iPad Mini Apps

[chleuasme]

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.

In what is most likely not going to be what Apple will do and that I was decribing in my flickr link, you do not lose the iPad apps catalog (that sure would be a big point in favor of a mini iPad over other similar products). Any app could be scaled down on any large enough resolution, and at a retina pixel density, the sea-of-pixels can smooth the scaling (see the alternate resolutions on the rMBP as an example).

But, if devs tweaks their apps for the 7.85" screen as you say, wouldn't it worsen the experience on the 9.7"? If you have to enlarge some elements for the 7.85", don't you lose space for content, that you wouldn't have lost with only the 9.7"? It's a 50% larger (surface) screen, that's quite not negligible.
Maybe that's only edge cases

 

[MythicFrost]

I expect that the iPad mini will be nothing more than a smaller iPad 2: 1024x768 IPS, A5 at 32nm, 512MB LPDDR2, 16GB/32GB storage, decentish cameras, $249 / $349.

 

[Stetrain]

In what is most likely not going to be what Apple will do and that I was decribing in my flickr link, you do not lose the iPad apps catalog (that sure would be a big point in favor of a mini iPad over other similar products). Any app could be scaled down on any large enough resolution, and at a retina pixel density, the sea-of-pixels can smooth the scaling (see the alternate resolutions on the rMBP as an example).

I don't really see how your suggested 1600x1200 resolution helps that much in that situation. If you're going to let full size iPad apps run unaltered, why not stick with the same resolutions as the full sized iPad? If you want to go retina, go 2048x1536.

Keeping the DPI the same but reducing the physical screen size still would require attention from developers.

But, if devs tweaks their apps for the 7.85" screen as you say, wouldn't it worsen the experience on the 9.7"? If you have to enlarge some elements for the 7.85", don't you lose space for content, that you wouldn't have lost with only the 9.7"? It's a 50% larger (surface) screen, that's quite not negligible.
Maybe that's only edge cases

I was suggesting that they could tweak the UI on the iPad Mini, while leaving it the same on the full sized iPad. I guess they could tweak the UI across the board, but I was thinking that would only be necessary in cases where the existing iPad app was already cluttered or relied too closely on exact touch sizes.

An iPad app that would have touch targets be unusably small when scaled down 20% is probably already pushing the limits of what size they should be on the full sized iPad.

 

[chleuasme]

I don't really see how your suggested 1600x1200 resolution helps that much in that situation.

Keeping the DPI the same but reducing the physical screen size still would require attention from developers.

I was suggesting that they could tweak the UI on the iPad Mini, while leaving it the same on the full sized iPad.

I'm making the assumption that Auto Layout could allow design iPad apps for both sizes. Keeping the same pixel density would probably simplify the work and avoid to deal with conversion for physical on-screen sizes and sizes in pixels of elements.

And for the lazy devs (or at first/at least, compatibility with old apps catalog), the scaling solution is still there.

That's what I was describing. Sorry if my english sucks (not my language), I tried to be as clear as possible in that flickr link. Well, I thought

 

[Stetrain]

I'm making the assumption that Auto Layout could allow design iPad apps for both sizes. Keeping the same pixel density would probably simplify the work and avoid to deal with conversion for physical on-screen sizes and sizes in pixels of elements.

And for the lazy devs (or at first/at least, compatibility with old apps catalog), the scaling solution is still there.

That's what I was describing. Sorry if my english sucks (not my language), I tried to be as clear as possible in that flickr link. Well, I thought

The auto layout mechanism only really works for some types of apps.

I think the big issue is that you would have apps that have small downscaled touch targets and other apps that have larger touch targets on the same device. That seems like a bad experience to me.

 

[chleuasme]

I think the big issue is that you would have apps that have small downscaled touch targets and other apps that have larger touch targets on the same device. That seems like a bad experience to me.

Yep, that would be very true .. but only if the adoption of developing adaptative apps UI wasn't widespread, in that same hypothesis.
Well, we both run through open doors.

The auto layout mechanism only really works for some types of apps.

Can you please elaborate more? I mean, I see the lack of interest for graphical apps like games, but more specifically, what do you mean?