On Feb 6, 4:14 pm, Casper Bang <[email protected]> wrote: > That's an argument used against Android, yet it's happening to the > iPhone OS as well not only regarding hardware (screen) but also > software (OpenGL bump maps). I am curious, how does Apple handle this > in the SDK considering it's an afterthought?
All 75 mio iPhones/iPod touches have the same resolution, same screen size and hence the same dpi. From what I know they differ in the amount of RAM (128 MB vs 256 MB), CPU speed (the 3GS one is probably about twice as fast as the original one) and graphic capabilities (the latest iPhones/iPod touches support OpenGL ES 2.0 which has programmable graphics: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/10/iphone-3g-s-supports-opengl-es-2-0-but-3g-only-supports-1-1/). iPod Touches are "restricted iPhones": no phone part, no GPS, no camera. So some of those differences mean apps won't work at all or be limited (e.g., no camera), and then the OS tries to mask some of those differences (e.g., core location uses a "WiFi location database" on the Touch, GPS on the earlier iPhones and the compass of the iPhone 3GS; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_OS#Core_Location). I haven't done any iPhone development, yet, but I think you would develop against either the original one or the 3G as your base to make sure it works, and the computing will be faster on the 3GS and the newer iPod Touches. The speed differences will matter most for games; most of the apps I have are not very compute-intense and spend most of their time waiting for my input. :-) Now with the iPad, there's at least a new screen resolution, screen size and a new dpi. The iPad can show iPhone apps at native resolution or scale them to full screen, but this is just a crutch. The iPad has about 5 times as much screen estate as the iPhone, apparently some new UI features (menus?) and maybe more two-hand use, so in reality, you need to completely redesign the UI for an iPad app anyway. I expect that the iPhone will get a higher res screen in the future, so you will then have to probably target at least two resolutions on the iPhone/iPod touches, but if I were Apple I'd delay this as long as I could. > And won't this cause > trouble for the current 10MB app limit? I think there's only a "download only 10 MB of content when not on Wifi" restriction on the iPhone. The app size restriction right now seems to be 2 GB (http://www.iphonestalk.com/2gb-limit-for-iphone- apps/) but this may be more of an SDK restriction than a OS one. Myst, for instance, is 730 MB and requires 1.5 GB to install (though after the installation it only needs around half of that; http://news.softpedia.com/news/Download-Myst-for-iPhone-iPod-touch-110703.shtml). I heard on a podcast that at least in the original Android release your app is stored on the _phone Flash memory_ and can't be stored on a memory card which limits its attractiveness for some games. So for the Nexus One, this is 512 MB for all apps (of which only a part is available for your apps - http://osdir.com/ml/Android-Developers/2010-01/msg03380.html); the original G1 has about 70 MB left for your apps (http:// groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/ 7965885da4d1a03a). It also seems you need to have more than the app size available for installation. Please, Android developers, correct me if I'm wrong here. > Well the n900 runs Firefox complete with plugins, flash etc. and is > easily the best mobile browser experience. But I guess when you say > Nokia you are thinking of Symbian rather than Maemo. Yes because the N900 is so new (out last September?) that it hasn't sold enough devices to be attractive for most developers. I think it will be interesting to see how Nokia deals with its two OS (Symbian and Maemo). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
