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by bluthru 5054 days ago
>Limiting to low PPI for app compatibility seems like a hack.

What, and give developers another resolution to develop for? No.

The iPad Mini will use the iPhone 3GS LCD pixel density. Then in a year, the iPad Mini will adopt the iPhone 4 pixel density. This means that every "retina" iPad app that currently exists will display natively on the device.

So basically: wait a year and then you'll have that crazy-good iPhone 4+ density.

2 comments

How will that work without having that other resolution you want to avoid? The issue was avoided on the desktop by not requiring everything be full screen.

I understand the issue, but my personal iPad usage would not be affected by more resolutions (I surf, read and watch video) but the greater PPI would be very appreciated. That's why it's frustrating.

It's pixel-doubled, so you just need to update the graphics, not redesign the entire app layout.
So you're saying that the next-year Retina iPad Mini will effectively fit 2048x1536 pixels into a 7.85" screen?

That would indeed be amazing, but I doubt it will happen next year.

It's only a matter of cutting the iPhone 4 LCD sheets larger. (And having a chipset that can power it more efficiently than the iPad 3.) Since it'll come out 1.5 to 2 years later, that's not far fetched.