Buyer Beware: 11-inch iPad Pro has a new aspect ratio, and most apps have HUGE black bars

[profets]

Just so everyone is aware. The same thing will happen with the 12.9. This isn’t model specific. Apps will be updated over time so I think it’s overblown, but good for people to know.

Why? Hasn’t the 12.9 kept its old aspect ratio?

I’m going by what Steve Troughton Smith is saying. I’m not sure exactly why, but it could be because of the swipe bar or whatever you call it at the bottom. Apps will need to be recompiled in Xcode 10.1.

That could be it. That and the bar at the bottom of the screen taking up space. Either way, apps will need to be recompiled in Xcode 10.1, just like they will for the 11 inch.

What Steve T-S is referring to will happen on both models - essentially because of the home indicator (bar for swiping up to dock/home screen). Apps that are yet to be optimized will have a very thing black space along the bottom where the home indicator is. Other issue is if using split view and only 1 app isn't optimized, they'll both be treated in the old manner with the thin black bar right across the bottom.

Separate from the 11" having the new AR, but still good to be aware of.

 

[DNichter]

What Steve T-S is referring to will happen on both models - essentially because of the home indicator (bar for swiping up to dock/home screen). Apps that are yet to be optimized will have a very thing black space along the bottom where the home indicator is. Other issue is if using split view and only 1 app isn't optimized, they'll both be treated in the old manner with the thin black bar right across the bottom.

Separate from the 11" having the new AR, but still good to be aware of.

I thought I read that because of the new aspect ratio, the 11 won't have the issue of the new bar. I could be wrong. Ultimately I don't think it's a huge deal as it's something I have always dealt with. Apps for the X were updated pretty quick from what I remember. I'll hold onto the apps that update quickly, delete those that don't.

 

[flur]

Apps for the X were updated pretty quick from what I remember. I'll hold onto the apps that update quickly, delete those that don't.

The only apps I care about updating are the ones where I watch video or work in, because it’d be great to take advantage of the screen resolution. I expect Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video, the MS office apps, and Lightroom to update pretty quickly, so the only one I’ll be waiting on will be Scrivener. The others, like Accuweather and Google calendar and such, can update or not and I just don’t care. As long as I have the real estate where it matters, I’m good.

 

[danmart]

Black bars on the 12.9 will be disappointing since the touch interface is already mostly implemented in iOS 12.

I guess we’ll know for sure in about 6hrs when devices start arriving with consumers...

ETA: has anyone actually seen this in a review? I’ve watched 4-5 with no mention at all.

 

[Momof9]

You know - they will fix this issue... I had some of this last year with the iPhone X....

 

[KeepCalmPeople]

A touch of patience can take 2-3 years when you look at the history of the 6Plus.
...
The software is really holding this device back.

Amen. There is considerable inertia whenever Apple introduces something that requires developers to adopt it, whether it is a new screen size or a set of APIs that provide new functionality. Early adopters who buy the latest and greatest may never get to use a fully-optimized device.

 

[profets]

Black bars on the 12.9 will be disappointing since the touch interface is already mostly implemented in iOS 12.

I guess we’ll know for sure in about 6hrs when devices start arriving with consumers...

ETA: has anyone actually seen this in a review? I’ve watched 4-5 with no mention at all.

This surprised me as well - no one seemed to mention it during the reviews.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

This surprised me as well - no one seemed to mention it during the reviews.

That is what I don't get, I know all reviews had the 12.9, but I would think someone would mention it in a review if the 12.9 has this issue as well as is stated in this thread.

 

[canyonblue737]

Your post confirms they arbitrarily decided on the 11 inches just because.

???? It's a win, same exact same size device with a BIGGER screen and significantly BIGGER movies. Apps that take advantage of the screen get MORE real estate and apps that don't (for now) won't be smaller at least. To make the 10.5 bezel less they could have made it smaller or to get to 11 in 4:3 it would have gotten bigger,

The only apps I care about updating are the ones where I watch video or work in, because it’d be great to take advantage of the screen resolution. I expect Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video, the MS office apps, and Lightroom to update pretty quickly, so the only one I’ll be waiting on will be Scrivener. The others, like Accuweather and Google calendar and such, can update or not and I just don’t care. As long as I have the real estate where it matters, I’m good.

To be honest I think those apps will work correctly out of the box. The apps themselves may have letterboxes until updated but most video apps once playing the video use the internal iOS api that full screens the video and I would imagine that will fill the screen as it of course has already been updated for these units.

 

[flur]

To be honest I think those apps will work correctly out of the box. The apps themselves may have letterboxes until updated but most video apps once playing the video use the internal iOS api that full screens the video and I would imagine that will fill the screen as it of course has already been updated for these units.

Awesome! Thanks for letting me know. I’m heading out of town on Thursday and this will make for some great movie watching on the plane.

 

[danmart]

This surprised me as well - no one seemed to mention it during the reviews.

Now I know to look for it, I have seen it in some video reviews. Just occasionally the home bar is shown as white on a thin black strip, whilst the screen detail is some other colour. Apple’s apps don’t have this, they have a black bar on top of the grey for example.

It’s only thin, we’ll see if it is noticeable or not...

 

[Krevnik]

With iPad, this is the first time since 2010 that they've changed the aspect ratio. This will take much much longer for all developers to update their apps, because everyone since 2010 has been developing for only one aspect ratio. The iPad also has a much smaller user-base compared to iPhone, so you'll see many developers leaving this as it is, and it looks horrible.

It's more depressing than that though. If your app supports auto-layout for slide-over or split screen, most of this is effectively "free" (handling the AR change). If you have a universal app that supports the X already, the rest is already "free" too (handling the strip). There's nothing new about the 11" in terms of how developers target it compared to devices that have been out for a year, or three.

The fact that there's a noticeable number of high profile apps that have hard-coded screen sizes in them is pretty facepalm worthy, IMO. The writing has been on the wall that using fixed layouts will bite you.

 

[Nautilus007]

Apple calls edge-to-edge' display even tho there a huge bezel.....

I was thinking, if there was no bezel at all - how would you hold the device?

 

[dgdosen]

Did anyone bother to check the math? Or look at a picture? These new iPads are not 16:9. They're not 4:3, but they're still much closer to being a square than 16:9. They're much closer to 4:3 than 16:9...
[doublepost=1541542201][/doublepost]This shouldn't be that big of a deal for developers. XCode has had support for dynamic sizing for a few iterations - so some apps should support those resolutions (look like they fit) right out of the box.

There's a supportability lesson in there in not straying too far from guidance when writing apps with Interface Builder.

 

[onkytonk]

I'm not worried. It's one of those quirks of being an early adopter.

It happened when I went from my iPhone 3G to 4 and apps had to be updated for the Retina display.
It happened when I went from my iPhone 4 to 5 and the screen size changed.
It happened when I went from my iPhone 6S to X.

Having said that, I find more and more developers are updating their apps much quicker than they used to to adapt to these types of changes. Apple gives developers the utilities to be able to do this rather promptly.

I haven't even received my iPad Pro yet, and I've already had app updates that utilise the new Apple Pencil double tap feature.

These days, I normally try to purchase apps that I see have an active developer (app updates within 6 months). It's usually a good indication if the app will likely see future, regular updates.

 

[nordique]

It is a big issue, make no mistake. I'm considering skipping it all together, it will literally take half a year at least for some apps to be updated

and by then, the next model with 2x the RAM will prob be around the corner too haha
[doublepost=1541553568][/doublepost]

So basically, the 11” actually has bigger bezels than the 10.5, even if they are software generated

the 11" looks like it has larger side bezels than the 10.5" to begin with too

 

[Cool Pup]

This is always the case when it comes to resolution changes. There are many apps that have never supported the increase in size from the iPhone 6 Plus that are still at least somewhat usable. I have to imagine many apps that are used by iPad users will never see the light of day of an update to support the new change, but many of the more modern ones will assuredly.

In my case, I don't think many of my video consumption devices will update accordingly for some time (many apps I use still do not support the X properly), but I prefer the wide resolution than the 4:3 at the end of the day, especially for movie consumption.

 

[CrazyForCashews]

So is Apple gonna stick with this new screen size and aspect ratio for the next few years or are they gonna do something funny again next year?

 

[flur]

So is Apple gonna stick with this new screen size and aspect ratio for the next few years or are they gonna do something funny again next year?

We’ve been seeing updates every 1.5 years for the Pros, so we might not see any update until Spring 2020. Apple usually makes a major design change and then the next update is internals, so we’ll likely keep this screen size and aspect ratio for the next three years.

 

[x302]

It seems a lot of apps are going to need to be updated, Netflix, eBay, etc. as they don't support the full 12.9" now (black bars all around).

 

[flur]

It seems a lot of apps are going to need to be updated, Netflix, eBay, etc. as they don't support the full 12.9" now (black bars all around).

But what does it look like when you actually watch something in full screen?

 

[x302]

This is full screen and zoomed in using Netflix

 

[tekchic]

Eesh. Not thrilled at the full screen. Oh well, I'm sure they'll have updates fairly quickly.

 

[flur]

This is full screen and zoomed in using Netflix

Thanks. That’s a bummer.

 

[fate0311]

No thanks Jeff. I’ll keep my 10.5 which is already a powerhouse.