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Tablet Optimized Apps?

N

Newah

Newbie
Hey guys, so watching Apple's event on Tuesday got me thinking about this. The only tablet I actually use right now is my mom's nook. Which is slow, and chunky, but it ONLY has tablet optimized apps, as that it was a nook is. A 7" Tablet.

Is this as big as a problem as Apple has stated it to be? They went on to brag about apps made for a bigger screen than an iPhone.

To be quite honest, I would rather have optimized apps, not scaled.

Like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Chrome, and a lot of games. If they aren't "optimized" for the bigger screen it could get kind of annoying
 
Due to the way Android handles apps, this is hard to quantity. The exact same app can look different depending on the resolution. That way the developer does not have to release different versions. Also, many that optimize apps this way do not make it obvious based on the Market listing, so Apple jumps on that only counting apps that are standalone tablet apps. This is no where near the truth. The Facebook app needs a makeover, but that is in the works
 
As I understand it android was designed to be on phones of different sizes, and then tablets also got thrown into the mix.
Apple on the other hand, has only one phone size and only one tablet size, so they have apps specificially for those two sizes...but now they are getting fragmented (like android...) the new iphone 5 has a different screen size, and now they are adding a new tablet size.
All iphone apps have to be updated by the app makers to accomodate the new iphone size, so people who update from older iphone to newer iphone, many of thire apps get letterboxed until they get updated, so that extra screen space is somewhat pointless until several months for all apps to get updated.
I am wondering what will happen with the ipad mini...will ipad apps work? I don't care that much since I now only have android devices but I'm curious and like to point out the flaws of Apple, of course android has some....
 
With a 7" screen, the need for a specific tablet app is debatable. Some apps will benefit, others like games usually will not. 10"+ is another story entirely. So while there may be far more "tablet" apps in the iOS side, that doesn't mean we're being left out. FWIW, gmail and youtube both adjust to having a larger higher resolution screen, but it's unnecessary for chrome.

Also, don't confuse marketing with reality. Because of how iOS works, tablet specific apps are an absolute necessity. Android is different, and the same apk can provide a phone experience as well as a tablet experience. Of course Apple marketing is quick to view this as a perceived weakness and will exploit it as much as they can by seeding FUD through their controlled tech journalists and blogger network. Given the opportunity, I'm sure Walt Mossberg would love to tell you how Androids lack of specific tablet apps is a direct threat to world peace and Gizmodo has probably already done 20 articles on the subject and that was just last week.
 
Compare to apple, android is definitely behind. I'm like you, I don't like phone apps that are scaled up. It's not an efficient use of space, especially on 10 inch tablet. We need more apps like IMDB where depending on your screen resolution you get either phone layout or tablet layout. The tablet layout is quite nice.
 
Newah said:
so there really aren't that many tablet apps? thats not cool >.>
Click to expand...

to me an app is an app. It shouldn't be a phone app or a tablet app. Why the distinction? The app itself should be aware of the dimension of the device its interacting with.

When you use excel, you use it on 1024x768 monitor or 1900x1080 monitor. There is no distinction beyond seeing additional rows and columns.

When I compare some apps on my GN with my N7 it does the same. So why segregate apps into multiple categories?
 
most apps are still not optimized or even close to being optimized for tablets... one of the worst ive seen it speedtest.net it doesnt even strech to fill the screen. its a small little box in the center of the screen.
 
as smart as some dev's are, getting an app to look right on different screen sizes can be a PITA so some lock it, so it will not stretch or fill, its a one size only app.

I had similar problems, but worked around it using tables and tiny blank images you can't see to force spacing or formatting.
 
skelms said:
I am wondering what will happen with the ipad mini...will ipad apps work? I don't care that much since I now only have android devices but I'm curious and like to point out the flaws of Apple, of course android has some....
Click to expand...

They'll work because apple kept the exact same ratio between the ipad and ipad mini - they had to, after only just hitting developers with a bunch of re-releases over the new iphone they'd have a mutiny if they did it again for the ipad mini :p

Android is much more flexible - and it really is impossible to count how many apps are 'optimised' - it's just another xml layout.. and that's if you need it - the reflow is pretty good (I generally test on the N7 to make sure it all works and find most screens work fine and just a few would benefit from multiple fragments in landscape mode). Apple seem to be counting 'HD' apps but that's just not how it's done (unless you're the type of company that thinks charging more for an app 'because it's on a tablet' is somehow cool).
 
Just read an article saying that some apps on the Ipad mini are loading very pixilated and stretched out because the app store thinks the mini is the old iphone 3GS because of the low resolution.
also in the article said that some text loaded as too small and buttons in web pages were difficult to click.
I'm sure apple will fix this but doesn't sound like a good experience.
 
skelms said:
Just read an article saying that some apps on the Ipad mini are loading very pixilated and stretched out because the app store thinks the mini is the old iphone 3GS because of the low resolution.
also in the article said that some text loaded as too small and buttons in web pages were difficult to click.
I'm sure apple will fix this but doesn't sound like a good experience.
Click to expand...

I've yet to have a good experience with Apple.
 
From my experience its very hard to tell when an app on the N7 seem stretched or pixelated that definitely distinguishes it between a phone and N7. I'm guessing its because the N7's size is not much of a stretch from a phone so the scaling is not noticeable. You would be hard pressed to find many apps that appears odd on the N7.
 
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