed be produced, but it will be far different from the concepts that have been announced so far on rumor sites."
Article Link: Rumors Revisited: Next-Generation iWork and iLife Plans? Apple Tablet Design Surprise?

If this doesn't stir up the imagination, I don't know what will.
 
Peace said:
Not crazy.Apple has been telling devs to make their apps resolution independent for some time now.
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Mal said:
EDIT:Not crazy, just slightly out of touch. Apple has been pushing developers for some time now to make their App Store apps resolution-independent (and the SDK allows for that). Many of the existing apps are not designed that way, but many are, and those will be ready to go on the tablet (although I suspect many of them should be tweaked for better aesthetics if not better usability).
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Ah, gotcha. Wasn't aware of that. Still, I have to think that a pretty high percentage of current App Store apps are not resolution-independent. Will the tablet have its own "res-independent section" of the App Store, or simply be cut off from a large portion of the existing "iPhone-sized" apps? The former seems needlessly complex, but I can't imagine the latter going over so well either.
 
Quite simple:

Kindle, Nook, iphone reading app, etc. ALL are stone age compared to what Apple can bring to the game. Even a first generation device from these brains will be mind blowing. A true experience instead of an idea.

Add voice recog, and all that could be and you have the next generation of value building for aapl.

Can't wait.
 
TheSlush said:
Ah, gotcha. Wasn't aware of that. Still, I have to think that a pretty high percentage of current App Store apps are not resolution-independent.
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You'd no doubt be correct. Not just size-wise, but shape-wise. Think of most of the apps we use:

Many non-game apps are portrait only, and some of their control placement or embedded images / web controls would look odd in a square screen, for example.

Many games are landscape only and have hardcoded bitmaps to the current screen size, which would look bad if blown larger. At the least, game developers will want to know the primary screen size possibilities, so they can plan for them.

This is why I brought up the need for a new SDK emulator when the rumor first arose of Apple asking devs to plan for a larger screen. (Some outspoken non-developers around here acted as if there were no need for that.)

Most other OS's have emulators for devices that don't exist yet, and/or you can modify their emulators to any size you wish.
 
MacFly123 said:
...

I really hope the next iPhone DOES have a higher res screen. It must have! If devs ALREADY have to alter their apps for the screen res of the iSlate, why on earth would Apple wait and make them do that TWICE for a higher res iPhone later? I say no, they will do it now and let them prep all their apps ONCE for both! It just makes sense!
...
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TheSlush said:
... Many/most app interfaces have been designed for a specific size/resolution in mind, in some cases down to the pixel. Surely this will be a pretty involved process, no? Surely many graphics and interfaces will have to be recreated from scratch, no? (And even if not strictly necessary to recreate/redesign, you'd probably at least want them to be, as they'd get increasingly blurry at a zoomed-up resolution.)
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I think Apple should revive their "Future Shock" concept way back in 80's (link to YouTube video) which already nicely copied by M$ with "Courier" concept (link to YouTube video).

So perhaps the screen resolution is doubled by the fact it has dual screen resembles a booklet.

and I hope it won't be iPhone-alike casing but UNIBODY iTablet!! :D
 
I cant help but recall the Simpsons episode where Homer builds a new car for his long lost brother that is supposed to revolutionize the industry. It ends up having all kinds of rediculous things like a bubble dome and costs a rediculous amount of money. It ultimately bankrupts the company.
 
TheSlush said:
Rezzing up an app as-is from a 4-inch iPhone to 10-inch tablet would lose a lot of crispness as the anti-aliasing wreaked havoc on the appearance everything. Or am I crazy here?
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Controls are pinned to the screen edges and layouts are flexible - this is already in the SDK. No upscaling of graphics required, though layouts might need adjustment. If resizing was required, typically app developers make up artwork in vector form nowadays anyway, and convert to raster at the size they want - why do anything else? Apps will of course require tweaks to handle higher res, but I suspect they'll just double the res or something, in which case they'll manage without major changes. Games might require some larger textures etc, but then most of them are ports from other higher res platforms...

I imagine the slate will run Mobile OS X 4.0, as well as the next iPhone (whenever that arrives). They'd be insane to split development further.
 
Sucks that the tablet is going to run the same OS as iPhone and not full fledged OSX.

WSJ just sent me a news alert that Apple will be releasing the tablet in March. I guess the rumors are true this time.
 
This event is gonna be dedicated to Apple's Tablet, which is gonna BLOW AWAY all other wannabe devices even before they get out of the water...apart from that, SJ is gonna demo the iPhone 4.0 in order to prevent too much defection to Android's side...nothing else.

I will order the tablet (to replace my trusty iBook G3 as a portable device) the moment it is released by Apple...GO SJ! BANZAI!
 
What all will be done???

All this tablet excitement is making people forget all about how apple generally works…
Audience: Wooo Wooo HOOO.. (waiting for tablet.)
Steve takes the stage.
Audience: wooooooooooooo!!
Steve: We have big even scheduled for you tonight, joining me will be Phil Schiller, and others..
first lets talk about software,
new versions of iWork '10 (X??) and iLife are shown off. Not much new this time.. minor updates mostly, small demos.
Phil Schiller comes and shows off new macbook pros.
The design is even thinner than before. has the newer arrandale processors. No more nvidia 9400 :(
Maybe the lower end models don't get the new chip so they can keep the nvidia chip. (Custom intel chip??)
The bigger laptops get arrandale and discrete graphics.
Possibly a new macbook air… with arrandale again (They have some particular ones for that category…)

New mac pro with the 6 core processors..
Major improvements.. similar pricing…..

Steve: Now lets talk about the iPhone… The iphone is selling like mad.. bla bla bla….we are now showing the beta for iPhone OS 4.0

….

Bla bla

Steve: thats all folks…. Oh there's one more thing..

There are somethings that change things forever.

In 1984 we gave you the mouse, then the clickwheel, and then multi-touch.
We now take multitouch to the next level..
We are releasing a new product called the iPad. (not iSlate!!!!!!)
Audience goes mad…..
 
I hope Apple brings back the double tap on top of a Safari page. I'm tired of accicently tapping the top of a page and the friggin' browser scrolls all the way back to the top--very frustrating.
 
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