See the icons for Tweetie, Birdbrain, Flight Control, Compression.
Those apps are all iPhone apps, and when run on an iPad they run small in the center of the screen with black surrounds (or at an ugly 2x scaled).
On the home screen, these iPhone apps are currently represented much the same as iPad apps, except their 57x57 pixel icons are blown up to be an ugly blurry 72x72 next to the higher res iPad icons.
In this mockup, with the black borders they could keep their sharp 57x57 pixel size, and have the added benefit of being easily recognizable as iPhone apps to the user.
robotspacer, yatil, blackant, william couch, and 63 other people added this photo to their favorites.
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ExitToShell 37 months ago | reply
Interesting idea, but with the iPad being brand new, of course there are going to be more iPhone-size apps than iPad apps. Eventually I think we will see most popular iPhone apps reworked into iPad apps, and eventually any lingering or special purpose iPhone apps run in a discrete window (waiting for iPhone OS 4.0 and newer for multitasking maybe).
Apple always starts off with the bare minimum and then iterates over and over to add new features. Be patient. Unlike many Android devices the iPhone and iPad are not locked into only one OS version (okay except for original iPhones and OS 4.0, but really they are obsolete now).
agentbillo 37 months ago | reply
yeeeeesssss!
tantramar 37 months ago | reply
This is so obvious that no one else thought of it first. I love it.
ZacharyTirrell 37 months ago | reply
Simple, brilliant, and Apple is unlikely to actually make this happen...
melgross 37 months ago | reply
I don't totally agree with this. At first glance, it seems great, but I've got a number of my iPhone apps that, even though they're not universal, look and work just great on my iPad at 2x.
This would be much better if we could choose the border ourselves. That way, we would know which apps work well and which ones don't, whether or not they're iPad apps or not.
Daniel M. Gattermann 37 months ago | reply
Wow, fantastic! Send an email to Steve :)
kenfagerdotcom 37 months ago | reply
If there are any Apple software engineers reading these comments: Yes, this is fantastic idea.
Andrew Crow 37 months ago | reply
Agreed. Make it so.
Greg76 37 months ago | reply
works for me!
thomqi 37 months ago | reply
Hmm, if done in that way and for those reasons then I'd say the black border shouldn't be glossy. It looks too much like the border is part of the icon and isn't very noticeable to me. I didn't identify all of the iPhone apps before reading the description, and they didn't jump out after reading about the black-border clue.
Try making the black border as a flat and hard border that makes the icon stand out, just like the experience of using an iPhone app on the iPad. The icons would stand out then. Keep in mind that the bezel gloss should begin on the icon and not the border area. So, regular icon with the bezel gloss, then surround it with a hard, flat black border.
jeffreynoldz 37 months ago | reply
A simple, elegant idea, very well executed. Nice job. Funny how people are art directing you in this thread while clearly not knowing what they're talking about - please don't take any of their advice ;)
mjdave 37 months ago | reply
Thanks all for the comments, I'm kind of surprised at the strong reaction, was a simple little idea I thought I'd try out while procrastinating level design work!
Rock on, anyway, glad the general consensus is positive. Hears hoping Apple do it!
Calvin Ho / Atomic Attack 37 months ago | reply
There are bordered icons to many apps already. Most EA games for example.
prendio2 37 months ago | reply
@juandesant says:
That's a benefit, not a problem.
Different icon sizes would look awful.
@pigs on a blanket says:
The point is they do look inferior at the moment (pixelated and blurry) and this is a proposed solution to that problem.
Apple have demonstrated since the initial launch exactly how iPhone apps are displayed on the iPad.
arcank77 37 months ago | reply
Really nice.
nickburwell 37 months ago | reply
Great idea, would love to see it implemented!
antwerpenR 37 months ago | reply
yes - good idea!
karen_2020 37 months ago | reply
excellent idea!
sulcalibur 37 months ago | reply
This is one of those so simple yet so effective ideas that it makes perfect sense.
Mr. Jobs, buy this man a gift and do as he says! ;)
Aaron und Ruth Meder 35 months ago | reply
Good idea! That would make a much clearer difference between the iPad and iPhone apps.