The iPad is NOT an enlarged iPod or iPhone.

By The Dark Knight
in iPhone - iOS/tvOS/watchOS

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Grand Master

AJerman

Posted
Posted

Contrast that with Android tablets and when I use those the Apps look just like blown up phone apps. The interfaces don't change they just move to the edges of the larger tablet screen, no new menus or buttons or features appear at all. That is something Google need to fix either by providing better tools or allowing developers to submit tablet only apps to the Play store.

Again, this is incorrect. I don't know why this misconception of Android not having tablet apps keeps floating around. Android has tablet apps in the exact same way that the iPad does. Perhaps Android's tablet market hasn't taken off like Apple's, and thus, there are fewer tablet optimized apps, but again, it comes down to the same thing as I said before, more real estate changes how the apps are styled, in rare cases does it actually change the app or the function. I still see the iPad and Android tablets as the same as their other mobile counterparts. But I'm not saying that's always a bad thing. It can work very well. I play poker on my iPad all the time, and it's far better than being cramped on a phone, but it's still just more screen space and being spread out, it doesn't make it anything different. As said in my last post, Windows 8 will be the first tablet OS to really be something different than it's mobile counterparts.

Grand Master

Vice

Posted
Posted

Again, this is incorrect. I don't know why this misconception of Android not having tablet apps keeps floating around. Android has tablet apps in the exact same way that the iPad does. Perhaps Android's tablet market hasn't taken off like Apple's, and thus, there are fewer tablet optimized apps, but again, it comes down to the same thing as I said before, more real estate changes how the apps are styled, in rare cases does it actually change the app or the function. I still see the iPad and Android tablets as the same as their other mobile counterparts. But I'm not saying that's always a bad thing. It can work very well. I play poker on my iPad all the time, and it's far better than being cramped on a phone, but it's still just more screen space and being spread out, it doesn't make it anything different. As said in my last post, Windows 8 will be the first tablet OS to really be something different than it's mobile counterparts.

I was hardly talking in absoloutes of course Developers can optimise their apps for a larger device, just most don't. Even you concede that where you say "in rare cases does it actually change the app or the function." As a consumer I don't want things to rarely be good, I want it to be good all the time and the iPad delivers that.

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Wakers

Posted
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I was hardly talking in absoloutes of course Developers can optimise their apps for a larger device, just most don't. Even you concede that where you say "in rare cases does it actually change the app or the function." As a consumer I don't want things to rarely be good, I want it to be good all the time and the iPad delivers that.

Does it though? It has a horrible browser, it's heavily restricted unless you jailbreak it and it doesn't play well with the most common desktop OS and it's most popular applications (for those that want to use it as an actual tablet rather than a giant iPod).

Grand Master

Vice

Posted
Posted

Does it though? It has a horrible browser, it's heavily restricted unless you jailbreak it and it doesn't play well with the most common desktop OS and it's most popular applications (for those that want to use it as an actual tablet rather than a giant iPod).

I use Chrome on my iPad because I want my bookmarks synced from my Desktop and Notebook. It would be nice if Google could use their own rendering engine instead of Apples but whatever it works and that's all I care about. I do enjoy surfing the web on my iPad. I don't jailbreak my devices as I don't need any of the apps that are on Cydia.

Frankly the iPad is for mere mortals, not for nerds.

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The Dark Knight

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Does it though? It has a horrible browser, it's heavily restricted unless you jailbreak it and it doesn't play well with the most common desktop OS and it's most popular applications (for those that want to use it as an actual tablet rather than a giant iPod).

Nothing is perfect. Besides, you can overcome practically all restrictions by jailbreaking. And doing so is dead easy. I know, in an ideal world, you shouldn't have to JB for certain things, but we don't live in an ideal world. People argue that Android is way better in this respect, they are only partly correct. You still need to root an Android device just to backup all your apps and settings. You need to root just to block AD's. And a few more like that.

Collaborator

AWilliams87

Posted
Posted

Ok. This argument comes up many times online. Let us set things right.

A LOT of people think the iPad (regardless of version) is just an enlarged iPod. It is NOT. Good developers actually sit and re-envision their apps for the iPad. There is a big difference in navigation and interaction in many apps for the iPad.

This discussion started a little while ago on another topic, I thought I would shift it here.

http://www.neowin.ne...comment-1870311

What do you all think?

Well obviously you're going to have to compensate for the larger screen the iPad has, but that doesn't mean it fundamentally isn't just a larger iPod. There's nothing wrong with it being just that also. There's much more you could do with it, or would want to do with it I should say, than you can with an iPod.
Grand Master

AJerman

Posted
Posted

I was hardly talking in absoloutes of course Developers can optimise their apps for a larger device, just most don't. Even you concede that where you say "in rare cases does it actually change the app or the function." As a consumer I don't want things to rarely be good, I want it to be good all the time and the iPad delivers that.

Well I may have taken what you said a little more literally than I should have. Someone was claiming the other day that Android literally has no interface change on any tablet apps, saying that there's nothing more possible other than just enlarging a phone app.

Also, my comment regarding not changing the app or function applied to both iPad and Android. The iPad may deliver that more than Android right now, but it's certainly FAR from "all the time".

Contributor

FizzyChickenBroth

Posted
Posted

Same OS, bigger screen. It is, infact, a larger ipod/iphone. Or, if you wanna think about it this way...the ipod/iphone is a smaller ipad. Yep, sure, you navigate a bit different, but that's usually the case when you have a few million extra pixels to work with. If they threw Mt. Lion on it, then, it's no longer a bigger ipodphone.

Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted

You are contradicting your statements here. On the one hand you are sayng it is an enlarged iPhone. On the other you are saying apps target the extra available pixels. Don't you see? The extra pixels is what a lot of developers really make use of and deliver something very different!

No contradiction as far as I can see. You just have two "apps" running on the same OS but at different resolution.

Veteran

The Dark Knight

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Yes. It is 2 apps running on the same OS with different resolutions. But they are not the same.

Here is an example. This is a screenshot of the eBay app on an iPhone:

post-58111-0-43332300-1343843120.png

And here is eBay on an iPad:

post-58111-0-92789700-1343843115.png

Now tell me, are they the same??

Grand Master

AJerman

Posted
Posted

Yes. It is 2 apps running on the same OS with different resolutions. But they are not the same.

Here is an example. This is a screenshot of the eBay app on an iPhone:

post-58111-0-43332300-1343843120.png

And here is eBay on an iPad:

post-58111-0-92789700-1343843115.png

Now tell me, are they the same??

Yeah, pretty much the same except the iPad has bigger pictures and more spread out. What exactly do you see that's so different?

Veteran

The Dark Knight

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Here is another example.

Wikipanion on an iPhone:

post-58111-0-10602400-1343843428.png

Wikipanion on an iPad:

post-58111-0-02630800-1343843419_thumb.p

Yeah, pretty much the same except the iPad has bigger pictures and more spread out. What exactly do you see that's so different?

The difference is like night and day!! :s

Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted

Here is another example.

Wikipanion on an iPhone:

Wikipanion on an iPad:

The difference is like night and day!! :s

The difference is called adaptive/felxible layout.

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Grand Master

AJerman

Posted
Posted

Put it this way, I can change the resolution on my computer to 640x480 and look at wikipedia, and it's going to look cramped. Then when I change it to 1280x1024, it's going to look different. Does it make it a different computer? No.

Veteran

The Dark Knight

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The difference is called adaptive/felxible layout.

That is not at all correct. The buttons, colours, overall look and feel, navigation etc are all completely different. As I have said earlier also, a lot of developers don't just stretch their apps to fit the larger screens, they practically re-design them like this.

Put it this way, I can change the resolution on my computer to 640x480 and look at wikipedia, and it's going to look cramped. Then when I change it to 1280x1024, it's going to look different. Does it make it a different computer? No.

Yes, it does not look different on computers (other than not being cramped up). But this is not a computer! This is a tablet.

Grand Master

Vice

Posted
Posted

I think what The Dark Knight is trying to say is that the iPad isn't just a bigger iPhone/iPod Touch. It offers a richer experience even when running the same app because most of the time the developers do a little bit of extra work to make the App a first class citizen on the iPad and not just a scaled up iPhone app. That is what he meant to say I think.

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Veteran

The Dark Knight

Posted
  • Author
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I think what The Dark Knight is trying to say is that the iPad isn't just a bigger iPhone/iPod Touch. It offers a richer experience even when running the same app because most of the time the developers do a little bit of extra work to make the App a first class citizen on the iPad and not just a scaled up iPhone app. That is what he meant to say I think.

Yes, that is correct. :)

The only time an iPad can maybe be called an enlarged iPhone is when you say they are both entertainment devices.

Grand Master

TheLegendOfMart

Posted
Posted

Ok. This argument comes up many times online. Let us set things right.

A LOT of people think the iPad (regardless of version) is just an enlarged iPod. It is NOT. Good developers actually sit and re-envision their apps for the iPad. There is a big difference in navigation and interaction in many apps for the iPad.

This discussion started a little while ago on another topic, I thought I would shift it here.

http://www.neowin.ne...comment-1870311

What do you all think?

Yes it is.

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