Mark Bridge writes:
The new iPad has a better screen. Higher-resolution. Clearer. High Definition. Just what everyone wants, right?
Apparently not.
Stephanie Rieger is one of quite a few people pointing out that non-optimised content now looks fuzzy on the iPad.
“Releasing a retina-display version hasn’t really improved the device (which is now also noticeably heavier and feels awkwardly out of balance). What it’s merely done is create hype that no one (including Apple) actually needed.”
More pixels mean bigger images... which, in turn, means bigger web pages. Peter-Paul Koch warns that the new tablet’s data demands will strain the mobile web.
“Retina may be great for the end user, but the data networks simply cannot handle it (yet). Thus it’s either way ahead of its time, or it’s a dud. We’ll figure out which in the next year or so.”
Apple has already increased the maximum over-the-air download limit for applications to 50MB from 20MB, apparently in anticiption of the new iPad’s demands. Now it’s time to see what app developers and website designers do. If they optimise for the ‘iPad 3’, everyone will be happy.
If they don’t, it’ll be interesting to see what iPad 4 looks like. Then again, Apple has a lot of influence. Just remember what happened to Adobe Flash on mobile devices...