I received a new iPad today (along with a 1080p Apple TV) and whilst I don’t want to review it in detail (there are plenty of other reviews) I will say that the screen is absolutely incredible. Whilst most 3rd party apps are not retina-ready yet, those that are look stunning. I actually used my iPad to answer my emails today as it looked so much crisper than my iMac!
Anyway, one of the things that has interested me is how iPhone apps would look on the new iPad. Bearing in mind that there are 4x as many pixels, I assumed that Apple would use retina versions of iPhone apps scaled up. As you might recall, the original iPad and iPad 2 would use regular iPhone apps and scale them rather than using the retina equivelants (something I’ve written about before). I could understand this for imagery but the keyboard and text looked horrible when scaled making any app that wasn’t a game pretty much unusable at 2x mode on an iPad.
Fortunately this has changed with the new iPad. Apps are stills scaled, but the fonts are much crisper as is the keyboard.
To demonstrate, I’ve tested a couple of apps on iOS 5.1 on both the iPad 2 and new iPad and listed some screenshots below. These have been scaled down to fit the page so you will need to click / tap each one to load up the fullsize versions. You won’t notice the difference (aside from some colour improvements) unless you view at fullsize as they look pretty similar when scaled down.
The new iPad is on the left - iPad 2 is on the right.
WallaBee
Spotify
Foursquare
Path
Whilst using the public version of iOS 5.1 I’ve noticed an interesting bug with one of my apps. WallaBee uses Location Services but as all good apps should it makes a point of stopping location monitoring after a certain amount of inactivity (to save battery) and also when the app goes into the background. Location monitoring starts up again as soon as you go back to the foreground or navigate to a page that will require more precise location monitoring.
On iOS 5.0.*, closing the app would lead to the Location Services indicator disappearing immediately. On iOS 5.1, Location Services stays active for ~10 seconds after it’s been told explicitly to stop monitoring. Initially I thought this might be a problem with the code I’d written but, after some testing on multiple devices and with multiple apps, it turns out this is an issue that affects all location based apps on iOS 5.1.
It isn’t really a big issue but it is fairly annoying, particularly as some apps do keep monitoring your location in the background so you end up trying to work out what is still running only to realise it’s the OS not giving up when it should do. It’s particularly annoying as an app developer - v1.0.3 of WallaBee came out on the day iOS 5.1 was released and I’ve now had 3 enquries as to why Location Services is less efficient in the new version (whereas it’s actually much more efficient in the app).
In terms of why iOS 5.1 is doing this, I can only assume that Location Services is told to turn off after the full amount of background task allowance has been used. If an app doesn’t ask to run in the background, it has around 10 seconds after being closed to do any tidying up (i.e. saving documents, closing network connections) before the OS forcably terminates it. This seems to be the case with Location Services as if you close the app and then force quit, the service is stopped (suggesting ownership is with the app, not the OS).
It’s probably an oversight on Apple’s part (as I can’t think of a good reason why this would be built-in) but I thought I’d put up a post on the issue for any other developers who run into the problem and for anyone using my apps and wondering why Location Services is still active once the app is closed.
The strangest thing that happened at the iPad announcement last week turned out not to be the lack of Siri, presence of a home button, or uninteresting iOS 5.1 update, but instead the name; “the new iPad” rather than the universally predicted “iPad 3” (or late runner “iPad HD”). Based on this news, most people seem to think that there is a convergence with other product names in that everything will end up as just “iPad”, “MacBook Air”, “iPod Nano”, etc. In particular, people are predicting that the iPhone 5 (which would actually be the iPhone 6 - drives me crazy!) will now be launched as “the new iPhone”.
I don’t think this is correct.
I’ve tried explaining it on Twitter but 140 characters ain’t a lot of room to play with so I thought I’d lay some thoughts out on Apple’s naming conventions in this post. I’ll also try and second guess some of Apple’s future product announcements based purely on naming.
iPod
The iPod is the pure example of the new iPad naming philosophy as they have always just been known as individual products. i.e. iPod, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, etc. Every year (pretty much) a new device is launched that immediately replaces the old ones. If you look at something like the iPod Nano, there have now been six of them (all in various shapes and sizes) but you can only ever buy the latest version. In support documents, they are simply referred to by generation i.e. this case will work with “iPod Nano (6th generation)”.
Mac
The Mac lineup is slightly different to the iPod lineup in that there are more customisations that can be made. You can change processors, RAM, hard drives, screen sizes, etc but fundamentally there is only one product per line. When a new product is released, the old one is immediately unavailable. The naming is also slightly different - rather than referring to the latest Mac mini as “Mac mini (10th Generation)” it is referred to by date making the latest one “Mac mini (Mid 2011)”. This works because the Mac line can be updated multiple times per year with processor bumps, etc, so it makes sense to refer to its launch date rather than its generation. This is the same naming convention that a lot of Apple’s software uses such as iWork ‘09. Whilst iTunes isn’t named after a year (it’s just a version) you could add “20” in front to make them year based as they have been annual since v8.0 came out in 2008.
As regards the future of the Mac lineup, there are currently 5 products; MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac, and Mac Pro. I believe that convergence is going to happen on the MacBook Air / Pro lineup as it makes sense that Apple will make the Pro thinner, lighter, and will remove the optical drive. This is further evidenced by the fact that the MacBook itself was removed a while ago leaving the name free. In future, if you want an Apple laptop, you’ll just get “MacBook” - it could be any size from 11”-17” with various configurations but it will be one line. It’s also fairly likely that the Mac Pro will be removed for a slightly beefier iMac leading to just 3 lines; MacBook, Mac mini, iMac. That’s just pure speculation but it makes complete sense to me. If you want portable computing, you choose iPad or MacBook but you choose Mac mini or iMac for desktop computing.
iPad
The iPad lineup should have been simple - a single product that gets updated yearly and will always be known as “iPad”. However, Apple threw a spanner in the works by calling the second generation the “iPad 2”. There was no need to do this when the iPad 2 was the same price as the iPad and completely replaced it as per the iPod lineup but now they are stuck with it. By naming the iPad 3 “the new iPad”, it looks like they are trying to go back to that model but there is a big issue with that; the iPad 2 is still available for sale at a $100 discount. In Apple’s defence they’ve done a pretty good job of making this work with the structure of their website showing only “iPad” and then the “iPad 2” is a small button at the bottom. There is also a comparison chart which very quickly shows that “the new iPad” is newer than the “iPad 2”. It’s hardly an ideal situation though.
So why have they done it? Whilst the iPad 2 could have been completely removed and replaced by the new iPad (which would make the naming all work out nicely) they wanted to keep selling the iPad 2 at a discount as it beats the competition quite nicely. The only real competitor to the iPad has been the Kindle Fire so by making the entry-level iPad slightly cheaper they can appeal to some of the people that might have been stuck choosing between the two. They couldn’t retroactively rename the iPad 2 so they were stuck with the name.
My feeling on this is that the iPad 2 is going to be removed from sale before the end of 2012 and replaced by a smaller form factor (say 8”) and given a new line; “iPad Nano” or “iPad Mini”. This will get Apple to a good place where they have a cheaper iPad and the premium iPad and two simple lines that can be updated in the same way as the iPod lineup. I say this as if the iPad 2 was going to stick around for a full year I think the new iPad would have been called “iPad 2 Pro” as that’s essentially what it is - same form factor, better screen.
iPhone
This is the real issue - what will the new iPhone be called. Based on my tweet yesterday, most people think it will be called “the new iPhone” to follow the iPad example. I highly doubt it. The difference with the iPhone to all of Apple’s other products is that they keep selling the old models for up to 2 years. Just look at the lineup now; “iPhone 3GS”, “iPhone 4”, “iPhone 4S”. If the next iPhone is referred to simply as “the new iPhone” then you’ll end up with “iPhone 4”, “iPhone 4S”, “iPhone”. That might work, but in 2013 you’d have “iPhone 4S”, “iPhone”, “iPhone” and that’s where it falls apart.
This is a tricky one for Apple and I don’t really have the answer. Let’s take a look at possible names for the next generation iPhone:
- iPhone 5 - it’s the 6th generation iPhone so that won’t work.
- iPhone 6 - Original, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, 6. Doesn’t really work as a numbering system but I wouldn’t rule it out.
- iPhone 4G - yesterday I thought this was a pretty good idea. Then I remembered that iOS 5.1 now refers to HSDPA+ as “4G” so I don’t think this can be used anymore.
- iPhone LTE - it’ll definitely have LTE integrated and iPhone’s have been named after their wireless tech before. However, LTE isn’t available around the world like 3G was so I don’t think they’ll go for this.
- iPhone HD - no. Just no.
- the new iPhone - I don’t think they can pull that trick twice.
- iPhone 2012 - maybe.
It’s a difficult situation and there is no obvious choice. I can see it going a number of ways though:
- The long rumoured “iPhone Nano” makes an appearance leading Apple to create just two lines; iPhone and iPhone Nano. iPhone 4/4S won’t be sold at a discount (they’ll just disappear) meaning that Apple can refer to the iPhone 6 as just “iPhone”. I don’t think they can do this if they continue selling the 4/4S though.
- iPhone changes to a year numbering system much like the Mac lineup - whilst you would just have “2012” instead of “mid 2012” it might work and allows you to distinguish between multiple versions easily. Not the tidiest of solutions though - “iPhone ‘12” or “iPhone 2012” doesn’t have the same simplicity as “iPhone 6” or “iPhone”
- Apple name it “iPhone LTE” - it might not be available everywhere but at least it distinguishes. Might have an issue in 2013 though - LTES won’t work and there won’t be another wireless technology to use.
- Apple choose something that isn’t in that list perhaps naming it after a design element with something like “iPhone Curve” (though obviously not “Curve” - RIM would have a fit if they’re still around)
Summary
Whilst nearly all of the Apple product line has converged to yearly updates that replace the previous model, the iPad 2 has caused a problem in that it’s still hanging around at a discount. I’m fairly sure this is going to be replaced by a mini or a nano at some point in the near future thus ending this particular story.
The iPhone, however, is a completely different story and I’m confident that Apple won’t name the next model “the new iPhone” unless they stop selling 3 versions of iPhone at the same time. That is doable (if a new line appears in the way I expect it to for the iPad) but I think it more likely that they will name the next iPhone after something about the device that we don’t know about yet; design, haptic touch, etc.
As usual, time will tell. Apple have a habit of choosing things that you wouldn’t expect.
A lot has been made in the Apple press recently about the invite to the Apple Media Event on 7th March which is widely expected to introduce the iPad 3. Specifically, the invite appears to show an iPad with an improved screen and no home button:
Obviously there will be a “Retina Display” in the iPad 3 (I’ll eat my iPad 2 if there isn’t) but the lack of a home button is something that has floated around before, mainly due to the gestures built into iOS 5 that allow you to close apps with a 4/5 finger grab. I only ever use the gestures to get around on my iPad but I don’t really think the home button would be completely removed. For a start it has too many purposes:
- Closes apps (can be done with a gesture)
- Lets you access the multi-tasking tray (can also be done with a gesture)
- Allows screenshots to be taken (press at the same time as the power button)
- Access to Siri (on the iPhone 4S at least - one assumes the same will happen in the iPad 3)
- Accessibility shortcuts (triple tap to invert colours for example)
- Force restart the device (hold at the same time as the power button for a while)
Whilst some of these things could be done in other ways, I just don’t buy the idea that they would remove it - doing things with gestures is great but they are more like keyboard shortcuts for power users than an intuitive way to navigate.
With the above in mind, it was obvious to me that the invite was showing an iPad 3 in landscape and I set out to prove this with some judicious screenshotting (thanks home button) and photoshopping. However, it didn’t quite work out as I expected…
As Apple have very helpfully used the “bubble” background on the iPad in their invite, it should be quite trivial to work out the placement of the icons by mapping them to the unique bubble clusters in the image. For example. there is a unique cluster next to the calendar icon:
From the invite, we know that there are at least 3 icons showing in the “dock” – Maps, Calendar, and Keynote – and you can only have a maximum of 6 icons. I screenshotted the iPad in both orientations with all the possible combinations of 3, 4, 5, and 6 icons and only one came out close to the bubble layout of the invite:
Hmm, that scuppered my landscape theory. Let’s take a closer look at the calendar icon when it’s in this formation:
I’ve also done some basic distortion in photoshop to change the angles so that it matches (roughly) the perspective of the Apple invite:
I’m pretty confident of the location as it’s one of the only possibilities that causes the page control (the little dots and the search icon) to be cut off when photographed at that angle.
If you look at the two side by side, we can see that the bubble cluster is a pretty good match, but it isn’t exact:
The icons in the invite are actually slightly bigger than those on the iPad 2.
So what does this all mean? I have a number of theories:
- The iPad 3 has no home button and its icon layout is slightly different
- This isn’t the iPad 3 - it’s a different device (i.e. a 7 inch iPad hence the slightly different icon arrangement)
- It’s a photoshopped invite and means nothing - there won’t be any big surprises
If I was a betting man I’d go with option 3. Whilst it’s intriguing to disect these invites to see if they have any deeper meaning, the reality is that it’s probably been photoshopped together with a few mistakes (the bubbles not matching) and something to get the blogosphere worked up (no home button). I highly doubt that the iPad 3 will lose the home button and I have my reservations that a smaller form factor will be announced (despite the fact that I’d prefer a smaller iPad).
In terms of the announcement, my predictions are:
- iPad 3 with “Retina Display” that is 2048x1536 with the same @2x syntax for developers to make their apps compatible. It will be slightly more expensive than the iPad 2 (say an extra $50-70) but the iPad 2 will see a price drop to something like $399 or $429.
- Apple TV with 1080p output (the invite says “something to see” and “something to touch” - Apple TV and iPad 3)
- Updated iTunes content to accomodate a 1080p Appple TV and an iPad that is beyond 1080p.
- iOS 5.1 with 3rd party Siri APIs.
I guess we’ll see on March 7th!
Today has seen the culmination of several months of work and several years of planning. I launched my latest app, WallaBee, which I like to call “The ultimate collectables game”. It’s a mixup of several ideas from things such as Gowalla, Pokémon, PackRat, and Baseball Trading cards (or Football stickers if you’re in the UK).
I’m not going to do a big post about it now as you can find out all the details at wallab.ee (or just download the app) but I did want to give a few shout outs.
Firstly, this app wouldn’t be possible without Alan Shaw and Simon Wicks who have both invested a huge amount of time in this project. They’ve put up with my constant changes and demands as well as suggesting many great ideas that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own. I’m proud to be launching this app with such great co-partners.
Secondly I’d like to thank Andrew Cameron of Karate Grafika who designed the beautiful icons you’re hopefully collecting today. We spent a lot of time searching for the right designer and we’re overwhelmed with the amount of positive reviews we’ve received for Andy’s work. Andy is the ‘secret sauce’ of our app and we’re very lucky to be working with him.
Finally, I’d like to thank Eric Longstaff who has taken on the role of Community Manager and is replying to people on our support forum almost has quickly as they can submit questions! It’s great to have someone with so much charisma on our team who believes in the project and wants to make sure that everybody else is enjoying it.
It’s been a wild ride getting to this point and I really hope that people see the amount of time and effort we’ve spent in trying to get the little details right. We know that there is further work to be done and we have an ambitious roadmap. Version 1.0.1 (coming soon) will add localisation support for 5 languages and a big v1.1 update at the end of March which will introduce a heap of social features. We are essentially a startup but I want to make it clear that our entire focus is on delighting our players - we’ve invested in the most expensive package GetSatisfaction had so we can keep on top of our community and we’re absolutely committed to getting things right.
A few people have pointed out that we’re just using the ideas of Gowalla and PackRat and putting them together. I want to confront that issue head on. Yes, their are similarities, but we believe the devil is in the detail.
- We are focussed on a single thing; items. We have a location database (built up from data aquired from Gowalla for my Highlights app - incidentally, this database is not a wholesale copy but something that has been carefully curated and augmented with data from a number of other platforms over a period of 12 months) and we allow players and developers to add to this database but it’s not our key focus. We are fundamentally not a check-in service.
- We don’t just want to build a community of players, we also want to build a community of developers. That’s why we launched 3 full APIs with our app that you can interact with today. These include real time notifications and access to all of our high-resolution item artwork. If you build something on our platform, we’ll promote it. You can find out more in our Developer Portal
- The most important thing, the item that is at the core of who we are, is that we are dedicated to the player. We promise to listen, adapt, and make changes that the community wants rather than just blazing our own trail. We will never fundamentally change our product on a whim when we know that it’s not what our community wants. We built this app because it’s the app we wanted to use. We will never deviate from that course or that core belief.
I sincerely hope that you’ll enjoy using WallaBee. It’s been my dream for the past few years and, whilst this this is just the start, I treasure it as the biggest moment of my career.
Some great finds by Arun Thampi:
Upon inspecting closer, I noticed that my entire address book (including full names, emails and phone numbers) was being sent as a plist to Path. Now I don’t remember having given permission to Path to access my address book and send its contents to its servers, so I created a completely new “Path” and repeated the experiment and I got the same result – my address book was in Path’s hands.
I always wondered how Path managed to match me up so quickly to my friends when the only thing I’d given it was my email address. Turns out that it uploads your entire phone book and then matches names / email addresses to give you recommendations. It’s incredibly slick, but it is a privacy concern.
The CEO of Path replied to the post with:
Arun, thanks for pointing this out. We actually think this is an important conversation and take this very seriously. We upload the address book to our servers in order to help the user find and connect to their friends and family on Path quickly and effeciently as well as to notify them when friends and family join Path. Nothing more.
We believe that this type of friend finding & matching is important to the industry and that it is important that users clearly understand it, so we proactively rolled out an opt-in for this on our Android client a few weeks ago and are rolling out the opt-in for this in 2.0.6 of our iOS Client, pending App Store approval.
At least they are going to make it opt-in but the various commentors on that article do point out that a hash table would have avoided this whole scenario. I’m glad that I finally know how Path were doing that matching though - it’s been bugging me for weeks…
I’m happy to announce that my biggest app yet is going to be available in mid-February. It’s currently running in a closed beta but I’m now looking to expand the beta testing pool significantly in the run up to launch.
If you have some spare time and would like to help me out (as well as maybe getting some free stuff once it launches) then please fill out my beta tester application form. Based on previous betas, I expect interest to be high so I’ve had to implement a cap on how many people I can accept. Please bear in mind that beta testing can take a lot of time (as you’ll be required to feedback on each build that is sent out) so if you don’t have the time please don’t apply as your position could go to somebody else who is available.
If your application is successful, I’ll be in touch by the 3rd of February.
I can’t wait to show you all what I’ve been working on for the past 6 months. More details will be available soon…
iOS 5.1 Beta 1 was released to developers back in November 2011. Since then there have only been 2 additional betas (the last of which was just over 3 weeks ago) but not one of them has added anything worthy of a 5.x update. There are only two additions of note for developers.
MacRumors reports:
iOS 5.1 introduces a new API to mark files or directories that should not be backed up. For NSURL objects, add the NSURLIsExcludedFromBackupKey attribute to prevent the corresponding file from being backed up.
Whilst AnandTech reports:
On supported devices, iOS automatically inserts recognized phrases into the current text view when the user has chosen dictation input. The new UIDictationPhrase class (declared in UITextInput.h) provides you with a string representing a phrase that a user has dictated. In the case of ambiguous dictation results, the new class provides an array containing alternative strings. New methods in the UITextInput protocol allow your app to respond to the completion of dictation.
Neither of these things are worthy of a 5.x update as the first is just a reworking of a bug fix in 5.0.1 and the second doesn’t really have much of a practical use. If we look back at previous .x updates, Apple always puts something in that will appeal (and can be marketed) to the end user:
- iOS 4.1 - GameCenter, HDR Photo Capture, iTunes Ping (haha), HD Video Uploads
- iOS 4.2 - AirPrint, AirPlay, Fonts for Notes (it’s a big deal), Voice Memos App - was also the release that bought iOS 4 to the iPad
- iOS 4.3 - Personal Hotspot, AirPlay in 3rd Party Apps, Home Sharing, 2x faster JavaScript in Safari, Mute Switch preference for iPad
These are all big updates and carry a number of new features which end users can relate to (i.e. they are not all dependent on developers integrating a new API). That’s what I don’t understand about iOS 5.1 so far – there are no end user features and the new bits that are there are very minor API updates that most developers won’t use.
In addition to these rather minor updates, there is also the question of timing. iOS 5.1 has been with developers for over 2 months with a very slow release cycle.
So what’s happening?
My theory (and this is all speculation) is that iOS 5.1 does indeed add something big but we won’t see it until mid-February when the iPad 3 is announced. This is because the iPad 3 will come with iOS 5.1 pre-installed and so a number of the new features will be directly tied to that. As soon as the event is over, developers will be given a 5.1 GM along with around 3 weeks to submit apps to the App Store if they want to update to the new features.
My current guess is that Siri will be prominent in iOS 5.1 as the introduction of the iPad 3 means there will be another device out there with Siri support (and that’s if they don’t open Siri up to the iPad 2 / iPhone 4). A 3rd party API for Siri will allow all kinds of amazing apps to appear (take a look at my Tube Updates plugin for SiriProxy for example) and will look great during the iPad 3 announcement keynote when Scott Forstall gets a number of prominent development studios to show off what they’ve done in 2 weeks of having access to the API.
However, Siri APIs do not a .x release make as that isn’t enough to make most people upgrade (such as the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 which I doubt are going to get Siri). A few other things I would hope to see in iOS 5.1 are:
- Widgets - the ability for developers to create Notification Center widgets such as the Weather and Stocks ones which come preinstalled. This is an area when Android is nominally “winning” and is something which should have been in iOS 5 in my opinion.
- Facebook Integration - I’m not a big fan of Facebook but I can see it getting iOS level integration similar to Twitter.
- Improved Siri - Aside from 3rd party dev support, allowing things like “read my mail” or “open this app”. I’d really like a “lower brightness” command.
- iBooks - Not really a big announcement but I speculated yesterday that iBooks might become part of the core OS.
Aside from that I can’t really think of anything they can add to this release. I’d like to see a new maps app without Google (Apple have aquired enough mapping companies) and profiles on the iPad (so you can have multiple accounts) but I think these are more likely for iOS 6.0. Not related to iOS 5.1, but I’d also like to see iMessages bought over to the Mac App Store as well.
One thing is for certain though – iOS 5.1 beta 3 is a long way off from what iOS 5.1 will actually be. It just isn’t a 5.x update at the moment but I’m certain all will be revealed at the iPad 3 keynote sometime in mid-February. If you’ve got any ideas for what you expect to see in iOS 5.1 send me an email or tweet at @bendodson and I’ll add the best ideas to the list.
Matthew Panzarino for TNW:
Now, with the release of the iBooks 2 application, the Retina-ready images are on display yet again, but our source says it is highly doubtful that including them this time is an accident.
These images would display correctly on a screen 2048×1536 pixels in dimension (double the res of the iPad 2′s screen) at a PPI of 260. That is lower than the iPhone 4/4S display, which clocks in at just over 300 PPI, but should still qualify as a Retina display due to the viewing distance to the iPad being greater.
These @2x files appeared in a version of iBooks during August 2010 but turned out to be a red herring (or an accident as TNWs source puts it). However, with rumours ramping up for a March launch of the iPad 3, it’s highly likely that these retina display graphics are now needed.
The thing that confuses me is that iBooks doesn’t come pre-installed on iOS so Apple could easily push out a v2.0.1 safe in the knowledge that a non-retina version wouldn’t end up on the new iPad. This is undoubtedly what will happen with the iWorks suite of apps (a minor update to add retina compatibility) so why add @2x versions of UI components to iBooks now?
In my opinion, this was either a mistake (again) or Apple are planning on having iBooks installed by default on the iPad 3.
I’ve long been interested in magzines on the iPad and how they can be adapted to make best use of the medium. I was therefore very excited when Atomix Magazine first launched in April last year as it was made exclusively for iPad and is focussed on videogames. At the time, most iPad magazines were using the Adobe publishing system which allows publishers to simply export their InDesign files to a custom iPad app. Whilst it works as a basic system for getting content to the iPad (which is better than no content), it is lacking when you consider that most magazines are at different physical sizes to the iPad. This means that unless publishers put the work in to rescale their content (and most don’t - I’m looking at you Future Publishing), then you end up needing to zoom in and pan around to read the content. Atomix was different in that the entire magazine was designed solely for the iPad and should have done away with these problems.
The content itself was absolutely fantastic but there were a number of issues I had with the app itself. In the first few issues they decided to go with a weird parralex background system which meant that the text scrolled differently to the background. You’d actually scroll – sometimes making the text unreadable – and then the background image would rubber band to where it should be. This was eventually sorted but then there were problem with fitting content onto a page (as shown in the image below). Whilst there were dividing lines which looked kind of like page breaks, the content would run to maybe 140% of the iPad height which meant you’d read one column, scroll to keep reading, then have to scroll back up to read the next column. These issues nearly made me give up on Atomix purely because reading it was so frustrating.
These layout problems were solved late last year (along with some problems relating to downloads) but by that point another bone of contention had cropped up; Newsstand. For those that don’t know, Newsstand was a system introduced with iOS 5 which basically made any magazine app able to show its latest issue as an app icon. This meant that you could see when a new issue was available and there were a number of useful additions such as the ability for new issues to download automatically in the background if you had a subscription. Atomix didn’t have Newsstand support when iOS 5 launched which I felt was unfortunate considering that iOS 5 had been in beta for nearly 3 months (plenty of time to integrate the new APIs for an app which is only available on iPad). Other readers obviously felt the same as the @AtomixMag twitter account was always bombarded with people looking for an update on Newsstand support.
Fortunately, this is now being implemented in version 2.0 of the app which will be available tomorrow. The Newsstand support extends not only to moving the app to the Newsstand folder, but also to implementing background downloads if you opt for a subscription. This is a great feature as issues can sometimes take a while to download (they’re around 300MB on average). Aside from Newsstand support, the app has been updated so that issues open a lot faster, has better graphics when you run or close an issue, and has a new download system meaning that any old issues you try to download will auto-resume if you close the app.
Aside from the new version of the app and a new issue of the magazine coming tomorrow, Atomix also promised a ”big announcement” related to the publication. It turns out that this announcement relates to pricing in that Atomix Magazine will be free from now on! With Newsstand support, you are able to take out a free subscription that will work for future issues as well as allowing you to download previous issues free of charge. For this to work, you have to agree to pass on your personal information (a requisite for free subscriptions from Apple) but Atomix has said that they won’t actually store the information that is sent to them as they don’t need it.
I’ve been reading the new issue of the magazine today and I have to say that the whole app does feel a lot snappier and easier to read. Proper paging has been implemented so that all of the content fits nicely into the space and the virtual layout works nicely. You scroll from left to right to go through the different stories but then these are paged vertically so you have to scroll down to read. Some articles have more content underneath so you scroll left to right to read it like a regular magazine but you are prevented from going to the next story unless you scroll to the top of the article. Overall I find it works very well and gives you a good overview of how pages are connected, something that is often a problem in tablet magazines. If I had one criticism, it’s that there is no indication of how far through the magazine you are and I’m hopeful this is something they will look to implement in future versions.
Whilst I was loathe to recommend it a few months ago, this update now makes Atomix a shining example of how iPad magazines should be. It doesn’t try to add too much interactivity but instead focusses on great content laid out in the best way possible with a few interactive elements that delight rather than annoy. If you are an app developer, I would urge you to download Atomix and compare it with a magazine such as Edge, a magazine that could have got it right but instead opted for the lazy InDesign route. The differences should be clear. With Apple promoting Newsstand in a big way, I would expect more magazine publishers to follow Atomix example and go down the bespoke app route.
If you’re a fan of video games, then you should definitely download this magazine. You won’t be disappointed.
