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Non retina apps not looking so good?

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Broadwell
Original poster
May 3, 2009
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Looks like Engadget's review of the retina MBP is less then glowing and they particularly call out any unoptimized apps and how poorly they look being pixel doubled :(

This is my very concern, as I'm unsure how many of my apps will be updated for the retina display, i.e., will omnigraffle, MS word, etc?

The primary Apple apps -- Safari, Mail, the address book, etc. -- have all been tweaked to make use of all these wonderful pixels. Sadly, little else has. While we got assurances that third-party apps like Adobe Photoshop and AutoCAD are in the process of being refined, right now, seemingly every third-party app on the Mac looks terrible.
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right now, seemingly every third-party app on the Mac looks terrible.
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No. Right now, those apps look exactly the same as they do on a non-Retina MacBook Pro. Is that "terrible"? Maybe compared to the Retina apps it is.

The apps will be upgraded eventually, but it'll take some time. Think back to the introduction of Retina iPhone and Retina iPad.
 
I'm in a rush, so I only read the wrap up, but "less than glowing" seems less than accurate. Here's a quote:

The new Pro is good enough to make the old Pro (even the updated version) look and feel obsolete. It pushes and redefines the category, raising the bar higher than even its brethren can jump. If you can afford the premium and aren't set on a 13-inch model there's no reason to buy any Pro other than this Pro.
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maflynn said:
Looks like Engadget's review of the retina MBP is less then glowing and they particularly call out any unoptimized apps and how poorly they look being pixel doubled :(

This is my very concern, as I'm unsure how many of my apps will be updated for the retina display, i.e., will omnigraffle, MS word, etc?
Click to expand...
 
People have been clamouring for Retina and these are the growing pains.

Resolution independence would go a long way in making this less painful in the future.
 
maflynn said:
Looks like Engadget's review of the retina MBP is less then glowing and they particularly call out any unoptimized apps and how poorly they look being pixel doubled :(

This is my very concern, as I'm unsure how many of my apps will be updated for the retina display, i.e., will omnigraffle, MS word, etc?
Click to expand...

i'm sure at least omnigraffle will be, seeing as their ipad apps are retina friendly.
 
calderone said:
People have been clamouring for Retina and these are the growing pains.

Resolution independence would go a long way in making this less painful in the future.
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True resolution independence is not realistic or achievable in the near future
 
calderone said:
People have been clamouring for Retina and these are the growing pains.

Resolution independence would go a long way in making this less painful in the future.
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yep. my main concern is whether the tons of little apps i currently use on my mac will ever be updated. i have no doubt mainstream software (adobe/firefox/chrome/panic apps etc etc) will have retina assets but semi-popular little apps like appcleaner haven't been updated since 2008!

i assume the way apple is doing retina friendly assets is just a stop gap until we get true vectorized assets and not just doubling raster images.
 
shurcooL said:
No. Right now, those apps look exactly the same as they do on a non-Retina MacBook Pro. Is that "terrible"? Maybe compared to the Retina apps it is.
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Why do you say that when a reviewer is not liking what he sees and it seems non retina iPad apps are less crisp being displayed on a retina iPad.

Maybe its too early to tell, but its these first hand accounts that are worthwhile. Many are assuming given the density and resolution that non retina apps being pixel doubled will look ok, but we need a little more concrete information.
 
maflynn said:
Why do you say that when a reviewer is not liking what he sees and it seems non retina iPad apps are less crisp being displayed on a retina iPad.

Maybe its too early to tell, but its these first hand accounts that are worthwhile. Many are assuming given the density and resolution that non retina apps being pixel doubled will look ok, but we need a little more concrete information.
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Did the non-Retina apps look "terrible" on the iPhone 4? No, they looked exactly as they did on the 3GS.

It's the same thing here. It might look blurry ONLY if you set the resolution to something other than the "native Retina" aka "best for Retina" aka 1440x900 virtual space.
 
I just dropped by the Michigan Ave Apple Store here in Chicago and took a look at them. First of all, they do seem amazingly thin. I know it's only 25% thinner, but it looks like a lot more.

Second, the display is amazing. I tested the different scaling resolutions too, and they all looked great, but obviously the native retina display looked best.

They also had MS Office installed, so I loaded it up, and yeah.. it didn't look so hot. If you're using something like Word, it isn't really going to matter much, but until design apps like Photoshop and Illustrator get updated, it's going to suck a bit.

Also, someone in another thread mentioned there was a noticeable lag on scroll - I didn't notice that at all, everything was smooth and fast.
 
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