I was recently accepted into a program for Square, the super cool, pay from anywhere with credit service from Twitter’s Jack Dorsey. It’s aptly and cleverly named Inner Square, and basically consists of receiving a box of 100 Square readers to hand out to friends and family, a stack of stickers, a t-shirt, and a note with the rundown. I’m simply now an advocate for Square with resources to pass around.
If any small businesses in St. Louis still have yet to try out Square, let me know and I can try and hook you up.
For the record, I’m neither being paid nor pushed to write about Square. Just sharing.
My Rant About Something That Doesn’t Exist Yet
The days until the announcement of the new iPhone are now minimal, yet geeks everywhere are still scrounging for every possible bit of info they can get. Steve Jobs is sitting in his house giggling with joy in his bed while he plays with his iPhone 4000 and rehearses his keynote lines. Asia is “leaking” fake photos of Apple devices for page hits and personal recognition.
But I’m sitting here worried. Not about the device itself, as I know it’s going to be the coolest of beans. But I’m worried about something in particular that only a designer would worry about; the new iPhone is rumored to have a higher res screen. While this sounds awesome to a consumer, it’s hell for the whole of app development.
When the iPad was announced, it was fine and dandy creating two sizes of an app for two different screens. The iPad has a lot more possibility. In fact, I’m writing this on an iPad now, which is much more comfortable than an iPhone.
Which is exactly my point: there’s good reason to create an optimized version of an app for the iPad’s screen. So much more can be done with it. However, creating an app for the same sized screen but higher resolution has no advantages but looking prettier. Which, as a designer, isn’t bad. But it is. That’s now three screens you’re optimizing your app for. If you’re making an iPad-only app, then you have nothing to worry about. But an iPhone app? If you’re serious about cooking up a big seller, you’d better hope you have the new artwork to support it. Imagine, game developers, creating two versions of the same game. Not only are you optimizing it, but you’re also having two of each image which quickly bulks up the size of the app itself.
I also feel like I’m starting to worry Apple is straying away from one of the beauties of iPhone apps: an application you know that will work on any iPhone. Now, while I imagine it still will, and will just follow the iPad’s pixel-doubling magic tricks, the fact that for consumers there’s now so many different compatibility requirements is troubling. And for developers, keeping up with this demand is difficult. An app not having an “HD” sticker slapped onto it is reason enough for a consumer to complain and give it a one-star rating followed by a five-star bribe. It’s easy enough for a consumer to tell you to update to the new higher-resolution, but when you’re on the other side and created artwork for a 480x320 screen and now have to recreate it, that’s a mess and headache.
It’s not that I’m not excited for the possibilities. I’m just not excited for the demand and the unnecessary, extra work. Which isn’t lazy, really. It’s just frustrating.
Vimeo Link (HTML5/iPad enabled)
I really think the people who don’t quite understand the “motion magazine” are the same people who think the magazine medium should be gone altogether and be taken over by the Internet.
The difference is an experience where typography, narration, and visual story telling combine, which is far more difficult to do on a website.
With a digital magazine, there’s also no risk of a user getting a different experience than another. With the web, there’s the risk of users being broken up into different experiences by systems, web browsers, and requirements.
There’s much more you can do with experiences that you know will be the same. This is a reason why developers are in love with building mobile/iPhone/iPad apps. Everyone who opens the app will get the same look and feel that the developer intended for. This is also a reason why people are still in love with classic print; their work comes out as the way they intended and is consumed in a controlled way.
Making this video example happen on the web correctly for everyone would be extremely difficult; almost impossible. But if you’ve used an iPad, which I’m typing this comment on right now, then you might very well understand the direction in which digital print is going. It’s an amazing experience to be holding something that feels like classic print, but moves and flows in a way that could never be possible before. I’m personally longing for more of these digital magazines on my iPad, and I’m really extremely excited.
Why you don’t need more than 250MB on an iPad 3G
You open up your brand new iPad 3G from the box. The screen glistens, the Apple logo shines, and you’re left in awe as the glowing slate of glass pulls you in. You play with it at home for a day or so, not quite ready to expose it to the world, before deciding you should take it out on a field test; take it for a spin around town and let it see the sights.
But first, you have to make a decision: “Do I just buy 250MB of wireless data this month and see what happens, or an unlimited supply of data that I can suck from AT&T’s towers as much as I please?”
Honeymoon
Vertical panorama made and edited with Pano and PhotoForge apps
