Pixi's Smaller Screen Isn't As Bad As You'd Think 24
Now that the Pixi has been announced to fit 320x400px (80 pixels shorter than the Pre), there have been a fair bit of questions raised, in regards to application compatibility. You can all breath a sigh of release. Most will be unaffected.
As the WebOS is based off HTML, CSS and javascript, it is one of the most size-flexible operating systems out there. Considering the only screen size difference is in its height, you can already see how a shorter screen functions by how the Pre's screen resizes when you get a notification; the extra content is just a scroll away.
Not all applications will be immune to issues in the resolution change, however. As it was pointed out on the Palm Developer Network blog, applications that take up the whole screen of the Pre, like games, will encounter issues and will need to be updated.
To aid developers, kesne on our forums has put together a list of tips on how to prepare applications to be compatible with the Pixi's shorter screen. Practical advice, like enabling the scene scroller, and keeping headers, images, and buttons at reasonable sizes, will help keep apps Pixi-ready.
Sure all this may sound good in theory, but how could one test applications when the Palm Pixi isn't due out for a few months? Easy! The emulator can be easily altered to work in 320x400px resolution. For Windows computers, go to C:/Users/
to:
And then launch the emulator. It'll now show what you'd roughly see on the Pixi. Chances are Palm will update some CSS files for the Pixi to get things looking slightly better on the smaller screen, but this Pixi-esque emulator will definitely help developers with updating compatibility. And in all honestly, this shorter WebOS emulator doesn't look half bad. Certainly bodes well for the Palm Pixi.
24 Comments
Good article, hopefully it'll clear up some misconceptions, since we already know how good webOS is at scaling in most applications from when notifications come in.
Also glad to see how easy it is to change that in the emulator.
I can see some forking in our future.
Imagine this:
some apps Pre-only because of either wifi or screen size needs.
other apps with a dual release, i.e. download v1 for pre and v2 for pixi because they remap controls etc on the screen layout.
Yay for developer cannibalization.
I only hope developers release one application with two screen size options in one package.
Hi jason, changing the VM resolutin, may not help us, if the framework on the pixi will automatically have smaller size buttons(which I'm hopping it does), ex. say the current height of a button is 52px's and palm changes that in the pixi framework to 42px's since the screen is smaller, testing it in the current emulator with a smaller screen size will not give me true results.
However if palm keeps the frameworks the same then, changing the resolution helps us devs alot.
Thanks for the tip
abe
I just said it was Pixi-eque, not Pixi exactly ;)
It will aid developers, though, especially ones who specify their own button sizes, and will give a feel for the amount of space that will be available
i understand, i'm juwt wondering if PALM will make anychanges to the Pixi framework to make up for the smaller screen size.
(I like the pixi over the pre:) )
Abe
some (actually most) of the inbuilt styles use px's not percent take the standard 'Button widget' its all in px's, the only thing palm can do is make changes to the inbuilt styles in the pixi framework, which is what i hope they do.
Abe
the screen size difference doesn't seem all that bad or complicated. hopefully thought palm can stick with two standard screen sizes for a while rather than having different screen sizes on every different webos device that comes to market.
Sure, it will be no problem with web browsing and contacts.
But it is not a small issue for games and many other programs. Developers will take the easy way out and have to program for the least common resolution available, so people with the higher end devices will suffer.
I'm with Mantis2009 on this one. I think this is an insanely stupid idea. I'm a UX designer and I can tell you that designing and testing on multiple screen resolutions adds enormously to a) the amount of DEV work, design and testing b) limiting what you can do in the first place because you now need to account for a different screen rez. I can see gaming development basically shut off 100% by this. Same with other graphic heavy apps that use all the screen real estate (i.e. music app like a drum machine).
I'm almost ready to call the platform dead based on this, at least when it comes to apps that go beyond newsfeeds, simple radio, text info, and lists.
You know, I really like the pixie, just wish it was more a candy-bar Pre than another layout. Put the wifi back, and the screen space and I woulda bought it. But since it's announcement, I went ahead and got a Pre. Something just still attracts me tot he Pixi, though. My Pre should be here next week (even though I really wished for a SIM card and such instead of a Sprint only thing).
is that the actual screen size??