http://arstechnica.c...g-on-this-year/5/

Why make Chrome OS tablets when you already have Android tablets? The current plan is that Android runs on phones and tablets, and Chrome OS runs on laptops and desktops, sort of like Apple's iOS/Mac OS X division. A Chrome OS tablet device would muddy this delineation a bit, but we might have an explanation. Android does not work very well on 10-inch devices—most apps can stand being stretched to a portrait 7-inch screen, but the user experience starts to fall apart on a horizontal 10-inch screen. Google seems to agree with this, as it isn't in any kind of a hurry to refresh the 14-month-old Nexus 10. Perhaps the new plan is to stop Android at the 7-8 inch size and sell Chrome OS on devices 10 inches and up.

I'd wondered what has been planned for the Nexus 10....

Fragmentation of OS efforts can be bad, but being a purist and trying to run the same OS on watches and laptops doesn't make much sense either.

It'll be interesting to see how things evolve.

Cheers,
Scott.

I've seen those rumors too, and the rumors that a 12" isn't going to happen. It sounds like it's supposed to address some sort of corporate application. I can't see it, but who knows.

One of the claimed advantages of Android over iOS was that it supported all sorts of screen resolutions and aspect ratios. Yet Apple has had a history of understanding graphics better than just about anyone. (E.g. how long did it take Winders to have a text screensaver (e.g. Marquee) that didn't flicker?) Apple doesn't seem to have any problems making bigger or smaller iOS screens when they want.

Phone/tablet hardware is getting faster and more capable. There's no doubt that they could run something comparable to Win2k or WinXP if there was a need to do so, but they don't because there's no good way to accurately interact with it yet. Sure, you could hookup a Bluetooth keyboard (and maybe mouse), but why? You could use dictation and voice commands, but that's useless in noisy environments like airports. (Have you ever called some company that has voice menus from an airport? It's a disaster.)

Apple could easily make MacOS run iOS apps, and similarly with Google. (Android apps run in a VM. I assume Apple does something similar with iOS given their history of moving between CPU architectures, but maybe not now that they own their own processor designs.) But the hardware serves different markets, so there doesn't seem to be a need at present.

How much faster does a tablet need to be to play movies? Complicated games may be driving the hardware, but there's a limit there as well. Not everyone wants to play FPS games and the like.

I've been thinking about a LTE Nexus 7 for travel and for use as a decent Google Maps gizmo in the car, but we only travel once or twice a year, and similarly only take long car trips once or twice a year. Does it really make sense to spend over $700 for the hardware and a T-Mobile service (probably double that for an iPad Mini Retina and service) for something used so infrequently? The software on either platform isn't compelling to me.

I like the idea of a Chrome tablet, but I honestly haven't looked into the details much at all. Android is great, but isn't perfect. It's nice that Google doesn't have all its eggs in that single basket.

So, I dunno. I'll continue to wait and watch, I guess.

Cheers,
Scott.

http://9to5mac.com/2...-screen-iphone-6/

Fourth, it’s hard to argue that Apple wouldn’t want to cause its developers grief with a resolution switch when it has already done just that once before.

There is a fifth argument: that iOS has for some time been headed in a direction that makes resolution changes less painful than they might be.

(autolayout graphic)

In iOS 6, Apple introduced the concept of Auto Layout. Instead of developers having to specify absolute pixel coordinates for objects, they are able to define a location in relative terms. For example, this object should be centred and at least 20 pixels away from neighbouring objects.

Not all developers adopted it. In fact, probably most haven’t, as there’s been no particular reason to so far. A change in resolution would provide that reason, and they’d then have apps that would play nicely with any future resolution changes.

(ios7_cover_photo)

Then there’s iOS 7. A flat user interface becomes much easier to rescale than one that has pixel-level decoration in the form of shadows, glows, textures and so on. Perhaps Apple introduced the flatness of iOS 7 purely for aesthetic reasons, but perhaps not.

It’s also not all gloom-and-doom for developers: a great many apps are effectively just navbars and tableviews, and adapting those would be a simpler task.

So my view is, yes, we should expect to see not just a larger display size in the iPhone 6, but also a new resolution. Let us know your views – especially if you’re a developer – in the comments.

FWIW. :-)

Cheers,
Scott.

I did mention aspect ratio, but not in that sentence. :-)

http://www.iosres.com/ lists the nitty-gritty on iOS. There have been 3 aspect ratios so far. Presumably there will be at least one more when the rumored bigger iPhone 6 is released. It seems reasonable to me that they would want another column of icons on the 6 (5 cols) compared to the 5S (4 cols). But they may remember Steve's arguing about keeping it narrow enough to use with 1 hand. Presumably they'd want a "Retina" version as well. I'm too frazzled from shoveling to do the math right now...

Fortunately, someone already has - http://9to5mac.com/2...-screen-iphone-6/ And apparently Apple's been pushing an "Auto Layout" tool on iOS developers so that they can handle different resolutions and aspect ratios automatically.

You're probably right about the tablet-in-the-car distraction. But being across the pond with a good-enough tablet that can do e-mail and web stuff and also be a Google Maps box in the car would be appealing. One less gadget and charger to carry around.

Interesting times.

Cheers,
Scott.