Why are there no Clock, Calculator, Voice Memo, Weather, or Stocks apps on the iPad?
Daring Fireball's John Gruber suggests that bigger, iPad versions of the built-in iPhone Stocks, Calculator, Weather, Clock and Voice Memo were scrapped by Steve Jobs:
It’s not that Apple couldn’t just create bigger versions of these apps and have them run on the iPad. It wasn’t a technical problem, it was a design problem. There were, internally to Apple (of course), versions of these apps (or at least some of them) with upscaled iPad-sized graphics, but otherwise the same UI and layout as the iPhone versions. Ends up that just blowing up iPhone apps to fill the iPad screen looks and feels weird, even if you use higher-resolution graphics so that nothing looks pixelated. So they were scrapped by you-know-who.
Gruber was responding to theories that these apps would instead be offered as App Store downloads, or could be part of some secret widget dashboard implementation. In other words, that it's a design issue, not a technical issue.
However, new UI that would make the iPad an amazing bedside clock (how's that for a Lock Screen), or show Stocks with a variety of graphs and related news and data, or weather for several days and cities at once, certainly seems possible for Apple's UI wizards. Perhaps they simply lacked time to re-do the apps for the already extended April 3 release date?
Perhaps they’ll appear on the iPad in some re-imagined form this summer with OS 4.0, but when the iPad ships next month, there won’t be versions of these apps. At least that’s the story I’ve heard from a few well-informed little birdies.
Speaking of which, any little birdies hear anything about an iPhone 4.0 sneak preview event yet? Or is everyone just focused on getting the iPad out right now?
Source: Daring Fireball
Reader comments
iPad Stocks, Calculator, Weather, Clock, Voice Memo Apps Scrapped by Steve Jobs
How do i set an alarm without the clock app?
Thinking I'm skipping this iPad and going for the next one. Maybe by that time websites will support HTML5 and we can have something that resembles flash. That ruins it for me. It's bad enough going to websites on my iPhone and getting the little blue squares. I can't handle that on what I call a full size device.
Maybe soon to be college boys live on spam and eggs, but give it a rest CARLOS!!!! It has no place here!
I want these apps built in, or iPad is going downhill
I hope to god they are built in - somewhat like the MacBooks. Mind you if they make it like a widgets type deal where I can install apps as widgets then that would be pretty boss.
Just blowing them up is not the answer. They worked on the smaller screens b/c you had to be selective in amount of information that is displayed. With a larger canvas though they could offer more data which in a stock application would be a lot more practical. What is surprising however is that it doesn't even seem as if this idea was entertained.
A good example of the execution would be CNBC versus CNBC plus. Rather than just blowing up the video, CNBC took advantage of the real estate to post more data for their audience.
These apps need to built in!
I always herd that apple had everything was clean and seamless but it is very disappointing to realize that there isn't even a simple calculator on a device with such incredible power!
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