Developers of iOS apps spent last night absorbing all the news from Apple, and trying to figure out how they might be able to make the most of the new iPad’s features.
We asked some friendly devs for their observations. One predicted big things for iPad gaming, but we got some other interesting viewpoints too.
Here’s a round-up of some of the comments we got back from the developer community. If you make apps and want to have your say, get in touch – or let loose in the comments.
Todd Ditchendorf, maker of Fluid:
My initial reaction is that this is the best upgrade any Apple fan or developer could have reasonably hoped for. Apple ticked all the boxes of improved processor, improved camera, improved display, and LTE networking without raising the price.
I would have guessed that something would have to give, but Apple managed to improve the device all around without raising the price. Impressive.
For me, the Retina display is definitely the key/killer new feature. If it’s anything like the iPhone retina display, it will be stunning. I’ll have a hard time resisting the urge to buy although I already have an iPad1 and iPad2.
Lucius Kwok, maker of The Grix:
I think the Retina display is going to look great. When the iPhone 4 came out, I felt like my iPad 2 was using ancient display technology. But I still don’t know how much benefit existing apps will have if they’re not updated with higher resolution graphics. My Transit Maps app would certainly benefit greatly, because you can see more detail and have an experience closer to looking at a paper-based map on an iPad now. You can see more of the map while having the small text still be legible.
My other app that is iPad-native, C64 Paint, is a pixelated art editor, so it will just have more sharply defined rectangles. Not much change there.
LTE, in my experience, has been a let-down in the US, at least using a MiFi on Verizon here in NYC. The speeds I was getting were not much better than 3G when I did have a LTE signal, and the network was often down, meaning I had to go to using EvDO. My experiences with 3G in countries such as Japan and Taiwan have been much better, but I haven’t used 4G mobile networks there yet.
This isn’t exactly iPad-related, but I think that a Retina display MacBook Air is not far behind. It probably won’t have the same PPI as the new iPad, but an 11″ screen that is better than HD is what I’m waiting for.
Rich Siegel of Bare Bones Software:
I think the biggest benefit of the high-resolution display will be found in the overall visual appeal of the system and applications. Artwork at 2x resolution definitely creates an opportunity for designers to provide a much higher level of detail (they have four times as many pixels to work with), and taking advantage of that would, I imagine, lead to user interfaces that show even more polish than we’ve become accustomed to. Any time content can be improved by making it cleaner, clearer, better, our customers also win.
At this moment I don’t think I could point to any specific thing that would benefit; It’s more of a “rising tide lifts all boats” sort of phenomenon. :-)
On LTE and the new camera, Rich added:
For consumers, the addition of a higher quality camera and a fatter non-Wifi data pipe (wherever LTE service is available) can only improve the overall iPad experience. I can’t really imagine someone using an iPad as a handheld camera in the same way one might use an iPhone; but I guess anything is possible.
James Thomson, maker of PCalc:
I gambled on there being a Retina display on the new iPad last month, so I’ve already done most of the work to make PCalc ready for day one. Here’s a screenshot of it running in the simulator. I don’t actually have a screen on my Mac big enough to display it.
I do want to try PCalc on a real device though – there are so many pixels involved that there are bound to be places where code which ran fine with a 1024×768 screen could have slight performance problems at 2048×1536. Even if the graphics performance is twice as fast, anything that runs on the CPU is going to have a lot more work to do, so the performance characteristics will be slightly different at least. I’ve already found a few places in my own app that needed optimisation. I think it will be fine though, and I can’t wait to see my code running on one!
Stephen Turnbull (no relation), maker of Memneon:
It’s interesting, I’m currently developing two games, one with a global travel theme, the other, the mystery behind a brain in a jar (!) and both involve plenty of photographs and video. So Retina will undoubtedly enhance the experience.
