Bloatware?

According to AppAdvice it seems the new versions of Apps 'improved' to use the Retina View of the new iPad are much larger than the previous versions.

So it seems unfortunate that the new iPad has no larger capacity than the earlier ones.

Even more unfortunate is the fact that the older iPads get stuck with this bloatware as well - without even having the benefit of Retina View

So effectively, your 64Gb iPad just became a 16Gb one and your 16Gb one will soon be close to useless. Not all change is progress.

I suppose Apple now release a new 'new' iPad with 4 times the capacity and claim that is the new thing

Can you include a link to this info...so we can read the same article? I went to Appadvice.com...and wasn't sure exactly what article you are referring to.

But as far as the details you mentioned...I totally expected that apps written for the "New iPad" would be larger...both to take advantage of the higher resolution display...and because of the increased processing power of the "New iPad". This is something software developers have been doing for years & years & years when new and more powerful electronics are developed & launched. So this comes as no surprise to me!

As far as the older iPad's. I would think (but do not know 100%) that someone with an iPad 1 or iPad2...would not want to purchase & download apps for the "New iPad"...since they would be larger...and because they would not run well on older iPads (plus don't have the ability to "see" the higher res. graphics). Thus iPad 1 & iPad 2 owners would only download apps. written specifically for them (not "New iPad apps).

As far as the "New iPad's" storage space. If I was to get a "New iPad"...I would never get the 16gig version...since again...I fully expected that apps. for the "New iPad" would be larger...and thus 16gig of storage probably would just not be enough.

- Nick

For some reason I doubt the new apps will be so much larger that a 64 GB iPad will be a 16 GB. That would make the new 16 GB just released worthless. Out of the box there would be no space left for even one picture or song. Somehow I feel this is being blown way out*of proportion!

dtravis7 said:

For some reason I doubt the new apps will be so much larger that a 64 GB iPad will be a 16 GB. That would make the new 16 GB just released worthless. Out of the box there would be no space left for even one picture or song. Somehow I feel this is being blown way out*of proportion!

Click to expand...

Totally agree. I'm thinking that apps. written for the "New iPad" would be larger than the exact same app. for the iPad 1 or iPad 2...but 4x larger...this is a much larger increase than I would have expected.

- Nick

Some apps, especially those with custom UIs, such as Tweetbot, will take up considerably more space with retina's 2x graphics. Its not 4x the space, but Cult of Mac has an article about a few of Apple's iOS apps that are now retina iPad ready. It looks like iMovie is one of the worst contenders, going from 82MB to 404MB.

Stretch said:

It looks like iMovie is one of the worst contenders, going from 82MB to 404MB.

Click to expand...

Whoa...that's quite an increase!!! Thanks for looking that up "Stretch"!

- Nick

Stretch said:

Its not 4x the space, but Cult of Mac has an article about a few of Apple's iOS apps that are now retina iPad ready.

Click to expand...

Just read the complete article...and it does look like almost all of the iLife & iWork apps. for the "New iPad" are significantly larger than for the iPad 2!!

It really does make a strong case to skip the low end 16gig "New iPad".

- Nick

Nighthawk4 said:

So effectively, your 64Gb iPad just became a 16Gb one and your 16Gb one will soon be close to useless. Not all change is progress.

Click to expand...

I'm no math whiz but the math there is off.

Maybe Apple should make a regular and HD version available. If you can do it for the iPhone/iPod Touch and the iPad, why not for different versions of the iPad. It may not be feasible but surely it's possible.

What they should do, and I've seen several iOS devs suggest it, is have the device only download the sections of the app that the device needs. For ex: iPhone 4 will download only iPhone sized images and data for that, but if you were to download that same universal app on your iPad 2, it would download the 1x iPad images, and the 3rd gen iPad would download the 2x images. This would save space on all the devices.

You can't just think about the 16GB iPad in this case. Many of these apps are universal apps, so they run on both the iPhone/iPod Touch and the iPad. There are 8GB iOS devices, they suddenly have a lot less space if it is storing 2x retina iPad graphics.

I am fairly sure it was the iWork Apps which were specifically mentioned. However, the AppAdvice article seemed to be implying that all (or most) Apps would be significantly larger. I will post it if I can find it again

On the otherhand, I have a 64GB iPad 2 and am currently using 38GB of which 28GB is media files (just checked). That means 10GB (or less) is being used by APPs and I have a lot of APPs, including iMovie, iPhoto, Pages, Numbers etc etc.

Even if the APP size doubles I still have plenty of space so I don't see the problem.

Stretch said:

What they should do, and I've seen several iOS devs suggest it, is have the device only download the sections of the app that the device needs. For ex: iPhone 4 will download only iPhone sized images and data for that, but if you were to download that same universal app on your iPad 2, it would download the 1x iPad images, and the 3rd gen iPad would download the 2x images. This would save space on all the devices.

Click to expand...

Apple could easily do device detection or provide a "base" version of an app and then apply patches to create versions tailored to the device. The latter solution however is needlessly complex relative to more simplistic solutions (such as the device detection).

Nighthawk4 said:

I am fairly sure it was the iWork Apps which were specifically mentioned. However, the AppAdvice article seemed to be implying that all (or most) Apps would be significantly larger. I will post it if I can find it again

Click to expand...

Only graphic heavy apps are going to be significantly larger. Apps that only use Apple's artwork probably wont get much bigger. But apps such as Tweetbot, with completely custom UIs, will be larger.

The original comment was pretty ridiculous. I know of exactly no iPads in use by anyone where the apps take up more room than the media. I have over 100 apps on my iPad, and they take up a significant amount of space (about 12 gig), But I think that's a higher number than the average user would have.

People who buy 16 GB iPads understand that there isn't going to be a lot of room for tons of movies and TV. They have conservative needs, or just don't plan to put a whole lot of movies on the device simultaneously. I have the 32 GB iPad, and that's pretty much the way I load movies and TV shows – just a few at a time. Once they're watched, there's swapped out for new ones. I still have room for more, but I like keeping A certain amount of space open.

To echo what Chas_m said and as a followup to my prior post, I updated all of my APPs last night to the latest version and my APPs now consume approximately 12 to 13GB max.

I have all of the iLife and iWork APPs installed (except Keynote) plus over a 100 more (yeah, I know, my APP downloads are out of control). If I had to I could get by with the 16GB version, 32 and 64GB no problem at all.

Nighthawk4 said:

According to AppAdvice it seems the new versions of Apps 'improved' to use the Retina View of the new iPad are much larger than the previous versions.

So it seems unfortunate that the new iPad has no larger capacity than the earlier ones.

Even more unfortunate is the fact that the older iPads get stuck with this bloatware as well - without even having the benefit of Retina View

So effectively, your 64Gb iPad just became a 16Gb one and your 16Gb one will soon be close to useless. Not all change is progress.

I suppose Apple now release a new 'new' iPad with 4 times the capacity and claim that is the new thing

Click to expand...

So let me get this straight. You consider apps that you choose to install and use on your ipad to be bloatware? Just wow. You should take a look at an Android device whether it be a phone, or tablet and check out the bloatware that is there. Those device manufacturers have it installed on those devices and make it somewhat difficult for users to remove them. Apple is not doing that by any stretch of the imagination.

The comment on Android is certainly true.

I have an Android phone which has masses of crap that I can't get rid of and starts complaining about being out of space very quickly if I install a few Apps.

All I was saying is that - according to AppAdvice - Apps optimised for Retina Display are a lot bigger than the previous versions, even on an iPad1 or iPad2 which can't use the better graphics.

This problem is mentioned by Robin on AppAdviceDaily Appisode 512