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MK500

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 28, 2009
434
550
I've noticed that some iPad/iPhone apps have resizable windows when running on M1 Macs, and others lock to a certain resolution window. Often this resolution is much lower than the app is able to run at on a modern iPad. I assume this has to do with how the developers coded their apps in XCode; probably using older window layout techniques.

I have a number of iPad apps running on my M1 Mac that default to a very low resolution window. One is approximately 790x590, for example.

Has anyone discovered a way to modify these apps to run at a chosen resolution?

Some of these apps clearly are able to run at higher resolutions, as I can see a large difference when running them on my iPad Pro. Text and icons on the iPad are obviously offering more detail and it's clearly not just "upscaling" the low resolution I am seeing on my M1.

We know from experience that it might take months or years (or never) for iOS developers to update older apps. So any workarounds?

I notice inside the package contents of iOS apps, there is a "Wrapper" folder with some .plist files. Do you think there is a setting in there that could change the default window resolution of the app?

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Zazoh

macrumors 68000
Jan 4, 2009
1,516
1,121
San Antonio, Texas
It is only recently that Xcode offered developers the ability to create a project for Multi-platforms. I have iPhone apps that still look horrible on iPad because they were developed solely for iPhone. If there is a setting, it would be something the developer didn't anticipate and results would be iffy.

Typically any images provided are very specifically sized to ensure they look good without being too big. Some developers also customize their interface design overriding default design elements.

I have experience with this when Chromebook changed their architecture to allow Android apps. The results overall are pretty bad. With Android, if a developer specifically re-tooled the app for the new platform, it is not the norm.
 

miaotata

macrumors newbie
Nov 21, 2020
14
2
I think the question here is that these iPad apps are not running at native iPad Pro 12.9" resolutions on M1-chip Macs and whether there is a way to do that.
 
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