Category: developers journal

iPad – web designers worst nightmare came true

Author: Daemon January 28, 2010

Apple introduced iPad. The world is in shock. In shock of how much it sucks. It does not cure cancer on command, and it fails to live up to the silly expectations people had.

iPad

But, what people do, and that’s wrong, is compare it to iPhone or Notebook. The iPad is none of that. It is new product targeted at specific market. That market is not you and me, since you are here reading this blog located on web developer company. iPad target are people who are casual users that use electronics and gadgets in a casual mode, focusing on one thing at a time – view little YouTube, read few pages of a book, check what’s new on their favourite website, and just turn the damned thing off. iPad is an awesome thing if you were your father/mother. It’s like an out-of-the-box computer that our parents can actually use!

Looking from that perspective, if you can downshift into this mindset – iPad is AWESOME. Of course, there are some things that it misses to make it supreme consumer toy (such as camera to take photos, true GPS) but remember iPhone – all that will come in second or third generation. Apple wants your cash too, they are not here just to make the world a better place.

For us, the powerusers that chill out from time to time, one thing is missing. This:

iPad

Give us ONE “window” to run native iPhone apps that floats above iPad. Just one. I do not ask for more. This way I could check Tweetie, or Things to-do list, or use the bloody calculator without the need to exit main app I am using. Just one!!!

But, I got some bad news with this as well, from the developers point of view.

iPad has a resolution of 1024×768. This resolution is here to stay, they will not increase it in second generation. The Apps developers will build in this year will fit this resolution, and as with iPhone, once Apps are massively developed for this resolution, it would just be bad to introduce bigger/different resolution.

And what that means for us, website developers? We are back to square one with our wishes for increased monitor resolutions. All of the developers were looking into Google Analytics for the past 3 years, and watching the 1024×768 resolution go down, as 1280 increased. We were just waiting for the point to start thinking bigger. And now, BAM on the head, we cannot any more. For the next 5 years, if iPad explodes into general population, all of our sites will have to be created to be optimized for 1024 resolution. Even if desktop monitors go to million by million, we will need to deploy our websites onto iPad.

Have a nice future, you silly web designers.

Author
Daemon

    17 thoughts on “iPad – web designers worst nightmare came true”

  • So you think that website wider than 1024 or 768 will show horizontal bar? Do you have an iphone? what is its resolution? is nivas site shown 1:1 or scaled down to meet screen size, and than you zoom in to desired level?
    web designers wont be affected with size of the screen because of the way people use iphone or ipad browser, zoom in and out, slide left or right…
    And one more thing, please people check before you call A-GPS not real GPS. it is real and even faster than original GPS. The thing that i dont like and whine is a fact that wifi model doesnt have gps only 3g…

  • Not only that, when you hold the device upright, our maximum width will be 768 pixels!

    We’ll be back to the pre-800-pixel-width days. Yes, Safari will resize the site, but the native width will still be 768 pixels.

    Not all is lost though, I’m excited about creating optimized sites for this device, as well as native apps, just because of the new user experience.

  • @kviksilver – RESIZED website is not the same as website built exactly to fit the resolution. Just because iPhone/iPad can forcefully shrink and render website does not mean that is a good thing.

  • @leo – Indeed. Constraints make designers work better. But, you must agree that some part of you wanted to build a 1280 website in 2010 or 2011!

  • optimize for 800×600 the best resolution ever ™

  • i dont think that iPad will be so adopted and used that you wuld have to worry about that. again, 1024 is here to stay iPad or not.

  • I have to disappoint. The iPad (like the iPhone and the iPod touch) resize and adapt the website for his display.

    What do you think? That for the iPhone we should design a website 320×480? It automatically and perfectly resize any website.

  • Yes otozuz, people already develop websites optimized for iPhone and are 320 pixels wide. Google for them, you will be surprised.

  • While I can see that there is a constraint I don’t see it as an issue because of the obvious resizing as stated. Anyone using a portable device acknowledges that and has no problem with it.

    More importantly, it might yet create a new wave of better web developers (because the majority are terrible) as they start developing rich content web app’s designed for iPhone/iPad users, possibly out of necessity. It will also bring about a wave of designers who may one day understand UI design (because they are working such screen space constraints).

  • Its just a giant iphone bahhh! Sucks more energy!

  • i think if you build in wordpress there is a plugin that will detect if you are on an ipad and adjust the screen resolution

  • My husband had noticed how my eyes would glaze over everytime the TV ad for the iPhone would come on, and surprised me yesterday by meeting me after work for dinner and then off to the Apple store. Once there, we never even approached the front of the store due to the crowds. It was something like two hours before we could even see the inside of the store. So, we just got some ice cream and chatted about the day while waiting.

  • i gave my girlfriend an ipad and she was very very happy~“

  • If there is someone who found what the real width of the IPAD screen resolution: it seems that the real width is 768 pix and not 1024 pix as Apple declare on their web site ?

  • I’d come to be of the same mind with you one this subject. Which is not something I typically do! I really like reading a post that will make people think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!

  • I love my iPhone, have no problem making calls and I really don’t get why people hate AT&T so much, I have no problems with it

  • The true IPAD resolution (physical dimensions) is less than 1024×768 pix. You have to take the small dimension in each position (vertical & horizontal).

    They do a bad emulation to enlarge and shrink the resolution to fit it to 1024×768 px.

    If for example, you will develop a web page (IPAD Safari) & you will build a page which contains a table with 1024 pix width and less than 768 pix height, they enlarge the page until the height will be 768px and it will cause to enlarge the width of the page to unwanted dimensions. If your screen dimensions are 1024x768pix, it will cause a big problems.

    Best regards

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