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If Apple increases the screen size, they'll bump the resolution after making such a fuss about the "Retina Display."

Good point, but that was the logic behind iPad 2 getting a Retina display. We thought the same thing when we were speculating about the iPad 2.
 
You can only see 300 PPI Correct? Don't you think that 285 is much lower than "not far off"? I would think there would be a noticeable difference, don't you?
 
Isn't the whole "magic number around 300ppi" only applicable at the distance one usually holds a phone from their eyes. With a larger screen one does not need to hold the phone as close, meaning the required ppi would decrease
 
Isn't the whole "magic number around 300ppi" only applicable at the distance one usually holds a phone from their eyes. With a larger screen one does not need to hold the phone as close, meaning the required ppi would decrease

I really hope you're kidding. The iPad, when held at a normal distance from the eyes, BARELY shows the individual pixels. Its ppi? A mere 132. I don't think you understand that these pixels are microscopic. The difference between 300 and 285 is almost negligible.
 
I really hope you're kidding. The iPad, when held at a normal distance from the eyes, BARELY shows the individual pixels. Its ppi? A mere 132. I don't think you understand that these pixels are microscopic. The difference between 300 and 285 is almost negligible.
Well, we can bet that whatever Apple comes out with next will be sprinkled with magic unicorn dust and everyone will love and praise it instantly. It's funny to hear rants on "we can't possibly go below 300ppi!" but as soon as Mr. Jobs puts his spin on it, it will be golden.
 
Nah, I'm not an idiot so it doesn't take me long to do 6th grade math.

I wonder how many more decades it'll be until cool guys on the Internet stop playing the "u have no life" card.

LOL that's 6th grade math? WOW I suck at math, I would've never figured that out. Math ws laways my worst!

Nice work though OP!
 
LOL that's 6th grade math? WOW I suck at math, I would've never figured that out. Math ws laways my worst!
Simple, really. As an example (using the known 3.5 @ 326ppi):

3.5 / 4.0 = 0.875 (ratio)

0.875 x 326 = 285.25ppi
 
Another reason why Apple should have mandated vector graphics for all UI elements.

All those developers using images (raster graphics) for buttons and other elements are going to see their apps get screwed if Apple decides to change screen sizes.

Android developers have been a little smarter about this as they have to cater to different screen sizes anyways and make sure their apps can scale perfectly. iOS developers however have gotten lazy over the last 4 years that screen size has remained constant. This is probably why Apple decided to 'pixel double' iPhone apps on the iPad instead of scaling them full screen (which would allow all buttons drawn using 'vector graphics' to remain the same size).

I may be wrong, I am not an iOS developer...
 
I really hope you're kidding. The iPad, when held at a normal distance from the eyes, BARELY shows the individual pixels. Its ppi? A mere 132. I don't think you understand that these pixels are microscopic. The difference between 300 and 285 is almost negligible.

If your aim was to misunderstand me completely then well done. I was actually agreeing with you. Read what I actually wrote.
 
If your aim was to misunderstand me completely then well done. I was actually agreeing with you. Read what I actually wrote.

Oh sorry, I was reading your post on my iPhone while my programming professor was lecturing. My bad!
 
My point, and I believe many people's, is that it would be problematic or just a nuisance to have iPhones with different size screens. Apps would be a problem. Notice Blackberries app world that not all apps work for each phone and the same with android.

Well there are already apps which only work for iPad and iPhone 4, what about the 3G and 3GS users? Same thing. Anyway, i'm all up for a 4" screen from Apple, they know their stuff.
 
Regardless of what Apple does, I hope that developers don't simply ignore the size difference.
Even a linear scaling like OP is suggesting requires a developer to customize the app UI for each screen size. If they don't, you run into the following scenarios:

1. Dev makes the UI for 3.5" screen - UI elements are unnecessarily large when viewed on a 4.0" screen.

2. Dev makes the UI for 4.0" screen - UI elements are uncomfortably small when viewed on a 3.5" screen.

3. Dev attempts to create a compromised UI for either screen - A compromise is by definition sub-optimal on both devices.

If you think that the size difference is not enough for the developer to concern themselves over, well think long and hard about why your even asking for the larger screen.
 
Well, one solution for a 4" screen with the same ppi as iP4 would be to only use the centre pixels for legacy apps with a lower resolution.

Besides, aside from aliasing of textures and patterns, I suspect most graphics are rendered in such a way that changing screen resolution should not be too much of a problem....
 
Well, one solution for a 4" screen with the same ppi as iP4 would be to only use the centre pixels for legacy apps with a lower resolution.
I actually made a mock up of a similar idea. Implementing a 4" display with the same width as the current display, but with added height. This would comfortably fit on a device of the same size as the current iPhone and provide seamless compatibility with legacy apps. The downside is that this would add less actual surface area compared to a fixed ratio scaling.
 
Regardless of what Apple does, I hope that developers don't simply ignore the size difference.
Even a linear scaling like OP is suggesting requires a developer to customize the app UI for each screen size. If they don't, you run into the following scenarios:

1. Dev makes the UI for 3.5" screen - UI elements are unnecessarily large when viewed on a 4.0" screen.

2. Dev makes the UI for 4.0" screen - UI elements are uncomfortably small when viewed on a 3.5" screen.

3. Dev attempts to create a compromised UI for either screen - A compromise is by definition sub-optimal on both devices.

That would be right, except one thing. The buttons wouldn't be unusually larger or smaller because everything else onscreen is scaled at exactly the same ratio. It's not bigger buttons with small backdrops or small buttons with unusually large background graphics.
 
That would be right, except one thing. The buttons wouldn't be unusually larger or smaller because everything else onscreen is scaled at exactly the same ratio. It's not bigger buttons with small backdrops or small buttons with unusually large background graphics.

In a good UI design, the target size of a button should be based upon the input requirement, not arbitrarily scaled with the screen. If you simply scale the entire screen, the extra size does not returned any improvement to the UI. It's simply a bigger screen.

Take Safari as an example. A proper 4" version would have a menu bar that is shorter then the 3.5" version. While it would appear on the screen to be the same physical height, it should be fewer pixels tall due to the lower DPI. Ignoring this would result in wasted space.
 
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In a good UI design, the target size of a button should be based upon the input requirement, not arbitrarily scaled with the screen. If you simply scale the entire screen, the extra size does not returned any improvement to the UI. It's simply a bigger screen.

I perfectly understand the logic behind that. But it's time to rid of these baby-sized screens. All the Android phones have such big screens.
 
I perfectly understand the logic behind that. But it's time to rid of these baby-sized screens. All the Android phones have such big screens.

I agree. I just dont think that we should be worried about developers having to redo their work, since they should be doing it anyway to take advantage of the larger screen.
 
The amount of work for developers is not the consumers concern. We spend money on what they produce, they should update their apps to keep them relevant, otherwise we will look for other apps with the same functionality. They should have been using vector based graphics from the start anyway, or at least since the iOS 4.
 
In a good UI design, the target size of a button should be based upon the input requirement, not arbitrarily scaled with the screen. If you simply scale the entire screen, the extra size does not returned any improvement to the UI. It's simply a bigger screen.

Take Safari as an example. A proper 4" version would have a menu bar that is shorter then the 3.5" version. While it would appear on the screen to be the same physical height, it should be fewer pixels tall due to the lower DPI. Ignoring this would result in wasted space.

I don't see apple readjusting app sizing and scale to fit in a physically larger screen to optically be consistent with the 3.5" I see them merely doing it to make the phone display physically larger.

It will most likely keep the same 960x640 with no app adjustments (no one wants more fragmentation). Doing so will only give the user a better experience with the phone. Your vision and fingers are constant so making the screen .5" larger at the same resolution will give you less eye strain and less miss taps with your finger on the smaller elements, because they will physically be larger on the display. Sure we lose some of the DPI but at 280+ you will not see a difference.
 
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