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Interesting, contacts app not full screen?

MythicFrost

MythicFrost

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
3,944
40
Australia
http://www.apple.com/ipad/gallery/
If you go to the third page of the gallery and click "Contacts" you'll notice that the contacts app doesn't cover the entire screen in portrait, there's a big black area up the top.

I'm guessing this means the contacts app won't cover the entire screen, or perhaps it's just a mistake?
What does everyone think?
 
maybe its designed to be like a giant popover, as you might pull it up to add a contact to an email etc? In landscape it takes up the entire page for usability reasons, but in portrait you might see some of the original app in the background?
 
Its not a mistake. It would look even odder if they stretched it out more to fit the entire screen.
 
A conflict of their screen ratio. The 4:3 ratio is so close to square there is no obvious one-page version of a two-page app that makes sense (after being stretched out) for a page view from a contacts book. Notice how it looks like it uses the iBook format.
 
If they stretched it to full size, it would no longer be a book of contacts but a mere pamphlet of contacts.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Its not a mistake. It would look even odder if they stretched it out more to fit the entire screen.
Click to expand...

I thought that but if you look at the calendar app it displays the same in both orientations and that doesn't look odd stretched to full screen. It seems a bit random that they would not go full screen in portrait mode on the contacts app. It doesn't look right at all.
 
It's a BOOK with a gap top & bottom in portrait view Not a list.
Looks good, you don't need to use full screen for everything.
 
MythicFrost said:
Personally, I like everything full screen. Why can't the book just be a bit longer in portrait? lol.
Click to expand...

Exatly, just make it longer. What about that guy that said, "I don't like everything in full screen" Are you kiddig me?! You don't need to make excuses for Apple. It's not like it's run in a window. It's just against a black background of pointlessness. It's not even centered against the black backdrop!

They built these apps from the ground up... what a joke.
 
What about all that wasted white space on each contact's page?

I say they show all contacts - at once - in a 6pt helvetica condensed spreadsheet! Too small? Just press-and-hold for the magnifier thingy. :)
 
I have never understood why so many have application windows in full screen size when it is not necessary.

I normally have six or more windows of optimum size open on my 15" MacBook pro desktop at any one time.

Not a Windows versus Mac thing as I worked the same way in Windows till 2004 when I chucked the XP Box out..

The Contacts book in portrait mode looks great.... it doesn't need to cover the whole darn screen.
 
space for the keyboard...

My guess is that if you have to edit something, the "contact book" will shift up to the top, and the keyboard will use up much of that empty space at the bottom.

How pathetic is it that there are a dozen replies to something as arcane as this thread? and how pathetic am I for posting yet another one? I just wish the thing would come out already so we can have some more interesting threads.
 
My guess is that if you have to edit something, the "contact book" will shift up to the top, and the keyboard will use up much of that empty space at the bottom.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but considering the Contacts app uses the full screen in landscape, whatever it does there to get around the keyboard popping up could be applied to using it full screen in portrait.
 
Ashka said:
I have never understood why so many have application windows in full screen size when it is not necessary.

I normally have six or more windows of optimum size open on my 15" MacBook pro desktop at any one time.

Not a Windows versus Mac thing as I worked the same way in Windows till 2004 when I chucked the XP Box out..

The Contacts book in portrait mode looks great.... it doesn't need to cover the whole darn screen.
Click to expand...

Hey, that's a great point!

...except that there are no windows on the iPad.

...and you can only have one app open at a time.

...and it would have been a simple thing to have it cover the whole screen by having a longer list of contacts on the left and more white space on the right.
 
Eso said:
...and it would have been a simple thing to have it cover the whole screen by having a longer list of contacts on the left and more white space on the right.
Click to expand...

Did it ever cross your mind that they did actually try it this way and made the judgement that it looked better not being full screen? Apple isn't one to just make arbitrary design choices.
 
What's odd is that had Apple just added a background (like the book setting on a desk) to fill in the top and bottom all these black bar whiners would have never noticed.
 
It may be a usability issue? If you're holding an iPad, one handed (left hand) you can use your thumb to work the left hand page (i.e., thumb through the list of contacts). That leaves your right hand completely free to hold a beer, wave at friend, change channels, eat lunch, dial a desk phone, whatever.

If that page was stretched, you'd need an extremely long thumb - or both hands.

This is something the iPhone UI does well because it's hand-sized: You can pretty much operate all functions one-handed.

Julien said:
What's odd is that had Apple just added a background ....
Click to expand...

It would have to be an animated flash background :)
 
Julien said:
What's odd is that had Apple just added a background (like the book setting on a desk) to fill in the top and bottom all these black bar whiners would have never noticed.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I thought. They should replace the black borders with a nice wood desk background, maybe cherry or mahogany. Or they should redo the app and add some extra functionality to take up the extra room.
 
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