New iPad means 3x bigger, high-res publications

The world of iPad publishing has just got bigger, with publishers considering how they are going to design their iPad editions to take advantage of the New iPad's 2,056 x 1,546 pixel screen. But will the current range of iPad publishing suites be able to accommodate the high-resolution screen of the New iPad, and will these high-definition pages mean bigger downloads for customers?

We asked Aquafadas, the company behind the Digital Publishing System (on which App Studio for QuarkXPress is built) for their insights. Aquafadas Digital Publishing System is a plug-in that allows publishers to design apps for the iPad in both QuarkXPress and InDesign.

To summarise the exchange with Aquafadas General Manager Rainer Heckmann (in full below), Apps created using the Aquafadas Digital Publishing System will look "exactly the same" on the New iPad as they do on the previous generations. However, Aquafadas does intend to release an update "within the next few weeks" what will support the Retina display of the New iPad.

It will be possible for customers to "re-generate their apps and publications" using the new release of AVE AppFactory. AVE AppFactory is Aquafadas' solution that lets publishers generate Newsstand-compatible apps including full subscription support.

In order to update their current apps, according to Aquafadas, publishers can add high-res versions of the graphical elements to the app, and generate it again using AVE AppFactory. The new version will replace the old app in the App Store.

However, it will be necessary that two versions of the app are contained inside the app, Aquafadas's Heckmann explained: "In order to provide high-resolution graphical elements for the new iPad, and at the same time ensuring apps run perfectly well on iPad 1 and 2, new apps and updated apps created with Aquafadas' Digital Publishing System will contain both resources, small renditions for older iPads, and high-resolution renditions for the new iPad."

It is not strictly necessary to create a high-res version of the app for the New iPad, according to Heckmann: "Publications created with Aquafadas' InDesign plugins consist of both pixel-based and vector-based content. Text, unless it was converted into an image, is always vector-based in Aquafadas' Digital Publishing System. That means that text in existing publications looks perfectly sharp on iPad 1 and 2, and it does not need to be modified at all to look even sharper on the new iPad, and even at high zoom levels."

As for other content, such as images and videos, this is pixel-based, and therefore: "Images and videos in existing apps will look exactly the same as they look on iPad 1 and 2 on the new iPad, because each pixel of an image or video will be displayed by four pixels of the retina display, and show the same sharpness as on the 1,024 by 768 displays," claims Heckmann.

Should publishers decide to design a version for the New iPad, the app size will increase due to larger image and video sizes. Heckmann explained: "Images can now be four times larger, and videos are larger as well. For example, if the images used in an existing publication would add up to 50 megabytes, and if all images would be replaced by images optimized for the new iPad, the publication's size would increase by 150 megabytes - 50 megabytes of images would be replaced by 200 megabytes."

According to Heckmann, in order to ensure that content if of high enough quality to support the Retina display publishers need to "use higher resolution images, up to 2,048 by 1,536," and videos that are intended to be viewed full-screen, "should be used in 1080p HD format".

Despite this, "we expect to see increases of 1.5 to 3 times the size of current apps and publications," claimed Heckmann.

The complete interview follows below:

Macworld: "Can you produce New iPad-resolution magazine apps using Aquafadas's Digital Publishing solution?"

Aquafadas: "Apps created with the current version of Aquafadas' Digital Publishing System will run fine on the new iPad, and will look exactly the same as they look on iPad 1 and 2. So there is no immediate need to change or update existing apps and content for the new iPad.

Macworld: "Will you be issuing an update to the Digital Publishing System to take advantage of the new iPad?"

Aquafadas: "We plan to release an update to our Digital Publishing System within the next few weeks that will support the new iPad's retina display. In order to make use of the retina display we recommend our customers re-generate their apps and publications as soon as the next release of Aquafadas' AVE AppFactory and InDesign plugins are available."

Macworld: "How will Aquafadas deliver New iPad and iPad/iPad 2 versions of the same title to different devices?"

Aquafadas: "There are two parts to consider, the actual app, and the publication, such as a book or a magazine issue.

"An app uses graphical elements, such as background images and buttons, in its user interface. These graphical elements need to be optimized for the iPad's screen resolution. Graphical elements optimized for iPad 1 and 2 work on the new iPad, and look the same as they look on the current iPads. But the Retina display is all about a better and sharper representation, not only of content, but also of the user interface. In order to provide high-resolution graphical elements for the new iPad, and at the same time ensuring apps run perfectly well on iPad 1 and 2, new apps and updated apps created with Aquafadas' Digital Publishing System will contain both resources, small renditions for older iPads, and high-resolution renditions for the new iPad.

"The next release of AVE AppFactory supports both iPad 1 and 2 as well as the new iPad. Users can just update their current apps by adding the high-res versions of the graphical elements to the app, generate it again in AVE AppFactory, and replace the old app in the App Store. In the process of resubmitting the app, they can supply higher resolution versions of their app's screenshots on the App Store.

"Publications created with Aquafadas' InDesign plugins consist of both pixel-based and vector-based content. Text, unless it was converted into an image, is always vector-based in Aquafadas' Digital Publishing System. That means that text in existing publications looks perfectly sharp on iPad 1 and 2, and it does not need to be modified at all to look even sharper on the new iPad, and even at high zoom levels. Other content, images and videos in particular, is pixel-based. Images and videos of existing apps will look exactly the same as they look on iPad 1 and 2 on the new iPad, because each pixel of an image or video will be displayed by four pixels of the Retina display, and show the same sharpness as on the 1,024 by 768 displays.

"Our users just continue to use Aquafadas' InDesign plugins for content creation as they always did, with one difference: Images with higher resolutions (up to 2,048 by 1,536, if they should be viewable full-screen) should be used in order to provide tack-sharp images. Videos should have a higher resolution as well, and if videos are intended to be viewed full-screen, they actually should be used in the highest available resolution, in 1080p HD.

"Existing content can be easily republished by opening it again and then replacing images and videos.

"The next release of Aquafadas' InDesign plugins will take care of the rest. To ensure optimal quality on all iPads, our InDesign plugins will export two content files instead of one. One file will be optimized for iPad 1 and 2, the other for the new iPad.

"We will also update AVEPublishing.com to ensure the right content file will be delivered to an iPad. If a content file will be requested for download from an iPad 1 or 2, the lower-res version will be loaded onto the iPad, and a high-res version will be delivered to new iPads."

Macworld: "On average, how much extra space will a publication take up when working at the new resolution?"

Aquafadas: "That mainly depends on how many images and videos are used in a publication. Generally publication size will go up, because images can now be four times larger, and videos are larger as well. For example, if the images used in an existing publication would add up to 50 megabytes, and if all images would be replaced by images optimized for the new iPad, the publication's size would increase by 150 megabytes - 50 megabytes of images would be replaced by 200 megabytes.

"The size of an app itself will also increase slightly, because graphical elements in an app's user interface will increase in size by four times.

"For example, books with a lot of text and few images and videos will only increase in size a bit, while magazines with many images and videos may become significantly larger.

"Since not all content is pixel-based, and vector based content will stay at the same size, we expect the average increase of app and publication sizes to be less than factor 4, and expect to see increases of 1.5 to 3 times the size of current apps and publications."

Macworld: "What are the considerations designers need to be aware of when producing digital magazines for the new iPad?"

Aquafadas: "Not much changes for designers in the use of Aquafadas' Digital Publishing System.

"They need to make sure the content is of high enough quality to support the retina display, which means the use of higher resolution images, up to 2,048 by 1,536.

"Videos should have a higher resolution as well, and if videos are intended to be viewed full-screen, they should be used in 1080p HD format.

"Nothing changes in a designer's typographic work, because text, unless it was converted into an image, is always vector-based in Aquafadas' Digital Publishing System, and will look perfectly sharp on all iPads, even at high zoom levels."

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iPad Application Development

Google+ updates mobile UI, still no iPad app

Google rolled out a new design for its Google+ mobile site Monday morning, which now looks more like the Google+ apps for Android and iOS. That’s especially good news for Google+ iPad users, who have been waiting for a native app for the social network for some time.

The new UI not only features a visual refresh, but also comes with some new features that should make it easier to use Google+ with a mobile browser. One major improvement: Individual posts can now be reshared with the click of a button.

These changes come a few days after Google+ rolled out some major localization, making the service available in more than 60 languages including Zulu and Icelandic. Still missing is a native iPad app for Google+. The service is available via an iPhone app, but iPad users have to upscale the app, which is a pretty horrific experience. A Google spokesperson told me that there is “no update” on the availability of an iPad app.

Check out a few screenshots of the mobile web app as displayed on the iPad below:

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4 things the iPad 4 should have

 

by Brad Reed

Even though Apple has just unveiled its new iPad, it’s never too soon to start thinking about the future: namely the iPad 4.

And that’s why, as impressive as new iPad was in its introduction Wednesday, we’re still left wanting more. Needless to say, while the newest iPad has a lot of great things going for it such as a Retina Display and LTE support, it doesn’t have absolutely, positively anything we could want out of a top-tier tablet. Here, then, is a simple list of features that we want to see in the next version of the iPad that will likely hit sometime in early 2013.

1). Siri. The new iPad does have voice commands, which is nice. But does it really compare to having a voice-enabled personal assistant that’s capable of learning your speech patterns and crafting responses based on how you naturally talk? Or put another way, it’s nice that the new iPad can take voice dictation, but we’d also like to see it give dictation of driving directions, meeting times and other key aspects of our daily lives directly to us.

2). A laptop dock. Even if the iPad really does succeed in ushering in the “post-PC era,” it could still use some more PC capabilities. That’s why we’d like to see Apple follow the lead of companies such as Asus and Novera in giving the iPad its own optional laptop dock that can let us hook the tablet up to a keyboard and use it more like our own desktop computer. While Apple is unlikely to do this, especially since such tablet-PC hybrids haven’t really caught on yet, it would certainly be a bonus.

3). A lower-priced, seven-inch version. Yes, we know. The iPad’s size clearly isn’t broke, so Apple shouldn’t try to fix it. At the same time, we can’t deny that seven-inch tablets have some distinct advantages, most notably their ability to easily fit into coat pockets and purses. And although Apple clearly hasn’t suffered financially from maintaining the highest prices of any big-name tablet vendor, the thrifty shopper in us can’t help but think a $300, seven-inch iPad would sell like gangbusters and thoroughly undercut any headway Amazon has made with its Kindle Fire tablet.

4). 802.11u connectivity with Wi-Fi Certified Passpoint capabilities. This is obviously a really big long shot since PassPoint has just been announced by the Wi-Fi Alliance and there’s no telling whether it will really catch on with mobile device manufacturers. But we can dream, right?

For the uninitiated, PassPoint technology essentially creates a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and allows you to access any in your area that take part in the program. What’s more, any hotspots that take part in Passpoint will allow you to connect without entering in any login or billing information since the program supports Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)-based authentication that cellular networks currently use to grant users seamless handoffs between cell sites.

This also means that carriers can forge Wi-Fi roaming agreements with one another that could, for instance, give AT&T subscribers access to Verizon hotspots without having to enter in any information or manually connect to different networks. If this technology can be successfully integrated into the iPad, it will make Apple’s famed tablet even more mobile than ever.

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iPad Application Development

New 4G iPad Features Retina Display, A5X Processor, Revamped Apps

Apple's new iPad features a high-resolution Retina Display, a new A5X processor, 4G LTE support and a 5-megapixel rear camera.

Apple's new iPad includes a high-resolution Retina Display, a new A5X processor with quad-core graphics and a 5-megapixel rear camera capable of shooting 1080p video. In an interesting twist, company executives didn't affix an official name to the tablet during its March 7 unveiling, instead referring to it only as the "new iPad." Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center at 10 a.m. PST to introduce the device. "We have our feet firmly planted in the post-PC future," he said, according to a live transcript published by The Verge. The iPad plays a key role in that, having sold 15.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple's App Store now offers around 200,000 apps custom-built for the iPad's larger screen. Cook took a swipe at Apple's competitors as lacking design sense, particularly when it comes to rendering apps on a tablet's larger screen. "It kind of looks like a blown-up smartphone app," he told the audience, referring to Twitter for Android. The new iPad is clearly designed to present apps in the best possible light, so to speak, with the screen's 2,048-by-1,536 resolution. It weighs slightly more than the iPad 2, at 1.4 pounds, and offers comparable battery life. Those in the United States will have the option of purchasing the new iPad with 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) connectivity on either Verizon or AT&T. The new iPad will keep the same prices as the previous model, starting at $499 for WiFi-only versions and $629 for those with 4G capability. Prices top out at $699 for the WiFi-only, 64GB model and $829 for the 64GB model with WiFi and 4G.  Apple also dropped the price of the iPad 2, with the 16GB, WiFi-only version starting at $399. In doing so, it replicates the strategy it started with the iPhone, where the prices of the previous version fall with the introduction of a new unit. Apple executives spent much of the presentation detailing revamped versions of iWork, iMovie, iPhoto and GarageBand, all of which take advantage of the iPad's graphical power. The next iPad wasn't Apple's only upcoming product on display. The newly unveiled Apple TV will stream video at 1080p, with an interface that clearly draws its design cues from iOS. The device will retail for $99, and also go on sale March 16. It remains to be seen whether, as that date approaches, Apple gives "the new iPad" a more official-sounding name. Original Source ipad App Development

Retina display-ready apps and the coming iPad storage crunch

Adding Retina display support will boost app file sizes, potentially filling up your iOS device

The new iPad’s Retina display is its flagship feature; by all accounts from reporters who attended the third-generation iPad’s unveiling this week, its 2048-by-1536 pixel display looks exquisite in person, with crisp text and vivid color saturation. But the much improved screen may severely limit how you use the tablet. 

That’s because in order to take advantage of that display, apps need to generate new versions of their graphical assets. The new iPad sports four times as many pixels as its predecessors, so for Retina display support, apps need new images that are twice as wide and twice as tall as before. The physically larger images, of course, wind up as larger files in terms of megabytes, too. And that’s going to become a problem pretty quickly given that you can’t upgrade your iPad’s hard drive. It’s unfortunate that Apple didn’t double the new iPad’s storage space options to 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB to better accomodate the larger app sizes endemic to Retina-ready apps.

How big is big?

Let’s look at some of Apple’s own iPad apps to see whether fretting about how Retina iPad graphics affect file size is a waste of energy. It’s not a perfect comparison, since Apple also added some features to the apps it updated with Retina compatibility, but it’s still informative:

Keynote went from 115MB to 327MB; Numbers increased from 109MB to 283MB, and Pages went from 95MB to 269MB. With the exception of iMovie (which also added in new support for iMovie Trailers as it ballooned from 70MB to 404MB), these apps increased their file sizes by a factor between 2.5 and 3. (iMovie is nearly six times larger than before.)

Suppose a new 16GB iPad owner wants to load up the tablet with Apple’s Retina-display ready apps: the iWork suite, the iLife suite, iBooks, Find My Friends, Find my iPhone, iTunes U, and Remote. That’s 2.24GB of apps before you’ve downloaded a single third-party app, or synced a single song, photograph, or video. Remember too that a 16GB iPad really only offers the user around 14GB of storage space; the other two gigabytes go towards the operating system and stock apps. So now your 16GB iPad offers you fewer than 12GB of storage space.

My colleague Serenity Caldwell already wrote about the impact of Retina-ready apps on Apple’s freshly-raised limit (to 50MB) for downloading apps over 3G or LTE. In that story, she provides examples of other apps that swell in size with Retina-ready graphics. A smaller app like Tweetbot, for example, will reportedly grow from 8.8MB to 24.6MB. Larger, graphically intense games that weigh in between 300MB and 500MB today will likely require 750MB to 1.5GB once they update their art assets.

This doesn’t just affect new iPad owners

And perhaps the most worrying effect of the new iPad’s Retina display is its impact on older owners of both iPads and iPhones: Universal apps—that is, single apps that run on both devices—will become much larger even if you don’t own a Retina-display iPad. When Apple pushed out its Retina-ready upgrades earlier this week, I couldn’t successfully update my iPhone until I deleted my music and a few large apps. My iPhone can’t take advantage of the massive graphics that those apps need to embrace the iPad’s Retina display, but it gets no choice in the matter.

It’s a bit like Mac apps that could run on both Intel and PowerPC processors. If your Mac has tons of free storage space available, it doesn’t matter. But if your drive is close to full, you can use various third-party apps to remove any PowerPC-only code within your apps—since that code is useless on your Intel-based computer—to free up space.

Apple hasn’t coded a means by which your iPhone could ignore iPad-only assets when it installs universal apps. In fact, most developers also will choose to keep art assets specifically for the first two iPads, in addition to new art exclusively for the third-generation iPad; trying to force the older iPads to show downscaled versions of Retina iPad artwork would slow things down too much, developers tell me.
So we end up with a situation where iPhones contain iPad graphics they can’t use, iPads contain graphics for other iPads they don’t want, and iPads hold onto iPhone-specific graphics they don’t need.

Memory isn’t free

The problem is that flash storage isn’t free—hence the $100 difference in price between the current 16GB and 32GB iPad, and the 32GB and 64GB iPad. More storage costs Apple more money, and Apple surely doesn’t want to raise the iPad’s price tag.

At the same time, Apple is the only company around that could possibly drive down flash storage prices even further—by buying up millions of drives from suppliers to use in the new iPad. It seems, however, that Apple can’t yet find a way to keep the iPad’s current price point while increasing its storage, and considered the current state of affairs the best compromise.

If Apple’s right that it can’t yet drive down the price of flash storage further, that makes the software solution of letting iOS devices avoid storing in-app assets that they can't use even more imperative.

Two fixes

Really, then, I’m pushing for two separate but equally important fixes. Apple needs to bump the storage capacities on its iPads (and, frankly, iPhones). And it needs to devise a means by which in-app data that your iOS device can’t use won’t clog up your available storage space.

Coupling more storage with less per-app cruft will solve this storage crunch problem, and it’s one that I suspect more and more iPad buyers will encounter in the months ahead.

My advice to people asking me which iPad to get today is to focus in on the pricier 32GB model, because once developers update their apps for the new iPad’s Retina display, 16GB simply won’t be enough.

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ipad App Development

The 6 Pricing Models for iPad 3

It’s early Sunday morning, and as I scan through my news feeds it’s clear that the iPad 3 is at the forefront of everyone’s mind.  As it should be I suppose, since Apple’s media event is scheduled for Wednesday.  And the even though I’m not one of the elite media outlets (far from it in fact), I do have the luxury to write about the iPad 3 and keep the latest rumors alive and active on the web – next best thing I suppose.

This morning was actually the first time I saw a layout of the pricing models onthe iPad 3.   And by looks of things, you have the same six pricing models we see with the current iPad 2.  Those six models consist of the three different data capacities (16GB, 32GB, and 64GB) along with the matching WiFi only or ‘WiFi & data enabled’ versions.  With the flavor of data on the new iPad 3 expected to be 4G LTE on both AT&T and Verizon.

Ok, let’s get to the rumored pricing breakdown for the iPad 3 (or the iPad HD, or the iPad 2s, or whatever it’s going to be called…):

iPad 3 WiFi Only:

• 16GB:  $499
• 32GB:  $599
• 64GB:  $699

iPad 3 with WiFi & 4G LTE:

• 16GB:  $629
• 32GB:  $729
• 64GB:  $829

Do these prices look familiar?  They should because they are the exact some pricing models for the iPad 2.  So basically, nothing changing with the iPad 3 pricing, according to the latest reports anyway.

Now the data plans coming from AT&T and Verizon can get a bit confusing, and they are definitely not common knowledge to the average iPad owner.  So here’s a quick breakdown for those you looking to chose what data plan fits your budget:

AT&T iPad 3 data plan pricing:

• 250 megabytes for $14.99 per month
• 3GB for $30 per month
• 5GB for $50 per month
• Overage on the 250 megabyte plan:  $14.99 for an additional 250 megs
• Overage on GB plans:  $10 per additional 1GB

Verizon iPad 3 data plan pricing:

• 2GB for $30 per month
• 5GB for $50 per month
• 10GB for $80 per month
• Overage on any GB plan:  $10 per additional 1GB

** Disclaimer – this is all speculation at this point since nothing official has been released from Apple, AT&T, or Verizon.  These pricing models are what you’d get currently if you purchased the iPad 2 from one of these carriers.

At first glance of the pricing models for the iPad 3, my thought is that Verizon has an easier structure to understand.  However, if I’m looking for the most economical plan, then AT&T is the obvious choice because I’m spending only $14.99 for 250mb of data.  However, it’s a costly mistake to exceed the allotted 250mb of data because I’m going to be paying another $14.99 for only an additional 250mb – definitely not something I want to be doing.

If it looks even remotely possible that I may go over the 250mb plan on AT&T, then the 3GB model is the most economical choice.  And what’s interesting as well is that Verizon is charging the same amount ($30 per month) for 1GB of data less than AT&T’s $30 per month plan.

Regardless of what the data packages cost at AT&T and Verizon, I don’t foresee it slowing down the feeding frenzy that’s about to take place on Apple’s new iPad.

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ipad App Development

iPad 3 Might Feature iOS 6, 'HD' Name

Apple's next iPad might feature "HD" in its name, and include a major update to iOS, which one blog terms "iOS 6."

Apple's next iPad could arrive with the moniker "iPad HD."

That information comes from the blog Gizmodo, which cited a reader-supplied parts listing from accessories manufacturers Griffin and Belkin.

For months, media and tech pundits have used "iPad 3" to describe Apple's next-generation tablet. Apple is hosting a March 7 event in San Francisco where the device will almost certainly be unveiled. Rumored features include a high-resolution Retina Display (hence the possible "HD" name), a more powerful processor and an improved camera. "We have something you really have to see. And touch," read the invitation sent to the media for the event, which included an image of a finger touching the calendar app on an iPad screen.

Sources such as Apple Insider suggest that the next iPad could also feature 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) support and a significant update to iOS—which the blog terms "iOS 6."

Whatever its name, the next iPad will enter the market in a dominant position over its competitors, which for the moment include a host of Google Android tablets and Research In Motion's PlayBook. However, that landscape will change by the end of 2012, when Microsoft and its manufacturing partners are expected to debut a host of tablets loaded with the upcoming Windows 8.

On Feb. 29, Microsoft unveiled the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The choice of venue spoke volumes: Microsoft clearly intends for the upcoming operating system to become the next heavyweight in mobile computing. 

Moreover, Microsoft dearly wants to compete with Apple in the realm of mobile apps. For months, its executives have been encouraging third-party developers to consider creating apps for Windows 8, claiming the hundreds of millions of Windows users will prove a lucrative customer base.

But Apple already has a significant head start in that area, with an app store containing hundreds of thousands of offerings. In an attempt to further sweeten the proposition, Microsoft executives have been talking for months about how Windows 8 will supposedly provide a "no compromises" experience closer to what users find on a desktop than a traditional tablet—albeit, one that also comes with a mobile device's lightweight UI. 

Can the next iPad compete with Microsoft's attempts to meld the best of PCs with tablets? That's the question. But it's indisputable that Apple retains a hefty lead in the category, with Microsoft decidedly in the underdog position. Apple's executives are betting that the next iPad will widen that competitive gap.

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