Initial notes from yesterday's Apple announcements and release of iOS 8 & XCode 6 final version to developers:
* iOS 8 final version available to developers, but not going out to the public for another week or so -- gives us some more breathing room!
* XCode 6 can now be used to submit apps, so we can do a fully 8-ready submission when we're ready. (The update currently in queue has fixes for 8 but is built for 7, which may or may not scale properly on the new devices.)
* iPhone 6 introduces a new slightly larger screen size; our existing use of Auto Layout to handle variable screen sizes should handle this fine
* iPhone 6 Plus appears to introduce a third screen density/artwork scaling resolution[1] as well as an even larger screen size. I'm investigating to see if we need to scale up any of our SVG/PNG-based icons now for best display. (Use of icon fonts should mean automatic high-resolution icons in most places)
[1] What I've seen reported indicates rendering at 3x density, then scaling down slightly to the final 1920x1080 output resolution. I'll see if I can verify this in the Xcode simulators.
-- brion
iPhone 6 simulator check results:
* Layout is mostly ok, except the status bar in landscape mode seems overlarge (?)
iPhone 6 Plus simulator check results:
* Layout roughly same as 6; looks good except that large status bar in landscape
* Web content appears to be rendered at 2x resolution and scaled up; it appears slightly blurry in the simulator compared to text drawn directly on native buttons and labels.
It's possible that this is a limitation of UIWebView; there's a new WebKit wrapper interface available on iOS 8 which may be more featureful...
Actually in both cases, the web view reports itself as having a width of 320px and a devicePixelRatio of 2 (matching the 'classic' iPhone width). Might have to do something to opt in to the new native sizes. Sigh.
-- brion
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 10:51 AM, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
Initial notes from yesterday's Apple announcements and release of iOS 8 & XCode 6 final version to developers:
- iOS 8 final version available to developers, but not going out to the
public for another week or so -- gives us some more breathing room!
- XCode 6 can now be used to submit apps, so we can do a fully 8-ready
submission when we're ready. (The update currently in queue has fixes for 8 but is built for 7, which may or may not scale properly on the new devices.)
- iPhone 6 introduces a new slightly larger screen size; our existing use
of Auto Layout to handle variable screen sizes should handle this fine
- iPhone 6 Plus appears to introduce a third screen density/artwork
scaling resolution[1] as well as an even larger screen size. I'm investigating to see if we need to scale up any of our SVG/PNG-based icons now for best display. (Use of icon fonts should mean automatic high-resolution icons in most places)
[1] What I've seen reported indicates rendering at 3x density, then scaling down slightly to the final 1920x1080 output resolution. I'll see if I can verify this in the Xcode simulators.
-- brion
Ok, the web view scaling problem was due to missing launch images at the new resolutions, which left us in a funky scaling mode.
I've added stub images (which need to be replaced to look good): https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/159524
With that in, web view rendered at native resolution and looks much nicer on the 6 Plus simulator.
-- brion
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 11:39 AM, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
iPhone 6 simulator check results:
- Layout is mostly ok, except the status bar in landscape mode seems
overlarge (?)
iPhone 6 Plus simulator check results:
- Layout roughly same as 6; looks good except that large status bar in
landscape
- Web content appears to be rendered at 2x resolution and scaled up; it
appears slightly blurry in the simulator compared to text drawn directly on native buttons and labels.
It's possible that this is a limitation of UIWebView; there's a new WebKit wrapper interface available on iOS 8 which may be more featureful...
Actually in both cases, the web view reports itself as having a width of 320px and a devicePixelRatio of 2 (matching the 'classic' iPhone width). Might have to do something to opt in to the new native sizes. Sigh.
-- brion
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 10:51 AM, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
Initial notes from yesterday's Apple announcements and release of iOS 8 & XCode 6 final version to developers:
- iOS 8 final version available to developers, but not going out to the
public for another week or so -- gives us some more breathing room!
- XCode 6 can now be used to submit apps, so we can do a fully 8-ready
submission when we're ready. (The update currently in queue has fixes for 8 but is built for 7, which may or may not scale properly on the new devices.)
- iPhone 6 introduces a new slightly larger screen size; our existing use
of Auto Layout to handle variable screen sizes should handle this fine
- iPhone 6 Plus appears to introduce a third screen density/artwork
scaling resolution[1] as well as an even larger screen size. I'm investigating to see if we need to scale up any of our SVG/PNG-based icons now for best display. (Use of icon fonts should mean automatic high-resolution icons in most places)
[1] What I've seen reported indicates rendering at 3x density, then scaling down slightly to the final 1920x1080 output resolution. I'll see if I can verify this in the Xcode simulators.
-- brion
And in case anyone wants to be massively confused, the full set of iPhone screen resolutions are now:
1242 x 2208 at 3x density (414 x 736 points) for the 5.5" iPhone 6 Plus (scaled back down to 1080x1920 for display!)
750 x 1334 at 2x density (375 x 667 points) for the 4.7" iPhone 6
640 x 1136 at 2x density (320 x 568 points) for the 4" iPhone 5
640 x 960 at 2x density (320 x 480 points) for the 3.5" iPhone 4s
And iOS people thought they had it easy compared to Android. Give up and embrace your new massively-multiple-screen-resolution masters! Note the 6 Plus also runs more stuff like the homescreen in landscape mode, kind of "phablet"y.
-- brion
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 11:59 AM, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
Ok, the web view scaling problem was due to missing launch images at the new resolutions, which left us in a funky scaling mode.
I've added stub images (which need to be replaced to look good): https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/159524
With that in, web view rendered at native resolution and looks much nicer on the 6 Plus simulator.
-- brion
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 11:39 AM, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
iPhone 6 simulator check results:
- Layout is mostly ok, except the status bar in landscape mode seems
overlarge (?)
iPhone 6 Plus simulator check results:
- Layout roughly same as 6; looks good except that large status bar in
landscape
- Web content appears to be rendered at 2x resolution and scaled up; it
appears slightly blurry in the simulator compared to text drawn directly on native buttons and labels.
It's possible that this is a limitation of UIWebView; there's a new WebKit wrapper interface available on iOS 8 which may be more featureful...
Actually in both cases, the web view reports itself as having a width of 320px and a devicePixelRatio of 2 (matching the 'classic' iPhone width). Might have to do something to opt in to the new native sizes. Sigh.
-- brion
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 10:51 AM, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
Initial notes from yesterday's Apple announcements and release of iOS 8 & XCode 6 final version to developers:
- iOS 8 final version available to developers, but not going out to the
public for another week or so -- gives us some more breathing room!
- XCode 6 can now be used to submit apps, so we can do a fully 8-ready
submission when we're ready. (The update currently in queue has fixes for 8 but is built for 7, which may or may not scale properly on the new devices.)
- iPhone 6 introduces a new slightly larger screen size; our existing
use of Auto Layout to handle variable screen sizes should handle this fine
- iPhone 6 Plus appears to introduce a third screen density/artwork
scaling resolution[1] as well as an even larger screen size. I'm investigating to see if we need to scale up any of our SVG/PNG-based icons now for best display. (Use of icon fonts should mean automatic high-resolution icons in most places)
[1] What I've seen reported indicates rendering at 3x density, then scaling down slightly to the final 1920x1080 output resolution. I'll see if I can verify this in the Xcode simulators.
-- brion
On 10 September 2014 12:10, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
And iOS people thought they had it easy compared to Android. Give up and embrace your new massively-multiple-screen-resolution masters!
Hah! I'm starting to feel like "The Combinatorics of Mobile Device Configurations" would be a viable module for a software engineering undergraduate to take...
Dan
Ehem, I see no mentions of Apple Watch here. ;P
On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 1:36 PM, Dan Garry dgarry@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 10 September 2014 12:10, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
And iOS people thought they had it easy compared to Android. Give up and embrace your new massively-multiple-screen-resolution masters!
Hah! I'm starting to feel like "The Combinatorics of Mobile Device Configurations" would be a viable module for a software engineering undergraduate to take...
Dan
-- Dan Garry Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps Wikimedia Foundation
Mobile-l mailing list Mobile-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l
Dan, may I quote you on BASH?
And speaking of device configurations, are you designing mobile apps or mobile web for watches?
Pine On Sep 10, 2014 1:36 PM, "Dan Garry" dgarry@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 10 September 2014 12:10, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
And iOS people thought they had it easy compared to Android. Give up and embrace your new massively-multiple-screen-resolution masters!
Hah! I'm starting to feel like "The Combinatorics of Mobile Device Configurations" would be a viable module for a software engineering undergraduate to take...
Dan
-- Dan Garry Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps Wikimedia Foundation
Mobile-l mailing list Mobile-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mobile-l
Pine,
Responses in-line.
On 10 September 2014 15:20, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Dan, may I quote you on BASH?
Absolutely. :-)
And speaking of device configurations, are you designing mobile apps or mobile web for watches?
We're focussing on the native apps right now, so given that we're a relatively small team we're not looking at expanding into the watch market. (I never thought I'd say something like that!)
If you're looking for a third-party Android wear Wikipedia app, I personally quite like Attopedia which was made by Dheera Venkatraman. Check it out! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dheera.attopedia
Dan