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iPad 3 upscaled apps look poor?

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Apps that aren't updated will look exactly the same as they do now on an iPad 1 or 2. It's exactly the same as the process from the 3GS to the 4. The text will automatically be much clearer from the off
 
planktonamor said:
iPod touch 480×320 pixels at 163 PPI
iPad 1/2 1024x768 pixels at 132 PPI
iPad 3 (new iPad) 2048 × 1536 at 264 PPI

So it seems to me that the difference from the iPad 1/2 to the new iPad is close to what we went from the touch to the iPad 1/2. Apps look horrible being upscaled from the touch/iphone to the iPad 1/2 and now we are doing the same with the new ipad.

More than anything, I am concerned developers are going to charge for new versions of apps supporting the new display, or just not update. I probably have $300 invested in apps and don't want to re-invest again. I was ticked when 50% of my apps I had bought for my touch/iPhone had to be repurchased.

Uggh
Click to expand...
iPhone apps look horrible because they're "pixel doubled", that isn't what happens when you shift from a standard display to a retina display. It's unrelated.

That aside, you can't submit multiple versions of the same app so you won't have to worry about that. They can either update their images, or not.
 
Only bitmapped images in apps will look worse. Any vector graphics and vector text will look better since they scale. App designers should really design for both iPhone and iPad with all vector graphics when possible.
 
With doubled linear resolution you'll see images as crisp as on the iPad 2, with the exception of a huge saturation. We'll see this aspect when we can.
Anything else is speculation until we can't see what happens with the actual iPad.
 
elmo151 said:
I spend my time on Mail, Safari, Kindle, and iBooks

the apple apps will most certainly be updated and I suspect Kindle will follow suit
Click to expand...

IBooks has already been updated for the retina display as have several other Apple apps. I'm not sure about Mail and Safari but they may have been updated in 5.1. If not they will probably get updated soon.
 
This is exactly the same as when the retina iPhone launched. Both the 3GS and the iPhone 4 featured screens of the same size but different pixel densities. Image resources will look fuzzy until the developer updates their application. I submitted the update for my app yesterday. Hope it releases before friday!
 
Lukeyy19 said:
no they won't, they'll look like iPhone 3GS apps on an iPhone 4.

any images in apps will look the same as they would on an iPad 2, whereas text and anything that uses Apple's APIs will look crisper.

everyone stop getting your knickers in a twist, anything not optimised for the retina display will still look just as good as it did on an iPad 1 or 2 until its updated to take full advantage of the Retina display, then they'll look even better!


Here, i made this for the confused people:

Image
Click to expand...

This is incorrect. I know in theory this makes sense, but please do this:

1. Get an iOS device with a non retina display and one with a retina display.
2. Download a very old app that has never been updated for 2X graphics on both devices.
3. Compare the app icon on both devices side by side.

Result? the app icon on the retina display looks far worse than on the non retina display, despite it being the exact same 57x57 icon display at exactly the same dimensions. Try it and you will see.

Edit: If someone could do this and post a picture that would be great - I would but I don't have my iPod touch with me.
 
samac92 said:
This is incorrect. I know in theory this makes sense, but please do this:
Click to expand...
In practice, too. Your memory is failing you.

1. Get an iOS device with a non retina display and one with a retina display.
2. Download a very old app that has never been updated for 2X graphics on both devices.
3. Compare the app icon on both devices side by side.
Click to expand...
The iPhone 4 icon actually looks better. The shapes are equally jagged, but because of the much smaller pixel pitch, you get a ton less of a grid/screen door pattern.

Edit: If someone could do this and post a picture that would be great - I would but I don't have my iPod touch with me.
Click to expand...
You got it!

On the left, the iPhone 4. On the right, original iPhone. App icon: Logitech TouchMouse (last update: January 2010).
 

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My question if they will continue to "pixel double" iPhone applications from their 480 x 320 resolution or if they will finally use an app's 960 x 640 resolutions. I can't imagine how awful iPhone apps will look if they don't.
 
lianlua said:
In practice, too. Your memory is failing you.


The iPhone 4 icon actually looks better. The shapes are equally jagged, but because of the much smaller pixel pitch, you get a ton less of a grid/screen door pattern.


You got it!

On the left, the iPhone 4. On the right, original iPhone. App icon: Logitech TouchMouse (last update: January 2010).
Click to expand...

Apparently you're high, because A) no image, and B) I can tell you from experience on this matter that it doesn't look better. App images not optimized for a retina display look blown-up and fuzzy on a retina display, because thats exactly what is happening to non-vector assets. Going from 3GS to 4 made this fact abundantly clear.
 
Samac92 is of course right. Apps with non-retina bitmap resources (icons etc.) looked blury on retina iPhone 4. It will be the same with non retina iPad Apps.

Most apps will be updated very soon so its not a big problem.
 
I can't believe this thread.

There was no outcry when the iPhone 4 came out and there were few retina apps. Sure we preferred retina but non retina apps didn't look any different on the 4 than apps did on all iPhones prior to the 4.

So why would someone who had an iPad 2 think non retina iPad apps will suddenly look bad on a 3rd gen iPad? (And that is not even counting text and system drawn

The only situation where things looked "bad" was if you only had an iPhone 3Gs then moved to an iPad 1 when it was released. Of course those apps looked terrible when blown up to twice their intended size (but no different if left un-zoomed on the iPad).

Seriously people, think it through.




Michael

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G77 said:
Samac92 is of course right. Apps with non-retina bitmap resources (icons etc.) looked blury on retina iPhone 4. It will be the same with non retina iPad Apps.

Most apps will be updated very soon so its not a big problem.
Click to expand...
Blurry?! OMG this is insane. They looked identical to how they did before the iPhone 4 came out. People didn't say apps were blurry on the 1G/3G/3GS.



Michael

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Senseotech said:
Apparently you're high, because A) no image, and B) I can tell you from experience on this matter that it doesn't look better. App images not optimized for a retina display look blown-up and fuzzy on a retina display, because thats exactly what is happening to non-vector assets. Going from 3GS to 4 made this fact abundantly clear.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but "blown up" does not mean "at the same physical size."

"Blown up" means making it larger than it original was or was intended. That would be iPhone apps zoomed on an iPad.

And enough with the revisionist history that 3GS apps looked bad on the iPhone 4.



Michael
 
Tinmania said:
I can't believe this thread.

There was no outcry when the iPhone 4 came out and there were few retina apps. Sure we preferred retina but non retina apps didn't look any different on the 4 than apps did on all iPhones prior to the 4.

So why would someone who had an iPad 2 think non retina iPad apps will suddenly look bad on a 3rd gen iPad? (And that is not even counting text and system drawn

The only situation where things looked "bad" was if you only had an iPhone 3Gs then moved to an iPad 1 when it was released. Of course those apps looked terrible when blown up to twice their intended size (but no different if left un-zoomed on the iPad).

Seriously people, think it through.




Michael

----------


Blurry?! OMG this is insane. They looked identical to how they did before the iPhone 4 came out. People didn't say apps were blurry on the 1G/3G/3GS.



Michael
Click to expand...

No, you're insane. Lets break this down. If a display fits, lets say 100x100 pixels in a square inch, then a second display expects a square inch to be 200x200 pixels, an image that is supposed to be a square inch on display one will look fuzzy when forced to fit a square inch on the second display.
 
Tinmania said:
I can't believe this thread...
Michael
Click to expand...

Do you remember the reviews on non retina apps once the iPhone 4 came out? Everyone was demanding they be updated because they looked worse.

It's not a big deal of course because most developers will have their apps updated before long.

I'm not sure why we are arguing when this can easily be proved with an image, I can't find any relevant ones on the internet however.
 
Senseotech said:
No, you're insane. Lets break this down. If a display fits, lets say 100x100 pixels in a square inch, then a second display expects a square inch to be 200x200 pixels, an image that is supposed to be a square inch on display one will look fuzzy when forced to fit a square inch on the second display.
Click to expand...
I will not debate with anyone who's limited debating "technique" is "you're insane."

Your illogic astounds me though.

In other news the placebo effect is found in more than just medicine.



Michael
 
Its really easy to tell which apps are not updated to retina. See attachment...
 

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G77 said:
Samac92 is of course right. Apps with non-retina bitmap resources (icons etc.) looked blury on retina iPhone 4. It will be the same with non retina iPad Apps.

Most apps will be updated very soon so its not a big problem.
Click to expand...
They look exactly the same as they did before. The difference is that the Retina-optimized ones look better.
 
And here you can see difference in pixelated help which is bitmap and clear text which is vector based. It will be the same for non-retina apps on iPad 3rd generation.
 

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samac92 said:
Do you remember the reviews on non retina apps once the iPhone 4 came out? Everyone was demanding they be updated because they looked worse.

It's not a big deal of course because most developers will have their apps updated before long.

I'm not sure why we are arguing when this can easily be proved with an image, I can't find any relevant ones on the internet however.
Click to expand...
Yes I actually do remember the reviews from the iPhone 4.

All that was said was that existing apps looked no better on the i4 than prior generations--not worse. Now of course the retina version of an i4 app compared to the non-retina version looked better. But the non-retina version did not look worse than on the 3GS.

This is a "as good as or BETTER" situation but it seems some people want to find something to be negative about--before even seeing it.

And you cannot prove this with a picture when it is viewed on a single display. You will have to view the higher-rez image at a larger size (or shrink and lose detail). But the iPad 3 has the same screen size as the 1/2. It's only that 1024x768 apps won't see any improvement. They certainly won't be any worse. They would only look worse if the iPad 3 had a 20" display with same number of pixels.




Michael
 
lianlua said:
They look exactly the same as they did before. The difference is that the Retina-optimized ones look better.
Click to expand...

No they dont look blurry on non-retina iPhones because they are 1:1 on pixels. They need to be streched on retina display...
 
Senseotech said:
No, you're insane. Lets break this down. If a display fits, lets say 100x100 pixels in a square inch, then a second display expects a square inch to be 200x200 pixels, an image that is supposed to be a square inch on display one will look fuzzy when forced to fit a square inch on the second display.
Click to expand...
No, it won't. They are both equally "fuzzy".

For a 1x1 dot on the 100ppi display will become a 2x2 dot on the 200ppi display, the exact same physical size. There is no appreciable difference. The only difference is comparing the 2x2 dots to ones that are upgraded to 1x1 on the 200ppi display.

Your brain is fooling you.

G77 said:
No they dont look blurry on non-retina iPhones because they are 1:1 on pixels. They need to be streched on retina display...
Click to expand...
They're not stretched. The dots in the icon are the same physical size on both displays. 1x1 pixel is now 2x2.

"Stretching" or scaling only makes a difference when you're changing the resulting physical size.

All you are doing is comparing retina-enabled apps with non-retina enabled apps on the SAME DEVICE. Of course retina apps look better. That's the point. The old apps don't look any worse than they did on the non-retina devices, they just look worse in comparison to the new ones.
 
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