Just watched the keynote. For me the big things were the improved camera and Siri.
So in other words, stuff that has been on Android phones for years now. Gotcha :wink:
Just watched the keynote. For me the big things were the improved camera and Siri.
5 inch diagonal?! - Perhaps you should pick up one of those 7 inch Android tabs. :biggrin:
So in other words, stuff that has been on Android phones for years now. Gotcha :wink:
Siri is very cool, but couldn't they get a better sounding voice?
is siri related to the phone or iOS 5 which will be available on the 4 and 3GS? I still have my 3GS. My wife has the 4. I have no compelling reason at all to move to the 4 or 4S, they're going to need to do a lot better than this. I really hear Android calling to me possibly in the form of a Galaxy S II.
Well, can't you say the 3GS hardware is "really crap" compared to the 4S? So I am not sure how you don't have this issue on iOS.
It depends on what you're trying to do. If you are CPU-bound, then yes, the 3GS is way way behind the 4S which is dual core and much higher clocked. Most apps and games are not CPU bound though. Most of the user experience goodness comes from the ability of the GPU to keep up (hence why a crappy low powered, low clocked ARM CPU paired with a decent GPU still gives a great experience while browsing the web or email or whatever on an iPad).
On the GPU front, the 4S has substantially higher pixel throughput *BUT* the 4S also has 4x the number of pixels it needs to render compared to the 3GS. So in the end, from a pure framerate perspective, it ends up where the 4S is faster, but not a lot so when fillrate bound. Of course from a functionality and triangle throughput perspective, the GPU on the 4S is significantly better which lets you perform all kinds of cool effects that aren't possible on the 3GS.
Since Apple has a closed ecosystem where they control the hardware, they can ensure that there aren't dozens of different configurations each with their own balance of CPU+GPU performance and capabilities. This makes it significantly easier for the majority of iOS developers. You create a single universal binary, the GPU + CPU are generally fast enough to do whatever you need, and all you need to do is provide two sets of artwork.. for the two different resolutions. If you're Epic and pushing the envelope, then yes it's a pain in the ass because you have to tune your engine specifically for each hardware configuration -- but luckily there aren't that many.
On the android front if an app is lightweight, it too won't have a problem. The issue is that middle of the road android games can run like crap on some hardware because the manufacturer was trying to get the cheapest possible product out and there's pretty much no minimum bar that Google has set. There's also all kinds of screen ratios and resolutions and dot pitches which makes it a nightmare for the developer.
On the android front if an app is lightweight, it too won't have a problem. The issue is that middle of the road android games can run like crap on some hardware because the manufacturer was trying to get the cheapest possible product out and there's pretty much no minimum bar that Google has set. There's also all kinds of screen ratios and resolutions and dot pitches which makes it a nightmare for the developer.
I know, it sounds similar to the one from this famous clip:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FL7yD-0pqZg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The apropos comparison here is Windows computers. Windows is far more "fragmented" than Android, and yet still manages to succeed. "Fragmentation" is nothing more than Apple FUD.
Good stuff. Thanks.
How powerful of a chip do you think Apple will need to run a "retina dislpay" iPad3?
FUD? Obviously you're not a game developer. Windows is ABSOLUTELY more fragmented than Android and is also the reason it's a complete F'ing nightmare developing decent games on it without setting some minimum requirements.
That's exactly my point. Yet games get written for Windows nonetheless. Why would Android be any different? Nothing wrong with requiring minimum specs for an Android game.
Also, games tend to be the bleeding edge for app development. I doubt the standard fartbox app developer has to worry about fragmentation that much.
"The real reason there's no iPhone 5: The carriers"
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Sorry, don't beleive this at all. You really think Apple is going to do a damn thing a carrier wants? They do what they want.
You guys do realize that the next iPhone (2012) won't be called the iPhone 5...right? It will be iPhone 6, or something else, but not "5", lol. The 4S is the 5th iPhone.
Uhh... I don't think so. The next major change will be iPhone 5 and then 5s after that. I suspect Apple will try to get at least two years from one major design change.
Ask any developer who has their app on both iOS and Android about their sales. Sales are typically 10:1 (or even more) in favor of iOS. Why is that? From a ROI perspective, it's a pretty easy decision which platform devs want to spend their time on. I'm really hoping this changes soon because I'd love to open up my games to another XX million users.
On this I agree with you. I'm not sure why Android app sales are so bad; fragmentation might be the issue, but I suspect it's moreso because Android users are cheap bastards (at least, yours truly Android user is :biggrin. I've had my phone for well over a year now, and have not yet paid for an app. I either find what I need for free, or skip it.
I also don't play games on the phone (well, except for an occasional Solitaire), and so wouldn't be a very good Android game customer. I suspect that there are many others like me as well.