IPad Mini brings developers more opportunities than challenges

Beijing Time October 26 news, according to foreign media reports, many of the previous applications are able to run smoothly on the ipad Mini. For program developers, the IPad Mini offers far more opportunities than challenges.

Apple's ipad size never seemed to change before, the report said. Until recently, the company's newest ipad mini size was between the iphone and the ipad. Because it can run 275,000 applications, some people are puzzled. Many users spit on Weibo: "This guy is more like an enlarged iphone." ”

In fact, the ipad Mini, which has made a significant upgrade to the ibooks feature, seems more focused on electronic consumption than on technological innovation, perhaps just to cater to users who want a smaller version of the ipad. So where does the new ipad Mini feature come from? Does this make iOS developers wonder?

Newly discovered features

"What makes us happy is the increased portability," said Andrew S. Allen, founder of application developer FiftyThree, after the press conference, "the smaller screen means you can take more places to be cool, and it doesn't seem awkward to pull it out of the bag, Because we want to capture ideas anytime, anywhere. "With the ipad 2 apps running smoothly on new machines, it's not a bother to experience a new machine," he said. But programs that have to shrink buttons and interfaces to fit the ipad mini will fall out of favour.

"Apps that are poorly designed or have too much interface will not be popular in the ipad mini," says Cregg Mode, a designer for app Flipboard. He noted that stock trading and financial software may be difficult to identify fonts in small screens and lead to a significant user experience drop. Because the new screen aspect ratio is the same as the previous ipad, programs designed for a 7-inch screen can be run clearly on a 10-inch screen, which in turn can be problematic.

MoD also predicts a new trend for iOS apps: first focus on the ipad mini experience, and then expand the scope gradually. Of course, not everyone agrees with his point of view. "I don't think Apple wants developers to be more focused on the ipad Mini, and there is no update on the current Apple development tools," Steve Streza, a >pocket developer, said, 16886.html. I want the application to be able to identify the current running device by program, and then adjust it by changing the font size and so on. ”

Annoying Touch button

In the process of shrinking the screen, Apple also reduces the touch area of the application button. 2 years ago, Jobs said: "Size is not the key, unless you pass the scrub to allow the user to press the length of 1/4 fingers." "But Apple seems to have stopped insisting on this belief, and the press conference confirms that." The company usually shows a lot of new apps at the launch, but the ipad mini doesn't. Apple has chosen to showcase existing apps, such as Yelp, to show that it works well without the developer struggling with the program.

"It wouldn't be a problem if everyone complied with the 44x44 pixel rules for the smallest interactive touch area of the Apple app," said Matt Rix, a developer at the train puzzle game Matt Ricks. "But people don't always follow this rule, and Apple sometimes violate the rules, So I'm afraid there are some problems with the screen becoming smaller. ”

The IPad Mini Touch button seems to be about the same size as the iphone, but the iphone app was designed for a smaller screen at the beginning, so it's not a problem. and the ipad mini screen is narrow, and when the user enters the reading mode, the next finger is easy to manipulate the page, which is also a problem for many reading devices. But Apple issued a statement saying: "The IPad mini can intelligently recognize whether the thumb really wants to flip the page." The user will experience this detail. This is an example of how Apple's hardware and software are tightly coupled to the user's best experience. ”

Whether Apple's claims are trustworthy is dependent on the user's long-term experience.

A new type of equipment

Buying an iphone and ipad is good, and it's absurd to buy an ipad Mini. Some people like the big screen, some people like the small screen, which is to make developers very headache things. Fortunately, many developers do not face this problem. "Our apps can work perfectly on the ipad mini," says Streza. According to our observation, the IPad Mini is likely to make reading tool pocket applications more popular. ”

In short, developers may need to use the built-in flexible design to enable them to apply screens that fit any size. Anyway, one more iOS device is good for them.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)