This probably made a lot of sense back in 2010 given the difference between iPhone and iPad’s aspect-ratios and resoluti

Given Apple’s reputation for “magical” UX, you’d be forgiven for assuming that I’m the idiot here and I’ve simply locked my screen orientation and forgotten about it, but I really haven’t.,At the time the iPad was released, it felt like Apple was convinced that developers would flock to the opportunity to build all-new apps for iPad. Unfortunately, history has largely demonstrated otherwise, which is why I’m still looking at sideways apps in 2020.,On an 11' Pro you could get that same 3X in ‘landscape’ (or 4X on the 12.9' iPad Pro). In ‘portrait’ orientation, you could stretch the apps even bigger to a full 5x if you don’t mind cropping about 4 pixels off the top and bottom of the apps (approximately 1/2 a millimeter… which is less than the rounding in the corners).,To help visualize the differences between then and now (and illustrate why an update is overdue), I’ve made some ‘simple’ graphics showing the various iPad screens relative to the original iPhone’s screen (which was a 2-by-3 aspect-ratio, 320x480 rectangle, and is still the default appearance for iPhone apps on iPad).,Clearly this is not an exhaustive list of screens — especially because I didn’t make any versions with the newer ‘Face ID’ iPhones (iPhone X and newer) which have something close to a 6-by-13 aspect ratio, and would be great using the “Slide-Over” feature where apps appear as an overlay.,Products, markets, people, and minds change; Old technical constraints shouldn’t limit your future. If you’re open and honest about the compromises you made, you’ll be better equipped to remedy those disappointments when the opportunities arise.,Now I’ve been an Apple-apologizer for years. I’ve made all manner of excuses for why they’re late to release some “critical features” or why they’re entitled to make other seemingly bad or incongruous choices, but I just can’t see the justification here.,With all of the technological progress, even the iPad Mini (with its “diminutive” resolution of 2048-by-1536) still has more than enough real-estate to render iPhone apps “sideways” so they can appear upright while using your iPad in landscape (as you would with a keyboard).,On an iPad Mini you could easily fit an “iPhone app” on half of the screen at “3X”… that would free you to use the other half of your screen for multitasking (or just improve the experience of using a keyboard).,Now it’s been a decade and most apps I use on my iPad these days are built specifically for iPad, but every once in a while I’ll decide to check my bank account or -honestly- do anything outside of my artificially-created bubble of iPad-supporting apps and I’m jolted back to reality.,Here’s the first thing I want to say: Weird holidays are fine. In fact, all holidays were always weird, remember? And the next thing I want to say is: Now is the time to reassess, reconfigure, and existentially zhuzh up our family traditions.,Products, markets, people, and minds change; Old technical constraints shouldn’t limit your future. If you’re open and honest about the compromises you made, you’ll be better equipped to remedy those disappointments when the opportunities arise.,We take other men’s knowledge and opinions upon trust; which is an idle and superficial learning. We must make them our own. We are just like a man who, needing fire, went to a neighbor’s house to fetch it, and finding a very good one there, sat down to warm himself without remembering to carry any back home. What good does it do us to have our belly full of meat if it is not digested, if it is not transformed into us, if it does not nourish and support us?,The purpose of this exercise was is not to visualize every option, but instead to demonstrate how times have changed and how much opportunity there is to improve the experience now where previously (a decade ago) there was none.,I think the lesson in all of this is to take detailed notes as you do your work; Be honest about your design’s problem-areas, and revisit the ugly solutions from time to time.