Why don't competitors have smooth zoom-in/out, etc?

[ramzhh]

I'm no Apple fanboy or anything, but I always notice that Apple products like the iPod, the iPhone and iPad always have very smooth zoom-in and zoom-out on let's say, images, websites, and every competitor product I see has VERY laggy movements. I don't understand this. Shouldn't this be easy to fix? Even the PlayBook, it's laggy when you get on-screen movements. I don't mean video, just the onscreen movements from the actual OS.

Could someone explain to me why this happens? Something in the OS? What?

 

[Kadin]

This is something that's puzzled me as well. The only thing I can think of is honestly Apple had a TON more time to perfect this before it came around. Since the iPad/iPhone was in design for quite some time before the iPhone launched in 2007, they really had all the time they needed to make it very fluid. I have to believe that recent tablets and phones simply aren't spending enough time to make it as good as they can... instead trying to get the product out the door as quick as possible. Just my 2 cents.

 

[FSMBP]

Not exactly tablet related - but Windows Phone 7 has the same quality zoom/pinch/flick as iPhone.

The reason why tablets don't is simple - Apple makes its own software and hardware. It was optimize code for the hardware to ensure it works to their high standards. Apple has been working on touch tech since at least 2005 - so they do have an advantage.

 

[jonnymo5]

Apple also has some very powerful libraries they use, core animation. They have been perfecting them on OSX and brought them over to iOS. With these libraries the smooth animation you see is trivial for the programmer.

 

[ramzhh]

This is something that's puzzled me as well. The only thing I can think of is honestly Apple had a TON more time to perfect this before it came around. Since the iPad/iPhone was in design for quite some time before the iPhone launched in 2007, they really had all the time they needed to make it very fluid. I have to believe that recent tablets and phones simply aren't spending enough time to make it as good as they can... instead trying to get the product out the door as quick as possible. Just my 2 cents.

That and they're too worried about getting the highest res. display and the most ram and the most whatever **** we don't need....

 

[deadwalrus]

Not exactly tablet related - but Windows Phone 7 has the same quality zoom/pinch/flick as iPhone.

The reason why tablets don't is simple - Apple makes its own software and hardware. It was optimize code for the hardware to ensure it works to their high standards. Apple has been working on touch tech since at least 2005 - so they do have an advantage.

+1. Hardware acceleration is your answer. Android is probably doing the graphics calculations via the CPU.

Supposedly, native graphics acceleration is coming to Android in short order, at which point they should achieve zoom parity.

 

[darngooddesign]

At the rate that Google updates their OS there isn't any time to pay attention to details like that.

 

[iPad 2nd Gen]

Perhaps the top reason why I hate Android is because of the 3 fps zoom in/out.

 

[dgree03]

Xoom and Honeycomb have smooth zooming.

However on my EVO, the zooming isnt as smooth as my Ipad was or Ipod touch.

 

[eastercat]

IIRC, Google worked closely with Motorola to make sure Xoom was a serious contender to the ipad (1st gen obviously) and they likely did some optimization in order to get that ipad smoothness.

Xoom and Honeycomb have smooth zooming.
However on my EVO, the zooming isnt as smooth as my Ipad was or Ipod touch.