Hack Allows Developers to Start Testing iPad Retina Display in iOS Simulator

Friday March 2, 2012 12:13 pm PST by Arnold Kim

With a Retina iPad 3 expected just next week, one developer has created a small utility that allows the iPad simulator to run in 2X mode. The utility is available from Ryan Petrich.

In order to run it on the latest version of Xcode, you will need to symlink /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer to /Developer and /Developer4.

Meanwhile, stroughtonsmith shows how his app SameGame looks in the Retina iPad emulator running on his 27" iMac:

Click on image to see full size.

Apple is widely expected to release a Retina-enabled iPad 3 next week at their media event. If rumors are to believed, the iPad 3 should be available within a week or so of the announcement. That would leave developers little time to Retina-ize their current iPad apps if they wait until the day of the announcement.

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

chrmjenkins

Posted: 16 months ago

could a worse example be chosen?

Rating: 28 Positives

hasanahmad

Posted: 16 months ago

could a worse example be chosen?

Rating: 18 Positives

slicecom

Posted: 16 months ago

I think that might still actually be better.

Rating: 16 Positives

Pakaku

Posted: 16 months ago

Why do I find it so funny that it can't even be fully displayed on a 27" screen...

Rating: 14 Positives

Xenc

Posted: 16 months ago

But is this hack actually correct. It seems like it isn't. From the description this emulator is making the pixels double the size akin to the blowing up of an iPhone app on an iPad. But that isn't what the retina screen does. It's more like cutting the pixels in half to shove more into the same space.

To view the rumoured four times the number of pixels, you need to double the width and height - which is exactly what is being done here. Density is hardware based (ie. the physical number of pixels per inch).

Rating: 2 Positives

jdiamond

Posted: 16 months ago

I recognize the bluetooth and wireless, but what are all those other icons? What kind of really cool software does this person have?

Drooolllll.....

Rating: 2 Positives

JohnNH

Posted: 16 months ago

SameGame caused a reboot of my iPhone 4 nice example

Rating: 1 Positives

jayducharme

Posted: 16 months ago

Why do I find it so funny that it can't even be fully displayed on a 27" screen...

Not only that, but the pixel density isn't the same. So even if it fit properly, you still wouldn't get the full effect.

I've been nudging our college to upgrade the classroom display equipment. Many classrooms have projectors with 800x600 resolution. With more teachers adopting iPads and wanting to display the contents, the current equipment will prove woefully inadequate.

Rating: 1 Positives

pmz

Posted: 16 months ago

This made me think that Apple might have some new fangled way of using an actual iPad 3 tethered to a Mac as a live iPad simulator, in the new SDK for developing on the iPad 3.

----------

I don't think every app needs to be in retina resolution. iBook and Kindle is a must but many others, people won't care. OK, I don't care.

Every App needs to run the native resolution of the display its built for. /End of story.

Rating: 1 Positives